Trend-driven innovation

Hey there,

Today, let’s talk about:

• An early application of generative AI in fintech

• Using ChatGPT and Bing to help us with market research and trend spotting

• How to save hundreds of hours with AI summaries of user feedback

• How to figure out how AI fits in with your product strategy

💬 PROMPT USE CASE - TREND SPOTTING

If you haven’t read it before, Trend-driven Innovation is a book that explains how to spot emerging trends and use them to create products and services that meet customer expectations. The book argues that successful innovation is not about following customer feedback, but about anticipating customer needs based on their changing behaviours. It provides a framework for identifying trends, analysing consumer insights, applying innovation potential and launching new solutions. I highly recommend.

We can use this framework with ChatGPT to kick-start a discovery process, based on emerging trends.

Interestingly, ChatGPT’s first response is pretty useful, but it doesn’t follow the Consumer Trend Canvas that’s featured in the book!

So we need to be more specific with our prompt.

This is such an accelerator for us.

One of the constraints with OpenAI’s GPT-3 model (and therefore ChatGPT) is that the corpus of information it’s trained on ends at 2021. However Bing Chat has now been upgraded by Microsoft to include the OpenAI technology, which potentially opens up a new set of exciting use cases.

So let’s use Bing Chat to dive into this trend some more.

The result is useful, but not extensive. However I was able to follow-up and push for more examples. Bing seems to default to sets of 3 when handling either unspecified amount requests or for requests where the number specified is too high for its initial search.

Moving on, let’s extend our investigation of the opportunity space:

Now let’s dig into the drivers of the NA trend and identify some audience segments behind it.

Again, you could definitely push for more, but actually these segments are a great starting point, and start to identify their respective Jobs To Be Done.

Let’s go into more detail around a particular demographic, and see what evidence there is to support a hypothesis:

All really useful, and super fast, considering how long desk research and workshops to produce results like this normally takes.

🛠️ COOL NEW TOOLS

Kraftful - Product research
ChatGPT for product research. Save hundreds of hours with AI summaries of user feedback. Definitely check this one out, they’re an awesome team and they’re on Product Hunt today, so lend your support if you like what they’re doing! Massive timesaver for PMs and UX Designers.

Truewind - Finance
Bookkeeping and finance for startups. What’s really interesting is how they’re incorporating generative AI: using plain English, describe the business activities that your accountant would need to know about, and Truewind’s AI turns that into accounting. I think we’ll see this kind of application of generative AI be used a lot in fintech apps.

GeniusSheets - Data / Finance
Talk to your data - ask questions, generate reports, and query data using text interface. Initially with QuickBooks (so, another fintech application) but can integrate with any data source.

📰 NEWS AND GOOD READS

In a big endorsement of OpenAI’s technology and its application to corporate innovation, Bain, a global consulting firm, has announced an alliance with OpenAI to bring OpenAI's cutting-edge AI tools and platforms to Bain's clients worldwide. Link.

Creating a landing page using AI tools + No code - Sam Dickie, the no-code guru and product takes us on his step-by-step experiment to leverage no code AI tools to create a landing page. Link.

🤪 DROP #1 - ROAST MY STARTUP IDEA

Re-publishing (re-dropping?) this today as there was a dodgy link in yesterday’s email. AI was sadly not to blame.

Sometimes us Ideas People need to take a big dose of reality, put our own subconscious biases to one side and really have our idea interrogated. True, you could just go to a VC for that 😜 but wouldn’t it be better to stress-test your concept before-hand? And even get some thoughts on how you could improve the idea?

Roast My Startup Idea gives you just that, instantly and for free. Built with Open AI and Zapier, and some careful design and fine-tuning of prompts. It’s our first Drop, enjoy!

📝 AI-DRIVEN INNOVATION WORKSHOPS

Every software company is about to become an AI company. So you need an AI product strategy. I’m now offering workshops for companies who want to figure it out fast, and to explore what AI means for their product and the business.

If you’re interested, reply to this email and let’s talk!

👀 Look out for Sunday’s AI Roadmap

Each week, in addition to the weekday newsletter like this one, I’ll put myself in the shoes of a product team, ideate the generative AI opportunities and prioritise what I think would add the most value to the customers. Should be fun right? And if you’d like to nominate a product for an AI Roadmap, hit reply and let me know!

Thanks for reading, and happy prompting 💬

Martin, Chief Prompt Officer