Goetz Everything

Are you a member of "My Starbucks Rewards" program? You should be!

2011-01-31T07:03:00.000-08:00

I have been a member of Starbucks' "My Starbucks Rewards" program for about a year now. Every time I mention the loyalty program to people, all I get is a blank stare.

I'm a huge fan of Starbuck's loyalty program. It's simple and they reward me very well for my patronage to their stores.

The piece that still boggles my mind is that it doesn't seem like Starbucks promotes the program very well and that not too many people are part of the program.

First...every time I tell someone about it they've never heard about it.
Second...when was the last time you saw a sign at a register telling you about it (for me I can't remember seeing it since they removed the annual fee).
Third...I've never heard a Baristas ask someone if they're interested in joining.
Fourth...no Barista has ever mentioned to me how many points I have or thanking me for being a part of their "My Starbucks Rewards" program.

I'm very curious to know Starbuck's strategy for their loyalty program. They have such a loyal customer base that I'm thinking they haven't had to offer or market such a program heavily. I guess it's a good thing they haven't had to. I feel the programs like this aren't focused on highly enough during the 'Easy' times, and it's during the tough times that loyalty programs really pay off.

Is your company investing in a loyalty program? Would your company benefit from knowing who your most loyal customers are and incenting them to remain loyal?

Please leave comments with your thoughts.

P.S. Every time I tell someone about it (as I often rave about it as the best loyalty program I'm a member of), I try to get them to participate and I know that I have gotten at least a handful of people to signup.

What is the business driver behind Starbucks' logo change?

2011-01-29T14:44:00.000-08:00

Recently there have been multiple occurrences of people mentioning the Starbucks logo change to me.

First...was my wife who mentioned in to me. Usually when she mentions something marketing related it must have hit some mainstream channel for her to be aware and comment on it to me.

Second...was a blog post about this change (can't remember which blog, or I would give them credit). From this blog I clicked over to watch the Schultz video discussing why Starbucks felt it was time to update the logo (see here).

After watching the video by Howard Schultz, I was again reminded about my struggles with Corporate Brand teams who have the tough job of aligning the Brand with the look and feel of designs. I think branding is very important but am confused by how the change of the Starbucks logo has much positive impact on the Starbucks business.

To me...it seems like Starbucks may have felt they needed to change something and removing the name from their logo would move them forward into a new league.

Like many other companies who have updated their logos recently, it looks to me like Starbucks has received a lot of negative feedback about this change. I'm thinking most people, me included, feel that there isn't really a need for this change, there are very few people who want to see changes with the brands they love.

Am I missing something? Is there an obvious up side to this change that I am missing?

Big things are happening at Starbucks

2011-01-28T08:14:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking about writing about Starbuck's "My Starbucks Rewards" program for a long time but never got around to writing it...now is the time. With the many new changes at Starbucks, I'm going to put together a series of posts on this topic (please check back soon or subscribe to this blog or follow me on Twitter).

Here is a list of posts I'm working on, and hope to have out in the next week or two:

How come no one I know is a member of the "My Starbucks Rewards" program?

Are you a member of "My Starbucks Rewards" program? You should be! (Posted 1/31/11)

History of the "My Starbucks Rewards" program
Does Starbucks even need a loyalty program?
Starbucks' iPhone app integration into their Loyalty Program
Starbucks launches 3 new products/features (iPhone Payments, super big Trenta, new logo)

What is the business driver behind Starbucks' logo change? - Posted 1/29/11

Replacing the Card with the App
Taking the App to the next stage, my predictions of the future

Thank you for checking in, more to come shortly

Great Clips CRM WOWs Me Again

2011-01-05T05:00:00.000-08:00

In September, I wrote here about how I noticed Great Clips using CRM to improve my haircut experience. Last week the stylist used the CRM tool again to better profile me and understand my hair.

She used the knowledge of when my last haircut was, to:
- get a feel for how short to cut the top, based on previous razor number an time since last haircut,
- to know if my receipt coupon would still be valid (more on this in a separate post)

This stylist was using Great Clips' CRM tool to her advantage and to help me, the customer. I want to thank Great Clips for providing this tool to make it easy for their stylists to know my preferences.

Goetz Everything Annual Report - Top Level Summary of my first year of blogging

2010-10-02T06:19:00.000-07:00

So, it's been just over 1 year since I started this blog on a whim on September 19th, 2009. I started my blog really just to see where it would take me, and it has been a roller coaster of a journey. I've never been much of a writer, so I knew that would be a challenge. This post will give a short high level summary of the past year of my blogging and some thoughts of where I may take it. I will also follow with a couple of follow up posts using a similar headline starting with "Goetz Everything Annual Report" where I dive deeper into this topic including Traffic Stats, Top Posts, My Traffic Strategy, The Future of Goetz Everything and more.

Over the past 1 year and almost 2 weeks, I posted 36 times. The highest month of posts was October of last year where I posted 10 times, the next highest posting volume was 6 which I did in Sept 09, Nov 09 and Sept 10. I even had a four months where I couldn't even get 1 post out. In September 2010, I tried to set a posting goal of posting Monday, Wednesday and Friday, which helped but proved to be way too lofty.

My drive to write would go up and down. Somedays, I felt like I could write a handful of posts. I would usually stop at 2 or 3, and other days I wouldn't even want to write a single word.

It has been a fun experience and I think I'm starting to straighten things out in my head with where I want to take this blog and will probably tighten up the content to be more focused. Hopefully I can create a strategy that allows me to continue to blog and hopefully drive more value to those reading.

More detail to come on my first year of blogging. Thank you to those who have read and commented.

This might sound OBVIOUS, but Southwest Peanuts are processed in a facility that processes peanuts

2010-09-17T07:25:00.000-07:00

So here is the second of a couple random posts about random things I've come across recently in my travels.

Everyone loves Southwest Airlines' free snack...that little shiny bag of peanuts. While I was recently flying from Las Vegas (LAS) to San Jose (SJC) and was snacking on the peanuts. Somewhat bored, I began exploring the peanut packaging. I came across the ingredients line:

Ingredients: Dry Roasted Peanuts, Salt.

Produced in a facility that processes peanuts and other nuts

Now, I would think that common sense would explain that a bag of peanuts were probably processed in a 'facility that processes peanuts...'

I don't want to reduce the importance on "Nut" allergies, but has America become reliant on telling people the obvious rather than relying Common Sense. I'm guessing there are some FDA guidelines or policies which state that there must be this line whenever something comes out of a "NUT" factory, but come on.

Am I missing something or is it obvious that peanuts would be processed in a 'facility that processes peanuts'?

Great Local Marketing at Charlotte, NC McDonald's - 50 NUGGETS and TEA $10

2010-09-15T06:40:00.000-07:00

My wife was recently going through the photos in my iPhone Camera Roll. She came across a couple of random pictures that she was confused as to why I would have taken a picture of that. After I explained each to her, I had her cracking up. So here is the first of a couple random posts about random things I've come across recently in my travels.

Backstory: During my first trip ever to Charlotte, NC, I'm walking through a not so great part of town with a co-worker. We're on our way to meet other co-workers for some BBQ. After getting off the light rail train (which was super easy and convenient, highly recommend Charlotte Lynx Light Rail) we were walking towards a McDonald's when I glanced up at the customizaable 'old-skool' sign.

Highlight: It read "50 NUGGETS WITH TEA (GAL) $10.99. I thought WOW, that's a lot of TEA, and WOW that's a lot of NUGGETS. Awesome deal, I wish we had that back when I was in college, we would have eaten that deal up.

Deep Thought: Is a deal like this created at the local level? I don't believe I can get out of a California McDonald's with a regular size meal and drink for much less than $10.99. This meal could feed a family of 5. I was lucky that I had dinner plans with the rest of my team, or these 50 NUGGETS AND GAL OF TEA would have been my match for the night.

Keywords: Product Management, Prod Mgmt, Marketing, McDonald's, McDonalds, Charlotte, North Carolina, NC, Deals, Great Deal, Charlotte Lynx, Charlotte Light Rail

Is the Amazon Kindle being marketed to motorcycle riders? Check this out

2010-09-13T09:18:00.000-07:00

Recently, while commuting home from work, I came across a motorcycle with a passenger that was reading. I thought to myself, you can't read while riding on the back of an open air motorcycle. Oh, I guess you can with an Amazon Kindle or other similar e-book reader.

I wonder if any of the Product Managers for these e-book readers are targeting marketing to motorcycle riders or passengers. I'm sure it's not an easy market to capture, but here is the situation I envision based on the photo to the right:

The husband wants to take a bike ride down the coast of beautiful California. The wife would rather sit in a nice beach front villa reading a nice book. The husband coaxes her into taking the bike ride by surprising her with a shiny new iPad (or Sony Reader, etc.). Now he has his ride, she has her new reading toy.

What do you think? Is this a feasible marketing angle for e-book product marketers?

Is this good or bad product management? Kiwi Express Shine

2010-09-10T02:23:00.000-07:00

So, I went on a simple errand the other day to replace my Kiwi Express Shine Sponge mobile shoe polishing tool. Luckily (you'll see why I was lucky if you keep reading), the original product that I was replacing was a hand-me-down left in my office desk by the previous occupant.

So, to start, this is a great product, I love the convenience of it. Since I never remember to polish my shoes the old fashion way with polish, applicator, brush, etc. at home, this simple product is a must have for me now.

I head over to the local Walgreen's to simply pick up the exact product I had previously. I find the item and right next to it is a similar, same brand, but slightly different product - Kiwi Express No Buff Cream Polish. As a conscious consumer, I look at the differences between the two products.

From a feature perspective, they look pretty much the same...they are different sizes...the applicator surface is a different shape...they are the same price...So, I guess I'll go with the one I know worked for me previously.

Wait a minute, let me look at them side-by-side in my hand. Hold on, these things weigh totally different amounts. I check the listed ounces. 1 is 2oz, the other is 1.7oz. For the same price?

Now, I hope these two Kiwi products have some sort of difference, because the volume difference is so great. From a Product Management perspective, they did not help me understand the reason why they were the same price with such a volume difference. Even looking at their website, I still don't get any details that would make me believe the products have different features.

Is this vagueness good product management? i.e. hope customers purchase the lower volume due to the large profit margin.
Or, are the products priced accordingly and have very different features which are not explained to the customer?

What are your thoughts? check out the Kiwi website and see if you can tell the difference.

Apple wasted 100's of hours of my time and now I increased my productivity by two times - iPod 2X feature

2010-09-08T06:51:00.000-07:00

My commute is 2+ hours each way (yeah, it's not as bad as it sounds, I'll share more on this in the future), so it's important for me to use this time as productively as possible.

During the driving portion (1 hour 15 minutes) of my commute, I usually listen to podcasts. The other day I accidentally clicked on the iPod button that said 1x. I had no idea what that button did, I didn't even know it was a button. And what do you know, the audio spead up to a perfect speed for me to still understand the content while getting through it in 1/2 the time (I assume that is actual speed 2 times as fast).

Now I can get through podcasts in 1/2 the time which is great for me.

The amazing thing to me is that I have been an avid iPod/iPhone user for years and listen to a ton of podcasts and never knew this feature existed. I have wasted 100's of hours over the past years listening to people in normal speed. Even though Apple makes great products, they still miss the mark on making feature intuitive or figuring ways to highlight lesser used features.

Am I on my own on this? Have you used this feature?

Surprised by Great Clips' simple CRM implementation

2010-09-01T19:22:00.000-07:00

Why was I surprised when "the best value in haircuts", Great Clips, provided great Customer Service?

Because it is so rare to see a retailer using a CRM system to store my preferences. Great Clips showed that they have a CRM system that identified me by my phone number, used my first name and the stylist knew that I wanted a 2 guard used on the sides of my head.

I've been going to a local small salon for the past 10 haircuts, and the stylist who has cut my hair each time, looks at me like he has never seen me before. I've discussed the same things with him each time. Why can't he jot down some notes each time and provide me with a WOW service the next time by knowing something about me?

Sounds simple, but why can't I think of any brick and mortar retailers that know my preferences? Hats off to Great Clips for taking the time to get to know me.

Do you have any examples of brick and mortar retailers knowing your preferences? Please leave a comment if you have.

Google Voice - Why I made the switch to Google Voice?

2010-06-29T06:55:00.000-07:00

I recently heard that Google Voice had expanded to open enrollment and figured I’d check it out to see if it would be useful for me. Initially, I didn’t see why I would need it, my existing phone setup was pretty simple and I did not see why I needed to make any changes. (Existing setup=Work Office, Cell, Home Office). After watching a couple of the Google Voice YouTube videos, I figured that having a single phone number to reach me would be an improvement over what I currently have.

The main inefficiency in my existing system was when I worked from my Home Office, I asked my team to call my Home Office #. In actuality, they usually call my cell phone, which is fine, I would just rather talk on the Home Office speaker phone or headset.

So, be moving to Google Voice, I now have only 2 numbers for people to reach me (Work Office, Google Voice (aka cell/home office)). This basically combined my ‘not in the office’ phone numbers and when someone calls the GV number, it rings me at both my Home Office and on my cell.

With GV, I also consolidated my Home Office and Cell voicemail systems into 1 voice inbox, which transcribes the VMail into text and emails this to me. No more Visual Voicemail on my iPhone, but the transcription and not having to listen to Vmails anymore is much more efficient for me.

Now, my big hurdle is moving my Work Office number to GV. Not sure how well that will go from the Corporate aspect.

If you haven’t checked out Google Voice, I urge you to watch some of the videos, and think about making the move. While the advantages may be minor for you, in the end they will make you more productive and efficient.

Integrating Multiple API Services: In response to Robert Scoble's Location 2012 piece

2010-06-14T09:26:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, I read Robert Scoble's dream piece (Techcrunch Guest Post: Location 2012) on integrating many standalone apps into a seamless system. I think Robert's dream is great, but very tough to implement. It seems very logical from the standpoint of how Robert connected the dots between the apps, the reality seems very distant to me, especially not by 2012.

Don't get me wrong, I think it would be really cool and helpful to have all these data points integrated, but who will be able to do it. Integration like this is very complicated to build and managing such an infrastructure using other companies APIs will be a constant battle.

My Reasoning:

hard to manage many APIs which are controlled by other companies
how will the API companies win? Will there be enough revenue to keep the stand alone companies operating their data streams while an integration application handles the User Experience. Some sort of fair revenue sharing would be needed.
over integration may make the User experience unbearable for the 'simple' users. We're not all geeks.

My proposed solution:

Scaled down integration; My guess is that Apple will be the leader in this arena. I'm sorry for having to say it, as I think too many people use Apple as an easy example. Apple has shown repeatedly that it can smoothly integrate programs with great usability. Apple has the narrow focus and the balls to limit the integration at strategic points (which I don't feel Google has this control) to ensure the product works smoothly throughout the product lifecycle. Yes, naysayers will complain that it doesn't have X or Y, but Apple will release a product that operates well and is much further ahead of similar integrated products.
In summary, I think the integrated reality Robert Scoble laid out is possible. I think it will only be possible to be implemented by one of the two big players (1. Apple or 2. Google). I think they will both attempt it (based on both companies making strategic acquisitions);

Apple’s version will:

limited functionality initially
methodically add on elements
smooth UI
focused on their market of users

Google’s version will:

include many services right out of the gate, which will make a complex product
UI will be difficult for the 'simple' user
try to please every user in the world, rather than focus on a specific type of user

What do you think? Is it possible to have this seamless Integrated Multiple API Services by 2012? 2015? 2020?

Clever Cable Holders thanks to 37signals

2010-06-11T07:29:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Jason F. at 37signals, due to his post this morning (Clever Cable Holders), I no longer have to go behind my desk to find my lan cable anymore. Perfect solution for an annoyance I have been meaning to fix. Done. Thank you Jason.

What is Dusseldorf? - Air Berlin ad caught my attention today

2010-05-26T07:23:00.000-07:00

I saw the Air Berlin ad to the right today when I entered the Bart train here in the San Francisco Bay Area. It caught me off guard as the headline didn't seem to be written in conversational American English. From the looks of the ad, it appears to me that Air Berlin is launching new service out of SFO, but neglected to utilize an American marketing partner to assist with this launch. I'm guessing this is an important strategic move fir Air Berlin, so I would want the execution to be perfect.
How does this ad miss the mark?

1. The headline doesn't read smoothly for American English readers and is not language I would use in conversation. Headline should read, "Welcome aboard San Francisco!"

2. What is Dusseldorf? Isn't that a German dinner dish down at Harry's Hofbrau? Is it a destination, a city? Honestly I'm not sure. My recommendation would be to offer "Non-stop service to Germany". Now this is something I, and the market, can easily comprehend.

3....

So, there are other items that I could mention, but I rather not pile on. To me it is clear that this piece didn't capitalize as well as it could have. I would suggest to Air Berlin, if you have an important message you wan to get to an important market, find someone local that can provide consulting assistance.

But, then again, the piece caught my attention, so maybe there was a method to their madness.

Do you have a small social network? Try Aardvark to expand your social network

2010-03-30T07:49:00.000-07:00

While listening to another great The Gillmor Gang podcast, Robert Scoble mentioned that when he is travelling somewhere, he reaches out to his network to find out about local activities and entertainment. With this statement, I had a revelation that my social network would not provide this assistance. My network is too small to get much good out of it. Luckily I've found a great new friend to add to my social network named, Aardvark.

I was originally turned on to Aardvark by the guys (Bob Walsh and Patrick Foley) over at The Startup Success podcast. Aardvark allows users to ask a question, the application automatically sends the question out to people within the Aardvark network who may know the answer, then the app routes the answers provided back to the person who asked the question. Pretty simple, huh.

This is a great service for someone like me who doesn't have a very big social network and every so often has a tough question to find an answer. In my opinion, not too many people have a large enough social network and thus could easily utilize the power of this social network expander of Aardvark.

I have recently had some instances where I have tried to search Google, and had trouble filtering through the results to find a meaningful answer. That is where I now turn to Aardvark.

Some examples I have use it for:

finding a hotel during a roadtrip - I was in route to Laguna Beach and didn't have any clue where to stay. Shot a question out to Aardvark for recommendations and received a couple within the next couple o hours. While the timeliness wasn't perfect, one of the suggested hotels was where I stayed and I concurred with the suggestion.
figuring out how to modify my MS Office default search setting - I received a couple of answers that were not totally helpful, then one answer came in that was dead on an very detail. Huge help for me.

Aardvark allows users to ask questions via multiple channels (from the web, IM, email, Twitter, or iPhone). I utilize Google Talk as my method of interacting with it. This very easily integrates Aardvark into my daily life allowing me to ask or answer questions easily from a natural communication method for me.

A couple of big things for Aardvark to figure out and improve on:

Learning more about it's users - today, I'm guessing Aardvark only knows as much about it's users as those users fill out on their profile. If Aardvark can begin learning by aggregating data from multiple sources (i.e. Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook, etc.), the power of this knowledge will multiply
Increasing users - a larger pool of people to answer questions will increase speed and accuracy
Help users rate the answer they received - this will allow Aardvark to know who the appropriate people are to answer certain types of questions

As I was researching to write this post, I learned that Aardvark was recently acquired by Google. Hopefully Google will have a way to improve upon this immature product and integrate it into the mass amounts of data Google already has. (Look for a future post about Google's portfolio of companies)

All that said, I recommend you try Aardvark and see how it works for you. It has worked well for me, while there have been some bumps in the road, I think the improvements will come very quickly as the number of Aardvark users grow and hopefully Aardvark continues to allow people like me to reach out to a wide web of unconnected people.

BART's most recent Customer Experience Failure

2010-02-02T06:50:00.000-08:00

Yeah, BART's failure today only caused me to lose 15 minutes. Not a big deal. The point is there were multiple Customer Experience failures in the process.

Story:
I'm racing into the Fremont BART station with only a minute or two to get on the 6:06am train. I wave my EasyRider card through the turnstile. I then wave the same EasyRider card across the parking validator. "See Agent" The dreaded failure message of BART's Customer Service systems.

At this point it dawns on me. My wife mentioned last night that she had requested a new hangtag for me (mine has failed and is slowly breaking into small white flakes on my all black car interior). This request must have de-linked my current hangtag and put me in limbo.

So I head over to the dreaded "Station Agent". Of course the Station Agent has a negative connotation, they are there to deal with all the passengers issues. I try to briefly (remember I only have 1 minute to catch my train, read: helpless wishful thinking) explain to her what the issue is, and I don't think she listened to a word of my explanation. She starts working on the handy Station Agent computer system (I can only imagine the friendliness of BART's system), then asks me all the questions which I just explained to her. She then walks me over to the Parking Validator stand and swipes my card again. "See Agent" Go figure. She then states something like, "Yeah, it must not work due to requesting the new hangtag. You need to pay for parking with cash."

Hmm, I think. This sucks for me. While maintaining my composure (overhead I hear my train leaving the station), so I say to her, "This is a ridiculous process!". She angrily hands back my card and says "I don't make the rules" and stomps back to her "Station Agent" cube.

So, I walk back to my car to identify the parking spot number, then come back, insert my cash into the parking machine and board the train which will leave in 12 minutes. Just enough time to write a blog about BART's poor Customer Experience.
Summary of failures:

Crappy hangtags - mine warped on about day 10, then started discinegrating white pieces all over my clean black interior
Poor customer service - one of the station agents main job is to deal with the "See Agent" failures, the problem is I don't think they are trained to properly handle the situation I had. Nor are they trained for any basic Customer Service skills.
Replacement Processes Interrupt Customer Experience - hangtag replacement request broke my daily BART process. When designing the end-to-end Customer Experience, they should understand the negative implications of their processes. FYI, this has also happened when updating payment information on EasyRider card.
Poor training of Station Agents - It seems like agents should be able to identify what situations may cause a "See Agent" error, but the error logic is so basic for the customers perspective that it doesn't provide any information to the Station Agent.

So, I think that is the end of my rant. I'll go back to being my normal loyal BART rider. Have a great day!

P.S. I do publicly praise BART all the time to people who ask me about my commute. BART delivers me within a block of my office, is almost always on time, and offers me a way home every 15 minutes.

Top Fitness Blogs, by Zen Habits, leads to...Thinking Lean

2010-01-30T07:43:00.000-08:00

I recently read Zen Habits post about 20 top fitness blogs. In this post, Leo invited his 5 favorite fitness bloggers to share their top 5 fitness blogs. What an easy way to share a great list of blogs that was currated by some of the top bloggers in this area. Thank you Leo.

After clicking through the list, I then noticed I didn't have any of these blogs on my Google Reader feed (read through Mobile RSS by Nibirutech, post coming soon about my New Favorite Tech Gadgets). So I created a "Fitness" folder and added these 20 blogs to that folder. See my Fitness blog list here.

I've been really into my Fitness lately, as I'm training for the Big Sur Marathon on April 25th, but I hadn't thought to add Fitness blogs to my Mobile RSS reader. Now I have them all right there and I'm learning about what others are doing.

Then, two blog posts later Leo at Zen Habits writes The Ultimate How to Get Lean Guide where he allows the same 5 bloggers to share their "Lean" secrets. This is a great post and opened my eyes to the use of fasting. I really like the Rusty Moore's advice about working out in a Fasted State. Totally backward from my current training plan, which I like. Yesterday I ran 3.5 miles on a 14 hour fast. More to come around this Lean thinking.

Thank you Leo, Rusty and other Top Fitness bloggers, great stuff.

Haven't blogged much, revamping my blogging style

2010-01-28T06:55:00.000-08:00

I had a revelation this morning while listening to the 43 Folders, Merlin Mann, interview podcast of Linchpin author, Seth Godin. As expected, this was a great podcast from two of the most well respected people.

The revelation, I haven't written a new blog post for a while due to my "resistance" to the time and effort it takes.

In the past, it took me a while to get a blog out. I'd easily come up with concepts, write a draft, then take time to proof, then publish. It all sounds simple, yet it took me over an hour usually for a very short simple post. The hour per post was my resistance.

So, how am I revamping my blog style? I'm going to take out the step that was causing me so much resistance and making me not enjoy blogging. Proofing. I'm going to write and let it fly. Funny thing is, I've always hated proofing. Dating back to elementary school, I hardly ever read over my work before submitting. Maybe that is why my grades in English classes were never stellar.

So, moving forward, I will try to keep up with writing posts quickly so I can work through my list of blog post ideas. Hope you enjoy them.

Written in 12 minutes

Customer Service Success - Bavarian Soundwerks

2009-11-27T10:06:00.000-08:00

I recently had a great Customer Service experience with Bavarian Soundwerks (BSW). BSW is a retailer of BMW related audio equipment.

I've been trying to connect my iPhone to my 02 BMW factory stereo. I have researched it briefly in the past and found the cost to be too much for my aging (high mileage) car. I gave it one more try and found BSW, navigated the site and found the piece I needed. The one thing I was unclear on was if I needed this extra piece ($100) to make the connector work. I called BSW, they were closed as it was 7:30 EST, then I utilized their websites "Contact Us" form. I submitted my question and expected to get a response the next business day. I was surprised to see a response from Halston at BSW about 2.5 hours later that was very clear and to the point. I then had a couple of follow up clarifying questions which were quickly responded to.

I purchased the item, received prompt auto-generated emails for receipt, shipping info (including UPS tracking number/link). A couple of days later, I received my purchased item (BSW Auxillary Input Kit for BMWs). I had previously watched the YouTube video (Bavsound)for how to install the piece, so I quickly installed the piece and my iPhone was quickly playing my favorite playlists.

Bavarian Soundwerks created a great customer experience for me and made this purchase simple. I recommend Bavarian Soundwerks to anyone looking for audio supplies for BMWs. Great job BSW.

P.S. I was recently amazed when I received a phone call on my iPhone which was hooked up to the Aux Input, I answered the call and could hear the caller through my factory stereo and the iPhone microphone picked up my voice perfectly. I didn't think this system would work for a "hands free" phone. This was the icing on the cake.

Customer Service Fail - Chain Coffee Shop (not Starbucks)

2009-11-27T09:47:00.000-08:00

I figured I had to share this poor customer service example I recently experienced.

I was on my drive home from work, I was running later than normal and had to run an errand a little out of my normal pattern. Therefore, I stopped at a coffee shop near the freeway entrance. I walked in around 7pm, there were people sitting at every table and no one in line. I walk straight up to the cash register to order, except there was no employee there to greet me. I stand and wait and peruse what type of coffee to purchase. After a short wait, an early twenties (my estimate) female employee asks me what I'd like. I reply that I would like a large coffee (which this coffee shop keeps in self serve pump thermoses). She replies, I just got on shift and don't think we have much choice in the thermoses. She then proceeds to lift and measure by weight which have anything in them.

I'm really not too picky with coffee so settle for whatever she had a lot of. Needless to say, I was not amazed at the freshness of the coffee nor the expertise of the staff. I purchase my coffee and move to the "coffee fixins" bar. I fix my coffee up and notice that the employee has walked out the door of the coffee shop.

Before I even finished getting my coffee and going, the employee was back outside sitting and talking to a friend.

Really, she gave me the excuse earlier that she "just got on shift" and didn't know which coffee's were fresh. Yet, she had plenty of time to settle in at a table with her friend.

I was amazed (not surprised, part-time employees can be very hard to manage at such a retailer) that a smaller chain coffee shop would have such a failed customers service experience. It is very easy for me to find a Starbucks that can easily replace this coffee shop on my list.

Inbox ZERO + Twitter ZERO + Google Reader ZERO = Overwhelmed

2009-11-09T06:46:00.000-08:00

Yesterday during my run (3 miles) I listened to the @context podcast (Episode 14), this episode featured Tara Rodden Robinson interviewing Augusto Pinaud (the normal host). Augusto discussed his GTD system which seems to be very complete and he made some very insightful statements during the podcast.

The one thing that stuck out so drastically for me was Augusto mentioned that he is taking a break from technology on the weekends and that when he checks into Twitter on Monday mornings, he doesn't go back and read everything he has missed over the weekend.

This made an impact on me. I immediately identified something that I believe has been weighing down my productivity recently. I've been trying to keep my Inbox at Zero, my Twitter at ZERO, and my Google Reader at ZERO. All while keeping up with my day job and reading a book (The world is flat) at the same time. This has pushed me into an unproductive state. And I don't even use Facebook which would be one more item to review.

Merlin Mann's Inbox Zero philosophy is one piece of work that made a large influence on my productivity (another huge piece to my system was http://atcontext.blogspot.com/2009/07/episode-thirteen-jim-mccullen.html, great stuff Jim). It helped formulate my system for managing my email and staying ahead of my email so I don't get behind. Over the time I have been using this system, I think it has engrained the Inbox Zero philosophy into my dna. Now, I seem to have a daily goal of getting Twitter and Google Reader to ZERO.

Getting all these channels to ZERO has really overwhelmed me. After stepping back yesterday and thinking about it, there really isn't that much great stuff that I'm getting from Twitter or Google Reader, and that my life won't be any different if I let some of those items go. Mentally I have to teach myself to go back to my old ways and let go of the Inbox Zero philosophy.

Thank you Augusto for opening my eyes, and hopefully my productivity will return to normal heights.

Apple iTunes 9 UI (User Interface) Design, Podcast Sync Settings Still Suck

2009-11-06T07:27:00.000-08:00

Let me start this out by saying that I am a loyal iPhone user and have used iTunes for years.

I get tired of hearing everybody talk about how good of a design company Apple is. Yes, Apple has delivered great products to market and many of them have very intuitive designs. I continue to be amazed at how poor the iTunes design is. With the popularity and revenue the iTunes site brings in, I would think the UI (user interface) would be flawlessly executed.

One area I am constantly frustrated with is the iPhone sync settings for podcasts. I am a huge podcast listener and have tons of subscriptions, with hundreds of podcasts. Way too many that I can fit on my iPhone at a given time, therefore I have to manage my sync settings to TRY to load the podcasts that I want. This area of iTunes has been broken for many releases.

With the most recent release, the Apple designers have improved this functionality, but it still sucks. It doesn't seem like it would be that difficult to give the user a little more flexibility with settings. Just allow the check boxes to be active for every podcast and allow the user to check off which ones they want to sync. Sounds simple to me.

Maybe I'm an outlier, but stop making podcast sync settings more convoluted and give the user the freedom to make their own selections rather than forcing them to use the predefined dropdowns.

Is your business tracking the correct measure of success?

2009-11-03T07:37:00.000-08:00

Recently I've been seeing and hearing a lot about measurements of success. I think measuring our work as marketers, or any other profession, is key to understanding our business and our performance and ties very closely to goals/objectives.

Without goals; how does a business know what they are aiming for.
Without measurement; how does a business know how they are performing to their goals.

This morning I read Forrester's post about needing to measure effectiveness of social media efforts. Wow! That seems like a tough thing to measure even though I'm sure it can be done. It looks like Forester thinks this is as easy as a 3 step process. When businesses enter the social media realm, aren't they doing that for a reason? They must have some sort of goal. Question is, is it clearly measurable? And, do the metrics clearly tie social media activities to the result?

My team met a couple of weeks back to discuss our 2010 metrics of success. We reviewed our 2009 goals, our performance to those goals, and the true objective of our efforts. Our team struggles with clearly defining one single, measurable goal due to competing priorities (customer experience/satisfaction, product revenue, ad response, etc.).

I think many teams struggle with setting clearly defined goals and metrics of success. Yesterday, during my workout, I listened to Sheryl Sandberg's talk at Stanford's Entreprenurial Thought Leaders series (FYI, they produce a lot of great podcasts, check it out), she stated that the Facebook team has been struggling recently with defining their single metric of success. When a company like Facebook struggles with this task, it seems to me that many, if not most, are also going to struggle. I think a lot of the struggle boils down to competing priorities.

Does your business (or business unit) have one clear measure of success? How do you balance competing priorities?

I guess my point to this post is; defining a clear measure of success is very tough. Making sure your team is clear on the goals/objectives is paramount. I don't think having a set measurement for success is 100% necessary for all businesses to work towards for a year or multiple years. I think you should constantly be measuring your work, make sure you measure pieces of each competing priority, and be open to quickly changing your measurements.

What are your thoughts on measurable goals?

Thankful to those who help put food on my table

2009-11-01T07:30:00.000-08:00

This is the first time I'm mentioning much about my personal life on this blog. For those that aren't aware, I live on 113 acres in the Salinas Valley (to Wikipedia). The Salinas Valley is one of the largest producers of salad greens in the U.S. as well as many other crops.

Yesterday morning, I awoke to sounds of farm workers near my pillow. Not really, but they parked their van next to the fence to my house, which leaves them about 10 feet from my head. It really is amazing to hear them hoot'in and holler'in at 7am (which they probably actually started working at 5am) and it sounds like they're having fun.

At about 8am, my wife woke up while I was reading my Google Reader in the bark-a-lounger. She looked out the window and saw the harvester machine right in front of the house (see bad photo to the right taken with the weak iPhone camera). We watched the farm workers methodically cut, toss, and pack the broccoli over and over. Their system is completely manual, well orchestrated and precise. We admired the work ethic these farm workers have and thanked them for doing the hard work not too many other Americans would do. These farm workers work very hard for very little pay. They have such a drive to make their life better that they will work 12 hour days, bending and doing back braking work just to get by.

This past weekend I've been finishing up "Outliers", by Malcolm Gladwell, and thinking about his words around how work ethic and time of study is so important thriving in life. Watching these farm workers has made me think about their work ethic and it helps me put some extra time in to my work and be thankful that I'm sitting at a computer working rather than in the fields for 12 hours a day.

Living on this ranch for the last 2.5 years has opened my eyes to the agricultural world. It is an amazing industry that is very different from the worlds many of us live in. So, I just wanted to share this quick story and hope we can all be thankful for what we have and what others are doing all around us to give us a better life.

"Free" to "Fee" - Can businesses move services from "free" to "fee"?

2009-10-24T11:23:00.000-07:00

I have seen lots of recent mentions about "free" and how online advertising is dying. Bob Garfield's recent comments about how people do not click on ads (see my recent post here), as well as Six Pixels' recent post (here) both talk about how we all know how the declining clicks is not a shock to anyone. I've long wondered how businesses continue to invest in online advertising when I don't know anyone that ever clicks on these ads. Of course I understand the Brand messaging and do see that there is value in online advertising, but I don't see how many people will click on ads.

I've also seen a lot of articles and mentions in podcasts around how 'free' services business models are hurting the market. Businesses are killing themselves without even knowing it. Businesses launch a free service and think that advertising will be the answer to their revenue plan. As I stated above, it appears that online advertising is in a declining state (note: this is just a hypothesis). If ad revenue, for 'free' services business models, the basic economics of this model will not work. In order for a 'free' service to recoup for diminishing ad revenues, one option is to introduce a pricing structure for this 'not-so free' service.

Now, introducing a 'fee' structure after customers have already received the product for free is not going to be easy.

Are there any 'free' to 'fee' success stories out there? If you have any, please share them with us.

Is Internet Advertising dying? Great podcast, Dishy Mix with Bob Garfield

2009-10-17T09:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday during my run (only 2 miles), I listened to a recent Dishy Mix podcast with Bob Garfield. Bob (links to his blog) made two points which really stuck with me; internet advertising is flawed and free is going to hurt the internet.

Bob made some great points about how internet advertising is a dying and that there are fundamental flaws that will keep internet advertising from prospering. Bob stated "nobody will look at an ad if they have the option not to," which is spot on. When people use the internet, they don't want interruptive ads and pop-ups, which is why the internet advertising industry has moved to banner ads. Bob stated "nobody has ever clicked on a banner ad, ever, you know except for click fraud and mouse error." With this in mind, won't the advertisers catch on when they measure their ROI from their banner ads and figure out the banners are not leading customers to purchase their product . My thought is that advertisers aren't measuring and analyzing their internet advertising as well as they should.

Bob also talked about how giving services away for free on the internet goes against principle economics and is killing many businesses. There were some early moves by companies to give away their services online for free while charging for offline services. This has created a lot of free supply, and now customers are demanding products for free. He talked about how Gen Y'ers have only known the 'free' world, and do not expect to pay for services.

Bob and Susan discussion created a lot of thoughts for me, I would definitely recommend this podcast to everyone and I look forward to reading Bob's new book The Chaos Scenario.

I'll follow this post up with some additional thoughts this podcast brought together for me.

Matthew Cornell's "Don't-Care-o-Meter" and my "Good Enough" mentality

2009-10-16T08:25:00.000-07:00

Just read a blog by Matthew Cornell about his client's "Don't-Care-o-Meter". I follow Matthew's blog due to my ongoing search for improved productivity (which will never be complete). Matthew's "Don't-Care-o-Meter" post is great. It basically talks about how many of us are always striving for perfection, when 80% of perfect would be "good enough".

As a manager, I think the "good enough" skill is one of the toughest traits to learn. Prior to me moving into a management role, I was always striving for perfection. When I then had direct reports, I looked to them to work towards perfection. The problem is that everyone has a different impression of "perfection" and it seems like our own measure of "perfection" is always higher than others. As a manager, holding your directs to your standards is the kiss of death. You will kill yourself trying to get your directs to get the project done exactly to your desired level.

For me, there came a time when I became overwhelmed. With my study of GTD and thanks to the GTD Virtual Study Group, I knew I had to change something to stay out of the "overwhelm" zone. I realized I needed to learn to accept the "good enough" mentality in order to increase my, and my team's, productivity. With this, our project quality has suffered a little bit in our eyes. The good thing is that the quality is in the eye of the beholder, and most people think we're still providing just as high of a quality work. I spend a lot less time reviewing my direct reports work and now give items a quick review, a little feedback (see Manager-tools for a great feedback approach, MT rocks) and move on. I probably have reduced this review time by 80%, giving me more time to focus on my projects.

This focus on "good enough" has really helped, what I'm learning is that there is a fine line where "good enough" can get you into trouble (check back here soon for more on this).

Do you have a story about a "Good Enough" mentality? Has "Good Enough" bit you before? Let us know.

What brands are you loyal to? Here are mine:

2009-10-13T21:38:00.000-07:00

Loyalty is a hot topic in the building of a brand. I was driving home yesterday thinking about loyalty. On the surface, I thought I was loyal to my favorite brands. After thinking about it, I'm not sure if I am very loyal to many brands. Wikipedia defines brand loyalty as the consumer's commitment to repurchase or continue using the brand. After thinking about loyalty deeper, I think my loyalty to many of my favorite products is very shallow and is mainly due to lack of competition or due to convenience. Here is my short list of brands I am loyal to:

BMW - I love my 325i. It is a workhorse, is fast, gets 30 mpg and is reliable.
Malibu Boats - Versatile boats that are great for high performance water skiing and start every time.
Oakley Sunglasses - Worn them for years. Great style, comfortability and customization.
Apple iPhone - Can't live without the iPhone. I'm not totally loyal to the Apple brand. I think they make some great products even though I'm not the biggest fan of iTunes. I think it's kind of clunky, except that it is the only option.
Seth Godin - Seth is the man. I look forward to reading to his blog daily and seek videos of his speaking engagements.

Have you thought about the Brands you are loyal to? Are you loyal to your favorite brands? Or complacent for the time being? I'd like to hear your loyalties.

Is Columbus day a holiday? Yes it is to BART

2009-10-13T06:22:00.000-07:00

Was yesterday a holiday for you? Yesterday was Columbus Day.

My perception was that it isn't really considered a holiday. Traffic was just as bad. The train (BART) was almost as busy as normal (estimated 80% of normal). A school I drove past was in session. The Financial District in SF was just as busy.

The one thing I did notice was, BART (SF Bay Area Rapid Transit), seemed to observe it as a holiday as I did not have to pay my normal $1 (I think) parking fee. This struck me as odd. There were almost as many riders, yet this financially struggling transit provider was giving all of us regulars a free parking day. Hmm, makes you wonder what drives the decision making. Unions? Management? Federal Authorities? So I did some research using Bing (not my normal search engine, but thought I'd give it a try).

I asked Bing, "why was BART parking free on Columbus Day" (great results at the top). It appears that BART parking is free on 9 holidays. As of April 2008, BART had 46,000 parking spaces. Guessing that 1/2 of those are paid (estimate $1, even though some are up to $4), that's approximately $23,000 down the drain. Sure this is a guesstimate, but that could be easily pay for a good chunk of 1 FTE's salary.

I often think about how BART could improve their business model in order to increase revenue, and it seems like there are lots of things they could do, but aren't really trying too many. One quick way would be to not give away free parking on 9 holidays. What about charging for parking on weekends (that's 104 days of $0 parking revenue). Do you have any great ideas for helping BART?

P.S. Written on BART train 414, Fremont to SF line. I think BART provides a great service. I've tried many different methods to complete my commute, and BART is very reliable and on time in my opinion. Now it's time for BART to refine it's business model.

My frustration with Nike+, RunKeeper is superior

2009-10-12T08:31:00.000-07:00

I just read Terry White's post Nike+iPhone - (Nike+) Shoes = Flexibility, and it reminded me how negative an experience I have had with Nike on this product. Like Terry, I am a huge Nike fan and have been loyal to them my entire life. Here is my frustration.

When I made a decision to get back into running, I looked for a solution to track my runs. I found Nike+, yet it wasn't compatible to the existing iPhone (Original, version 1). I contacted Nike by email and Apple to inquire about when the Nike+ would be compatible with the iPhone. The response I received was that Apple did not recommend running with the iPhone due to the hard drive, and it recommended using the Nano. Not the response I wanted, but I trusted the advice and figured that this option would never be developed.

So, far Christmas, I received a Nano, Nike+, and Nike+ Shoes. Add it up, it's over $300 worth of merchandise. Shortly after, the iPhone 3G came out with GPS and my wife purchased it for herself. With this phone, I then located Runkeeper, which is a GPS based iPhone application which tracks your run. It does everything from tracking your pace, location and elevation. This is a great app, and at a great price.

So here I am, with my 1st Generation iPhone and Nano + Nike+ system. Then Apple announces newer iPhones will work with Nike+. While the Nike+ has worked well for me and is a good (not the best) product, I haven't been happy with the communication and product release process for Nike and Apple.

When it's time for me to get a new phone, it will definitely be the newest generation of iPhone, but I will be switching away from using Nike+ and will use Runkeeper due to far superior fitness tracking. By the way, my next shoes will be Nikes.

Disclosure: I have not received any compensation for any product mentions in this post (does that cover my necessary disclosure? Who knows?)

Customer Service Week - Local Retailer vs. Large National Retailer

2009-10-08T07:19:00.000-07:00

Customer service is built into my dna, I think. I was raised in a family that owns and operates a retail business. The business is over 70 years old, and has a solid reputation with the community. During my teenage and college years, I spent quite a bit of time working the floor handling all parts of the customer service channel.

Customer service was a big emphasis for my father as he had differentiate his business from the large national competitors that were encroaching on his space. While the customer service focus may not be always apparent to the customers, here are some key ways they beat their competitors in service:

Greeting every customer - How many times have you been to a large national retailer and not been able to find anyone to help you? It is rare that they even talk to you when you are looking around with that puzzled look on your face. This doesn't happen at my family's business, all customers are greeted and asked if they need help. And if the first employee can't ask the question, then the question goes up the chain to someone who can answer the question. My father has 40 years experience in the business, he legitimately has a solution for every question.
Product knowledge - Similar question as above, do the employees of the large national retailers have much product knowledge? Generally speaking, they don't and have no one that can answer the tough questions. At my families business, they live and breath their business and have an immense knowledge of most their products.
Inventory - They don't use any fancy inventory management system, it's all in their head and on the retail floor. The homegrown/manual inventory system keeps the inventory as a major component to running their business. They don't have the computerized inventory system to rely on, so they have to focus energy on making sure they have what their customers want. If they don't have it, they know all the suppliers that may have it, know who can get it to them by when, and can always find a solution. Special orders are an integral part of their business, you don't usually get that at a large national retailer.

The custom nature of my families business allows them to create a great customer service strategy which really caters to their customer having a great shopping experience. When compared to a national retailer, there really isn't a comparison when you look at the details of the customer service strategy. Customer service strategy really is a differentiator for local, nimble, businesses and I don't think enough of the local businesses make this a focus. Most customers would rather shop with a locally owned business and a little bit of an emphasis on customer service is an easy way to beat the large national retailer.

Happy Customer Service Week

2009-10-08T06:46:00.000-07:00

I just read on Bruce Temkin's Customer Experience Matters blog, that this week is Customer Service Week. I really like how Bruce touches on the difference between customer service and customer experience.
My day to day job is heavily focused on the customer experience, specifically at kiosks. We have a strong focus on the UI customer experience due to that being the only option for customers to get their transactions completed. I believe that a good UI customer experience is imperative to an overall customer service strategy.
With most UI customer experiences, there is the chance of errors. How does your UI react when there are errors? Are there times when your UI cannot be the response mechanism to these errors.
We have a team that is focusing on non-UI atonement for issues that happen within our customer experience. We try to handle as many of our issues within the UI experience, but there are definitely issues that have to be dealt with and appologized for through other channels. This enhancement to our atonement process is definitely a key component in our customer service strategy.

Does your business have a proactive atonement program as part of your customer service strategy?

Sociology of groups - Annual Water Ski Weekend

2009-10-06T06:51:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was our annual Water Ski Team alumni trip. This is an alumni ski trip for members of my college ski team and their sig o's (and children). This was our 7th annual trip and it is always looked forward to for all. We typically rent a private water ski lake and spend the weekend camping and catching up with each other. It was a great weekend and I look forward to next year's trip.

As my wife and I drove home, we discussed how great a group of people it is and were both humbled by how educated and intelligent the people are. There were approximately 15 people who were on the team (+ 15 significant others). Out of the 15 members, I think there were only 2 of us that didn't have any advanced degree. While we all graduated from a great college, most of the members have gone on to get another degree. The degrees range from teaching, mba, masters in childhood autism, environmentalism, dentistry, law, nursing, and I'm sure I'm missing some.

While I was one of the few without an advanced degree, it was great to be in company with such accomplished people. My wife and I also discussed how only the 2 non-advanced degree people work in general business related jobs. Most of the others work for the government, non-profit, healthcare, or other professional fields.

So why is this group so educated? And why are they not working in the "Business World"? I began thinking through the backgrounds of many of these peolpe's parents. And it seems like the families definitely have a large impact on the destinations of these people.

I'm humbled and proud to be part of this alumni group and look forward to the enlightening conversations we will have next time.

Future Think - What will today's children expect as they grow up?

2009-10-01T06:56:00.000-07:00

This post is part of my ongoing conceptualizing of my Future Think process (see my past post Future Think - 3, 5, 10 years). I'm beginning to construct a method for my team to create a forward looking development strategy.

As I mentioned in a recent post, this past weekend while I was listening to Dishy Mix, Adam Kleinberg mentioned how his kids have the "Tivo mindset". While listening to the radio in the car, they wanted to rewind it to hear the song again. Not on today's traditional car stereo, except if you're listening through the new iPod Nano (which allows you to rewind up to 15 minutes, see Terry White's review here).

I guess it should have been a sign for me when I was a child and we had that brand new VCR with a remote control, even though it was a hard line remote. That was the coolest thing ever. Did I ever think I'd be able to control my DIRECTV from my mobile phone? I didn't even have a dream of having a phone that fits in my pocket and could be used anywhere I went. I'm sure there were people working on these innovations back when I was just a pup.

With children these days having the fortune of certain innovative products like Tivo, they're expecting our other technologies to work in similar ways. I guess there are always certain technologies that are late to innovate and seem so archaic. I hope our children push us to innovate for their sake, and for them to not accept that our radio doesn't have buffering.

As part of my Future Think concept, I'm going to add a section around "Thinking like a child".

StartupVisa - "The American Dream"

2009-09-29T22:42:00.001-07:00

Check out the StartupVisa and this post from Brad Feld and friends. They are attempting to modify an existing Visa to be more conducive to foreign entreprenures starting businesses in the US.

The concept makes sense, and it seems like they are putting together a simple and thoughtout structure for managing the program. It's great to see some great business leaders putting together a government program that makes sense. This really is the "American Dream" at work. And what a better way to stimulate innovation and business growth in the US.

Good work StartupVisa team. Let us know how we can help.

Is your app "Easy"? Pandora is easy.

2009-09-26T08:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, during my early morning run through the town of Laughlin, NV (btw, too many hills in my path lead to skipping my run today, ouch), I was listening to a Dishy Mix podcast guest hosted by Adam Kleinberg (CEO of Traction). In the episode, Adam interviewed Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora.com. It was fascinating to listen to Tim talk about Pandora and how it is making huge changes to the way people listen to music. I can't wait to see where Pandora goes in the next couple of years, as I am a huge fan.

One comment Tim made really made an impact on me. He stated "I think people ultimately want easy. what the web does is give you easy and personalized", which isn't rocket science, but is often overlooked by product developers. I think it is often the case that product developers think they're making things easy for users, but they often get too close to the product and over develop.

There are so many great products available today on the web and in the general public, but many of them take a lot of work to setup and take full advantage of. I often find myself loving certain products, yet I give up on them because I don't want to put in the necessary work to fully utilize. Terry White recently wrote about his experiences with Apple products (as he often does and I feel gives the best unbiased reviews of Apple products, and that's why I follow his blog) in his post "iTunes 9.0.1, a closer look" how Apple has many great enhancements they're launching, but they're not quite fully developed. He touches on Home Sharing, which I've never really heard of but would love the ability to use this Apple service. That said, I'm guessing I would have to put in many hours to get my network and computers configured correctly to take advantage of this.

Is it easy enough for the average person? I seem to be asking that question fairly often, and the answer usually is "No". Products are asking people to make a large commitment in order to take full advantage of the whole service.

I think Pandora is a great example of "Easy". They've developed their app to work with very little interaction from the user, the web to mobile versions translate perfectly and utilize the same interactions. Pandora has nailed "Easy", I just hope they keep the vision moving in a simplistic manner and don't add to many bells and whistles like so many product developers do.

Is social media too crowded? Too difficult?

2009-09-23T06:54:00.001-07:00

I just read Scobleizer's post about his Real Time announcement of his new baby (congratulations).

While it was interesting to hear all the sites he was using to broadcast the message to his family and friends, it struck me that this was way too difficult. He mentioned a handfule of methods/social sites that he posted this announcement on in order to let all his friends and family know of the joyous event. With social media being so dishjointed, will we ever be able to broadcast an announcement like this from using one method?

If the social media space is so crowded and disjointed, will it get easier or worse as we move forward?

I would think if more of the social tools utilized more of an open infrastructure, then this would allow much more interconnectedness. But I guess this really stems from some of the players keeping their walls up.

I have to admit that I've been slow to become active in social media but I've been watching for a while. I guess one reason I haven't participated up until now was that I was overwhelmed. Is social media too difficult for the average person? Will most people rely on one social media community (I.e. Facebook or Twitter) and mainly stay in that environment?

My assumption is that most people will only use one social media platform, at least until the community makes it much easier to connect between sites.

Could you imagine if you had to manually switch networks every time you wanted to call a Motorolla phone from our Apple cell phone? Then switch again to call a Nokia. Blackberry. That would be ridiculous and unacceptable.

Maybe I'm just asking for too much early in the social era.

Future Think - 3, 5, 10 years

2009-09-20T18:17:00.001-07:00

Scobleizer posted about a possible Post iPhone World. It doesn't really seem possible, but something will eventually overtake the iPhone. I like his comment about the Walkman. I love my iPhone (even though it's a 1st generation), but I can't wait for the next thing to take over.

When I read Scobleizer's post, I thought about an ideation process I've been trying to formulate for my team. I haven't totally flushed it out, but it will hopefully help us develop some longer term projects to get us ahead of the competition. Part of the excercise will be to think about what the world, technology and our industry will be like in 3, 5, and 10 years.

Can you remember what the world was like 3, 5, or 10 years ago? 10 years ago was all about dialup. I know I wasn't thinking that I'd have faster Internet on my phone within a couple of years.

I think it's important for businesses to futurethink, especially if they want to be on the leading edge. Does your business have a future think program? If so, does it work?

New to Blogging, set "everything" up on iPhone

2009-09-19T21:49:00.001-07:00

It really is a sign of the times. I sat here in my lazy boy, with the TV going, and setup my first blog completely using my iPhone. How cool is that? Seriously, what can't I do on my phone.

I've got to give my thanks to Google and Blogger for an easy setup and a free blog. I didn't think it could be that easy but of course I started by finding Google's blog tool, an went from there. The setup was simple an I starte my blog.

The one downfall to my Blogger setup; I couldn't write the blog post directly from the Blogger site using Safari. Quick search for he'll posting and it didn't look like there was a trick to post. So, I went to the App Store to find a way to post. That's where I found VirtueSoft's BlogWriter Lite (read: free).

So, I was able to get my first two posts up fairly easily. Good work Google, Apple and Virtue Soft.

How I Randomly Started My Blog Today

2009-09-19T21:23:00.001-07:00

Well, here is my first blog post.

It all started when I read Chris Brogan's Blog this morning. It talked about Finding Your Inspirational Code. In this post he mentioned some blogs he follows, which I already follow most except Problogger . So I began following Problogger and read the Blogging to Learn post. This post really got me thinking that I should start a blog.

I guess I'm not really sure what I'll blog about, but I'm sure I'll figure it out.