I Like Common Sense

10 Super Bowl Lessons Learned By My Four Year Old This Year

2015-02-04T13:22:00.004-08:00

My kids loved watching the Superbowl this year. But they also learned some important lessons... okay, maybe I had to explain them a little, but still ... lessons perhaps all of us can learn as well.

1. DO YOUR JOB. It does matter, even when no one may know who you are, your job matters.

2. Stay focused and don’t listen to the chirpers. They are out there to distract you. Let them chirp, you do what you need to do.

3. Stay in the moment to be the best you can at THAT moment, even when all odds and seconds are stacked against you.

4. Give credit to other members of your team. Every play counts towards the win.

5. It takes both older, experienced players and young, skilled players to create a great team.

6. Study and remember all the practices and plays. You may find it tedious to practice them over and over but one will come in handy before you know it.

7. Listen to your coaches. They have the whole story in mind, but know they are not infallible, just like you.

8. You may not get to meet every single person but know that there are always a huge number of fans/supporters that want you to succeed, use that energy to fuel you.

9. Tom Brady is an amazing athlete who still remembers to thank his parents.

10. Team loyalty is important, pick one and stand by them through thick and thin. If you are lucky and wicked smaarht, your team happens to be the New England Patriots.

----
Visit my site www.utopia46.com for more UX info!

Trusting Your Intuition While Hiring and Getting Hired

2013-11-21T11:15:00.001-08:00

Show perspective, not pedigree.

Recently, our CEO Karen Kaplan wrote a great piece that was featured in The Huffington Post titled: "How to Get Hired: Show Perspective, Not Pedigree." In this article, she covers various aspects in hiring the right person. Aspects like diversity, character, openness, collaborative, someone who is comfortable with the uncomfortable, confident yet humble and most importantly willing to work hard.

Kaplan writes, "One of the founding fathers of the advertising industry, Bill Bernbach, once said, "Throw out the resume. Hire on character." He believed -- and I do, too -- that you can hire smart people, or you can hire nice people, but the way to win is to find ambitious, curious people who are both smart AND nice."

This is not new thinking by any means, but we are in the age of highly qualified, skilled, over educated people entering our lives constantly. You are probably one of them. So what will help you get the job vs. that next person. You, as a person. The smile you may have, the warmth you bring to a room, the calmness that you may present while explaining a complicated process. I guess it's just called being human. These are the people who will succeed and move through the ranks.

"Priya has a tough time with numbers and grasping concepts, it's best not to expect too much from her."

I'm one of those folks that did well in life not due to my stellar academic background, in fact I still have a report card somewhere from middle school where my math teacher stated "Priya has a tough time with numbers and grasping concepts, it's best not to expect too much from her." Yah, awesome freakin teacher - isn't that against the law to say that? HA! I'd love to show him where I am today as a Senior Vice President at one of the largest advertising firms in Boston.

Strive for a higher EQ vs. IQ.

My point here is at some point it became clear to me that common sense and striving for a higher EQ (emotional quotient) vs. IQ (intelligence quotient) is what will define success for me. So I focussed on that strength of mine. Now this isn't to say that I'm not smart, or don't know anything. I won't sell myself short either… you don't get to go to Boston College without a little knowledge and know how!

Hire based on intuition.

My first manager at a firm called Clarke & Company hired me back in 1994 based not on my transcript but on character, charisma, willingness to learn and do hard work. They hired me based on their INTUITION that I would do well and I did. I remember that all the time when I meet people and yes you will see me psychoanalyzing you with a smile on my face when I first meet you to figure out who you really are. But I will say my intuition and gut feelings have yet to fail me.

Personal Case Study.

Here's another first hand of experience that highlights all the aspects of this post.

As a working mom, one of your hardest decisions that you are sometimes forced to make as early as your baby hardly turns 10 weeks old is to bring a complete stranger into your house to take care of your newborn. There are so many different feelings that take place as a new mom and you tend to question everything about yourself and every decision you make as you place your most precious love in this persons hands.

This person after all will now be spending potentially more time with your child than you…. and that's hard to stomach. Four years ago, Suhani came into our lives and the time came to find someone to take care of her so that we could continue working. We interviewed many people, very qualified people. But I chose to go with my gut and I just wasn't getting a good feeling from anyone.

Then Fanny was recommended to me. On paper, she didn't seem like a great fit, she hardly spoke english though she had taken care of children for over 20 years. Then we met her. Her warmth and love immediately came across when she saw Suhani and picked her up and knew exactly what to do with her. Suddenly the fact that she only spoke spanish seemed like a ridiculous reason not to hire her.

She was a good person and I'm so glad I trusted my gut.

We were blessed to find her - an incredibly loving, caring nanny. She and her husband have now cared for Suhani and Arjun for the last four years and they've taken care of us as well.

Today is actually their last day with us as they make their journey back to their motherland Columbia to be with their family. Thank you Fanny and Jairo for loving our children as much as we do and for showering them with love and making them feel safe and secure when we weren't' there to do so. Thanks to you we all learned spanish and we consider you family and will be eternally grateful to you both. You will be missed dearly!!!!

----
Visit my site www.utopia46.com for more UX info!

Does President Obama Know Where His User Experience (UX) Team Is?

2013-10-29T12:53:00.000-07:00

Five Lessons in User Experience All Brands Can Learn From.

CBS News reported that the White House recently hired Jeffrey Zients to head up a team to “fix” Healthcare.gov. They also stated they were reaching out to experts and companies in Silicon Valley, trying to tap their expertise for the rescue of the site.

Ok. Everyone knows that Healthcare.gov site has problems. The largest ones being functionality that that doesn’t work and accurate data collection and storage. This piece focuses on one other aspect, User Experience. Simple tweaks that can make the experience a bit easier for the user to navigate the site.

When a website launches, issues are inevitable but there are many lessons that brands can learn from the government’s (aka your tax dollars’) misfortune.

Let’s put all politics aside for a moment and take a look at some simple UX tactics that could have been applied to minimize risk. I’ve read a lot about the issues but the best knowledge is always first hand and I had to do a test drive myself.

What did I find, you ask?

Oh, many issues but most can all be consolidated into the following five points:

1. You Need A Captain

2. Estimate Initial Usage But Be Prepared for 10x the Volume of Users

3. Streamline Content – Don’t Distract The User With Irrelevant Content

4. Don’t Scare Them with Commitment Language Off the Bat

5. Test Early and Rapidly

1. You Need A Captain

October 2011. That’s when the government began subcontracting out development work for the website. Guess how many organizations this project was subcontracted to? 47. Yes 47.

So with 47 different subcontractors, how could the government know at any given point who was working on the site and who was responsible for the most critical piece that would deem this successful – ie a successful user experience?

It’s a given, when you are building a large site, that you will have multiple departments, people and potentially companies working on it. That’s why it’s essential to have a UX captain that is all along ensuring the testing and usability of the site. If you don’t, you will fail. No blurred lines there. Your UX captain can serve as the connective tissue from concept through development and launch. Use them, that’s what they are there for.

2. Estimate Initial Usage But Be Prepared for 10x the Volume of Users

The U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park stated the government had expected to draw 50,000-60,000 simultaneous users at any given time and they were prepared for that. What happened? On average over 250,000 users have been trying to log in since it launched on October 1^st. 250,000!!!! Remember if you are building a site where you have stated your goal is “7 million users”, then scalability and capacity is critical. If they can’t get in, you potentially just lost a number of users.

3. Streamline Content for the User – Don’t Distract Them With Irrelevant Content

I have to say one of my biggest pet peeves is when I’m in an experience and I get presented information that is completely irrelevant to me at that point in the process. Don’t do it, just don’t do it. Keep the experience clean and guide the user down a path, don’t distract them.

Here’s a prime example on the site. I get to the homepage, I decide I want more information on Individuals and Families. Here are the series of pages I am now taken through until I can finally take an action that I wanted to take initially.

Great – I’m interested in individual and family – so I click on that in the tabs

Ok I guess I’ll apply online so I click on that.

Hmm… ok I guess I’ll click on the big green button to get started.

Ok – I guess I’ll pick the one starting in January.

Hmm.. Wait what? Why am I seeing Small Business and Brokers here…

I thought I already told you I was an Individual. There doesn’t seem to be a big call to action – I guess I’ll click the individual tab again?

FINALLY A GET STARTED BUTTON THAT WILL LAUNCH A FORM

TO BEGIN FILLING OUT.

So five clicks before I can even begin to fill out a form. Five clicks and that’s because I was able to figure it out and not lose hope along the way. The average user will not get past those first two clicks. “Healthcare.gov”, why are you making me click so many times? Why can’t you just take me to this page immediately?

4. Don’t Scare Them with Commitment Language Off the Bat

These words are on the homepage and the largest calls to action. My guess is users want a little more information before committing to an application. Something as simple as Learn More and Apply may ease the experience for the user coming here for the first time and keep them moving through the process.

5. Test Early and Rapidly

I can’t mention this enough. Even if you only have sketches, testing makes a difference. The smallest tweaks and enhancements can make or break your site. You don’t have to test a gazillion people either. You will begin to see trends after 5-7 users. Do it. Do it often. You won’t be sorry.

“Sources tell CBS News the underlying software was riddled with junk computer code, which means, one expert said, "No way it was properly tested before it went live.”

I rest my case.

In summary, launching a site at this scale is no simple feat. There are bound to be hiccups along the way. However simple UX guardrails can be applied to minimize risk at launch. Now go find your UX team ASAP! Or call me if you don't have one! :)

Check out my coverage in Ad Age.

----
Visit my site www.utopia46.com for more UX info!

Looking to Build a Home Run Landing Page?

2013-07-09T07:21:00.000-07:00

We all have to build them at some point for our clients - need some ammo to convince your client on building the "right" kind of page to get the results they are looking for? Look no further -

This article will give you the tools you need...

"Designing an optimized landing page isn't exactly a cakewalk. If you want to achieve a respectable conversion rate, that is. So ... how schooled are you in the concept of conversion-centered design? Conversion-centered design (CCD) is a discipline targeted specifically at designing experiences that achieve a single business goal."

Read more about Principles of Conversion Centered Landing Page Design

----
Visit my site www.utopia46.com for more UX info!

Gesture Recognition - What What?

2013-07-02T13:21:00.001-07:00

Learn About Gesture Recognition and See How Cadillac is Already Using It!

First the definition…

In gesture recognition technology, a camera reads the movements of the human body and communicates the data to a computer that uses the gestures as input to control devices or applications. For example, a person clapping his hands together in front of a camera can produce the sound of cymbals being crashed together when the gesture is fed through a computer.

We all know it's in the works and has been for a while. It has already manifested itself in the gaming industry and we are seeing it now via google glass. It's just a matter of time before we are faced with yet one more variable to consider when designing a product.

Touch technology, thanks to Apple, took the world by storm with a high adoption rate and a rare sharp intuitive learning curve. Everyone just got it, including two year olds within a matter of seconds. Touch technology is also scaleable as It works within a confined set of guidelines with very clear inputs – the touch of your finger.

Gesture recognition however is a bit more complicated. Why? Here are a few reasons:

We are all different physically. We all do things slightly differently, whether it is blinking or moving a finger in the air from the left to the right. The screen has to adjust specially to person. Similar to voice recognition.
There are certain things that you would rather do quietly. As I'm searching the internet for something, rather than making my eyes move quickly down the page to scroll or waving my hand rapidly, I may prefer to do it slightly with my finger and not draw attention to myself.
Human Ergonomics. Sitting at a desk and looking at a lap top suddenly makes my mouse pad cursor unnecessary. Why do I need my cursor if I can just gesture or tap on something that will give me my result. To that same extent – navigation may drastically change if gesturing becomes the norm because the natural movement of gesturing while at a desktop would be with your elbow somewhat glued to the desk, so the range of motion suddenly turns into an arc. Therefore does it make sense for navigation to be more at an arc value vs. the standard horizontal top of the page value? This is just one of the variables to consider.
It seems easier but is it really? While in some situations, gesture recognition seems to really be the way to go (gaming, oversized digital displays (think Tom Cruise and the Minority Report) or music perhaps) but in other situations are we just overcomplicating an experience?

So what's the net net here? We still have a ways to go when it comes to gesture recognition. Think long and hard about the audiences you are working with and the product you are designing.

I have no doubt it will slowly begin to creep its way into our lives but as designers of products, let's always be sure to ask the very important question of "will this enhance or detract from the experience." In that question, I believe you will find the correct answer on how to proceed in adding the additional requirement in.

In the case of Cadillac, they figured out just where they can use it in their cars. It's called CUE (Cadillac User Experience). How you ask? Very simply by the screen sensing the users presence of their finger coming closer to the screen and narrowing results or expanding. The screen is predominantly tactile and voice operated but I love that they were able to figure out a way to incorporate gesturing to enhance the user experience.

Check out the latest CNET review of 2013 Cadillac ATS that includes the CUE technology. Surprisingly, the voice and proximity gesture recognition worked very well for the reviewer (which are usually the trickier ones) but the tactile piece was a bit slow in response time. I'm sure they are working on it!

I expect to see more of this integration in the future from Cadillac. Way to go!

Side note: Cadillac introduced CUE back in 2011 and has been enhancing ever since…

----
Visit my site www.utopia46.com for more UX info!

Design Your Website Like The User is Drunk!

2013-05-16T12:57:00.000-07:00

Brilliant video, I will leave it at that and let the video do the explaining!

WATCH: The User Is Drunk, You Tube

Credit: You Tube, SquareWeave, Do The Internet Better

----
Visit my site www.utopia46.com for more UX info!

Native Ads 101 - Native What?!!!!

2013-05-15T13:36:00.001-07:00

I came across this article today and fell in love with the title...

People Are More Likely to Survive a Plane Crash Than Click on a Banner Ad.....

Oli Gardner gave a lot of great pointers and stats in this post and I thought it was worth reposting.

Most importantly he begins to explain the difference between a banner ad and a native ad. What's a native ad you ask? Basically, it's an ad placed within a content piece BUT the ad is very relevant to the topic you are reading on (hopefully).

Many brands are moving towards Native Ads as they have a higher click through rate than banner ads (52% more), shared more (32% vs. 19%), Native Ads registered a 9% higher lift for brand affinity and 18% for purchase intent and native ads are consumed the same way people view editorial content.

Ok here's the whole article:

People Are More Likely to Survive a Plane Crash Than Click on a Banner Ad.....
Oli Gardner

Best. Statistic. Ever. Makes me feel better about flying, but sorry for those designing banner ads.

They say that a kitten dies every time someone uses a bullet point in a presentation, so I shudder to think what’s going to happen the next time someone clicks on a banner.

Banner ads. The ugly stepchild of online marketing. Just trying to hang out in the top-right corner, minding their own business. They never asked to be overused. They never asked to be animated GIFs. But they certainly didn’t want to be ignored.

Yet, here we are, about to discuss how little action they get, and how they’re being usurped by another form of advertising. Poor little rectangular bastards. 75,000 wasted pixels in an otherwise useful area of your page. Destined to be thrown on the marketing scrap heap, never to be seen again…

Scratch that. Banners aren’t going anywhere. Yes they’re annoying. Yes they are essentially useless. But they’re here to stay, in all their 300x250px glory. They just have to compete with what’re known as ‘Native Ads’, which, as we’ll learn, have some significant advantages.

What’s a native ad? In 197 characters or less.

Native ads are contextual paid ads that appear in your content stream, designed to augment the user experience by providing semantically relevant supporting content, without breaking the flow of information.

But placing ads in content is bad, right?

It certainly is. The typical method for injecting ads is to use interruption marketing tactics to plant banners and text ads directly into the middle of a piece of content, forcing you to look at them in order to experience the whole article. People – me included – despise these ads. They provide no contextual benefit and diminish the value of the content they appear in. You can probably blame Google for this, as most of the bad behavior seems to have been built around the mass adoption of AdSense as an advertising platform.

There’s a reason for the epidemic known as banner blindness. People never liked banners and decided unconsciously to tune them out, focusing instead on the real content on the page. If you infer the same reaction to ads placed inside your content, you can imagine how unpleasant and interrupted the content consumption experience would be.

However, done correctly, ads inside content can be effective. This is where native ads come in.

So how are native ads different?

To extend the definition of native ads a bit. You can think of them as sponsored content designed to “blur the distinction between editorial and advertising in the eyes of the consumer”, according to Pilgrim Advertising. What this means, is that despite the ads being paid for, they are placed more carefully, with a heightened level of knowledge about where and how they are being used. The result is that they appear more like ‘useful supporting content that just happens to be paid for’.Read more about native ads.

The benefits of native ads

The infographic below was created based on a study to compare differences in behavior and perception between native ads and banner ads. Using eye tracking tools and surveys, the following insights were uncovered:

Native ads are more visually engaging: Native ads in the study were looked at 52% more frequently than banner ads.
Native ads drive higher brand lift: They registered a 9% lift for brand affinity and an 18% lift for purchase intent, compared to banner ads.
Native ads are more likely to be shared: 32% of respondents said they would share the ad content with a friend, compared to 19% for banner ads.
Native ads are consumed in the same way as the content they appear in: Consumers actually registered that they looked at the native ads slightly more than the content itself.

Enjoy the rest of the data in the infographic, and be sure to tweet the facts at the end of the post.

(Infographic by Sharethrough )

Tweetables

Share these rad stats with your followers to show how ad-savvy you are. And don’t worry, you can change the final tweet text before it goes out. Just leave the stats intact.

Consumers looked at native ads 52% more frequently than banner ads
» Tweet This «
32% would share native ad content with a friend, compared to 19% for banner ads
» Tweet This «
Native ads registered 9% higher lift for brand affinity & 18% higher for purchase intent than banner ads
» Tweet This «
People are more likely to survive a plane crash than click a banner ad
» Tweet This «
Native ads are consumed the same way people view editorial content
» Tweet This «

And in case you’re wondering. The stat about the plane crash came from here.

– Oli Gardner

Credit: http://unbounce.com/online-marketing/native-ads-vs-banner-ads/?utm_content=buffer1bb3d&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer

----
Visit my site www.utopia46.com for more UX info!

Lessons from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ...

2013-05-01T11:10:00.000-07:00

Esquire Magazine recently posted an article by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. I love this guy. We've been working with him lately because he's helping us on a campaign for a cancer drug for one of our clients. As most of you may or may not know, Kareem suffers from Leukemia (specifically CML). Despite the disease he continues to do great things for the community and serves as an inspiration to many.

It's always fascinating to me when you learn something new about a person - for example did you know that Kareem is a history buff and LOVES reading history books in his spare time? He's a self proclaimed closet nerd. Love it!

So he recently posted this - and what's not love about it?

We know many of these "lessons" but it's worth a refresher... my favorites in purple...

Kareem: 20 Things I Wish I’d Known When I Was 30

When I was thirty, I was living my dream. I’d already accomplished most of what I’d set out to achieve professionally: leading scorer in the NBA, leading rebounder, leading blocker, Most Valuable Player, All-Star. But success can be as blinding as Bill Walton’s finger in the eye when battling for a rebound. I made mistakes. Plenty of them. In fact, sometimes I wish I could climb into a time machine and go back to shake some sense into that thirty-year-old me. If I could, here’s the advice I would give him:

1. Be more outgoing. My shyness and introversion from those days still haunt me. Fans felt offended, reporters insulted. That was never my intention. When you’re on the public stage every day of your life, people think that you crave attention. For me, it was the opposite. I loved to play basketball, and was tremendously gratified that so many fans appreciated my game. But when I was off the court, I felt uncomfortable with attention. I rarely partied or attended celebrity bashes. On the flights to games, I read history books. Basically, I was a secret nerd who just happened to also be good at basketball. Interacting with a lot of people was like taking someone deathly afraid of heights and dangling him over the balcony at the top of the Empire State Building. If I could, I’d tell that nerdy Kareem to suck it up, put down that book you’re using as a shield, and, in the immortal words of Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (to prove my nerd cred), “Engage!”

2. Ask about family history. I wish I’d sat my parents down and asked them a lot more questions about our family history. I always thought there would be time and I kept putting it off because, at thirty, I was too involved in my own life to care that much about the past. I was so focused on making my parents proud of me that I didn’t ask them some of the basic questions, like how they met, what their first date was like, and so forth. I wish that I had.

3. Become financially literate. “Dude, where’s my money?” is the rallying cry of many ex-athletes who wonder what happened to all the big bucks they earned. Some suffer from unwise investments or crazy spending, and others from not paying close attention. I was part of the didn’t-pay-attention group. I chose my financial manager, who I later discovered had no financial training, because a number of other athletes I knew were using him. That’s typical athlete mentality in that we’re used to trusting each other as a team, so we extend that trust to those associated with teammates. Consequently, I neglected to investigate his background or what qualified him to be a financial manager. He placed us in some real estate investments that went belly up and I came close to losing some serious coin. Hey, Kareem at 30: learn about finances

and stay on top of where your money is at all times. As the saying goes, “Trust, but verify.”

4. Play the piano. I took lessons as a kid but, like a lot of kids, didn’t stick with them. Maybe I felt too much pressure. After all, my father had gone to the Julliard School of Music and regularly jammed with some great jazz musicians. Looking back, I think playing piano would have given me a closer connection with my dad as well as given me another artistic outlet to better express myself. In 2002, I finally started to play and got pretty good at it. Not good enough that at parties people would chant for me to play “Piano Man,” but good enough that I could read music and feel closer to my dad.

5. Learn French. My grandparents were from Trinidad where, though it was an English-speaking country, the school system was started by the French. Whenever my grandparents wanted to say something they didn’t want me to know, they’d speak French. The language seemed so sophisticated and mysterious. Plus, you earn extra James Bond points when you can order in French in a French restaurant.

6. Get handy. I always wanted to be one of those guys who, whenever something doesn’t work, straps on a tool belt and says, “I’ll fix it.” I like the Walden-esque idea of complete self-reliance. Build my own house, clean out the carburetors, find out what carburetors are. Recently my washing machine broke and flooded my entire downstairs. I was forced to stand idly by waiting for a plumber to arrive while water rose around my ankles because I didn’t know how to shut off the water. That’s the kind of experience that makes you have your testosterone levels checked.

7. Be patient. Impatience is the official language of youth. When you’re young, you want to rush to the next thing before you even know where you are. I always think of the joke in Colors that the wiser and older cop (Robert Duvall) tells his impatient rookie partner (Sean Penn). I’m paraphrasing, but it goes something like: “There's two bulls standing on top of a mountain. The younger one says to the older one: ‘Hey pop, let's say we run down there and screw one of them cows.’ The older one says: ‘No son. Let’s walk down and screw 'em all.’” Now, to counter the profane with the profound, one of my favorite quotes is from the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer: “Talent hits the target no one else can hit; genius hits the target no one else can see.” I think the key to seeing the target no one else can see is in being patient, waiting for it to appear so you can do the right thing, not just the expedient thing. Learning to wait is one of my greatest accomplishments as I’ve gotten older.

8. Listen more than talk. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

9. Career is never as important as family. The better you are at your job, the more you’re rewarded, financially and spiritually, by doing it. You know how to solve problems for which you receive praise and money. Home life is more chaotic. Solving problems is less prescriptive and no one’s applauding or throwing money if you do it right. That’s why so many young professionals spend more time at work with the excuse, “I’m sacrificing for my family.” Bullshit. Learn to embrace the chaos of family life and enjoy the small victories. This hit me one night after we’d won an especially emotional game against the Celtics. I’d left the stadium listening to thousands of strangers chanting “Kareem! Kareem!” I felt flush with the sense of accomplishment, for me, for the Lakers, and for the fans. But when I stepped into my home and my son said, “Daddy!” the victory, the chanting, the league standings, all faded into a distant memory.

10. Being right is not always the right thing to be. Kareem, my man, learn to step away. You think being honest immunizes you from the consequences of what you say. Remember Paul Simon’s lyrics, “There’s no tenderness beneath your honesty.” So maybe it’s not that important to win an argument, even if you “know” you’re right. Sometimes it’s more important to try a little tenderness.

11. Cook more. After I got divorced I missed home cooked meals and the only person I had to rely on was the guy in the mirror. Plus, I found it impressed women if you could cook a good meal. Once, very shortly after I started cooking for myself, I had a first date with a woman I really wanted to make a good impression on. Of course, I could have done the usual celebrity thing: fancy restaurant, signing autographs, wait-staff fawning. But I wanted this to be special, so I decided to cook for her, everything from soup to dessert. Some women get a little freaked seeing a 7’2” black man with a carving knife and butcher’s apron, but she appreciated the effort. Which was good because the soup was a little salty, the steak a little overcooked, and the flan a little watery…

12. When choosing someone to date, compassion is better than passion. I’m not saying she shouldn’t be passionate. That’s a given. But look for signs that she shows genuine compassion toward others. That will keep you interested in her a lot longer.

13. Do one thing every day that helps someone else. This isn’t about charity, this is about helping one individual you know by name. Maybe it means calling your parents, helping a buddy move, or lending a favorite jazz album to Chocolate Fingers McGee.

14. Do more for the community. This is about charity, extended to people close by whose names you don’t know. You can always do more.

15. Do one thing every day that you look forward to doing. It’s easy to get caught up in the enormous responsibilities of daily life. The To Do List can swallow your day. So, I’d insist to my younger self to make sure he has one thing on that list that he looks forward to doing.

16. Don’t be so quick to judge. It’s human nature to instantly judge others. It goes back to our ancient life-or-death need to decide whether to fight or flee. But in their haste to size others up, people are often wrong—especially a thirty-year-old sports star with hordes of folks coming at him every day. We miss out on knowing some exceptional people by doing that, as I’m sure I did. I think the biggest irony of this advice is that it’s coming from someone who’s black, stratospherically tall, and an athlete: the trifecta of being pre-judged. And I have a lifetime of hurtful comments to prove it. Yet, that didn’t stop me from doing the same thing to others. You have to weigh the glee of satisfaction you get from arrogantly rejecting people with the inevitable sadness of regret you’ll eventually feel for having been such a dick. A friend of mine told me he routinely attends all of his high school reunions so he can apologize to every person he mistreated back then. He’s now on his fortieth reunion and still apologizing.

17. When breaking up with a woman, you can’t always remain friends. I have managed to stay friends with many of the women I have dated because I truly liked and respected them. But sometimes emotions run too deep and efforts to remain friends, while that might help you feel better, actually might make the other person feel worse. Take the hit and let it go.

18. Watch more TV. Yeah, you heard right, Little Kareem. It’s great that you always have your nose in history books. That’s made you more knowledgeable about your past and it has put the present in context. But pop culture is history in the making and watching some of the popular shows of each era reveals a lot about the average person, while history books often dwell on the powerful people.

19. Do more yoga. Yes, K, I know you do yoga already. That’s why you’ve been able to play so long without major injuries. But doing more isn’t just for the physical benefits, it’s for the mental benefits that will come in handy in the years ahead, when your house burns down, your jazz collection perishes, and you lose to the Pistons in a four-game sweep in your final season.

20. Everything doesn’t have to be fixed. Relax, K-Man. Some stuff can be fixed, some stuff can’t be. Deciding which is which is part of maturing.

Credits: Esquire Magazine
Read more: Life Lessons with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - Kareem on What He Wished He'd Known - Esquire
Visit us at Esquire.com

----
Visit my site www.utopia46.com for more UX info!

Cost and SANITY Saving Tip of the Day!

2013-04-08T11:10:00.001-07:00

Every now and then you will get a tip from me and most likely because something happened to me and I want to share the love :)

So this one falls under the Parenting and Money Savings Category.

My husband and I decided to do a quick getaway with the kids for just the weekend. So we went to Mystic, CT. It's great. Highly recommend it for a quick getaway. Very walkable, lots of New England charm. Plus they have a fabulous Aquarium. Really fabulous.

So what's the problem you ask? No problem at all but what I learned by going with a 2 and 3 year old was that my husband and I probably enjoyed the Aquarium more and learned more than the children AT THIS AGE. Perhaps common sense to you all!

We sort of got caught up in the "we need to expose our children to more museums" mode. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. The more you expose your children to, the better. Expand those little brains of theirs as much as possible.

BUT, if you are looking to save a dime here and there... keep in mind a single ticket goes for $29.00.
Yes, multiply that by 4 and you are talking $116. Again fabulous if you are going to be there for the majority of the day and experience all the fabulous things they have there. Not so much when your toddlers attention span is not that big and they start losing steam faster than you realized they would from all the stimuli.

To be completely honest, they loved it. But here's what they loved:

Seeing the fish and turtles for about 10 minutes (they didn't really care they were all different and what their names or their history)

Playing in the playground for about 40 minutes (and they could have stayed longer)

Seeing the penguins (for about 5 minutes) I was probably more excited about this than them.

Seeing the jelly fish (for about 5 minutes)

We pretty much walked around with them the rest of the time (about an hour) more for our sake than theirs.

And then of course the obligatory gift shop... I don't need to expand on this one. But let's just say that we were there longer than we needed to be and the kids left crying and well I think we might have been too!

So what's my point here? My recommendation is to take the kids to the aquarium when they are just a tad bit older for your sake and theirs. You both will get so much more out of it...

Ok and here's the cost savings tip:
Take them to a pet store to see the fish and other animals... it's free and they are just as excited!!
Take them to a playground right after.
Boom, you save $116.

Again - this is just my perspective. I'm sure there are toddlers out there that are different - do what's right for you and your kid. This was just my experience!

Just enjoy your time with them - that's what they really want at this age, to spend time with YOU!

----
Visit my site www.utopia46.com for more UX info!

Inspiration!

2013-03-27T13:20:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted. Let's just say that we all have great aspirations when starting a blog, but they fall to the left when that awesome thing called LIFE happens :)

All is great and let's get back to work, because there is lots of stuff happening out there that I have thoughts on!

I won't lie - I've been sucked into the Lean In movement. Of course, everything taken in with a grain of salt but I like it. I like what it is telling folks out there and more than anything - it's inspiring. Who doesn't like inspiration?

So this post is about inspiration.

It's going to be short and sweet and full of common sense!

Follow this woman on twitter - Corrine Grousbeck. I just saw her speak at a conference. She's super inspirational, had a hell of roller coaster of a life, but rocks the world today with her story.

She gave a few tips including:

"The world is full of people who don't know who the F they are. [...] Avoid them. They will suck the life out of you."

"Don't waste your time & don't let others waste it either" "tik-f'ing-tok"

"Excuses are a way of making sure nothing changes."

"Stay curious. Learn. Be current. "

"Life is hilly. Appreciate the flat." The uphill is relentless but the downhill can be tough on the knees too. "

"If the org you're in doesn't support women, leave, start your own & put them out of business."

"Dont judge my journey ladies' ...you don't know my path."

"The end goal is happiness." Never have truer words been spoken.

These are all words to live by, whomever you may be.

----
Visit my site www.utopia46.com for more UX info!

iPhone Quick Tip of the Day

2012-02-08T13:34:00.000-08:00

I hear this a lot lately - my iPhone battery sucks or my phone is chugging. Chances are you have a gazillion applications running that you didn't realize.

Here's the fix:
1. Hit the menu (round button) twice
2. All the icons you see highlighted at the bottom are running. Yes all of them. Touch one of the icons until it starts shaking and hit the (-) key to close the apps
3. Hit the menu key(round key) again to return to your screen

Don't worry you are not deleting the app - you are simply closing it. It's ok.

Still not sure? Watch this video on how to close down apps.

----
Visit my site www.utopia46.com for more UX info!

Pinterest 101 for You & Big Brands

2012-02-07T14:45:00.000-08:00

Here it is - the quick 101 for all you late comers to Pinterest!

As per usual - do not be afraid of yet another social tool! Here are the facts:

Number of users: December 2011: 11 million
What is it: An image sharing network (old schoolers - think of bulletin board with magazine pics all over it)
Why should you care: How many times have you seen a piece of content on the web that catches your attention and you want to keep it but don't want to bookmark the entire site - just need the image. Voila
What's social about it: Other people can see what you have pinned and can repin, like or comment.
How is it different from posting to Facebook: Sometimes you just don't want to share - you just want to pin it to your board.
Why do I care what other people are pinning: Inspiration can be found EVERYWHERE
How do I do it: Go to Pinterest.com and sign up. Grab the Pin It button and drop it in your tool bar - sample instructions here if you are unclear.
How do I pin: Anytime you are on a page with images or video that you want to save, click the Pin It button in your tool bar. You will be presented with content that can be saved - simply select and tag what is of interest to you!
What brands utilize Pinterest: Gap, West Elm, Etsy, Whole Foods, Chobani
What should brands keep in mind if utilizing Pinterest: Make it about the lifestyle - not the products. Post content that bring the brand essence to life.
Still confused? USA TODAY did a great write up of the features. Check it out!

Here's My Pinterest Board!

A Letter To Bad Bosses

2011-09-15T13:44:00.000-07:00

Are you a bad boss? You know who you are – you are probably just in denial about it or worse…. you know you are and frankly, don’t care.

Here’s some advice - Cut it out. Seriously, cut it out. It’s costing you time and money.

Now this seems like common sense but it seems to me lately that there has been a spike in the bad boss industry and it’s not cool and before you get all defensive, there is a difference between TOUGH and BAD. I’m a fan of tough bosses, you will learn the most from them.

So, I’m not sure at what point these bosses forgot that a LARGE part of their job is mentoring and inspiring their staff to do their job well – but they did and it is really frustrating to hear over and over again.

Why should you care? For the simple reason, you will not accomplish your business and personal goals if you don’t have a loyal staff.

Here are some quick refreshers for all bosses:

You have a responsibility to your team.
They look up to you.
They look to you for guidance.
They need to know that you have their back and that you will provide them with constructive criticism when needed and depend on you for sharing your own growing experience with them.
You are showing them how a great boss operates.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying you need to be their best friend and go all soft. There is a fine line here, but recently I’ve seen a dramatic uptick in the “all about me” curve with these bad bosses. They manage up well… I’ll leave it at that.

So who are these people?

The Fake Listener: This boss is great, because they are super nice, get along great with everyone (team members, colleagues and ESPECIALLY senior management). Downfall – they don’t do anything with the information and there is no follow up.

The Credit Monger: Doesn’t need much explanation – you do the work, I’ll take the credit and give you none.

The “You know better than to come talk to me” Manager: You have a project dilemma. You have analyzed and implemented all possible solutions to the best of your abilities but you fear you have missed an option. Natural solution would be to discuss options with your boss and see if there is anything else you might be missing. But no, you can’t do this because they make you feel like a piece of crap when you do. So you don’t based on fear. You convince yourself it is better to potentially fail than put yourself in the dreaded “belittler machine.”

There are many other types that are out there (and combo packs too) but I can’t get into all of those personality types…

My point here is that I’m not saying that you have to be the nicest person on earth. Find the balance - I’m a huge believer in understanding who your team is, what skills they bring to the table (you hired them - at least most of the time) and acknowledge that they are all different.

Figure out their strengths and help them through their weaknesses in a positive way.

Don’t have the time? Make it.

That’s what you get paid for. If you can’t do it, hire someone that will. This is a key part of your success otherwise you will lose people year after year.

Again, I repeat - this is a part of your job.

A very important part of your job that will define your success outside of the walls of your company. Remember, managing up is no longer an easy out to not managing down well. With the social networks, word gets out – it will affect your recruiting, your street cred and it will eventually catch up with you when the time comes for you to look for a job.

Now, playing the fair card here - Some folks just aren’t made to work for each other and that is something that both of you need to figure out for yourselves but that is also part of being a good boss - address it. But before you point the finger at your team member or use the “that’s just the nature of the business” excuse, take a look at yourself and be honest. Have you been a fair boss? Have you set accurate and clear expectations?

For those folks that are struggling and do need to keep their jobs until they can find something else, I came across this link on tips for managing your bad boss.

Again, this goes for both ends and it takes both parties to meet half way. I just really wanted to comment on what I’ve been seeing and hearing lately and it seems like a simple win that is being ignored in company retention and loyalty and perhaps folks need to be reminded.

On a personal note, I did not write this because I have a bad boss. In fact, I’m on the opposite spectrum which is why I felt compelled to write this. The bosses that I have had, truly guided me with their experience and mentored me well, even the tough ones.

Still not sure if you are a bad boss?

Take a look at your retention rate and talk to your people… you will find your answer pretty quickly.

Here’s hoping for a downtick in the bad boss curve in 2012 and uptick in retention!

For more fun reading:

Lessons from Nightmare Bosses

Bad Boss Cartoons

or just google bad bosses :)

Google +1 - Quick Facts & 101

2011-07-19T13:05:00.000-07:00

Ok so what’s Google +1 and does it make sense?

Whether you are a marketer or just an average Internet user you've seen or heard about the Google +1 button. Basically, +1 acts like the Facebook share or Twitter tweet button with some slight additions - it affects search rankings. A pretty important differentiator.

So think of +1′s as votes. Whenever someone +1′s a website, it counts as a sort of recommendation and shows up next to the page in Google’s search results. The more +1 in your contact circle the higher the ranking in the search results.

Why should I care?

What Google is trying to do is make the search more relevant to you. If your friends have +1 something - you are more apt to click on that link because your friends have already validated the link and it will show up higher in the search rank.

How does it know me and my friends?

You must be logged into your Google account in order to use Google +1. Yes, you need a google account, of course. It basically then pulls from your contact list.

So how is all this information relevant to me?

Well, if you’re just the average Google user then this information probably won’t help you. If you were simply curious about all these obscure +1 buttons showing up everywhere, you now know what they do and there is no reason for you to carry on reading.

BUT if you are corporation or organization you should take note and consider implementation because let’s face it, natural SEO doesn’t work very well and Google’s algorithm isn’t always fair. So play the game, leverage automated tools and stick to what works.

So what are some con's?

It is still gaining steam - so the verdict isn't in yet, but these are some of the issues I see:

Confusing: We already have "Like" for Facebook, "Follow" for twitter, "digg" for digg and now one more to add to the bunch with +1.

UX (User Experience) Issues: When reading an article and you like what you are reading - the natural reaction is to Like the button - not +1 it - the naming on +1 is not that intuitive - so adoption may be slow.

Limited Reach: Your +1's are only shared with your gmail contacts. Not anyone else - so this is very limited and if folks really want to endorse content, they are more likely to use tools that have a wider reach (via Facebook, Twitter etc.)

Shareability: When you +1 you are not really sharing content. So what I mean is clicking on Facebook "Like" will get you the updates about the page on your newsfeed. +1 just goes to your Gmail profile which nobody looks at. So it's not shared, it's deposited in your profile, ick.

So in summary +1 is not all that user friendly and may not make complete sense to the individual user. Where I see the benefit though is for companies implementing the widget on their site so that their ranking will increase in Google search.

Still confused - here's a video that explains it more visually!

Oh and if you are in the mood - don't forget to +1 this page for me :)

Having A Personal Board Directors

2011-06-09T19:36:00.000-07:00

Does it make sense?

Yes, especially if you are one of the many trying to have a healthy balance between a career and family. While in this post I am focusing on career and family, this relates to everyone that is mastering the juggling act in your own life!

Harvard Business Review had put out an tip last year stating just as corporations have a board of directors, it's equally important to have a personal board of directors.

Of course this makes sense. We all have them, you just didn't realize they had a title!

These folks are your "go to" people when you are making decisions through out your life. They represent various areas of your life: family, financial, professional etc. They may change overtime as you go through different phases of your life and you may even have some special guest advisors that make appearances time to time. But once you hit your late 20s, your board starts to take shape.

I'm not going to cover all my areas and board members but I wanted to share some thoughts around one area of life that I'm currently experiencing as a parent and while working full-time.

This post is for both men and women. We are no longer in a society of where women just need to figure this out (though I do find us struggling more than men). I would argue that men too are struggling with the balancing act. Family, relationship commitments, work, extracurricular activities, health the list goes on.

So read on men :)
We can all learn from each other - that's why you are reading this right?

So even though I'm probably not on your board of directors, I wanted to share with you some great insights I have received from my board of directors along the way and some great mentors that have shown me that being able to do it all is all possible, by not just talking about it, but actually doing it and doing it damn well!

So being a new mom of two under two while being an SVP at a top advertising agency hasn't exactly been smooth sailing. It's a juggling act to say the least! I'm fortunate though to have fantastic role models in my industry that have knowingly or unknowingly shown me the way and served as my inspiration recently. Two in particular in the last three years.

Pam Hamlin, President, Arnold Worldwide, mother of two
What I learned from Pam:
Sh*t happens - deal with it and kick a**.
Pam heads up one of the largest ad firms in Boston. She worked her way up the corporate ladder and through the ranks. She had children along the way, raised them well and then a few years ago Pam learned she had breast cancer.
Crap.
One of those life changing events that makes you question everything and all that you are currently doing. So what did Pam do? Throw the towel in? Hell no.
She did what she has been doing all these years.
She kept being a mom, she still came into work and led the company as a President, she went through chemotherapy, rocked a wig with pride, beat the cancer and life went on. Lesson learned.

Karen Kaplan, President, Hill Holliday, mother of two
Like Pam, Karen too has worked her way through the ranks and now heads up one of the largest ad firms in Boston as well. Karen actually started as a secretary at Hill Holliday. She worked hard to get to where she is today and in the short time that I have gotten to know her, she has inspired and enchanted me with her confidence, charm and sense of humor.
She is a mother of two and speaks often in forums on the balancing act as how to be an involved parent while climbing the corporate ladder and maintaining a leadership role.
She has helped me navigate the questionable waters of "am I doing the right thing staying in my job or should I be at home with my children?"

She recently gave a talk and shared the content with me and I wanted to pass it on to you:

First of all, no one expects you to be perfect.

Second, don’t try to figure anything out for the long term. Just put one foot in front of the other and take it one day at a time.

Third, it gets a little easier every single day. I promise.

Fourth, you learn to live without sleep. When I had kids I discovered that I actually need very little of it, and that it’s difficult to get anything meaningful done while you are asleep anyway :)

Fifth, when you question if you are doing right by your kids, take a step back and look at them as objectively as you can. How do they behave? How do they make decisions? What’s in their hearts? How kind are their souls? I’ve done this just about every day for 21 years, and I can honestly say that I have raised two very impressive human beings that anyone would be proud of.

Thanks Karen and Pam. Simple words but this is what we all need to hear from time to time to get us to that next moment.

We have become so good at questioning everything and hearing words like these do help us or at least me get through on the days when I might feel doubtful.

Of course a lot is easier said than done and ultimately you need to do what feels right to you but it helps to have mentors and that personal board directors to help you along the way.

I have many advisors that I lean on and many mentors and I want to thank you all!
So who is on your board?

----

Visit my site www.utopia46.com for more UX info!

QR Code 101

2011-04-29T14:04:00.000-07:00

Ok So Do QR Codes Make Sense?

Forget about the question do they make sense – I think the more common question might be what is a QR code and should I care?

So here’s my quick QR 101 on what it is, where you might see one, what it can do and some best practices and some examples in use. Hopefully it helps you figure out if it makes sense for you to consider them in your marketing mix.

What is it?
QR (Quick Response) codes are those funny looking boxes that have started popping up all over the place that look like something that belongs in a PacMan game. Yes I’m dating myself with noting PacMan, but I digress. They are similar to barcodes used by retailers to track inventory and price products – the big difference though is the amount of data they can store or share. Bar codes are one dimensional and can hold up to 20 digits and QR codes are multi-dimensional matrix barcodes that can hold thousands of alphanumeric characters of information.

So what does that mean? When you scan a QR code with your camera enabled smart phone (you need to download an app to do this like Scan Life or Red Laser) you can link to content on the web, activate a phone number, email, IM, SMS etc. immediately.

So where might you see a QR code:

T-shirt
On a shelf
Products
Print
Online
TV
On a Building
Receipts
Business Cards
On a Rock – really? Yes.

Ok I see the code and I scan it my phone... will it do my laundry? No.
What will it do?

Drive to a Coupon
Send a Text Message
Drive to a Personalized Website URL
Drive to a YouTube Video
Call a Telephone Number
Email Message
Send a Vcard
Drive to a Google Map
Drive to a PayPal Buy Now Link
Enable WiFi Login
Drive to Itunes
Drive to Social Media

and many many other things you might be able to come up with!

Ok so now you’re thinking perhaps you should investigate QR codes a little more and integrate into your marketing plan - What should you keep in mind?

Make sure the code is in a visible location – not buried in a brochure – billboards, posters, covers of brochures, walls are great places
Have QR content strategy in place – ie make sure the code links to a CTA or compelling content experience (liking a page, signing up for promotions, etc)
Make it clear near the QR code what the customer can expect if they scan it – if its not clear, folks won’t scan and those who do won’t know what exactly it is they are looking for and you will lose them
Make certain your site or landing page is optimized for mobile sites. Most of the folks scanning QR codes are coming through their smart phones – if your site is not optimized for mobile... Not cool!
Test away – this is one of those apps you want to test the hell out of to make sure it works on all smartphones and make sure you test on a number of different scanning programs (ie RedLaser, Scan Life)
Track the analytics so that you know which CTA’s are resonating the with your target – remember QR codes are relatively new so don’t get bummed if you see low numbers initially.

Need some examples to understand this concept better?
See how Polo, Brooks Brothers and TomTom used QR codes here!

So that's my skinny on QR codes - now you go ahead and figure out if it is right for you!

Listening to Your Customers Can Cost You

2011-04-14T12:17:00.000-07:00

What do you mean a company can get in trouble by listening to their customers? That doesn't make sense!!

Actually it depends on the question that was asked. So when does it make sense to ask your customers & when does it make sense to watch them?

Phil Terry & Mark Hurst recently wrote about Walmart & I thought I would join in on this discussion because it’s quite relevant in our marketing world of constant testing & surveying customers to see what they like & dislike.

It’s great these days, we never seem to really go to market with a hunch – we test the hell out of everything before we put it in front of the mass media. This way we know whether or not something jives with the general public or may fall flat.

But what are we testing? Who are we testing it with? Do they truly represent the mass population? And lastly, is what they are telling us truly what they want? I thought this cartoon conveyed this the best:

The answer is a tough one. I would venture to say perhaps some early testing just to gage direction would be nice but I would also say that more importantly, many times it’s how you position the concept to the user & how you ask the question in the survey.

So let’s take a look at what Walmart did back in 2009. In a world where everyone loves the simplicity behind the Apple branding, many brands are trying to follow suit and simplify their brand & product. Walmart takes notice and decides that perhaps their customers need a more simplified shopping experience in their stores that is less cluttered & easier to navigate. Makes sense right? Maybe.... Err... Maybe not....

They do what most smart brands do... Survey their customers first to make sure this is what they are looking for & they ask the question “would you like Walmart aisles to be less cluttered?”

They say YES.

Great, customers have made it clear that this is what they want. Of course they do. Who wouldn’t?

So Walmart moves forward, they clean house, cut down the amount of brands they carry.... Sales start dropping, people start complaining.... But what happened? Isn't this what they wanted? Our customers lied!!

No.

See, the question that was asked was very leading. As Mark points out, Walmart made a common mistake. They asked a question they already felt they had the answer to. The question they should have asked was: What do you like about Walmart? What might improve your shopping experience?

They focused on what the customer said vs. what they actually did.

Walmart customers thrive on low prices. What drives low prices? Variety & brand competition. When they cut down on the variety, the price fluctuation disappeared. So when you lose the variety, you lose competitive pricing & Walmart customers are suddenly no longer happy campers.

So bottom line – remember that while it is important to hear what your customers are looking for, there is a fine balance between surveying customers & watching what they are actually doing. And if you should ask them a question – make sure you are asking the right question or it could cost you millions. Literally.

Two Powerful Words

2011-04-04T14:23:00.000-07:00

THANK YOU...

Maya Angelou wrote “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Forget about creating a powerful brand for a moment and think about the last time someone gave you a heartfelt thank you. It felt great didn’t it?

Where did it come from? Your boss? Family member? Friend? A brand?

I experienced this at the simplest, most surprising moment the other day. It came from a 20 month old, my daughter. I gave her a sippy cup and she exclaimed “thank you mumma” with a huge grin on her face. It was the first time I had heard those words come out of her mouth (and hopefully not the last!) but what it brought to light was that it made me feel good.

Two small words invoking such a powerful feeling.

I know what you are thinking. Big deal, she said thanks. Well, it is a big deal and people should pay more attention to this dying art of saying a genuine thank you and the power within those two words. In a world where you can get everything at the touch of a finger, you cannot buy feeling good.

Saying thank you to someone at the right time is worth millions and will go a lot further than you think.

So now, bringing it back to the brand.... The brands that are the most successful out there are the ones that pull at your emotional strings... They strike a chord in you that was unexpected. They elicit a reaction you weren’t expecting. This sweet spot is what every marketing campaign strives for.

So what are some good examples of thank you goodness?

Heineken thanking their Facebook fans offline.

Ikea thanking their staff by giving each and every one of them a bike.

Now you may not have the money or manpower to do what these brands did but there are simple things you can do on your site on your thank you page. Don’t miss out on that opportunity.

Lastly, you don’t have to be Oprah or a big brand to make someone feel good as evidenced by my little girl. So go thank your friend, colleague, family member or even your pet.... I guarantee you, that thanks will come back to you at some point, just as unexpected.

Stoke the Twitter Fire

2011-03-29T09:19:00.000-07:00

Twitter can make sense IF you let it.

Twitter is misunderstood many times. Naysayers (you know who you are) believe that it is just a way to promote your daily rants to a group of followers that you may or may not know.

Twitter is so much more if you allow it to be and here's how.

First ask yourself these questions to figure out where you stand in the twitter sphere:

1. Do you want to hear what's going on out there?

2. Do you want to be heard?

If you answered yes to the first question and just want to hear the buzz - then you should be on twitter and become a follower of those you are most influenced by (friends, companies, colleagues, professors, authors, leaders etc.) Pretty simple. Try it and see if it works for you.

If you answered yes to the second question and want to be heard - twitter is your wing man. But you need to stoke the twitter fire in order for it to become an effective marketing tool for you. BTW, answering yes to question 2 also by default answers yes to question 1 (that's just common sense!)

We are all brands. We all represent something. We all stand for something. Twitter has become a critical part of marketing strategy for the largest brands on this planet. It comes down to this - write a good enough one liner tweet and you'll get the followers who will soon convert into customers. Much easier said than done given a tweet needs to be 140 characters or less. The main point is to make short impactful brand impressions over time. This requires a bit of posting strategy though so keep that in mind if you are a big brand.

But most of us aren't big brands. We are representing ourselves and our message. Here's how twitter is helping me on a day to day basis:

1. Networking: It helps me connect with leaders and influencers that I would normally not have the opportunity to do so with.

2. Knowledge: It sheds light on what influencers are reading and what is shaping their knowledge.

3. Sharing: It allows me to share my thoughts with folks that I would normally not directly market (thank you retweet).

These are just a few reasons why I'm a fan of twitter - there are many more out there. I'm not saying everyone needs to be on twitter but there sure is a lot to be learned by it. But just to reiterate - you need to stoke the twitter fire to make it work for you, if you don't, it will fizzle out.

Time Magazine recently posted the 140 Best Twitter Feeds. The list is broken up by categories including companies, JetBlue and Amazon are on there, find out why. The list is comprised of all the folks leading the conversation around the world. Worth taking note.

As for me - well you can follow my tweets @PSCommonSense - I'm still more of a follower than contributor at this point :) You have to start somewhere right?

----
Visit my site www.utopia46.com for more UX info!

Post-Mortems vs. Pre-Mortems

2011-03-25T11:16:00.000-07:00

Do post-mortems make sense?

No.

Ok, so first off I must say until recently I was an advocate of post-mortems. Of course they make sense, why wouldn't you want to review something that was a success or failure and the experiences that got you there? Then I read Gary Klein's piece on conducting pre-mortems (Klein is the author of Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions).

The argument is the following:

A project post-mortem by definition is to figure out what went wrong (of course there are discussions about what went right as well but 90% of the discussions are usually about the challenges). So the meeting pretty much starts off on a challenging note usually ending in a mix of finger pointing, denial, anger etc. Pretty negative eh! BUT, we all know it is very important to reflect - the question is how can it be done constructively?

Pre-mortem's are all about starting off a new project by identifying what could go wrong (aka risk analysis), raising the red flags and coming up with solutions to preempt those challenges.

So in reality the post-mortem doesn't necessarily go away, it just gets tucked away and repurposed under a different lens. So if you are going to put in the time investment of a "mortem review" make it a pre vs. post. If done correctly, it will save you time down the road and will certainly be worthwhile.

As Holly Green stated in Time for a Pre-Mortem, "In today's business environment, customers, markets, and entire industries can change overnight. If you get it wrong the first time, you might not get another chance."

Makes perfect sense to me. Now the challenge is to get the companies to make the investment in allowing time for pre-mortems.

Audible & Guy Kawasaki

2011-03-23T09:06:00.000-07:00

Do audio book tapes make sense in this day and age?

YES YES YES.

Being a mom of a 20 month old and 5 month old and holding down a full time job at an ad agency, time is something I just don't have a lot of these days and my reading list these days is made up of books by Dr. Seuss and Eric Carle.

I used to read a lot and took pride in reading the latest and greatest and boy do I miss it. At the beginning of this year I resolved to read more. As March rolled around, my list of books to read increased but time continuously decreased, making me all the more frustrated. BUT, I figured where there is a will, there is a way and I'll just read at night when the baby is sleeping. Yah right. When the baby is sleeping, yours truly is also sleeping.

Then I remembered something my wise sister mentioned to me years ago, this lovely little company called Audible. Digital books. She raved back then how great they were and there was always some cd or the other playing in her car (before the iPhone days). I didn't understand - perhaps because back then I had time to read (or could stay awake long enough to read).

Guy Kawasaki recently came out with a brilliant book called Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions. I wanted to read it so badly and it was really frustrating to me that I couldn't find time or energy to read it.

This is what drove me to Audible.

I have a 45 minute drive into work. I spend most of that commute listening to either traffic reports, news or music. It's getting old real fast because there is always traffic (do I really need to hear that the Pike is backed up due to a rollover again?), I see the news in the morning while getting dressed and in the evening while I'm getting dinner ready and I listen to music through out the day. I needed more.... (cue clouds parting and light shining through).

Audible has saved the day for me. In this day and age where everything is digital, everything is on your smart phone, so much is possible that wasn't before. Why the hell wasn't I embracing it?! I'm blaming it on sleep deprivation.

So now I have at least 90 minutes of daily book time with my favorite authors Monday-Friday. Thank you Audible.

Now a quick note on Guy. You will hear me mention him a lot. Ever since I saw him speak at a conference back in 1999, I have been hooked. For those of you who don't know him - he was part of the original team back in 1984 responsible for evangelizing the Macintosh computer. Today he's a successful VC, blogger and responsible for sites like Alltop and Truemor.

If you ever get the chance to see him speak, do so, but in the meantime read (or listen) to his recent book Enchanted. In summary, it’s about learning how to make people fall in love with you, your brand, and what you’re all about – then stay lifelong fans and become brand ambassadors. You don't have to work for a big brand to read this book - it applies to everyone at every level in whatever position you may be.

This book is very well organized and the personal stories truly bring the words to life. Yes I have been "enchanted." Add this one to your reading (or listening!) list.

Building A Great Team

2011-03-22T08:32:00.000-07:00

Does it make sense to turn a team member into boss?

My answer is that it depends on a number of things including the needs of the team, needs of the organization and business and personality amongst many other factors.

The most important factor though: can this person really manage and inspire the team to do great work?

This can be a polarizing topic but I think it's worth bringing up and discussing. Recently Hank Gilman, deputy manager editor of Fortune wrote a book, You Can't Fire Everyone: And Other Lessons from an Accidental Manager." He wrote it specifically geared at younger managers given that the average age of management is skewing younger and younger these days.

In this book, he talks about how plenty of managers are never asked or expected to be put in charge of other people. But when it happens, these accidental managers find that learning to manage is akin to learning to swim by being dropped in the deep end of the pool.

There are two parts to becoming a manager: managing down and managing up. This post of mine will focus more on the managing down part. I'll save the managing up part for another day :)

Some people have it innately within them to be a team leader, others need a little coaching and mentorship and others, well others simply should not become managers and hopefully senior managers have the insight to understand when to make that call. Unfortunately more often than not, they make the wrong call.

Seven years ago I was one of those managers who never asked to be put in charge of people. Fortunately, I had many years of working for the best and worst bosses, so along the way I would tuck away all those experience nuggets of "I would never treat my people like that" and "wow what an inspiration to make me work harder"and was able to pull them out when the opportunity or should I say mandate was handed down to lead a team.

In my eyes it boiled down to something I learned back in first grade:
Treat people the way you would want to be treated.
BUT remember, you are their leader, their manager, NOT their BFF.

This is a line very easy to cross when you are first put in this position, especially if you have come up through the ranks and suddenly your colleagues are your direct reports. The dynamic changes instantly for you and for them.

Respect that change. If you try to be both, you will get in a lot of trouble and no one is happy.

But coming back to my point of treating people the way you would want to be treated. I think this simple statement can help you manage and make the right decisions, as difficult as they may be. I was fortunate to inherit a wonderful and talented team, this made it very easy for me to do the right thing and I soon realized my challenge wouldn't be so much about managing the team as much as it would be to understanding the political landscape of senior management, managing up and how to get my team what they needed without steamrolling sr. management with an extensive list of needs.

So how did I do it?

The first feeling I experienced was crap, how the hell am I going to do everything. I need to show senior management that I can manage and I need to show the team that I can be a leader to them. Baby steps was the answer.

Communication
Feeling overwhelmed is human but you need to take baby steps. My first course of action was to talk to the team individually. This is huge. I cannot underscore the importance of communication.

It will make or break you as a manager.

Sure it may be harder depending upon the size of the team but it's important as a new manager, so take the time somehow to establish that one on one contact at some point. Remember, this is just as new to them as it is to you. This one on one will unearth things you never thought about, good and bad. You will get a deeper understanding of their goals, expectations, personality, all which will later inform you on how you what your team looks like from a skills and personality perspective.

For each team member, the fact that you sat down and listened to them will be big in their books. You took the time and that counts for something.

Take Action
Now here's the really important part. You need to do something with what you have learned and you need to communicate back to them what YOUR plan is. More often than not, managers will actually take the time to listen but there is no follow up. The more this happens, the more your credibility is shot.

So even if it is just a quick email to follow up that you have reached out to someone to inquire, that makes a difference. Remember that part of taking action is also continuing to regularly meeting with individuals and checking in, it's not just something you do on day one. Another common management mistake that can be easily remedied.

Prioritize
Now obviously, it will be impossible to satisfy each and every need but that's where your role as a manager comes in. You have a running list of needs and now it is time to prioritize them. There is no way that everything can or should be addressed right at the beginning. This will help you plan and also communicate to sr. management that you have set goals that they can then help you achieve.

Remember your job as a manager is to keep your team motivated and staffed on projects amongst many other things. Keeping them motivated though will inspire them to do great work and ultimately make the department look good.

So motivate them by hearing them out, addressing their needs when possible and communicating next steps. Makes sense right? Not brain surgery by any means but these simple things are more often than not forgotten in the shuffle of "just get the work done."

So for all the senior managers trying to figure out whether or not they should promote internally or hire externally There are a number of factors to consider but I would challenge them to go through these points and ask, will they be able to do these things? I think your answers will lead you to the most sensible answer.

Google Chrome Logo

2011-03-21T14:23:00.000-07:00

Does the new Google Chrome Logo make sense?

Yes.

google changes chrome logo

It sure does. Simply put there is a time and place for shiny 3D images... this wasn't one of them.

Google is known for their simplicity. Getting users to where they need to go fast when searching. The Google experience, similar to Apple has always been on the simple and light side - no frills. So when they came up with the 3D logo, there seemed to be a disconnect with the brand identity. Great job finding yourselves and having your logo make sense Google (props to Steve Rura - Google Designer).

Captivate in Elevators

2011-03-21T14:12:00.000-07:00

Does Captivate in Elevators Make Sense?

Yes.

This is a great idea right? Captivate figured out that they have the attention of an audience in an elevator. There's no getting around not looking at that screen. Those awkward moments when you don't want to make eye contact with the creepy person that just got in the elevator or when you simply just want to zone off and stare blankly but not be judged by your co-workers.

Awesome - completely makes sense. Where are they missing the boat?

I love that I can get my random facts or news briefs or even a recipe or weather update.... but you know what would really make my day? Give me something that will make my commute home better. Like a traffic visual of congestion and alternate solution. That way I know to avoid the Pike and take those backroads home or to call a friend and have a drink and get home at the same time that I would have if I sat in traffic.