- Charbel X
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- International Space Station (ISS) Rains on The USA, Meta's AI-Search, Product Hierarchies and more
International Space Station (ISS) Rains on The USA, Meta's AI-Search, Product Hierarchies and more
Hello there,
Welcome to my very first edition of Charbel X - a regular newsletter, digest of all that I’m reading (and let’s face it, scanning) each day. We’re covering Design, AI, Science & Tech, Product Development and all things that might help and inspire you to make an impact in the world.
Yours in innovation,
Charbel
Founder of Velvet Onion, Faster Zebra and more to come …
Remember, Good Things Come To Those Who Make. Let’s get started!
Today’s news
If things don't go as planned, you might hear the news "ISS rained on America" in 2031.
Have a look at what’s happening around →
Highlights
AI: Meta’s upcoming AI-search: Intensified Competition
Design: Apple’s design upgrades in TestFlight: An enhanced experience
Science & Tech: Planned destruction of International Space Station: High stakes of massive amounts of debris
Founding: 3 ways to get more YESes and cut down all NOs
Product: On building a hierarchy of products
Creativity: Drawing inspiration from athletic training to fuel creative efficiency
Today’s AI image: 2031: If ISS destruction is not planned
Quote for the day: A Wayne Dyer quote
AI
Meta’s upcoming AI-search: Intensified Competition
With Google’s AI overview and OpenAI’s soon-to-come SearchGPT, it was obvious that Meta would join the party, too.
Meta reports of working on developing an AI Search Engine of its own which would produce conversational responses to search just like Google’s AI overview.
Meta’s goal
With this new development, Meta is planning to reduce Meta AI’s dependence on Google’s search and Microsoft’s Bing for generating informational responses.
Besides, some sources suggest that the upcoming search engine could save them an emergency reform if both the companies retreat from the deal.
Also in AI
Google’s new "Help me write" feature for Gmail on the web: Draft and refine emails
Business Leaders reported of integrating more GenAI into Marketing and HR
New AI features integrated into Siri: Writing tools, photo management, and smarter notifications
ChatGPT now has a 250M user base: Increased adoption of AI in day-to-day tasks
Meta Chooses Not to Accept the New Open Source Definition: Loads of potential conflicts
Turn study material into engaging discussions: NotebookLM’s brand new Audio Overview feature
Design
Apple’s design upgrades in TestFlight: An enhanced experience for Developers
Alongside its intelligence-powered iOS 18 updates, Apple has also made significant additions to its app-testing platform, TestFlight that is used by developers to run tests of their softwares.
What’s new?
More control over a) beta user base b) how testers get to interact with an app's new features
A game-changing redesign of invites that are sent to testers
Comprehensive metrics about beta’s progress: how many viewed the invite, how many approved to join and why others didn’t.
Also in Design
Science & Tech
Planned destruction of International Space Station: High stakes of massive amounts of debris
It’s 2031 and countless gigantic metallic meteors are raining down from heavens all over North America. Turns out they blew up the whole International Space Station in Space.
What has been planned?
“ If you’re hanging out near the Pacific Ocean’s Point Nemo, the spot on the planet farthest from land, at the right time in 2031, you’ll get a good show, and the ocean will get a new permanent resident: the International Space Station (ISS).” —Scientific American
Plans have been made to controllably destroy the ISS, the largest man-made infrastructure existing in space in 2031.
In simple words, it will be done by deliberately burning up the station in the space. However, since its massive size, it won’t be destroyed completely.
This space operation will result in mass debris. The station would blast into pieces “the size of a microwave to the size of a car” that would all eventually come down on Earth’s surface.
To prevent mass destruction on Earth, NASA has recruited SpaceX to push the debris towards the empty Pacific ocean.
Also in Science & Tech
70% of meteorites originate from three major asteroid belt collisions in the last 40 million years
UK man sentenced for making fake child abuse images using AI in a significant court decision
Cat Ba langurs have evolved to drink salt water, enhancing their survival
Climate change is making wildfires spread faster, which puts nature and people in more danger
Founding
3 ways to get more YESes and cut down all NOs
[First Name], should we always be so stoic about rejections? Probably no.
Yes, rejection is inevitable, and we have to get used to it. However, it does not mean ALL rejections are unavoidable. There are ways you can minimise, if not eliminate completely, the amount of rejections you face in business and life.
Work on creating an un-turndown-able offer
“Why would I accept an offer from a stranger?”
Your prospect is going to keep questioning this to himself until he gets reasons strong enough to finally accept your offer.
Your job? Give them, precisely prove them those reasons right away.
A sharp cone funnel < A cylinder-like funnel
Sharp cone funnels: generic pitching to a mass of prospects to get rejected from 4 out of every 5 of them. And then ingesting plenty of effort into convincing the bare minimum, who hardly passed down to BoFu.
Cylinder-like funnel: highly personalised pitching to a select few high-conversion-probability prospects and receiving relatively fewer rejections. Then putting in relatively less effort to close deals with already warm leads.
Reframe & Refine your pitch before presenting
Simply put, reduce Is, MEs, and MYs and increase YOUs and YOURs.
Make it more about them and less about you because it is in the nature of humans to assert the decision tilted towards their own benefit.
Also in Founding
Strategies to manage stakeholders: High-stake decisions and stakeholder dynamics
The Cost of Over-Apologizing: Understanding the Impact and Finding Balance
Favourable Networking: Attract support, opportunities, trust and engagement
How Design Thinking, Lean UX, and Agile collaborate to enhance product development
Product
On creating a product hierarchy
When an organisation gets bigger and more complex with multiple product categories, a product hierarchy is a must for better coordination of product teams within themselves as well as with marketing teams.
A Basic Product Hierarchy
Foundation: Product Need
Each and every operation carried out in an organisation, trivial or significant, is based on solving a customer problem or a market problem. Define first what need of your customers are you fulfilling through your business.
Second: Product Family
There is always a multitude of alternative solutions to a single problem that are available in the market. Figure out which one you provide through your product.
Third: Product Class
Class is just like product family, but within the organisation. There can be multiple products providing the same solution but in different forms.
Fourth: Product Line
Then there’s product lines within each class. Same solution, same form, different versions.
Fifth: Product Type
Further classifying products based on little modifications and tweaks in either the product itself or the way of providing it.
Unit-level: Product Item/ Unit
Here at the last level, we consider each Stock-Keeping Unit (SKU) of the product.
Creativity
Drawing inspiration from athletic training to fuel creative efficiency
Keeping your creative muscles strong and intact calls for regular “training”. In this article of Unknown Arts, they have derived inspiration from the training process of an Olympic athlete to form a creativity recharge mechanism for artists.
This flow involves:
Daily building sessions:
A few specified hours of deep creative work daily. These sessions are of intense focus, least distraction, and utmost productivity.
What matters is the consistency of your commitment to these sessions. Doesn’t matter if it’s just one hour each day. But it ought to be your most valuable hour throughout the day.
Day-wise phases:
You can divide your week into training phases of varied intensities.
Minimalistically, there must be some high intensity days, some low intensity days, and some chill days.
Season-wise phases:
You can do a similar distribution across the year. There’s some seasons when you indulge in consistent skill mastery, some in which you proactively apply your recent training (launches, competitions, publishing, etc.) and some for a calm retreat.
Today’s AI Image
2031: If ISS destruction is not planned
Source- Ideogram
Quote of the Day
A Wayne Dyer Quote
“Go for it now. The future is promised to no one.”
Wayne Dyer
What we’re working on
Velvet Onion & Friends We’ve been building a complex, enterprise wide, data-rich, AI-enabled product for our friends at IAG. As their product development partners, our process with their great team has been faster, leaner and more cost-effective for the company. | We’re redefining the way students learn skills in Strategy, Business, Product Development, Design, RevOps, Marketing and Pitching. We’re soon launching our flagship program where students learn everything from strategy to pre-launch. The winners get their idea built by Velvet Onion. |
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