Product Fridays

Did the camera kill art? Of course not, says our guest David Somerville, it pushed art to new places. Cubism. Impressionism.“What didn’t happen is art ceased to exist,” he says. “It became about, okay, but now can I paint a feeling?”David is one of the most creative people we know. He is a designer, creative consultant, game maker, and published Dungeons & Dragons author. (He’s also our first-ever non-Andrew guest. He’s filing paperwork to fix that.)David’s instinct cuts against the doom take: using AI to do more of the same, faster, is self-defeating. The interesting question is what AI can do that hasn’t been done yet.A few things from the conversation worth stealing:* Wonder vs. empathy. Wonder looks at something from the outside (what does it look like?); empathy stands inside it (what does it feel like?). Good work comes in moving between the two.* “Yes, and” is the whole job. When a client insists the logo has to be blue, David says yes — to the goal — then proposes a different way there. Most bad creative calls are just fear of being wrong.* Process is a runway, not the whole flight. You need it to take off and to land. In between, you have to actually fly.We loved every minute of David’s insights about creativity and the creative process, and we hope you do, too. Happy Friday.—The AndrewsIn this episode:* David Somerville, founder of the creative consulting firm Smrvl™️* Brand Deck This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit productfridays.substack.com

This week on Product Fridays, we’re trying something new: a deep dive. We focus on a single product and debate whether it’s worth keeping on our phones.First up: Rise, the sleep and energy-tracking app that promises to turn anyone into a morning person—whether you like it or not.We break down what makes Rise different from other sleep apps (spoiler: it’s not just the graphs), how it gamifies your sleep debt and energy potential, and whether it actually works. Along the way, we compare our numbers, debate alarm strategies, and explore why some of the app’s early guesses about our sleep schedules were… deeply cursed.Plus:* McGill’s daughter vs. the Rise smart alarm* Why passive sleep tracking is still messy* The joy of a good dopamine loop* What Rise could learn from Flighty* Why you should cancel just to get the 50% discountWhat app is worthy of our next case study? Reply to this email or comment on Substack to tell us!Happy Friday,The Andrews This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit productfridays.substack.com

What does it actually look like to invent something new in a week?This week we take you behind the scenes of a recent client sprint — a real one, with a real team, real stakes, and the usual emotional arc:* Monday: new faces and high hopes* Tuesday: existential dread* Wednesday: ideas take shape (somehow)* Thursday: revealing our work to real usersAnd yes, at one point, the phrase “sex party” ends up on a whiteboard in front seasoned editors. It’s a long story.What you’ll learn:* Why we’ve adapted the classic Google Ventures Design Sprint (and what we ignore completely)* How to get to real user feedback in days, not months* Why “bad ideas” are often the most valuable* How we use sprints to compress months of decision-making into a single weekWhether you’re a startup founder, a PM, or just sprint-curious, this episode breaks it all down.Thoughts or questions? Want to work with us?Hit reply! We’d love to hear how you’re running product discovery in your own work.Happy Friday,Andrew & Andrew This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit productfridays.substack.com

Andrew Phelps leads off with a question, one he’s never spoken out loud before — “Am I creative?”Oof, isn’t that a straight jab to the ol’ imposter syndrome funny bone? If you’re like us, you’ve grappled with this very question many times before (especially when you’re in the midst of a creative drought).So this Friday, we’re talking about ideas — how we get them, how we keep them coming, and how anyone can come up with good ones if they put in the work.Also, stay for the outtakes at the end. It’s possible we’ve never laughed harder in our lives?NB: The Andrews are publishing biweekly for the summer season.Mentioned in this episode:* On Writing by Stephen King* The Atlantic’s iOS app This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit productfridays.substack.com

This week, The Andrews met up in Baltimore for the Hacks/Hackers Journalism x AI Summit, which was a blast. (Even before the Mario Kart tournament got underway.)For one, we got to see some good friends and hear them say smart stuff, like Patrick Swanson and his session on synthetic audience panels.But it was also the first time we’ve seen a huge group of talented journalists grapple with the implications of AI together in one space — and boy, was it energizing. At the national level, it can feel like media organizations only have one of two paths: either reaching licensing deals with companies like OpenAI (The Atlantic, Axel Springer) or suing them for copyright infringement (The New York Times).But in Baltimore, we heard a lot of ideas for a third or fourth path (MCP micro-transactions! Chat client integrations!)… and of course, we’ve got some ideas of our own.Thanks to Hacks/Hackers for organizing the conference. And BIG thanks to The Real News Network, our Baltimore hosts, for being amazing and gracious and literally opening up a restaurant next door so we could record this video.Mentioned in the video: * Hacks/Hackers* Verso* Synthetic audience panel research* Generative Agent Simulations of 1,000 People* The Art of Audience Engagement: LLM-Based Thin-Slicing of Scientific Talks* The Real News Network* Model Context Protocol* The Atlantic adding two print issues to its yearly cycle This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit productfridays.substack.com

This week we pit products against each other in a rapid-fire game of “This or That.” The rules are simple: two products enter, one product leaves. We set a strict timer and make our cases with maximum conviction—and minimum prep.The matchups:* Apple Maps vs. Google MapsBoth have niceties and flaws. But only one buzzes McGill’s watch.* ChatGPT vs. ClaudeWe both pay for both. So who wins? It comes down to coding, candor, and the creeping inevitability of AI lock-in.* Nintendo Switch vs. Valve Steam Deck“It just works” versus raw power and an extensive game library.* Jira vs. NotionWe unleash some product manager trauma. Then dream of a world where AI manages backlogs for us.Got a matchup you want us to debate next time? Drop a comment or email us at hello@productfridays.com. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit productfridays.substack.com

We eagerly awaited news of the Switch 2—and were a little bit disappointed by the reveal. Is it hard for mature product categories to surprise us anymore? (See also: smartphones.)On the agenda:* Nintendo’s strategic focus (and the similarities to Apple)* Will the Joy-Con mouse be good or weird?* Has Nintendo figured out the Internet yet?Plus, all this Nintendo talk gets us nostalgic for the Mario Kart 64 days. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit productfridays.substack.com

How do two friends launch a video newsletter in 2025? Does the world need another one of those? What should it be about? And where should it live?Oh wait, hi! You probably don’t know us. We’re The Andrews. That’s Andrew Phelps. That’s Andrew McGill. We build stuff. Both of us are former journalists who dove into product at media companies and spent years making cool things for places like The New York Times, The Atlantic and POLITICO. Now, we invent and build new products for clients — and our own dang selves.OK, so yeah, last week we did a thing. We soft-launched “Product Fridays,” a weekly discussion between best friends about building digital products.And by soft-launched, we recorded a few minutes and posted it on LinkedIn. Now it’s real. Whoops!We liked doing it, and enough people liked watching it, so we’re going to do this again. (And maybe again after that.) In today’s episode, we talk through what this thing should be. * What platform it should live on? * What rules it should follow? * How many digressions we should allow Andrew Phelps per episode?tl;dr: We think there are plenty of “how to effectively manage your product organization” podcasts out there, and this isn’t that. We see this as “working out loud” — a rolling debate where we offer provocations, refine our thinking, and hopefully deliver some wisdom and entertainment.Take a listen. Comment? Is that a thing on Substack? We’d love your feedback.Mentioned in this episode:* This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit productfridays.substack.com