Thoughts on technology, marketing and entrepreneurship.
From Steve Blank‘s Four Steps to the Epiphany:
The difference between winners and losers is simple. Products developed with senior management out in front of customers early and often – win. Products handed off to a sales and marketing organization that has only been tangentially involved in the new Product Development process lose. It’s that simple.
Categories: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups.
…from a business perspective, account limits like Basecamp has for the number of active projects can be a double-edged sword. On one hand it’s an opportunity to upgrade customers and have them pay you more money each month. On the other hand, it forces customers to revise their position, and if you’re not doing a really great job, it can prompt them to question the value of an account they may have otherwise carried on using for years.
(via Moving from Basecamp to ActiveCollab — All in the head)
Categories: Marketing.
Respect your customers, but gently introduce them to a better product:
Oskar’s didn’t just bring in its own selection of hand-crafted brews, though; the tap line includes draughts from competitors, such as Left Hand and New Belgium. “We’re all about promoting great beer in general,” Gray said. “Introducing craft beer to the consumer is so important to us. When someone orders a Coors Light, we serve it with a 3-ounce sample of Mama’s Little Yella Pils.”
(via 43 beers and a Cajun Creole menu | Boulder County Business Report)
Categories: Marketing.
‘‘Organisations will start this year to get less obsessed about what site they’re on and focus more on whether the content they’re producing or the interactivity, especially around customer service, is engaging.”
(via The Post.ie)
Categories: Social Media.
Those who are worried that the iPad will cut into sales of the iPod Touch or the MacBook are the same people who worried that McDonald’s (MCD) chicken nuggets would cut into hamburger sales. Successful expansion into new categories is always a good thing. Apple did it. They created a new category within the mobile Internet tsunami.
(via Four Ways Apple Beat iPad Expectations — Seeking Alpha)
and
Apple’s not actually selling a computer. Or a flash drive or multitouch. They needed to make those things for their product, but that’s not what the product is. The product is, simply put, a magical screen that can do anything you ever want it to, no matter what that is.
(via This is why it’s worth learning about advertising, by Rory Marinich)
This is the time of year when everyone gives their predictions for the upcoming year. I usually shy away from this for the simple reason that if I could accurately predict anything I’d be much wealthier.
That said, there is one trend that I believe will truly take shape in 2010 the way it has been predicted for many years now: mobile web browsing.
For years (and I mean this literally), the mobile web was going to be the next big thing. I was working on a WAP mobile site almost 10 years ago. Back then, smartphones were a rarity and mobile web browsing was not even remotely easy to use.
It seems that every year since then, a pundit has proclaimed this to be the year of the mobile web. What has always prevented this has been the penetration of capable mobile devices. Coming into 2010 though, I think we’re closer than ever. We’re finally seeing the beginning of ubiquitous mobile web browsing.
The following is a quick look at the many mobile devices now with the ability to browse the web and my thoughts on each:
Continued…
Categories: Mobile.
Peter Michaud on the secret about writing:
If you’ve never written anything thoughtful, then you’ve never had any difficult, important, or interesting thoughts. That’s the secret: people who don’t write, are people who don’t think.
Categories: General.
I upgraded my MacBook Pro (February 2007 model) to Snow Leopard last week and I’m just starting to finish finding all the small issues as well as improvements. Here’a a brief overview of what I’ve found so far for anyone considering the upgrade.
Improvements
Issues
Summary
Overall the upgrade was painless and left me with a somewhat snappier laptop. Most users are also likely to find the improvements are nice, but relatively small and not terribly noticeable. Eventually most Mac users will have to upgrade to take advantage of forthcoming software, but I feel the majority have no need to rush to install Snow Leopard.
If you do decide to upgrade, Amazon has Snow Leopard for only $25.
Categories: Apple.
Two recent articles report that business owners and the self-employed are the most happy in their occupations. The results are from a Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index poll data.
The findings, psychologists say, reflect the importance of being free to choose the work you do and how you do it, the way you manage your time, and the way you respond to adversity. Regardless of occupational field, the survey suggests that seeking out enjoyable work and finding a way to do it on your own terms, with some control over both the process and the outcome, is likely for most people to fuel satisfaction and contentment.
“Despite the recession, it still pays to be your own boss,” says Frank Newport, editor in chief of the Gallup Poll. The survey, adds John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, “reaffirms my view that the more control you have over your work, the happier you are.”
Bingo. I love going to work each day and I think a large portion of this feeling is the knowledge that virtually everything is up to me. Succeed or fail, I have direct influence on every aspect of my career.
Categories: Entrepreneurship, Startups.
It makes me feel better about my own marketing efforts to read that Steve Jobs and Apple had trouble with the initial marketing of the iPod Touch:
“Originally, we weren’t exactly sure how to market the Touch. Was it an iPhone without the phone? Was it a pocket computer? What happened was, what customers told us was, they started to see it as a game machine,” he said. “We started to market it that way, and it just took off. And now what we really see is it’s the lowest-cost way to the App Store, and that’s the big draw. So what we were focused on is just reducing the price to $199. We don’t need to add new stuff. We need to get the price down where everyone can afford it.”
(via NY Times)
