Archive for February, 2012
February 29th, 2012
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“Even great art is lost without a buyer.”
Lenny Greenberg
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“Every day is a dramatic moment. Every day you have the opportunity to change you life for the better. Tomorrow looks open in your calendar…”
Darius A. Monsef IV in “I Haven’t Been Drunk in 3 Years and I’ve Been Partying Way More Than You“
More context:
And then I found out I had cancer under my right eye.
Basal Cell Carcinoma. I was soon told it wasn’t terminal, but having any kind of cancer in your twenties comes as a shock. I wasn’t going to die from this cancer but was going to get a big ol scar smack on my face.
If you’re going to get a reminder that life is fragile and you should be living it to the fullest, in the middle of your face is actually a pretty good place to have it.
My life had a dramatic moment to help me make a change, but you don’t need to get cancer to change. Every day is a dramatic moment. Every day you have the opportunity to change you life for the better. Tomorrow looks open in your calendar…
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“Avoid hiring unlucky people. Take half the applicant’s resumes and throw them in the trash.”
Brandon Smietana (@RKHilbertSpace)
Two observations:
- This same process when applied by unlucky managers prevents them from hiring lucky people.
- Applying this approach recursively, that is repeatedly discarding the unlucky half of the pile of resumes will result in the selection of the luckiest candidate in the pile.
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“The first thing to decide before you walk into in any negotiation is what to do if the other chap says no.” Ernest Bevin
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“We often make people pay dearly for what we think we give them.”
Marie Josephine de Suin de Beausacq (Comtesse Diane)
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“Altruism is a hard master, but so is opportunism.”
Mignon McLaughlin
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“There is nothing worse than doing the wrong thing well.”
Peter Drucker
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“Be more than you seem to be.”
Frederick the Great
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“If you want to catch a fish, first learn to think like a fish.”
Maori proverb
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“Success: achieving one’s goals. Wealth is a measure of success only if wealth is the goal. Too often people judge the success of others by their own goals.”
Peter Siviglia in “Recipes from the Top of the Food Chain“
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“Your first try will be wrong. Budget and design for it.”
Aza Raskin quoted in “Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure”
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“Maybe the reason we become entrepreneurs is a secret to us until we come face-to-face with it. Maybe the reason we become entrepreneurs is to learn our limits.”
Matthew Wensing
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“The initial implementation of a superior design is always inferior to the final implementation of an inferior design.”
Gerald Weinberg in “Rethinking Systems Analysis and Design“
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”Wherever we look upon this earth, the opportunities take shape within the problems.”
Nelson Rockefeller
h/t to Rick Wagoner
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“To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.”
Marilyn vos Savant
h/t to Rick Wagoner
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“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters in the end.”
Ursula K. Leguin
h/t to Rick Wagoner (What can I say, three in a row, the guy can pick a good quote).
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Foresight is not about predicting the future, it’s about minimizing surprise.
Karl Schroeder in Beyond Prediction
He also offers foresight consulting and has this description of strategic foresight on his home page.
Strategic foresight is something of a growth industry, with new degree-granting programmes popping up everywhere. Foresight–futurism, if you want to call it that–has traditionally been something of a black art, and also a subject of well-deserved suspicion when practiced by self-styled gurus who claim to be able to foretell the future. It’s good that it’s becoming more widely practiced, and also good that some standards of professional conduct and ability are starting to be recognized. The most basic is this: that we all recognize that no one can predict the future, and we don’t pretend to. You can’t predict the future, but you can work to minimize surprise. Knowing what’s going to happen is impossible, but being prepared for the unforeseen… is just barely possible. And that’s what foresight practitioners seek to do. The consequences of a little foresight can be billions of dollars saved, or many lives. And that makes it worth doing, difficult as it is.
See also his guests posts on Wicked Problems on Charlie Stross’ blog: Wicked(1) and Wicked(2)
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“If you want to make an easy job seem hard, just keep putting it off.”
Olin Miller
h/t to Rick Wagoner (Four in a row, perhaps you should cut out the middleman follow his tweets directly).
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“Use no way as a way, you are the way.
Use no limitation as the limitation.”
Bruce Lee
mottoes from Jeet Kun Do
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“An hypothesis is a proposed explanation of the way things work.”
Josh Seiden in “Replacing Requirements with Hypotheses“
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“Preach every day, but only use words if they are really necessary.”
Paulo Coehlo
h/t to Rick Wagoner from https://twitter.com/#!/paulocoelho/statuses/170629375690145792
Brad Pierce wrote in to note “Preach the Gospel always and if necessary use words.” frequently mis-attributed to St. Francis.
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February 28th, 2012
I sometimes see folks at a Bootstrapper Breakfasts® make brief presentations where they are looking for co-founders but say that they are in “stealth mode” or are otherwise unwilling to describe any specifics of what they are working on. For the most part they get no response: neither direct interest from people at the table nor offers to connect them with someone who might be a fit. If you are looking for a co-founder you should at least be able to talk in detail about the problem you want to tackle and your background and why it’s helpful for solving the problem if you want to energize people enough to contact you.
Even if your firm is in “stealth mode” you should disclose your bio and background since that’s the first thing you are going to ask someone who contacts you. If you are a business oriented entrepreneur looking for a technical co-founder(s) to work for equity you need to pass three tests almost immediately:
- Is this a problem I want to work on, will it impact people’s lives
- Who will be on the team with me, what are their prior accomplishments
- If it’s business people: what traction have they already demonstrated on this project? How do I know that they can sell what I develop.
February 27th, 2012
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Recorded discussion on Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, Clayton M. Christensen’s The Innovator’s DNA chapter 4, recorded on April 25, 2012. Jeff Allison, former VP of Engineering at Cisco Systems joins us to discuss observing.
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Chapter 4:
Discovery Skill #3 Observing
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The Innovator’s DNA
by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, Clayton M. Christensen
Practical and provocative, The Innovator’s DNA is an essential resource for individuals and teams who want to strengthen their innovative prowess.
The authors outline five discovery skills that distinguish innovative entrepreneurs and executives from ordinary managers: Associating, Questioning, Observing, Networking, and Experimenting.
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Additional Book Reviews
February 23rd, 2012
Create and Deliver Surprisingly Compelling Software Demonstrations
“Do The Last Thing First” — the recipe for a Great Demo!
When: Wednesday, May 23, 2012 8 am – 5 pm
Where: Moorpark Hotel, 4241 Moorpark Ave, San Jose CA 95129
For out of town attendees: The Moorpark is located 400 feet from the Saratoga Ave exit on Hwy 280, about 7 miles from San Jose Airport and 35 miles from San Francisco Airport Hotels Near Great Demo! Workshop
Cost: $620
Before May. 1: $595
This is an interactive workshop with Peter Cohan geared especially for you who demonstrate B-to-B software to your customer and channels. Bring a copy of your demo and be prepared to present it — we’ll help you turn it into a surprisingly compelling demo!
This seminar outlines a framework for the creation and delivery of improved demos and presentations to enable increased success in the marketing, sale, and deployment of software and related products. Whether it’s face to face, in a webinar, as a screencast, or as a self-running demo the ability to present the key benefits of your software product is essential to generating prospect interest and ultimately revenue. Peter Cohan of The Second Derivative gives us the recipe for a Great Demo!
“I am confident that with the insights gained from your workshop we will land more customers in fewer iterations.”
Lav Pachuri, CEO, Xleron Inc.
“Peter Cohan’s Great Demo method really works. It helped us win DEMOgod, and it has allowed us to explain our offering much more clearly to prospects.”
Chaim Indig, CEO, Phreesia
(See “DEMOgod Winner Phreesia Praises Peter Cohan Training“)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Peter Cohan, Principal at Second Derivative
Community Web Site: www.DemoGurus.com
Peter Cohan is the founder and a principal of The Second Derivative, a consultancy focused on helping software organizations improve their sales and marketing results. In July 2004, he enabled and began moderating DemoGurus®, a community web exchange dedicated to helping sales and marketing teams improve their software demonstrations. In 2003, he authored Great Demo!, a book that provides methods to create and execute compelling demonstrations. The 2nd edition of Great Demo! was published March 2005.
Before The Second Derivative, Peter founded the Discovery Tools® business unit at Symyx Technologies, Inc., where he grew the business from an empty spreadsheet into a $30 million operation. Prior to Symyx, Peter served in marketing, sales, and management positions at MDL Information Systems, a leading provider of scientific information management software. Peter currently serves on the Board of Directors for Collaborative Drug Discovery, Inc. and the board of advisors for Excellin, Inc. He holds a degree in chemistry.
Peter has experience as an individual contributor, manage and senior management in marketing, sales, and business development. He has also been, and continues to be, a customer.
Agenda:
- 8:00 AM Breakfast & Registration
- 8:15 AM Workshop begins
- Noon Lunch
- 1 PM Workshop Continues
- 5 PM Wrap up
Seating is Limited
For more information: Theresa 408-252-9676 events@skmurphy.com
February 22nd, 2012
On Wed-Feb-22 at Noon PST the Book Club For Business Impact will cover lessons learned applying a number of techniques for associating from chapter 2 of the “Innovator’s DNA” by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clayton Christensen. These techniques will include
- Forcing Odd Combinations: juxtaposing incongruities
- Random Combinations – Bigrams, Trigrams, and Madlibs
- Think Like a Different Person or Firm
- Compare Two Activities (e.g “like X for Y”)
- Zoom In / Zoom Out: balancing a view of the big picture with a focus on key details
- Lego Thinking: remixing current ideas and capabilities
- Curiosity Box: collect ideas & objects that are interesting or potentially useful
- SCAMPER: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Magnify/Minimize, Put To Another Use, Eliminate, Reverse/Re-Arrange
- If time permits we may cover additional techniques not mentioned in book:
On-Line Event: Lessons Learned Applying Tips for Associating From “The Innovator’s DNA”
When: Wed-Feb-22 at Noon PST
Register: http://skmdna120222.eventbrite.com
Series: 5 Key Discovery Skills from “The Best Book of 2011 – The Innovator’s DNA”
The skill of associating is not succinctly defined in one place in the book but I would offer this definition: associating is connecting disparate facts, observations, and stories to enable compelling combinations that form new business ideas. In a footnote to Chapter 2 on associating the authors note
We prefer the term associational thinking to pattern recognition because the latter term seems to suggest that there is an identifiable pattern innovative entrepreneurs recognize. As innovators described how they discovered or recognized ideas for innovative new ventures, it seemed to us that while they connected disparate ideas together, they often did not recognize a pattern, or even recognize that it would be a viable business opportunity. They often discovered things that fit together through trial and error and adaption.
Sometimes it even takes a while before you “know it when you see it.” I think in large part associational thinking involves sensemaking. Here are two relevant citations. The first is from “Organizing and the Process of Sensemaking” by Weick, Sutcliffe, and Obstfeld in Organization Science Vol. 16, No. 4, July–August 2005, pp. 409–421
Sensemaking involves turning circumstances into a situation that is comprehended explicitly in words and that serves as a springboard into action.
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To deal with ambiguity, interdependent people search for meaning, settle for plausibility, and move on. These are moments of sensemaking…
Most startups settle for plausibility and plow forward because they will be out of time and budget by the time they achieve certainty.
The second and much longer citation is from “Making Sense of Sensemaking 2: A Macrocognitive Model” by Gary Klein, Brian Moon, and Robert R. Hoffman in IEEE Intelligent Systems Vol. 21, No. 5 September/October 2006
When people try to make sense of events, they begin with some perspective, viewpoint, or framework–however minimal. For now, let’s use a metaphor and call this a
frame. We can express frames in various meaningful forms, including stories, maps, organizational diagrams, or scripts, and can use them in subsequent and parallel processes. Even though frames define what count as data, they themselves actually shape the data (for example, a house fire will be perceived differently by the homeowner, the firefighters, and the arson investigators). Furthermore, frames change as we acquire data. In other words, this is a two way street: Frames shape and define the relevant data, and data mandate that frames change in nontrivial ways.
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Sensemaking can involve elaborating the frame by adding details, and questioning the frame and doubting the explanations it provides. A frame functions as a hypothesis about the connections among data. One reaction to doubt is to explain away troublesome data and preserve the frame.
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Questioning the frame leads us to reconsider—to reject the initial frame and seek to replace it with a better one. We might compare alternative frames to determine which seems most accurate. Or we might simply be mystified by the events.
Anyone who has stumbled through a sequence of pivots into a pirouette can appreciate that last observation.
Please join us Feb-22-2012 at Noon PST for an interactive panel discussion on techniques for generating and spotting compelling new product ideas. Register at http://skmdna120222.eventbrite.com
February 21st, 2012
A system that allowed small business to simply hire people with a handshake and pay them with a check, notifying the government once a year of amounts paid and to whom (and with the ability to deduct all reported wages from gross receipts for tax purposes) would likely increase the rate of business formation and hiring and if anything would result in a net increase of revenue for the government as more jobs were created and as fewer start ups and small enterprises would chose to operate under the table.
Walter Russell Mead in “Beyond Blue 5: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs“
This is how we do business with our customers and our partners. On a handshake with a one page (sometimes longer) plain English description of the project goals and deliverables from all parties. We pay by check, take checks, and also accept credit cards. We are often the first outside consultant–except for an attorney or an accountant–that a startup has retained. We try to be easy to do business with by focusing on shared value creation and client satisfaction.
Feel free to contact us to see how we can help your team find early customers and early revenue for your technology products or software enabled services.
February 16th, 2012
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Recorded discussion on Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, Clayton M. Christensen’s The Innovator’s DNA chapter 3, recorded on March 28, 2012. Sarah Gray, Ethan Thorman, and Mark Cook join Steve Hogan and Sean Murphy to discuss lessons learned asking questions to foster innovation.
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Chapter 3:
Discovery Skill #2 Questioning
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The Innovator’s DNA
by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, Clayton M. Christensen
Practical and provocative, The Innovator’s DNA is an essential resource for individuals and teams who want to strengthen their innovative prowess.
The authors outline five discovery skills that distinguish innovative entrepreneurs and executives from ordinary managers: Associating, Questioning, Observing, Networking, and Experimenting.
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Complete SKMurphy’s book club list
Remind me of upcoming events |
In addition to the United States, dial-in numbers are available for Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom.
GoToMeeting also provides a VoiP option. |
Additional Book Reviews
February 10th, 2012
My father used to complain that a friend of his would make his doctor practice veterinary medicine. The doctor would ask him what was wrong and his friend would reply in a non-committal way. Some entrepreneurs, especially in the early market, seem to prefer veterinary marketing: running tests and making changes in their application without actually talking to their prospects.
If you offer a trial period for your software here are some ways you can spark a conversation to understand how their evaluation is progressing:
- Ask to schedule a phone call: E-mail asking if you can have a support person or one of the founders who has a support / service mindset call them to see how it’s going.
- Include a phone number / skype number in your e-mails to them.
- Add a chat service like Liveperson or OggChat so that they can chat with you.
- Schedule regular webinars where you could trigger a conversation. Ask your customers to take part, structure it as an interview or lessons learned session not a sales pitch
- Schedule open “office hours where prospects in who are in active evaluation or those who are just the curious about your product can call in to a conference line or skype session and ask questions.
- Ask your customers what specifically triggered their realization of the true benefits of your offer. Write up their answers as a simple narrative and have them review and approve it. Consider posting these stories (case studies) on your web site so that your “yet to be enlightened” prospects may also understand.
Especially in the early market you don’t need to worry about scaling a B2B sales process. You can employ methods that are very time intensive to get a deep understanding of each step in your prospects journey to becoming a customer.
Make changes that target specific symptoms suggested by prospects or needs suggested by customers. Make it a priority to have real conversations with your prospects and appreciate the value of being surprised by what they say. Here are some related blog posts
It’s also worth contacting those who don’t convert who are no longer evaluating (e.g. have not logged in for two weeks, account has lapsed,…) and asking them how they solved the problem that led them to signup for an evaluation of your service. Even if only a few answer you may learn quite about who your real competitors are and why some prospects decide not to complete the evaluation.
February 9th, 2012
I have been really encouraged by comments I have received on some recent blog posts:
- Fantastic textual content and additionally a great web site.
- Your authored material is stylish.
- You are wonderful! Thanks!
- WOW just what I was looking for.
- I truly like your way of blogging.
- Thank you for another excellent post.
It’s a shame that they ended up in my spam folder. Apparently folks who sell pharmaceuticals, toner ink, and mortgage refinancing, not to mention site owners who host a wide variety of video clips all really really appreciate this blog.
As for you, my fifteen readers, please let me know what I can do to improve your reading experience.
Update–later that same night–A real comment from
Will Sargent that did make my day:
I read your blog and appreciate how to the point you are. You have a good healthy balance between practical discussion and idealistic views. Your blog is an example to others.
February 8th, 2012
Max Bloom and Peter Bloom–yes they are brothers–have opened a new co-working space in Santa Clara called “Ground Floor Silicon Valley.” The 15,000 square foot facility is located at 2030 Duane Avenue, Santa Clara, CA 95054
It’s an interesting facility that has only been open a few weeks. The facility includes about 4,000 square feet of warehouse space that the brothers are interesting in making available to e-commerce companies. From their description:
Ground Floor offers independent professionals, entrepreneurs and small companies open floor plan workspaces, conference rooms, private offices and a training classroom, all with fast Internet connectivity and access to networked copy, printing and scanning-to-email services. In addition, resident businesses can store, ship and receive physical goods in our attached warehouse.
We are interested in holding workshops and some new larger scale events in the facility. We may experiment with a Saturday morning Bootstrappers Breakfast there as well. We remain deleted with the support and amenities that Pacific Business Centers and the Moorpark Hotel have provided us for small classrooms and meeting rooms and will continue to rely on both for private meetings and private workshops. But this new spaces offers us new possibilities that we plan to explore in 2012. It would be a great place to hold a technology focused Meetup in the South Bay.
The only two other co-working facilities I am aware of in the South Bay are
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