Archive for January, 2007
Best and Worst Decisions (via Startupping)
Great post on Startupping in which entrepreneurs are asked about their best and worst decisions. Some that stayed with me: Ross Mayfield РBiggest Mistake — Not taking bigger risks earlier. Maybe because in hindsight all risks are clear, but I always find myself regretting not taking bigger risks earlier. For example, open sourcing the [...]
How Amazon Does A/B Testing (via the Winery Web Site Report et al.)
One of Brad’s posts led me to The Winery Website Report Blog which so far has been fantastic. The initial post was about “failing to address a point of pain” in talking about the ‘hiatus’ of the Winery Report. It led me to a post titled “What should you put on your home page?” In [...]
Feedburner Rocks (Great Customer Service)
Since I started blogging, I’ve been using Feedburner’s tools to manage my feed and to check on site stats etc. It’s a fantastic service and I find myself logging in every day to see how things are going. Over the past couple of days, I noticed that clicking through on certain links in the Site [...]
Plan for multiple releases of new features
The first release of a feature is often just a foundation for the iteration that is going to be required for the feature to be successful. Just sticking up something like a link to sign up for an alert isn’t sufficient. You’ve got to merchandise it, track how it’s being used, improve the parts that [...]
Got Blist?
Matt gave Dave and I a quick demo of Blist’s software last week and I have to say I came away very impressed with what they’ve been working on. They’ve clearly thought a lot about the user experience and it shows. They’ve innovated a lot on the UI front and I saw some things I [...]
Grocery Coupons
We just released grocery coupons on Judy’s Book. It’s a click-to-print model via a partner which isn’t the best user experience, but it’s something. I’m not a couponer myself, but these are a great way to save on regular purchases. They are product, not store-specific so can be used wherever you shop regularly. You can [...]
Get the basics right first
When creating anything, you’ve got to get the basics in place first. Once you’ve done, that you can build on it. This sounds trite, but this quote from Fast Company’s series on Customer Service illustrates the issue perfectly When Jeanne Bliss, a 25-year veteran of the customer-experience wars and the author of Chief Customer Officer [...]
The Best Way to help your Business? Help Your Customers Have Fun
Sounds obvious, but it’s easy to forget. Mark Hurst’s post on Richard Branson prompted me to read the Fast Company article he was talking about. It’s fantastic. One thing jumped out at me while reading it: What Branson understood two decades ago is just now beginning to be embraced by other corporate leaders: We should [...]
Biometrics to the rescue
There’s a hilarious post by Eric Sink about setting secure passwords and fingerprint sensors that you have to read. It’s very reminiscent of the old “I’ll put this in a safe place” at which point of course, you promptly proceed to forget it. downloadable films megamind
What's your 75 year marketing plan?
Alison sent me an article which contained a pointer a piece called “Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?” by Edward Jay Epstein in the Atlantic Monthly in 1982 that completely blew me away. It talks about the birth of the modern diamond trade and the moves made by DeBeers to not only control [...]