Product Fridays

Big news! Sous Chef, our AI-powered app for creative cooking, is officially in open beta 🎉Now, we’re not saying we’re the next coming of Bobby Flay and Alton Brown, but we both know our way around the kitchen. And we’ve always been frustrated by the dearth of purpose-built products that match how we like to cook.So, we’re designing our own. Sous Chef makes cooking amazing meals easier, more spontaneous, and more fun. Take a look!In this episode, we break down what Sous Chef does, how McGill came up with the idea while reading recipe newsletters, and why nailing down the perfect set of features is so dang hard.Also, should we rename the app “Cooking Idiot”? That’s what Phelps wants. We’ll let you draw your own conclusions We’d love to hear your feedback on the beta. Give it a try and drop us a note at [email protected] with your thoughts. 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

Last week, we threw down the gauntlet: We’re joining the SaaSpocalypse and picking one of our software subscriptions to replace with a vibecoded substitute.The people spoke: It’s QuickBooks.We suspect QB has very few fans. Much like other big platforms (e.g. Jira, and increasingly Zoom), it’s tried to become everything to everyone over years — and ended up completely incomprehensible to anyone. It’s the opposite of an “opinionated product.”In this new era of frictionless personalized software, its breadth feels like bloat. We simply don’t need all of it! (And we’re not the only people thinking this. Intuit’s stock has dropped by a third since the beginning of the year.)In this episode, we dig into what actually would be the perfect bookkeeping software for two guys named Andrew (and maybe you, too). We don’t want to spoil anything, but “Partiful for expense categorization” DID come up.Next week: We unveil our creation. Stay tuned. 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

Earlier this week, the NASDAQ’s most powerful software stocks took a massive nosedive because an AI provider published a plugin.It sounds kind of silly, like the (probably apocryphal) thing where elephants are deathly afraid of mice. But the numbers don’t lie. Some of the biggest software platforms around — Intuit, Adobe, LegalZoom — did indeed lose hundreds of billions in market capitalization after Anthropic added a legal research plugin to their new Cowork product.What are they worried about? It’s not just about Anthropic competing with legal software. The real fear is that Claude and other AI tools can help anyone spin up passable alternatives to expensive SaaS products — an era of personal software. Who needs to pay QuickBooks $500 a year to balance their books when an AI can build you a custom replacement in an afternoon?Is this fear justified? We’re going to find out by stress-testing our own software stack. We went through every recurring subscription we pay for and asked: Could we build a decent substitute using Claude? These are our top picks. Vote below to help us choose which one to tackle first. 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

Folks, we did the dang thing. After six years of friendship, three years of consulting together, and 10 beautiful months of Friday podcasting — The Andrews are officially joining forces to create The Andrew Company.(Here’s our official launch video — shot in Phelps's daughter’s playroom.)We have two goals:* Create delightful (and opinionated) products together. We love tools that solve specific problems extremely well — apps like Flighty and YNAB. So we’re doubling down. The Andrew Company’s primary output is joyful products (and podcast episodes). We’re already at work on Re:verb, Bandwagon, and Sous Chef.* Help companies, big and small, take ideas from a blank whiteboard to v1.0. Starting is hard! We make it easy. We help teams turn early ideas into first versions of real products or new lines of business — from places like CNN and The Washington Post to startups like Till Financial.In this episode, we walk through why we decided to join forces and how we worked through our differences as co-founders. This is a big step for us. And we have to say — we’re very grateful to all of you. Product Fridays, in some ways, is the beta version of The Andrew Company. This community, and your feedback, has been invaluable in helping us decide what matters most for our business and working lives.Thanks for being part of it. And here’s to many more Fridays to come. 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

Happy almost New Year! This is a year-in-review episode, but we’ll save you the usual LinkedIn end-of-year pablum. Some things about 2025 were hard. Andrew Phelps shares how he dealt with unexpected business pressure; McGill talks about his “duck months” — calm on the surface, paddling like hell underneath. Some of you might have felt the same way?But 2025 also gave us some incredible gifts. Clarity! Some really important work! And of course, this podcast and community. You are one of the best things that happened this year. Thank you for being with us.On to 2026. We’ve got predictions for the year, and we’re doing our best Polymarket impression and applying confidence intervals to each. For instance, we’re 90% sure that if you listen and leave a review on Apple Podcasts, we’ll write you a personalized limerick. But we’re only 10% sure our poetry will be any good.Mentioned in this episode:Honestly, so many things, but here are some of the more unusual suspects:* MS NOW (née MSNBC)* Parent company Versant* The Walt Disney Company* Nano Banana Pro* And ofc Gemini/ChatGPT/Claude et al* Perplexity* That time Phelps’ flight almost crashed 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

Phelps has been building something for the past month. It’s inspired him — maybe more than any side project in recent memory. And it just suffered a setback that has him wondering if he should keep going on at all.McGill has been building something for the past year. It started out promising. Then it got hard. Somewhere along the way, he set it down. Now he’s looking for the inspiration to see it through.Sometimes you just gotta wear all black and turn all the lights off and record your podcast in the dark. Because as much as we’d like everything to follow the Golden Roadmap™️, building products isn’t linear. Today, the Andrews break down what to do when things feel stuck – or just suck. And spoiler alert: BOTH of those projects are getting built, folks.Mentioned in this episode:* Bandwagon. Group chats with AI. Sign up for the private beta!* Sous Chef. Win Thanksgiving this year.And the too-expensive-to-actually-buy items topping The Andrews’ holiday wishlist this year:* reMarkable Paper Pro * Sony ZV-E10 II camera* Switch 2 (actually this feels attainable)* And will this be the year McGill buys one of the Meta VR headsets?Today’s limerick recipient: Nonita Juanita. Thanks NJ! 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

Our last PF conversation left us hungry for more. Sure, it’s great to hear how two chaotic coders — er, talented thought leaders — are using AI to build products. But what about genuinely top-tier engineers? Are their lives any different?So we asked two elite developers — both named Andrew, of course — to weigh in. Please welcome:* Andrew Briz, editorial director of newsroom engineering at POLITICO* Andrew Milligan, full-stack engineer at Earth GenomeBriz and Milligan are the fellas that other engineers call when they can’t figure out why their code is crashing. (McGill definitely did when they all worked at POLITICO together). In this episode, we discuss:* The tools they’re using (and what they think is overhyped)* How AI is changing how they collaborate with other engineers* The “Google Maps” effect, or how relying on technology always comes with a costPlus, we read TWO original limericks honoring listeners who left reviews on Apple Podcasts. (If you want your own, write a review!)Mentioned in this episode:* Zed – open-source code editor* Cursor* Cursor bug bot* Codex 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

A note from The Andrews: Hey! It would help us a lot if you would review Product Fridays on Apple Podcasts (even if you don’t like us). It’s basically like giving us money. If you do, we’ll immortalize you in a limerick on the next show.AI is changing software development — duh! But while no-code platforms like Replit and Lovable have gotten a lot of attention, most of the magic is happening when developers partner with AI instead.That means instead of ditching the IDE altogether, they’re using tools like Claude Code and Cursor to make engineering plans, debug code, and bang through all the boring scaffolding no one wants to do. This week on Product Fridays, we pull back the curtain on our own coding workflows, explaining how a project goes from idea to production. And we argue this style of hands-on vibecoding is more productive than using no-code platforms — even if you don’t know much code at all.We’ll cover:* How we use ChatGPT and Claude to think through architecture* How we use Cursor and Visual Studio Code (with Claude) to write the code* How AI makes it hard to resist laziness…* … and how it’s an awesome tutor, tooDiscussed in this episode:* Replit* Lovable* Cursor* Claude Code and Visual Studio Code* Paradise on Hulu* Snickers candy bars 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

A programming note: We’re now releasing Product Fridays on Mondays. We know, we know, Friday is right there in the name. But Friday is the vibe, you see. And Monday turns out to be a better day to release podcasts.OpenAI’s latest product, ChatGPT Pulse, automatically compiles a personal news digest from your email, calendar, and across the web. It’s convenient, addictive — and a little terrifying if you work in media. Because in this world, the reporter still digs up the facts, but the reader never actually reads their words. The AI does the writing instead.This week on Product Fridays, we ask: What happens when the machines become the primary consumers of journalism?We draw a distinction between “bespoke” media — the creators and publications you seek out for their voices (The Atlantic, Substack, the McElroys) — and “commodity” news, where the value lies in facts, not style. The former might survive as personality-driven brands. The latter risks becoming raw material for AI.Or is there a third way? Consider a new model that lets publishers feed high-quality reporting directly to LLMs and get paid for it. Enter MCP, a universal protocol that allows language models to securely talk to other systems. Imagine paying a few dollars to add CNBC, The Economist, or the AP directly to your personalized feed.It’s a hopeful idea: reconnecting readers, machines, and journalists in a way that rewards everyone. But unless news organizations adapt fast, ChatGPT could do to media what Apple News, Google, and Facebook already did, only faster.And hey, we’ve got a request. We’re asking our readers/viewers/listeners to leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. As thanks, we will write a personalized limerick for every review — and read it on the next episode. Win-win-win-win-win-win-win!Mentioned in this episode:* Introducing ChatGPT Pulse* Model Context Protocol (MCP)* The McElroy Family 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 McGill shares a new demo he’s been working on — an AI-powered interior design assistant called Zhuzh — and wonders aloud: if this is just ChatGPT with a prettier interface, what’s the point? But maybe that is the point.We go deep on:* Why good UI still matters in the age of LLMs* How purpose-built tools outshine general-purpose chat for many use cases* Where wrapper apps land on the spectrum of AI product value* The difference between novelty and utility* What makes an AI idea ChatGPT-proofPlus, honorable mentions: personalized podcast feeds, offline LLMs, and the dream of an air-gapped house AI.We also commit to launching a small wrapper app of our own before the next episode. What should we make? Tell us in the comments.Mentioned in the episodeHere are the products and articles we talked about (links TBD):* Zhuzh, Andrew McGill’s AI-powered interior design demo* OpenAI usage study (700M weekly active users)* Flighty (flight tracking app)* Renovate AI (home design tool)* Post AI (Washington Post’s chatbot experiment)* Notebook LM by Google* Huxe (new personalized podcast app from former Notebook LM team)* Ollama (run local LLMs)* Reins (GUI app for local model management) 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've returned from our summer break, and Phelps is ALREADY trying to get back on Island Time by outsourcing the entire podcast to AI voice clones.Seriously, text-to-speech is one of those sneaky technologies that has gotten amazingly better in the last year. Gone are the days of stilted, Siri-esque robot voices mispronouncing your name. AI voice bots can now speak fluidly, emote realistically — and chortle?This week, we messed around in ElevenLabs to explore the boundaries of this tech. Listen for:* An uncannily good simulacrum of McGill’s Philly accent;* Bootleg fairytale podcasts for 5-year-olds;* Some options for Product Friday’s new theme song, inspired by 90s hip-hop and death metal.You liking this?Yay! Tell a friend.And believe it or not, doing fun projects with technology is actually how we make a living. If there’s a project you’ve been dying to start, or if you just want to get to know us better, we’d love to chat. 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

It’s Friday, and Andrew McGill is a deflated car dealership arm-waving balloon of a human being.So this week, we take it easy… and build a bracket to determine the very best utility app on our phones. OK, so it wasn’t easy at all.Eight apps enter. The losers are deleted from the world. Forever!!!In this bracket:* YouTube – universal video hub* TikTok – short-form video juggernaut* Instagram – photos, Reels, DMs* Spotify – music and podcasts* Google Maps – navigation & local search* Amazon Shopping – everything store in your pocket* WhatsApp – encrypted messaging & calls* Gmail – go-to email clientDo you disagree with our pick of The One App To Rule Them All? We DARE you to throw down with us in the comments.And if you like this bracket thing… tell us! Frankly, we had a ton of fun and we’re considering making it a more regular thing. But if it sucks, you know, break the news to us. But gently. 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

Google owns the open web. If your website isn’t Googleable or doesn’t work in Chrome, it doesn’t exist.Search has fueled discovery, traffic, and revenue growth for just about every online company of the last 25 years.So what happens when Google rewrites the rules?In this week’s episode, we unpack “Google Zero,” the moment Google stops sending traffic to websites. The term, coined by Nilay Patel at The Verge, describes a future where traditional search collapses under the weight of AI agents and instant answers.Consider this: one analysis found nearly 60% of Google searches end without a click. And as LLMs like ChatGPT and Perplexity become the go-to for complex queries, the web itself risks being reduced to a training set.This shift is existential for digital media. If your product is information—and AI is doing the reading for your users—you’ve been written out of the loop. No clicks, no impressions, no subscriptions.We break down:* How LLMs have rewired our own search habits* Why Google is shoving Gemini into search (despite how bad it is)* The rise and decline of Business Insider as a case study* Whether the newsroom of the future is just an API* What this means for marketers, founders, and anyone who thought SEO was a moatHow have your own search habits changed? Let us know in the comments. And please like this video if you like this video. 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 we talk about the shifting role of product management—and whether the profession we grew up in is headed for extinction, evolution, or something in between.We start with the data: Lenny Rachitsky’s recent State of the Product Job Market shows PM hiring has rebounded from its post-Covid trough, but it’s nowhere near the highs of just three years ago. Big tech is thinning middle management ranks. And teams are asking: Do we really need so many PMs?We unpack the pros and cons of soft power, the rise of the product engineer, and the arrival of AI-powered super ICs who can make PRDs and prototypes without a traditional team.Plus: Our advice for PMs navigating this new world.If you’re a PM, a maker, or just product-curious, we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. How do you see product evolving?Until next time,—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

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

We all love praise. It feels good! But if a friend gives it to you over and over again, it becomes disingenuous, then irritating. If that friend is a chatbot, it can even become dangerous.That’s what happened with ChatGPT in the last week. The model got too eager to please—so much so that even Sam Altman admitted it had become “too sycophant-y and annoying.” OpenAI rolled back recent changes to the model (and did an admirable job communicating the changes).On this episode, we talk through the design challenges of building a single conversational interface that can satisfy all use cases—and why we want to see more transparency in prompt engineering, not less.Also, a birthday surprise??Mentioned in this video:* OpenAI: Sycophancy in GPT-4o: What happened and what we’re doing about it* Pete Koomen: AI Horseless Carriages* CNN: Why computer voices are mostly female 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 [email protected]. 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 if anyone could build full-stack software just by describing an app in a few sentences? That’s vibe coding, and it’s pretty exciting to fraudulent software engineers like us.In this episode:* Our vibe coding tools and workflows* The long arc of abstraction in programming* Why this moment feels a lot like the iPhone and photography* Also: Is prompt engineering a real job?We also answer a listener’s question about the flawed-but-adorable Playdate, talk about the greatest product innovations of the last 5 years, and debate why AR/VR hasn’t caught fire (spoiler: it’s sweaty).Plus, an idea: Should we do a live vibe next week? Comment and tell us what we should make for a special live edition of the show! 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

Earlier this week, OpenAI unlocked a slew of new image generation features — and we sincerely (and excitedly, and fearfully) believe it’s a game-changer.On the agenda:* How object constancy makes image generation more useful by an order of magnitude;* A demo of how to create a beloved character and use it in a million different circumstances;* What we think this ~means~ for creators and people who value craftsmanship. 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

What if more products were not made to be popular, but loved? We are trying something fun: talking about products and product-making every week and recording it. We call it Product Fridays. This week we talked about opinionated products we like, plus some that we've worked on. (Originally posted as a pilot on LinkedIn.)Mentioned in this episode:* Zoom* You Need a Budget* NYTimes for Apple Watch (discontinued) 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