el producto #340 🚀
Generative AI in fintech, Prime Day records, Google's AI note-taking tool, Free resources to build a membership service, AI tools for design, Threads ads & more
Hey team,
Happy weekend and welcome to a new edition of el producto!
🎰 The week in figures
$12.7B: Amazon's Prime Day event was a record-breaker, with U.S. shoppers spending $12.7B during the two-day sale event, a 6.1% increase in sales year-over-year
$1B: Domino's is partnering with Uber to list its menus on Uber Eats and Postmates in 28 markets, including the US, UK, and Canada, aiming to generate $1B in new sales
$200M: AI model startup Hugging Face is looking to raise $200M in Series D funding at a valuation of $4B
1K: Binance has cut over 1,000 jobs in recent weeks as regulators ramp up their scrutiny of the troubled cryptocurrency exchange
📰 What’s going on
Meta plans to release a commercial, open-source version of its AI model, LLaMA, to compete with OpenAI and Google, enabling customization and app development
Instagram plans to introduce its branded content tools to Threads, offering marketers an opportunity for paid promotion on the app before ads are officially permitted
Google Play has announced a policy shift to allow developers to integrate NFTs into their apps and games
Google has expanded its Bard chatbot to the European Union and Brazil, offering new features, including support for over 40 languages
Google has opened up its AI note-taking tool, now called NotebookLM, to a select group of U.S. users; formerly called Project Tailwind, the rebranded tool can summarize notes, generate new ideas, and answer questions, all with built-in citations
Twitter has started paying popular creators through its new revenue-sharing program; Twitter aims to draw more content creators to its platform amid growing competition from Meta's Threads app
Anthropic, a startup founded by former OpenAI research executives, has launched its latest AI chatbot to the public; users in the U.S. and U.K. can now try out the beta version of Claude 2 at claude.ai
OpenAI opened up its Code Interpreter model, which can do AI-powered data analysis and visualizations, to all ChatGPT Plus subscribers
Stability AI has introduced Stable Doodle, a new tool that transforms sketches into high-quality images, designed to assist creative professionals
Elon Musk announced his new AI company, xAI, with a stated goal of understanding the "nature of the universe"
China's internet watchdog plans to implement tighter regulations for generative AI, requiring companies to obtain a license before launching new AI-powered technologies
Retro, an Instagram competitor created by former Meta employees, launched in beta; the app is designed for close friends instead of brands and creators
📚 Good reads
How to build a $2000/mo membership site for $0. A simple guide full of free resources, by Jon Brosio
How to use the Lean Canvas, an essential Product Strategy tool, by David Pereira. Lean Canvas is a simple canvas that helps in making decisions on the fundamental aspects of a new business idea. Crafting a Lean Canvas leads to clear alignment and focus on the most relevant aspects of the business idea
6 superpowers to seek out as a Product Manager, by Nikhyl Singhal (VP of Product at Meta). Nikhyl writes that leaders in product management don’t really face a single big problem, but rather, ambiguities across 6 categories: product, growth, domain, market, organizational, and team. He notes that, realistically, if you want to be elite you should aim to master 2 of them
What leadership isn’t about. Akash Gupta argues that leadership is not about:
Merely discussing project status during 1 on 1s
Only dealing with the tactical aspects of a project
Focusing solely on blockers that are hindering progress
Giving feedback only about the content of work done
Ignoring the holistic growth of your team
That's a limited perspective. Anyone can do that.
True leadership is about:
Delving into the context during 1 on 1s, not just the content
Understanding how team members feel about their work
Helping them shape their career growth
Fostering a growth-oriented mindset within the team
Providing support to deal with setbacks and helping them bounce back
Start with these questions:
How do you feel about the work you're doing?
Are you facing any challenges or roadblocks?
How can I assist you in overcoming them?
What are your career growth aspirations?
How can I help you achieve them?
How has your mindset shaped your work?
Have recent setbacks affected your motivation or performance?
How can we address them to ensure your wellbeing and productivity?
The state of Generative AI in financial services. Within financial services organizations, AI is nothing new. If you want to understand how Generative AI can bring something new to the table, I highly recommend reading this long read article by Bain Capital Ventures. Also, the Hype graph below is quite telling; think of 2020 & Autonomous Vehicles, 2021 & NFTs, 2022 & Metaverse, 2023 & GenAI, 2024 &…Mixed Reality?
The world’s most powerful UX laws, and how they are used by top apps, by Felix Lee
The Aesthetic-Usability Effect:
Users perceive aesthetically pleasing design as more usable
People are more tolerant of minor usability issues when the design of a product or service is aesthetically pleasing
Law of Prägnanz (Spotify):
People interpret complex images as the simplest form possible
Simplicity and order prevent information overload
The Fitts Law (Airbnb):
Time to acquire a target depends on distance and size
Touch targets should be large and easily reachable
Peak-End Rule & Serial Position Effect (Duolingo):
People judge experiences based on peak and end moments
The first and last items in a series are most memorable
Jacob’s Law (TikTok):
Users prefer apps that work similarly to ones they know
Create familiar experiences to enhance ease of use
Von Restorff Effect (Spotify, Evernote):
Different objects are more memorable in a group
Highlight important elements to make them stand out
🔮 Emerging trends
AI tools for web design
In the evolving landscape of web design, AI has emerged as a game-changer, wielding its power to automate repetitive tasks, craft visual assets and content, and generate a variety of user interface (UI) mockups. Whether you're a Product Manager, UX designer, front-end developer, or visual artist, here are some AI tools to have on your radar:
Website builders
Zyro: Website builder with an AI writer, slogan generator, image background remover, and more
Appy Pie: No-code AI app platform that offers an AI builder to generate websites with only a few sentences
Uizard: AI-enabled UI design tool for designing wireframes, mockups, and prototypes
10Web: Fast AI website builder for WordPress
Image/content generators
Stable Diffusion: Diffusion model that generates photo-realistic images from text prompts
Dall-E 2: OpenAI's system for creating realistic images and art from natural language descriptions
Jasper: AI art image generator and writer
Vance AI: AI photo enhancement and editing
Sensei: Adobe's AI/ML technology for creators to locate assets, add photo effects, and generate content
That’s all for today! Let me know what you think by replying back to this email or commenting on Substack
Angel