1. When are people on Facebook, Reddit, or Gmail? This data dive by Medium’s head of Product Science discovered that the times of day when people read tend to follow consistent patterns each week. 
2. Design thinking has been all the rage for a while. It’s one thing to understand the overall concept, and yet another to change an organizational culture. This McKinsey interview examines ways to create a design-driven culture. I particularly liked this breakdown of four vital elements of culture: understand the customer; employ empathy; design in real time; and act quickly.
3. Facebook opens Instant Articles to all publishers in April. Good news for WordPress users: Automattic just released a new plug-in to post directly to the platform. You’ll still have to pass Facebook’s review process.
4. Farhad Manjoo is all in on Amazon Echo, and writes that the device brims with groundbreaking promise. He points to the way the device insinuates itself into a home’s routine, and has prompted the development of an app ecosystem. After just a month with the product, I can’t say I’d disagree.
5. Motherboard offers a nuanced overview of ways to think about bots. Once you’ve read through the social and policy implications, John Borthwick can show you how to create your own.

Weekend fun:  Take a break from this week’s Game of Thrones trailer to try out faceswapping, high on my list of top ten disturbing trends enabled by the internet. Facebook recently purchased the MSQRD faceswapping app to keep up with Snapchat, and Mark Zuckerberg’s already given it a whirl.

Every Friday, find five, highly subjective pointers to compelling technologies, emerging trends, and interesting ideas that affect how we live and work digitally. Try out the Friday 5 archive, or sign up for a weekly email.