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 you can sign up and check previous editions here.

What’s cooking? 🧑‍🍳 

📰 Not Boring - Last week was another stacked week of news. We spotlight Suno, the ChatGPT for music, Nvidia’s groundbreaking Blackwell chip, and Linktree’s new feature to enhance link visibility. Additionally, A16z shares the top 100 GenAI consumer apps, Google announces a Fitbit AI health chatbot, and Neuralink showcases its brain chip in action helping a quadriplegic play chess. With LinkedIn adding games and Sony’s PS5 Pro on the horizon, there’s plenty more to get up to speed on.

⌚ Time-Saving Tools & GPTs - We have a short and sweet selection for you this week, with Faros for AI-powered insights, Theydo for customer journey thinking, and Sidekick for SaaS management.

🍔 Blog Bites - Our essential reads for product teams include key takeaways from Stripe’s annual letter, emphasising the importance of simple core ideas, customer-centric innovation, and financial sustainability. Also, we explore how to select impactful OKRs and link to a piece pulling insights on product discovery, delivery, and culture principles from Marty Cagan’s new book.

🎙️ Pod Shots - We finish up with a great VC20 podcast with Jean-Michel Lemieux. He shares some great insights on product development from his time at the likes of Shopify and Atlassian, focusing on the balance between speed and quality, the power of building movements around products, and the importance of narrowing focus to deepen customer relationships.

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

📰 Not boring

• Suno - the ChatGPT for music has launched to help everyone to produce their own pro-level songs

• Nvidia’s new Blackwell chip will help AI models reach 10 trillion parameters — leagues above OpenAI GPT-3’s 175 billion representing 1000x compute improvement in just 8 years

• Linktree is now allowing users to highlight links better with featured layout function

• A16z released its view of the top 100 GenAI consumer apps

• Google shares plans for Fitbit AI health chatbot that promises personalized insights

• Neuralink, Elon’s brain chip startup, has shown a patient using it to play chess 🤯 

• LinkedIn to add games to increase time spent on the site. Not sure about this one… 🤔 

• Sony’s PS5 Pro is up to three times faster, may arrive this summer

• SXSW just finished last week and here’s a nice summary of everything you need to know about Design and AI from the conference:

  • (1) Design Against AI, John Maeda

    (2) AI + UX: Product Design for Intelligent Experiences, Ioana Teleanu

    (3) Designing Successful AI Products and Services, John Zimmerman, Nur Yildirim

    (4) Creativity in Flux: Art & Artificial Intelligence, Brooke Hopper, Debbie Millman

    (5) Designing for AI, Marco Barbosa, Hjörtur Hilmarsson

    (6) The Great Interface Shift: Five Trends to Know in 2024, Jake Brody

• Threads begins testing swipe gestures to help train the For You algorithm. It’s like Tinder, but for content.

• Apple (finally) made a string of AI announcements:

  • It’s releasing its own LLM models (MM1) on a par with Gemini 1

  • Diversifying its strategy they’re also in talks with Google and OpenAI to lease access to lease Gemini and CGPT

  • They’ve acquired Darwin AI renowned for its optimised faster, smaller models (ideal for mobile…..)

  • Ben Evans has a great take (as always):

Want even more news?? View more here → 

📰 Time-Saving Tools & GPTs

Short and sweet selection for you today:

• Faros - aims to use AI to provide insight across velocity, quality, goals and even team health

• Theydo - aims to help everyone across the business (not just Product, Design, Tech) to think in terms of customer journeys

• Sidekick (from Productiv) - allows finance and ops managers figure out what SaaS products are being used by their business simply by chatting to it. Less useful for Product managers selling SaaS…

🍔 Blog Bites - Essential Reads for Product Teams

Investor Note: Annual Stipe Letter

Always a worthwhile read, here are the key takeaways from Stripe’s annual letter:

1. Core Philosophy: Stripe operates on Charlie Munger's principle of taking a simple idea and taking it very seriously. Its mission is to grow the GDP of the internet, emphasising that the potential for software-driven innovation is still largely untapped.

2. Economic Impact: Stripe highlights its substantial impact on the global economy, noting that businesses using Stripe have collectively surpassed $1 trillion in total payment volume, which is about 1% of global GDP.

3. Financial Health: The company reported robust cash flow positivity in 2023 and anticipates the same for 2024. This financial stability allows Stripe to invest in long-term innovations without being overly concerned about capital market volatility.

4. Enhancements in Online Payments: Stripe focuses on eliminating barriers to internet purchases, improving the checkout experience, and adding support for over 50 new payment methods to cater to global customers.

5. Revenue and Finance Automation: Stripe is expanding beyond payments to assist businesses in managing complex financial processes like billing, taxes, and revenue recognition through its Revenue and Financial Automation suite.

6. Enterprise Segment Growth: The letter discusses Stripe's rapidly growing enterprise segment, with over 100 companies processing more than $1 billion each per year, highlighting Stripe's role in enabling business transformations.

7. Startup Ecosystem Vibrancy: Despite a decline in VC funding, startup formation on Stripe has hit record levels, indicating a shift towards more monetisation-focused business models among new enterprises.

8. Engineering for Reliability: Stripe emphasizes its commitment to reliability, detailing its comprehensive deployment process and incident management strategy to maintain high availability and performance.

9. Technological Advancements: The letter touches on the importance of an "improving mindset" and Stripe's excitement about innovations in various sectors, including clean energy, robotics, farming, and aesthetics, driven by technology.

10. Invitation to Stripe Sessions: The letter concludes with an invitation to Stripe Sessions, an annual conference where Stripe shares updates and insights on the internet economy and technology-driven improvement.

Bringing it specifically to Product, here are 5 lessons I picked out:

1. Focus on Core Principles: Embracing simple core ideas and executing them with unwavering dedication can lead to significant impact and success. Product managers should identify and focus on the fundamental value their products offer and relentlessly pursue excellence in those areas.

2. Customer-Centric Innovation: Stripe’s commitment to removing barriers to online payments and continuously improving the customer experience underlines the importance of deeply understanding and addressing customer needs. Product managers should prioritise features and improvements that directly enhance the user experience and address pain points.

3. Financial Sustainability: Stripe's focus on being cash flow positive emphasises the importance of building products that not only meet market needs but do so in a financially sustainable manner. The ZIRP era of growth being the only metric that matters is over. Product managers need to consider the long-term viability and revenue potential of their products.

4. Innovate for the Future: Stripe’s investments in long-term infrastructure and its anticipation of future needs highlight the importance of forward-thinking and innovation.

5. Global and Local Adaptability: The expansion of payment methods to cater to different regions demonstrates the necessity of building products that are both globally relevant and locally adaptable. Product managers should consider the diverse needs of their user base across different markets.

Product Practice: How to Pick Useful OKRs from KPI Trees

Here’s an interesting short piece on practical ways to pick OKRs from Tim Herbig.

Product Practice: Product Operating Model First Principles

There’s been some ongoing lively debate on my LinkedIn timeline of late about being Product-led, the Product Operating model and the general state of the views of Product. Whatever your thoughts you can’t deny Marty Cagan has done a lot for the space. His latest book is out and the Pawel from the Product Compass has been covering sections from Cagan’s new book Transformed. In this latest piece, he covers:

1. Four Product Discovery Principles

2. Four Product Delivery Principles

3. Four Product Culture Principles

Case Study: How Figma Grows: Design Beyond Designers

Here’s another great piece from How They Grow on where Figma goes next. It’s a case of “what got you here won’t get you there” so is a really interesting example for those looking to go from 1 to N.

🎙️ Pod Shots

Today we cover the recent VC20 Podcast with Jean-Michel Lemieux. He covers a broad range of topics, including the interplay of speed and quality in development, and the importance of focusing on building movements around products.

⚒️ Navigating Product Development: Insights from Jean-Michel Lemieux

🎥 Watch the full episode here 

📆 Published: March 21st, 2024

🕒 Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes. Time saved: 69 minutes🔥 

❣️ Embracing Your Product Love Story

Lemieux emphasizes the importance of passion for technology and product development, tracing his journey back to his high school days when his fascination with computers began. He illustrates how his unique blend of interests in fine arts, music, and maths led him to explore the capabilities of computers beyond their traditional use, suggesting that innovation often stems from unconventional intersections.

Actionable Insight: Diversity of thought and experience matters (no shit!). Diverse interests and backgrounds help teams innovate and push the boundaries of traditional product development.

⚖️ The Critical Balance: Speed vs. Quality

Drawing from his experiences at Shopify and Atlassian, Lemieux highlights the differing priorities of the two companies: Shopify prioritizes quality, whereas Atlassian focuses on speed. This dichotomy presents a crucial lesson for product teams on the importance of defining what their core value is and how it shapes their product development strategy.

Actionable Insight: Evaluate your product's unique value proposition and decide whether speed or quality is your non-negotiable. This decision will significantly influence your team's approach to development and release cycles.

✊ Building Movements, Not Just Products

One of the most striking insights from Lemieux is the emphasis on building movements rather than mere products. Both Shopify and Atlassian succeeded not just by creating software but by fostering communities and movements around their visions.

Actionable Insight: Start thinking about how your product can inspire a movement. OK if that’s too much, simply engage with your user community, build around shared values, and leverage storytelling to create a sense of belonging and purpose.

⚠️ The Danger of Time Horizon Friction

Lemieux introduces the concept of "time horizon friction," where excessive planning and processes slow down teams. He advocates for a focus on shipping and learning from real user feedback rather than getting bogged down in over-planning.

Actionable Insight: Simplify your development process by setting clear, immediate goals and emphasising rapid shipping and iteration. Use feedback loops with your user base to inform quick adjustments and improvements. 🔥

🔎 The Power of Narrow Focus

Highlighting something known by startups but maybe not always in larger organisations, Lemieux suggests that narrowing the scope of your ideal customer profile (ICP) can lead to deeper customer love and more robust word-of-mouth growth.

Actionable Insight: Refine your understanding of who your product is for. A more narrowly defined ICP allows for tailored features and better alignment with your users' needs, driving stronger advocacy and adoption.

💡 Other Topics Covered

1. Early Career Guidance and Choices: Lemieux’s discussion on his guidance counselor advising him to pursue what he was good at, and his decision to go into computer science, emphasising the importance of following your strengths and interests.

2. The Role of Risk in Career Choices: Insights into the perceived safety of paths and the encouragement for individuals to take risks. The risky path is not always as risky as it seems.

3. The Influence of Founders on Company Culture and Mindset: The impact of Shopify and Atlassian's founders on the companies' long-term strategies and their approach to marketing, highlighting the importance of founder vision in shaping company culture.

4. Personal Insights on Leadership and Team Building: Lemieux's personal reflections on leadership roles, the dynamics between different co-founders and leaders within Shopify and Atlassian, and how these dynamics influenced company decisions and culture.

5. Technical and Organisational Challenges: Detailed discussions about the specific technical and organisational challenges faced by Shopify and Atlassian as they scaled, including decision-making frameworks and strategies to overcome these challenges.

6. Future of Work and Product Development: Predictions and insights into the future of product development, the role of AI and automation, and the evolving nature of work in the tech industry.

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

📅 Timestamps:

• [00:02:50] Falling in love with tech.

• [00:03:51] Building movements in companies.

• [00:09:15] Building successful long-term businesses.

• [00:11:06] Speed versus quality for founders.

• [00:13:46] Focusing on current tasks.

• [00:18:41] Over planning in organizations.

• [00:19:33] Planning and productivity strategies.

• [00:23:23] Building with a cheating mindset.

• [00:26:02] Misconceptions about autonomy.

• [00:31:30] Micro alignments in leadership.

• [00:32:42] Making team decisions effectively.

• [00:35:31] The snowboard test.

• [00:40:44] Experience in the industry.

• [00:42:04] Hiring Mistakes for Founders.

• [00:47:01] Buying yourself some time.

• [00:49:56] The future of AI and coding.

• [00:52:08] The future of programming.

• [00:57:16] Hard tech investing and challenges.

• [01:00:36] Trying out new products.

• [01:02:59] Customer acquisition challenges.

• [01:06:11] The tension between functions.

• [01:08:44] Commonalities between small and large merchants.

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That’s a wrap.

As always, the journey doesn't end here!

Keep exploring, keep questioning, and most importantly, keep growing in your product journey.

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Alastair & the Product Tapas Team 🍽️.