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- Newsletter #4: Shopify's Sidekick, the ability to focus and creative workspaces
Newsletter #4: Shopify's Sidekick, the ability to focus and creative workspaces
Hi there,
I hope you're feeling good.
I’m feeling very relaxed. I recently took a 3-day vacation with my mum in the French countryside, one hour outside of Bordeaux. No laptop, no plans. Just the pleasure of being outside, putting my thoughts on paper and cooking good food.
As much as I love tech and how it connects the world, I very often need to go off-grid and disconnect. In this wooden house in the middle of nowhere - the closest town had 300 inhabitants - I felt at peace.
In today’s edition, we're discussing Shopify's Sidekick, the ability to focus and creative workspaces.
Let's dive in.
Work
It’s no secret: Shopify is very interested in AI.
The CEO, Tobi Lütke, regularly tweets about it, stars AI-related GitHub repositories, and even interviewed Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI.
It was just a matter of time before Shopify announced a new product that would be AI-powered.
Now it’s done.
On July 13, 2023, Shopify launched Sidekick, a personal AI assistant for every single Shopify merchant.
The announcement was made by Tobi himself, on his Twitter account, through a well-crafted video which included a demonstration of the product. How exciting!
Sidekick knows everything about Shopify: development, business support, design, as well as economic trends.
It’s using its knowledge to help merchants in the short term (by completing actions such as creating a discount or editing a theme) and in the long term (by providing guidance and answer any questions they may have about their business challenges).
There is no doubt Sidekick will have a tremendous positive impact for merchants.
However, what I find even more interesting is the impact it will have on the whole Shopify ecosystem. Sidekick seems on its way to becoming an essential piece that all parties will have to take into consideration.
Think about it: soon enough, Sidekick will be able to suggest the best apps to merchants, based on their precise use case. Perhaps even the best theme? And that’s only the tip of the iceberg.
I’m really looking forward to future announcements about Sidekick’s extensibility. In other words: which tools is Shopify going to release to allow us to integrate with Sidekick and make the most of it?
Inspire
My managing director at Clean Canvas, Marcus Seoighe, recently shared an insightful article called “Focus to Win”.
Prior to reading this article, when I was thinking about focus it was in a short-term per task vision: this afternoon I’m focusing on this task, tomorrow morning I’ll focus on this other task.
My focus was also the area I chose to work in as a freelance: in 2019, I decided to focus on Shopify. I said no to every project that was offered to me outside of this space.
At the end of 2022, I realized Shopify was so vast that it alone could not really be considered my “focus”. So in January 2023, I narrowed the focus and joined Clean Canvas to work on a specific topic: building premium Shopify themes.
This article “Focus to Win” really resonates with me. I’m taking it as a confirmation that I’m in the right direction, but also as a signal that I need to add much more depth to my pursuit.
“What focus means is saying no to something that you, with every bone in your body, you think is a phenomenal idea and you wake up thinking about it, but you say no to it because you’re focusing on something else.”
Have I already said no to such a phenomenal idea? No I haven’t. So maybe I’m not as focused as I think I am.
What about you: are you focused?
What is also very interesting in this article is that focus also applies to companies. Companies can lose focus in many ways and, when they do, it opens the door to competitors who can focus.
“Why would you spend any time on your 5th most important idea? All of the energy that goes toward anything that is not the most important thing comes at the expense of the most important thing.”
Doesn’t it remind you of anything?
It reminds me of the article “Important team and business changes” written by Tobi Lütke and published in May 2023. In this article, he explains that Shopify is laying off 20% of their staff to focus on the company’s main quests as opposed to its side quests. And he ends the article with this sentence:
“The most important thing is to keep the most important thing the most important thing.”
Learn more by reading the article “Focus to Win”.
Explore
Something that relaxes me is admiring other people’s desk setups.
I used to just bookmark them on Twitter until I discovered Workspaces XYZ.
It’s a beautiful collection created by Ryan Gilbert in April 2020 and acquired by Loops in 2022.
You can either subscribe to their newsletter to receive new desk setups pictures in your inbox every Saturday and Sunday, or you can just browse their website whenever you feel like it. I chose the latter and have a nice moment everytime I explore it.
It’s so cool to see how personal a workspace is after all. Dark, minimalistic, colorful, plant-filled, bright… They all have their specificities.
You can visit Workspaces XYZ here.
Enjoy.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for reading this edition until the end.
I'll talk to you soon.
Take good care of yourself.
Coralie
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