Leonardo DiCaprio gives YouTube some dap in the Dec 08 issue of GQ, referencing his favorite YouTube video ("Good Day Mr. Kubrick") and noting graciously "how great is YouTube? Endless entertainment. Endless! Every day. What the hell? You can type in anything, like 'frogs getting laid' and they have, like, seventy clips. It's fabulous."
Blush! Thanks Leo, although i admit we really don't have great results for the query "frogs getting laid."
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
09 Resolutions: Focus on Results, Not Just Actions
Here's my curmudgeonly post about new year's resolutions: focus on results, not just actions. And make them measurable. "Jogging five days a week" is a fine activity but what's the goal it's meant to support? Do you want to add 5 lbs of muscle, reduce your BMI by 10%, lower your resting heartbeat? Great, then start with that statement and figure out what it takes to achieve your measurable goals. Fluffy intent doesn't catalyze action.
Yes, i'm a pain-in-the-ass product manager who thinks about things like this. But at least you don't need to live with me like this one does :)
T-19 hours until 2009.....
Yes, i'm a pain-in-the-ass product manager who thinks about things like this. But at least you don't need to live with me like this one does :)
T-19 hours until 2009.....
American Girl: Now That's a Business Model
Braved the NYC American Girl store with my goddaughter today for her 6th birthday. Lots has been written about their success, but for me, this picture just about sums it up. No such thing as freemium here. I think we're all in the wrong business.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Long Live the Chronotebook
Fed the fetish beast today by picking up one of Muji's Chronotebooks. 
It's a delightfully simple and visual dayplanner - two circles on opposite pages - one unfilled (AM), the other shaded (PM) - with clock hours around the dial.
Beautiful visualization template of one's day. A lush backdrop to record the ticks of any particularly special day or otherwise utilize as an ongoing planning device if you're an extremely visual type.
It's a delightfully simple and visual dayplanner - two circles on opposite pages - one unfilled (AM), the other shaded (PM) - with clock hours around the dial.Beautiful visualization template of one's day. A lush backdrop to record the ticks of any particularly special day or otherwise utilize as an ongoing planning device if you're an extremely visual type.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
How to tell if someone loves their job
You know how to tell if someone loves (and are good at) their job? Ask them to do it for you. I mean, ask them to do it for you without guidance or instructions from you. Put yourself in their hands and magic can happen.
This is most true with service professionals who are used to fulfilling the orders of others instead of flexing their own creativity. The ultimate institutionalized example of this is omakase, or what you might consider to be "chef's choice" at a sushi restaurant. Omakase is derived from the word 'entrust' and the meal is meant to represent the skill of the sushi chef.
Omakase is a wonderful concept and I try to extend it more broadly to see what happens, although admittedly still with food more than, say, my dentist. Back in october i attended a conference at the Fairmont Orchid in Kona and during my final breakfast, asked the omelet chef to give me whatever he wanted. The result was a large and most interesting combination of eggs, local vegetables and seafood. He was thrilled to have the chance to create something new -- i assume most of his morning is cheddar and mushrooms -- and was excited that i took an interest in his preferences.
Best meal i've had at Bong Su in San Francisco was when our group just told the waiter to bring the dishes he liked and pair it with some good wines.
Conversely when the bartender at a friend's birthday party gave me the open-mouth dull-eyed stare after i suggested he make me his favorite drink, i knew that i should just grab a beer from the cooler. People who don't want to think or try to impress you often don't love their job.
So live a little by letting great professionals practice their art and I'm sure you'll be delighted more often than not. Anyone have non-food examples of this working for them?
This is most true with service professionals who are used to fulfilling the orders of others instead of flexing their own creativity. The ultimate institutionalized example of this is omakase, or what you might consider to be "chef's choice" at a sushi restaurant. Omakase is derived from the word 'entrust' and the meal is meant to represent the skill of the sushi chef.
Omakase is a wonderful concept and I try to extend it more broadly to see what happens, although admittedly still with food more than, say, my dentist. Back in october i attended a conference at the Fairmont Orchid in Kona and during my final breakfast, asked the omelet chef to give me whatever he wanted. The result was a large and most interesting combination of eggs, local vegetables and seafood. He was thrilled to have the chance to create something new -- i assume most of his morning is cheddar and mushrooms -- and was excited that i took an interest in his preferences.
Best meal i've had at Bong Su in San Francisco was when our group just told the waiter to bring the dishes he liked and pair it with some good wines.
Conversely when the bartender at a friend's birthday party gave me the open-mouth dull-eyed stare after i suggested he make me his favorite drink, i knew that i should just grab a beer from the cooler. People who don't want to think or try to impress you often don't love their job.
So live a little by letting great professionals practice their art and I'm sure you'll be delighted more often than not. Anyone have non-food examples of this working for them?
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Road Hacks: why driving shortcuts don't work...
Holiday season, what a perfect time to catch up on academic papers :)
Have you ever wondered what happens when too many people try to use the same driving shortcuts? That's right, they no longer save you any time. "The Price of Anarchy in Transportation Networks" found that shortcuts actually increase driving time by up to 30% in major cities via clogging the alternate routes and often causing blowback on the main streets (anyone who has ever seen the backups which can occur when too many cars try to make a left across traffic knows what they mean).
The solution? The study's authors, three physicists from the University of New Mexico, recommend closing routes selectively, even in high congestion areas, in order to try and push drivers towards routes beneficial to the largest number of people.
Have you ever wondered what happens when too many people try to use the same driving shortcuts? That's right, they no longer save you any time. "The Price of Anarchy in Transportation Networks" found that shortcuts actually increase driving time by up to 30% in major cities via clogging the alternate routes and often causing blowback on the main streets (anyone who has ever seen the backups which can occur when too many cars try to make a left across traffic knows what they mean).
The solution? The study's authors, three physicists from the University of New Mexico, recommend closing routes selectively, even in high congestion areas, in order to try and push drivers towards routes beneficial to the largest number of people.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Lovin' the Machinima.com Model
I love all YouTube partners but am definitely impressed with what Machinima.com has been doing carving out their niche of well-produced short-form animation. Earlier this week they announced signing 15 TV writers to create videos with them. By using technology Machinima is taking advantage of the online platform and its unique properties, not trying to merely shrink TV down to fit into a flash player.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Stained Brands: Tide and Facebook
Twitter-esque summary of today's Randall Stross NYTimes article on brands and social networks: Facebook fail because Tide brand page can't make friends.
My read? Social media and large brands are like amorous naked blindfolded lovers, grabbing whatever parts they can and hoping it's pleasurable. That's not a scalable strategy, that's more like freshman year of college.
Most of my scorn here is reserved for the brand marketers because they have such a large number of tools available to them, but the lost opportunity is shared by the technical platforms, social networks and media sites which have clearly not yet found a way to make their advertisers (and potential advertisers) successful.
Some thoughts in reaction to the article:
1. P&G needs fewer concert sponsorships and more trust
Not every brand can be your party loving friend. Some should be an authoritative advisor or trusted confidant or learned teacher. Stross recounts how Crests FB brand page swelled to 14k users when they were pumping out free movie screenings and Def Jam concerts on college campuses but has lagged once those events stopped. Really? No kidding. Seems like Crest was the rich kid who has friends so long as they're buying the pizza and beer.
What if instead all these enduring CPG brands focused on the fact that they can make your life better - these are still emotional touchpoints and one's which matter more than a fleeting party. How about getting you the information you need, when you need it. Which leads me to......
2. Build strategies, not silos
It's awesome that I can SMS Tide to get info removing different types of stains but i had no idea this was even available. And the shortcode is Tide1 so even if i remember this, it's got no relevance to other P&G brands. Would there be a way to let individual brands have their identity but still pull more of the strategy into a single platform. i.e. Should P&G have a single shortcode where i can text stains, recipe requests, etc and just get back the right answer, rather than having to remember and interact with individual brands? Some interesting choices for brands (and brand managers) who want to keep their own identity and manage their own technology.
And how do you continue to migrate participants from one social media campaign to the next or across sites? Certainly centralized identity systems such as Friend Connect and Facebook Connect will help. But at it's core is a new form of Social Media CRM that smart brands will utilize. Yes, it's everyone's favorite canonical example these days but the Obama campaign did an excellent job of driving folks into a single database.
3. Brands - you gotta participate.
And the Tide 2x Ultra Tide campaign, well their brand page is pretty much dead. As best as i can tell no one from P&G ever really got involved in bringing the community to life. There's nothing sadder than social media ghost towns. If you don't care then i certainly don't.
The next few years will see more scalable and inexpensive social media departments within brands and their agencies to help maintain a presence in these environments. Brands will need to become comfortable that sometimes these take investment to payoff - not just rocketship out of the gate. Alternatively I think we'll see more and more ad sponsorship products aimed at bringing brands respectfully into existing communities since it's really hard for them to build their own.
4. Facebook search: Doesn't work for FB or the brands
"Tide F-ing Sucks. Hard" or at least that's what most of the results on the firstpage for a FB search of "tide detergent" told me when i was searching for Tide 2x Ultra's brand page. My issue here isn't that negative reviews are surfacing - in fact i think that's great - but how can Tide insert themselves into this conversation? I do see some sponsored site ads on the right-hand side of the page. Why isn't Tide there with an ad that says "No, we don't suck" or at least a way for the consumer (obviously interested in Tide) to get to the Tide site? And down the page i do see one Tide group which seems to be happy with the product but only has 20 members. Why isn't Tide helping that group get bigger?
My read? Social media and large brands are like amorous naked blindfolded lovers, grabbing whatever parts they can and hoping it's pleasurable. That's not a scalable strategy, that's more like freshman year of college.
Most of my scorn here is reserved for the brand marketers because they have such a large number of tools available to them, but the lost opportunity is shared by the technical platforms, social networks and media sites which have clearly not yet found a way to make their advertisers (and potential advertisers) successful.
Some thoughts in reaction to the article:
1. P&G needs fewer concert sponsorships and more trust
Not every brand can be your party loving friend. Some should be an authoritative advisor or trusted confidant or learned teacher. Stross recounts how Crests FB brand page swelled to 14k users when they were pumping out free movie screenings and Def Jam concerts on college campuses but has lagged once those events stopped. Really? No kidding. Seems like Crest was the rich kid who has friends so long as they're buying the pizza and beer.
What if instead all these enduring CPG brands focused on the fact that they can make your life better - these are still emotional touchpoints and one's which matter more than a fleeting party. How about getting you the information you need, when you need it. Which leads me to......
2. Build strategies, not silos
It's awesome that I can SMS Tide to get info removing different types of stains but i had no idea this was even available. And the shortcode is Tide1 so even if i remember this, it's got no relevance to other P&G brands. Would there be a way to let individual brands have their identity but still pull more of the strategy into a single platform. i.e. Should P&G have a single shortcode where i can text stains, recipe requests, etc and just get back the right answer, rather than having to remember and interact with individual brands? Some interesting choices for brands (and brand managers) who want to keep their own identity and manage their own technology.
And how do you continue to migrate participants from one social media campaign to the next or across sites? Certainly centralized identity systems such as Friend Connect and Facebook Connect will help. But at it's core is a new form of Social Media CRM that smart brands will utilize. Yes, it's everyone's favorite canonical example these days but the Obama campaign did an excellent job of driving folks into a single database.
3. Brands - you gotta participate.
And the Tide 2x Ultra Tide campaign, well their brand page is pretty much dead. As best as i can tell no one from P&G ever really got involved in bringing the community to life. There's nothing sadder than social media ghost towns. If you don't care then i certainly don't.
The next few years will see more scalable and inexpensive social media departments within brands and their agencies to help maintain a presence in these environments. Brands will need to become comfortable that sometimes these take investment to payoff - not just rocketship out of the gate. Alternatively I think we'll see more and more ad sponsorship products aimed at bringing brands respectfully into existing communities since it's really hard for them to build their own.
4. Facebook search: Doesn't work for FB or the brands
"Tide F-ing Sucks. Hard" or at least that's what most of the results on the firstpage for a FB search of "tide detergent" told me when i was searching for Tide 2x Ultra's brand page. My issue here isn't that negative reviews are surfacing - in fact i think that's great - but how can Tide insert themselves into this conversation? I do see some sponsored site ads on the right-hand side of the page. Why isn't Tide there with an ad that says "No, we don't suck" or at least a way for the consumer (obviously interested in Tide) to get to the Tide site? And down the page i do see one Tide group which seems to be happy with the product but only has 20 members. Why isn't Tide helping that group get bigger?
Sunday, December 07, 2008
In times like these, vote with your wallet
Out for dinner last night in North Beach, my wife and i were amazed at how quiet the restaurants were for a saturday. Even Coi, a place we've been wanting to try, had seats at the bar. Today SFGate discusses how Bay Area restaurants are seeing 9/11 level lulls in their business [hat tip to jeff nolan].
In times of economic downturns how you spend your money is especially important - many businesses are going to lay off staff or go under. Your dollars are a vote for their continued existance. So vote with your wallet and vote wisely. Perhaps it's not the time to visit a new restaurant a few neighboroods over but to double down on eating at your local spot.
In times of economic downturns how you spend your money is especially important - many businesses are going to lay off staff or go under. Your dollars are a vote for their continued existance. So vote with your wallet and vote wisely. Perhaps it's not the time to visit a new restaurant a few neighboroods over but to double down on eating at your local spot.
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Your office or mine?
This is TOTALLY a big company observation but when someone schedules a meeting with me I'm hyper-aware of whether they've selected a conference room near me or near them (midway is rarely picked). With my team I usually ask them to come to me (and i'm talking about just a few hundred feet at most so it's not a huge deal) but when i'm visiting others, i consciously choose a room near them as opposed to calling them over.
Does anyone else experience room scheduling alpha behavior? Or are there other workplace dynamics that you note with regards to displays of power?
Does anyone else experience room scheduling alpha behavior? Or are there other workplace dynamics that you note with regards to displays of power?
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Congrats to Sam Shank and DealBase
My prolific travel entrepreneur friend Sam Shank just launched his latest venture - DealBase! They're trying to aggregate travel deals - over 11,000 at last count i'm told - and shed some light on the opaque world of hotel pricing. Some deals they get directly from hotels - others sourced through a variety of sources but all legit. They use a combo of algorithm and editors. Right now focused on US, Mexico and Caribbean.
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