Back in the video days of Seesmic it was very easy to ‘humanize’ our users. They were real talking faces streaming down our screens all day long. I got to know many of them very well. Literally watching them laugh and cry, some at their lowest moments without hope, others during a wedding ceremony or the first moments with a new child. We flew from around the world to cram ourselves into a basement in the middle of winter, just to hang out with each other. So many of these people are still my good friends today.

For many companies, however, it is not that easy to see the people behind the usernames. Especially not on such a consistent and personal basis. But, no worries, Joe Heitzeberg came up with a wonderful solution:

How do you take a team that’s swamped with work and make them become incredibly customer focused overnight? … Every day, print out a few hundred new user photo thumbnails and post them on the walls.

[ via currentlyobsessed.com ]

Anythony Tjan has provided a great exercise that should make it easier get started:

You can learn a great deal about customers by studying the broader context in which they use your product or service. To do this, ask what your customer is doing three minutes immediately before and three minutes after he uses your product or service…

[ via The Three-Minute Rule - Anthony Tjan - Harvard Business Review ]

If you still need a little help, (i.e. want to wear a life jacket and an inner-tube before jumping in) then you need to learn how to ask your customers questions. The secret (there is not secret) is to just start. Pick one customer you have spoken to before (not so scary) and ask them those two questions: (1) What were you doing 3 minutes before you last used our product? (2) What were you doing 3 minutes after you last used our product?

Don’t create a form. Don’t send out a mass email. Don’t assign it to your sales team. Don’t make your intern do it. Pick up the phone and call one customer. You don’t need to promise them anything, and you better not try and defend yourself or your product. Just listen, learn, and share the love by saying thank you.

Now, you’re ready to swim in the deep end.

Learning is an active process. We learn by doing.

[ via Dale Carnegie ]

So, how do we juggle everything we need to do and manage all the ideas for new tasks that are in our face at any given moment? Good question. If you know the answer, please tell me. Meanwhile, I’m trying to practice rapid serialization. I still do too many things in a short amount of time, but I’m try to at least change my mindset: “I’m not doing all of this at once. I’m only doing one of these at once. Those other things are waiting right there for me to do next.” The hard part is trust those other things are going to be right there, and that I wont lose them simply because I don’t have them loaded up into my memory.
Project management tools are way too heavy for this part. A full-on GTD system is too distracting for this part. (Though I use both.) I just need a simple list that is always there that makes it easy for me to track everything going on right now, and lets me set down the new ideas that come to mind. And, most importantly, anything still on the list at the end of a productive burst is processed out into my real GTD system.

If I spent most of my time with a pen or pencil in my hand, my solution would be a 3×5 notecard on the desk beside me. Since I spend most of my time with a keyboard in my hand (and rarely even sit at a desk) I need the equivalent on my computer. No heavy apps, tagging, categories, attachments or blah blah blah, just a place to scratch down the stuff I’m trying to get done right now, or need to remember later because I’m getting things done right now.

For those of you who are more interested in the tech than the theory, here’s the punch-line: I’m using google tasks as fluid app.

When I sit down to get into the flow, I do a brain dump of the stuff I need to do right now. When I recognize I’m trying to do two things at once I either dump one to the list, or remind myself they both are already on there and refocus on what I was already doing. Unless it TRULY is an emergency, there is no reason to switch contexts. They are both going to get done, so I’m exercising my “focus intently on what I’m doing” muscle.

I truly believe we need to assign more value to our attention and intention. Rapid serialization is one experiment to practice this belief.

Photo credit: Elizabeth Potts Weinstein

Loving is not just looking at each other, it’s looking in the same direction.

[ via Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ]

If I had to concentrate the startup advice I’ve absorbed over the past 2 years, I could limit the list to:

1. Scratch a really painful itch
2. Tell everyone your idea
3. Find the right team
4. Ask more questions

I’m gonna let that marinate * for a bit, and then come back and expand on these a bit.

When you have come to the edge of all light that you know and are about to drop off into the darkness of the unknown, Faith is knowing One of two things will happen: There will be something solid to stand on or you will be taught to fly.

[ by Patrick Overton, author and poet via thedailylove.com ]

In theory, there is no dfference in time or cost for good communication over poor communication. One way or the other, you are simply typing words and paragraphs. The distinction arises from the willingness to execute with intention and purpose.

These intentional form and format decisions caught (and kept) my attention:

• branding consisted of a top centered logo
• no other visual noise
• singular purpose to the email
• describes very concisely each step I should take
• informs me there will be more detail below the signature
• very personal thank you for reading
• signature block with very basic strategic info to stay in touch
• more detailed information below the signature
• solid headings for each section
• higher than average spacing between blocks of content

Maybe someday I’ll come back and share more thoughts on each of these points.

“Well, it’s mostly just starting with an idea and then putting in a whole lot of hard work. It’s not really more than that.

[ Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno via the99percent.com ]