Lessons Learned – Page 3 – Thoughts by Gary

A new idea or a tuning of an old one

“I think of 6 impossible things before breakfast” – is that only because technology doesn’t make the idea possible or because the public isn’t ready to buy into the idea yet. Imaging if the iPod Touch as we know it today was introduced years ago in place of the original iPod, complete bust.

What happens if an impossible idea isn’t thought worth working on, but someone else does? If they are successful, do you have any rights to the finished product? Is there any way knowing what happened to have had two people think of a similar idea?

When the commercials and associated hype came out about The Social Network, I had no interest in seeing it. Since I have had a couple employees attempt to walk with my company intellectual property to release on their own, I didn’t need to see a movie about the same. All the news was talking about how the lead in the movie got away with developing someone else’s idea and is making billions.

By chance, the movie came on and I didn’t reach for the remote fast enough to not get drawn into it. By the end, I was thinking less about people having original ideas and more about people tuning other’s ideas. If a company passes on a idea, is it OK for someone that works for the company to run with the idea? Big Corp American says no, you where being paid at the time of the idea so they own it. But, how can one be certain that the idea came to you and the company at near the same time due to a global event? Two different people seeing the same need might have different thoughts on a solution, usually enough to make one profit and the other fail.

Outside of the cases where a company says ‘no’, is an employee running with an idea on their own the fault of poor management? If a superior encouraged the idea, would the employee felt they needed to see the project through on their own? In today’s society where ideas are creating Billionaires, more people are willing to risk a company coming after them and will try to see an idea through on their own.

In the case of Mark and his Facebook, he was obviously motivated by attention and not the money. He has or at least ‘had’ a pretty good grip on what people wanted. The direction the group he was working with had an idea but it was highly limited, pointed at a single market. Should Mark have given his idea to the team he was working with, one might argue that they would not have seen his vision. Would he have come up with the idea on his own? The school (at least as represented in the movie) thinks that many people at the school can come up with the same idea since they don’t know the ‘aha’ moment that many may have shared in a class or at a campus event.

Running with an idea that a employer may think they own is highly risky. Even if they don’t do anything initially as they don’t see a profit from their legal expenses, it will always be hanging over the creations ‘head’. Of course, everyone thinks their idea will be so big that they can just pay off anyone that comes along with a few hundred million ‘jump change’. It shouldn’t be missed that the project may end up with a partner that will be tired of the creator down the road and run with the idea they passed on before it was a hit.

There may be ‘no new ideas’ under the sun left to be thought of, but an impossible idea passed on yesterday can be a reality tomorrow… in the right hands.

“We tried it, it didn’t work” – it could be you

In the 80’s, we would propose software solutions for companies to solve their issues. Many times we would hear them say that they tried the solution and it didn’t work. Rather than just move on, we would explore why it didn’t work. More often than not, we found that the full power of the solution or group of functions they needed where not explored.

Recently there has been a lot of press around large companies not getting out of social network marketing as they expected. Comparing the ROI to other media options for marketing, there is a feeling that they aren’t getting their money’s return. A coupon or special offer is pushed out and they aren’t showing up in their stores.

There are a few group buying or coupon sharing services that are hitting it big. These are working because people using the services are folks that already have their heads around using the services. What happens when a person not in that spot gets a coupon in an email for 10% off? They don’t know what to do with it… do they print the email? Do they search the email for a key phrase to use in the store? Do they have to click through to a site where they have to give personal information? If there is a coupon code to use, will they face possible embarrassment in the store when they ask for a discount they get wrong or there are particulars… again, should they print the email?

Not a single item above creates a positive experience for a possible customer. It doesn’t work. It isn’t the fault of the system, it’s time to rethink the whole marketing scheme. This doesn’t mean companies should jump on board with the many folks marketing online how they can sell, their job is to sell a system. There isn’t a ‘system’ that works for everyone. Think about who uses the service being used, now about the current customers. Even though the current customers may be moving to using the social service, their frame of mind is in that social frame of mind… not a newspaper coupon clipping.

Along with rethinking marketing, what is a real ROI? Is money being best spent with big promotions instead of ongoing mentions across the social landscape? Some big names have large followings which can be paid to mention a product. That might build hits but doesn’t mean purchases unless the person was already in a position to buy.

There needs to be a reason for a mention in Social Networking circles. Forget the coupons unless it’s a “50% off everything”. Even ‘click here’ to go to our site for a discount will have very low counts of people willing to go since they know they are being ID’d to the site and followed around… causing them to get more junk mail.

A system that worked in the 80’s physical store days is now proving to be valuable in a electronic social world is relationships. Marketing across other company’s promotions. Your email list is very valuable, particular to other companies. Join forces to do mailings of your products, mentioning other company’s tie to yours. You have a golf club company, you can’t say ‘buy these chocolates too’. But, you have a card printing service, you can mention that including chocolates with their customer card to their co-workers is always a hit. There is no discount involved. The win is that the Chocolate company got a reach they didn’t have before… the Greeting Card company doesn’t give up their client email list but they have people reading since there is additional information from a marketing pitch from them.

Customer lists are literally a reason companies are being purchased these days. Take good care of your lists, organize them with keywords to what the person purchased, how they purchased, if they came in via marketing and if they continue to order.

For movies that I am a Producer for, I never push the movie it’s self. Posts across my circle of influence are about who has mentioned they are going to be at a sneak showing, what is going on in the line, what is going on after the movie showing, tie ins to items within the movie. These all build interest as people can relate to their own lives. There is no mention of coupons or hype about what the movie is about.

This will be very hard for most marketing groups to jump on board with since they are generally asked to show ROI on everything they do. New measurements are required to prove what worked. Rather than throwing away anything that is thought as a ‘didn’t work’ do a tweak to it instead. Drive down the overhead of pushing information out via social networks doesn’t mean firing the marketing group but it does mean that marketing have to be very dynamic rather than six months of presentations to get anything kicked off. Don’t be insulting with social network marketing, but don’t be afraid to try new ideas!

Being all things to all people – Facebook wants more social photos

The trick to pulling this off is to not make a person step through all things to get to what they want. Your ‘super’ service isn’t for everyone, they may only want a small part so you need the ability to see that small part as it’s own world. Could this be where SecondLife went wrong?

The challenge is always to the big service that tries to get into an area a smaller ‘specialized’ company owns. Case in point is the news over the last couple days around Facebook about to release more specialized mobile apps to build their photos areas.

Facebook is known for it’s record quantity of photos being uploaded and shared through their network. Personally, I used to upload a lot of pictures to share with friends through Facebook. Till Instagram came along, which is more about the image than text. Friends on Facebook read the text updates and shared links, images being lower on the list of reasons friends look at feeds. Sometimes images are grouped on the Wall area while other times they stand alone.

I can upload images to Facebook with their current iPhone app. But, viewing them and viewing updates to the text for the images vary in success. There are several apps for the iPad that push they are great Facebook photo viewing apps.

If Facebook is in fact going to lean heavily on the photo sharing crowd to move all their sharing to their Facebook account, will they succeed without treating that as a standalone service? When you think about the Everything to Everyone services you have used in the past, was there areas that you liked. But, after having to drill in a few times found you went there less and less. Maybe your visiting frequency was slowed because others weren’t willing to drill in to see what you where saying or posting.

Even if Facebook gets it ‘right’, will there still be a need for the services that only do one part of Facebook’s big offering? For me, yes. The more specialized offerings have a world of friends all it’s own. Like the few popular photo sharing social networks gaining in popularity, there is little talk and more viewing. No one needs to be a ‘friend’ to share images they took around their local town. There is little personal information so there is less concerns about privacy. It’s a different view of sharing without all the concerns of people knowing what your viewing or buying. Unless of course, you share pictures of those things.

What are all these wooden ‘book’ shelves used for?

We are not far off from needing a new name for those wooden shelves in offices at work and home. There may be some classic books or ‘coffee table’ books that will need a home. But, the shelves are quickly becoming not needed for Instruction/Tech Manuals, Novels and even most Magazines.

Currently, there isn’t a perfect single electronic solution to carry and provide access to all of the needed reading materials. Most manuals are text only so they work nicely on the Kindle. It is easy to search for key words, move rapidly through pages and can even read (audio) most electronic ‘Kindle’ books to you. Black and white images are fine but color and even most gray scale images do not do well on the Kindle.

For color image ‘books’, I turn to PDFs and ePub electronic books, viewed through either my iPad’s iBooks or GoodReader apps. There can be some limitations for getting through the book quickly, but generally search is supported. Color diagrams and charts are usable in these formats.

Lastly is my magazine subscriptions. My wife has magazines she buys that she sells later while most of mine are for research or just for fun. Very few electronic magazines are less expensive than their print counterparts. For me, they are much easier to carry and read on-the-go in the electronic form. My iPad is with me everywhere at the office and most times around the house so I have several years worth of Wired, Photo Pro, Dwell, MacUser, Macworld and StuffUK. Great to have in hand when on my exercise bike every night.

The purpose of this article isn’t to convince you to sell your print books and go all electronic. Instead, it’s a statement that it works for me and my crystal ball says that there are types of books in your life that will actually be more usable if you had it as an ‘eBook’. They aren’t perfect for all books for all people, yet.

Electronic versions are easier to carry in bulk and most carry more ‘features’ than you can have on paper. Wired has multimedia built into their electronic versions (US version is very nice… not sure why the European version has lost their way with weird scrolling mini boxes). Providers like O’Reilly offer very large selections of manuals and instructional eBooks to get me through my work day. Searching a eBook is much easier than trying to remember what page I had read content on later. And the Kindle books play through my headphones as I put my PowerPoints together.

It is easy to tell who is running the project

As a project moves towards a deadline, two things become obvious. Was the project started based on a end date rather than level of effort to deliver. And, if the project is being run by a manager or a Senior Executive.

Senior Executive projects generally start their life as a PowerPoint. Where a vision is expressed and promises are made. There may be some effort quote but the project is still very young so effort numbers are from a call or a napkin. The most important item to note is that a PowerPoint for the project has started the project so there is a “high level deck” that everyone wants to see green.

As the project moves along it hits a few snags but no one wants anything red or they will allow as long as there is a plan to bring the date back in. At the 3/4 point, things will start to look like all of the pages of the deck’s promises are not tracking for the right delivery date. It is at this point that the project will take one of two directions.

if the project has a strong Sr Executive directly leading and reporting greens and yellows in they report out decks, there will be a sudden de-scoping effort of “just what is needed” to service the needs of the business or clients. Hall way conversations start at this point to get people on the side of the “on time” delivery of an altered version of the project. it is important to have friends back up the new PowerPoints that say everyone is happy with what they will get. Of course, they aren’t really and the project will be frowned on in the future.

Another project being guided by a manager level employee is less concerned about the color of the boxes and more concerned about letting people down. It is hard for senior level business people to understand but teams will work very hard on their own out of sheer pride of their delivery.

If given the chance to be creative in the project and being allowed to own the success, the front line project working team members will do what it take. On their own! No money or fame promises are needed. Just the knowledge that they are in control and are being instructed to do the right thing.

There are teams that will start to slice out parts of a project but generally this is frowned on by other team members so it can be short lived. Teams are not instructed to work long hours or over weekends, they just do it. Give them the chance to shine and be ready to call out their successes in the PowerPoints rather than only having red dots and smaller delivered lists.

Of course, this works the first time if the PowerPoint deadlines where anywhere close to being doable. Even a stretch will be accepted. But the next time or if very unrealistic deadlines are set then people start to feel they are being taken advantage of. Do your best to keep it doable and give the team the power to be creative in their solution or methods.

I started thinking about this post a while back. Just recently a friend pointed out the below video on what motivates employees. You may want to take a look.

Posted here with an iPad… just for fun!

Microsoft, win at your own game

Yesterday I saw a post on Facebook that said the individual hoped that Microsoft responded to the new Apple App Store with like. Microsoft, a company not known for controlling rules around software guidelines is going to have a competing store? How is that Windows Mobile app store working out for them? Especially when compared to the iTunes App Store. Here is where everyone gets defensive and starts the flaming, lets work through this before we go there.

Microsoft has as many great ideas as they have bad ones. Not many companies can say that. What they do with their ‘great ideas’ is a real head shaker. Let’s go back to the tablets… they showed us a all screen device (a step away from the notebook with a touch screen). It had one or two buttons. The concept videos really got us thinking about what could be. Then, the hardware came out, we bought a Samsung right away. Just as quick we stopped using it as everyone kept forgetting what all the 10 plus buttons did just to do the basics. Why didn’t Microsoft enforce their vision? Why didn’t they reach out to developers to help prove their concept of ‘no buttons needed’?

The recent start/end of the Kin looked more like a internal company war than a real business decision for a change in product path. Here we had a device that connected individuals to their friends via a variety of social systems. This device really didn’t have to be a ‘teen’ only device, it would have been great for business people that are limited to what they can do socially on their company phones and company networks. For teens, I was hearing a lot about how parents are more concerned about social network time than actual phone talk time, so why not add parental controls? The actual connection charge should have been near to nothing, Kin users will buy phones, services, software and want to interact with other Microsoft devices. Own the market, own the future.

The Kin lost out to the Mobile phone folks at Microsoft. All of the commercials explained that we spend too much time heads down doing things on our cell phones. The commercials were great, with their ‘Really?’ tag, we started hearing it everywhere. The phones started coming out with the new OS and we found that the new ‘big features’ was a home screen that constantly updated with a count of all of the things we are missing and need to look at. Driving people to tap the boxes to see why the numbers were growing. The ‘Really?’ tag has dropped from being used in meetings almost completely now, in just a matter of months.

Hang around any group of people that play games and you will hear the XBox name mentioned. There is still the Wii and PS3, and they own their markets through their unique offerings and their specialized equipment. The XBox has gotten a recent jump in attention through the introduction of the Kinect. The system that allows people to be the controls, it’s a concept that I remember from more than 10 years ago at Las Vegas in the Microsoft and Intel booths. Microsoft finally has it right. They contracted an outside design firm to come up with a snazzy looking device rather than just trust a third party to get it right. Could we see a future of DVR abilities, playing movie DVDs, and ‘other’ entertainment? Maybe… but please don’t think for a minute that the home TV is a place to do social media with a keyboard on the couch, the concept does not work!!

Getting a lot of attention at CES this year is the updated Surface computing device. The table that has the whole top as an interactive touch screen. The device has dropped in size from a big cube of a table like the old ‘table’ video games popular in the 80s to what looks more like a real table with a thinner table top area being held up with legs.

Imagine a world where an effort was applied to the Surface world to drive down costs so it became a common place as an office desk, a home coffee table that knows what is sitting on it and even a night stand (syncing calendar events to the Mobile Phone sitting on it overnight). It would connect and control the TV, what is for dinner, control the house, be the expanded power of the future Kinect, and keep the whole family connected as it talks directly to the Kin in everyone’s pockets.

This isn’t a market area that anyone else is ready for. There wont be a iPad table or office desk. There isn’t anyone that is aligned to control the home central system, always connected to a cloud service which the family shares. All with the Microsoft logo. Or… Microsoft can release a software store of their own, have low numbers, and receive negative press drives everyone to another option in that market space.