YouTube Hypes gives algorithmic powers to users
YouTube Hypes gives algorithmic powers to users
Plus: What AI work persona are you?
Hi product people đ, Rich Holmes here. Welcome to the 370+ new subscribers who joined us since last week!
This week, I thought Iâd try to re-jig the format slightly so Iâve replaced the longer introductory section with some more context and conversational elements throughout the other sections with a greater emphasis on new features and innovation. A few folks told us theyâd prefer this type of format so I thought Iâd try it out.
If you have any feedback on the re-format Iâd be keen to hear your thoughts so just let us know.
Enjoy the rest of your week!
Reads and resources for product teams
Strategy - How to use generative AI for strategic planning
Harvard Business Review explores how some of the worldâs top CEOs are using generative AI to power strategic planning - and highlight areas of potential growth that users may have missed. (Harvard Business Review)
UX and conversion - Surprising lessons from 20,000 product experiments
In this edition, Kyle Poyar explains what growth experiments not to run. Specifically, what you shouldnât add to your website, statistically speaking. (Growth unhinged)
Fonts - A new fresh alternative to comic sans
If youâre a fan of the whimsical joy of comic sans but donât feel entirely comfortable using it day today, this modern interpretation might be worth a look.
From the Department of Product Substack
Paid subscribers also get access to in-depth analysis of top companies through DoP deep dives and the Knowledge Series. Hereâs some posts you may have missed from the Department of Product Substack:
How Uber drives engagement using a personalized notifications system
New product features and innovation this week
YouTube hosted its Made on YouTube event this week. At the event, it confirmed that it is testing a new feature that uses AI to generate ideas, titles and even full videos. Other announcements included plans to integrate Googleâs most capable model for generating video, Veo, into YouTube Shorts that will allow users to generate backgrounds with generative AI, community hubs for superfans and a new interaction called âhypesâ. Hypes allow users to give âhype pointsâ to videos and the ones with the most hype points will increase their chances of discovery.
Jessica Locke, the product manager who worked on it, says that the reason they built the feature was because they discovered users wanted to help artists with discovery. Itâs interesting to see the link between discovery algorithms and user interaction become so explicit in this way - definitely one to watch. You can read about the full product discovery process here.
MeanwhileâŚ
OpenAI released its latest model, o1, which comes with advanced reasoning. Itâs becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with some of these modelsâ capabilities so to help, hereâs some practical, real-world examples of what it can do:
Write code in 1 hour that previously took 1 year - example
Code a first person shooter in HTML / JS - example
Creating a fully functional weather app - example
As more companies choose to adopt open source models instead, is this enough to maintain OpenAIâs dominance? Initial 2 -3 year enterprise contracts will be up for renewal soon so itâll be interesting to see what renewal rates look like.
In other newsâŚ
DeepL has launched an AI glossary generator designed for business translations. Companies can now create custom translation glossaries by uploading files like PDFs or .docs. It automatically extracts relevant terms and their translations from uploaded documents, reducing manual work in glossary creation, which helps product teams to quickly expand internationally.
Retool has rebranded itself with a new makeover. The Retool product teams set out the design principles which underpinned the rebrand in a post entitled âThe Art of Good Softwareâ. Their design teams have done an excellent job at creating a modern, fresh new brand and kudos to them. PayPal have also unveiled a rebrand - but they seem to have lost their identity in the process.Â
Atlassianâs Jira is rolling out a new âglobal fieldsâ feature which could be very helpful for product teams. It allows teams to create custom, global fields across multiple different assets like roadmaps or strategy docs.
Google is adding a new daily calendar overview in newly opened Chrome tabs for Workspace users with easy access to schedules and video calls. This is no doubt very helpful, but could potentially raise privacy concerns; if youâre sharing your screen on a work call and need to open a new tab, this could give other users a view of your upcoming appointments.
A new startup, Rep.ai, has raised $7.5 billion for its digital replica technology which helps tech support teams.
Tools you can use
AgendaHero lets you turn text, pdfs and other files into calendar events automatically.Â
Docs by Hashnode is designed for product teams to create Stripe-level quality API documentation for your product.
Hoop is a task manager which captures and prioritizes all of your tasks from Slack, Google Meet, Zoom, Gmail and more.
đ Product data and trends to stay informed
A new Slack survey has categorized how people use AI at work for the first time.Â
The most common group is the Maximalists who are using AI multiple times a week and telling others about it. The Undergrounds use AI but are hesitant to tell their colleagues about it. The Rebels donât subscribe to the AI hype and consider it unfair when coworkers use these tools. Superfans are excited about it but arenât yet using it while Observers have yet to integrate AI into their work but are watching with caution and interest.Â
The Undergrounds strike me as an interesting group since theyâre the ones using AI - but in secret. Which AI persona are you?Â
Netflix and YouTube are now the main rivals in the streaming war. Netflix posted revenues of $33.7 billion - just 7% higher than YouTubeâs ad revenue last year (excluding YouTubeâs Premium revenue).
Anthropicâs Claude now gets over 15 million web visits a month - impressive but still far behind ChatGPTâs 337 million.Â
Postings for software development jobs are down more than 30% since February 2020. The WSJ argues that engineering jobs have gone - and wonât be coming back.
A year long study has concluded that LLMs are now better at generating novel research ideas. In a product context, what impact could this have on the traditional role of user research?
Other product news in brief
LinkedIn has confirmed its AI models are trained on user data by default.Â
The entire board of 23andMe has resigned.Â
Amazon is mandating a 5 day a week return to office.
The Weekly Briefing is a product-led perspective of whatâs happening in tech - and why it matters to product teams.
Paid subscribers also get access to in-depth DoP Deep dive reports to learn from the strategies and new features released by top tech companies, The Knowledge Series for sharpening your tech skills and more.