“Design thinking is a methodology for creating products, services and experiences where you put your target customer at the center of your development process,” explains Jeremy Korst of GBH Insights. “To be successful, it’s vital that marketing play a strategic role in shaping the product strategy. Together with the design and engineering team, marketers should constantly be seeking to better understand target customers and put their needs at the center of the product development process. Making this leap isn’t easy. But, for marketers who have long yearned to have a more strategic role in product strategy, this new way of thinking provides a fertile opportunity to play a bigger role in the up-stream process.”

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TikTok introduces new parental controls. The short-form video-sharing app yesterday announced a new set of safety controls to let parents set limits on their children’s use of the TikTok mobile app. Dubbed “Family Safety Mode,” the new features include screen-time management controls, limits on direct messages, and a restricted mode that limits inappropriate content. According to TikTok, parents who want to enable Family Safety Mode must first create their own account on the app, which is then linked to the teen’s account. While these features were already available in the app for users to set for themselves, the Family Safety Mode gives parents the ability to toggle controls on or off while preventing the settings from being changed without parents’ involvement.

LinkedIn launches a handy profile feature. LinkedIn is rolling out a new profile element that lets users showcase key achievements and updates in a separate ‘Featured’ section at the top of their LinkedIn profile. According to LinkedIn, “The Featured section allows you to showcase samples of your work to people who view your LinkedIn profile. This is a great way to provide evidence of your skills and experience.” It’s a significant addition to LinkedIn, giving professionals more ways to show off skills, competencies, achievements, services and more. 

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Some Staples stores in Boston are getting podcast studios – The Verge

50 Stats Showing The Power Of Personalization – Forbes

Pinterest Pins Its Growth Prospects On SMBs And DTCs – AdExchanger

Amazon researchers train AI to rewrite queries for better spoken language understanding – VentureBeat

Apple Wants to Stop Publication of ‘App Store Confidential’ Book Due to Inclusion of ‘Business Secrets’ – MacRumors

Australia Has 17 Million Facebook Users And Seven Facebook Fact Checkers – BuzzFeed