No feature is unimportant. If it serves a purpose then it’s important to someone. And while those purposes may vary wildly, I have started to think about all of them in terms of two camps: Winning and Keeping.

Winning Features

Winning features are those that help you win a deal. They often times have the sizzle that gets people excited about what you’re doing and give you a leg up on the competition. These are the things that the sales guys get excited about and might just get you written up in techcrunch.

(Updated to include…) An example is eye popping reports, they often look great and seem to convey the info you need. However, after a month or so within an application you may find that they are lacking key information that make them truly functional. Now, it wasn’t the intent of the graph to not do a good enough job, but as is often the case, without a lot of careful thinking and planning, many graphs & reports fall short of providing truly actionable results.

Keeping Features

These are the trusty guys that keep churn down. Keeping features are the ones that sales usually doesn’t bother showing, but that makes the everyday user happy. These are things that people often don’t think of when they are buying, but within 1 week of using your product they couldn’t imagine a world without it.

(Updated to include…) An example here is general navigation and workflow. Getting yourself to the place that you use within the application most often may take 3 or 4 clicks. While this doesn’t seem like a big deal during a demo, after a few weeks of having to work your way in to your destination you’ll be wishing for a shortcut. It’s important to note here that calling out easy navigation probably won’t make a huge difference in a demo unless you are very good with positioning that statement.

They can’t be both?

No, I’m not saying that. I would never say that you should be building features that just get people in the door and are useless afterwards. It’s more about who you are appeasing. Winning features may still excite your existing customers, but they probably aren’t going to get the daily use that Keeping Features get.

There’s also the question of where they come from. Sales, competition, and innovation will usually drive the creation of Winning Features. Existing customers and support teams will usually drive the creation of keeping features.

and so?

Well, I’m not saying this is revolutionary. But recognizing that your features live in these two camps; that they have two masters – Sales and Churn Prevention – may help you to strike a better balance based on the stage of your company.

Also, being able to communicate goal bucket sizes for Winning vs Keeping may better help set expectations across the organization from quarter to quarter. It also helps you to ensure that you development team isn’t off in Winning land when you need them focusing on Keeping, or vice versa.

So, where do your current features land, Winning or Keeping?

So I just read the apology email from Reed Hastings (Netflix CEO), turns out it was a bait and switch. He wasn’t apologizing, he was doing more of the same, focusing on his needs at the expense of his customers.

He started out apologizing, but ended up slapping me in the face. Awesome. For those of you who didn’t get it, or haven’t read it, Reed does apologize, but then he announces that they will be splitting out the DVD and Streaming services into two companies. Here’s a recap on Wall Street Journal: Netflix Separates DVD and Streaming Services.

Focusing on their needs

This reeks of someone changing things to make their life easier. Netflix has a lot of confusion internally, and this helps them to remove that and focus better. That’s fine, I get that.

However, any good company will figure out how to eliminate internal problems without disrupting their customers. As a product manager, I’ve had to fight many battles where an internal team wanted to simplify their process at the expense of the customer’s experience.

All business changes need to be run through this filter: Does this improve the customer experience?

The pricing and company rodeo they’ve been running us through fails that test miserably.

People want more, not less

Look at Apple, they are offering more services in more areas (streaming media, better integrated products, etc), and people are eating it up. By removing the integration between streaming and dvds they are adding complication to customers’ lives and eroding their value.

Netflix should be looking at ways to provide further integration with other services and offerings that can leverage the data sets and customer base they have. This move embodies the “do one thing and do it well” mindset, which is admirable, but isn’t what is generally needed in the media world today.

I’m sure, as Netflix claims, the products will move faster now that they are becoming disentangled. But I don’t think that product problems have been their stumbling block, it’s been media and availability. This change seems to be more of a distraction for customers for than anything else.

What now?

Well, I’m not canceling my account now, but the bar to disrupt Netflix has just gotten lower. The biggest hurdle in this space is still content, getting the right amount of media available is key. But pure digital players no longer have a huge hurdle of physical media to overcome, and other players like RedBox, could consider getting into the streaming side with a huge advantage.

Will Netflix disappear because of this? probably not. Will they look back and rue the day they made the switch? Maybe. Will I end up on another service? I’m not sure, but the likelihood is higher now than ever.

For the longest time I didn’t think too much about Facebook Ads. It doesn’t take much to realize that they have amazing reach, but I had heard some discouraging numbers (and continue to hear actually) and didn’t think they were too relevant to B2B – which is often my concern.

Granted, CPC advertising isn’t what I do everyday, but I try to keep my head in the advertising game since it’s central to the products I build – and it helps keep Argyle going.

Recently I had a few minutes to ponder FB ads, and realized that they make perfect sense if you think about them like ads on TV. Here’s a quick run-down on why they are similar:

• The ads have little to do with the medium
• The audience is often passively engaged in the subject content
• The ads see little direct interaction (hence the discouraging numbers)

And here is why those are good things:

• The ads can be relevant to the viewers interests – FB targeting is fantastic
• The audience often doesn’t have a real purpose, so they can be distracted by ads more easily
• Lower interaction – yes, but awareness is valuable. That’s hard to measure, but most likely occuring

So even though I have heard a number of anecdotal stories of low performance campaigns for FB ads, I think the targeting and audience that it has is compelling. As a tool to bring awareness to a very specific audience when their mind isn’t busy working too hard on other things, it excels.

I’m a convert, Facebook is definitely a powerhouse mass media advertising platform, and I want to be there more than ever.

I’ve worked on product pricing more times than I’d like to recall. It’s a tricky business, you have to balance value, cost, perception, competitors, market factors, marketing, and many other considerations. In short, it’s a pain, and it’s not easy.

But pricing is very important to your business. It can not only give you an edge in the market, but it can also help define who you are in the minds of your customers.

But most importantly, Pricing helps to define value in the eyes of your customers

Don’t get me wrong, you can’t dictate value. But pricing specific add-ons, features, or services at a premium can have a very real impact on how people perceive the worth of those items.

Netflix’s most recent move to price streaming separate from DVD-at-home was smart (see their blog post). It was clear that they were leaving a lot of money on the table. It’s also clear that they felt that they were undervaluing their DVD-at-home service.

(Side note, being a long time Netflix customer, I always thought they were undervaluing streaming. Their blog post reveals that their internal view was actually flipped from mine; they saw the DVD as an add-on to a streaming service.)

Pricing changes aren’t something new to Netflix, their world is moving fast and they’ve had to shift things around a few times to keep prices in line. And this recent change will probably be followed by a few more.

Now bring into the mix that fact that Amazon has started to get more seriously into the streaming movie market. Now we can expect some fierce battles shaking out in this arena – there’s a lot of money to be made in movies at home.

So this brings me back to where I started – with pricing establishing value. This move is strategic in that it allows Netflix to clearly look at their streaming service as it’s own viable product with distinct profits and costs.

This will allow them to better measure, manage, and grow their streaming offering as the market heats. In the end, we can only hope that that will provide more value for all of us.

I’m a firm believer that you have to enjoy what you do. I do what I can to help keep that going at Argyle, but I’d like to think that I can have a bit more reach than that.

That’s why I love it when Josh inserts a bit of humor into our app. Many of our users have commented on some of the funny error messages we throw from time to time.

We’re not afraid to let people know right away that we have a sense of humor, it’s even in our Getting Started tool:

That’s why I was quite happy to see this tweet today from James Avery over at Adzerk:

It’s always nice when I know we made some one chuckle while they were work.

Btw, if you are wondering what made him giggle, here’s the little guy we inserted when you have a bit of a problem with your password:

And don’t worry, these aren’t all the little easter eggs, we’re always on the lookout for more ways to amaze and amuse.

help by Dimitri N.

Earlier this week I had the misfortune of coming home to a flooding garage. It turns out my water heater was leaking. As part of the repair I turned off the gas and water for safety. I was at the point of turning it all back on and was befuddled by the help I was provided. It clearly wasn’t written for a layman.

Who needs your help?

The problem is that the people who understand jargon and complex contexts don’t need instructions. They can do this stuff in their sleep. Laymen like me need instructions. And the same is true for your application.

The people who need help on your site are lost, confused, and in need of soothing, practical, and readable advice.

Who writes your help?

There’s nothing wrong with industry jargon when used amongst others who speak it’s tongue – it’s a more succinct conversion for them. Jargon, when defined and used consistently can actually help an industry or vertical to mature as the collective group of people stand on common ground.

The problem is that it’s far too common to find help that was written within this jargon. While I’ll admit that this is the right place to introduce it, it’s not the right place to assume it’s already understood.

Simplifying help

Make help accessible to people who are new to your field or who may have been practicing in isolation. Don’t be afraid to use terms that are more common, or to provide asides that explain new concepts when they are introduced. It’s also a good idea to use alternative, friendly descriptions of objects to ensure that you are on the same page.

Here’s a good rule of thumb:

If a help topic read out loud to someone once is not understandable, and executable, then it is too complex.

I rewrote that line 4 times to reduce complexity and increase clarity. Because this whole blog post is a help topic, and you have to ensure readability of all help topics.

What next?

Here’s something we did in an industry group I worked on within the email community a little while back. We asked non-industry people, like your parents or friends outside of work, to review help and informational documents that we had created.

That made sure that it was something anyone could grasp, and we weren’t writing for experts who didn’t need help.

So keep in mind your target market and write some help that is actually helpful!

Is he barfing up a hairball?!

Group buying isn’t new

Group buying isn’t a new game. Groupon may have rebranded it with social media savvy, but it’s something people have been doing for years. Here are just a few examples in case the hype has made you a bit myopic:

• Warehouse Clubs – e.g. Costco, BJs, etc
• Deal-a-day sites – e.g. Woot.com, Tanga.com
• Life insurance programs

Get it? Yea, the model makes sense, it’s a good position for consumers. It’s like unionizing consumer goods purchasing.

But Groupon took a model that worked, and broke it.

The wrong offer at the wrong time

So why is that? Well, it’s got a lot to do with the fact that frankly, their model stinks. Let me break it down like a fraction:

(People like deals * People need stuff) / Groupon has deals on stuff = Sales!

But this is how the real world works:

(People need certain things * deals motivate a % of people) / Groupon has deals on one thing at a time = Coincidental Sales

Deals come along when groupon happens to get them, but there is no relation to when I might actually want or need them. Many of these deals aren’t actually limited by time, you can use them whenever you want. But that does little to actually motivate users to buy.

So if you apply this to a huge marketing list then you’ll get huge sales at first, but the novelty wares off. People get sick of checking a site that is hardly ever useful.

Yet another Groupon photobook deal

The running joke at our office is that Groupon would be great if I needed facials and photobooks. Maybe that’s the market they want, but it isn’t me, and isn’t most people…

Groupon Personalized Deals is an attempt to fix this, but it remains be seen if they can pull off this level of deal flow and variety. I’m not holding my breath.

Why group buying works elsewhere

Let’s pick two examples from the existing models above: Costco & Woot. These two have a good thing going for them, and they are squarely in the group buying deal space.

Costco makes it work because they offer most of the items you normally buy at good prices all the time. That’s pretty simple, lots of deals, always there when you need them.

Woot is a bit closer to groupon because they are (mostly) a deal-a-day site. But they have a niche, they have a good sized customer base who they understand and they know how to sell to. They have also fanned out into more of a deal site (deals.woot.com). This works because they have a vertical(ish) focus and they now offer more deals.

How to fix Groupon

Good question, I’m glad you asked. I may be wrong, I have been before, but I think they need to focus by offering more deals in their most profitable verticals along with offering more long-standing deals.

Groupon should be a place to find tons of deals on services, and that also has one crazy-hot deal-of-the-day, not a site that is solely focussed on that one deal.

What do you think?

I’ll be honest, I only skimmed Peter Shakman’s recent post Why I Will Never, Ever Hire A “Social Media Expert”. You know why? Because I don’t need to read the same old, boring diatribe along with a pile of generic social media advice.

This old line again?

If you’ve been in the social media field for a while you might have noticed an annoying trend. We’ve spent years doing two things:

1. Stop hiring interns to do an important job
2. Social media experts are bogus frauds

And guess what, most of the talking heads saying this stuff, they’re the experts, the actual ones – whether they like it or not. And this advice is crap. Peter will never need a social media expert because he is one. An actual one. Not a fake one. And you know what, there are a bunch out there.

Just as there are a bunch of experts in every field. They are the ones who know the most. They always exist, even if they don’t know it.

Want to know the truth? Experts often don’t realize what they are until long after they became experts.

When you need an expert

There are times when you need and expert, and it’s not to hard to see where and when. It’s when you need someone good to get the job done right. This is no different then when you plan on buying a bunch of companies, you hire an M&A expert. Here’s an easy way to tell if you need a social media expert:

• You know transparency and engagement, but aren’t sure what’s next
  Moving from concept to game-plan isn’t easy. It’s takes planning, knowledge and experience. Having someone on your side who has done it more than a couple of times is a huge help.
• If you want to make social media strategic
  I’m talking about core to your company strategic. I mean if you want social media to be essential to how you get leads and sales (e.g. Hubspot).
• If you need to engage with a large audience
  Like on the scale of Comcast, American Idol. This is a daunting task, hire someone who has been in the trenches, managed a team doing this stuff, and executed it with direction and purpose.
• If you have an image problem
  Just like how you’d hire a good PR agency to do damage control if you say, destroyed the gulf. You might want someone experience at the helm of SM when you are trying to win hearts and minds via SM.
• When you have no clue what you are doing
  This isn’t for everyone, and it may be more of a consulting deal. But if you are just getting started, and have the budget, then maybe you should hire an actual expert to get you going. Rather than stumble into it, find a person who can get you running with a strategy, the right tools, and the right team in place.

Makes sense, right?

I could keep going, but I think you get the point. Yes, there are a lot of charlatans out there claiming to be experts, but there are a lot of real ones who are ready to roll up their sleeves and help you get social media right. Don’t buy the hate and hype – especially when the experts are just deriding themselves.

Recently I was discussing distractions at Argyle, well we were discussing a very specific distraction, but that’s all details. A popular piece of common wisdom popped into my head:

One of the hardest parts about startups isn’t deciding what to do next; often it’s deciding what not to do at all.

Weapon Of Mass Distraction

But it’s almost too easy to trot that excuse out and try to wholesale avoid any potentially dangerous distractions. The problem with lines like the one above is that they can cause you to miss out on a huge opportunity.

Twitter was a side project at Odeo. Hell, Starbucks started off selling beans and espresso makers, they had no interest in brewing coffee. Today’s distraction could be tomorrow’s billion dollar idea.

These things can run the gambit, some provide alternate revenue streams, some just augment and existing offering, and other change the business you’re in.

So how do you decide whether that distraction is a potential game changer? I’m just thinking out loud, but here are a few tools we’ve employed to mull things over:

Market check

Are there people willing to pay for this potential waste of time? If not, it doesn’t mean the idea is dead in the water, but it does mean that you have to be willing to get flexible when it comes to monetizing.

Whether or not this idea is out of the realm of your existing customer base, it’s still worth working through the details of profitability. Even easy wins have hard costs.

Product Alignment

Does this idea dovetail with your existing offering at all? It might not be that much of a distraction if you can upsell/cross sell it to your existing customers or prospects.

Or maybe it can help fill feature gaps or competitive shortfalls you may have with your existing products. Think creatively about how this could be leveraged.

Company Impact

Ideas can solidify into reality quite quickly in this cloud driven world. You can be sitting pretty with a shiny new toy in a matter of days. But how will the rest of the company deal with it?

Marketing needs to know how to talk about it and who to push it to. Sales needs to know how to talk pretty about it and how to handle the objections. And don’t get me started with support.

Know who will be impacted and how before you go too far down that road.

Vigorous Debate

One of my favorites – you can almost always count on me to play a bit of devil’s advocate. If you’re not sure what to do then talk it out. And don’t be afraid to drag in some heavy hitters – whether that be investors, advisors, mentors, customers, or random people on the street. Sometimes a little outside perspective is the best thing you can bring to this discussion.

Why are you even considering this?

This might be the most important point. Why in the world are you even having this discussion? Did a big prospect ask for something crazy? Did you just stumble across some sort of technical easy win? Have you stumbled across a treasure trove of slightly skewed leads or uncovered a new unmet market need?

Whatever the reason, you better understand the full motivation behind it or it could get very painful very quickly.

Decide

So should you grab that distraction by the tail and turn it into a money maker or let it go? I don’t know, you’re just going to have to make a decision and keep on truckin. That’s life in a startup.

Here’s to yet another interesting business challenge that’ll keep you up at night!

Recently I’ve been asked a few times how close I am to done with the major feature-set at Argyle. While the question is laughable to me (and Eric), to the layman it probably makes sense.

The best answer I could come up with was on a scale of 1 to infinity I was probably at about 8.5 million. I mean, that’s really far, we’ve got a good product. But it’s not really anywhere near infinity.

You see, the whole premise is laughable to us because we know that in this space you’re never done. Really, I’ve never worked on a software product that I thought could be done. If you can finish your piece of software then you are building a feature, not a product.

There’s always more features, more things to add, heck, more things to remove. That’s the curse and the joy of good software, you can always do something else to it.