A blog post which is so good that you all should read it.
It links into what I am teaching people with marketing and what we are doing with a few clients. And is written by Nir Eyal, a founder of two startups and an advisor to several Bay Area incubators. Nir blogs about technology and behavior design at nirandfar.com.
"Face it; you’re hooked. It’s your uncontrollable urge to check for email notifications on your phone. It’s your compulsion to visit Facebook or Twitter for just a few minutes, but somehow find yourself still scrolling after an hour. It’s the fact that if I recommended a book to purchase, your mind would flash “Amazon” like a gaudy neon sign. If habits are defined as repeated and automatic behaviors, then technology has wired your brain so you behave exactly the way it wants you to.
In an online world of ever-increasing distractions, habits matter. In fact, the economic value of web businesses increasingly depends on the strength of the habitual behavior of their users. These habits ultimately will be a deciding factor in what separates startup winners and losers.
TURNING HABITS INTO CASH
Ever since the creation of the first online media companies at the dawn of Web 1.0, businesses have made money from their users’ behaviors. Early online media enterprises like AOL and Yahoo! sold their users’ attention to advertisers in the form of ad impressions. However, Web 1.0 companies measured themselves on pages viewed and CPM rates, rather than the strength of their user habits. As millions of dial-up customers came online for the first time, these companies were lulled into complacency as their user numbers grew.
Such self-assurance left them vulnerable to attack from social media companies, which plundered their user base as the web evolved. Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, armed with an arsenal of behavioral engineering weaponry including hot triggers, variable rewards, and social proof eventually dominated the Social Web. Upon reaching critical mass, these companies began selling user behavior as well. But unlike Web 1.0 companies, social media proved so valuable and habit-forming, users begrudgingly allowed these businesses to layer personal and demographic information onto their ad units, resulting in increased revenue and profitability.
VIRAL IS NICE, BUT HABITS ARE REQUIRED
Today, at the dawn of the Curated Web, companies must build habit creation into their products and business models. Not only are users inundated by distractions, but acquiring users is also harder than ever before.
Finding new users through paid advertising rarely provides a positive return on investment. And while viral mechanics are still employed, users are becoming increasingly intolerant of applications spamming their contact lists for the purpose of inviting new users to join a service. Viral growth is also under attack as platforms like Facebook, Apple, and Android respond to customer complaints and quickly shut down such tactics.
Relying too heavily on viral growth is also bad for business. Silicon Valley is strewn with the stories of “leaky bucket” companies – businesses that grew quickly, annoyed lots of people, and died. While some of these companies were pure spam, others offered value to users but failed to form habits.
Of course, attaching user habits to a viral growth engine is ideal, the embodiment of the rare “rocket ship” business. However, it is important to note that companies, which successfully create user habits, even without viral growth, can build huge enterprises. I call these companies “commitment businesses” because users become increasingly tied to the service the more they use it. Evernote’s famous smile graph provides the clearest visualization of how a commitment business establishes a user habit. Though originally rebuffed by investors who could not see past the company’s slow growth, Evernote succeeded by betting on habit formation and patiently waited for its users to prove the company right. Other successful slow-growth commitment businesses have similar stories, including Pandora and Amazon.
Increasingly, companies will become experts at designing user habits. Curated Web companies already rely on these methods. This new breed of company, defined by the ability to help users find only the content they care about, includes such white-hot companies as Pinterest and Tumblr. These companies have habit formation embedded in their DNA. This is because data collection is at the heart of any Curated Web business and to succeed, they must predict what users will think is most personally relevant.
Curated Web companies can only improve if users tell their systems what they want to see more of. If users use the service sparingly, it is less valuable than if they use it habitually. The more the user engages with a Curated Web company, the more data the company has to tailor and improve the user’s experience. This self-improving feedback loop has the potential to be more useful – and more addictive — than anything we’ve seen before."
Amen brother Amen. Many moons ago someone much wiser than I (but not nicer) said that the next level of web is to not create - but aggregate i.e. to become not the artist but the curator of the artists. Wise words.
Monday 27 February 2012
Thursday 23 February 2012
This post is all about the only thing that matters for a new startup.
An ancient post by a chap called Marc Andreessen (and if you don't know who he is click here and go doh)
According to him, this post is all about the only thing that matters for a new startup. A big claim from a big man.
The rest is other to him:
"If you look at a broad cross-section of startups -- say, 30 or 40 or more; enough to screen out the pure flukes and look for patterns -- two obvious facts will jump out at you.
First obvious fact: there is an incredibly wide divergence of success -- some of those startups are insanely successful, some highly successful, many somewhat successful, and quite a few of course outright fail.
Second obvious fact: there is an incredibly wide divergence of caliber and quality for the three core elements of each startup -- team, product, and market.
At any given startup, the team will range from outstanding to remarkably flawed; the product will range from a masterpiece of engineering to barely functional; and the market will range from booming to comatose.
And so you start to wonder -- what correlates the most to success -- team,product, or market? Or, more bluntly, what causes success? And, for those of us who are students of startup failure -- what's most dangerous: a bad team, a weak product, or a poor market?
Let's start by defining terms.
The caliber of a startup team can be defined as the suitability of the CEO, senior staff, engineers, and other key staff relative to the opportunity in front of them.
You look at a startup and ask, will this team be able to optimally execute against their opportunity? I focus on effectiveness as opposed to experience (a wonderful way of doing it - ED) since the history of the tech industry is full of highly successful startups that were staffed primarily by people who had never "done it before". (Amen - ED)
The quality of a startup's product can be defined as how impressive the product is to one customer or user who actually uses it: How easy is the product to use? How feature rich is it? How fast is it? How extensible is it? How polished is it? How many (or rather, how few) bugs does it have?
The size of a startup's market is the the number, and growth rate, of those customers or users for that product.
(Let's assume for this discussion that you can make money at scale -- that the cost of acquiring a customer isn't higher than the revenue that customer will generate.)
Some people have been objecting to my classification as follows: "How great can a product be if nobody wants it?" In other words, isn't the quality of a product defined by how appealing it is to lots of customers?
No. Product quality and market size are completely different.
Here's the classic scenario: the world's best software application for an operating system nobody runs. Just ask any software developer targeting the market for BeOS, Amiga, OS/2, or NeXT applications what the difference is between great product and big market.
So:
If you ask entrepreneurs or VCs which of team, product, or market is most important, many will say team. This is the obvious answer, in part because in the beginning of a startup, you know a lot more about the team than you do the product, which hasn't been built yet, or the market, which hasn't been explored yet.
Plus, we've all been raised on slogans like "people are our most important asset" -- at least in the US, pro-people sentiments permeate our culture, ranging from high school self-esteem programs to the Declaration of Independence's inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness -- so the answer that team is the most important feels right.
And who wants to take the position that people don't matter?
On the other hand, if you ask engineers, many will say product. This is a product business, startups invent products, customers buy and use the products. Apple and Google are the best companies in the industry today because they build the best products. Without the product there is no company. Just try having a great team and no product, or a great market and no product. What's wrong with you?
Now let me get back to work on the product.
Personally, I'll take the third position -- I'll assert that market is the most important factor in a startup's success or failure.
Why? (Because the man's a marketing man that's why.... - ED)
In a great market -- a market with lots of real potential customers -- the market pulls product out of the startup.
The market needs to be fulfilled and the market will be fulfilled, by the first viable product that comes along.
The product doesn't need to be great; it just has to basically work. And, the market doesn't care how good the team is, as long as the team can produce that viable product.
In short, customers are knocking down your door to get the product; the main goal is to actually answer the phone and respond to all the emails from people who want to buy.
And when you have a great market, the team is remarkably easy to upgrade on the fly.
This is the story of search keyword advertising, and Internet auctions, and TCP/IP routers.
Conversely, in a terrible market, you can have the best product in the world and an absolutely killer team, and it doesn't matter -- you're going to fail.
You'll break your pick for years trying to find customers who don't exist for your marvelous product, and your wonderful team will eventually get demoralized and quit, and your startup will die.
This is the story of videoconferencing, and workflow software, and micropayments.
In honor of Andy Rachleff, formerly of Benchmark Capital, who crystallized this formulation for me, let me present Rachleff's Law of Startup Success:
The #1 company-killer is lack of market.
Andy puts it this way:
When a great team meets a lousy market, market wins.
When a lousy team meets a great market, market wins.
When a great team meets a great market, something special happens.
You can obviously screw up a great market -- and that has been done, and not infrequently -- but assuming the team is baseline competent and the product is fundamentally acceptable, a great market will tend to equal success and a poor market will tend to equal failure. Market matters most.
And neither a stellar team nor a fantastic product will redeem a bad market.
OK, so what?
Well, first question: Since team is the thing you have the most control over at the start, and everyone wants to have a great team, what does a great team actually get you?
Hopefully a great team gets you at least an OK product, and ideally a great product.
However, I can name you a bunch of examples of great teams that totally screwed up their products. Great products are really, really hard to build.
Hopefully a great team also gets you a great market -- but I can also name you lots of examples of great teams that executed brilliantly against terrible markets and failed. Markets that don't exist don't care how smart you are.
In my experience, the most frequent case of great team paired with bad product and/or terrible market is the second- or third-time entrepreneur whose first company was a huge success. People get cocky, and slip up. There is one high-profile, highly successful software entrepreneur right now who is burning through something like $80 million in venture funding in his latest startup and has practically nothing to show for it except for some great press clippings and a couple of beta customers -- because there is virtually no market for what he is building.
Conversely, I can name you any number of weak teams whose startups were highly successful due to explosively large markets for what they were doing.
Finally, to quote Tim Shephard: "A great team is a team that will always beat a mediocre team, given the same market and product."
Second question: Can't great products sometimes create huge new markets?
Absolutely.
This is a best case scenario, though.
VMWare is the most recent company to have done it -- VMWare's product was so profoundly transformative out of the gate that it catalyzed a whole new movement toward operating system virtualization, which turns out to be a monster market.
And of course, in this scenario, it also doesn't really matter how good your team is, as long as the team is good enough to develop the product to the baseline level of quality the market requires and get it fundamentally to market.
Understand I'm not saying that you should shoot low in terms of quality of team, or that VMWare's team was not incredibly strong -- it was, and is. I'm saying,bring a product as transformative as VMWare's to market and you're going to succeed, full stop.
Short of that, I wouldn't count on your product creating a new market from scratch.
Third question: as a startup founder, what should I do about all this?
Let's introduce Rachleff's Corollary of Startup Success:
The only thing that matters is getting to product/market fit.
Product/market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.
You can always feel when product/market fit isn't happening. The customers aren't quite getting value out of the product, word of mouth isn't spreading, usage isn't growing that fast, press reviews are kind of "blah", the sales cycle takes too long, and lots of deals never close. (This is where some new marketing sits at the moment, Feb 2012, with our augmented reality solutions and mobile applications with goAugmented)
And you can always feel product/market fit when it's happening. The customers are buying the product just as fast as you can make it -- or usage is growing just as fast as you can add more servers. Money from customers is piling up in your company checking account. You're hiring sales and customer support staff as fast as you can. Reporters are calling because they've heard about your hot new thing and they want to talk to you about it. You start getting entrepreneur of the year awards from Harvard Business School. Investment bankers are staking out your house. You could eat free for a year at Buck's.
Lots of startups fail before product/market fit ever happens.
My contention, in fact, is that they fail because they never get to product/market fit.
Carried a step further, I believe that the life of any startup can be divided into two parts: before product/market fit (call this "BPMF") and after product/market fit("APMF").
When you are BPMF, focus obsessively on getting to product/market fit.
Do whatever is required to get to product/market fit. Including changing out people, rewriting your product, moving into a different market, telling customers no when you don't want to, telling customers yes when you don't want to, raising that fourth round of highly dilutive venture capital -- whatever is required.
When you get right down to it, you can ignore almost everything else.
I'm not suggesting that you do ignore everything else -- just that judging from what I've seen in successful startups, you can.
Whenever you see a successful startup, you see one that has reached product/market fit -- and usually along the way screwed up all kinds of other things, from channel model to pipeline development strategy to marketing plan to press relations to compensation policies to the CEO sleeping with the venture capitalist. And the startup is still successful.
Conversely, you see a surprising number of really well-run startups that have all aspects of operations completely buttoned down, HR policies in place, great sales model, thoroughly thought-through marketing plan, great interview processes, outstanding catered food, 30" monitors for all the programmers, top tier VCs on the board -- heading straight off a cliff due to not ever finding product/market fit.
Ironically, once a startup is successful, and you ask the founders what made it successful, they will usually cite all kinds of things that had nothing to do with it. People are terrible at understanding causation. But in almost every case, the cause was actually product/market fit.
Because, really, what else could it possibly be?"
According to him, this post is all about the only thing that matters for a new startup. A big claim from a big man.
The rest is other to him:
"If you look at a broad cross-section of startups -- say, 30 or 40 or more; enough to screen out the pure flukes and look for patterns -- two obvious facts will jump out at you.
First obvious fact: there is an incredibly wide divergence of success -- some of those startups are insanely successful, some highly successful, many somewhat successful, and quite a few of course outright fail.
Second obvious fact: there is an incredibly wide divergence of caliber and quality for the three core elements of each startup -- team, product, and market.
At any given startup, the team will range from outstanding to remarkably flawed; the product will range from a masterpiece of engineering to barely functional; and the market will range from booming to comatose.
And so you start to wonder -- what correlates the most to success -- team,product, or market? Or, more bluntly, what causes success? And, for those of us who are students of startup failure -- what's most dangerous: a bad team, a weak product, or a poor market?
Let's start by defining terms.
The caliber of a startup team can be defined as the suitability of the CEO, senior staff, engineers, and other key staff relative to the opportunity in front of them.
You look at a startup and ask, will this team be able to optimally execute against their opportunity? I focus on effectiveness as opposed to experience (a wonderful way of doing it - ED) since the history of the tech industry is full of highly successful startups that were staffed primarily by people who had never "done it before". (Amen - ED)
The quality of a startup's product can be defined as how impressive the product is to one customer or user who actually uses it: How easy is the product to use? How feature rich is it? How fast is it? How extensible is it? How polished is it? How many (or rather, how few) bugs does it have?
The size of a startup's market is the the number, and growth rate, of those customers or users for that product.
(Let's assume for this discussion that you can make money at scale -- that the cost of acquiring a customer isn't higher than the revenue that customer will generate.)
Some people have been objecting to my classification as follows: "How great can a product be if nobody wants it?" In other words, isn't the quality of a product defined by how appealing it is to lots of customers?
No. Product quality and market size are completely different.
Here's the classic scenario: the world's best software application for an operating system nobody runs. Just ask any software developer targeting the market for BeOS, Amiga, OS/2, or NeXT applications what the difference is between great product and big market.
So:
If you ask entrepreneurs or VCs which of team, product, or market is most important, many will say team. This is the obvious answer, in part because in the beginning of a startup, you know a lot more about the team than you do the product, which hasn't been built yet, or the market, which hasn't been explored yet.
Plus, we've all been raised on slogans like "people are our most important asset" -- at least in the US, pro-people sentiments permeate our culture, ranging from high school self-esteem programs to the Declaration of Independence's inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness -- so the answer that team is the most important feels right.
And who wants to take the position that people don't matter?
On the other hand, if you ask engineers, many will say product. This is a product business, startups invent products, customers buy and use the products. Apple and Google are the best companies in the industry today because they build the best products. Without the product there is no company. Just try having a great team and no product, or a great market and no product. What's wrong with you?
Now let me get back to work on the product.
Personally, I'll take the third position -- I'll assert that market is the most important factor in a startup's success or failure.
Why? (Because the man's a marketing man that's why.... - ED)
In a great market -- a market with lots of real potential customers -- the market pulls product out of the startup.
The market needs to be fulfilled and the market will be fulfilled, by the first viable product that comes along.
The product doesn't need to be great; it just has to basically work. And, the market doesn't care how good the team is, as long as the team can produce that viable product.
In short, customers are knocking down your door to get the product; the main goal is to actually answer the phone and respond to all the emails from people who want to buy.
And when you have a great market, the team is remarkably easy to upgrade on the fly.
This is the story of search keyword advertising, and Internet auctions, and TCP/IP routers.
Conversely, in a terrible market, you can have the best product in the world and an absolutely killer team, and it doesn't matter -- you're going to fail.
You'll break your pick for years trying to find customers who don't exist for your marvelous product, and your wonderful team will eventually get demoralized and quit, and your startup will die.
This is the story of videoconferencing, and workflow software, and micropayments.
In honor of Andy Rachleff, formerly of Benchmark Capital, who crystallized this formulation for me, let me present Rachleff's Law of Startup Success:
The #1 company-killer is lack of market.
Andy puts it this way:
When a great team meets a lousy market, market wins.
When a lousy team meets a great market, market wins.
When a great team meets a great market, something special happens.
You can obviously screw up a great market -- and that has been done, and not infrequently -- but assuming the team is baseline competent and the product is fundamentally acceptable, a great market will tend to equal success and a poor market will tend to equal failure. Market matters most.
And neither a stellar team nor a fantastic product will redeem a bad market.
OK, so what?
Well, first question: Since team is the thing you have the most control over at the start, and everyone wants to have a great team, what does a great team actually get you?
Hopefully a great team gets you at least an OK product, and ideally a great product.
However, I can name you a bunch of examples of great teams that totally screwed up their products. Great products are really, really hard to build.
Hopefully a great team also gets you a great market -- but I can also name you lots of examples of great teams that executed brilliantly against terrible markets and failed. Markets that don't exist don't care how smart you are.
In my experience, the most frequent case of great team paired with bad product and/or terrible market is the second- or third-time entrepreneur whose first company was a huge success. People get cocky, and slip up. There is one high-profile, highly successful software entrepreneur right now who is burning through something like $80 million in venture funding in his latest startup and has practically nothing to show for it except for some great press clippings and a couple of beta customers -- because there is virtually no market for what he is building.
Conversely, I can name you any number of weak teams whose startups were highly successful due to explosively large markets for what they were doing.
Finally, to quote Tim Shephard: "A great team is a team that will always beat a mediocre team, given the same market and product."
Second question: Can't great products sometimes create huge new markets?
Absolutely.
This is a best case scenario, though.
VMWare is the most recent company to have done it -- VMWare's product was so profoundly transformative out of the gate that it catalyzed a whole new movement toward operating system virtualization, which turns out to be a monster market.
And of course, in this scenario, it also doesn't really matter how good your team is, as long as the team is good enough to develop the product to the baseline level of quality the market requires and get it fundamentally to market.
Understand I'm not saying that you should shoot low in terms of quality of team, or that VMWare's team was not incredibly strong -- it was, and is. I'm saying,bring a product as transformative as VMWare's to market and you're going to succeed, full stop.
Short of that, I wouldn't count on your product creating a new market from scratch.
Third question: as a startup founder, what should I do about all this?
Let's introduce Rachleff's Corollary of Startup Success:
The only thing that matters is getting to product/market fit.
Product/market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.
You can always feel when product/market fit isn't happening. The customers aren't quite getting value out of the product, word of mouth isn't spreading, usage isn't growing that fast, press reviews are kind of "blah", the sales cycle takes too long, and lots of deals never close. (This is where some new marketing sits at the moment, Feb 2012, with our augmented reality solutions and mobile applications with goAugmented)
And you can always feel product/market fit when it's happening. The customers are buying the product just as fast as you can make it -- or usage is growing just as fast as you can add more servers. Money from customers is piling up in your company checking account. You're hiring sales and customer support staff as fast as you can. Reporters are calling because they've heard about your hot new thing and they want to talk to you about it. You start getting entrepreneur of the year awards from Harvard Business School. Investment bankers are staking out your house. You could eat free for a year at Buck's.
Lots of startups fail before product/market fit ever happens.
My contention, in fact, is that they fail because they never get to product/market fit.
Carried a step further, I believe that the life of any startup can be divided into two parts: before product/market fit (call this "BPMF") and after product/market fit("APMF").
When you are BPMF, focus obsessively on getting to product/market fit.
Do whatever is required to get to product/market fit. Including changing out people, rewriting your product, moving into a different market, telling customers no when you don't want to, telling customers yes when you don't want to, raising that fourth round of highly dilutive venture capital -- whatever is required.
When you get right down to it, you can ignore almost everything else.
I'm not suggesting that you do ignore everything else -- just that judging from what I've seen in successful startups, you can.
Whenever you see a successful startup, you see one that has reached product/market fit -- and usually along the way screwed up all kinds of other things, from channel model to pipeline development strategy to marketing plan to press relations to compensation policies to the CEO sleeping with the venture capitalist. And the startup is still successful.
Conversely, you see a surprising number of really well-run startups that have all aspects of operations completely buttoned down, HR policies in place, great sales model, thoroughly thought-through marketing plan, great interview processes, outstanding catered food, 30" monitors for all the programmers, top tier VCs on the board -- heading straight off a cliff due to not ever finding product/market fit.
Ironically, once a startup is successful, and you ask the founders what made it successful, they will usually cite all kinds of things that had nothing to do with it. People are terrible at understanding causation. But in almost every case, the cause was actually product/market fit.
Because, really, what else could it possibly be?"
So what do you say on Linkedin? Some interesting facts...
LinkedIn, the world's largest professional network with more than 135 million members worldwide, today released the most overused words and phrases in members’ LinkedIn Profiles for 2011. Some of which I simply love (and some I am sure I use... should I say used to use from tomorrow...!)
The number one most overused buzzword in LinkedIn Profiles, (the place where members’ list their professional skills and achievements), both globally and in the UK was ‘creative’. Here is LinkedIn’s 2011 list of the top 10 terms that are overused by professionals in the UK:
1. Creative
2. Track record
3. Motivated
4. Effective
5. Extensive experience
6. Wide range
7. Innovative
8. Communication skills
9. Dynamic
10. Problem solving
"Banish the buzzword from your LinkedIn profile," says Katie Ledger author of "And what do you do? 10 steps to creating a Portfolio Career". “Competition for opportunities can be fierce and employers are now looking more closely for substance plus style. Use simple language to highlight projects you have lead. Experience has also never been more important. Give specific examples, results and if possible, personal testimonials. Remember to think like a freelancer and really sell your unique professional accomplishments and experiences, even if you are applying for a salaried job".
In LinkedIn’s 2010 study, buzzwords like “motivated,” “extensive experience,” and “innovative” topped the list as the most overused buzzwords. Since LinkedIn’s global membership has grown from 85 million to more than 135 million members since the 2010 buzzwords analysis, that list has changed. Here are the 2011 number one buzzwords for countries that LinkedIn fielded the study in:
• Creative: Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the US • Multinational: Brazil
• Dynamic: France
• Effective: India
• Problem solving: Italy
• Motivated: Ireland
• Managerial: Spain
• Track record: Singapore
Some wonderful cultural differences here - again proving that we may all be human, but we are altogetherly different when it comes to social moments of sameness :)
Also worth thinking about for great marketing too.
The number one most overused buzzword in LinkedIn Profiles, (the place where members’ list their professional skills and achievements), both globally and in the UK was ‘creative’. Here is LinkedIn’s 2011 list of the top 10 terms that are overused by professionals in the UK:
1. Creative
2. Track record
3. Motivated
4. Effective
5. Extensive experience
6. Wide range
7. Innovative
8. Communication skills
9. Dynamic
10. Problem solving
"Banish the buzzword from your LinkedIn profile," says Katie Ledger author of "And what do you do? 10 steps to creating a Portfolio Career". “Competition for opportunities can be fierce and employers are now looking more closely for substance plus style. Use simple language to highlight projects you have lead. Experience has also never been more important. Give specific examples, results and if possible, personal testimonials. Remember to think like a freelancer and really sell your unique professional accomplishments and experiences, even if you are applying for a salaried job".
In LinkedIn’s 2010 study, buzzwords like “motivated,” “extensive experience,” and “innovative” topped the list as the most overused buzzwords. Since LinkedIn’s global membership has grown from 85 million to more than 135 million members since the 2010 buzzwords analysis, that list has changed. Here are the 2011 number one buzzwords for countries that LinkedIn fielded the study in:
• Creative: Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the US • Multinational: Brazil
• Dynamic: France
• Effective: India
• Problem solving: Italy
• Motivated: Ireland
• Managerial: Spain
• Track record: Singapore
Some wonderful cultural differences here - again proving that we may all be human, but we are altogetherly different when it comes to social moments of sameness :)
Also worth thinking about for great marketing too.
Friday 17 February 2012
Ok I did one thing well today - but it wasnt the thing I wanted to do.... so...
At the end (kinda) of a non too productive day - this was an interesting read.
Zack’s Not-So-Secret List of Simple Ways to Increase Happiness, Productivity, or General Awesomeness
1. Get rid of anything you haven’t worn in the past 2 months.
We both know that you should really donate everything you haven’t worn in the past two weeks, but I’ll cut you some slack. This isn’t about throwing away clothes you hate – it’s about getting rid of things that you don’t love. Having excess clothes that you’re never going to wear clogs up your closet, makes decision making more difficult, and serves as a constant reminder of unfinished business. Take two hours out of your weekend, tear everything out of your closet, put it in a big pile and start sorting. I’ll give you an allowance for three nostalgic t-shirts that you’ll never wear again (fraternity Beer Pong Championship shirt, etc).
When you’re done with that, think about the deep metaphor that you’ve just learned and apply it to other parts of your life. Shed yourself of activities, TV shows, people, work, and other obligations that you don’t love. You’ll feel lighter without a life that’s cluttered with fluff, and you’ll quickly fill those voids with meaningful things (you can think of me as a modern-day Mr. Miyagi, Daniel-san).
2. If something takes less than 2 minutes to do, do it immediately.
This is my favorite way to improve personal productivity. Whenever you encounter a task/obligation that requires less than 2 minutes of your time, just do it now. You’ll be amazed as how much this will reduce stress – both because you have less to remember and because you have a higher personal output.
3. Schedule a dinner with a group of 5 or more friends.
It’s actually scientifically proven that people who have dinner in groups of 5 or more at least once per week are happier than people who don’t. Planning an event yields more return than just the event itself – the anticipation of the event gives you something to look forward to. It takes less than 2 minutes to send an email, so you have to do this one right away. (this one I have done - so going out sunday)
4. Make a donation.
$5, $10, $50, $100. Whatever you can afford. If you don’t do this often, you’ll be surprised at how great it feels. I recommend checking out the charity first to see what percentage of your donation actually makes it to the end of the line – vs. being eaten up by big salaries, expensive fundraisers, and general wastefulness.
If you want some instant impact, give $20 to the next homeless person you see.
5. Practice saying “no.”
I had a friend in high school, Taylor, who had perfected the art of the “no.” When he didn’t want to do something, he’d look you in the face and respond, “I’d ’bout rather shoot myself in the face than do that.” I don’t recommend trying approach without a thick Southern accent, which has the magical power of making rude comments sound hilarious and acceptable.
Most people I know – myself included – get roped into doing things that they really don’t want to do. Saying “no” is liberating – stop giving automatic “yes” responses or, even worse, delaying the inevitable “no” by telling someone you’ll get back to them. If you aren’t instantly drawn to something, try a response like this: “I have plans that day, so I won’t be able to make it. If something changes, I’ll be sure to let you know.”
I wish I had done this rather than been so nice.... especially today!!!
6. Stop sending open ended emails.
I used to send emails that said things like ”is that shirt available in black, red, or blue?” The other person responds with the answer and thus starts the email chain. Eliminate all this superfluous nonsense with a more comprehensive email that gives instructions for the reasonable contingencies: “I’m looking for a shirt in size medium. My favorite colors are black, red, and blue – in that order. If one of those is in-stock, please create an order, respond with the order number and your phone extension, and I will call you this evening with my credit card number and shipping information. If none are available, please let me know the estimated lead time and email me when it becomes available.” BAM. One and done.
Methods like this allow me to run two automated companies and only work a few hours per week. (which is my plan .... so great work - very Tim Ferris)
7. Use self-scheduling software.
Most people waste an inordinate amount of time scheduling meetings, dinners, family get-togethers, dates, conference calls, and other events. Self-scheduling software, like TimeTrade, is all web-based and most offer free 30-day trials – they allow you to block off parts of your schedule for personal time, work, etc, and your friends/family/blind dates can choose available time slots. This eliminates all the back-and-forth of trying to find a time that works for both of you, and has the added bonus of making you look really important (you may want to consider exaggerating other exciting aspects of your life if a self-scheduling calendar is completely incongruent with your general image). In case you lead an underwhelming social life, be sure to block off a bunch of nights before sending a completely empty calendar to a potential date.
When you’re trying to get a group together, like for Tip #3, try a poll-based scheduling software like Doodle. This allows you to pick a few dates and ask a group of people which date works best.
8. Start one day per week off right.
Remember how much energy you had in high school? Yeah, well that’s because your parents cooked you decent food, you slept normal hours, and you didn’t drink your face off during the week (well, not as often as you do now, at least). Food and sleep are fuel for your body – put crude oil in your car and see how it runs.
Try doing this one day per week and you’ll be blown away at how great you feel – you’ll get more done on that day than the other days combined:
Get in bed at 9:30 and set your alarm for 6:30 – then leave your alarm clock or phone across the room so you actually wake up. In the morning, throw on some sweats and take a brisk 15 minute walk (if it’s cold out, watch Rocky IV the night before to prevent whining). Eat three eggs and have coffee or tea as normal – but leave out the toast, cereal, sugar, juice, and other garbage you usually consume in the morning. Have trouble sleeping? Try 3mg of melatonin an hour before bed. If you drink coffee out of a fire hose like I do, PharmaGABA can help you from grinding your teeth out of your skull.
For extra credit, add some sort of weightlifting routine – I’m partial to kettlebells, but then again, I own a kettlebell company.
9. Know your instrument.
A mentor said this to me and it stuck. The most incredible tool you’ll ever own is your body and, if you want to maximize your effectiveness, you should get to know it well. Most people have a “productivity zone” – a period of a few hours each day when your energy level is at its peak (mine is from 8:30-noon, give or take). I forget the exact statistics, so I’ll make something up: 9 of out 10 people in a Danish study showed a 200% increase in productivity when they worked on their most difficult tasks during their peak-energy hours.
But seriously, give it a try. It works. Spend your low-energy zones doing things you enjoy doing, like watching cat videos on YouTube or thinking about ways to kill your boss.
10. Do your work in order of descending difficulty.
If you start your day off with harvesting FarmVille crops or cruising Facebook to compare your social life to people you barely know, this one goes out to you. Start off with the most difficult task first. Most people start off by opening their email and responding to new messages. Responding to emails is easy, and it’s something that you have to do, so it should be left for low/no-energy periods. Tackle your most difficult item first and you’ll always be rewarded with an easier task to do next.
There’s an added bonus – if you only get one thing done per day, like I usually do, you actually have something to show for it.
—
Zack’s Not-So-Secret List of Simple Ways to Increase Happiness, Productivity, or General Awesomeness
1. Get rid of anything you haven’t worn in the past 2 months.
We both know that you should really donate everything you haven’t worn in the past two weeks, but I’ll cut you some slack. This isn’t about throwing away clothes you hate – it’s about getting rid of things that you don’t love. Having excess clothes that you’re never going to wear clogs up your closet, makes decision making more difficult, and serves as a constant reminder of unfinished business. Take two hours out of your weekend, tear everything out of your closet, put it in a big pile and start sorting. I’ll give you an allowance for three nostalgic t-shirts that you’ll never wear again (fraternity Beer Pong Championship shirt, etc).
When you’re done with that, think about the deep metaphor that you’ve just learned and apply it to other parts of your life. Shed yourself of activities, TV shows, people, work, and other obligations that you don’t love. You’ll feel lighter without a life that’s cluttered with fluff, and you’ll quickly fill those voids with meaningful things (you can think of me as a modern-day Mr. Miyagi, Daniel-san).
2. If something takes less than 2 minutes to do, do it immediately.
This is my favorite way to improve personal productivity. Whenever you encounter a task/obligation that requires less than 2 minutes of your time, just do it now. You’ll be amazed as how much this will reduce stress – both because you have less to remember and because you have a higher personal output.
3. Schedule a dinner with a group of 5 or more friends.
It’s actually scientifically proven that people who have dinner in groups of 5 or more at least once per week are happier than people who don’t. Planning an event yields more return than just the event itself – the anticipation of the event gives you something to look forward to. It takes less than 2 minutes to send an email, so you have to do this one right away. (this one I have done - so going out sunday)
4. Make a donation.
$5, $10, $50, $100. Whatever you can afford. If you don’t do this often, you’ll be surprised at how great it feels. I recommend checking out the charity first to see what percentage of your donation actually makes it to the end of the line – vs. being eaten up by big salaries, expensive fundraisers, and general wastefulness.
If you want some instant impact, give $20 to the next homeless person you see.
5. Practice saying “no.”
I had a friend in high school, Taylor, who had perfected the art of the “no.” When he didn’t want to do something, he’d look you in the face and respond, “I’d ’bout rather shoot myself in the face than do that.” I don’t recommend trying approach without a thick Southern accent, which has the magical power of making rude comments sound hilarious and acceptable.
Most people I know – myself included – get roped into doing things that they really don’t want to do. Saying “no” is liberating – stop giving automatic “yes” responses or, even worse, delaying the inevitable “no” by telling someone you’ll get back to them. If you aren’t instantly drawn to something, try a response like this: “I have plans that day, so I won’t be able to make it. If something changes, I’ll be sure to let you know.”
I wish I had done this rather than been so nice.... especially today!!!
6. Stop sending open ended emails.
I used to send emails that said things like ”is that shirt available in black, red, or blue?” The other person responds with the answer and thus starts the email chain. Eliminate all this superfluous nonsense with a more comprehensive email that gives instructions for the reasonable contingencies: “I’m looking for a shirt in size medium. My favorite colors are black, red, and blue – in that order. If one of those is in-stock, please create an order, respond with the order number and your phone extension, and I will call you this evening with my credit card number and shipping information. If none are available, please let me know the estimated lead time and email me when it becomes available.” BAM. One and done.
Methods like this allow me to run two automated companies and only work a few hours per week. (which is my plan .... so great work - very Tim Ferris)
7. Use self-scheduling software.
Most people waste an inordinate amount of time scheduling meetings, dinners, family get-togethers, dates, conference calls, and other events. Self-scheduling software, like TimeTrade, is all web-based and most offer free 30-day trials – they allow you to block off parts of your schedule for personal time, work, etc, and your friends/family/blind dates can choose available time slots. This eliminates all the back-and-forth of trying to find a time that works for both of you, and has the added bonus of making you look really important (you may want to consider exaggerating other exciting aspects of your life if a self-scheduling calendar is completely incongruent with your general image). In case you lead an underwhelming social life, be sure to block off a bunch of nights before sending a completely empty calendar to a potential date.
When you’re trying to get a group together, like for Tip #3, try a poll-based scheduling software like Doodle. This allows you to pick a few dates and ask a group of people which date works best.
8. Start one day per week off right.
Remember how much energy you had in high school? Yeah, well that’s because your parents cooked you decent food, you slept normal hours, and you didn’t drink your face off during the week (well, not as often as you do now, at least). Food and sleep are fuel for your body – put crude oil in your car and see how it runs.
Try doing this one day per week and you’ll be blown away at how great you feel – you’ll get more done on that day than the other days combined:
Get in bed at 9:30 and set your alarm for 6:30 – then leave your alarm clock or phone across the room so you actually wake up. In the morning, throw on some sweats and take a brisk 15 minute walk (if it’s cold out, watch Rocky IV the night before to prevent whining). Eat three eggs and have coffee or tea as normal – but leave out the toast, cereal, sugar, juice, and other garbage you usually consume in the morning. Have trouble sleeping? Try 3mg of melatonin an hour before bed. If you drink coffee out of a fire hose like I do, PharmaGABA can help you from grinding your teeth out of your skull.
For extra credit, add some sort of weightlifting routine – I’m partial to kettlebells, but then again, I own a kettlebell company.
9. Know your instrument.
A mentor said this to me and it stuck. The most incredible tool you’ll ever own is your body and, if you want to maximize your effectiveness, you should get to know it well. Most people have a “productivity zone” – a period of a few hours each day when your energy level is at its peak (mine is from 8:30-noon, give or take). I forget the exact statistics, so I’ll make something up: 9 of out 10 people in a Danish study showed a 200% increase in productivity when they worked on their most difficult tasks during their peak-energy hours.
But seriously, give it a try. It works. Spend your low-energy zones doing things you enjoy doing, like watching cat videos on YouTube or thinking about ways to kill your boss.
10. Do your work in order of descending difficulty.
If you start your day off with harvesting FarmVille crops or cruising Facebook to compare your social life to people you barely know, this one goes out to you. Start off with the most difficult task first. Most people start off by opening their email and responding to new messages. Responding to emails is easy, and it’s something that you have to do, so it should be left for low/no-energy periods. Tackle your most difficult item first and you’ll always be rewarded with an easier task to do next.
There’s an added bonus – if you only get one thing done per day, like I usually do, you actually have something to show for it.
—
Thursday 16 February 2012
On the eve of myself preparing for a new trends talk at NSEC
Thinking about new trends and for me - the most exciting are in mobile.
But Facebook are doing rather BIG things with social (as well as moving into mobile with their mobile advertising - which is a HUGE thing for mobile)
As Vladimir Fedorov reports - there are some wonderful early Success Stories for Timeline Apps and Open Graph.
There should be an app for everyone on Facebook, and people are quickly starting to use the apps you build to experience all of the things they love – shopping, reading books, eating and traveling – with their friends.
A few weeks ago, more than 60 new timeline apps went live. These apps - many in the lifestyle category - broadened what was available to people on Facebook beyond the music, news and video apps that were introduced at f8 in September.
Music apps like Spotify, Songza and Deezer are seeing dramatic increases in sharing and music discovery. People have shared more than 5 billion songs through these apps, and their availability has increased from eight to 50 countries.
We’re now seeing new content discovery and increases in traffic and engagement happening more broadly for companies of all sizes. For large companies, they've been able to scale and re-introduce their products to new audiences. For startups with small teams and a small user-base, open graph has driven a lot of discovery and growth, allowing many companies to double the size of their user base in weeks. Here are a few examples from startups:
Shopping and Fashion
Pinterest: Since launching their open graph integration less than a month ago, the number of Facebook users visiting Pinterest every day has increased by more than 60%. The virtual pinboard site has made it fun and easy to share the items you’ve pinned and follow the boards of people you find interesting.
Pose: The fashion trend and style discovery app has seen a 5X increase in daily web signups for their website and mobile app by helping people share the different products they like with their friends.
Fab.com: The design shopping site and mobile app has seen a 50% increase in traffic from Facebook as a result of their social shopping timeline app and live feed implementation.
Entertainment
Artfinder: The art discovery and collector site has seen a 60% increase in time spent on the site by new visitors from Facebook by giving people a way to share art with friends.
Rockmelt: Rockmelt users are adding 14 new articles every day through the social browser, driving 20% new traffic and new users to the site.
Food
Foodspotting: The food finding and sharing app has seen a 3X increase in number of visits and activities shared by helping people share the dishes they want, try and ate with friends on Facebook
Foodily: The foodie and recipe site has seen a 4X increase in new users by allowing people to share what they crave and are cooking.
These apps have a few things in common. They’re built around something people care about and identify with, they enable people to share things they want their friends to see, and they provide easy ways to control the social experience.
For example, Pinterest makes it easy for people to pin and share items (Figure 1). Pinning an item is simple and has a clear call to action to enter a message (Figure 2). People can also easily control when items are added to timeline (Figure 3). This sort of integrated experience not only helps to generate meaningful content, but also deepens engagement.
But Facebook are doing rather BIG things with social (as well as moving into mobile with their mobile advertising - which is a HUGE thing for mobile)
As Vladimir Fedorov reports - there are some wonderful early Success Stories for Timeline Apps and Open Graph.
There should be an app for everyone on Facebook, and people are quickly starting to use the apps you build to experience all of the things they love – shopping, reading books, eating and traveling – with their friends.
A few weeks ago, more than 60 new timeline apps went live. These apps - many in the lifestyle category - broadened what was available to people on Facebook beyond the music, news and video apps that were introduced at f8 in September.
Music apps like Spotify, Songza and Deezer are seeing dramatic increases in sharing and music discovery. People have shared more than 5 billion songs through these apps, and their availability has increased from eight to 50 countries.
We’re now seeing new content discovery and increases in traffic and engagement happening more broadly for companies of all sizes. For large companies, they've been able to scale and re-introduce their products to new audiences. For startups with small teams and a small user-base, open graph has driven a lot of discovery and growth, allowing many companies to double the size of their user base in weeks. Here are a few examples from startups:
Shopping and Fashion
Pinterest: Since launching their open graph integration less than a month ago, the number of Facebook users visiting Pinterest every day has increased by more than 60%. The virtual pinboard site has made it fun and easy to share the items you’ve pinned and follow the boards of people you find interesting.
Pose: The fashion trend and style discovery app has seen a 5X increase in daily web signups for their website and mobile app by helping people share the different products they like with their friends.
Fab.com: The design shopping site and mobile app has seen a 50% increase in traffic from Facebook as a result of their social shopping timeline app and live feed implementation.
Entertainment
Artfinder: The art discovery and collector site has seen a 60% increase in time spent on the site by new visitors from Facebook by giving people a way to share art with friends.
Rockmelt: Rockmelt users are adding 14 new articles every day through the social browser, driving 20% new traffic and new users to the site.
Food
Foodspotting: The food finding and sharing app has seen a 3X increase in number of visits and activities shared by helping people share the dishes they want, try and ate with friends on Facebook
Foodily: The foodie and recipe site has seen a 4X increase in new users by allowing people to share what they crave and are cooking.
These apps have a few things in common. They’re built around something people care about and identify with, they enable people to share things they want their friends to see, and they provide easy ways to control the social experience.
For example, Pinterest makes it easy for people to pin and share items (Figure 1). Pinning an item is simple and has a clear call to action to enter a message (Figure 2). People can also easily control when items are added to timeline (Figure 3). This sort of integrated experience not only helps to generate meaningful content, but also deepens engagement.
Wednesday 8 February 2012
Introducing Kevin Ryan - you might ask who - but you shouldn't and won't soon.
As a British start-up or business owner, you may not have heard of Kevin Ryan. But in New York, he’s nothing short of a legend!
In this interview with the New York Times, Ryan is referred to as the King of Silicon Alley and his latest venture, Gilt Groupe, “the hottest start-up in New York city”. The respect is well deserved. This seasoned entrepreneur appears to almost effortlessly run multiple businesses and so I nicked this interview off Enterprize Nation - as it has some great key points on how you should approach work.
Product power
Kevin has a rule that none of his businesses advertise for the first 18 months. That way, he says, the company stands or falls by the worth of the product itself. Which is bizzarely what we have done with Great Marketing Works - my training company. He describes it as starting a business with one hand tied behind your back (ie no advertising spend; but this makes the free arm (product) much stronger and not too reliant on the other. Sounds simple/ makes sense!
Customers count
When asked how Gilt Groupe has moved from “a fashion business to a lifestyle business”, Kevin responds that growth and expansion into new categories (menswear, travel, homewares, food etc) has come from customers suggesting new ideas and asking for more. “Customers will come up with good ideas,” says Kevin. “They are well worth listening to.” Which is what we have done with @goaugmented - as we now are moving into retail mobile phone AR applications.
The power of photography
Gilt is renowned for using photography to, in Kevin’s words “make things look better”. It reminded me all over again about the power of imagery; whether it be the picture you use with your own biography (if you are the product of your business) or images of goods you want to sell. Imagery is powerful and top class presentation has secured Gilt thousands of happy customers. Perfect words for a company just going through a rebrand moment - which two of my 'clients / friends' are doing.
Focus on what you do best
I asked Kevin how he manages his time running three businesses. His reply is that he focuses on what he does best and delegates the rest to top teams of people. This completely chimes with our business mantra at Enterprise Nation which is ‘focus on what you do best and outsource the rest’ – or, in other words, choose trusted partners or personnel and let them do their job while you focus time and energy on yours. Love it as was losing faith with a couple of people today - but this reminds me - stay on what you are good at - and outsource the rest!
Experiment and move fast
A message and point of advice that continues to crop up; I heard it a couple of weeks ago from Erik Riesand today from a man who is putting it into practice every working day. “We try things a lot and we move fast.” Indeed, in a recent Forbes interview, when asked for his one piece of advice to start ups and small business owners, “Move fast” was the advice on offer from this man in a hurry who you just don’t want to ignore.
Facebook says the same thing - it's all about moving fast and being lean - even when big - perhaps the UK public sector could listen up, with a couple of personal projects for clients we are still waiting for answers some four months after pitching!
Which reminds me - I had best go ring them :)
In this interview with the New York Times, Ryan is referred to as the King of Silicon Alley and his latest venture, Gilt Groupe, “the hottest start-up in New York city”. The respect is well deserved. This seasoned entrepreneur appears to almost effortlessly run multiple businesses and so I nicked this interview off Enterprize Nation - as it has some great key points on how you should approach work.
Product power
Kevin has a rule that none of his businesses advertise for the first 18 months. That way, he says, the company stands or falls by the worth of the product itself. Which is bizzarely what we have done with Great Marketing Works - my training company. He describes it as starting a business with one hand tied behind your back (ie no advertising spend; but this makes the free arm (product) much stronger and not too reliant on the other. Sounds simple/ makes sense!
Customers count
When asked how Gilt Groupe has moved from “a fashion business to a lifestyle business”, Kevin responds that growth and expansion into new categories (menswear, travel, homewares, food etc) has come from customers suggesting new ideas and asking for more. “Customers will come up with good ideas,” says Kevin. “They are well worth listening to.” Which is what we have done with @goaugmented - as we now are moving into retail mobile phone AR applications.
The power of photography
Gilt is renowned for using photography to, in Kevin’s words “make things look better”. It reminded me all over again about the power of imagery; whether it be the picture you use with your own biography (if you are the product of your business) or images of goods you want to sell. Imagery is powerful and top class presentation has secured Gilt thousands of happy customers. Perfect words for a company just going through a rebrand moment - which two of my 'clients / friends' are doing.
Focus on what you do best
I asked Kevin how he manages his time running three businesses. His reply is that he focuses on what he does best and delegates the rest to top teams of people. This completely chimes with our business mantra at Enterprise Nation which is ‘focus on what you do best and outsource the rest’ – or, in other words, choose trusted partners or personnel and let them do their job while you focus time and energy on yours. Love it as was losing faith with a couple of people today - but this reminds me - stay on what you are good at - and outsource the rest!
Experiment and move fast
A message and point of advice that continues to crop up; I heard it a couple of weeks ago from Erik Riesand today from a man who is putting it into practice every working day. “We try things a lot and we move fast.” Indeed, in a recent Forbes interview, when asked for his one piece of advice to start ups and small business owners, “Move fast” was the advice on offer from this man in a hurry who you just don’t want to ignore.
Facebook says the same thing - it's all about moving fast and being lean - even when big - perhaps the UK public sector could listen up, with a couple of personal projects for clients we are still waiting for answers some four months after pitching!
Which reminds me - I had best go ring them :)
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