March 2012
11 posts
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The HEART framework
Kerry Rodden, a UX researcher at YouTube, wrote one of the best posts I’ve seen recently on managing product with meaningful metrics.
Her team has developed something she calls “the HEART framework.” It has similarities to Dave McClure’s Startup Metrics for Pirates, but it goes a level deeper to break out how one arrives at a given metric: first set Goals, then look for...
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“A reformed thief, telling of his success, put it this way: “I’m telling you, if...”
– On human beings’ tendancy to explain away anomalies. J. Maclean (1983), Secrets of a superthief (New York: Berkley Books), 108. Cited by Don Norman in Design of Everyday Things.
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“1. Insert quarter. 2. Avoid Klingons.”
– Instruction manual to original Star Trek arcade game by Atari, as recounted by Steve Jobs to Walter Isaacson. Illustrates the virtue of extreme simplicity in consumer products.
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A metaphor for your product
Finding the direction and voice of a technology product early on can be one of the most challenging tasks an entrepreneur faces. Human beings are pattern recognition machines and, as such, products that make direct reference to objects or experiences we have in the physical world tend to resonate better with users.
Numerous examples of this phenomenon litter the landscape of tech:
GUIs: Apple...
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Search must be reinvented for mobile.
Sometime over the next 12 months, more people will be accessing the web through mobile devices than PCs. Adding that to the time people spend in “apps,” the time people spend computing will overwhelmingly shift towards mobile. We are already seeing leading indicators, like the fact that since late 2010 more mobile devices ship each quarter than PCs. The momentum in this trend is...
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WatchJens Begemann, founder & CEO of Highland portfolio company Wooga, presented the this slide show at the Game Developers Conference recently. Jens is an exceptional leader and is amazingly self-reflective in this deck, which takes you through the highs and lows of his business over the last 3 years.
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So you want to be an analyst?
I spend a lot of time telling undergrads they shouldn’t go into banking after graduation. I tell them they shouldn’t delay doing something they like in order to get some “training.”
Most don’t listen. If you’re one of those, take a look at these charts from Portrait of the Young Grad as an Analyst. Very apt, and like most good humor, they are steeped in the...
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Dear CEOs, tell Congress to pass S. 1933.
If you are the CEO or CFO of a venture-backed company, I urge you to sign this petition by 5pm EST on 3/8 for Congress to pass S. 1933: Reopening American Capital Markets to Emerging Growth Companies Act of 2011. This bill is a well thought out way to lower the unnecessary burdens of going public for companies with less than $1 billion of gross revenues.
Access to capital markets for small...
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Epic interview questions
Matt Lauzon, who runs an online jewelry retailer called Gemvara, is something of a gentleman philosopher. We had lunch together this weekend over at Harvard Business School during the Entrepreneurship Conference. During an uncharacteristic silence, he looked me right in the eye and asked me:
What do you think?
I paused. There was no prior conversation he was referencing. He just wanted to know...
