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.

Hot news for this week, mobile readers can now download an app version of this newsletter! I know it can often be a pain to read on mobile thanks to the way email clients format and cut short the newsletter, so we’re introducing our downloadable app. Simply head on over to the web version here and download the app (you should be prompted once you log in). Once installed you can set notifications for comments, shares and new editions so you’re always the 1st to find out what’s going on 🔥.

Similarly, if you’ve been forwarded this, you can sign up and check previous editions here. On with this week’s Tapas.

What’s on the menu? 🧑‍🍳

📰 Not Boring - New this week; Zuckerberg might have leaked Meta’s new AR glasses, Microsoft addresses the massive Crowdstrike outage and we take a peek at what’s in store for Google’s August hardware event. Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 6 sketches impress, while Wiz turns down a $23bn offer from Google 👀. Telegram nears a billion users and Slack introduces new widgets. Elon Musk teases Grok 3.0, aiming to be the most powerful AI yet. Plus loads more from Apple, Reddit and plenty more, including possibly my favourite ever phone/gadget - tinyPhone.

⌚ Time-Saving Tools & GPTs - This week’s productivity accelerators come from tools like Blaze for customer targeting, Scade for integrating AI models, Sprig for user interaction insights, and Button Stealer for a super easy and quick way to ‘borrow’ UI with pride.

🍔 Blog Bites - Essential Reads for Product Teams

• Learn: Mastering the art of saying no with insights from Mind the Product.

• Trends: McKinsey’s 2024 Tech Trends Report highlights key tech advancements.

• Opinion: Will Figma remain relevant as AI transforms design workflows?

• Feature Design: Creating features that are "default on" for higher adoption.

• UX: Designing effective conversational AI experiences with practical strategies.

🎙️ Pod Shots - This week, we explore Klarna’s journey in the Acquired podcast. Klarna’s co-founder shares insights on the payments industry, strategic pivots, and the role of AI in enhancing customer experience. A must-listen for lessons on innovation and resilience.

Plenty to get stuck into - off we go! 🚀👇

📰 Not boring

• Zuckerberg might have accidentally leaked Meta’s latest AR glasses in a photo

• Google’s next big event is on August 13th. Here’s what to expect

• Google also announced Google Vids. a video creation app powered by AI that will live inside Google Workspace. Demo

• Finally in Google corner…. Google researchers built a new weather prediction model using AI

• Samsung Galaxy’s Z fold 6’s sketch to image looks pretty impressive

• In case you were living under a rock….Microsoft-CrowdStrike issue causes ‘largest IT outage in history’

  • Microsoft has released a tool to help fix computers affected by the outage

• Wiz, the cybersecurity start-up, has turned down an offer of $23bn from Google

• Alexa is in millions of households—and Amazon is losing billions

  • Low prices for smart devices, expecting them to generate income elsewhere in the tech giant, hasn’t paid off

• Telegram’s user base climbs to 950M, and plans to launch app store

• Slack has announced a suite of new Home Screen widgets for iOS

• Apple is working on a foldable phone that could be released by 2026

• Whilst Apple Maps launches on the web to take on Google

• Reddit now blocks all search engines other than Google following ‘misuse’

• Elon Musk says Grok 3.0 is coming in December and will be “the most powerful AI in the world.”

• Chinese researchers create four-gram drone that might fly forever

• Check out tinyPod. That is absolutely brilliant, possibly my favourite phone/gadget evahhh

Want even more news?? View more here →

⌚️ Time-Saving Tools & GPTs

• Blaze: scan millions of online signals to help target the right potential customers as soon as they show interest

• Scade: integrate audio, image, text, and video AI models with a no-code platform to speed up projects and reduce costs by 90%

• Sprig: Understand product behaviour at scale Capture a visual representation of your users’ in-product interactions with AI that does the analysis for you

• Button Stealer: Super handy Chrome extension that “steals” a button from every website you open

🍔 Blog Bites - Essential Reads for Product Teams

Learn: The BEst Way To Say No

Loads of us find it difficult to say no, Product Managers just want to be helpful right? But as this Mind the Product article digs into, it’s a critical tool in your kit to help you be a better PM.

Trends: McKinsey’s 2024 Tech Trends Report

Which technology trends matter most for companies in 2024? New analysis by the McKinsey Technology Council here, highlights the adoption, development, and industry effects of advanced technologies across 15 key trends.

Opinion: Will Figma become an awkward middle ground?

Here’s an interesting piece that predicts how Figma could become less relevant to Product (and designers) than it is today. I think his analysis is sound, but I’m unsure if I agree on the outcome.

Yes “AI will make this workflow more accessible to those who can’t code” but I can see Figma is already thinking about this and hopes to be the place designers go to design and have Figma AI do that coding. But worth a read nontheless.

Feature Design: Is This Thing On? The Default Adoption Trick

As product builders, we so often fall into the trap of creating features that require users to discover and adopt them actively.

So, here’s the idea: 👇

Check the full article here.

UX: How To Design Effective Conversational AI Experiences: A Comprehensive Guide

This guide takes you through the three crucial phases of conversational search, revealing how users express their needs, explore results, and refine their queries. Learn how AI agents can overcome communication barriers, personalise the search experience, and adapt to evolving user intent. Discover practical strategies and real-world examples to guide your development of intuitive, effective, and user-centric conversational interfaces

🎙️ Pod Shots

Today, we’re covering a recent Acquired podcast and diving into the journey of Klarna, a leading name in the buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) sector. Klarna’s co-founder and CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, shared insights into the payments landscape, the founding story of Klarna, and the company’s strategic pivots over the years. Let’s dive in to how Klarna has evolved and disrupted the payments industry.

⚒️ Building a Disruptive Payments Company

🎥Watch the full episode here

📆 Published: June 24th, 2024

🕒 Estimated Reading Time: 1.5 minutes. Time saved: 78 minutes🔥

🎉 The Payments Ecosystem: An Overview

Sebastian begins by breaking down the complex world of payments into three main components: issuing, acquiring, and the networks.

Issuing: This is the side where banks provide you with a credit card, giving you access to a credit line or a positive balance.

Networks: These include giants like Visa and MasterCard, which set standards and ensure cards are accepted globally.

Acquiring and PSPs: These are partners that help merchants accept payments, whether through physical terminals or online checkouts.

Key takeaway for founders and product managers: Understanding the value chain in any industry can help identify opportunities for innovation and disruption. Focus on the friction points in each component and consider how technology can streamline processes and improve user experience.

🏗️ The Birth of Klarna: Identifying Market Needs

Sebastian’s entrepreneurial journey began with an unexpected job in debt collection, where he noticed a gap in the payment methods offered by early e-commerce companies in Sweden. Unlike physical stores, online shopping lacked the “touch and feel” trust, making a buy-now-pay-later option highly attractive.

Insight: Providing an invoice option, where customers could receive products before paying, mirrored traditional mail-order catalog practices and addressed trust issues in online shopping.

Key takeaway: Sometimes, the best business ideas come from observing inefficiencies and unmet needs in current processes. Be open to unconventional inspirations and validate your concepts through real-world applications.

📈 Scaling and Early Success: Leveraging Merchant Relationships

Klarna’s initial success came from offering merchants a way to reduce risk and administrative burden by managing credit and collections on their behalf. Interestingly, merchants funded Klarna’s early operations by accepting delayed payments, which allowed Klarna to grow without massive initial capital.

Strategy: Focus on solving key pain points for both merchants and consumers. For merchants, it was about reducing risk and admin work. For consumers, it was about providing trust and safety in transactions.

Key takeaway: Effective cash flow management and leveraging customer relationships can drive early-stage growth. Always align your product offering with the core needs of your target market.

🌍 International Expansion: Adapting to New Markets

Expanding from Sweden to other markets like Germany and the Netherlands, Klarna adapted to local payment preferences, such as the strong tradition of invoice payments in Germany. However, breaking into markets like the US and UK, dominated by credit cards, required a different strategy.

Pivot: Klarna’s team in the UK ignored Sebastian’s initial skepticism and successfully introduced buy-now-pay-later to a major fashion retailer, ASOS, proving the demand for such services even in credit card-dominant markets.

Key takeaway: Local market nuances matter. Adapt your offerings to meet local consumer behaviours and preferences. But, sometimes, success requires trusting your team’s insights and allowing them the autonomy to experiment.

💡 Navigating Competition: Learning from Challenges

Competing with Stripe and Adyen on the merchant side proved challenging. Klarna pivoted to focus more on the consumer side, introducing features like the Klarna app, which allowed users to shop with Klarna anywhere online, even where Klarna wasn’t directly integrated.

Innovation: The Klarna app enabled a broader reach by generating virtual cards for online purchases, thus maintaining customer engagement and capturing valuable SKU-level data from transactions.

Key takeaway: When facing strong competition, pivoting your strategy can be crucial. Focus on areas where you can differentiate and provide unique value to your users.

📊 Embracing AI: Transforming Customer Experience and Operations

Klarna’s recent advancements involve leveraging AI to improve efficiency and customer satisfaction. AI-driven solutions in customer service have dramatically reduced the need for human intervention while maintaining high satisfaction levels.

Application: By automating customer service tasks with AI, Klarna managed to handle a significant volume of inquiries, freeing up human agents for more complex issues and reducing operational costs.

Key takeaway: AI can be a powerful tool to enhance productivity and customer experience. Implement AI thoughtfully to handle repetitive tasks and allow your team to focus on higher-value activities.

🏅 Facing Financial Challenges: Strategic Decisions and Adaptability

The financial ups and downs, including the massive valuation changes and market pressures, required strategic adaptations. Klarna’s focus remained on long-term growth, emphasising efficient operations and prudent hiring practices.

Reflection: Despite the challenges, Klarna’s commitment to innovation and strategic pivots helped it navigate market fluctuations and maintain its growth trajectory.

Key takeaway: Resilience and adaptability are crucial in the face of financial challenges. Continuously reassess your strategies and remain flexible to pivot when necessary.

🚀 Looking Forward: The Future of Fintech and AI

Sebastian envisions a future where fintech and AI revolutionise the financial industry, making it more efficient and consumer-friendly. Klarna aims to be at the forefront of this transformation, leveraging technology to provide seamless financial services.

Vision: The goal is to create a global digital financial assistant that simplifies and optimises financial decisions for consumers, using advanced AI and comprehensive data insights.

Key takeaway: Stay ahead of industry trends and invest in emerging technologies. The future belongs to those who innovate and adapt quickly to changing landscapes.

🔚 Conclusion: Building for the Long Term

Klarna’s journey is a testament to the power of innovation, strategic pivots, and resilience. For founders and product managers, the key lessons include understanding market needs, leveraging technology, and maintaining flexibility in strategy.

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

📅Timestamps:

• [00:01:15] How payments work in detail.

• [00:05:38] The evolution of online payments.

• [00:06:53] Credit card usage concerns.

• [00:11:31] Factoring for cashflow solution.

• [00:14:39] Buy now, pay later.

• [00:19:26] The evolution of payment methods.

• [00:21:50] Self-aware avoiders in the US.

• [00:25:26] Low-end disruption in finance.

• [00:29:35] Banking industry tactics evolution.

• [00:32:06] Pay now vs pay later.

• [00:34:04] Competing with industry giants.

• [00:38:49] Consumer product evolution.

• [00:41:18] The future of financial advising.

• [00:44:21] SKU level data.

• [00:48:20] Klarna's multiple payment solutions.

• [00:52:00] Creating Perception of Winning.

• [00:53:16] Browser hack for online shopping.

• [00:56:19] Automating compliance and security reviews.

• [01:00:13] Handling pressure in sports.

• [01:04:33] Company valuation in financial industry.

• [01:08:51] Elon Musk's cost-conscious mindset.

• [01:11:41] Technology improving customer service.

• [01:15:28] Scaling tech startups.

• [01:18:23] Revival of FinTech.

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 🍽️.