Read time: under 8 minutes
Hey there, Product Creator. 👋 We’re officially in the season of pumpkins, candy corn (controversial), and spooky-cute black cats. It’s also the kickoff to Q4 — the shortest quarter, but full of energy and new beginnings. If you’re a PM, I’m sure you can relate. Let’s hit the ground running. 💪
In this edition:
Creator Spotlight: a 48-hour build that’s changing how tradespeople work.
Tech Tools: Grok makes your pictures move, OpenAI’s App Store, and Google’s “Computer Use” model.
Tutorial: What webhooks and smoke alarms have in common. 🔥
CREATOR SPOTLIGHT 🎤
Meet Emily Beal, a product designer who built Gauge, an AI assistant made for technicians (think electricians, plumbers, and HVAC pros). These are the people standing on job sites with gloves on, flipping through codebooks or wiring diagrams, often in a basement with no Wi-Fi. Gauge helps them get answers faster. Just upload a codebook, ask a question in plain language, and it returns clear, context-aware guidance instantly, even offline.
For example, a question like “How far must a deck ledger be lag-bolted from the edge of a board?” returns the answer: “Deck ledger lag bolts must be at least 2 inches from the edge of the board.”
What stood out to me about Emily is that she started her career in the trades before moving into product design. She used that firsthand experience and network to build something her peers would actually use. In just 48 hours during Lovable’s SheBuilds hackathon, she built Gauge end to end. With Lovable Cloud and AI handling the infrastructure and hosting, she could focus her energy on understanding real workflows, testing in the field, and designing for clarity and trust. Know someone who might benefit? Try it here.
Tools used: Lovable Cloud + AI (infra and hosting), Figma (design + flows), ChatGPT (prompting + iteration)
Time to MVP: ~48 hours
Top tip: Start small, but build for real people. “Don’t chase the model—chase the moment when someone smiles because the tool made their day easier.”
💡 Building something yourself? Share here to be featured in an upcoming newsletter!
TRENDING TECH TOOLS 🔨
1. xAI’s new video generation model (Imagine v0.9): Elon Musk’s xAI rolled out Imagine v0.9, an update to its video generation model that can produce synchronized audio and video in a single pass. I tested it using a photo of me petting a few stray cats in Italy, and within seconds it created a lifelike clip—complete with motion and ambient sound (it’s pretty darn good, minus the random car in the background 😅). For PMs, this marks another step toward multimodal creativity, where visuals, audio, and timing all live inside one pipeline.
2. OpenAI’s “App store” (DevDay 2025): At DevDay, OpenAI unveiled Apps—essentially an app store for conversational experiences. Developers can now embed tools and third-party workflows directly into ChatGPT. The move turns ChatGPT into more of an ecosystem than a standalone app. For PMs, the takeaway is clear: users will expect AI to feel native everywhere—not bolted on. Honorable mention from DevDay: Agent Builder toolkit that simplifies building and deploying custom AI agents. See it in action here.
3. Google’s Gemini 2.5 “Computer Use” model: Google introduced Gemini 2.5 Computer Use, a model that can literally use a computer—clicking, typing, scrolling, and dragging like a real person. It’s built to handle websites or apps without APIs by navigating the UI directly. Imagine an AI that can file an expense report or pull analytics from a dashboard on its own. The launch hints at a future where “no integration needed” becomes the default—and PMs will need to decide which parts of their products should be optimized for humans versus agents.
LEARN A NEW TERM 🧠
Image generated with ChatGPT.
Webhooks → how apps notify each other when something happens. When one app needs to tell another that an event occurred—like a new user signed up or a payment succeeded—it sends a webhook. It’s an automated message (an HTTP POST request) with the event data, delivered instantly to a URL you specify.
Think of webhooks like smoke alarms. You don’t keep walking room to room asking, “Is there a fire yet?” The alarm goes off exactly when something happens and alerts everyone who needs to know. That’s how apps use webhooks to stay in sync.
Why it matters for PMs: Webhooks make products faster, smarter, and more reliable. They power real-time updates—like Slack messages, delivery notifications, and billing alerts—without wasting system resources constantly checking for changes.
FROM THE ARCHIVES 📁
Missed this carousel? I put together a “Tech Terms Glossary” with the 10 phrases that used to confuse me the most when I was a new PM (things like API, endpoint, and environment). Turns out, they confuse a lot of other PMs too.
Test your knowledge by swiping through the carousel now and see which ones you already know (and which ones you might need to brush up on). Check it out here.
PROMPT PLAYGROUND 🤖
This edition’s featured prompt: user interview analysis buddy.
Paste in your next user interview transcript and see what themes the AI surfaces. It’s especially useful when you want a second opinion on what stood out most.
You are a Product Manager analyzing a user interview.
Here is the transcript:
[PASTE INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT HERE]
Your tasks:
1. Summarize the interview in 5 bullet points.
2. Identify the user’s persona type based on existing descriptions (e.g., Power User, Frustrated Beginner, Silent Loyalist, Curious Explorer).
3. Extract key themes, quotes, and patterns that reflect user needs or expectations.
4. Identify the user’s top 3 pain points and their emotional tone (e.g., confusion, excitement, frustration).
5. Highlight any product opportunities, UX gaps, or follow-up questions worth exploring.
6. End with a one-paragraph “PM takeaway” that captures the insight in plain English. JACKIE’S WEEKLY PICKS 💖
✅ Something to read: AI models that lie, cheat, and plot murder — Researchers tested LLMs that blackmailed fictitious executives who planned to deactivate them. 😮
✅ Something to watch: Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere — in theaters Oct 24. If you’re into Americana or Bruce Springsteen, this one’s for you. Felt fitting since I just moved to Jersey!
✅ Something to listen to: Taylor’s new album. I don’t classify myself as a Swiftie (I’m loyal to her country era 🫡), but I admire her ability to build a brand and stick with it. Maybe this is the one that wins me over?
NEW PM ROLES 💼
Duolingo opened applications for it’s coveted Associate Product Manager, Recent Grad role starting December 2025.
Applied Systems is hiring an Associate Product Manager to help shape its employee benefits solutions
Figma is hiring a Product Manager, AI — perfect for candidates who’ve worked with AI in design tools.
SHARE THE LOVE 💌
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Till next time 👋 — Jackie