Using pictures to explain specialization.
The illustrated guide to a Ph.D.
9 Aug 2010
Use advertising to describe the experience
6 Aug 2010
“It’s no use spending time, money, or effort to entice people into a product or service if it just leads to a bad experience. Why? Because those people you carefully encouraged and nudged into your circle? They go right back into the cloud, spreading the news about their bad experience.”
Fishing for a goal
28 Jul 2010
I’m thinking that our team should start doing things like this when we launch new features for our clients.
Jacques Cousteau made it happen
21 Jul 2010
However, during the war, the German army was requisitioning almost all of the 35-millimeter film stock in Europe, for use in reconnaissance missions; not only was the film expensive, but now it was nearly impossible to find. This presented a problem for my determined father, who searched diligently in film shops all over France. Whatever the cost, he was determined to pay it. Wherever he happened to be, he found time to look for his precious film, until one day, he realized that he did not need movie film at all. He saw that any 35-millimeter film would work equally well, so he purchased rolls and rolls of film intended for still photography. Then, he and my mother would stay up half the night, under the bedcovers, gluing the film together 36-frame strip by 36-frame strip, so that it would be suitable for moving pictures.
A great example of Jacques Cousteau finding a creative solution to bypass external constraints that could prevent his projects from happening.
Collection system
19 Jul 2010
There are three “collection success factors”: 1. Every open loop must be in your collection system and out of your head. 2. You must have as few collection buckets as you can get by with. 3. You must empty them regularly.
An old one... but rereading parts of this book always seems to initiate some new-found motivation to organize my cognitive space.
There's a Cat for that
16 Jul 2010
The Oregon Humane Society released a new promotional video that looks familiar.
Painting Planet Argon, part 5
16 Jul 2010
In the final installment of our 5 part series, we feature Planet Argon, by Gary Blessington.
Volvo educating people on emissions
15 Jul 2010
Volvo is releasing an application that will put useful emissions data in front of potential automobile customers.
I have no friends
15 Jul 2010
Back in March I signed up for an account on Venmo because people said it was going to be a game changer. I thought I’d give it a go and planned to take a second look when time permitted. I haven’t found the time, but since signing up my only other experience with them has been a weekly email to remind me that:
- I have received no money
- I have sent no money
- I have no friends
- I am not active
- I need to make these emails stop showing up… but who has the time?
I don’t mind that status emails like this get sent out, but in this scenario.. it’s just not valuable. Is it necessary to communicate that nothing has happened?1 To be fair, Venmo is in beta and is working out the kinks. They are far from the only service that does this, they just happen to be the one that triggered this post (which I will be pointing them to). :-)
There’s a ton of information being sent to people’s inboxes every day. When we decide to communicate with our users, we should be mindful of the value of the information as well as how and when we ask for their attention. Is the email useful? Is it actionable? Or is it just undesired noise?
1 Context is fundamental here. If you’re a sales manager and your sales team has had zero sales… this might be valuable information.
Painting Planet Argon, part 4
15 Jul 2010
In part 4 of our 5 part series, we feature Planet Argon, by Robby Russell.