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Welcome to The Product Creator Newsletter. After building random tools (some useful, some... not so much), I kept wishing there was a place that explained all this new tech easily. So this is it. Whether you're starting a side project or aiming to become the first $1B solo founder, this newsletter will help you get there.
It's good to have you here, Product Creator. 💖
In this edition:
Creator Spotlight: A product manager book rec app, MVP built in ~3 hours
Tech Tools: ChatGPT Agents, Figma Make, and a no-code mobile app builder
Tutorial: Rate limiting, explained through a popular nightclub bouncer
CREATOR SPOTLIGHT 🎤
I built a product management book recommendation app that suggests reads based on your interests, experience level, and current challenges. Inspired by those classic PM book flowcharts, I wanted something more useful—and something I could confidently share when folks asked for book recs.
The MVP came together in about 3 hours using mock data (thanks, Cursor). The real fun began when I started building the database. My first plan, scraping the web, quickly unraveled when AI started citing PM books by “Elon Musk” and “Walt Disney”. 🤨 After narrowing the sources to just a few trusted ones, I landed on a solid V1 and shipped it. Check it out.
Tools used: Cursor, Airtable, Supabase, Vercel, ChatGPT
Time to MVP: ~3 hours (+ 4–5 hours for the database)
Top tip: Descope V1 more than you think. A high-quality list of 75 > a messy 200.
💡 Building something yourself? Share here to be featured in an upcoming newsletter!
TRENDING TECH TOOLS 🔨
Click here to watch OpenAI’s ChatGPT Agent livestream. Source: OpenAI
1. ChatGPT gets agents — and they actually work: OpenAI launched AI Agents for Pro users, letting ChatGPT run multi-step tasks like opening files, clicking buttons, and filling out forms. Watch Sam Altman and his team demo a multi-step workflow—such as selecting a suit for a wedding using ChatGPT in Agent Mode. It is still early, but the implications for solo builders are massive. I’m considering using it to enhance my PM book app in the next iteration—specifically to scrape Goodreads for accurate ratings and review counts, something Cursor struggled with.
2. Build native mobile apps in plain English: A new tool called Emergent just launched, and it claims you can build native iOS and Android apps without writing code—just by describing what you want in natural language. If it works as promised, it could be a game-changer for solo founders who want to ship mobile products without getting stuck on Swift or Kotlin.
3. Figma’s AI app builder is now open to everyone: Figma’s AI app builder—also known as Figma Make—recently exited beta and announced availability to all Figma users as of July 24, 2025. Previously restricted behind a waitlist, it now lets anyone use plain-language prompts or import Figma designs to generate working, interactive app prototypes—no code required. If you’re a PM or solo builder, this could become your go-to for validating concepts and whipping up interactive mockups before coding.
LEARN A NEW TERM 🧠
Image generated with ChatGPT.
Rate Limiting → how systems prevent overload by restricting how many requests can be made in a given time window—say, 10 requests per second. If too many requests come in too quickly, the system starts saying, “Slow down” or even, “Try again later.”
Think of it like the bouncer at a popular nightclub. If 200 people rush the door at once, no one’s getting in—and the whole experience falls apart. A good bouncer lets people in gradually, keeping things safe, smooth, and under control. That’s what rate limiting does for APIs.
Why it matters for PMs: If your app relies on external APIs and things suddenly break, slow down, or return inconsistent data, rate limiting might be the culprit. Knowing this can help you debug faster—or design smarter fallbacks from the start.
FROM THE ARCHIVES 📁
The 3 types of APIs as told through customer types. Source: Jackie Henning
Missed this carousel? It was a fan favorite. I broke down three types of APIs—REST, GraphQL, and Webhooks—using characters from Friends and coffee shop personas.
If you’ve ever struggled to explain APIs without losing people… this is the one to bookmark. Check out the full carousel here.
PROMPT PLAYGROUND 🤖
This edition’s featured prompt: Feature Spec Generator.
Copy this into ChatGPT (or your favorite AI assistant), fill in your own idea, user, and goal and let it walk you through writing a strong, focused product spec.
[IDEA] = A short description of your product or feature idea
[USER] = The target user or persona for this feature
[GOAL] = The outcome or metric you want to improve
Prompt:
Step 1: Clarify the problem that [IDEA] is solving and explain why it matters to [USER].
Step 2: Brainstorm 3 possible solutions, each with a brief rationale that ties back to [GOAL].
Step 3: Select the strongest solution and write a one-pager that includes:
Problem
Audience
Solution overview
Assumptions
Success metrics
Step 4: List 2 questions or unknowns that would need validation before building.
Step 5: Suggest how a PM, engineer, and designer could collaborate to bring this idea to life.JACKIE’S WEEKLY PICKS 💖
✅ Something to read: The Era of the Product Creator by Marty Cagan — a take on how AI is changing the role of PMs from roadmap managers to full-on creators.
✅ Something to watch: The Bear — It’s a chaotic, heartfelt, and visually stunning look at building a restaurant from scratch in Chicago. Not a PM show, but it gets building under pressure.
✅ Something to listen to: A podcast episode by How I AI where a 91-year-old vibe-coded an app in a weekend for his church. No code, no background—just motivation. Genuinely inspiring.
NEW PM ROLES 💼
Netflix is hiring for several PM roles, including a Product Manager, Personalization Foundations role.
Vercel is hiring a Product Manager, v0 to lead growth for its AI-powered design-to-code tool.
O’Reilly Media is looking for an Associate Product Manager to support its learning platform.
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Till next time 👋 — Jackie