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- Cross-Functional #179: Pick your Poison
Cross-Functional #179: Pick your Poison
Avoiding toxic workspaces, decision velocity, storytelling, and a new approach to testing.
Rory Madden
February 27, 2024
The Main Thing: Pick your Poison
Google's Gemini AI has been making headlines for some of the more interesting responses that they generate, leading them to turn off image generation.
When dealing with products that can answer any question companies have a very difficult balancing act to perform. We can't get everyone to agree on specific topics so, no matter what answers the AI's produce, they will always anger someone.
I'm not sure you can fully solve these problems. People will continue to label the systems woke or fascist based on their own worldview. My biggest concern is that, while they have similar source data, the training approach can dramatically impact the answers provided. This opens up the possibility of state actors influencing ideas such as manipulating historical events or viewpoints.
Given how much faith people are already starting to put into the responses of AI systems I think we need to see healthy competition with multiple different models available so people can compare different perspectives.
Even though there are negative potential outcomes I'm still really excited about what these systems can already do and what the future might hold.
Are you worried about the risk of manipulation when it comes to AI system outputs? |
This Weeks Updates
Enabling the Team
How to Tell If a Prospective Workplace Is Toxic by Mita Mallick
It's hard to understand the workplace culture from an interview, but Mita shares some tips on what to look out for.
OKRs for Transformation Efforts by Jeff Gothelf
Transformation efforts need goals too. OKRs can be those goals but they need to focus on the right target audience. And they need an owner.
Product Direction
Decision Velocity & Drag by Ant Murphy
Companies that move fast make decisions fast. What takes one company a week, they do in a day. Compound that over time, and it’s a landslide.
Product Strategy Depends on Company Strategy by Rich Mironov
Rich shares some options that people can take to influence their company strategy, from low-risk to quite brazen approaches.
Continuous Discovery
Knowledge Management Is More Important Than Your Repository by Emily DiLeo
An amazing repository won't magically share your insights. You need to focus on your knowledge management processes first.
How to Synthesize and Share What You Learned from a Single Customer Interview by Teresa Torres
Use this one-page template to summarize and share what you learned from each customer interview.
Continuous Design
Storytelling For Designers by Vadym Grin
Data storytelling is not just about charts and graphs, but about weaving a narrative that connects the dots and brings the data to life.
Futurespectives: Learning From Failures That Haven’t Happened Yet by Neil Vass
Neil describes how he helps teams think through risks and possible disasters that might affect a piece of work before the work starts.
Continuous Delivery
Rethinking Serverless: The Price of Convenience by Vinoo Ganesh
Not all is rosy in serverless land. Vinoo shares his thoughts and why he thinks serverless functions have had their 15 minutes of fame (and runtime).
Introducing SafeTest: A Novel Approach to Front End Testing by Moshe Kolodny
UI testing is painful because our simulated environments do not fully match the end-user experience. See how Netflix has overcome these challenges.
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New Videos Released This Week
Learn from Matt Powell, FTD's Chief Technology Officer, about embracing uncertainty and adapting to change, with an emphasis on resilience, flexibility and empowering organisations to drive growth and innovation in uncertain times. 👇👇👇
The job of the Week
Senior Product Manager
🏬 Ocado Group
📌 Fully Time, Las Vegas, Nevada
About Ocado
Ocado Group, a UK-based tech leader, revolutionizes online grocery shopping with its innovative automation and robotics. Committed to innovation and sustainability, it offers dynamic careers in transforming global retail.
The Results of Last Week’s Poll
The question was: Have you ever made your product worse due to business priorities?
Wow. 80% of people have actively made their products worse.
The silver lining here is that this means there is always room for new startups in any ecosystem.
When business priorities trump user priorities there is a gap for a new entrant to capitalise on.