Everything has been thought of, challenge is to think of it again!

Is Twitter’s way to deal with SPAM justified?

2009-05-13T11:17:00.000-07:00

Originally Posted by: objectivemarketer on: May 13, 2009 In: Loudmouth

While, my last two blogs were talking about SPAM on twitter and how unwanted, interrupting and noisy messages can clutter your channels making them ineffective and undesirable to use (woops! too much negativity there!), this new update from Twitter, makes me thinking again!

Today’s notification from Twitter to stop @replies from non-friends, is seemingly twitter’s answer to SPAMMERS. I say, a pretty lame one! According to this, you will not be able to @reply to someone you does not follow you. So, here you go – another win for restriction, another kill for the freedom.

And this is a real LOL situation, because if I am a SPAMMER, I can still send “@reply ” So, what does this policy stop?

Why @reply is legitimate?

In fact, there is difference between promoting Best Practices than disciplining. I can site several instances, where I send / receive @replies to and from folks who I know exist but do not follow as I do not care as much. But, once in a while I enjoy the @replies. And I know for sure, I am not alone. From business point of view, if @replies were not allowed everyone who has comcast would be following @comcastcares and vice-versa. Today, @comcastcares guy sniffs around to see “trouble” and “comcast” spoken in one context. As soon as one is found, he sends an @reply “how can we help you” Once that transaction is over, they do not care about one another until again comcast fails for the user. So, now how does this transaction take place? In my own experience, I once refferred my previous company @strongmail to someone. I received an @reply from an email marketer suggesting another email marketing company. Which, I think was a very legitimate communication. Why stop that? It takes away the complete essence of communicating on the channel!!!

I have never liked applications to be restrictive – specially an application that is on the making of cult – just cannot afford to stop some usage / practices, just like that! To me, Twitter’s today’s step just sounds like a work-around for another problem – volume/usage. Another reason that makes me suspicious is Twitter’s scheduled maintenance downtime – On a weekday, at noon PST [We will have one hour of planned maintenance at noon Pacific on Wednesday. Read more.]? Another wrong indication.

At ObjectiveMarketer, we completely rely on the sanity of Twitter. Your health is our life line. Ask us, if we can help. Please do not give us shocks!

Making Product Decisions

2008-06-20T11:37:00.000-07:00

Recently, I conducted product feedback and evaluation session, separately, with two customer groups. Both the groups had same Beta product to evaluate and worked in same department but on different projects [clients].

During the first feedback session, the group unanimously rejected a major feature suggestion / expressed indifference. They needed more time to understand the applicability of the feature. During the second feedback session, the other group found the same feature suggestion quite useful, or apparently so.

It was very interesting to note how opinions are emotionally driven and how group dynamics work. It was very easy to fall in the trap and accept the second (positive) feedback to be true immediately [without further considerations]. In fact, engineering actually started considering to stop some other development work to fix some issues in this new feature, based on just the feedback an accompanying developer had witnessed in this session.

I went back to writing my report and considered the following driving factors for the difference in reactions:

First Group
1. Had no emergency in their current project
2. Things were working just fine in their current product suite
3. There was no urgency to scale their current client requirements
4. Were a satisfied bunch!

Second Group
1. There was a gap of a week between the sessions and in between, there was a major outage in the same product suit for this group
2. There was a big frustration and they needed some immediate solution
3. The client was demanding / scalability was important
4. Needed much more than what they had to be satisfied!

When, the second group was shown some features that would solve their immediate problems, they were ecstatic. With the already set "happy mood", everything else shown next was considered to be a major improvement on what they currently have and with group dynamics in action, they went ahead expressing positive feedback for all features, including the one that was not quite accepted / understood by the first group.

It was also interesting to note that the second group found just one aspect of this new feature conclusively useful. However, the tempo of the room was such set that this fact was apparently ignored.

I found this exercise very enlightening! We just cannot make our decisions based on Enthusiasm. However, intuitive it may sound, but it is very important for the Product Managers and Decision Makers to understand not just what the evaluation results were, but also the process in which the evaluations were made.

As for this particular case, I will still want to keep the major feature on evaluation / beta and not invest in developing further. At least in product decisions, first impression is the last impression, does not hold true always! I need to validate the first reactions.

PS: These are my personal opinions and do not reflect the opinions or stand of my company.

Incentive that works ...

2008-06-05T21:01:00.000-07:00

I am reading this book called Nudge.

This book discusses about Economics of Behavior and how we Humans can be influenced to make decision by just a soft hint. Please review the book at the link mentioned above and if you get a chance, read it. It is a very well-written book where the simple decision making scenarios are discussed and how we can contribute to the process, by being, what the writers call as "Choice Architects" are explained.

The purpose of this blog is to write about an idea that I found very interesting in the book. For all of us who have used STD / ISD calls from Indian Phone Booth, know how the conversations go - depending upon how much the running meter shows. I know for sure, if I had a target of Rs 50, I would at the max let it go to Rs 55, or start cutting short my conversation, at Rs 45 if I had only 50 bucks with me. Now, if at home in absence of such a running meter, though we know that we need to control our talk time - we do not care much and make that one extra call every time. The reason is that the Phone Bill comes at the end of the month.

Yesterday, I was watching the local news and came to know of drought situation in California. Government is not doing mandatory rationing, but requesting users to reduce their water consumption. Users who have excess water usage will find a surcharge in their monthly bill. Now, will that really let users stop using water as they normally would? May be to some extent. What if there was a running meter of water consumption installed in each household?

Similarly, we all know our Power bills are at a rise and that excess use adds to the global warming. How often do we remember to turn off the room heater, if we are going out for few hours? What if the Thermostat displayed the cost of using each unit of energy? Users can set a target and as soon as they are close to the target, they can consciously reduce the consumption.

There are numerous such examples where sellers exploit this behavior and make users spend beyond their capacity. The concept of Nudge (soft hint) can be used in either way to influence the decision making.

This is a very strong concept, in retrospection looks so simple!

I am not gone ...

2008-04-17T20:43:00.001-07:00

Just busy elsewhere ... I will be back !!!

[Timely] Romance from Ralph Lauren

2008-02-13T16:56:00.000-08:00

Have you seen the Ralph Lauren "Romance" commercial on TV? I found it to be a "beautiful" video, giving the right message and at a sub-conscious level, making the viewers want it! Couldn't be a better time to launch the campaign than during the V-fever time!

You can watch this and all the commercials of Ralph Lauren at the corporate website. Just click on "RL-TV" while you are there and you can watch this commercial.

Alternatively, you can watch this and other variations of this commercial at YouTube.

And, did i mention, it was a TV commercial? I watched it on TV.

A Change in Perspective

2008-02-05T10:17:00.000-08:00

A picture can be taken from different angles. Some angles produce the best shot, some not. But nonetheless, all these angles show the same truth!

Well, the point I am trying to make is that “a change in perspective does not necessarily shifts the core”. Instead, it brings in more variety and options for us to talk, think, and argue about. In organizational context, we often tend to get caught in the “do not touch, it is working” complacency or high “self efficacy” bias of executives.

Whatever, it be, the winning organizations always like to challenge their assumptions.

For now, I will end with a simple suggestion. When you ask your folks to answer Y/N questions – just change the meanings to read as follows:

Y – Why?
N – Why Not?

See, what difference this simple exercise makes. It will charge up the room and suddenly you will see better responses to your Yes and No questions. Don’t believe me? Try it!

Microsft Bid for Yahoo!

2008-02-01T10:06:00.000-08:00

My last month's post (Jan 14th) "Microsoft+Yahoo>Google" - the billion dollar question - where I had written about Microsoft's interest in Yahoo, seems to be getting closer to reality. With today's announcement of Microsoft's offer of $45 Bn to yahoo, where at one end Yahoo stocks rose by 60% during the day, Google's dropped. This, in spite of the fact that Google showed 17% growth in Q4, its stock price went down by 7%. As a side note: Q3 profit for Google was 46%. Wall Street is benchmarking Google against Google :)

Anyways, it will be an interesting development and many equations will change if the Microsoft-Yahoo deal gets finalized. It is worth the wait to see what happens next - I surely am watchful.

In my previous post, I had mentioned and I repeat "But, at $45 billion, is this game worth playing?"

These are some related interesting read, that adds different perspectives to the deal:

CBS News

M&A and the Anti-trust

How it Helps Google - Information Week

80% odds that deal will be successful

India Connection

The Mistake Family

2008-01-29T15:56:00.001-08:00

How tolerant is your organization towards mistakes? How often, have we been asked to “learn from our mistakes” and how often, have we actually (learned)?

I read a beautiful excerpt on “mistakes” from a book called “Reminiscences of a Stock Operator” that made me thinking. We make mistakes, every day in some or the other form. For example, when we wake up in the morning and rush to work, skipping breakfast – we are making a deadly mistake, one that will come back to us later… Since, I am deeply engrossed and passionate about my role of a Product Manager, and while I am writing about mistakes, the one that is closest to me is the mistakes that we make documenting the requirements.

As a Product Manager, when I see priorities shuffle in random fashion, new requirements getting added at the whims and fancies of few good orators in the team, ambiguity and delay in communication, da daa, da daa ….I shiver at the thought of the end product. And still that happens over and over again and from one organization to another.

Of the several difficult to articulate and intangible to measure and abstract in nature, responsibilities of a Product Manager, there is one that stands out as a very specific deliverable, which, ties an idea to a final product and that is the PRD (Product Requirement Document) or its variant. This is one such document, that is the bible, the book of truth, a must read for anyone building the product. However, in my experience, most of the PRDs are analogous to the roads in India – roads that are built in between the potholes. Even though most of us PMs know the value of this document and understand the visibility of this textual collection – why do we make mistakes writing it without ambiguity and not adding the utmost details as possible? We learn from mistakes. We do. If we missed writing that the system will be used by 5 simultaneous users and if it starts to burn and fume as soon as the 5^th user keys in, who is to blame? So, next time, we make sure to include in the PRD the performance criterion. But, we get so overwhelmed by the mistakes of the last release that we omit adding the end criterion for another feature (for example). And so on…

Mistakes are inevitable, but we need to know how to contain them. And I am sure, each to her own pace, we learn.

Like I said in the beginning of this post, my thinking was based on an interesting excerpt, I read in a book called (and I repeat) “Reminiscences of a Stock Broker” by E. Lefevre. This book was written in 1923 and is claimed to be the most relevant to date for investors and stock brokers (and for people like me, who are generally interested in the subject). The excerpt, very succinctly said, but profoundly suggests, why we end up making mistakes, over and over again! And it goes like this ...

“Of course, if a man is both wise and lucky, he will not make the same mistake twice. But he will make any one of the ten thousand brothers or cousins of the original. The mistake family is so large that there is always one of them around when you want to see what you can do in the fool-play line.”

Where is the Problem?

2008-01-25T09:52:00.000-08:00

If you remember this flow-chart, you can very easily do away with the Problems... Source - TechRepublic.

Click on the image for larger view.

And Google Evolved ...

2008-01-24T13:50:00.001-08:00

I was reading about some search algorithms and trying to find more about Inverted Index search. I happened to come across this site, which discusses about the way different search engines execute the queries and index the sites (if they do).

I was enjoying reading and trying to absorb the relevant information, when I read the following (see the excerpt, below):

"Page Ranking
There is a relatively new search engine on the Internet - Google. This uses a system of page ranking to achieve accurate search results (Google calls this technology PageRank - highly imaginative name ... not). From Google's own web pages, here is their explanation of how their system works:......"

This is when, I realized the age of the document and how different the style of writing would have been, if it were written, like now.

Google has evolved, since then!

The difference is Subtle!

2008-01-23T15:19:00.000-08:00

Slashing Jobs! When will "Yahoo!" Yahooooooo?

2008-01-21T20:54:00.000-08:00

When my offer at Yahoo! was put on hold 4 months back, given the reasons that "Yahoo! is re-prioritizing its Business Units", I understood.

Even though, Yahoo Mail maintains a high market share in the US Internet usage for December, 2007, it is very important to note that the user preferences between the top three webmails [Yahoo!, GMail and Live Hotmail] are marginal. This becomes critical when we all know that Yahoo! Mail is one of the leading business units of Yahoo.

It is also worth mentioning that inspite of the dipping share of Yahoo! in Search, Ad, Media, we have not heard a lot from the company to keep Internet users attached and Wall Street watchers happy. There have been a lot of hope lately from the Panama project, but that also could not give Yahoo! the much needed boost.

The most recent news hitting the wires is about Yahoo! laying off about 1400 - 2000 employees. I believe, the human resource is the most vigilant function at Yahoo that is taking actions on re-prioritizing. Instead, it would be a fresh relief to hear Jerry Yang unveil more opportunities and make some positive moves towards re-prioritizing - ones that will make us understand the situation, better.

Appendix 1: Hitwise Report on Internet Usage market Share 2007, December

Rank	Website	Market Share
1.	www.google.com	5.37%
2.	mail.yahoo.com	4.88%
3.	www.myspace.com	4.72%
4.	www.yahoo.com	3.86%
5.	mail.live.com	2.31%
6.	www.ebay.com	2.01%
7.	search.yahoo.com	1.67%
8.	www.msn.com	1.35%
9.	www.facebook.com	1.05%
10.	www.youtube.com	0.78%

Appendix 2: Feature Comparison of Yahoo Mail, GMail, Live Hotmail

Frabble - Facebook Scrabble under scrutiny

2008-01-16T16:28:00.001-08:00

When Mark Zukerberg came on CBS channel in the 60 minutes talk show last Sunday, he made it a point to show the Scrabble game and talk about how he enjoys playing it with his grand parents. Now, this could be just a gimmick. But, if he really is addicted to playing Scrabble on FaceBook, along with 500,000 other users who play each day, he will have to STOP.

The reason is simple. The quick journey to fame and money for brother pair from India is short lived. When they integrated their sleek software with the all-so-easy-to-integrate APIs of Facebook, little did they know about Copyright Infringement. Now, the copyright holder of the Board Game Scrabble has issued a notice to the brother duo and are on their way to sue them, if the notice is ignored.

When you are 21 years old, live in Calcutta (India) and if you can make $25000 per month, just through advertisement revenue, why you would think of anything that is negative – in this case, copyrights! But, wait a minute. Copyrights for a game of Scrabble? Are there not SO MANY versions available online, illegal circulating the wires? Oh, but now, there is a clear traction and these guys are making money. And this is when it hurts, the owners.

Nevertheless, this is another example of how huge and lucrative the revenue model of FaceBook is becoming. Making quick and dirty money is fine, but it always makes sense to play by the rules!

And Mark, last time when you were on channel, you had an unfinished game. Did you get to complete it?

Microsoft + Yahoo! --> Google?

2008-01-14T20:08:00.000-08:00

Will Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo! lead the combined entity get closer to Google?

A quick glance at the stats in the Search Domain for the Top 3 players shows*:
Google - 65.98%
Yahoo - 20.88%
Microsoft - 7.04%.

Well, this is the multi-billion dolor ($$$) question that only time or the informed sources will be able to tell. Meanwhile, it is for us to speculate and watch the game.

Yahoo! acquisition will definitely help Microsoft close the gap and and boost its desperate game plan to dominate and out do Google!

A look at some more stats
Yahoo! has a market capitalization of approximately $31 Billion.
Yahoo's 1/3rd stake in Yahoo! Japan is $9 Billion.
Yahoo's 10% stake in Alibaba.com is worth approximately $1.7 Billion.
Yahoo's 40% stake in Alibaba.com's parent company, Alibaba Group, is an estimated of $8 Billion and $16 Billion.

The current valuation of Yahoo based on the Nasdaq listing does not fully reflect Yahoo’s investments, which if realized would give Yahoo a valuation upwards of US$45 Billion.

But, at $45 billion, is this game worth playing?

Another Billion dolor question! But what about the Anti-trust? Is Microsoft prepared to fight another suit?

*Latest Hitwise report of U.S. Searches (Dec 2007)
Read few more interested articles on this topic at:
http://www.makeyougohmm.com/20061218/4055/
http://www.webguild.org/2008/01/is-yahoo-takeover-imminent.php
2006 CNN Article: http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/03/technology/microsoft_yahoo/

"Always Ad Campaign" - An ad that can influence buy!

2008-01-13T21:39:00.000-08:00

P&G's "Always" brand has come up with a social ad for improving the hygiene of African girls and helping them to continue their education. According to a research, as posted on the p&G website:

"1 in 10 school-age African girls do not attend school during menstruation or drop out at puberty because of the lack of clean and private sanitation facilities in schools.(1) And, if a girl has no access to protective materials or if the materials she has are unreliable and cause embarrassment, she may be forced to stay at home while menstruating. This absence of approximately 4 days every 4 weeks may result in the girl missing 10 to 20 percent of her school days.(2) The Protecting Futures program will provide products and services to help keep girls in school as well as help foster the overall health and well-being of every child in the targeted school communities."
[See the full post here.]

I recently watched this ad on television. Apart from the message that it conveys to support the cause, the advertisement has a very thoughtful and creative touch. It definitely made me say "ok, I will buy Always". As it goes with social marketing, the company will benefit financially, while adding to its karma with social campaigns. I could not get the online version of the ad and so could not embed the link.

This is an ad that rightly aligns the product, message and the buyer - "A women for a women!

Never under estimate your ideas

2007-12-02T21:27:00.000-08:00

If you are on an entrepreneurial high, never underestimate your ideas!

Many times, even before the idea crosses the mind, another brain signal warns "oh this is so naive, someone must have already done it" or "naah, this is too simple to be good". But, as soon as the active brain starts warning you, my gentle counter warning "think of your idea again; after all if everything has been thought of, challenge is to think of it again."

The Idea
Well, let me mention what made me write this. Just a few days back I was thinking that there should be a channel / new paper that would only talk about and show good news. It would have only the success stories of all celebrities as well as common people. I was so sick and tired of watching events, so disturbing, that yelled at me to say "why the hell are you living, the world is a horrible place". And I thought, for the new generation, for people already in distress, such a "happy" newspaper would be so rejuvenating and a positive reinforcement of goodness. But, then I did not give much thought - for logistic problems and secondly, because I thought it was too simple!

The Implementation
And next day, when I tuned in to an Indian channel, I could see, in all news channel, the glorious launch of e-newspaper called "Billion-Beats", started by the most illustrious former President of India, Abdul Kalam Azad. I was simply amazed!

I feel extremely happy because my idea got validated and I am encouraged to, next time, take myself more seriously. Or rather, may be, not so seriously. Who knows, a simple idea could be in the making of next Google!

PS: A demonstration of what a good new post can be read in my other blog here.

Much more than just a commercial....

2007-11-28T23:19:00.000-08:00

I like all Johny Walker commercials... and this latest "Black Label" ad is one of the best I have seen on television for a long time.

I am not crazy about whisky and I may not become a convert watching the ad. But, the splendid art element in the ad is indeed intoxicating.

Watch the ad as taken from YouTube here:

So, for now it is just watching and no drinking!

Hasta la Vista (Microsoft) Baby!

2007-11-27T15:08:00.000-08:00

Vista ... Yes, see you later... not now. I am better off with my X(P)!

I begin this post with an entertaining and quite telling video "Don't Give Up on Vista" Ad created by Apple Mac. [Embedded from YouTube]

Why do we hear everywhere only wrong things about Vista? I would have liked to believe, it was just me ... but I guess, this is not the case!

Microsoft does a good job, pushing the latest release of its software by bundling them with affiliated hardwares. Microsoft's, age long and by far marketing's one of the most successful product introduction strategy has helped Microsoft Sales... enumerous times.

However, if the product being introduced and pushed (read forcefully) to users is not yet ready, then this can have a catapult effect. Since, windows 95 all MS products have been released on later dates than announced and have been buggy. This has been talked about so much that probably users (and even MS developers) have started considering bugs as product features. But, with Vista it is not just about bugs - it is about pushing a product with new design, significantly changed interface without user's consent. Just when we thought, we are doing well with XP, the Vista unsettled us.

First, IT department installed Vista on all office PC's - I guess it was because keeping up with the latest MS release makes licensing and updates easier (another MS Strategy). Next, when I went to buy a new PC only a week or so after Vista was launched, none of the retailers carried a PC with XP. I had to adjust to the Vista Life at my home PC. Later, when I ordered my Laptop online, I made sure to check the appropriate Windows OS (yes, XP) for the laptop. Here again, Vista was the default selection. It sounds funny, because, in most places, I would prefer getting the most recent release of a product -fight to get it. But, with Vista, I am way too apprehensive.

Today, when I read this blog "Walking Off Into the Vista" on the New York Times, I felt I most definitely am not alone in agonizing.

Few days back I had written that competion for the online collaboration and enterprise application market is very engaging and it would be worthwhile to see how Microsoft responds to already leading players like Google and IBM. I also wondered then, how would Google be successful in converting MS Office users to Google Docs... As much as I see user's sentiments about Vista, I am made to belive that Google need not do a lot, Microsoft will do that for Google!

Having said that, I still believe that Microsoft will respond aptly to all these challenges. My bet is still on the Redmond dwellers.

Keeping your online customers yours - forever

2007-11-20T23:02:00.000-08:00

An e-commerce website, if anything, is extremely slippery.

It is not enough to add stickiness factor to your website. Besides the content, a trustworthy functional experience is extremely important for your customers to be loyal and to continue business.

At the end of the day, the online experience of each individual customer equates to your profitability, loyalty and brand equity. You do not want to take chances that compromises any three of these. Listed below are few key considerations to keep in mind to ensure that your online customer remains yours forever - that is, if you are a serious high-traffic website:

Error Messages Do Not help

A troubleshooting manual, an FAQ page or 'Send Feedback' button do not help when customers encounter error messages on your website

A most carefully drafted and user-friendly error message is not any better than the error itself. Consider an offline customer. If your doorway is under construction and you have clearly put instructions on how to enter your shop - it is quite likely that a customer will approach the next door shop. Just remember, it is way too easier for your online customer to move to a (next door) competitor site.

The key is to pro-actively keep your site error-free and take immediate action on every instance of an error reported.

Your Customers are not your Support Engineers or QA testers

They are not the most technology savvy users either. Do not treat them any different from how you would treat an offline customer.

Take for an example, I am flying a helicopter. I would most definitely like to get instructions about how to keep my helicopter flying or to land safely, if something goes wrong mid-air. But, on an e-commerce website, If I receive an error message during navigation / transaction, then I would have to be in my most generous mental states to make a complain about it. In most likelihood, I would silently move away from the site to a competing site.

The key here is - do not ask your customers to help you fix your websites problems. Fix your website problems, pro-actively, sooner than your customers encounter it - again and again.

Do not under-estimate ambiance and service

In a restaurant, for example, unless your returned food is repeatedly ignored, you will give another chance, if the ambiance and service is delightful to you.

Similarly, in a website, make sure that the few minutes of user experience there is as delightful as the ambiance of their most favored restaurant. This requires a lot of insight into user behavior and an understanding of the online design principles. In my experience, simplicity always wins. Most customers, do not need gazillion functionalities - they make key repetitive interactions with your site. Know these behavior and make your site to adapt to these behavior.

As for an offline customer who dis-likes polyester, you will not take him to the polyester dress section, instead show him/her more cottons, if that is what the liking is for. Similar personal attention should be given for an online customer. And not just the preferences should be noted for content displayed on the site, but also for the most used actions. I like the Microsoft metaphor of keeping the less used action items hidden. If they were all to be kept expanded through out, there would be no space left for writing, for instance in Microsoft Document.

The key here is - give your customers what they want. Step into the shoes of EACH customer and think through their minds to give them an experience that brings them to your website again and again - and also give tolerance to some error messages, that they may encounter occasionally.

Do not test the Patience of your Customers

Patience is a virtue. But, your online customers forget that just while they are online.

What makes your website the most slippery is trying your customer's patience. The number of clicks required to get a task performed, complicated navigation, redundant questions and irrelevant requirements - these are some of the aspects of a website that unreasonably try user's patience on a website. Avoid them, where and as much as you can.

The key here is - Identify and implement the state of equilibrium between form and function, when it comes to designing your website. If you give due importance to one over the other, you will make your website more slippery for some while trying to appease few others.

Take Away
Security, Privacy, Performance etc are some other key considerations that you should be vigilant about while maintaining a high traffic website. The points mentioned here are not comprehensive. They never can be. This dynamism in the phenomenon of user-website interaction makes the task of online marketers equally challenging, as well as rewarding.

A good insight and knowledge of your customers and a pro-active approach can keep your customers yours, forever.

Design Quote

2007-11-20T16:51:00.000-08:00

I read a nice thought about good design somewhere that I found very appealing. Reproducing the thought in my words:

The Design Path

A good design traverses through the path of -

Comfort -> Contentment -> Joy -> Delight -> Bliss

Next time, when you critique a design, think of its journey into the making...

They walk among us ... someone we know?

2007-11-12T17:28:00.000-08:00

I received this over email and found it quite funny. Just read through. Do you think you have one of these?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I walked into a Blimpie's with a buy-one-get- one-free coupon for a sandwich. I handed it to the girl and she looked over at a little chalkboard that said "Buy one – get one free". "They're already buy-one-get- one-free", she said, '"So I guess they're both free". She handed me my free sandwiches and I walked out the door. They walk among us and many work in retail.

A friend of mine bought a new fridge for his house… To get rid of his old fridge, he put it in his front yard and hung a sign on it saying: "Free to good home. You want it, you take it." For three days the fridge sat there without even one person looking twice at it. My friend decided that people were too untrusting of this deal. It looked too good to be true, so he changed the sign to read: "Fridge for sale $50." The next day someone stole it. They walk among us.

One day I was walking down the beach with some friends when one of them shouted, "Look at that dead bird!" Someone looked up at the sky and said, "Where?" They walk among us.

While looking at a house, my brother asked the real estate agent which direction was north because, he explained, he didn't want the sun waking him up every morning. She asked, "Does the sun rise in the north?" When my brother explained that the sun rises in the east, and has for sometime, she shook her head and said, "Oh, I don't keep up with that stuff." They walk among us.

I used to work in technical support for a 24/7 call centre. One day I got a call from an individual who asked what hours the call centre was open. I told him, "The number you dialled is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week." He responded, "Is that Eastern or Pacific time?" Wanting to end the call quickly, I said, "Uh, Pacific." They walk among us.

My colleague and I were eating our lunch in our cafeteria, when we overheard one of the administrative assistants talking about the sunburn she got on her weekend drive to the shore. She drove down in a convertible, but "didn't think she'd get sunburned because the car was moving." They walk among us.

My friend has a lifesaving tool in his car designed to cut through a seat belt if he gets trapped. He keeps it in the trunk. They walk among us.

My friends and I were on a beer run and noticed that the cases were discounted 10%. Since it was a big party, we bought two cases. The cashier multiplied 2 times 10% and gave us a 20% discount. They walk among us.

I was hanging out with a friend when we saw a woman with a nose ring attached to an earring by a chain. My friend said, "Wouldn't the chain rip out every time she turned her head?" I explained that a person's nose and ear remain the same distance apart no matter which way the head is turned. They walk among us.

I couldn't find my luggage at the airport baggage area, so I went to the lost luggage office and told the woman there that my bags never showed up. She smiled and told me not to worry because she was a trained professional and I was in good hands. "Now," she asked me, "Has your plane arrived yet?" They walk among us.

While working at a pizza parlour I observed a man ordering a small pizza to go. He appeared to be alone and the cook asked him if he would like it cut into 4 pieces or 6. He thought about it for some time before responding. "Just cut it into 4 pieces; I don't think I'm hungry enough to eat 6 pieces." Yep, they walk among us and... they reproduce...

A smile from Yahoo! today ...

2007-11-08T14:39:00.000-08:00

For last few days, I have had some not so good experience with Yahoo! People who know me will identify the reason.

Anyways, today I was chatting with my friend on the chat interface of Yahoo! mail. And, the context sensitive messages of Yahoo! in the chat window really amused me. I thought, it was yahoo! way of bringing a smile to me.

<1>
Chat: My friend was in an 'advice giving' spree. For instance, she was writing stuff like - "bad thing happens for a reason" and "it takes a few tries to get there ..." etc.

Yahoo!: The context sensitive message from Yahoo! was "lianhlee is about to drop knowledge..."

<2>
Chat: Now, it was my turn to reply and i shot 3-4 messages at a time.
Yahoo!: And I was stopped by this message - "LIANHLEE IS TYPING! LIANHLEE IS TYPING!" This was hilarious!

<3>
My friend types slowly. This Yahoo! context message was "Tell Raunaq to use fingers of both hands when typing"

Well, simple and intelligent ways to hook people up. I loved this... it made me feel like I am talking to a friend in a familiar coffee shop surrounding. The chat window, created just the right atmosphere.

And thanks Yahoo! for this.

Wal-Mart embraces the Linux Installed PC (gOS)

2007-11-01T12:08:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, we were shopping for a home-office PC.

While driving back, with a 'Vista' installed PC - we could not help but think about the dominance of Microsoft. I mean, not a single store still carries a Linux based PC. 'You can get them - but you will have to order online'!

So, this recent announcement of 'gOS', a linux based PC available in the 600 Wal-Mart stores immediately got my attention. For the product details and the news-wire read yahoo! and gizmodo.

As, I have mentioned in my comment in gizdomo, this new product will make initial connections with the linux users. When you cannot get a PC, even with "no OS" installed, the price point and its availability in stores, is a Green signal for the Green OS.

The 'g' in the name could not be any more relevant than it is now. I understand that the PC comes bundled with some of the 'g' apps and this time, I am talking about Google. The 'greens' adding up to the 'red' ticks for the folks in Redmond.

What is in your shoe?

2007-10-24T19:15:00.000-07:00

In India, I have seen people stash cash and/or valuables in their shoes / socks. Especially, while traveling in public transportations, it is a good way to avoid pick-pockets.

Interestingly, a shoe company called ArchPort has taken the same metaphor and designed a shoe that not only protects the soles, but also protects valuables. These shoes and sandals have a small locker in the sole, where cash, keys, coins etc can be stored. See the pictures below:

I am not sure if these shoes will score any points in comfort or style, some key attributes that we look for in shoe. But, it definitely gets my thumbs up in creativity!

So, watch out for the shoes. There may be more to them than just soles ...

From the Innovator's Dilemma

2007-10-20T17:22:00.000-07:00

One of the most interesting and relevant books that I have read so far is the triology, starting with "The Innovator's Dilemma". I often read the book(s) to remind myself about complacency, stagnancy, comfort that is being developed, the success trap ... of many companies in industry that I work in, or of companies in adjacent industry ... or of companies, which are in their most glorious days today. Or, I often observe these companies and their moves to understand their response to the disruptive technologies or their preparedness for the same.

A glaring example of a flourishing industry that saw the death of many of its leading firms, as explained in the book is that of Disk-Drive industry. I am sure, you got the point. However, the author's explaination on how he chose this industry as an example to prove his theory of "How Can Great Firms Fail" is equally exemplary. In author's own words:

"When I began my search for an answer to the puzzle of why the best firm can fail, a friend offered some sage advice. 'Those who study genetics avoid studying humans,' he noted. 'Because new generations come along only every thirty years or so, it takes a long time to understand this cause and effect of any changes. instead they study fruit flies, because ther are conceived, born, mature and dies all within a single day. If you want to understand why something happens in business, study the disk drive industry. Those companies are the closest things to fruit flies that the business world will ever see.' "

Disruptive changes in the Disk Drive technology defined a whole new paradigm of performance. And the adopters of these technological changes were the new entrants into the market and not the incumbent leaders - engrossed in listening to their customers and engulfed in success trap.

Interesting ...

Content Plagiarism and a piece of cake ...

2007-10-08T23:43:00.000-07:00

Recently, I have been quite interested in the problem of web-based content plagiarism.

I own the content on my page and it is my intellectual property. I do not mind if someone else copies my content as it only validates my authority on the subject. However, I definitely demand credit for the piece of information extracted from my site. If a site earns revenue with stolen contents, I would like to see a fair distribution of the monetary gains.

The intention is very clear - copy what I permit you to copy, give me the credit and share with me the benefits that you earn off my content - and I do not mind. This, also is the point of contrast from the more familiar concept of DRM.

Where as DRM is restrictive, a company came up with an innovative solution that offers protecting the Intellectual Property, but in most liberal way. Attributor, based in Redwood City has launched a product to track and report back on the copied content, sniffing billions of web pages.

By far, Attributor has the first mover advantage with AP and Reuters already Attributing. There is another solution offered by blogwerx "Sentinel", which promises to solve similar problems. I do not see this company very promising for several reasons [read thumbs down on investment, team, state of product, product vision, initial beta hiccups] - the Home Link on their website does not work, if anyone is reading. A May blog by the CVO (Chief Visionary Officer, eh... ) states that "Sentinel is not dead as yet". Not updating the post for next 5 months is not being alive either.

I found another cool tool, which may not have serious business potential and / or relevance - but the simplicity of the tool caught my attention. My feminine instincts would like to call it "cute". Check the Duplicate Content Tool here. This tool compares two websites on the similarity of textual / HTML content.

The success of this or any other clones in this space would be based on the business value that these solutions promise to bring to the publishers of content and the business/revenue model that they adopt.

Plagiarism of web-content is definitely a problem, the solution for which seems to be evolving. This could be disrupting for many players in the web world. A worth following up proposition for the days to come!

And as far as I am concerned, my birthday cake has "Happy Birthday to Amita" written and I get to cut it! You can share as much of it as you wish - if you are invited to my party... That is the point!

The web of Insecurity

2007-09-25T18:26:00.000-07:00

Take a look at the following:

Some Phishing Data
$10 to $150	Price range on the black market for a full set of identity information
50 cents to $5	Price range per stolen credit card number
196860	Unique phishing messages detected by Symantec for the first half of 2007, up 18% from last six months of 2006
52771	Number of active bot-infected computers per day in the year's first half

Data: Symanted Internet Security Threat Report Trends [2007]

The report above is just an indication of the wild business of phishing flourishing out there. The most recent hit, a huge theft of credit card information, was felt by Vertical Web Media, Chicago Publisher of Internet Retailer magazine and millions of its customers.

This information came a week after TD Ameritrade Holding disclosed that attackers from half a dozen IP addresses worldwide made off with personal information, including credit card numbers and email addresses of about 6.3 million customers. The report, the incident all point to one vulnerability - the most widespread vulnerability of organizations from security threats.

Many organizations are realizing this and shielding themselves by putting in place a security team and a security infrastructure. But is that enough? I will write about some of the security initiatives that organizations should adopt to escape from the vulnerability in a future post. If your organization is not yet serious and proactive about the security threats, then the risks are very high!

Jim Motes (CISO of Perot Systems) puts it aptly:
"The sophistication of these attacks being used today, hasn't been offset by an equal sophistication of the tools we use to prevent them"

It's all about Attitude, Baby! Or not?

2007-09-25T09:15:00.000-07:00

India recently won World Cup in cricket, by beating archrival Pakistan in a very closely played match.

The highlight of the entire series was a young, in-experienced but enthusiastic team. Led by 26 year old Dhoni, the team had mostly new players. After victory, when Dhoni was asked, how he made the decision to choose the last bowler - one who could have changed the fate of the game, Dhoni replied -

"I had asked Harbhajan (an experienced player). But, he did not sound confident. On the other hand, Joginder (a newbie) was very excited and wanted to take the responsibility. I gave the balls to Joginder. At that point it was very important to have a player, who was more excited and confident in taking the responsibility rather than experience."

This came from a cricketer, in the context of the game. But, I think this has profound similarity in the corporate world.

More often than not, we default most of the initiatives, major projects, big decision-making to the most experienced team member. And in the process, we overlook, some of those very enthusiastic, 'ready to take challenge', 'wanting to prove their worth' individuals and instead give them the 'follow the instruction' kind of tasks.

While, these decisions are never conclusive - they are often dependent on the context in which you work - I want to end with the thought that once in a while "just question your defaults!"
You will have the answers to make a conclusive decision.

Run... to be on the same spot - world is changing fast

2007-09-24T20:01:00.000-07:00

Henry Ford has been reportedly quoted to say "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses".

As much as it is important to "listen" to the market and get the pulse of consumers, innovative products are more often than not, created as an outcome of internal brainstorming. It is the ability to identifying the cutting edge technology and more importantly making a business proposition with the technology that sets apart an innovative product from the most 'made-to-suit-market' products.

No, I am not denying the importance of products that are build to fulfill the market need. I am a firm believer that products should be build to fill a gap in the market, rather than a gap in a companies product line". In this space, however I am talking abut what leads to an innovative product.

Talking of which, think of it - if before making iPhone (or iPod or iMac) ... apple product manager had asked the users of smart-phones, mp3 players or desktops, what features they would like to have, I am sure it would not be any close to what the current form and shape of these products are.

The take-away from this is - as much as customers, consumers, analysts are important input sources - for innovation, build your own solid team of architects, engineers and product managers.

I leave you with last anecdote for today. The inventor of Medical Devices "Dean Kamen" once asked where you would put a third eye if you could have one?" Everyone in the audience said on the back of their head; without hesitation, generally, on the back of the head. But when Dean said, "what about on the tip of your finger?" everyone agreed, without hesitation, that that was much better!

Reserve your "Online Suite ... "

2007-09-24T19:18:00.000-07:00

In my earlier post, I had said that it would be worth watching how the market for collaboration shapes up and most importantly what (if anything) would be Microsoft's reaction.

In Sep 24 2007 issue of Information Week, they have covered the same topic "Google, IBM take another run at Microsoft's Office Suite". The article has an inset on "How the Packages Compare", which I am copying in my today's post.

Microsoft Office: Feature-rich; incumbent has familiarity on its side.

Lotus Symphony: IBM brings clout to OpenOffice

Google Apps: Presentation software added to productivity suite

OpenOffice.org: Free, open source apps get updated

SUN Startoffice: Forerunner to OpenOffice, part of Google pack.

I am looking forward to Microsoft's online response!

The Cost-Cutting Conundrum

2007-09-24T19:08:00.001-07:00

It is all about ROI.

Cost-cutting, increasing efficiency, keeping things simple... and at the end of it all meeting the ROI - is an ubiquitous corporate challenge. But in most cases the hidden-costs of 'cost-cutting' and complexities of the 'simple' business provide a skewed image of the reality.

Corporates that operate on a consistent theme (read pressure) to cut costs actually have their spending focussed on short-term, tactical projects. This potentially leads to a lack of a "strategic fit" and hence majority of such projects end up with higher costs, and potentially increased complexity.

Instead, Enterprises should identify the areas where cost cutting could be mortgaging their future as a consequence and block them from being "crunched". For example, if resources are budgeted for a next-gen product but not on migrating old customers to the next-gen, will eventually lead to a support nightmare and a serious implication of maintaining two different product cycles. Thus adding to the cost, eventually.

Another excuse for management to not allocate resources is on Projects that do not lead to Direct Revenue. Some executives, like to call it is "cost-centers". Examples of such could be - Security Infrastructure, Developing an Integration Platform etc. Not investing in such initiatives may in the near-term prove to be profitable. However, delaying improvements in these areas could cost far more in the long run.

Some of my key observations and thoughts about cost-cutting are:
- Save recurring costs. Maintaining an old system that is under-utilized and/or not adding value can be costlier than spending some more resources to revamp.
- Full-time vs Contract. There are some functions, which are critical, but required for a specific time frame. For example, for a non-UI based organization, having a UI designer full-time may be a recurring cost. Rather, companies should evaluate operating with a contract position.
- Reduce Redundancy. Many corporates work in islands of functional areas. If there is an information that can be consumed by more than one function, then all efforts should be achieved to minimize redundancy of the information source . Areas of reusable components - information, resource, system - all that can be re-used should be identified and allocated with a common budget.
- Having a common goal. All functional areas should be encouraged to work on a common operating principle. This will tremendously help organizations to streamline cost goals and work collaboratively to achieve them.

Caution - any such organization wide theme (be it cost-cutting, efficiency improvement, managing simplicity) involves change. If all functional areas are not aligned together to embrace the change, then this will lead to one more wasted effort!

Before you make any judgment, think of the cost-cutting conundrum - are you really saving company some money or is it the other way around. The later affirmation could be very dangerous!

One Up for Collaboration!

2007-09-19T20:37:00.000-07:00

There is a blood bath going on here in the collaborative enterprise suite. Well, almost !

It would be interesting to watch how some of these equations get formed and right now, I am waiting for Microsoft to play its cards...

Already taking the stride are:
- Google - Google Docs (includes docs and spreadsheet) and Google Presently presentation s/w)]

- Yahoo! - with Zimbra acquisition

- Lotus Symphony... (I think, Lotus is the pioneer in collaborative space!)

It will be a while before any of these get enterprise wide acceptance. Considering many issues related to compliance etc yet answered... Nevertheless, the way market is shaping up, it is worth the watch. I would like to see how MicroSoft responds ... and can they all co-exist or what will be the impact on market share. I can say for sure - these all players are very aggressive about this space!

My 2.0 cents :)

Lights, Camera and Action

2007-09-19T01:34:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder, how do sales people react to lost deals? Broadly in two ways -
Type 1. Pessimists sales person will see this as a personal defeat and feel less confident in next case.
Type 2. Optimists sales person will immediately try to find an opportunity to turn the game around.

For example, say a competitor snatched the contract right under your nose. Type 1 sales person will feel the efforts wasted and drink it over with a dozen glass of beers. Type 2 sales person, will still go to the beer bar, but focus on the fact that the contract is just for 1 year. He will try to bring acts together and build a case, again to reach up to the prospect to displace the competitor.

Even in a lost opportunity, a sales person who is optimistic, will see a ray of hope. Armed with just a ray of hope, the type 2 sales person will keep acting. Action will take this sales person reach places. He or she may not reach the destination, but in the process will find several open / hidden routes to many different paths. This will keep him / her active again for a long time.

For a Type 2 Sales person - there is no STOP time. If you have a story - all you need is some action. This is true always - somethings don't change. Even the silent movies of yesteryears needed "Light, Camera and Action!"

The Dylan Viral

2007-09-18T21:16:00.000-07:00

There is a "You". There is your "Social Network".
And there is a "Channel".

This is all it takes to spread the message fast, in marketing parlance, virally. Almost all!

The Dylan Viral
[get infected and more]

The edge of the Dylan Viral is that it appeals you to indulge. It shows you a flick and challenges your creativity. I chance landed on a very interesting blog - with a lot of stickiness factor. The writer keeps the 'goal simple' and effectively touches upon 7 tricks for successful viral marketing. I thought, why not analyze Dylan Viral using the borrowed tricks*.

1. Make People Feel Something
Like I said earlier, the Dylan Viral challenges my creativity. I applaud at my own creation and want to share it within my close network. Sometimes, just to share. Otherwise, just to show-off. In any case, the objective is very clear. It makes people think and keeps them engaged through out.

2. Do Something Un-expected
When I first saw the Dylan Viral, I did not think it was a viral. I felt, it was a cool medium to quickly create your advertisements. I was surprised at the thought, that you could have a template for marketing your products. Isn't marketing all about differentiation? Could there be a possibility to have a template for Advertisements? Well, seeing this in action, made me think for a while - "this might work". And yet, this was not what I first thought.

3. Do not try to make Advertisements, It sucks
Well, yes! The Dylan Viral is anything, but an advertisement. It just lets you be in charge. You drive the show here - not the singer, neither his songs. No product involved (yet, it sells).

4. Make Sequels
Well, the sequel of this message is in-built in the design. This is a creative master-piece. It again lets you be in charge. Create as many sequels as you want. It is you who is driving the campaign. Exhaust only when you have no more willingness or creativity left. Or you reconsider your social network. You might be lacking one.

5. Allow Sharing, Downloading and Embedding
Now, this is where, I don't think I can eulogize the Dylan Viral. For some reasons, the thing about incompatible Flash Version, its availability only via Email, the fact that it cannot be embedded etc makes it difficult to share easily. Why??? I wonder why this was neglected. Or if there was a purpose (read exclusive sharing) , I fail to understand what.

6. Connect with Comments
Allowing users to comment not only gives you the feedback, but also serves as a pull strategy to have users stop by a little longer and interact in a more direct way. The Dylan Viral provides the option to add comments. But the entire interface looks deterring to me. I think, the creative and implementation team don't get along well.

7. Never Restrict Access
The incongruous interface and imposing the need to have right version of Flash breaks the fluidity of the process. Nevertheless, if someone has driven all the way to Yesomite, the fear of bears will not stop him from camping. It takes learning only once. After that you know that you must keep all edibles (including lipsticks) in the food stations. And yes, in the Dylan Viral, which link to click.

Will Dylan Viral do its Job?
I do not know the future of Dylan Viral. It may fail, or it may succeed. That is the challenge of marketing. There is nothing as "tried and tested" formula. Its unpredictability keeps the game interesting. Net savvy people: If you are Dylan Fans, you may want to show it now.

For now, all I can say is - watch out for the new Dylan Release on October 1st. Acknowledging my limited creative talents, I infect you with my two Dylan Virals:

http://www.dylanmessaging.com/messages/2398-TJLN-42A1-6D0B-ZZ18
and
http://www.dylanmessaging.com/messages/37R9-OE20-450K-1KO5-BJ5L

* Thanks to Thomas Baekdal for his excellent articles that inspired me to write this one.

Update:
Dylan Viral can be embedded. Not so straightforward, but it can be. See here for an example.

SIMPLE = GOOD

2007-07-26T00:47:00.001-07:00

Usability: Scenario Based Design

2007-06-24T10:28:00.001-07:00

Stories are useful, diverse, and pervasive

I talked about Storytelling in my previous article. Using narrative in design and development that is more systematic and auditable than “just making up stories” is a challenge for the Engineering Techniques and Processes.

An approach that is systematized but still preserves the strength of storytelling is discussed in this article by PennState HCI:

http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/usability_resources/conference/2006/john_carroll_UPA2006.pdf

Good Article on Story-Based QA

2007-06-24T10:18:00.001-07:00

"Tell me a story" - and I will listen.

Storytelling is one of the most effective means of communication. A good narrative of an incidence or a scenario can most efficiently replicate the same, preserving the truth and sharing the experience.

No wonder, storytelling as an Organizational Communication Tool is being discussed and talked about lately in great detail. I recently read a good article on Story-Based Quality Assurance.

I leave the story-telling part for the article here: http://www.swqual.com/newsletter/vol2/no9/vol2no9.html

vu jàDé - the new innovation mantra

2007-03-06T15:55:00.000-08:00

The word innovation has become a common place. Every one talks about it these days ... the resumes have paragraphs dedicated for innovation and not any fault of candidates, the job descriptions demand that.

I feel, as an act, innovation has been talked about so much and used in so many connotations that if tomorrow someone really innovates a process/product/service, we will have to call it something else.

Amidst plethora of definitions and suggestions about innovations, one that got me amused came from a talk show on CNBC.

The speaker suggested a term "vu jàDé" as an enabler of innovation. "vu jàDé" is the reverse of "Déjà vu", which means - An impression of having seen or experienced something before.

So, to be able to innovate, place yourself in an unknown territory each day and find a way to come out of it. While Déjà vu lets you to believe that you have been to a place you have never been - vu jàDé will let you to go to your most familiar place and look at it differently.

For an example,
you reach your office every morning and you start your day afresh - looking at a thing from a completely different angle. Can you do it? Well the answer will lead you to answer another question "Can you innovate?"

And no, there is no such word as "vu jàDé" ... yet!

Money earns Money and Work earns Glory !

2006-12-25T22:47:00.000-08:00

Luck is 'Nice to Have' .. not 'Need to Have'

2006-12-25T22:46:00.000-08:00

Coming up...

Not Really Simple – RSS Adoption

2006-08-29T16:36:00.000-07:00

RSS Adoption is slow. With only 9% of adult internet users fully aware of the meaning of this term, marketers are conservative or rather suspicious of using RSS as an alternative marketing channel. As per Jupiter, by 2006 June only 8% US Email Marketers used RSS as their marketing tactics. The adoption rate will change little until the reader's functionality is embedded into browsers or e-mail clients.

The Jupiter report has provided an expected and not surprising trend on RSS in marketing roles - there are many challenges with RSS, but it is also true that the most (widely successful) disruptive technologies exhibit similar traits.

So, should these players that are busy exacting the channels for direct marketing, try to fit in another piece – RSS – in the puzzle of communication mix? Well, the statistics show this is not the right time yet. This also shows that marketers are playing the wait and watch game.

Sometimes some weird reasons cause the growth of a channel. Big players who have a large feel of internet user’s pulse are already developing solutions to embed RSS for common consumer use. For example, RSS with IE 7.0 may not be a weird, but a quite likely reason for growth in RSS adoption, when IE 7.0 launches early next year. This will stir once again the competitive battle of browsers, possibly benefiting the technology (channel) in question.

A survey that was conducted by Slashdot and published in marketwire, provides a more optimistic and forward looking insight into the adoption of RSS. The Slashdot RSS Study explores current usage of RSS feeds and future applications for fulfilling daily information needs at the desktop as well as in new media platforms. Survey highlights of the 230 respondents include:

73% will increase their use of RSS feeds in the next year.
Most users received their feeds through a Web-based RSS syndication service but many users do not use traditional methods to read their feeds, instead relying on mobile and other devices to obtain their feeds.
Receiving feeds through mobile units such as cell phones, SMS messaging, voice mail, WAP or portable audio players will increase.
Technology will improve as RSS use increases, making RSS feeds easier for users to read and for publishers to deliver.

As I see the biggest understanding that one needs while assessing RSS as an alternative channel for e-marketing is not necessarily its adoption rate but the business values that it promises to bring. It is important that marketers acknowledge, or at the best speculate upon, the value proposition that RSS brings to the plate, and what have you:

RSS applications: RSS can be used as a tool not only to deliver content to end-users, but also to improve search engine rankings (Google, Yahoo, MSN) and to drive new traffic through the use of various RSS specific search engines and directories.
Freshness of contents in newsletters and search results: RSS allows companies to republish online content to provide their visitors with fresh content from multiple sources.
Personalization- RSS is only a delivery channel. The content to be delivered can be logically pulled out from the back-end technology and database supporting the delivery. There already are several out-of-the-box solutions for RSS personalization, such as ByPass and RSS Auto Publisher. Services such as SimpleFeed already allow for content targeting, based on end-user behaviour.
RSS Metrics – There are already few services that are capable of tracking individual RSS feed subscribers, even individual subscribers over multiple RSS feeds. Measuring traffic on a subscriber level is easy using unique feed URLs, such as what SyndicateIQ, RSS AutoPublisher, SimpleFeed and many others are doing, with companies like Nooked and Feedburner using yet other means for measuring RSS.

While the analysts’ reports study the present to paint a picture as it is, marketers do need to prudently weigh these figures along with market dynamics, thus saving themselves from getting hurt in the long-term, and preventing from being wrongly swayed away from RSS.

From Interest Generation to Conversion

2006-06-28T00:15:00.000-07:00

The road ahead…
Background …
Need Analysis

I had a simple quest; I wanted to find out a good “beach resort”, somewhere in “Southern California” and well, in a “romantic” set-up. I was planning to take a tranquil vacation with my husband.

My best bet was to ‘google’, which I did. And within few seconds, I got a list to select from – 847,000 links of responses to my query of 3 parameters. Hmmm…

The journey begins …
Search Engine Strategy

That is where the journey begins – for an online marketer; to get his/her business result on the first pass of a customer’s search. Not just that; different search engines provide top results that are very different from each other. Thus by optimizing only for one search engine online marketers may loose a bunch of Internet searchers who use a different search engine. This included, the first step towards customer conversion is developing a crafty search engine strategy. Dominant search engine presence is critical to attracting potential qualified customer during this needs assessment phase of their purchasing decision.

How do I look?
Design to kill

One does not require a research result to prove that it is the first look that makes you turn and look back again. Still to substantiate with research, several studies indicate that a visitor to a site evaluates its visual appeal in less than 3 seconds. Brand presentation, type treatment, layout, imagery and consistency all visually cue the visitor that this is, or is not, a professional organization. Design convinces prospects—in fractions of a second—that you're a contender for their business and they can trust you with their purchasing needs.

Inner Beauty lasts long
Content and Copy

If you could make your prospects to stay around for a while, good! But, if you do not have content or copy to match the expectations of prospects, providing them concisely with value proposition that will involve them further with the site, the interest of the prospect will not last for long. And next time, even the ‘design to kill’ will not work for this prospect.

In this stage, when prospects are doing research and evaluation of their purchasing needs, provide them with content (value statements) that will not just differentiate but also be superior to competing sites.

Make it happen!
Selection

The prospect is ready, don’t delay; get him NOW! Don’t just give a call to action, make it happen too. Do all it takes technological and aesthetically to encourage your prospects to complete their purchase. Remember their last visit actions, remind them of benefits that accrue on purchase and recommend them of items that would genuinely interest them. In all, give them the ownership of site during the time that they spend purchasing.

Let’s Go
Summing up

Businesses are investing more and more on online marketing as it is one of the most reasonable and rewarding avenues available. Building a site with critical understanding of each stage of buying process—needs assessment, requirements analysis, evaluation, and purchasing—makes the journey from ‘interest to conversion’ the most sought after trip for online marketers.

My search process ended only in first 20 links, leaving 847,980 (that was tough!) unlooked at. I clicked through 5-10 links, all within first two pages, and with link descriptions that attracted my need. Some results had ‘Wedding location’ in the subject – I rejected, just because ‘Wedding’ was too prominent and disjoint to my search– in spite of the fact that the location could have been ideal for my trip, I rejected, that is how human psychology works!

After quickly scanning through some sites, I found few that promised expected value. I almost went half way filling up forms, after selection – but the process turned out so unfriendly, that I did not pursue it to purchase. I am now looking at the last link in my selection list ...

Preparing for a better tomorrow

2006-05-30T16:06:00.001-07:00

This I had written when I was heading Academics of a management institute in India. Happened to find it in my pandora's box - sharing with you all.

“Tomorrow belongs to people who prepare for it today”. And the realization of this wisdom is the cause of all my angst. Who doesn’t want to see his career sky-rocketing or contentment at his doorsteps, tomorrow? We all do. And knowingly or not, we are all preparing ourselves to approach a better tomorrow. I am the one for sure who is doing it religiously. It has been ages that I have stopped seeing things, now I observe them. I don’t hear any sound, it hardly matters what the source of this sound is, for I indifferently listen to it! If I am not exaggerating, I realize while I write this, that my whole body has become a dependent function of my brain. Something like this:

Observation (Seeing) = f (Brain (eyes))

This knowledge definitely gives profound meanings to arcane facts, but so often, also makes simple things of life unreasonably complicated. We all (the dreamers or the ambitious multitude) are in one way or the other, a victim of this jugglery- the actors of self – development play; some enjoy and stay while others regret and stay. With no difference, share neighborhood in tomorrow’s planet. So what is the architecture, which builds house at different levels of elevation? What is that equation which gives an increasing trend to the graph of our career? What is that preparedness, which drives us to the tomorrow, most desired?

A solid academic background, an intellectual outlook, fair sense of reasoning, a repository of skills etc. are few of the many attributes that mark our executives. The world is an open field of information. And it is in this era of global convergence of knowledge, technology and business that imperative attention needs to be given on the important aspects of what is to be learned and acquired from such noise in the environment. New information must be processed, structured, and connected in such a way as to be accessible in the future. Right skill, if not utilized at the right time, brings no returns. And so are opportunities, if not received at the precise point, are dead opportunities.

The days ahead don’t belong to people who just work hard, but to them who work smarter too. Being perceptive of and coherent with the demands of future, treading the path that is in line with the goals set, takes you much ahead. To hit the nail on a target, what is needed is a proper tool to do so. Akin to the same, there is always the need of apt tools to achieve objectives of life. The quest is in identifying these tools and making them useful to the purpose of emerging as successful. Be spectacular; observe the future, and act before it occurs.

The matters of present importance and future prospects are best known and discussed in communities of proficient and expert practitioners and researchers of the world outside. Attending seminars or workshops, undergoing trainings to enhance niche areas of competencies, etc are few of avenues, which provide with opportunities to not only get skilled but also to meet people and understand the trends and thoughts of contemporaries. In short course of time, the prospect of exchanging and acquiring knowledge and progressive ideas, is a prudent way of enhancing ones aspects.

The place on the zenith is limited and the competition is tough. We have to spend the rest of our lives in the world of future we choose for ourselves. The time demands us to act now.We always find it easier to be a result of the past rather than a cause of the future. We must equip ourselves to create not just enter the future.

Are we prepared enough???

Why did I decide to do MBA

2006-05-05T16:06:00.000-07:00

“I recall of a short story. This is a story of construction workers working on a site where a temple was to be built. When asked about the work, one said, he was laying bricks for the foundation, the other said, he was cementing, but the third one said, he was building a temple. “

I started my career as a “developer” in a software company (CSC India). After working for 2-3 years in different roles that involved developing, testing, client interactions and solution architecting, I realized that I lack the disciplinary rigor to see forest for trees. So I was like the construction worker who knew that he was building something but was disconnected from the vision, the temple. Likewise, I was able to see what our goal was but was unable to appreciate the beauty.

More soul searching and few more weeks of abstraction revealed that it is the applications of the technology rather than the technology itself, which is the key. Technology is great thing to know but more important was to know what makes solutions, solutions that work for consumers. “Whole is greater than the sum of its parts”, which, later was discussed on several occasions during my MBA, was in fact driving me to know more about the other areas of business. I, by that time had enough experience working in pure technical roles and that was the time, I felt, I needed to equip myself with not just technical know-how but also with a strong knowledge of business dynamics and no casual reading would do that. I needed to go through the best formal education.

With this understandings and expectations of learning, I took up the Executive MBA course from XLRI. While I was in the first year of the course, I left the software company to join a start-up business school. I traded off my salary for the challenges ahead. This job (of 2 years duration) gave me an immense understanding of setting up a business, problems inherent in maintaining the resources, plans and execution of growth. I could actually find an application of knowledge and instantly visualize the contexts in which theory can merge with practice.

Currently, I am working as Product Specialist in a software company in SanFransisco, USA.

MBA has given me the confidence and versatility to perform beyond the IT sector, where I had started my career first, at my free will. I am happy that I have the required foundation to be construction worker who not only is aware that he is building temple and but also one who knows his temple.

Continuous Decision-Oriented Planning

2006-05-02T17:24:00.000-07:00

I was reading some statistics of companies and what I found was that companies with standard planning processes and practices make on an average 2.5 major strategic decisions (major means - impacting potential increase in profit by 10% or more). The planning approach is "Annual Review focussed on Business Units". However, if considered and compared with the amount of time companies and executives spend in planning and meeting, this number reflects a very slow decision making process.

A breakthrough model that is being adopted by many companies is “Continuous Decision-Oriented Planning”. This model is established on the premise of issue based decision making. The procecss goes like this- The company identifies the strategic priorities for the year, in an annual meeting and then, special task forces spread across the year to reach decisions on as many issues as possible. The entire decision making completes in two meetings - first around the facts of issues and alternative solutions and second on evaluation of the solutions and selection of the best course of action. Once an issue is resolved, a new is added. This also facilitates addition of new critical issues based on market demand and competition. The entire process is always proceeded by ample preparaion time. The diagramatic representation of the model is as shown below:

Innovation - The P&G way

2006-04-26T14:54:00.000-07:00

It is mind-boggling to see the variations in color, design, texture forms in edible products these days. Now rather than asking for salt or sweet, you should't be surprised if you are asked whether you want emborsed wafers or oil painted wafers. And mind you, everything confirms to the laws of Food Industry. And why just food products, look around and you will see Markets are full of consumer products that are so unconventional, and yet best sellers.

Have you ever thought how this is achieved? Have you ever thought how Pringle gets that fine images in each of their chips? And can you imagine the amount of investment in cost and time is involved. And most importantly how does one create and manage such Innovation? In this article, I will discuss how P&G manages innovation. Read ahead....

P&G practices and has achieved considerable success by a strategy they call "CONNECT & DEVELOP" (C&D).

The stratgy is to innovate by going to external connections rather than entirely relying on internal R&d experts with a goal to acquire 50% of innovation outside the company.

The most interesting part is how they have implemented this through different programs, some of which are worth studying and pursuing. A brief summary of their programs is as below-

Proprietary Network
-------------------
1. Technology Entrepreneurs - these are senior P&G people who are located around 9 C&D hubs across the globe sniffing through stores, exhibitions, literature etc to come up with ideas.
2. Suppliers - Created IT platforms to share technology briefs with suppliers and co-created new products. (P&G realized that within their suppliers they had 50000 researchers)

Open Network
------------
3. NineSigma - A network to connect companies in need of technological innovations with universities, labs, government agencies, companies that have solutions. So, send technology brief across the network and get proposal of solution confidentially. The network has 700000 users who are highly specialized and gain mutually.

4. InnoCentive - A community of contract scientists, who crack the problem and provide an easy solution. So, if a process gets done in 5 steps, and has to be done in 3, the question is put in the network.

5. YourEncore - Connects retired Scientists and helps bring deep experience to solve problems on case basis. So a retired boeing aircraft engineer can be used to do the prototype for their next skin care box.

6. Yet2.com - This is a market place for Intellectual Property Exchange. This was built by a group of fortune 100 companies.

The best i like is firstly, they have 6 different approaches to solve the same problem - each connecting to a different resource segment AND secondly, they had a clear goal - get 50% of innovation from community. However, when you are P&G building a community is not as difficult as it is for some small starters. But, if the goal is set and agenda is clear, then you will build a community around people who would want to be a part of it.

To achieve a sustained and steady top-line growth, innovation is required.

Well..... "How to" is the key !

[Inspired by an HBR published article.]

Engineers or Entrepreneurs?

2006-04-17T12:33:00.000-07:00

Or Engipreneurs?

What happens when a professional expert turns into an Entrepreneur? When a Doctor starts her own hospital or an attorney his law firm, what are the challenges, symptoms of caution and mistakes that characterize this transformation? Do they get overwhelmed by business functions or they never loose their domain focus? This article is inspired by these questions and the most common inhabitants of Silicon Valley, the ‘Engipreneurs’.

Silicon Valley is full of Engineers and Entrepreneurs. By engineers and for the purpose of this article, I mean Software Engineers. There is a third category of inhabitants seen largely here and I like to call them as ‘Engipreneurs’. As the name suggests, these are Engineers who have turned into Entrepreneurs’.

The word "engineer" derives from the Latin word ingenium - innate character, talent, or ability. “Entrepreneur” has its roots in the French word entreprendre which means to undertake or take action. An engineer applies mathematics, science, and systems-integrative approaches to conceive, design, build, and operate useful objects or processes; whereas an entrepreneur assumes the tasks of organization and management as well as the risks of new-project creation or new-venture startup.

The definitions above bring in a key point of consideration; engineers create objects and entrepreneurs create businesses around these objects.

So what happens when the two meet – when Engineers become Entrepreneurs? By definition this seems to be the most ideal thing to happen. Now, an engineer not only creates the object of worth but also builds a business around it, brings intended users close to the object. But many a time, this is not the case. And more often than not, an over-enthusiast engineer may not bring in the best business value from his entrepreneurial venture. The reason is simple – ‘not letting go’! I have tried to analyze some of the most common syndromes, practices that characterize these ‘engipreneurs’ (who do not let go). Take a look and eliminate as many as possible in case you are preparing to become one successful entrepreneur.

‘The Best Technology Syndrome’ – If you have ever worked or lived closely with engineers you will know, that they attach a lot of importance to the best technology. Their judgment of a worthy proposition is one that ensures or demonstrates ‘The best Technology’. This syndrome keeps them continuously focused on the ‘best’ as seen from ‘their’ eyes. If you can create a wireless communication mechanism between Earth and Mars, yeah that is a ‘wow’ technology. But who will be there to take your call in Mars? This is the work of scientists, not entrepreneurs. So the key here is ‘it is not the best technology that is all important but the potential market for the technology that drives businesses. And isn’t there always something ‘better’ than the ‘best’?

‘Good vs Perfect’

I have known several engineers who are always in the attempt of making the ‘perfect’ software. I say, a ‘good’ software is much better than a perfect one, if it reaches the market on time. Entrepreneurs have to deliver what they have promised and they have to do so in time. If they loose out on time, there is someone already waiting to occupy the space. This does not mean the software product should be buggy but it should not be perfected so much as to delay the entire business cycle. And by the way, who has seen a ‘perfect’ software till now? The first version of ‘Windows’ would still be incubating, if one waited to perfect it.

‘Innovative product or innovative use’

Many engineers who turn to become entrepreneurs often think that they have to come up with an innovative product. This is not untrue. An innovative product always attracts attention not just of users but also of venture capitalists. Having said this, how many innovative software products have we seen in last few years? If you try to analyze the trend, what will glaringly become clear is that it is not innovative product but innovative use that makes a big difference. So, engineers have to also look into the side box marked as ‘innovative uses’. It makes them no less engineers if they have used somebody else’s technology. Businesses would have stopped creating web-based emails, once HotMail got popularity or they would not have invested millions in search technology, if they thought that Google has done it all. These and numerous other examples suggest that not only thinking innovative product, but also thinking innovative use, makes it big in business.

‘The Right Time’

This is a very overly stated and underly estimated phrase. The cliché ‘there is always’ a right time’ is always right. There is no need for your product if you are not fast enough to meet the demand or fulfill the generated demand of your product. You can create a wow effect, but unless you are delivering to that ‘wow’, it soon will frizzle out. So however good your product is, always bear in mind, it has to be presented at the right time. Sometimes, this right time is to fasten and launch your product, sometimes it entails waiting to launch it later. Why do you think, Microsoft is not launching its long promised and awaited ‘Vista’? Think about it.

‘Risk-taking is not gambling’

Yes! When entrepreneurs take risks, they take it in measured way. They calculate and base their risk on certain parameters. But they are known to take risks. Engineers however are not trained to take risks. By definition, they base their judgments on proven and predictable methods and formulae. There is no such formula for success. However, you plan and predict the market variables it is your gut that dictates majority of your decisions. Well after all, ‘the riskiest thing to do in business is NOT to take any risks’.

‘Painting hands red, green and blue’

There are other languages in the world than ‘Programming’! I am yet to see an Engineer who thinks of a problem as faced by users. In most cases, the discussion around a problem is so concentrated to the underlying programming language, database and other software artifacts that the actual essence of the problem is lost. This and the fact that an engineer will very seldom leave his focus away from the code that runs the software, doesn’t let an engineer think beyond the software point of view. What is an added advantage to an entrepreneur becomes an obsession and soon turns out to be an obstacle. This I call painting hands red, green and blue because, engineers cannot keep their hands away from code.

‘Network vs Network’
One of the characteristic that amuses me of Engineers is the way they sneer at the mention of group party or group activity. They talk a lot, but only if the discussion is around some ‘cool’ technology. To them rest all meetings, discussions are mundane. Networking to them is when two or more computers talk to each other. Networking to entrepreneurs is ‘socializing’. This is an important transition from ‘machine’ to ‘human’ interface that engineers have to acknowledge in order to become successful entrepreneurs.

‘Passion vs Ego’
Lastly, I would like to close this list of characteristics with a very important distinction, pointed out by my husband, couple of days back. When we say, we are passionate about something; we are actually more egoistic than passionate. Passion soon becomes an ego issue, when it is pursued to prove a point. When an engineer turns into an entrepreneur, very subtly the passion becomes his ego. Now, more than making a good business proposition, he becomes obsessive to prove a point. Not all entrepreneur ventures are meant to be highly acceptable and very successful. To follow your passion means to give in your best but also accepting failure and success with equal weights. Like one of my friends always says “You don’t succeed unless you fail”.

To summarize it all, entrepreneurial or engineering characteristics are very much a matter of mindset. When you are an engineer and want to become an entrepreneur, it is like accepting the fact that you will be sharing the house with your two wives. How happy you want yourself to be depends on how you keep a balance between the two wives. My advice “do not love one over the other”.

What are Marketing Analytics? - Part I Introduction

2006-04-17T04:42:00.000-07:00

Hi,
In keeping with the spirit of the blog, I make a feeble attempt at talking about marketing analytics - a subject that gave me nightmares at XLRI. I write under the umbrella of correction and criticism is solicited. This is a three part story where we try to learn about marketing analytics. This part is just an introduction. The next part will try to delve into the finer points of X-Sell, Retention and Up-Sell; What is the kind of data looked for.

Imagine this. You are the marketing veep of a stationary company. You have a gut feeling that the new white board marker you make is going to be a hit. but your colleague veep finance, the CEO and MD tell you not sell your dreams to them. "Get me numbers" growls the Chairman. Now what the hell are you going to do?? you twiddle your thumbs, bite finger nails to the very roots. so you go to your manager and growl "I want numbers." Now the manager who is a wise guy and an alley cat. He knows all about numbers. But problem is he needs somebody to program the whole damn thing. Now about the products and how they are selling, he has a disks full of raw data. he has to cull useful information from that. For example he has to find which distributor is selling the most. Drill down further from there and find which areas of the distributor reports most sales. Drill down further to the retailer. That is one customer. Then there is the bulk-order customer like corporates who strut around with presentations . The output might look something like this or it can be more graphical. What in effect the manager is trying to do is find out the best probability of making maximum through put and which wholeseller/distributor/retailer is most likely and least likely to meet this requirement.
The next aspect that most marketers worry about is X-Sell (pronounced cross sell). Would a customer move from a one product towards another offering from the same company. Ex. will a credit card user avail of this new "low interest loan" that we have. For this they have the demographics and other parameters. So can the numbers churn out information useful for this. Again the most likely candidates and least likely candidates are found.
The next one is the bane and ruin of many a marketing golden boy. Retention is a worrisome word. How likely is a customer move away from me? The marketer has to come up with solutions to problems like this. Most of you must have changed your car's service center at least once. Now the reasons are aplenty, but the service center (if it wants to) can retain customers if and only if it has some data with it which can be converted to information. You might be surprised, but a simple fact is that customers of a car service center are retained when they are directly in touch with the actual mechanic working on their car and not the handsome face of the suited front office exec. Retention strategies always keep marketers on their feet and make them sleep one eye closed.
The last major aspect is Up-Sell. Make a customer move from his drab master card to a gold card. Will a customer be able to. Remember the form you filled out when applying for a card. All that data is not just thrown away. That form is a wealth of information. Say you applied for a card 3 years ago, the bank calls you and talks about add on cards, life time free gold card and other goodies. Not every one gets such a call. Only Most likely customers are targeted.

Now marketing analytics is about getting that kind of numbers offering drill-down capabilities to get down as far as possible; nay as far down as wanted. It is about culling meaningful information from volumes of data, might be dating as far from a decade or so. Marketing analytics are to a marketer what taste buds are to a wine taster.

Yours Truly
Manikantan a.k.a Mani/Naren

Fast and Furious...

2006-03-05T10:27:00.000-08:00

Whenever I put a project plan in place, what I worry about the most is, when will it get started! In most cases, there are so many stakeholders...and the 'what do you think's ' keep circulating through emails... and take most of the time of the project. In most cases, the project doesn't start atleast two weeks, after the plan was written.

The best way to get started a project is by organizing a meeting. (Will write later on "why I hate meetings")

Call all the stakeholders, discuss the issue, if a consensus is not met, you take the final decision. Assign tasks, give deadlines, decide deliverables and you are done. The project starts there ! Later, you come back, write minutes of meeting, put it in any project management template and circulate to whoever you may want to.

This I call is the "Fast and Furious" way of starting a project. Don't loose the tempo - You really do not need a fore-play here!

How useful are Management Frameworks?

2006-03-03T09:55:00.000-08:00

The usefulness of management frameworks depend entirely on the managers who use them. Be it the most generic 2x2 matrix or any complex analytical tool, they are as good or bad as the managers who will apply business sense to them.

However, these frameworks, definetely give a starting point to first, know what information is needed and second, to put these information in right perspective. This is half work, but the frameworks ensures that this part of the work is done correctly. The quality of information collected, and the analysis of the scenario thus built, is where the real test lies. And just having a 'winner' framework is not enough to have a 'winner' strategy.

Say, for example, your framework suggests, it will rain - so protect yourself. What do you do - stay at home, buy an umbrella, buy a car or get wet? The choice you make here, will have an impact on your work, life etc in different magnitude. Similarly, the choices you make, to protect your business from unforeseen situations, will have an impact on the future of your business. And likewise...for any business decision.

The bottom line here is that it is the choice/ the selection of inputs to frameworks that makes them great. Otherwise, frameworks remain to be the 'works of fame' of the great thinkers who created them first and JUST THAT.