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I think “virtual team” is rapidly becoming redundant: just as “horseless carriage” became car I think “virtual team” will become just team. Most project teams will have a virtual component (e.g. on-line workspace, chat histories) and geographically remote members, if only to involve suppliers, partners, and customers more seamlessly. More broadly I think that virtual …
Virtual and On-Line Are As Superfluous As Horseless and Electric Read More »
One of the things it took me a long time for me to get used to living in Silicon Valley was the lack of snow. Not snow that you could visit in places like Tahoe but snow that visited you. A few years have seen snow in the foothills but nothing like winter mornings in …
The Snow Lay Round About, Deep and Crisp and Even Read More »
I have been thinking about different kinds of teams and team work. For example a choir has sheet music (“Let Men Their Songs Employ”) that predefines the content and timing of each person’s contribution. In a different way the script for a play outlines the content and sequence of each actor’s part.
Here is another excerpt from my September interview with Gabriel Weinberg. This one focuses on why payment and testimonials are so important to differentiate users from actual customers.
Customer Development Requires a Willingness to Be Surprised And by “surprised” I mean: able to admit that your assumptions are wrong open to new insights from prospects willing to change your plans for your product or your startup willing begin again with a better frame of reference Inspired by Bob Lewis’ “Holiday Card to the …
Customer Development Requires a Willingness to Be Surprised Read More »
A couple of quotes for entrepreneurs on the limitations of cleverness. Don’t just be clever, be kind and make things of beauty with care.
There seems to be such a thing as beauty, a grace wholly gratuitous. About five years ago I saw a mockingbird make a straight vertical descent from a roof gutter of a four-story building. It was an act as careless and spontaneous as the curl of a stem or the kindling of a star. The …
Annie Dillard on the Appreciation of Grace and Beauty Read More »
“Some buildings need air conditioning because they have air conditioning. Because they were designed to be air conditioned, they have no natural ventilation and would be miserable to inhabit without air conditioning.” John Cook in “Maybe You Only Need It Because You Have It“ I wonder if the same thing happens to some fraction of …
Most of our clients offer complex software products, frequently in combination with some amount of consulting services. Their sales are not the results of credit card transactions but a complex orchestrated sales process. Frequently their prospects need to see a custom demonstration or a benchmark that relies on their own data, not just the standard …
My bias is to “narrowcast” in the beginning. Choose websites, forums, newsgroups that are tightly focused on your target market. You attract less competition, your message cost is normally cheaper per prospect, and you often learn faster by taking part in the conversations in a focused community. It’s not so much about being stealthy as …
Some quick thoughts on selling for software engineers. Sell results, not method. Land and Expand. Get clarity on the customer’s view of the problem. Listen.
We have a very fun group of entrepreneurs today in the workshop. Every time we give our workshops, I learn so much from our attendees. Today, I learned about a couple of new tools I am planning to check out: Small business CRM http://batchblue.com/ Demandbase http://www.demandbase.com/ I also was given the idea to use twitter …
Deformation professionelle is a French phrase that encapsulates the perspective that your view of reality is shaped by your profession.
Paying dues–putting the time in not only to understand but master a problem or situation–is a critical element of success in many circumstances.
If you accept the premise that we are living in an age of accelerating change, then you have to build and manage a learning process for your startup.
In July I posted “Ten Design Thinking Quotes From Marty Neumeier. Mr. Neumeier has continued his drip irrigation of brilliant insights on twitter at @MARTYneumeier so here are seven of his recent ones related to learning and measurement.
We have added two Holiday Bootstrapper Breakfasts in the week between Christmas and New Years, continuing a tradition started two years ago of running two breakfasts that week at 9am. Any of these December breakfasts are a great opportunity to take some time to not only recap 2010 but also look forward for 2011. Your …
A story from my interview process at Cisco. I asked “what are you doing to obsolete your product?”
