We track Product so you don't have to. Top Podcasts summarised, the latest AI tools, plus research and news in a 5 min digest.

Hey Product fans!

Welcome to this week’s 🌮 Product Tapas.

If you’ve been forwarded this or just fancy the best reading (and listening!) experience, check out the mobile app or web version. You can sign up and check previous editions here.

What’s on the menu this week? 🍳

📰 Not Boring – Amazon’s getting cosy with Anthropic’s Claude for a new AI-powered Alexa, Bluesky is topping app charts after Brazil bans X (plus a crackdown on VPN users), and Elon Musk’s Optimus Robot made its debut… well, sort of. Meanwhile, teens are making thousands debating politics on TikTok, and Apple’s making it easier than ever to get your new iPhone up and running straight out of the box. Plus, a peek at a budget-friendly VR headset, new developments from Meta, A16z, Spotify, Lenovo, Google, Neo beta, you.com, Paradigm, Boing, Nasa, Netflix, CrowdStrike and more! 🥵 

⌚ Time-Saving Tools & GPTs – This week’s lineup includes tools to turn voice recordings into instant summaries, AI-driven product insights with Sprig, and a clever way to turn text into visuals. Plus, we’ve got a link to a book summary product that lets you read any book in 10 minutes (👀 yes, really), and a few more ways to supercharge your workflow and product building escapades.

🍔 Blog Bites – Dive into this week’s essential reads, including TikTok’s latest shopping trends, insights from the CEO of Athyna on how a good culture is the backbone of great strategy and thoughtful reflections from Snap Inc. founder Evan Spiegel including the importance of "fierce conversations" in driving success and avoiding burnout.

🔥 Hot Tickets – Ready to up your networking game? We’ve got two must-attend events for a couple of week’s time. If you’re near London, don’t miss the Hustle Badger Lightning Talks, featuring top product leaders. Or join a virtual roundtable on Product Management Trends for 2025, hosted by Intelligent People.

🎙️ Pod Shots – Finally this week, we’re spotlighting an inspiring conversation with Intercom’s co-founder Eoghan McCabe, who shares his bold approach to rebooting the company by defying Silicon Valley norms. From trusting your instincts (at least he didn’t mention founder mode) to making big bets on AI, McCabe offers tons for product leaders and founders to think about.

Plenty to get stuck into this week—let’s dive in! 🚀👇

📰 Not boring

• Amazon to Launch New AI-Powered Alexa Using Anthropic's Claude

• Bluesky tops app charts and sees ‘all-time-highs’ after Brazil bans X

  • Whilst Brazilian judges ratify the ban and promise to fine those using a VPN

• Lenovo leak shows cheaper Copilot Plus PCs coming this month

• Google is working on AI that can hear signs of sickness

• Still on health, Neko Health, the body-scanning AI health startup from Spotify’s Daniel Ek, opens in London

• Spotify launches its evolving playlist, daylist, globally

• Elon Musk’s Optimus Robot debuts at World Robot Conference, doesn’t do any robot things

  • And a competitor, the Neo beta is planned to be ready for homes later this year. 👀 Not at all freaky. Nope not one bit.

• Teens are making thousands by debating Trump vs. Harris on TikTok

• Apple can now update iPhones that are in the box in stores; saving you time when all you want to do is play with your new phone

• X now lets you edit DMs — here is how

• They’ve also announced a beta version of the X TV app as it takes more steps towards a video-first platform

• Instagram Stories are getting comments

• Snapchat to test a ‘simplified’ app

• DJI takes another crack at palm-sized drones, and this one is $199

• Andreessen Horowitz shutters its Miami office after two years due to lack of use

• Paradigm launches to reinvent the spreadsheet with generative AI. Every cell is a gen AI environment and it can fill in 500 cells per minute. Video here

• In similar AI productivity news, AI startup You.com raises $50 million, predicts ‘more AI agents than people’ by 2025

• Zoom announces smart name tags for people in Zoom Rooms

• Boeing and NASA prepare to bring Starliner home without its crew on Friday

• Netflix is trying to get you hooked on more reality TV with better dubbing

• CrowdStrike faces onslaught of legal action from its infamous f***-up

  Want even more news?? View more here →

⌚️ Time-Saving Tools & GPTs

• Speech to note: Instant text summaries from voice recordings

• SoBrief: Read any book in 10 minutes. For free. 👀 

• Sprig: Optimise product adoption, retention and satisfaction at scale. Sprig AI observes your user experience and generates product recommendations to help you hit your goals. Has the usual heatmaps and surveys, but adds replays, and AI recommendations (interestingly mixpanel is a customer)

• Collato: Unlimited AI documents from your meetings, free

• Recall: Summarise any online content and save it to your knowledge base where it’s automatically organised and interlinked for easy rediscovery

• Napkin: Turn text into visuals so sharing your ideas is quick and effective

• Bucket: Simple feature flagging, built for B2B

🍔 Blog Bites - Essential Reads for Product Teams

Social Media TikTok’s shopping trends

TikTok for business has pulled together a report on the key shopping trends on TikTok. They bundle them into Bending Emotions (x2) and Bending Communities.

Check out the summary below and the full report here.

Culture: Good Culture=Great Strategy

I really liked this piece in strategy breakdowns with Bill Kerr CEO of Athyna. Athyna has consistent 90%+ employee engagement scores and are a fully remote company.

Bill shares some of his playbook, which whilst simple isn’t necessarily easy. A common theme with building culture.

CEO Briefing: 13 Years at Snap Inc.

Firstly, SnapInc is 13. WTAF? How did that happen? Secondly this note to team members from Evan Spiegel is a great read.

He covers recent successes, challenges and future goals. It highlights the reversal of two years of declining revenue and how it’s on track for record annual revenue, thanks to improved earnings, cash flow, and a 25% global growth in content engagement.

A particularly interesting part is where he highlights the need to have “fierce conversations” (referencing Susan Scott’s book of the same name) to help rigorously prioritise and avoid burnout through solving the same issue over and over. He shares one of Scott’s tools for helping here:

🔥 Hot Tickets - Events That Matter

Hot on the heels of last week’s inaugural instance of Hot Tickets, we’ve got two that are coming up over the next coupe of weeks. One in person and one virtual avent

Firstly IRL - Hustle Badger are hosting 4 lightening talks on Tuesday 17th September at Planes in London. It’s a great panel and Planes is a great location (if you’re near London obviously…)

For those that can’t get down south, or just want to catch up on what’s hot in Product, Intelligent People have a virtual round-table on the hottest Product Management Trends for 2025 just the day after.

🎙️ Pod Shots - Bitesized Podcast Summaries

Few founders get the chance to return to the helm of the company they built, let alone rip everything apart and rebuild from the ground up. But that’s exactly what Eoghan McCabe did with Intercom. In a recent 1st round review podcast conversation, McCabe shares how defying Silicon Valley’s best practices was the key to rebooting his company, making bold bets on AI, and doubling down on customer-first strategies.

⚒️ Rebooting Intercom: Eoghan McCabe on Defying Silicon Valley Orthodoxy

🎙️ Listen to the full episode here

📆 Published: September 5th, 2024

🕒 Estimated Reading Time: 3 mins. Time saved: 71 mins🔥

💡 The Power of Trusting Your Instincts

One of McCabe’s biggest lessons after stepping away and returning to Intercom? Trusting his instincts. It’s easy for founders to get swayed by Silicon Valley’s norms and expert advice. But McCabe realised that blindly following industry best practices led Intercom astray.

As a founder, you often start with nothing but intuition. The mistake many founders make is losing trust in their instincts as their company scales. McCabe’s return to Intercom was a wake-up call: trusting your gut matters, especially when it comes to hiring, values, and product strategy.

Takeaway: Your intuition is one of the most valuable tools you have as a founder. Trust it, refine it, and don’t be afraid to push back against industry norms if they don’t align with your vision.

🛠️ Ripping Up the Playbook: Why Conventional Practices Can Hurt Your Company

When McCabe returned to Intercom, he didn’t just adjust a few things—he ripped up the company’s existing playbook. From values to performance management, he realised that the company had adopted practices that were hurting productivity and culture. For instance, Intercom’s move toward enterprise-focused sales with rigid contracts boosted short-term revenue but caused long-term harm.

McCabe shifted the company back to its original DNA: customer-first, scrappy, and intuitive. He threw out practices that were commonplace in Silicon Valley but felt fundamentally wrong for Intercom’s mission.

Takeaway: Just because something works for other companies doesn’t mean it’s right for yours. Founders and product managers should constantly evaluate whether they’re following conventional wisdom blindly or making choices that truly align with their product and customers.

🚀 Making Big Bets: The Role of Risk in Building Great Companies

One of McCabe’s key insights was that bold moves excite people. When he returned to Intercom, he doubled down on AI, even betting the entire company on it. He embraced big swings instead of careful, measured approaches—and it paid off. By becoming the first to ship an AI service agent, Intercom leapt ahead of competitors like Zendesk.

But these moves aren’t just about AI. For McCabe, betting on big ideas is a hallmark of great founders. The alternative—playing it safe—leads to mediocrity, which isn’t appealing to top talent or customers.

Takeaway: Big risks often yield big rewards. As a founder or product manager, it’s important to assess where you can take strategic risks and make bold bets that could propel your company ahead of competitors.

🏗️ Focus and Simplification: How McCabe Sharpened Intercom’s Strategy

Intercom’s product strategy had become scattered, which McCabe identifies as one of the major issues when he returned. The company had multiple focuses—serving sales, marketing, and support teams—and wasn’t winning in any of them. McCabe chose to focus entirely on customer service, a massive $30 billion market.

By narrowing the company’s focus, he gave his team clear direction. This clarity helped Intercom regain momentum, and it’s a powerful reminder for any founder: sometimes, saying “no” to opportunities is the key to success.

Takeaway: Prioritise clarity and focus in your product strategy. When your team has too many competing priorities, it’s harder to win. Pick your battles, narrow your focus, and go all-in on areas where you can excel.

🎯 Performance Management, Simplified

When McCabe overhauled Intercom’s performance management system, he wasn’t interested in the usual bureaucracy. Peer reviews? Gone. Complex feedback loops? Ditched. Instead, he created a streamlined system where employees were ranked based on their goals and values, with regular, clear feedback.

This no-nonsense approach took out much of the subjective bias that often creeps into performance reviews, while also creating more accountability.

Takeaway: Founders and managers should strive to simplify performance management. Focus on what truly matters—goals, values, and clear feedback—and eliminate unnecessary complexity that distracts your team from doing their best work.

📢 Honesty, Transparency, and the Role of Culture

One of the more surprising things McCabe embraced when rebooting Intercom was radical honesty, even when it meant admitting mistakes. Intercom’s pricing had become a meme for being bad, and instead of dodging the issue, McCabe publicly acknowledged it.

This transparency built a culture of trust within the company. Employees saw their CEO owning up to the company’s flaws and working hard to fix them. This also helped weed out those who weren’t aligned with the company’s new direction, leading to a stronger, more committed team.

Takeaway: Honesty goes a long way in building trust with both your team and your customers. Don’t be afraid to admit when things aren’t working and commit to making real changes.

🌱 Design the Business to Work for You

One of the most impactful lessons McCabe learned was from Jason Fried of 37signals: design the business to work for you, not the other way around. Too many founders become slaves to their own companies, sacrificing happiness and fulfilment for the sake of growth.

McCabe took this to heart when rebooting Intercom. He refused to build a “big company” with unnecessary complexity and bureaucracy. Instead, he focused on keeping Intercom lean, focused, and a place where he and his team could thrive.

Takeaway: Your company should serve you, not the other way around. Founders and managers need to design their businesses in a way that aligns with their values and happiness. Don’t let external expectations dictate how you run your company.

📈 The Future of Intercom: Defying Expectations

McCabe’s journey of defying conventional wisdom and making bold, disruptive choices has put Intercom back on a growth trajectory. From AI-driven customer service to a simplified, customer-first strategy, the company is once again thriving in a mature, crowded market.

The key takeaway for founders and product managers? Don’t be afraid to rip up the rulebook and chart your own course. Whether it’s trusting your gut, simplifying processes, or making bold bets, success often comes from doing things your way—even when it means going against the grain.

Want to know more quickly? Just ask the episode below [web only]👇️🤯
or if you prefer, 🎙️ Listen to the full episode here

📅Timestamps:

• [00:02:59] Trusting instinct and principles.

• [00:04:15] Trusting intuition in business.

• [00:08:30] Go-to-market strategy evolution.

• [00:14:48] Evolution of decision-making strategies.

• [00:17:47] Reinventing traditional business practices.

• [00:20:37] Performance management and goals.

• [00:26:07] Smart people changing trajectory.

• [00:29:01] Strong opinions vs. multiple approaches.

• [00:34:53] Generalist orientation in business.

• [00:36:41] Building a living organisation.

• [00:42:22] Company clarity and engagement.

• [00:44:38] Overcoming fear of change.

• [00:49:02] Picking a specific market.

• [00:54:22] Bet-the-company decisions.

• [00:55:55] Disruption in business categories.

• [01:01:32] Founder Market Fit.

• [01:04:25] The importance of branding.

• [01:08:30] Branding across a growing team.

• [01:11:50] Building a business your way.

• [01:14:21] Life as an open world.

That’s a wrap.

As always, the journey doesn't end here!

Please share and let us know what you would like to see more or less of so we can continue to improve your Product Tapas. 🚀👋

Alastair 🍽️.