Michael S. Malone wrote “Second Sight” for the Dec-3-2001 issue of Forbes ASAP (a great quarterly magazine put out by Forbes and edited by Malone that no longer seems to be available on-line). It’s also collected in his book “The Valley of Heart’s Delight: A Silicon Valley Notebook 1963-2001” as Chapter 3. It’s a meditation […]
Second Sight: A Meditation on Silicon Valley and 9-11 Read More »
We Help You With Customer Discovery Q: Why don’t you ever blog about User Experience Research (UX)? The short answer is that we do customer discovery not user experience research. Our Clients Want Leads and Deals My clients come to me for help generating leads and closing deals, so that narrows my focus. We don’t
User Experience Research vs. Customer Discovery Read More »
Q: I have looked at your website and based on some of your blog posts you seem to provide a full range of tactical services–content, outbound messaging, SEO, videos, newsletters, demos, etc.. Why do you talk about “leads and deals” instead of focusing on the full range of services that you offer? Founders Want Leads
Founders Want Leads and Deals Read More »
Conor Neill has a great post up today on “a 9 Step Cheatsheet for Becoming a Public Speaking Expert” courtesy of the London Speakers Bureau. I am not usually a fan of infographics but this is exceptionally well done. Expert public speaking requires deliberate practice the same as any other skill. Here are some key
Nine Tips For Expert Public Speaking Read More »
The best demo–a Great Demo!–is a conversations driven by mutual curiosity. Your goal is to learn more about a prospect’s current situation and needs while they want to learn more about your product and services and how you can help them. Mutual Demos “Before I demo to you, why don’t you demo to me what
A Great Demo Is A Conversation Driven By Mutual Curiosity Read More »
I have not yet internalized the lessons from Daniel Cook‘s “Laws of Productivity: 8 Productivity Experiments You Don’t Need to Repeat” [PDF] so I find myself working–and now blogging–on a holiday. Here are my key takeaways from Cook’s roundup on knowledge work productivity and some additional thoughts on why they are so hard to put
Labor Day 2014: Knowledge Work Productivity Read More »
You can follow @skmurphy to get these quotes for entrepreneurs hot off the mojo wire or wait until they are collected in a blog post at the end of each month. Enter your E-mail address if you would like to have new blog posts sent to you.
Quotes For Entrepreneurs–August 2014 Read More »
I signed up for a free trial of a lean project management tool (I have changed the name of the tool to <LeanTool>). A few days later I got the following nurturing E-Mail. Subject: Are you afraid to manage your project in a lean way? We’ve noticed that you haven’t been signing into <LeanTool> for a
Five Mistakes To Avoid In a Nurturing E-Mail Read More »
Map the customer buying process, needs, and situation before you invest time sending a detailed proposal. A quick request can mean you are column fodder. Q: We are still trying to close our first paying customer. We have a website up and have talked to a number of people. More or less out of the blue
Map Customer Buying Process Before Sending a Proposal Read More »
Busyness won’t build your business, it closes off your creativity and your luck. Anticipate, or at least acknowledge, missed deadlines and commitments: triage or re-negotiate. Busyness I recently wrote a friend to ask if he wanted to do something this week, and he answered that he didn’t have a lot of time but if something
Busyness Won’t Build Your Business Read More »
Nadia James posted a daily checklist for aligning efforts with goals for your business. It’s a good one, here are suggestions for how to operationalize it.
Nadia James’ Daily Checklist for Aligning Efforts With Goals Read More »
Successful entrepreneurs are fueled by a passion to change the world tempered by prudent risk taking. Many risks have to be managed on an ongoing basis.
Entrepreneurs Blend Passion and Prudent Risk Taking Read More »
For customer interviews we have a rule of thumb that if an hour or research saves a minute early in the conversation it’s a good investment. When you look at the list of questions you have prepared to learn about the prospect’s business and their needs, it’s easy to say to yourself, “I am really
Customer Interviews: Spend an Hour to Save a Minute Read More »
By Sunday night the week is over and all of your chips are down. The bets you have been able to place will have to bear fruit, or not. “So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late” Bob Dylan “All along the watchtower“
By Sunday Night Your Chips Are Down For The Week Read More »
In a candid discussion about the challenges of managing your own expectations for a minimum viable product (MVP), Tristan Kromer observed, “It’s psychologically hard to enthusiastically proceed with skepticism.” And that is the challenge, we have to be enthusiastic about our product ideas to persevere to complete them and tell others about them, but we have to
Minimum Viable Product: Enthusiastically Proceed Skeptically Read More »
Recap of a fantastic talk by Chris Yonge: “3D Printing: Past, Present, Future.” 3D printing and animation add new dimensions for creativity.
Chris Yonge on 3D Printing: Past, Present, Future Read More »
While truly new markets have no history, their business model parameters can be estimated by what they replace or substitute for.
Q: How Do I Calculate Business Model Parameters For A Novel Product? Read More »
I got the following unsolicited E-mail this morning; I think the marketing term for this is “blogger outreach.” I have redacted the name of the sender (“YYY”) and the name of the firm/product (“XXX”) but “[press kit]” and “[review/checkout]” were included verbatim in the original. There was no footer with an unsubscribe option although phone
Five Blogger Outreach Mistakes To Avoid Read More »
I like this 2009 video by Grasshopper “Entrepreneurs Can Change The World” that portrays the entrepreneur as a change agent and celebrates the freedom and economic opportunities that America has traditionally offered immigrants.
An Entrepreneur Is A Change Agent Read More »
It’s best to act as if everything that you do in a negotiation will become fully know to all of the parties involved or affected by your actions.
Q: Side Payment Requested In Negotiation Read More »
