What your workflow needs is bespoke AI: This week’s product news

Product Management News - November 4, 2024

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Our content series gives you the lowdown on what’s been happening in the tech world this week and what it could mean for product professionals. This week, we’re looking towards 2025, seeing what Anthropic has been up to, and spotlighting automated tests for mobile apps.

Notion has continued to deliver good value for its users by announcing a number of features at Make with Notion. The web application at its conference announced Forms, an easy way to capture requests, Notion Mail, an email feature helping users with back-and-forth scheduling, and Marketplace, offering an improved service for its creators, including native payments, analytics, reviews, and ratings to provide users with a better way to sell their work and grow their business.

The collaboration tool could have a big impact on the landscape by offering multiple solutions to key consumer pain points—ideal for core Notion customers, following a similar path to software tools like Atlassian, where users won't need to go elsewhere for specific functions such as Forms or Mail. While the growing number of tools may seem overwhelming to some users, those loyal to Notion will likely see these highly requested features as a strong positive. The company's efforts to make it easier for early adopters to streamline their workflows within Notion's ecosystem could be beneficial for user retention and overall growth. 


Anthropic introduced a groundbreaking new capability in public beta: Claude can now use your computer. Through functions on its API, you can now direct Claude to use computers the way people do—by looking at a screen, moving a cursor, clicking buttons, and typing text. According to Anthropic, it is still experimental—at times cumbersome and error-prone. What could possibly go wrong?

Asana recently introduced AI Studio, a tool that lets you integrate AI into your workflows within Asana. Not just any AI mind you, but customized AI tailored to your specific workflow. No word yet on whether it can open its own browser windows and order a PSL directly from Starbucks yet.

If you work on a mobile app and have avoided automating your tests, now you have one less excuse to get started. MobileBoost provides a way to automate end to end tests for your mobile native app. Their AI agent reduces test flakiness which means you spend less time maintaining existing tests and more time spreading test coverage.

Software platform GitHub has recently announced a new product called GitHub Spark - a new AI-powered tool that allows users to describe what they want to build without needing to write or deploy any code.

The company aims to improve the experience for those looking to build MVPs or small prototype products. This new feature could enable almost anyone to create and adapt software for themselves.

The impact of GitHub Spark on the relationship between product and engineering teams remains to be seen. This AI-driven capability has the potential to empower non-technical users to rapidly build and test ideas. However, it may also introduce new challenges around managing the division of responsibilities and collaboration between these teams. Time will tell the uptake of this new product and what impact this may have on the market. 

This weekly briefing offers a product-specific lowdown of what is happening worldwide and what it means for product teams. Like what you see? Let us know in the comments below, or email us at editor@mindtheproduct.com