Content
Wednesday 5 August 2009
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Collaboration
I really enjoyed this article and presentation. The analogies and responsibilities are one’s I find compelling. Major Kudos to Netflix if they can enact the ideals as practice, but I like the approach of explaining clearly what’s important to them. Perhaps this is why my interactions with their Web site and staff have been so easy.
Read the article on TechCrunch
We used to build similar decks using a jazz group as the metaphor: every player has the responsibility to become deeply literate in music theory, song forms and to highly develop their listening, improvisation and adaptation skills.
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2009-08-05 ::
scottilevy
Wednesday 5 August 2009
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Collaboration + Learning + Product Development
When I first made the transition from playing music professionally to the corporate world, it was with the specific goal of helping people work together through the Web. The skill sets I had from music were not unlike engineering – and I had a long history with computers dating from seventh grade, when I began getting as deep as I could into their guts. I had also developed specific collaboration and sales skills from having to book gigs, run and be a part of bands, and project management from working on some festivals in Austin.
My subsequent journey into “information technology” (sorry I am not going to treat it as a proper noun) has been interesting. One major thing I have learned is that very few organizations possess any effective process for evaluating skills and experience. Another major issue is that traditional company job descriptions, as they relate to technology lean heavily toward silo’d specialization. For example: you are a “front end guy” or a “back end guy” or a SQL Server guy or a C# guy, or a creative guy, or a sales guy. The weakest distinction I have heard – and sadly it is still in use is that one is an “IT person” or “business person”. This way of thinking is crippling to an organization. It is fatal in a startup.
While I have never found such pigeon-holing effective, it is becoming untenable. As I highlighted in a recent talk given to an IT sales group here in Dallas, paper is an information technology, so let’s stop acting as though the company needs a few geeks in a closet to deliver on analyst requirements. Instead, let’s make sure the entire organization sees itself as a marketing function. (Upcoming post on the idea that “marketing” does not equal advertising, but instead encompasses everything about bringing a product or service to your market). As sales people, let’s get as literate as we can in technology. As marketing people, let’s get as literate as we can in technology, as technical people, let’s study communication and design, as a “creative” let’s become fanatical about usability….you get the idea.
The idea that a technical person cannot communicate and should not be expected to is one that slow down an organization. To use football as an analogy, imagine a wide receiver who is unwilling to block (“that’s what the linemen do”) or run (“that’s what the running backs do”). No doubt the wide receiver must focus first and foremost on catching the ball and running routes, but the best player is the one who can run after the catch, and who blocks for his team mates and thus fits into an offensive scheme.
Another analogy: linemen used to be the big slow guys. In today’s NFL, most the linemen can outrun you in a sprint and are probably quicker than you. They have integrated speed and quickness to improve their game. They are not as quick as the Reggie Bush’s of the world, but those guys are some of the fastest most agile humans on the planet. The point is that they have integrated skill sets that used to be associated only with “other positions”. Notice also quarterbacks are getting bigger and stronger and more versatile.
I am going to focus here on programmers, having been labeled “sales guy” then a “tech guy” then a “marketing guy” while I refuse to neglect any of those areas. Programmers at the very least are you religious about one toolset over another? Are you a SQL Server guy who won’t touch MySQL? or vice versa? .NET C# but no JavaScript? JavaScript but no SQL? Learn the tools of your trade as deeply as possible (HTML, CSS, JavaScript AND your app platforms/frameworks of choice) AND learn about sales cycles and for heaven’s sake, learn as much as you can about your customers. That’s the way to get to innovate and drive things.
Non programmers: get as technical as you can. Get literate.
Put another way, don’t punt on skill sets that you think only matter
for other people if they affect your effectiveness or the effectiveness
of your team.
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2009-08-05 ::
scottilevy
Wednesday 5 August 2009
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Filed under
Collaboration
I really enjoyed this article and presentation. The analogies and responsibilities are one’s I find compelling. Major Kudos to Netflix if they can enact the ideals as practice, but I like the approach of explaining clearly what’s important to them. Perhaps this is why my interactions with their Web site and staff have been so easy.
Read the article on TechCrunch
We used to build similar decks using a jazz group as the metaphor: every player has the responsibility to become deeply literate in music theory, song forms and to highly develop their listening, improvisation and adaptation skills.
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2009-08-05 ::
admin
Monday 3 August 2009
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Creativity + Learning + Nonlinear Growth + Sales and Marketing
I have been meaning to put this list up …here is a rough first pass at some of my favorite books. They all have something to offer, even if some have more than others. Where there are more than one author I have only listed the first for now.
Marketing and Product Development:
- Crossing the Chasm – Moore
- Inside the Tornado – Moore
- Marketing High Technology- Davidow
- Purple Cow – Godin
- Permission Marketing- Godin
- Survival is Not Enough -Godin
- Meatball Sundae – Godin
- The Tipping Point – Gladwell
- 99% Inspiration – Mattimore
- The Miles Davis Story
- The Magic of Thinking of Big
Sales & Negotiation
- Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion – Cialdani
- Solution Selling – Bosworth
- Selling the Invisible – Beckwith
- The Secrets of Consulting – Weinberg
- Strategic Selling – Heiman
- Negotiate to Close – Karass
- Any Zig Ziglar
- The Psychology of Selling – Brian Tracy
- SPIN Selling – Rackham
- Winning With Integrity – Steinberg
- Difficult Conversations – Stone
Startups & General
- Founders at Work – Livingston
- What They Don’t Teach You In the Harvard Business School – McCormack
- The 110% Solution – McCormack
- Hackers and Painters – Graham
- The Four Hour Work Week – Ferris
- 1776 – McCollough
- John Adams – McCollough
- The Fifth Discipline
Collaboration
- Emotional Intellegence – Goleman
- Beyond Basketball – Krzyzewski
- Leading with the Heart – Krzyzewski
Software
- Code Complete- McConnel
- The Productive Programmer – Ford
- Virtually any O’Reilly publication
- Virtually any Pragmattic Programmer’s series
- Don’t Make Me Think- Krug
- Designing the Obvious – Hoekman
Other
- The Art of Learning – Waitzkin
- A Timeless Way of Building – Alexander
- Autobiography – Ben Franklin
- Blink – Gladwell
- Freakonomics – Levitt
Self Improvement – too many to name at present.
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2009-08-03 ::
scottilevy
Tuesday 28 July 2009
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Customer Development + Product Development
I have a new metaphor for certain religious zealots in the category of separation of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, sometimes called Unobtrusive Javascripting amongst other names.
Have you ever noticed little kids who start screaming at the top of their lungs when their peas touch their carrots on the plate. I actually have a son who went through this phase. I think some developers have not grown out of this habit.
The general argument goes as follows: you should not mix HTML, CSS, JavaScript. They should be put in separate files. I have gone back and forth on this over the last 2 years. I have tried separating out all CSS and Javascript from the HTML code. You can ask my partner Scott Levy about my ardor during that phase. I have mixed it all together at times.
Bottom line: I think that you get a few key advantages when separating out the different pieces. The primary one is the DRY principle (don’t repeat yourself). Which leads too significantly fewer mistakes.
However, it greatly reduces readability when maintaining the code when you have to look in 3 different places to figure out everything that is affecting the user experience. Where I think it makes sense to do inline CSS is for small layout issue such as margin that are only relevant to one page or section.
Another area I freely mix all three are when I am building GUI widgets that I want to use all over the site. It makes total sense to place the code with CSS and HTML. That way when you are dealing with with the widget everything is clearly visible and get delivered every time when embedded in the page.
So, like most things in life, I believe the truth is in between. Separate out what makes sense, and combine all three when there is a clear advantage or reason to do so. I comes down to using your judgment and knowing why you are making one choice or another, instead of blindly screaming when your peas touch your carrots.
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2009-07-28 ::
willbunker
Tuesday 28 July 2009
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Collaboration
I have spent the last several weeks diving in full throttle to the sites touting themselves as “Social networks” yada yada yada …
I have been curious as to a) their business value to me and b) their social value to me (i.e. how much fun are they). Note: spamming a social networking site with links to one’s blog or trying to fool the search engines into thinking one’s site/blog/whatever is more relevant is not something I think has lasting business value, so the ability to engage in that form of spam did not enter into my consideration.
Here are my current thoughts. They are my own, I make no claim to special knowledge or insight.
- Facebook: outstanding way to keep in contact with your friends. Love sharing photos and the occassional Wall banter. Love that I can hide the spam about who used the restroom or ate split pea soup. Found it useful for promoting a neighborhood event and even a wee little bit of business networking. Yes its true I don’t really know all 300+ of my “friends” that well. I don’t really care the site is fun. Again I am glad I can opt out of all the BS games people send me. Also great for meeting new people. The chat feature is a time suck- another one I am glad I can turn off.
- Twitter: outstanding way to keep up with – and learn about the interests of – some of the people I admire. It is also great way to watch what is going on the marketplace up to the minute. You have to be selective about who you follow and the idea of organizing them into groups
- Yahoo’s various stuff: I only just remembered they have it. Other than the occasional friend who only uses yahoo IM, I never think about it. Still like you Yahoo. Just have to report things as I see them – don’t see it doing anything for me.
- MSN or however its all being branded/rebranded: haven’t looked at any of it since I left the PC that forced me to look at MSN messenger etc a year ago. Don’t see it doing anything for me.
- Squidoo – just started playing with it, looks fun and cool and useful a variety of ways
- Reddit – just started playing with that, looks useful. Not fond of the recommendations I have heard of late from SEO/SEM “experts” that its a good idea to try to pad or manipulate your ranking there.
- Google’s various: Google chat is interesting when I am in my calendar. Because their email, docs and calendar approaches are so refreshing, I will look into Wave…at present I don’t think about it
- Google Groups – one of the most useful/best collaboration tools I have used. It’s not my favorite but in terms of usefulness, I have run kids sports teams and nonprofit events with it. It is outstandingly easy for anyone to use and get’s rid of the flow of emails most organizations and sports teams and schools get into, while keeping everyone informed.
- Skype: love it. have used it for years. Great at closing the distance
- GoToMeeting – for corporate stuff, this is the standard as far as I am concerned for presentations, but there is serious threat from ….
- DimDim – very, very impressed thus far. I need to test it more. It shows great promise for work collaboration, with live screen feeds, audio video and its FREE!
- LinkedIn – the best thing I get from linked in is that it reminds me of people I want to keep in touch with and haven’t spoken to in some time. The recommendations and the resume-ness is nice for branding. Their groups seems decent when the participants focus on truly solving problems or sharing tips, in contrast with the most active groups which seem to be about people plugging their own offerings with faux tips. The latter waste my time and I am considering leaving several of them.
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2009-07-28 ::
scottilevy
Sunday 26 July 2009
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Customer Development + One Good Idea + Product Development + Productivity
One of the goals we’ve had for a long time – and one that its been alternately fun and tough to see Will actually push towards – is the idea of having an idea on Sunday, and delivering a fully featured version by Friday. We’ve been doing this on a small scale for some time, but it the scale I hear Will working on is one that will be significant. He’ll be blogging on that shortly so I’ll let him explain it.
Me blogging about this now is partly a way to get motivated to deliver another web management system using our widgets on a Sunday afternoon. Its going to be a nice site with rich figures, and the fact that we can knock it out so quickly is really a testament to this drive toward being uber efficient AND uber effective. It’s also partly to get me to start articulating more about this offering and why we feel like it meets such a need in the marketplace, but that will have to wait.
The essence of this Web site management system:
- Built in Ruby on Rails – provides a great object based/object oriented framework, system for managing data and a way to TEST TEST TEST
- We leverage well tested open source libraries on the front end to get rich functionality (Dojo.js, Prototype, Scriptaculous)
- We provide rich features from social networking where needed, to document and file management….using well tested open source plugins along with widgets we have developed for our own sites that have been thoroughly tested
- The sites have proactive error reporting that trap any errors (should they occur) before the user sees them and emails us details – for both “back end” errors and JavaScript errors
- Fully tested, standards compliant/validated HTML CSS
- The administrative features are far simpler than open source CMS packages because we don’t confuse the client with anything they don’t need to use. No options, no configuration. We want the UI for the admin to “facebook easy”.
- For most sites we can turn around even rich feature sets within a week, and still have high quality and site that can scale to handle very large loads
Alright enough self reflection, now to get to it.
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2009-07-26 ::
scottilevy
Sunday 26 July 2009
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Filed under
Customer Development + Nonlinear Growth + Project + Sales and Marketing
We had a fun discussion today regarding strategy. For the last three years we have been re-tooling based on our successes with other businesses. The process has involved deepening in our expertise in every area of technology – from databases to the minutae of cross browser CSS, to JavaScript and application frameworks, servers, and storage distribution across the cloud.
We were not slouches to begin with, we did (and do) want to develop our skills to a level few other business models will accomodate. This includes marketing and sales, and how those activities need to integrate (fully) with product development and support. Our view is that the latter two areas are essentially part of the execution of a marketing plan. It will be interesting to watch this idea take hold in business. Seth Godin is already doing some great writing in this area. I wonder how long the idea will take to filter into organizational theory or MBA program….
In any case, we are beginning to focus more on our tightening up our business model. It involves a having process for the “properties” we are developing (Web sites as products) and for making these processes available to clients through consulting services.
One of the exciting next steps will be to focus our blogging. The blogs need some attention, I am glad to be developing a process to give them that attention. So far I have not found great guidance in the area. Thankfully Will is diving into it – a big part of our process for attacking any problem is leveraging his ability and skill doing in depth research and mastering new subjects. It will be interesting to see what reading assignments come up as a result.
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2009-07-26 ::
scottilevy
Tuesday 26 May 2009
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Filed under
Customer Development + Product Development + Productivity + Sales and Marketing
This post inspired by chatting with @myweekendapp on Twitter about Ruby. His conversation piqued my interest because I remember when we first dove into Ruby a couple of years ago, so I am sharing the way we developed mastery of the language.
When we set out to tackle Ruby on Rails we..and Will in particular (props to Will I cannot take as much credit on the content) …dumped a lot of flashcards into YoYoBrain to ingrain the syntax and basic concepts. A huge driver behind the idea of building YoYoBrain was was to be able to learn Ruby and Rails ASAP.
Whatever improvements are needed in the site, the memorization tools works. It is difficult to convey how profoundly helpful it has been to use the memorization tool to develop command of the language and computer science in general. I hate memorization in general…but cannot deny how I was able to “step up my game” based on this tool. The only thing I can say is give it a week or so of at least 20-30 new cards per day , and my bet is that you will be pleasantly surprised. Here are the resources:
From any of those sets, you can set a goal for how quickly you want to learn them and YoYoBrain will drill you daily in sets of 7, plus reviews of what you’ve already memorized that use brain research to make remembering as easy possible. Interested in any feedback..hope they help in any case.
PS use the memorize and review button to memorize.
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2009-05-26 ::
scottilevy
Wednesday 20 May 2009
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Product Development
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2009-05-20 ::
scottilevy