Finance gurus love to discuss our assets in terms of monetary value. MasterCard likes to think there are some things in life that money can’t buy, but I believe in a Web 2.0 world, information is our greatest asset:
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Facebook Profile - this is my proxy to the real world. I schedule events, chat, and stalk my friends online, so that my relationships in real life are even deeper.
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Gmail Account - business is still conducted over e-mail and Google Mail is by far the best in its class.
- iTunes Library - I have over 70GB of music ranging from classical, heavy metal and trance.
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Google Reader - I subscribe to over 200 blogs which results in information overload and random tidbits of knowledge that I crave.
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Macbook Pro - without it my life would be full of BSOD’s and restarts.
iTunes (the defacto standard of music) is dying. The future of media will be online. Continuing on the trends of sharing and being “more social” the fundamental problem that lies with iTunes is the fact you can’t share your playlist with your friends. If you forget to sync your iPod, you won’t have any way to access your media library when you’re at the gym.
The cloud is all knowing, and the cloud is great. We are beginning to see a major shift from storing content on your computer, to the web. Facebook is already the largest photo-sharing site on the Internet with over 3 billion pictures uploaded everyday. By hosting your music online, you will be able to share your playlists and access your songs whenever you want, on any computer, on any device, anytime. Startups like GrooveShark and Spotify are already paving the way. Hell, even YouTube lets you create playlists now. Say goodbye to pirating buying MP3’s, and hello to on demand media. Simply search for what you want and then add it, favorite it, and share it.
we are told to live a zen-like life, but imbalance and obsession are what make us great
Despite popular belief, the United States of America is not the land of the free. The free world is known as the internet:
- Information is uncensored (unless you are China)
- Social media is the new democracy. Think digg.
- Anyone can be influential. Re-tweeting is proof.
- You control your own privacy. Facebook is making that happen.
- Scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours. Whuffie is the new worldwide currency.
- LG Voyager = Fail.
- Chinese Knockoffs = Fail.
- Blackberry Storm = Fail.
- T-Mobile G1 = Fail.
- Palm Pre = Fail.
- Verizon Droid = Fail.
The prodigal iPhone killer is non-existent if the industry doesn’t shape up. Past mistakes are being repeated and handset manufacturers are rushing to keep up with Cupertino.
Let’s take a look at the Windows Mobile + HTC relationship. Microsoft makes the software and HTC puts it on their phones, sounds like a win, right? Unfortunately there is no synergy. This is where Apple thrives - customer experience. The iPhone is sleek, application quality is superb, and its plain easy to use.
Companies can pump out feature after feature but at the end of the day the customer only cares about usability. If your TV crashed, or required a million buttons to operate would you use it? Probably not.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. When we develop products, lets keep this manifesto in our minds.
Despite living and breathing the Apple ecosystem (I own an iPhone, MacBook Pro, and solely use iTunes) Android will be the future of mobile computing if Apple doesn’t change their app store policies.
- 3-4 week approval process for submitting changes to an application is ridonkulous (yes, 1 step above ridiculous)
- PR is non-existant because Apple has control over your marketing message
- AppStore is not designed to showcase over 100,000 applications. Only the highest grossing survive
Now lets take a look at Android. Despite the lack of polish, proliferation across different devices, and open-ness will allow it to thrive. This is the pareto principle in action. Android is 80% there.
- No application approval process
- Unlimited marketing power
- Applications are not limited to the app store
Time for mobile hackers to re-strategize.
Writing a business plan is the old way of starting a company. Planning is over-rated. Those who do, are successful. Google launched their product without a business plan, and were completely customer focused. Here is the fundamental problem with most entrepreneurs, they scrutinize over plans and logistics and never end up launching a product.
Release early, and release often.
The quicker you launch your product the faster you can adapt to your target market. Instead of prognosticating in your business plan who your market is - go out there and build beautiful products for them.
simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
— steve jobs
I’m going to cut to the chase. Titles and positions are simply a superiority complex. They don’t mean anything.
During the development of a system the developers should be giving estimates and timelines, not the project manager. This is a very common mistake in software shops. Only those who are close to the code can judge how long a problem or feature will take. Yes, there is pressure from the business and requirements front, but code is code. The role of the project manager is to set a schedule based on the dates developers give.
Shortening these dates results in poor quality, or a missed schedule. It’s that simple. Good developers give accurate estimates. Good project managers make good schedules based on these facts.
This is possibly the first of many lessons in the Sheehan Alam School of Management. Stay tuned.
How many times have you heard from head honchos and “thought leaders” that the most important thing in business is your location? This used to be true pre dot-com era, and is critical for businesses in the food industry, however the web has changed that.
Location is important because you want to attract the best crowd to buy your product or service. Real estate is expensive.
Social media is important because you want to attract the best crowd to buy your product or service. Twitter and Facebook are free.
I like numbers, so lets compare two companies that operate via location, and via the web.
Amazon and Barnes & Noble both sell books. Amazon through online media and Barnes & Noble primarily through regular real estate channels.
Amazon Market Capitalization: $38 billion at the time of this writing
Barnes & Noble Market Capitalization: $1.2 billion at the time of this writing
Now I understand Amazon vs Barnes & Noble isn’t an apples to apples comparison - but the bottom line is this: We can have a vast amount of information we can collect about our customers to analyze and enhance our product offerings on the cheap. This level of granularity can’t be achieved by old business, and is the sole reason why the shift towards online customer experience is so important.
Saving data on physical devices is risky. Hard-drives are mechanical in nature and will fail. If you don’t properly backup your data (4.6 million people don’t), then you are SOL.
The cloud is the future.
Imagine not worrying about where you saved your homework, or how you are going to transfer your music after getting a new computer. The cloud will solve your problems, because the cloud is always there. Data is persistent.
Though the cloud is just beginning to take omnipresence a few cloud apps are already making grounds:
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Mozy - backup your computer online
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Weave - backup your browser bookmarks
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GMail - surprised? Your e-mail is always there, protected by Eric Schmidt
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Google Docs - of course Google is pushing the envelope, all of your documents are stored online too, with the ability to edit data offline.
Why back up to the cloud and not your own personal backup drives? Well for one, large companies like EMC and Google who host cloud infrastructures have real engineers who will fix servers when they go down. They ensure quality, reliability and your uptime. With deep pockets they make sure your data is protected.
On demand service is the name of the game. The more gigabytes you consume the more you will pay. Amazon EC2 is a good example of a company who has learned to monetize the cloud.
Whether you are in IT, or you are a consumer - the cloud is all knowing, the cloud is great.
Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.
— Isaac Asimov
I was recently sitting in an important meeting, because all meetings are important :), where a phone that wasn’t silenced started to go off across the room. My colleague fumbled around to find the silencer, thinking it was a switch somewhere on the phone, only to find he had to hold down a number on the keypad to mute it. My colleague was unsuccessful in silencing his phone because he hit the 5 button instead of the 9 button since there were no indications otherwise. Getting pretty nervous as his phone was still ringing, he decided he would make a last ditch effort by turning the phone off. I saw a sigh of relief, and then a moment of shock, as the phone proceeded to play the shutdown chime right before turning off.
This is a horrible user experience.
Users should not have to think about using your product
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Buttons should be clear.
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Indications should be made to let the user know the product is still working, and working correctly.
- When a product doesn’t work, it should fail gracefully
- The user should expect every interaction, and the outcome of an interaction
Bottom line - your product should be so damn easy to use that the user can expect the unexpected. Think about it.
Getting things done is all about focus. If you have to multi-task you already lose track of your goal no matter how many multi-core processors are in your head.
The prodigal to-do list has evolved since the days of sticky notes. Today we have lists that live on your desktop, on the web, and in our phones. All that sync and play nicely with each other.
Whether you use Evernote, or GMail Tasks, or another weapon of choice, the key to getting things done is to have everything in one place. I’m talking e-mail, calendar, and notes on the same screen, in the same app. When you’re not at your desk, make sure you can take notes on your phone and have it sync back up. This way you are always connected and in a recursive loop, with yourself.
Try it. You’ll be 10x more productive. If not, come hound me and I’ll buy you a coffee while you lecture me on how much you can get done.
Mobile technology is hot.
Apple and the iPhone are bringing what was once only for the geeks to your every day consumer. Now that your grandma knows how to use an iPhone, you instantly have a new target demographic. Every handset manufacturer is trying to copy the iPhone with touch screen capabilities and easy to use interfaces.
This is great news.
As mobile software becomes easier to use, the more people will adopt it. The additional supply in handsets will commoditize prices, and make buying phones cheaper every year.
Entreprenuers need to utilize this growing space. There is lots of room for innovative technologies to be developed. Taking what was once on the desktop and replicating it on the phone increases productivity tenfold. Everyone carries their cell phone in their pocket. You want your brand to be in your customers pocket.
