bigPicture

Naming Your Company

2008-07-03T10:51:34-04:00

Are you stuck in the process of finding that perfect name for your company? Are you discussing the option of paying a naming consultation firm (c'mon, man)?

Here's a checklist of things not to do. The rest will more than likely not matter much.

Can people clearly understand you when you say the name over the phone?
Can people easily spell it? This is key when you think about email suffixes.
Does it make people immediately think of a product that has nothing to do with who you are or want to be?
Try not to go the 2.0 route of not using vowels... unless, of course, that is the image that you want to portray.

If you avoid these mistakes, you will more than likely be just fine. See the example below. And notice that they have been in business for over 120 years!

This grocery store was located across the street from our hotel in San Antonio during our trip to the NECC 2008 this week.

NECC 2008 Wrap-Up

2008-07-02T17:12:07-04:00

NECC 2008 has come to close, and I am now sitting at the airport. The show was great this year. Despite a booth location that was MUCH less than desirable, we had the honor of meeting several great folks from all around the country.

Dana Smith from Arlington Public Schools in Virginia blew me away with her ideology and approach to support in a school district. From our brief conversation, she was able to articulate a few of the ideas that we think are paramount to an IT support team evolving from a break/fix reactive team to a proactive customer service department. This is difficult enough when training reps who are working with paying clients. It is far more difficult to try and convince your support staff these ideals when their primary focus is servicing co-workers.

No matter what environment you work in, remember your support may be the only avenue the end user has to getting back to doing their job. In Dana's situation that means teachers having the ability to get back to teaching students.

Thanks to Dana and all of the great people who stopped by to say hi! You served as a great reminder as to why we are passionate about the opportunity to help people improve their customer support process.

See you next year in D.C.

Early Bootstrapping Lessons

2008-06-27T07:00:57-04:00

Dr. Jeff Cornwall from the Entrepreneurial Mind blog posted a series on creating and maintaining a bootstrapping culture in your business. This is a topic that is near and dear to the bigWebApps' heart.

It just so happened that I learned bootstrapping at an early age and from an unlikely source. I attended a small private school through the 8th grade. Small and private, contrary to initial thoughts, usually means very low budgets. And our track team was the epitome of a bootstrapping culture.

I ran hurdles... otherwise know as "hurdle" during practice. OK. OK. We had TWO hurdles that we set up in the back alley behind the school. The only time anyone on our team actually saw a full series of hurdles was at a track meet against schools who most definitely had more than two!

Our pole-vaulter (just so happens to be bigWebApps' CEO, Patrick Clements) was the biggest champion of the bootstrapping efforts, though. Our pole had as much flexibility as lead and the very safe landing mat was (not kidding) a mesh net with some not-so-foamy objects stuffed in. It appeared to me that someone had visited the dumpster of a local carpeting store and selected the finest (but under-appreciated) scraps of carpet padding available.

In the 7+ years since we founded bigWebApps, we have created some great products, formed and cultivated some amazing relationships with clients, and improved our overall business intelligence. But there really is one primary reason why bigWebApps was able to survive those dreaded first 5 years for new businesses: Our CEO, Patrick, was diligent (read "downright stubborn" at times) about keeping costs low whenever and wherever possible. --I'll save our early hotel and rental car accommodations for a later date!

The bootstrapping culture has been set. Dr. Cornwall's posts will give you ideas for other areas (such as how to hire other bootstrappers) where you can cultivate the bootstrapping culture.

And thanks to the Holy Name Cardinals' non-existent budget for teaching us early lessons!

Other posts in Dr. Cornwall's series: Recruiting Bootstrappers, Rewarding Bootstrappers, and Bootstrapping Top Down

Marvels in Engineering

2008-06-26T08:58:45-04:00

We really are a smart species. The 728 TON stabilizing ball used in Tapei 101 (the world's largest skyscraper) is an absolutely feat of the human brain at work.

Not only the original person to use a stabilizing ball, but the enormous task of coordinating all of the different companies and people to make this one particular project make it to a successful completion.

I'm pretty sure you don't look up "really big stabilizing ball manufacturers" in the Yellow Pages.

http://deputy-dog.com/2008/06/22/in-action-a-skyscrapers-amazing-728-ton-stabilising-ball/

We are Creatures of Habit

2008-06-09T11:48:47-04:00

Depending on who you ask, habits take anywhere from 21-30 days to form and only take 2 days to break.

This is pretty interesting insight into the human psyche especially when you are talking about product development. It amazes me how Microsoft (NOTE: I am a Microsoft fan, but like most companies they do have their less then stellar moments) spends massive resources to build habits on how users interact with their applications and then with a new version they instantly change how we are used to locating things (I.e Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2007). I personally like the new upgrade and understand there is almost always a retro 'classic' view available, but I have spoken with quite a few folks who just feel lost and frustrated with the new layout. The point is it worked great before and most people really don't like to change.

In product development I think it is essential in order for early adoption to take place you need to integrate your product into your customers existing beliefs, perceptions, and daily habits. Creating a solution that breaks outside of this is extremely risky unless you are taking away a serious pain point. The optimal solution is understanding your client's behaviors and then building your product around their needs. For example, bigWebApps understood some users are used to sending support requests via email. It didn't really make sense for us to try and force these new users to go to the web, fill out a support ticket, and then click submit. This was against what they we were comfortable with doing and adoption would have been low. We instead developed the system to accommodate their practices and allowed tickets to be created via email into their our HelpDesk solution. This created high adoption and we were able to successfully help the client with creating a structured support process with these users.

This is just an example of what is available by keeping the end user's habits and needs in mind during product development. No matter how much easier you think your product is going to make people's lives better, without understanding their habits you are looking at an upstream paddle.

Where is Customer Service/Client Fulfillment?

2008-06-04T10:13:30-04:00

Out of all of the choices in the Answers section of LinkedIn, there is no choice (or obvious rabbit hole) to ask questions about customer service or client fulfillment.

There are a few choices that "could" work but without a clear-cut path the danger is that there will be no uniform place to go for your answers.

Certainly for the segment of the population that inhabits LinkedIn, customer service is a high priority.

The Minimalist Approach

2008-04-28T13:53:11-04:00

I was inspired by a recent article by the 37 Signals guys about the minimalist approach. Less is More and More of Less is even better! bigWebApps is currently going through a restructuring phase and taking a step back from the mounds of development we have done over the past few years. We are looking at what we have in our solutions and instead of continuing to add development we are seeing how we can make these feature sets better for our existing customers. We have been feature chasers for a long time and to large degree we will always forward engineer our solutions based on client feedback. Now it's time for us to take in requests, sit on them for a few months and really see if there is a true need.

Too often companies continue to concentrate on growth and revenue and lose sight of what it is their true customers want. Quality of product begins to suffer and you begin to see loyal customers finding alternate choices (because there is always going to be alternate choices!). It is our job to evaluate new feature additions with what is ultimately best in line with our solutions. Design is about being able to accomplish most of what you want with the least amount of distractions. Focusing on creating simple, clean, and functional software is our passion and we will continue to keep the minimalist approach in mind for future development.

The Last Detail

2008-04-23T10:39:11-04:00

“It turns out that until you reach the last detail, consumers are just satisfied. When you actually nail the last detail they become loyal. Loyalty is your goal."

David Vinjamuri, Accidental Branding

This is a fantastic quote on many levels. There is the obvious interpretation where your customer service reps should work very hard to make sure that the customer's needs are met efficiently (and preferably proactively).

But digging deeper is where the real meat and potatoes are with this one. Your customer service reps obviously should be focused on the customer. But what about your bookkeeper? or marketing director? or warehouse manager?

This is the real final detail.

Have you as the CEO/manager/team leader ingrained the idea of ultimate client fulfillment to a point where providing a caller with your Fed ID number for billing purposes is recognized as a great opportunity to provide a fantastic customer experience? If not, have you rounded out that final detail?

The final detail could be looked at as an unattainable goal. I prefer to look at it as the journey (and the reason to travel in the first place).

Where can you find opportunities to polish a final detail in your organization?

Embrace the Challenge!

2008-04-22T11:27:17-04:00

One of my favorite politically correct terms is "challenging." As in that customer is very challenging. Or the new girl in sales is a real challenge to work with.

The reason why I find this term appealing is that it is completely appropriate for its intended use. Your challenging customers, co-workers, employees, and tasks are the ones who make you better in the long run. BUT only if you accept the challenge, find a way to effectively confront it, and eventually learn from it.

There's a reason why everyone you know does not run marathons (including me!). We have not looked at the training and dedication as a challenge that we would like to accept. This can be due to laziness, lack of dedication, or simply that you don't see any value in running a marathon. It is VERY RARELY a lack of ability to do something.

It's the same with your job. So the next work order that you receive that makes you want to throw your monitor out the window, take a deep breath and thank that customer for the opportunity to learn.

This is your challenge if you choose to accept it.

What challenge are you going to take on today that you put off yesterday (or last year)?

P.S. "I don't have the time" is nothing more than an overused excuse.

P.P.S. If you just said "I really don't have the time", you are only kidding yourself. Turn off the TV, wake up a little earlier, or re-evaluate what your daily schedule is filled with. But please don't say you don't have the time. "I have not prioritized for that" is a completely acceptable replacement.

The Rough is Not the Goal

2008-04-20T20:12:20-04:00

"If you find yourself pleased that you locate more balls in the rough than you actually have lost, your focus is totally wrong and your personality might not be right for golf."

-Anonymous

What "wins" are you celebrating in your job?