37signals Thinking

I’ve been using 37signals’ Basecamp for a couple of years now and have been sporadically reading their blog and some of their book for even longer.  Over the last couple of months I’ve been reading their blog more regularly and listening to their podcasts and I have to say I find their story, thinking, and approach both refreshing and inspiring.  Some of my favorite ideas and insights (summarized in my own words):

• The default response to new feature ideas should be “no”.  New feature ideas should go through a lot of scrutiny before being implemented.  Keep it simple.
• Ditch the functional/UI specs.  They chew up a lot of time and don’t ad much value.
• If you start a new company: (a) you don’t have to take out a loan or get VC funding, (b) remember that the work patterns you set early will probably continue permanently,  (c) don’t start out giving away your product for free.
• Don’t try to become the next Facebook or Twitter.  The odds are very small that it will happen.  Shooting to become a $1M is much more feasible.   If you charge a monthly subscription rate of $40 and have 2000 customers, your revenue would be about $1M.  That’s pretty reasonable.  If you address a niche really well, 2000 customers should not be a huge problem.
• Avoid chopping up your day with meetings, email, IMs, etc.  You are much more productive with a few large blocks of time than you are with multiple small chunks.
• There are a lot of large, old companies around.  It seems as though most startups have the goal of prepping the company to be bought by a large old company.  All the fresh thinking and ideas inherent in a startup get squashed by the large old company.  What’s going to happen in several years when we no longer have startups growing into large new companies?  Much of the potential innovation will be lost.
• Treat your customers like people.  Shoot straight and speak/write/act like a human.  (Something near and dear to my heart.)

There are more but these are the ones that have stuck with me.

I appreciate 37Signals’ candor and their willingness to share their ideas and lessons learned.   Questioning long-standing assumptions and the status quo is always good.

Recommended reading/viewing/listening:

• Getting Real
  They’ve posted a free online version or you can buy the PDF or hardcopy.
• Podcast
  Especially episodes 2, 3, and 4
• David Heinemeier Hansson of 37signals at Startup School 2008
  Video of co-founder, David Heinemeier presenting to students and Startup School 2008.
• Top 20 Blog Posts of 2009
  Their most viewed posts.

Understanding the Groundswell

I just finished reading “Groundswell, Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies” by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research. As you can probably figure out from the title, the book is about social media and how to use them to the benefit of your organization.

Most business books I read seem to be about twice as long as they really should be and I end up never finishing them. I read “Groundswell” cover to cover over the course of two weeks. (Which is pretty fast for me.) The authors have a great writing style and the book has a great balance of theory, case studies, and practical application.

Here are some of the high level learnings I found valuable (in no particular order).

1. It’s all about conversations.
   Between people, not organizations. Dialog, not monologue.

2. You need to manage your company’s external web identity as carefully as your “official” web presence.
   There may be as much (or more) content about your company and products outside your web site as there is on your web site. You can’t control it but you can listen and respond to it.
3. Pay attention to where your target audience is in the continuum of participation.
   The authors define what they call the “Social Technographics Ladder” to describe the different levels of participation in/with social technologies (aka, the Groundswell). It’s important to understand where your target audience is on the ladder in order for you to make use of the appropriate social technologies.
4. Listen to the conversation already taking place about your offerings and your company.
   Traditionally, Marketing has been about organizations speaking (or shouting) their message at anyone who will listen (whether they wanted to or not). You can learn a lot if you stop talking and listen to what your customers and potential customers are saying. Oh yeah, and then act on what they say.
5. Joining the conversation can transform your company’s culture from the inside out.
   To compete, companies are going to have to learn to listen and converse with their customers. This does not mean you should set up a “listening” department in your Marketing organization. It means everyone in the company needs to learn how to listen. At most companies, that’s a significant culture change.
6. It’s all about conversations.
   Did I mention this yet? “The Cluetrain Manifesto” made the call ten years ago. They were right.

This an important topic that everyone involved in any type of organization needs to understand. (Or at least start to understand – it’s an area in constant, rapid change.) If you want to learn more, “Groundswell” is a great place to start.

Book Highlights: "Clued In"

I just finished reading “Clued In : How to Keep Customers Coming Back Again and Again” by Lewis Carbone and thought I’d share a couple of highlights.

(In a separate entry I summarized my experience through the first 50 pages of this book.)

Overall, it was a well-rounded book covering both the “Why” and the “How” of Customer Experience. The first half gives some good illustrations of the importance of actively managing your company’s experience (Howard Johnson vs. Disney). The second half discusses methodologies, processes, and tools for developing and managing the customer experience.

Some of the highlights for me:

• An experience-focused culture/perspective within a company is very different from a manufacturing-focused culture/perspective. In the former, products are an element of an experience delivered to customers. In the latter, the product is the center of attention and everything else revolves around selling the product.
• He called out the difference between Brand and Experience. The Brand is how I feel about the company. The Experience is how I feel during and after an engagement with that company.
• The author talks about designing and managing “Experience Clues*”. Clues are the various elements that combine to shape an experience. These could be the words used, the sounds I hear, the type of furniture in a space, level of cleanliness, or the speed of a process.
• Clues can be grouped into three categories:
  1. Functional Clues* – functionality or process
  2. Humanic Clues* – stimuli produced by people
  3. Mechanic Clues* – physical elements such as sights, sounds, textures, etc.

  A useful way to think about the elements of an experience I thought.
  (* Note: These terms have been trademarked by the author.)

• The way in which the Clues interact with each other is as important as the individual Clues themselves.
• Some studies have shown that up to 95% of what influences someone’s perception of an experience is sub-concscious. (So much for focus groups.)
• He had some potentially useful tools and frameworks for managing and measuring experiences but I’m thinking I’ll just reference them as needed.

A well-written book with some good perspectives and information. Worth a read.