Bonsai

Doing a few things well

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:49:31 -0800

>From a the blog post How Chipotle, Pinkberry, and others win big by doing just a few things well:

You can try to win a features arms race by offering everything under the sun. Or you can just focus on a couple of things and do ‘em really well and get people who really love those things to love your product. For little guys, that’s a smarter route.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Are today's cell phones too complex?

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:27:31 -0800

In the opinion of Martin Cooper, who helped invent the mobile phone, today's devices are too complicated. An excerpt:

“Whenever you create a universal device that does all things for all people, it does not do any things well,” said the 80 year-old, who made the first wireless call from a busy Manhattan street corner on April 3 1973.
“Our future I think is a number of specialist devices that focus on one thing that will improve our lives,” said Mr Cooper, who has previously criticised the iPhone for being overly complicated and hard to use.

Do you agree or disagree? In what way is PC hardware similar to PC software in terms of complexity? Will simplicity win out in the end, or can simple and complex devices peacefully co-exist?

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Bonsai has an official logo

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:59:20 -0800

We're extremely excited to have a logo for Bonsai, the answer to costly and complicated business software. Development is underway, and soon we'll be giving everyone the opportunity to sign up for the private beta (and get some cool stuff in the process). Stay tuned.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Apple over easy?

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:34:46 -0800

Making software that's easy to use is no small feat -- lots of factors have to be taken into consideration. And when most consumers think of easy, they think of Apple and their hardware/software.

In a sense Apple software is easy to use, but this is mainly because the company controls the hardware and software their products run. This means that Apple has become a more closed company than even Microsoft in its heyday. Just try to get your iPhone 3GS to work with Linux, for example, and don't even dare to get iTunes on a Palm Pre or install Mac OSX on PC hardware. It ain't happening.

I think being easy in the new world of enterprise software/hardware also entails a greater degree of openness and cross-platform compatibility than was the case several years ago. Enterprise software that just uses Microsoft Silverlight (not available in its current version all platforms) or only works with Internet Explorer forces users to choose between using software and making unneeded software/hardware changes. Otherwise the walled garden that's created means users can't benefit from accessing wider audiences, thus making the user work harder to achieve his or her objectives using the product.

What's your take? What's your definition of good enterprise software?

Permalink | Leave a comment »

"It’s all about customer success."

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:24:31 -0800

Salesforce.com has become in many minds synonymous with cloud computing. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently was recently asked in an interview how he planned to grow the business. His answer: "It’s all about customer success."

Notice he didn't say it's how many people buy your product, it's how much VC money your get or it's how much media coverage you attract. Nope, it's all about your customers loving your products enough to buy more and tell their friends.

With Bonsai, one of the things we can deeply about is listening to our customers and helping them to do amazing things with the Bonsai tool set and approach to fostering innovation. We know that unless our customers see value in what we do, they won't invest in us.

Remember that all the marketing in the world won't compensate for a product that doesn't make your customers better -- however they define better.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Google on the coming together of consumer and enterprise worlds

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:25:00 -0800

From a recent interview with Google's Eric Schmidt:

Schmidt argues there's not so much difference between enterprise and consumer markets as there once was, and the gap is narrowing. Gmail is one example:
"Gmail's growth is accelerating from its current position of users as we seem to be gaining share from everybody else," Schmidt said. "That's a good example of the consumer and enterprise growing together."
And Google is primarily interested in areas where the two worlds collide. "We'll keep trying to find ways to span enterprise and consumer," he said.

Why should consumers "spoiled" by Facebook and Twitter (and Gmail)'s ease of use be subjected to standard business software that fails basic usability tests?

It's madness.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Is Google Wave simple software?

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:23:33 -0700

The jury's still out.

I'm pondering this question as I look at a preview edition of The Complete Guide to Google Wave, a wiki-powered draft of a forthcoming book from Gina Trapani and Adam Pash. The book is worth a look. For the next few weeks the authors are asking readers to "revise and expand" the pages with new content. The paper copy comes out in early 2010.

What's your take on Google Wave? Will it make your life easier? Will it become a valuable business tool? Does it bump up against the inability of the human brain to do well at multitasking?

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Bonsai update

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:07:09 -0700

This month we're beginning development on Bonsai, and we expect to have a sign up page for the private beta posted at www.getbonsai.net in the coming weeks. This page will also give you the opportunity to get behind further development of Bonsai by purchasing a bonsai tree, a Bonsai t-shirt and even sponsorship space in the private beta.

This is a very exciting time for Bonsai, and I'll be posting updates as we move from paper to pixels. I welcome your feedback.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Why isn't business software simple?

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:40:24 -0700

This is a harder question to answer than it first seems. Sure, one could trot out conspiracy theories or ascribe bad motives to software companies. And there may be a kernel of truth at play there. But part of the answer might be that those who build the software in many cases aren't the same people using it.

Steve Jobs once said, "A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them." In terms of specific functionality, perhaps this is true. But business software users, almost to a person, want software that makes their lives easier, not harder. The average business software user is:

* Busy
* Not a geek
* Trying to get their job done faster and easier

These are near universals. But when one considers most business software today, it seems to assume that these three things are not true -- that business software users have lots of time to learn new software applications, that they enjoy databases and SQL, and that with software the "joy" is in figuring it out instead of using it to accomplish a goal.

Software should never be an end unto itself, only a means to an end. At Bonsai, we don't want to be like the others.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Way to be free

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:31:00 -0700

A local shop gives away free ice cream at the end of the season. It's a great community outreach. How can giving something away free be good for your business?

Permalink | Leave a comment »

How Facebook got started (and what lessons new ventures can learn from them)

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 07:39:00 -0700

I find it interesting to read about how well-known companies got started. Here are some excerpts from an interview Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave at a recent event.

First, here's why Facebook came to be:

At first it was very simple. Just 10,000 lines of code maybe. There were profiles. And you could poke people. That was important. The idea is launch early and iterate. Early on, I didn’t just start Facebook as a company. It was a project that I wanted to exist. (emphasis added)

That's the drive behind Bonsai. After working with so many awkward, cumbersome and downright infuriating business software tools, I set about to build a better mousetrap.

More advice:

Livingston: If you could do things differently, what would you do?
Zuckerberg: The iterate advice is the most important. We finally got facebook.com, for a lot of money, like tens of thousands of dollars. A lot of the management team has steadily improved. It was very hard to get people who were good at managing businesses to join early on. Now we have Sheryl. She’s excellent. She’s as good as it gets. But there’s no way she would’ve joined early on.
A lot of my friends who have either left Facebook and went into other things — it’s more likely to make the mistake of trying to be too perfect. It’s just better to just launch and have something cool that you can fix over time. (emphasis added)

We've all heard stories about companies producing vaporware -- the Next Big Thing that never left the ground. Bonsai will launch with a private beta that contains core functionality, and we'll work with our sponsors and new customers to build it out into something we hope delivers real value. And when I say value, I mean value in the emotional, intellectual and fiscal senses of the word.

We also share Zuckerberg's opinion about connectivity. Business will become less about what's going on inside the four walls of the corporation and more about growing a business together with your customers and soon-to-be customers.

Now, pushing the world to being more open and connected is going to be one of the most transformative trends.

And, finally, here are some wise words from Zuckerberg about startups and risk-taking as part of your corporate culture:

I think there’s a lot of pressures inside of companies where people want to optimize for a launch to go smoothly. But really you want to be the best over time. Take more risk. If we do those, we have a good shot of succeeding.

The whole transcript is worth a read. Sometimes it's hard to believe that Zuckerberg is still only in his 20s. He certainly has wisdom beyond his years.

http://digital.venturebeat.com/2009/10/24/live-blogging-mark-zuckerbergs-talk-at-startup-school/

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Twitter, Bonsai and ice cream

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:01:00 -0700

This is an interesting comment from Twitter co-founder Biz Stone at a recent event. He was asked about the early days of Twitter

Biz: We (Jack Dorsey and Stone) did a thing where we had two weeks to build something and demo. Build it, try it out over the weekend. If it sticks we may keep working on it. I was ripping out carpeting during a heat wave and then my phone vibrated in my pocket, and it was Ev. And it said he was sipping pinot noir. I realized I was totally engaged in this product. So we decided we should keep working on it. At the beginning it was “okay this seems compelling”. Early on someone said “twitter is fun but it isn’t useful”. Ev said “Neither is ice cream”. So what if it’s just fun? SXSW 2007 was a huge watershed moment for us, first time we saw real potential in the tool. Saw people tweeting about a good session to go to.

Our goal with Bonsai is to make a tool that businesses will find useful. We hope that they'll also find it as fun as ice cream. :-)

Perhaps I'm reading too much into Stone's comment, but I think there's a real relationship between fun and value, if by "fun" we mean something that makes it easier to achieve a given objective -- whether the objective is snacking goodness (ice cream) or developing the next Twitter (Bonsai).

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/24/startup-school-ev-williams-and-biz-stone/

Permalink | Leave a comment »

On Twitter, Information Beats Sentiment

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:57:00 -0700

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/qIWUFGQxZJg/on_twitter_informa...

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Intuit, Mint, and the Power of Simplicity

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:53:34 -0700

This is one of my favorite articles of 2009. It shows why small companies have liitle to fear from larger enterprises out-simplifying them or building a better mousetrap. It's also great encouragement to entrepreneurs who might be afraid to compete with the big boys.

http://feeds.harvardbusiness.org/~r/harvardbusiness/~3/Ha8b7fiUeEA/intuit_min...

Permalink | Leave a comment »

How Much is Information Overload Costing Your Company?

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:35:39 -0700

Simplicity rules. The IT companies that succeed in the future will be those that just say no to complexity. Simple, organic software is the new black. The Facebook and Twitter generation will demand no less of us.

http://feeds.harvardbusiness.org/~r/harvardbusiness/~3/UcNaKO8B1po/how_much_i...

Permalink | Leave a comment »