Perplexity vs Siri and goodbye daily stand-ups?
Plus: Inside how Spotify ships its mobile apps at scale, Grok gets eyes and the Era of AI Experience
Hi product people 👋,
Coming up this week, we take a look at how Spotify releases its mobile apps at scale with some key takeaways for product teams, why Google researchers believe the Era of AI Experience will unleash a new generation of AI agents that will acquire superhuman capabilities and how to navigate the disruptive impact of AI on product strategy.
Plus, Perplexity makes a bid to become Siri on iPhones and Linear releases a new feature that could see us wave goodbye to stakeholder meetings and daily stand-ups.
Enjoy the rest of your week!
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Key reads and resources for product teams
New from the Department of Product Substack this week:
Knowledge Series - New mini apps you can build and use at work
In this new edition, we’ll build an appraisal feedback collector that allows you to keep track your colleague’s achievements, a SaaS spend tracker to keep track of all of your company’s SaaS product subscriptions, a note taker with a difference and a new way to encourage colleagues to get to know each other and resolve conflict. (Department of Product)
UX - Buttons vs Links: what’s the difference and why does it matter?
Buttons trigger actions, while links navigate between pages, and using them correctly is key for clarity and accessibility. Designers should use proper HTML elements, maintain consistent styling, and use clear labels to create a reliable and accessible experience for all users. (NN Group)
Desgin - How to stop users skipping your onboarding
Users land in your product, already confused. Not because your UX is broken—but because they skipped the onboarding copy you intentionally added.In this UX case study, we’ll explore why that happens—and how to fix it. (Built for Mars)
Strategy - Will AI disrupt your product? Key questions to ask yourself
A new technology can affect the demand side, the supply side, or both. Demand-side effects change how a customer accesses or uses a product. For example, virtual reality headsets change how people experience watching a movie. In this piece, MIT’s Julian Birkinshaw explores which industries AI might disrupt. (MIT)
Skills - How to make better decisions by thinking like a Venture Capitalist
Stanford Graduate School of Business professor Ilya Strebulaev says that VC firms have proven best practices that all leaders should apply in their own companies. He explains exactly how VC’s operationalize risk, embrace disagreement over consensus, and stay agile in their decision-making. (Harvard Business Review on Strategy)
Case study - How Spotify develops and releases its mobile app at scale
At Spotify, their Release team has a dual mission: to oversee the release of the main Spotify app and to build the necessary tools to support this process. Day-to-day coordination is handled by the full-time Release Manager with the support of the rest of the team. Learn more about the release process Spotify follows when shipping the latest version of its mobile app. (Spotify Engineering)
New product features and innovation this week
Linear has released a new feature called Pulse which takes everything that’s happening across your product development teams and transforms it into an easy to digest content feed. The content feed is available in both text and audio and users can subscribe to get updates from specific teams or across the entire org. It’s a neat use of generative AI and a very handy way for product teams to keep stakeholders in the loop with everything that’s happening. Could this ultimately spark the end of the need for daily standups and regular stakeholder update meetings?
Meanwhile…
Perplexity has released the Perplexity Assistant on iOS. Voice Assistant uses web browsing and multi-app actions to book reservations, send emails and calendar invites, play media, and more from the Perplexity iOS app. Meanwhile, the Siri product team looks on with a mixture of envy and bemusement. How Apple managed to mess this opportunity up so badly will be the topic of MBA classes for years to come. But, Perplexity has its own challenges to contend with. A perceived lack of differentiators is seemingly prompting some users to cancel their subscriptions. With rumors that OpenAI is happy to buy Chrome if Google is forced to sell it, Perplexity’s new browser needs to ship fast.
Grok is getting new abilities that will allow it to see the world around it. GrokVision lets users point their phone at objects like products, signs and documents and ask questions about them. It’s another example of AI companies playing catch up with each other and brings Grok in line with similar features released from Google earlier this year.
In other news…
Google Slides is getting a series of new templates. The latest selection includes templates for product proposals, strategy updates and more.
A new open source alternative to ElevenLabs called Dia has shipped with some super realistic voices.
Instagram is testing a new feature called Storylines which allows users to add new Stories to their friends stories. This means, for example, if you’re celebrating a friend’s birthday, you could add some photos to your story and your friends could add more content to it.
AI use cases - an insight into disruption?
AI use cases give us an insight into some of the industries that may be at risk from AI disruption. Here’s a snapshot of some of the fastest growing use cases:
Tools you can use
NoTab - preview links in your browser without opening a new tab.
ListenLabs - let AI conduct user research at scale with thousands of human participants.
Vendrr - see how much other people pay for SaaS products you use.
📈 Product data and trends to stay informed
A new research paper from Google suggests that the “Era of Experience” is upon us. The researchers suggest that AI has evolved from the simulation era where it played games like chess and the era of human data where it consumed human data for training purposes to now enter the era of experience. This is where AI models won’t rely on human data any more; instead, it will physically interact with the real world to generate new insights from the data it generates.
"Ultimately, experiential data will eclipse the scale and quality of human-generated data," Silver and Sutton write.
ChatGPT search had roughly 41.3 million average monthly active “recipients” in Europe for the six-month period ending March 31 - up from ~11 million 6 months earlier. Google still has roughly ~10x the amount of search traffic - but for how long?
Over 100 mid-sized SaaS vendors are getting “squeezed” by AI as it becomes easier for generative AI to replicate applications at a fraction of the cost. Median net dollar retention has fallen from 120% in 2021 to 108% in Q3 2024. New analysis by AlixPartners.
Pinterest is becoming overwhelmed with AI generated content. 12 out of 16 of Pinterest’s top trends report in April featured AI generated content. This is problematic for the company because AI generated content is less valuable for training purposes. Pinterest recently updated its terms of service to let users know that it will use their creations for model training but for it to be valuable to third parties, the company will need to ensure it can exclude AI generated content from its training.
New research shows that 48% of teens think social media has a negative effect on people their age - but only 14% think it has a negative effect on them personally.
Uber is forcing users to navigate as many as 23 screens and perform 32 actions to cancel its Uber One subscription according to a new lawsuit from the FTC.
Netflix now has over 700 million users globally and accounts for 9% of all viewing time in the UK, just ahead of YouTube’s 7%. Linear TV still accounts for ~50%. Full shareholder letter.
Other product news in brief
🍪Google won’t be ditching third party cookies after all.
🫡Intel is reportedly planning to lay off over 20% of its staff.
🧑💻OpenAI is plotting an acquisition of AI coding platform Windsurf.
🤖Uber’s CEO says that knowing how to use AI agents to code will be an “absolute necessity” within year.
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