el producto #168
Online events, Remote work resources, Streaming growth, Slack redesign, Understanding AI fundamentals, Product discovery at scale, & more.
Welcome to a new edition of el producto
Special — Work in times of 🦠
This week we have collected more useful resources to support you working from home, and I will keep dedicating my evenings to offer free consultation / advice / coaching / casual chats to any impacted professionals that would like to reach out. Don’t be a stranger, reach out by DM if you are interested, and let’s help each other. We are all humans after all, and we are all on the same boat. Stay safe.
Angel — El producto
Online events next week:
- Global live networking hour for Product Managers, by Product School. Monday, March 30, 6:15 PM GMT. Free
- Webinar: global Product Development with Amazon Alexa Product Lead, by Product School. Wednesday, April 1, 6:30 PM GMT. Free
- Webinar: hacking your Product Leader career with former Netflix VP Product, by Product School. Thursday, April 2, 6:30 PM GMT. Free
- New trends in Creativity, Team Culture, and Leadership.Originally scheduled for a limited audience at SXSW, InVision is bringing this talk to you virtually on Thursday, April 2, 5 PM GMT. Free
- UX Crunch at Home: Advantages of Remote Research. Friday, April 3, 6 PM GMT. Ticket Price: £5.00
- How to develop your first Product with Twitch Sr Product Manager, by Product School. Sunday, April 5, 2020 from 8:00 PM GMT. Free
Resources:
How to be productive working from home (and anywhere else), based on Nir Eyal’s new book Indistractable.
How to build (and sustain) culture in a remote environment, by InVision (InVision is ran by +700 remote people around the globe).
8 ways to manage your team while social distancing, by HBR.
Running virtual offsites, by HBR.
I have compiled more remote-working resources, + the most visited articles from el producto classified by topic at elproducto.eu Resources section.
🎰 The week in figures
$332B: so far lost in stock value by travel industry during the ongoing pandemic. Good infographic by Visual Capitalist.
$400M: Mobility firm Lime is raising new funds at 80% of its previous valuation, according to sources for The Information; the firm is seeking emergency funding based on a worth of $400M, which compares with a $2.4B valuation it held last year; Lime currently has $50M-$70M cash on hand; it has suspended operations in multiple markets because of the coronavirus pandemic.
$242M: Flying taxi startup Lilium raised $242M. The round, led by China-based tech giant Tencent, is reportedly less than the company was hoping to raise as it works toward launching its vehicles by 2025.
44M: Microsoft Teams now has 44M active users
90%: Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei says 90% of the company’s 150k employees are back to work following the coronavirus outbreak.
14%: Global smartphone sales fell 14% in February amid the coronavirus outbreak; Chinese government data indicates Apple sold less than 500k iPhones in the country last month.
50%: Messaging on Facebook is up more than 50% in many countries. With the pandemic-driven increased usage in mind, Instagram added a “co-watching” feature that lets people view posts on each other’s screens while on a video call. (Facebook also noted that “we’ve seen a weakening in our ads business” in countries fighting the virus.).
10%: Uber Eats’ U.S. business jumped 10% last week from the previous week, as the impact of city lockdowns took effect. Uber Eats has waived delivery fees, which likely helped the sales surge while adding to its costs.
x3: Demand for streaming subscription services spikes. Between March 14 - March 16, the number of Disney+ signups more than tripled compared to the same period from the week prior. Netflix saw a 47% increase, and Apple 10%.
📰 What’s going on
Slack released its biggest redesign last week, making improvements that specifically target those new to Slack given the recent change to mass remote work.
Airbnb is halting all marketing and most hiring as it tries to cut costs. Layoffs haven’t been ruled out.
Apple is temporarily extending the trial period for its pro software Final Cut Pro X and Logic Pro X from 30 days to 90 days; follows similar moves from other software makers amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Apple may not launch a 5G iPhone until next year; the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the firm’s supply chain and may impact demand for new devices; Apple is expected to make a final decision around May; follows reports the next iPhone lineup could be pushed to November.
Apple says it will expand the App Store to 20 more countries starting next month; includes Afghanistan, Cameroon, Iraq, and Myanmar.
YouTube Music adds lyrics support to its iOS and Android apps; the lyrics are static and do not play along with the track itself
Google says it will resume its Chrome and Chrome OS release schedule after temporarily pausing rollouts amid the coronavirus outbreak; Chrome 80 will begin receiving updates next week; Chrome 81, originally set for March 17, will now appear on April 7; Chrome 82 has been cancelled, but Chrome 83 is expected mid-May.
Disney+ launches in multiple European countries including the UK, Ireland, and Spain; the service is launching with decreased bandwidth demands following a request from an EU commissioner amid the coronavirus outbreak; Disney+ costs £6 per month in the UK, €7 in other countries; annual plans start at £60, and €70 respectively; Disney+ will launch in France on April 7.
Flipkart pauses operations amid the national lockdown in India; the company will still provide bill payment services and video streaming, but all delivery options are suspended.
UPS partners with German firm Wingcopter to develop a new delivery drone; the electric aircraft promises a range of up to 75 miles and a top speed of up to 150 Mph; Wingcopter has previously demonstrated its UAVs carrying small packages such as medical supplies.
Huawei partners with Tencent to develop a cloud gaming platform; full plans unclear, but the GameMatrix service will make use of Huawei’s Kunpeng processor; both companies say they will explore other collaborations including in the areas of AR and AI.
HP teases a new VR headset developed in partnership with Microsoft and Valve; specs, price, and release date unknown, but HP says the device is “more immersive” than its earlier Reverb headset.
👩🏾💻 Good reads
Google has launched a new guide for understanding AI fundamentals. It uses the alphabet to offer bite-sized explainers for 26 different concepts at the core of the technology.
Running Product Discovery at scale, by Product Coalition. Product discovery enables teams to learn about their users and customers, validate assumptions, and learn what is the right thing to build at the time.
Reading list for leaders in uncertain imtes: The team at a16z put together the best of the best in its crisis management literature, including videos and podcasts.
What will this crisis accelerate in your ecosystem? Redpoint Ventures’ managing director Tomasz Tunguz asks what other changes should be expected beyond the obvious ones, such as growth in telemedicine and remote work. Will esports overtake regular sports in the long term? Will college students be willing to go into debt for classes largely taken online?
The best, and the worst, of the coronavirus dashboards by MIT. My personal favourite by Worldometer (not included in the article), despite not having a fancy-looking and modern UI, has all the meaningful metrics you need at a sight, allows deep-dive into metrics, and shows always updated figures.
Citymapper Mobility Index. % of city moving compared to usual.
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