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 stumbled upon it, you’re in for a treat. For the best reading experience, check out the web version and sign up for future editions here.

What’s on the menu this week? 🧑‍🍳

📰 Not Boring– Shopify just dropped over 150 new features, including a voice-powered AI Assistant that lets you customise dashboards on the fly. Google’s I/O surprises keep coming, with avatars that can present your slides for you. Meanwhile, Jony Ive is set to lead OpenAI’s design vision after a headline-grabbing acquisition, and there are whispers of a neck-worn device in the works. Elsewhere, Spotify is seeing a subscription boost thanks to external iOS payments, Amazon is bringing AI-powered audio to shopping, and Perplexity’s latest numbers shed light on the evolving AI search market.

⌚️ Productivity Tapas – This week’s tools are all about quality and automation—think bug-catching, workflow optimisation, autonomous browser agents for testing, and no-code AI workflow builders.

🍔 Blog Bites – Dive into whether agentic AI is really the next big thing, why users might be ignoring your best features, and how to drive product transformation by building on executive strengths.

🎙️ Pod Shots – This week, hear how Shopify is rethinking career progression with a “mastery system” that rewards skills and impact, not just management moves—putting craft and agency at the heart of their culture..

Plenty to get stuck into - off we go! 🚀

📰 Not boring

• Shopify launched over 150 new big new features as part of its latest Editions (special shout out to how cool this feature release page is)

  • The changes to its AI Assistant (Sidekick) look especially impressive. It uses voice to help you collaboratively customise your dashboard including analysing sales or troubleshooting the product. I love this

  • Plus there’s a new theme builder plus an MCP server to help build agents to access the Shopify product catalogue

• If you didn’t get enough Google news from last week’s I/O here’s DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis + Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin questioning whether we get AGI by 2030

• Something else I missed in the bumper Google I/O update last week was the ability for customisable avatars to present Google Slides Presentations for you. 🤯 

• YouTube will soon let viewers use Google Lens to search what they see while watching Shorts

• Interesting report on TV/streaming from LG that could influence other tech company monetisation strategies

• Jony Ive to lead OpenAI’s design work following $6.5B acquisition of his company. Rumours are for a device that’s like a neck-worn iPod Shuffle

• Also, OpenAI announces Neon, a browser for the agentic web

• More on agents…. Retool Agents have supposedly automated 100million hours of work already (10 years work for 5k people….)

• Sergey Brin points to where Google Glasses failed — and what Android XR gets right

• More on smart glasses; Apple Smart Glasses launching in 2026

• In other massive news, Apple to change its OS naming to align with the year…. 🥱. So iOS 26, macOS 26 etc. will be the next releases

• Spotify says support for external payments on iOS has already boosted subscriptions

• Samsung drops Android 16 beta for Galaxy S25 with more AI you probably don’t want

• Amazon's new generative AI-powered audio feature synthesises product summaries and reviews to make shopping easier

• Ben Evans has a new presentation: AI Eats The World. Here’s a recent podcast he’s done and here’s a shorter one too

• Product people LOVE Perplexity (well in my echo-chambers at least). Interestingly, they made $34m of revenue last year, burnt $65m of cash, with $850m in reserve (in December)… but had only 1.6m users (ChatGPT - 600m) and 260k paying users. “When models are commodities (and Perplexity doesn’t even have its own) then everything is about distribution”

  • But whilst we’re on the suject….Perplexity’s new Perplexity Labs tool can generate spreadsheets, dashboards, and more

• Top 30 startups announced for VivaTech 2025 Innovation of the Year Award.

  • From turning glasses into self-driving guide dogs, to building photonic chips to redefine computing, to converting mining waste into carbon sinks — it’s full of breakthrough thinking with real-world stakes.

• Superblocks announces Clark “the first AI agent to build internal enterprise apps” (with $60bn in funding)

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⌚️ Productivity Tapas: Time-Saving Tools & GPTs

• Prism: Catch bugs, optimise your workflows, and identify what's most broken about your product

• Propolis: QA testing using swarms of autonomous browser agents

• Octoparse AI: rapidly build custom AI workflows and RPA bots that work for you.

  No coding required.

Remember, as a Product Tapas Pro subscriber you can access the full time saving tools database for fast approaching 400 time-saving tools relevant for product managers and founders 🔥.

Check the link here to access.

🍔 Blog Bites - Essential Reads for Product Teams

AI Technology: Is Agentic AI the Next Big Frontier?

In case you’ve been living under a rock you’ll be aware that agentic AI is the next big thing in AI. In this article, Venture Insider explores the emerging field, examining its potential to revolutionise how we interact with technology through autonomous systems that can plan, reason, and execute complex tasks with minimal human intervention. Read the full article here.

💡 "Agentic AI represents a paradigm shift from passive, reactive AI systems to proactive, autonomous agents that can understand goals, plan actions, and execute them in the real world."

Product Design: Why Users Ignore Your Best Features

Mike Watson explores the psychological reasons behind feature adoption failure, revealing that users aren't ignoring features out of stubbornness but because of how our brains naturally process information. Read the full article here.

💡 "Your users aren't ignoring features out of stubbornness - they're following cognitive patterns that we often design against, rather than with." This insight highlights the fundamental disconnect between how product teams implement features and how users actually discover and adopt them.

Change: The Genius of SVPG's Product Change Approach

John Cutler analyses why Silicon Valley Product Group (SVPG) has been so effective at driving product transformation, revealing their genius lies in framing change as an extension of executive strengths rather than a threat to their authority. Read the full article here.

💡 "SVPG's genius is that they've figured out how to make product transformation palatable to executives by framing it as a leadership opportunity rather than a leadership failure."

I love this piece, not for the assessment of Marty and his gang, but the reflection on why the approach is relevant to driving change in organisations as a whole.

🎙️ Pod Shots - Bitesized Podcast Summaries

Remember, Product Tapas Pro subscribers get access to an ever growing database of all the top Podcast summaries we’ve ever created. 

Check it out here

🚀 How to Advance Your Career Without Managing People: Lessons from Shopify

Classically, as you get more senior you do less doing, manage more people and step away from the coal-face somewhat. In a recent Peter Yang podcast, Sam Gregg-Wallace, VP of Talent at Shopify asks “what if you could reach the top of your field without ever managing a team?” At Shopify, he’s trying to rewrite the rules of career progression—putting craft, agency, and focus at the centre of their culture. It’s an interesting take for sure.

 🎥Watch the full episode here

📆 Published: May 26th, 2025

🕒 Estimated Reading Time: 3 mins. Time saved: 37 mins🔥

🛠️ Craft Over Climbing: The Mastery System

Shopify has kicked down the traditional corporate ladder. Instead of forcing talented people into management to get recognition or rewards, they’ve built a “mastery system” that lets crafters—engineers, designers, PMs—advance based on their skills, impact, and commitment to the mission. Every employee has a “mastery number” that reflects their cumulative contribution and growth, not just their job title.

This system is transparent, context-aware, and tailored to each role. Excellence is defined for every function, and promotions, rewards, and new responsibilities are unlocked through demonstrated craft, not politics or tenure. The result: people who care deeply about their work can focus on building great products, not navigating bureaucracy.

Key Takeaway:
The hypothesis: “You don’t have to manage people to reach the top. Build systems that reward mastery and impact, and you’ll attract and retain high-agency talent”.

🎮 Delightful, Low-Distraction Careers

Shopify’s approach to performance and rewards is designed to minimise distraction. The review process is streamlined: crafters spend minimal time on self-reflection and peer feedback, then get back to work. Managers, whose craft is people development, handle the heavier lift of calibration and decision-making.

Compensation is flexible and empowering. With Shopify’s “Flex Comp” rewards wallet, employees can choose their mix of cash and equity, even directing bonuses toward sustainability or shopping with independent merchants. All of this is built in-house to align with Shopify’s mission and values.

Key Takeaway:
Reduce process overhead and give people agency over their rewards. The less time spent on bureaucracy, the more time spent on meaningful work.

🧑‍💻 Mission-Driven, Not Metrics-Obsessed

Shopify isn’t driven by OKRs or quarterly targets. Instead, the founder sets a clear “green path” for the company, and every project must align with this mission: making commerce better for everyone. Progress is tracked through homegrown tools that tie work directly to mission themes, not vanity metrics.

This focus on mission over metrics keeps incentives aligned and ensures that everyone—from new hires to senior leaders—is working toward the same goal. It also means less time wasted on internal alignment and more time spent shipping value to customers.

Key Takeaway:
A clear, inspiring mission is the best alignment tool. Make it the north star for every project and decision.

🏆 Recognising and Rewarding High Agency

Shopify actively seeks out and rewards people who “give a 💚”—those who care deeply about their craft and the company’s mission. Contributions are observable and measurable, but peer recognition and inspiration matter too. High-agency individuals are celebrated, and their example attracts more like-minded talent.

A standout story: a student named Julia, who demonstrated extraordinary initiative, was hired within 20 hours after making a creative pitch. This kind of agency is both recognized and contagious, creating a virtuous cycle of excellence.

Key Takeaway:
Prioritise agency and initiative in hiring and recognition. People who care will raise the bar for everyone.

🤖 AI as a Baseline Expectation

Shopify has made AI fluency a baseline expectation for all employees. Tools like Cursor, Copilot, and Claude are embedded into daily workflows, and barriers to access are removed. Rather than formal training, Shopify fosters a “learners’ environment” where teams share tips, prompts, and agents in open channels and wikis.

The result: nearly two-thirds of engineers use AI tools daily, and the company’s collective knowledge grows organically. This approach turns AI adoption into a reflex, not a mandate.

Key Takeaway:
Make new technology accessible and encourage open sharing. Culture, not compliance, drives adoption.

🧩 Building a Low-Distraction Operating System

Shopify’s internal “operating system” encodes company principles, mission, and themes into version-controlled, testable frameworks. Strategic planning and talent processes are streamlined, with every project required to ladder up to the company’s mission. HR and operations are intentionally kept in “low distraction mode,” intervening only when necessary.

Key Takeaway:
Design your org and processes to minimise distraction. The more time people spend on mission-critical work, the better the outcomes.

💡 Three Lessons for Any Team or Company

1. Mission Focus: Make your mission the organising principle for everything. The longer people are at Shopify, the more dedicated they become to making commerce better for everyone.

2. Reward Craft, Not Just Climbing: Reject the idea that management is the only path to recognition. Prioritise and reward craftsmanship so the best want to work with the best.

3. Eliminate Distractions: Ruthlessly remove anything that gets in the way of building and shipping for your customers. Focus is a competitive advantage.

Bonus:
Find and nurture people who truly care. High-agency individuals will find you if your product, mission, and environment are compelling.

 🎥Watch the full episode here

📅Timestamps:

• (00:00) It's time to kick down the traditional corporate ladder

• (02:00) Shopify's dual career path for crafters and managers

• (04:32) Live demo: Why Shopify employees have "mastery points"

• (09:07) "Show me the outcome and I'll show you the incentive"

• (17:00) Live demo: Employees choose their equity/cash split every quarter

• (24:04) She made one video and got hired in 20 hours

• (27:36) Driving AI adoption in Shopify after Tobi's AI memo

• (32:01) Shopify's "low distraction" mode internal operating system

• (39:22) 3 rules to build a crafter's paradise at your company

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 🍽️.