Jeannette McClennan

Building authentic relationships through social media, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is amazing

2016-07-19T07:36:00.001-07:00

New people join social media everyday, and they gain more confidence in sharing their interests all the time. This effects how they behave on social media. Who they follow, what they post, what they search, and what content they create. This constantly evolving user base makes social media marketing a powerful necessity for any business. But, it can prove to be very challenging to integrate effectively. These high-risk, high-reward social channels bring to mind the question, how can one master the use of social media?

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson may have found the answer, as he has amassed a following of 58.1 million users on Instagram alone with which he interacts and engages regularly. He is arguably the most active celebrity on social media and has had great success growing and defining his unique Brand.

So how does The Rock do it? In terms of Branding, marketing teaches us that we should have one consistent Brand image, which “ The Rock” has clearly nailed. However Dwayne goes a step beyond that. Instead of posting content solely about his movie career and then disappearing for a few months, Dwayne posts content from almost every aspect of his life. He posts about his workout routines, his dog named Hobbs, his past and drive for success, his app “Rock Clock”, his bag line with Under Armor, and most importantly he posts art from his followers and shares their stories. This makes The Rock Brand a diverse one, which casts a wide net that people can relate too, and it’s authentic. Inviting his followers into his life is what helps The Rock connects in many meaningful ways.

Having taken the time to nurture and grow his fan base into an authentic relationship, Dwayne Johnson is well positioned to drive great business success. Dwayne Johnson recently released an app called “Rock Clock” which is essentially an alarm clock that has no snooze button and has special alarm sounds made by Dwayne Johnson himself. There also is the option to wake up the same time as Dwayne, currently at 5:30 AM, and Dwayne leaves a personal message, video or photo, each day for those who have the app to provide motivation. This app has received a lot of great reviews and a high download rate. On top of that, Johnson has stepped into commerce by selling limited edition backpacks and duffle bags in partnership with Under Armor. Those bags are now sold out and are an official collectors item.

There are many key lessons that The Rock is teaching us: 1) Define your Brand and the type of relationship you want to create with your fan base. Is your Brand a trusted friend, mentor, guide, advisor define it and be consistent to that Brand 2) It’s important to make your content diverse and broad to cover many aspects of you and your Brand 3) Engage with your followers and make them feel like they are on the team 4) Post your fans content, create real interaction and genuine conversations 5) Communicate in personal and relatable ways, so that fan feels the type of connection you are looking to make.

http://blog.zmcadvertising.com/is-dwayne-the-rock-johnson-a-social-media-marketing-genius

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/02/dwayne-the-rock-johnson-wants-to-be-your-personal-life-coach.html

jeannette.workfolio.com

Experiencing Pokemon Go, What a blast!

2016-07-14T11:22:00.001-07:00

This past Thursday, July 7th, an app called “Pokemon GO” was released to iPhone and Android users. As one would expect, Pokemon GO has had huge success even though it has been out for just a week. Social Times reports that Pokemon Go surpassed 7.5 million downloads in 5 days. Pokemon Go is even reported to soon surpass Twitter in its daily active users and the app hasn't even been globally released yet.  

So how did Pokemon GO become one of the most used and active apps in the United States in less then a week? The use of geolocation, the sense of community and competition was key to its success. Also, the familiarity with the Brand legacy all helped Pokemon GO lunge forward like no other Brand could. One of the best things about Pokemon GO is that it has users walking, exercising and interacting with others. It is a gigantic, worldwide scavenger hunt. I love the sense of community and team interaction.  

Out at my house in the Hamptons, I can’t go anywhere without seeing people playing this app. My sons are playing Pokemon GO and they walked six miles last Saturday so that they could catch Pokemon, take over gyms, and socialize with other Pokemon trainers. Clearly the game’s concept brings to life the dreams of anyone who grew up with Pokemon, which is largely consisted of Millennials and Generation Z.  

Seeing all this hype caught my attention, so I decided to give Pokemon GO a whirl and see what being a Pokemon GO trainer is like for myself. Among other things, I was amazed at the use of Augmented Reality, as Pokemon would appear on my phone by using my phones camera to capture the environment in front of me and place the Pokemon in it. Armed with Pokeballs, I had to catch these Pokemon by flinging the Pokeballs at the Pokemon I was trying to capture. Interestingly enough the game pairs the Augmented Reality with geographic location data so it knows that I live by the ocean and makes it more likely to find water type Pokemon. Because the app is smartly using location data and simple maps that feel intuitive, Pokemon Go does a great of job of simulating real places and real experiences.   

To wrap it up, I wanted to share a secret trick about the game! I mentioned this trick in one of my last twitter posts that my starting Pokemon was Pikachu. When making a file on the game you get to choose Squirtle, Bulbasaur, or Charmander as a first Pokemon, however there is a trick you can do to unlock Pikachu instead. When the first three Pokemon appear on the map, you have to physically walk away from them so that they are out of the white ring then walk back so they reappear in your circle five times or so. On one of these attempts, Pikachu appears instead of Squirtle, Bulbasaur, and Charmander and is available to be caught. Pikachu is hard to find otherwise and this secret that is easily overlooked, plus I’m a big Pikachu fan! I am sure you will enjoy Pokemon Go, try it for yourself!

Pokémon GO Surpasses 7.5 Million Downloads in 5 Days

'Pokémon GO' Is About To Surpass Twitter In Daily Active Users On Android

http://jeannette.workfolio.com/

Slack understands the need for Product Leadership and Business Development Expertise goes hand in hand

2016-04-04T06:38:00.003-07:00

When Leadership melds together…..

As a fellow digital product marketing veteran, I want to recognize April Underwood for her role in building Twitter. April’s contribution at Twitter was vital to their developmental gains. Her work to develop Twitter’s follow button, firehose and location features plus the Ads API and search partnerships were outstanding product contributions. This series of product features defined and sustained five years of constant growth. Following her departure, Twitter has followed with a slew of mishaps that has led to some decline. The verdict is still out about Twitter sustaining growth without the vision of April.

April has since moved on to advancing the development of new product, a collaborative app called Slack. Upon hearing the buzz on Slack, I signed up to get a first hand take on the product. Slack offers several paid and unpaid plans with varying degrees of features and controls. Slack is impressive and easy to use combining email, file sharing, and instant messaging into one cleaner, simpler platform. Slack functions as a wonderful private platform that offers a centralized location for all your collaboration tools, allowing integration with outside web and cloud services as well. This approach opens up real time discussion and expands synergy between teams, an important communication and collaboration space product folks yearn for.

Regardless of Slack’s future, this kind of innovation between backroom product design/engineering and business development will become more prevalent in the future. Such is a new and rare breed of product expertise so wedded to the front end experience that product folks lead the charge on new business development - previously unheard of in the growth of digital business best practices. Good luck to April Underwood and Slack, may she and Slack thrive and enjoy success.

http://techcrunch.com/2016/01/02/april-underwood/

https://www.quora.com/What-happens-to-Slack-competitors-How-are-they-doing-now

jeannette.workfolio.com

Great Product Strategy is the Art of Knowing What and For Whom to Build

2016-03-22T07:37:00.000-07:00

I recently came across a really interesting concept called the “stack fallacy” - Anshu Sharma’s article, Why Big Companies Keep Failing: The Stack Fallacy. In this article, Anshu talks about the tendency of large corporate entities to assume a leadership position because of their existing market share. In reality, the concept of “stacking” on what you have can be very dangerous as you are misled by prior category leadership. The step that can trip up even the most mature product team, is forgetting to focus energies on WHAT to build, not HOW to build it. It is easy to fall victim because you feel you know the space and category from prior success. This creates a false sense of confidence and potential big misses in product releases. Anshu’s diagram below does a great job of demonstrating how you can have “blinders” on and not think through the end user experience.

This theory shows the common challenge faced by mature players and can explain why Google has struggled with entrance into Social Media. Here is a clear example of going up against the “stack fallacy”. It was believed that because of success in Search, Google would be a natural leader in Social Media. Google went head to head with Facebook, who dominates the field already and the stack theory shows just how easy it is to miss the mark. Being able to simply operate on one level just does not translate into guaranteed success in another area. It is a prevalent occurrence to see companies fall into the “stack fallacy” as they try to expand their reach into new territory. The trick to avoiding this misconception is to focus on WHAT, not HOW, to satisfy the end user, take nothing for granted, including prior success.

jeannette.workfolio.com

How Rich Data Drives Engagement in New and Powerful Ways

2016-03-08T07:27:00.003-08:00

I have to admit, I am a huge fan of House of Cards and have watched the whole three seasons enjoying them all immensely! During this year’s World Economic Forum at Davos, Kevin Spacey, the lead actor in House of Cards, shared predictions about the future of big data. He talked about how other Media companies will replicate Netflix’s model, an innovative approach to content creation. In his talk, he really punctuated the necessity to form a new bridge between tech companies and media companies.

Back in 2013, the Salon author, Andrew Leonard, was summarizing how big data is used to understand and analyze the performance of the House of Cards show. With big data, Netflix gained the ability to know much more about its subscribers’ viewing behaviors. Data can be gleaned from simple user behavior such as when we pause, rewind, fast forward, or stop watching altogether. Through analysis of this stream of data, Netflix has captured, and analyzed the show content segments to better understand what keeps the attention of the viewer. Are viewers engaged? Are they tracking with the storyline? Are they getting bored? Among many other even more detailed data, connections can be made. In this way, Netflix has been able to stand at the forefront of revolutionizing how successful content creation can happen - which then can deliver great content experiences and great return on investment (ROI).

I write about this topic because I am using a lot of rich data capture and personalization in my current work at Life Reimagined. On our platform, we achieve high engagement through “small step” programs that help you reflect and take the time you need to make thoughtful decisions about work, family, financial, and many other decisions that happen in life. We then look to make a highly personalized experience where these small data set collections help you build action plans through refinement and learning. Similar to what the Entertainment industry is just realizing, the job of personalization and relevancy of content are the keys to consumer engagement.

I couldn’t agree more with Kevin Spacey’s opinion. It is certain that we will be seeing a new breed of tech firms that will focus on big data/best practices tailored to the needs of different business verticals. As House of Cards has demonstrated, big data can be utilized in many ways to make content more satisfying and shape successful show concepts all with the mindset to drive personalization, greater engagement, and ultimately, more fulfilling programs.

jeannette.workfolio.com

Why Watching Consumer “misbehavior” is the Key to Building Great Digital Product

2015-10-01T10:30:00.003-07:00

Early Facebook did so many things right. That is why it overtook the leadership position in social media networks. The key to their outstanding success is really simple, they observed their end users and took notice of all behaviors. Facebook remained open, just observed behavior rather than forcing or pre-defining behavior. They learned through observation and adopted new product by simply watching their end users “misbehavior”. Here are a few early examples of why Facebook was and still is such an outstanding digital product inventor.

• Facebook noticed that people were make pages for their pets, so Facebook embraced this rather than shut it down.

• Facebook noticed that students were creating pages for their classes and students would “friend” that page, so Facebook embraced it and created the now popular Groups function.

• Facebook observed that students were trying to use Groups for events and parties that had a start time and location, so Facebook invented Events that had different functionality and purpose.

Clearly, unlike Friendster, Facebook embraced the fact that people can have many small and different types of social groups. Unlike Friendster who was focused on ONE social group no larger than 150 people, Facebook observed and built product around quality and variety of social

groups rather than focusing on sheer size. So, get your MVP (Minimium Viable Product) in market quickly and have fun observing behavior and “misbehavior” too.

http://labs.openviewpartners.com/how-facebook-beat-friendster-power-of-customer-misbehavior/

jeannette.workfolio.com

Why Friendster, the Pioneer of Modern Social Networking, Failed

2015-09-23T08:04:00.000-07:00

Few people know that Friendster was the pioneer of modern social networking. Friendster raised $50 million in venture capital financing, accumulate tens of millions of users by 2002 and seemed poised to be the poster child of social media networks, a business to be envied by rivals such as Facebook and MySpace.

What took them down? Friendster had a very specific vision for how its product should be used by its end users. It was based on the work of Robin Dunbar, a professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Oxford who invented “Dunbar’s Number”, and his findings indicating that human beings maintain a network of only about 150 close friends.

Dunbar has found 150 to be the sweet spot for hunter-gatherer societies all over the world. From the Bushmen of Southern Africa to Native American tribes, a typical community is about 150 people. Amish and Hutterite communities — even most military companies around the world — seem to follow the same rule. In smaller groups, primates could work together to solve problems and evade predators. Today, 150 seems to be the number at which our brains just max out on memory

So Jonathan Abrams, Founder of Friendster applied “Dunbar’s Number” so that Friendster's servers calculated a single user's connection to other users within four degrees of separation. The effect was to give users a vivid sense of how they fit into their 150 person social group as well as into the larger world. By organizing all of the calculations around “Dunbar’s Number”, Friendster was forcing you into a finite group of friends capping your interactions and exchanges. The goal was to supposedly provide a better user experience while others, Facebook and MySpace, put no capping mechanism in place and let community grow organically.

http://www.wired.com/2013/02/friendster-autopsy

http://www.npr.org/2011/06/04/136723316/dont-believe-facebook-you-only-have-150-friends

jeannette.workfolio.com

Does your Digital Product really have a “There-There”?

2015-09-15T07:36:00.000-07:00

It takes a lot of hard work to create digital products that can achieve adoption and sustain ongoing usage. It is surely not a business for the faint of heart! When you breakdown the process, you need to view your ideas from many lenses, here is a simple list:

• Your Vision, can you pull back and evaluate whether end users really want your solution?

• What is the pain point you are solving for? What is the need you are fulfilling?

• Where else can your end user get this type of service or product?

• Who is the competition? Are you coming in with a new idea? Or, are you a fast follower that has built a better mousetrap?

• What degree of scale (audience size) do you need to sustain a profitable product?

• What are the revenue streams? How attainable are those revenue streams? What interdependency on product output exists to generate sustainable revenue streams?

• What big data can you collect? Does the data deliver value to your end users? Or does it help you enhance the product in some meaningful way?

• Last but surely not the least of importance, how quickly can you produce your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and get it into the hands of real end users? Don’t over think or over plan your idea, get it into real use and learn.

Use this checklist to challenge your product ideas and be open to necessary product pivots. Even be willing to shelve an idea that is not delivering a product that is defensible in the marketplace.

jeannette.workfolio.com

Sharing fascinating learning about Brain Health

2015-08-11T07:48:00.002-07:00

While attending our annual business retreat for LifeReimagined, we invited many experts and thought leaders to allow the product team to learn about ways to build enriching and meaningful content and end user experiences. Our goal for Life Reimagined is to help people pivot through any number of life transitions with more confidence and with a plan of action. Whether work/job transitions, relationship changes/evolutions, or facing your own what’s next, consumers are turning to LifeReimagined to ask questions and learn new ways to assess their life situation while adding a dash of fun and positive thinking around what is possible.

One of our speakers, Dr. Majid Fotuhi, Chairman of the Memosyn Neurology Institute, was able to bring forth his work to help our team better understand why memory loss is so poorly understood and how many individuals are labeled with dementia or Alzheimers, often incorrectly. These disease states have become a broad catch all for all sorts of situations. The key message from Dr. Fotuhi and many other speakers at the event is that it is all about healthy living, which includes the food we eat, exercise, and sleep as key factors. It is important to remember that the basics do matter; it is not about how you look. It is about your health on many levels.

In particular, the connection that Dr. Fotuhi was making to brain health was explaining the hippocampal complex, which is the hallmark of the memory system in one’s brain. The hippocampus “ is the elongated ridges on the floor of each lateral ventricle of the brain, thought to be the center of emotion, memory and the autonomic nervous system.” Here’s what I learned:

http://psych.nyu.edu/phelpslab/papers/04_CON_V14.pdf

• Exercise training increases the size of the hippocampus and improves memory. http://www.pnas.org/content/108/7/3017

• The hippocampus shrinks in late adulthood leading to impaired memory and increased risk for dementia. Though physical activity training increases hippocampal perfusion, the extent of which aerobic exercise training can modify hippocampal volume in late adulthood remains unknown. Our guest speaker, Dr. Fotuhi, was focused on scientific evidence and implementing solutions.

• Another major study about entitled “Human emotion and memory: interactions of the amygdala and hippocampal complex” by Elizabeth A. Phelps contains interesting research about the complex interactions between emotion and memory that could be unique to human function. Emotions are key to to understanding cognitive behaviors.http://psych.nyu.edu/phelpslab/papers/04_CON_V14.pdf

Enjoy your day and live well.

jeannette.workfolio.com

July Must Be Meet a Celebrity Month …Taxi Cab Style!

2015-08-04T10:35:00.000-07:00

Well, July must be meet a social media celebrity month. Rushing from one meeting to another, I dashed into a cab only to learn that I was about to meet a celebrity. Who was it? My driver! He was so friendly and polite that he helped take my mind off my busy day, and during our conversation I found out that he was the one and only Mr. Ferrari!

One day, as his shift was about to end, my cab driver picked up a passenger and took him to his destination. Little did he know his passenger was Tom Hanks. They bonded over their love of all things Ferrari. Then Tom Hanks invited “Mr. Ferrari” to be his guest at his Broadway show.

It all started with an act of kindness. Yes, it’s really that simple. Wouldn’t it be great if we could remember that?

http://www.humansofnewyork.com/post/101174029656/so-get-this-im-driving-down-park-avenue-one-day

jeannette.workfolio.com

Inspiring Connections with Real People

2015-07-28T06:37:00.000-07:00

On the days that I head downtown to Neuehouse, our coworking space, I get the fun of traveling with my son, as he attends the Academy for Software Engineering High School, which is blocks from my office. On our way, we pass by Black Cherokee at the entrance of FDR and 125th street. His clothing is striking and lovely--he often wears a bright, finely pressed white shirt with denim overalls and, best of all, he balances a piece of fruit on his head, complete with self-promotion signage to check out his social media. What I love about Black Cherokee is how completely authentic, moving and special this form of talent can be. When my husband ran into him in Harlem, he snapped this great, off stage moment. What a guy!

http://jeannette.workfolio.com/

Retail Really Gets Digital--finally!

2015-06-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

Having spent the majority of my career in digital, reluctant retailers have finally arrived! Back when I was running the East Coast operation for Organic Online, and when I was President of Ogilvy Interactive, pitching and winning retail business was one of the most difficult initiatives. Retail clients had a hard time internalizing that brick and mortar stores would be challenged by digital as e-commerce matured.

I will say I was impressed when Tommy Hilfiger and their investors sought out Organic Online and my team to build their web presence. They had a real vision about continuing to move the Tommy Hilfiger brand from retail to entertainment because they understood what was to come. Which brings us to where we are today--with advertisers in retail spending more than $1 billion on digital video ads alone.

http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Retail-Industry-Reigns-US-Digital-Ad-Spending/1012554

jeannette.workfolio.com

Still Striving for Work/Life Balance!

2015-06-09T10:23:00.001-07:00

Well, I suppose I never really got this one right! For me, my work is my passion so maybe that is the core of the problem or maybe I am just lucky to like what I do so much. But that is no excuse for not making time for family and friends. So what’s with that? I suppose I like the challenge.

The things that seem to work for me are pretty simple, and maybe they’d be helpful for you too:

•Put emails that warrant more attention into my weekend or evening draft file so I can write more thorough responses.

•Leave larger presentations and documents to weekends and nights so I can be focused and yes, do more thinking!

•Have my personal trainer come to my home so that I avoid the time it takes to get to and from the gym.

•Use Google hangouts multiple times per day to keep interaction and communication going with team members in multiple cities and countries. It really increases productivity and, even more importantly, creativity.

•One large team meeting every week and try to minimize the rest. We get a great update on product and where we are going. Then it is heads down the rest of the time. Kinda works.

I don’t know if I really get work/life balance out of these, but I suppose you gotta love what you do! Here are some tactics that work for others. Enjoy!

http://jeannette.workfolio.com/

Want success? Use the Lean Start Up approach

2015-06-02T07:27:00.000-07:00

Say you are working at P&G in India and you are on a quest to find new products to bring to market. Well, the burgeoning middle class is around 50 million people, and it’s expected to grow steadily over the next decade, reaching 200 million people by 2020. What do these families need? A drop-off laundry service.

Well, a smart, savvy former P&G India employee decided to strike out on his own and create that service. He did all his research to find out which neighborhoods were enjoying such affluence, created all the right messaging and decided to create his own prototype of the business he wished to start. So he wheeled in with a laundry truck into the right neighborhoods, and opened his doors for business. He took the “leap of faith” lean startup approach: get out in the market and learn. But sales were slow and he didn’t know why. http://www.wassupondemand.com/

http://yourstory.com/2014/05/wassup-dhobi-wallas/

What was the problem? The truck. Customers thought that he might runoff with their clothing! He came back to the same location with a kiosk and his business really took off.

The takeaway? Any new product needs to break down all the variables that might impede success, take the time to really listen to their customers and find the actionable learning points. With this Lean Start Up approach a solid idea can become a scaleable and exciting new business.

Check out, if you have not already: The Lean Start Up by Eric Ries

http://theleanstartup.com/

Understanding Snapchat’s Amazing Success

2015-05-26T06:11:00.002-07:00

Are you on Snapchat? I’m not, but I’m pretty sure my son is--as are 100 million active users (who take 400 million snaps per day!). But why is it so successful? Nir Eyal, who I met last year, explains why with this brilliant breakdown of the psychology behind it. (If you want to understand why your app works or doesn’t, give him a call!)

1. Internal Trigger: Because the image will disappear, the need to respond right away is built right into the product.

2. Action: the fact that it will disappear triggers the need and creates the habit to open the app.

3. Variable Reward: Responding immediately has the potential for an immediate reward.

4. Investment: When the expectation is to respond immediately, you will keep checking back in.

5. External Reward: Rules of reciprocity

All the rewards are in the product experience itself. No prizes, no cash, no recognition beyond the confines of using the app. And unlike email or Instagram, snapchat offers an instant that is precious because it will disappear.

http://jeannette.workfolio.com/

Life is a string of Transitions

2015-05-12T07:00:00.000-07:00

My work these days at Life Reimagined has me focused on learning how people deal with life transitions. Whether related to work, relationships, well-being, or a search for meaning, we all have to take time to understand ourselves. As I have always said, "Life is messy.” It’s not a neat, orderly progression. It is all how you deal with it.

The focus of the digital product work my team and I labor over every day is finding ways to break down a system for understanding and decoding change so that it’s easier to deal with. It is easy to forget that the process of change is hard and often painful. A digital product has to find ways to give you insights, help you see things through a different lens and also accept and appreciate the things about yourself that are special. Because the truth is that we all have gifts and passions, we all want to have an impact, we all want to leave our own unique mark.

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”

― Leo Tolstoy

"Ignorance is always afraid of change."

Jawaharlal Nehru

jeannette.workfolio.com

New Marketing Program Opportunities, Like Never Before

2015-05-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

It’s a great time to examine the best strategies and tactics to retain current customers and attract new ones. New marketing programs driven by innovations allow marketers to tap into customers in new ways. A few ideas:

1. Instant Skills: Instagram is a great tool for sharing images but more importantly it is a way to show the thinking behind an image and what it meant to you. Very powerful communication tool that puts the consumer at the center of the whole experience.

2. Fast Laning: Put the consumer into a position of total control, going to the Apple Store and being able to pick out a computer, tap a roaming Apple salesperson, scan the order, receipt sent home is a completely lovely experience. You can have the Apple Store experience on your own terms and you are completely in control.

3. Fare Splitting: Paying for what you use, consumption, is a lovely way to save customers money while letting another person become a customer and share the tab. New forms of real –time tools and data are here to help consumers seamlessly share costs.

4. Internet of Sharing Things: New innovations around how objects become connected offering new ways of deriving value will become possible for consumers sharing access to things. We have seen the concept in family smart phone programs but much more is possible.

5. Currencies of Change and Sympathetic Pricing: We are ushering in a suite of new ways to delight consumers that are far more credible than prior “cause marketing” programs. Old school “cause marketing” programs often appear too self-serving to the brand and not really centered in helping people help themselves or others around them. But a simple smartphone application can go a long way.

a. Smartphone app delivers real time calorie information during purchase cycle

b. Consumer makes good decisions on the fly

c. Brand responds by making local food bank donation

Consumer benefit, brand benefit and local cause are all aligned and all deriving value. It’s a beautiful thing, isn’t it?

http://trendwatching.com/trends/10-trends-for-2015/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=AdWeek-5InnovationsNA&utm_content=AdWeek-5InnovationsNA+Version+B+CID_71d4b67e6708f089defaabc0f054bf5b&utm_source=Campaign%20Monitor&utm_term=BRANDED%20GOVERNMENT#slide-21

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Task Rabbit and Amazon Home Services Solve Real Problems

2015-04-28T08:26:00.000-07:00

These two companies are launching a partnership in the San Francisco Bay Area designed to address the pain of assembly of furniture assembly and more. As digital shopping integrates online and offline experience, this is a great example of how you just can’t beat a physical presence that offers immediate, real time help. Coined “service networking” it’s really all about being in the right place at the right time to solve real problems. I love the simplicity and focus on solving real day to day things.

http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/30/amazon-home-services-gets-its-official-launch/?ncid=tcdaily

http://blog.taskrabbit.com/2015/03/30/taskrabbit-announces-novel-integration-with-amazon-home-services/

jeannette.workfolio.com

Starbucks Turns Customers into Subscribers

2015-04-21T08:30:00.002-07:00

Starbucks, in my opinion, understand early on the power of moving its customers from the transaction economy to the subscription economy. Treat your customers well, provide added value and incentive and they will become partners for life. Just make sure you give them real value and great service. Surely Amazon Prime, with 40 million subscribers worldwide, has proven this point. It’s not all that complicated.

This article does a great job of summarizing why Starbucks recently launched a subscription service.

Free Market Research: Your customers will allow you to learn and know about their needs and wants just by their willingness to pay you every month. Now that is a privilege.
Incredibly valuable data: There is so much to learn from their actions, ordering history, consumption and, most of all, insight into what delights and stimulates usage.
Stemming competition: The ultimate barrier to “switching” behavior.
Planning: Valuable insights to help control supply and demand, great tools for planning ahead and making sure a great product at a great price is readily available.
Recurring Revenue: Nothing like predictable revenue and not having to earn every transaction every time.
Cash: Ability to plan and predict a business is valuable.
Cross Selling: The ultimate opportunity to build credibility and a level of trust that puts the business in a dialogue built on service and satisfaction.

jeannette.workfolio.com

Female Founders Doing Better--at last!

2015-04-14T07:19:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed reading this article and the news that women entrepreneurs had a good year in 2014. Indicators like Series A funding increased dramatically, UC Berkeley’s Intro to Computer Science course saw more female than male students and a female-founded startup took home the Disrupt Cup at TechCrunch’s Battlefield competition. Real progress in bringing new ideas forward.

In the board room of publicly traded companies, The Spencer Stuart Board Index reported that female representation among new directors rose from 24% in 2013 to 30% in 2014. This is the highest level of female new directors ever. In 2009, women only represented 17% of new directors.

But then cases like Ellen Pao accusing the firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Buyers for discriminating against her in the course of her employment and eventual dismissal, found against her on all four clams in the suit, including that the firm retaliated against her by firing her. I cannot say I have reviewed the facts in enough detail to hold a firm position, but I can say that this becomes a reason to start the debate about advancement even after such a fine year.

jeannette.workfolio.com

Simple Guidelines for Running a Digital Product Development Team

2015-04-07T10:23:00.000-07:00

I currently oversee a twenty-person development team for Life Reimagined, a start up funded by AARP. As part of my role as Chief Digital Officer, we are developing a robust, high-engagement platform to provide a digital online activity “workbook” and virtual coaching service. Our platform is innovative and ambitious as we want to create an experience of one, to tend to the transition needs of people across the U.S. Although I have an excellent management team that directly manages the engineering team, I have ultimate responsibility of product releases. Having worked with all sorts of development teams during my career, I was struck by these simple guidelines.

Onboarding technical staff takes care and long-term thinking. The on-ramp time for a high performing developer is key. If handled badly, you end up with “technical debt” that can make how and when you hire critical to the success of any project. For some reason, non-technical professionals forget the fact that like any other job function there is ramp up time. This kind of training is even more critical for developers as they have to fit in with an existing team and work cohesively on a shared endeavor.

Quality assurance can kill you. It is easy to have a spiraling code base with many nooks and crannies that get lost in the bigger scheme of things and then languish. Smaller test suites really are better.

Now for the Cloud. Yes, managing your servers in-house seems so primitive to me. Yet the author here makes the point that many big companies do just that. The question the author asks is perfect: “are our sysadmins better than Google’s or Amazon’s? And since the answer is probably no, the conclusion is: why don’t we let the experts handle it?

Such simple guidelines can go a long way!

jeannette.workfolio.com

Amazon understands the Life Time Value of its customers in a BIG way

2015-03-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

I started reading this article thinking Amazon is finally getting into the textbook market, but then realized their concept is far broader and better than just the textbook business. By opening up brick and mortar campus locations and offering a new revenue stream for universities and colleges, Amazon has the ability to become the one-stop shop for all student commerce needs. Whether it’s textbooks, toiletries, food supplies, packages from Mom and Dad, they now have a drop off and pick up location to deliver on campus.

More important than the huge commerce opportunity, which is significant itself, Amazon is establishing the brand connection for the upcoming crop of consumers that will drive the economy for years to come. The brand connection and the convenience of these shopping services are powerful beyond the campus purse string. I see Amazon adding in loyalty programs and expanding on simple programs like textbook returns and many more programs to build relationships with students.

As the parent of two college students, I have used the Amazon textbook return system many times. The product experience could be stronger because you have to find the textbook section, input the title and author, find a match 80% of time, create a label and ship the book to Amazon at no cost. The search also tells me the return value of the book and posts a credit to my Amazon account. Great service and clearly just the testing ground for the far broader program being launched here.

Well done, Amazon.

Amazon’s First Staffed College Campus Store Should Have Retailers Worried

http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/03/amazon-campus-store/?ncid=tcdaily

http://jeannette.workfolio.com/

Google is becoming Microsoft. What a disappointment!

2015-03-17T07:11:00.000-07:00

The world does not need another Microsoft. I have always had such high hopes for Google and it's sad to see the stats: 3,066 Google employees are former Microsoft employees. Google’s becoming a colossal money-making machine with no heart or desire to “do no evil.” Bureaucratic infighting, lack of a cohesive and shared vision is taking its toll. I agree with Jon Evans and his assessment that Google is continuing to lose the trust it once had with consumers. From whatever vantage point, losing consumer trust is incredibly hard to recover from, even in Google’s business.

Don’t Be Google

http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/15/dont-be-google/?ncid=tcdaily

jeannette.workfolio.com

Product design work carries real responsibility

2015-03-10T06:39:00.001-07:00

Although this article starts out focusing on dating apps and the meaning of the phrase “going dark” as simply a way to communicate that you’re not interested, I see this phrase used far more broadly, especially as a bullying and manipulation tactic. This gesture of no action delivers a snub to a person that could have many implications whether intended or not. This digital behavior is not at all isolated to digital dating apps. Going dark can lead to many levels of social alienation and, yes, it all starts with linguistic alienation.

Disconnection is a powerful outcome that product development teams must really be aware of. Byproducts of poor digital product design can have serious and negative outcome for end-users. You have to listen carefully to your users and understand the impact on social mores that well-intended product design can have. It's a big responsibility. When it’s used right it creates great outcomes, but when it’s used carelessly, it can be dangerous. So listen carefully

http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/14/listen-carefully/?ncid=tcdaily

jeannette.workfolio.com

Uber-like services popping up in every category

2015-03-03T08:00:00.000-08:00

I suppose it was inevitable that Uber-like services, such as Soothe, would catch on. I believe the core concept of democratizing services like these is a good thing. The caution is to ensure that quality remains intact as these types of services rollout. Letting people into your home is a whole other level of real world meets digital world. If done well--with care regarding the certification and screening of personnel--it creates a new service category at affordable rates.

I do wonder how many door-to-door logistic systems we need. Why wouldn’t Uber take its existing network and logistical infrastructure and move into these other categories? A lot of “me too” is going on in this space much like we saw with Birchbox and the now large stable of subscription box businesses. Why invest in these fast followers? The rationale here must be to convince investors that the fast follower can deploy with more efficient methods to cut costs and find creative ways to manage a large and sophisticated logistics networks required for this type of business to be successful. With all this in mind, Soothe is an interesting business to watch.

Uber For Massage Startup Soothe Raises $1.7 Million To Deliver Massage Therapists To Your Door

http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/11/uber-for-massage-soothe/?ncid=rss&cps=gravity_1462_-7112612496890880976

http://jeannette.workfolio.com/