January 2013
6 posts
2 tags
Tablet sales surpass notebook sales this year..... →
2 tags
Startup pitching
Some rough takeaways based on discussion with Colin and David today. Great insights from Mr Albrecht!
Very little time
Focus on key takeaways
Generally team, space, product, traction
Team, always focus, crucial. How much time have founders know each other for, what’s their pedigree?
Space, size, players, gaps, opportunity. Vary focus and time based on how well known / understood the space...
1 tag
Public speaking tips
Engage your audience by getting them to participate in something simple. Its pretty basic, but its amazing what an effect it has in getting them to listen to you.
Classic examples - show of hands - repeat something (simple) - do something (e.g. welcome drumroll, cheer) - give prizes
2 tags
Traffic for user acquisition & retention
Traffic sources
Great article by Adam Nash http://blog.adamnash.com/2012/03/28/user-acquisition-five-sources-of-traffic/
Another great talk & deck by Dave McClure http://500hats.typepad.com/500blogs/2007/09/startup-metrics.html
Here are some thoughts on how these different channels can leveraged for the goals of new user acquisition, retention and resurrection based on analyzing what...
2 tags
Startup funding
Factors I’ve read of and heard that impact startup funding. - Space (e.g. big data, enterprise, location) - Team (e.g. Google, Bing) - Traction (i.e. paying customers, user base) - Product… you need a vision so you’re moving in a certain (good) direction, but this changes with time based on customer & market needs.
This framework can be used to analyze and understand why...
2 tags
Bezos on innovation, differentiation, long term...
#1 rated CEO by hbr
http://blogs.hbr.org/ideacast/2013/01/jeff-bezos-on-leading-for-the.html
Choice nuggets from this interview.
Long term focus
ADI IGNATIUS: Jeff, you’ve said that you like to plant seeds that may take seven years to bear fruit. Doesn’t that mean you’ll lose some battles along the way to companies that have a more conventional two or three-year outlook?
JEFF BEZOS: Well,...
December 2012
8 posts
3 tags
#Metrics: Key tool for PMs in every stage of product development as its the only objective measure of decision making and performance. Answers key questions with a simple question — what metrics are you trying to optimize.
One caveat: Great note from Fred Wilson about early stage products — “Early in a startup, product decisions should be hunch driven. Later on, product decisions...
2 tags
Search, a fundamental part of awesome content...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_search_engines
Amazing how many types of search engines exist! Couple of obeservations
1) The standard types (universal, geo leaders, information type leaders) have existed for a long time, but there’s a new crop based on searching your personal data in cloud services which is really cool!
2) Looking over the best ones for information type, its cool...
1 tag
Samsung is the top cellphone brand in 2012
http://www.isuppli.com/Mobile-and-Wireless-Communications/News/Pages/Samsung-Displaces-Nokia-as-Top-CellphoneBrand-in-2012-and-Takes-Decisive-Smartphone-Lead-Over-Apple.aspx
Samsung’s success has been built on its “fast follower” strategy for design and manufacturing. The company produces dozens of new smartphone models every year that address all segments of the market, from the high end...
2 tags
Goal of metrics -> drive action
Planning - Measure. “you can’t improve what you can’t measure”! - Status. review metrics you care about - Goals. how much do you want to move them - Note: review time series, not snapshots! - Action: Set goals.
Execution (status meetings) - Review metrics => how are we tracking towards goals - Review eng or other work to hit those goals - Note: review time series, not...
1 tag
Being productive in a coffee shop
Good music, pick one that has it, eg Philz in Mission. You always have your own otherwise.
Social env. Social is good at least for me as I like being around people, but with the benefit that there’s no one to pepper you with questions or discussions. Also ppl are generally soft iut of respect for others. If you’re working with friends, it’s even better. You can take the...
Product development thoughts, lessons from PM &...
Thoughts on how the role of a PM developing a product is similar to an entrepreneur building a startup. Founders have a lot more at stake, take much higher risk and as a result think/act very carefully at every step of their decision tree. In general, PMs and engineering teams thinking like founders and startups can be more successful.
I haven’t been a founder myself, so thoughts are based...
Great panel thoughts at Bases 150k kick-off
Great thoughts from the panelists at #bases #150k kick-off — @shl @nestmatt @hosain + hosting by Mary Meeker. Rough notes.
- Two approaches: Solve a big problem, solve it for yourself. - Focus on the WHY & articulate it really well. - Do a few things well - Hiring, be patient, hire the right person.
@Jawbone Jambox, UP (@hosain, Hosain Rahman) - Problem: Lifestyle company, we are with...
1 tag
Surface
Disappointed by the Surface experience (at the Microsoft store).
Typing
- Touch KW is too big and takes up most of the screen. In word, you only see 2 lines visible, shouldn’t you optimize word default layout?
- Smart KW hard to use, miss the feedback loop and it’s not very sensitive either. Why is MS displaying all tablets like that if that’s the case? I guess it’s...
November 2012
7 posts
Why is Android free => Google's scaling strategy
I had a discussion a few days back with a friend about if Google did the right thing by giving Android away for free. Should they have charged a little bit for it… just like Microsoft does with Windows? Could they have retained more “power” i.e. say in what goes in the final product if they did?
My take — they did the right thing and the reason is they never intended to...
How to partner with your manager
Defer v/s Loop in
2x2 of importance v experience, wisdom from @hangtan
Have a lot of experience, not super imp => you can take care of it.
Imp and not a lot of experience => check with your manager.
High imp => always good to have your manager in the loop.
Know the factors your manager cares about which helps inform what’s important => generally partners, users
...
Dialectic action
Context: For companies going through strategic inflection point / “10x force”
Source: Only The Paranoid Survive, Andy Grove
————
Let chaos rein => bottoms-up ideas pulling the company in different directions
Rein the chaos in => top-down look at the directions proposed and choosing one.
Good balance between the two is needed. You’re lost...
3 tags
Why did Google invest in Android and their revenue...
Google bought Android in 2005 (which predates iPhone release, Jun 2007) and released beta in Nov 2007 and first phone in Sep 2008. The fact that they bought a company is indicative of strategic direction to invest heavily in mobile. The question is why?
10x force
If you think about Google’s business model, its ultimate in the advertising business. They make money by showing ads to people...
Daniel Ek talk at Stanford ETL
Nice talk
http://ecorner.stanford.edu/author/daniel_ek
Entrepreneur
- A person who has an itch to fix something
- Has an idea on how to fix that
As a person
- Started first company at 14, didn’t think it was a company
- Wanted to solve a problem
- Humble
- “Im not a visionary, I predicted Skype kind of video chatting wouldn’t be big”
- “I do know how to...
Mobile ad networks
Notable ones currently
- iAd
- adMob
- millennial networks
Interesting that FB is thinking about becoming a mobile ad network. Its goal was to become identity on web. Once you do that, ppl not only connect with your platform to get basic information about you and benefit from the virality of your social network, but FB also benefits by knowing more about you. This is a great virtuous cycle...
Mobile advertising models
Well known models
- Part of the product (twitter, google)
- Virtual goods (zynga, FB w gifts)
- Premium services (LinkedIn, spotify, newspapers)
Obv mobile is much harder and a completely diff model than desktop web to advertise on, especially with the move to apps (harder to drive users to a landing page) and limited space. Also you know much less about the user (no cookies in web browser)....
Pricing
Scale: “price for what the market will bear, price for volume, and then work like the devil so you can make money at that price”, andy grove, only the paranoid survive. The idea is this kind of pricing works mass scale. You can get economies of scale and make investments necessary for that.
The other option is capturing a niche market like Apple did with Macs or iPhone. Then you can...
First mover advantage
How imp is it? Allows you to be one step ahead of the competition and keep grabbing market share ad your competitors catch up.
iPhone - great product. Allowed apple to keep iterating and develop next set of features as android and windows phone caught up. Android tho really killed it once they started.
Facebook / Google - social networking and search existed, but these guys were so much...
Marketing
Brand marketing to get the right feelings associated with the brand or company. This is what Nike does. This is what Microsoft needs to do.
Performance marketing is talking about the specifics of the product to tell users what it can do for you. This is what iPad ads do showing all the great capabilities of the product.
October 2012
4 posts
What drives us?
Nice video talking about what drives people (from Michael Narayan). http://vimeo.com/13677854
Take money off the table, but what really leads to great work is
- autonomy: being self-directed. e.g. hackweek, 20% time at Google. leads to great innovation & ideas, people put more into it than normal work.
- mastery: be great at what you do, accomplishments are the output of this
- purpose:...
September 2012
1 post
What Instagram did right
Several good posts on this topic. Some common themes from
Product
1. What is it for => Photo sharing
2. Why use me => People love photos, fun & easy, market leader
3. Focus on mobile with smartphone cameras made it scale
4. Creation is FUN with filters and makes photos look beautiful
5. Simple and beautiful interface to consume.
6. Public follow model means follow anyone,...
April 2012
1 post
November 2011
1 post
What's wrong with iOS5: Great vision, poor...
I’ve been using the iPhone 4s for over a month now and owned a 3gs for 2 1/2 years before that. I loved the iPhone, why you ask? It did the most important things really well. This is well established and been written about several extensively. Now let’s look at my experience with the iPhone 4s, great vision on the features but very poorly executed in my opinion. This makes me sad...
October 2011
3 posts
1 tag
Instant gratification
Its the “I want it now” feeling. This is why brick and mortar stores are still alive since people can go get it now as compared to waiting for a few days. Think what Amazon sales would look like if they could build a teleporting machine for all the physical goods it sells!
Taking a tangent into philosophy land (since its so hard for me to avoid it), I won’t go as far as saying...
1 tag
Nostalgia and the emotional connection
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suRDUFpsHus
Just finished watching the first season of Mad Men on Netflix, and I finally feel like I’ve found a dependable source of entertainment :). I enjoy drama in a very different way than I enjoy thrillers and comedy. Its the emotional connection, and producing that is hard. To set the bar, good drama for me is movies like Godfather, 12 Angry Men,...
1 tag
Online vs TV revenue models
I was reading an interesting article on Inc about GetGlue and a related thought about the different revenue models struck me - I pay for cable and still have to watch ads while in the online software world, ads are a way of generating revenue on free services and you can pay a premium for an ad-free experience. It’s amazing how the models are so different.
Cable providers - In the case of...
September 2011
1 post
1 tag
Personalized search on desktop
Finally making the move to an online blog to share my thoughts (if anyone cares to listen ;))
This problem has been bugging me for a while, and I don’t know why Windows and all browsers suck at this! The idea is very simple - allow me to easily revisit something (a website, document, etc.) that I’ve been to in the past. Here are a couple of pet peeves.
Browsers – I want to revisit a URL...
