I’ve been re-reading Adam Grant’s book, Originals for the third time and this time, focusing on increasing output and not increasing quality. Sounds backwards doesn’t it? Most people I’ve worked with in the past want to create brilliant work but what Adam points out is, even geniuses like da Vinci…
Face to Face With the Customer. You can send out as many surveys or do as many focus groups as you want, but you’ll never understand the aggravation your user community is feeling until you’re sitting next to them while they struggle to use your software. Sit with them. Don’t…
There are at least two forces in product management: Agents of Chaos and Agents of the Epiphany. Agents of Chaos state emphatically what needs to be built for customers, without ever speaking to a customer. Agents of the Epiphany don’t know exactly what needs to be built but routinely watch…
Is that people that have a “good idea” (aka, recognize a true pain point) don’t know how to get a prototype in people’s hands in order to test it. Most think you need a developer, a “technical co-founder”. That’s shit. If you can’t write a single line of code then…
Crank out as much as you can as fast as you can. You may think quality matters, but recent studies show that it doesn’t. Quality ideas are a function of a quantity of ideas. Ever sit in “brainstorming” sessions and absolutely NOTHING of value comes out at the end? I’m…
Good design is… Innovative – The possibilities for progression are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for original designs. But imaginative design always develops in tandem with improving technology, and can never be an end in itself. Makes a product useful – A product…
I’ve heard this three or four times over the last six months, not only with ChannelLauncher but with other companies that are getting off the ground in Tampa. Originally my response was (at least when this was said about ChannelLauncher) to defend. “Yes but here’s our approach…” It’s become clear…
In March, Paul Graham wrote a post about the top 7 most daring startup ideas. At number 4 was “Internet Drama” which discussed how video content delivery will be changing consumer’s viewing habits. He also identified two ways that this was likely to play out – either Netflix, HULU or…
In this month’s issue of The Deal, way back on page 48, there’s a discussion of how “Disruption has been rearranging the media landscape…” There’s a brief paragraph “…falling DVD sales, insufficiently counterbalanced by … digital sources like Netflix Inc.” Essentially the article is pointing out a number of sub-sectors…
Still struggling with seeing the need for smart tv’s? They’re cool, have lots of features, price points are dropping and screen sizes are increasing. But that’s not enough. I think we’ve got it all wrong – surfing the web or porting Android apps to them isn’t where this should be…
Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want (Strategyzer) by Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Gregory Bernarda, Alan Smith
Beyond the Obvious: Killer Questions That Spark Game-Changing Innovation by Phil McKinney