How many times have you seen this? A company gets ready to roll out a new product or service that starts out as one great idea, and slowy evolves into a multi-featured giant nightmare by adding new components over and over through the course of time. This is the “that’s good, but wouldn’t it be great if we added this?” syndrome better known as feature creep. A few things added to improve on the main goal may be okay, but it is best to stay on target and keep things simple. Unless your product is supposed to be an all-in-one swiss army knife of products, take a step back and go to the basics. This means making sure your product delivers on its original promise and goals, and retains its definition.
After a nice, week long vacation I return to my pc. It’s strange how much I rely on using a pc in my life yet I went on for one week without missing it much. I did sneak in a few peaks at my email, but otherwise my vacation was computer free.
Coming back, I see there is a lot of work ahead of me. I will be writing more now that I am back again. In the mean time, take a look at this neat piece of innovation from Microsoft, called Microsoft Surface. It looks like something from the future right in your home. How practical, affordable, and the likelihood of it catching on remains to be seen, but the nerdy side of me drools over the possibilities.
I always love a neat marketing office. There is something about a creative environment that is different from the normal white-wall cubicle stereotype. Guy Kawasaki points us to Threadless, who has one of the coolest offices I’ve seen to date. Take a look at both. You won’t regret it.
Many people go through their lives in what they believe are safe waters. We all have our aspirations and goals we would like to accomplish, but it always seems that the more life altering ones don’t always see their way through. Some never even get tried. For some, they look back and wonder, “What if I did that? I would have been at this point by now.” For example, a college student dabbling in the idea of starting a web business selling interesting guitar pick designs. He may think, “that would be a neat idea…I bet I could make some money doing that” and never follow through with that. Years later he may be kicking himself for never trying, and not even bother to try it now.
Think about all of the things you’ve always wanted to do but never did, and how you would be today. Some of the things you may try will succeed, others will fail. In the end, though, you will still earn valuable life experience no matter what the result. Taking action makes the best of us.
I see two major blocks preventing people from turning their ideas and life changes into reality. Fear of the unknown and ill-conceived, self limitations.
People stick to what they know because it is easy, they know the results, and don’t have to worry about failure and not knowing the outcome. The realization must occur that without any change or even trying no growth can occur, and can even lead to stagnation. No one ever said change was easy, but it isn’t as hard as you may think. It just requires motivation and follow through.
The other notion of self limitations is a very large impediment on your progress. By self limitations I mean not believing their is more to yourself than what you see. You may be a restaurant manager, and just think of yourself as that without pursuing other avenues…hopping from one restaurant to the next. Here’s the thing. You are not just that. There is no rule saying that you always have to work in restaurant. There is no law telling you to do so, and nothing is preventing you from learning and doing something else. Want to start a business selling decorative pepper shakers online? Research how to start a business and get your feet wet. I don’t care if your dreams are as extreme as running away to the islands and building ships inside bottles. It’s possible, you just have to do it.
It’s very tiresome and sad for me to hear people talk about things they want to do with their lives and never set anything in motion to progress. No more thinking you can’t do it, or it’s only for the experts. You can become the expert. Don’t think and wonder what if. Just do!
Google recently updated Google Analytics. With it, there are some fancy new graphics and features. While it looks nice, some of it can feel a distracting with its overwhelming set of features. The key is not to get too distracted by all of the bells and whistles and be able to stay on target with your goals. Seth Godin summed it up well in his recent post.
It’s really easy to let ego take over and think about just trying to increase site traffic, but don’t forget that there was an original reason for the site in the first place! Unless your purpose was to just drive more traffic and create awareness, and you have no other conversion goals, then you may want to think more on how Google Analytics can help you attain your original goals.
Working on a project can take quite some time. During that time it may be easy to lose focus on the main goal. Ideas change, things restructure, and you may find yourself with an end product that is nothing like the original plan.
This is why it is important to have good planning from the start. Always start with the basics. Even if you “think” you know what they are, really think about them and write them down. Think about your goals and any other basics you need, then look at your project and see if it is meeting them.
Sometimes we get caught up in trivial details and lose site of our core. Whenever you feel lost in a project, or feel it is going off track, recenter it and look back to your basics. All of your answers are right there. This is the key from turning something like great, focused, marketing piece, to a 9 month project that is an amalgamated mess.
When trying to touch base with a customer and maintain some level of brand loyalty, it is important to take note of detail. If you are sending a personalized message, proper care should be taken to ensure the right name goes on it, and if there is code involved, that it is properly tested. The image below is a case in point.
I received this message from Microsoft regarding my XBox 360 Live membership. The last time I checked, however, my name was not “Failed to convert to string from variant type 1″. Now this isn’t an email from some random guy on the internet, this is Microsoft. A company that prides itself in hiring elite programmers and other intellects. Everything else about the 360’s service has been top notch, so it seems strange to see such a blatant oversight occur in this email. Having worked with mass emailing before, I can understand oversights…during the testing phase, not with the letter that is launched. Considering this email gets sent to people across the U.S. everyday, I wonder how many others experienced this, and what their reactions were?
Bottom line, if you plan on making good customer contact, test thoroughly and always proof read. It only takes a few minutes of your time and you could prevent inserting your foot into your mouth.
I was reading Ron McDaniel’s post on the Buzzoodle blog and found a great tool for showing appreciation to commentors. The DoFollow plugin for Wordpress allows comments to be followed by Google, helping a site increase its ranking.
The plugin is now installed on this site so that if someone posts a good comment, it will be followed by Google. Just another way of spreading some love in the blogosphere. If you are a Wordpress blogger and want to help others, too, check it out!
I’m coming up with a new design for one of our websites and am running into a snag. I started work on it more today, looking through the web for more ideas, trying some on my own, but nothing. I have a basic skeletal structure, but that’s it. My mind is shooting me blanks.
Part of the dilemma: I could spend time pouring over other sites in our industry, which I have done yesterday for a bit, but promptly stopped. I realized something. How can I make a website that stands out from the rest if it looks just like the rest? I’m not talking about going totally crazy and creating something unrecognizable, but at least something with its own look.
Maybe I should draw inspiration elsewhere from more unlikely sources such as life experience, or something even as obscure as a restaurant menu or a really neat building. Strange, yes, but different, and possibly refreshing, nonetheless. That’s my say of the moment. I’m sure something will come to me soon. Perhaps its best for me not to think about it too hard.
Doing business abroad? Worry about your safety overseas? When people think of potential threats in international waters, they commonly think of either terrorism, plane crashes, or foreign disease. The number one killer may surprise you.
This article by the New York Times has some great insight on the dangers of driving when in a foreign country. Read it and keep it in mind if you are ever doing business overseas.
