Business Evolutionist

Morrissey was great!

We went to see Morrissey last night at Wolf Trap in Virgina - what a show!

He played a ton of solo stuff, some old Smiths songs and he sounded fantastic! What an incredible singer.

I highly suggest going to see him (tour info on myspace) if you get a chance!

This begins a summer of some great shows... The Fixx, The Psychedelic Furs, Lovedrug, and, possibly Muse again in August (plus a few others).

iPhone

I got one... sort of. I bought one for my wife. And trust me when I tell you it is even cooler than the appears in the commercials. I was going to wait for the next generation version to come out, but I might just go ahead and get one.

There was no line at the AT&T store at 7AM yesterday morning when I stopped at Starbucks for coffee (they're right next to each other) on my way to work, so I decided I would check back at lunch. There was no line at lunch time either, so I ran home to drop off my computer and went back. In that 30 minutes, a line of 6 people had formed.

So, at 12:30, I began my wait... and stupid me, I didn't bring a chair. DOH! The people (mostly male, middle age folks) in line with me were really nice, which certainly helped the time to pass more quickly... until about the last 1/2 hour, that seemed to take forever! :-)

When the time came, they let in the first 6 people in line, one for each of the employees in the store. I was number 7 in line, so I had to wait a little longer... but only about 5 minutes, til the first person came out.

I got my wife the 8 gig model, a couple of accessories and I was on my way home.

I took out her laptop, downloaded and installed the new iTunes, and then got forced to update MAC OS... which sucked.... I just wanted to get that phone set up to play!

After 30 minutes of software downloads and installs, I had the iPhone in the cradle and I was setting it up... the process was smooth, and we were done in just minutes.

Copied over her music and contacts and finally got to start playing around!!!

As I mentioned, the iPhone is incredibly cool... totally living up to the hype. Here are some notes:

- The iPod functionality is awesome, cover flow is great, however, the standard list is phenomenal as well. A little flick of the finger and you're scrolling through gobs of music (I put about 4 gigs on there)

- Scrolling through a list, at first, seemed backwards. I wanted to run my finger down the screen to get to the bottom of the list - just like you "scroll" down using a scroll bar, but it is the more natural gesture of flicking up to move the unwanted stuff out of your way.

- Setting up Wi-Fi took litterally 2 seconds: I opened the mail application and was prompted for our WPA key, entered it, and boom. Connected.

- I set up the local weather in about 1/2 second... simply by entering our zip code. There was almost no latency in getting the updated 5-day forecast for our city. It took me only a second or two to figure out how to delete the default cities weather forecast. Simply touching a red circle next to the city name revealed a delete button... very smooth.

- Navigating the maps was incredibly cool. Starting with two fingers together on the screen, just slide them away from each other in whatever direction you want the map magnified. I was able to drill into our city in a matter of a couple of gestures.

- There are no "close" icons or buttons, you just return to the main screen with the main navigation button on the device.

- I changed a couple of the default settings, which were quick and easy to do.

- The keyboard, which might take some getting used to, is very cool. The visual feedback when you press a letter or number is great - although, when you are entering a password and can't see the text you've entered, the visual indicators of the letters you've typed should stay visible for a little longer.

- One of the coolest things is a little ".com" keyboard button. You type in a URL in the browser and click one button to complete the address... that is wicked cool.

- I have my iTunes set to manually sync with my iPod, a feature I couldn't seem to find or accomplish with the iPhone. I'm going to have to investigate this one a little more. There was an option to only sync checked items or only sync certain playlists, so that might be the way to do it.

There are so many little things that make the iPhone praiseworthy... the whole time I was playing last night, a line just kept running through my head: touching is believing.

It is evident that they spent time truly understanding the main tasks people need to complete with a mobile device. The buttons for the main tasks are big and obvious... my wife kept remarking that they built it for someone who hates technology, like her.

Eurotrip...

Well, it looks like I'm headed back to Europe! I went to Switzerland a few years back, this time it looks like the UK and Germany... and I am psyched!

Not sure if it will happen or not, probably about 60 to 70% chance at this point... my fingers are crossed.

Stay tuned!

People, Purpose, Profit

People, Purpose, Profit... In that order! I'm sure I've read that before somewhere
or another...

Claire sent me a link to a new site being launched tomorrow for Westin Hotels: findrenewal.com

I love sites like this. People come first, business second. I'm not looking at the world through rose-colored glasses here, organizations need to make money or they cease to exist.

What I like about this is a very simple line (that I hope is authentic): "We are committed to helping you live your best life wherever you are." - I wouldn't have used the word "help", but that is a story for another day.

Having this site as opposed to just the normal corporate site (where it is all about them), is a nice change of pace.

My response to Claire included some text I had in a recent presentation I gave about corporate websites:

"Narcissism is the pattern of characteristics and behaviors which involve infatuation and obsession with one's self to the exclusion of others and the egotistic and ruthless pursuit of one's gratification, dominance and ambition."

(Most websites are narcissistic!)

This site is similar to a site recently launched by Hershey Foods - AllChocolate.com. I like the westin site better, but both sites were born from the same ideal.

Fast and Far...

Two great posts from our buddy Claire over at l-e-mental.com.

First up is Life in the Fast Lane:

The pace at which city dwellers walk has increased by 10 per cent in the last decade, [a new study] has shown.

Second, The 100 Mile Diet

When the average North American sits down to eat, each ingredient has typically travelled at least 1,500 miles.

Loads of interesting stats in the second post... like, Ratio of prisoners to farmers in the U.S. population: 5:2.

What are you still here for? Go check out Claire's blog! :-)

Favorite interview questions to ask?

I'm getting ready to interview some people and was wondering what are some of your favorite interview questions?

Ones that I really like to ask are:

1.) Tell me about the last 3 books you read

2.) Tell me how you handled a difficult situation at work?

3.) What moment are you least proud of?

4.) What moment are you most proud of?

Sort of typical, sadly, however I'm looking more at generating a conversation and seeing what type of personality the person has... as the old saying goes: skills can be taught, passion is a harder thing to come by.

So, what are some of your favorite interview questions to ask?

Error Prevention in Design

I've been working on something that I call the Error Prevention exercise, a simple little checklist to use to reduce the number of possible errors on a web page. I found something that is a great example of this - the pop-up menu on a misspelled word inFirefox 2.0.

The top two items are seemingly very related and located close to each other, however, the result of clicking on them produces drastically different results:

The first item corrects the spelling of the misspelled word.

The second item adds the misspelled word to your dictionary.

One fixes an error. The other could fix the error permanently, or it could prevent you from ever fixing the error again.

The fact that these two choices are so close to each other increases the likelihood that I might select the wrong choice - with possibly very negative consequences (I know because I've now added two misspelled words to my dictionary - whoops!).

Of course I blamed myself the first time I did it, but the second time I realized that this was just poor design.

Now, before I get berated with tons of hate mail, keep in mind that I really LOVE Firefox. I never use IE anymore.

The question really comes down to this: what are the consequences of someone clicking the wrong choice? If the consequences are high, make sure that the error is hard to make.

Perhaps they could have added something in between the two choices, maybe "Ignore"?

What do you think?

Working with people

I like to work with smart people

I like to work with people who truly care

I like to work with people who are humble

I like to work with people who ask questions

I like to work with people who embrace change

I like to work with people who have a sense of humor

I like to work with people who care about other people

I like to work with people who believe that ANYTHING is possible

I like to work with people who raise my game and help me learn new things

I like to work with people who realize that nothing is as complicated as it seems at first

I like to work with people who realize that pride, pressed into service of helping others, is a virtue

I like to work with people that realize that not everybody has the same understanding of the world that they do

What type of people do you like to work with?

Website value

A kind reader astutely pointed out that there are issues with one of my old articles that I linked to - some of the content of the article is missing, which makes it very odd.

Sadly, it was one of my favorite articles: "If your website doesn't add value, rethink it" (link to article).

Although it is a bit dated (Jan, 2004), and it was written at very high level (published in the local business journal), I thought I'd post a cleaned up version of it here.

[START OF ARTICLE]

Before we start, here is an exercise. First, think of two consumer product brands that you are loyal to – Pepsi over Coca-Cola, Krispy Kreme over Dunkin Donuts? Got them? Okay, now, next answer the following questions:

1.) Have you ever visited the Web site of either of your favorite brands?
2.) How frequently do you visit those Web sites?

Based on the answers that I normally get when I poll people, probably only half of you said yes to question # 1. For those who did visit the sites, most people probably answered "seldom or only once" to question # 2.

Think about it, here are brands that you are loyal to, and you don't even visit their Web site with any frequency. Let's face it. The Web is old news for most of us and no matter how flashy and pretty a site is - you won't frequent that site unless it enriches or simplifies your life in some way.

Now, before I go on, let me say that every business needs a Web site – if for no other reason than to provide contact information, product information or directions... that just makes sense. The point, however, is that the days of 'brochure-ware' are long over.

For example, I have been to the Dunkin Donuts site several times, and they have done for coffee what NetFlix.com (the Internet based DVD rental company) has done for movies – sort of. I am a member of the Dunkin Donuts 'Regular Refills' program. This program allows me to specify the amount of coffee I want delivered to my home and the frequency at which I want it delivered. Dunkin Donuts has simplified my life. I can manage the program from their easy to use Web site – add products, change the quantity, the frequency, and enjoy my favorite brand of coffee without ever having to go to a Dunkin Donuts location again. Had Dunkin Donuts not had this functionality, I would probably never have gone back to its site. The truly neat part is that I really don't have to go to the web site all that much. The program sends me an e-mail to notify me of the upcoming delivery in case I need to make a change to my standing monthly order.

Providing store inventory on a Web site is another service. A couple of national stores, Borders and Circuit City for example, have real time store inventory available from their Web sites. If I need something and I want to see if it is in stock, all I have to do is visit the store's Web site to check. In the case of both of these stores, I also can reserve the product before I leave the house.

What these companies have done is given people a reason to come to their Web sites. They have provided tools to make peoples lives just a little simpler.

When you are thinking about the purpose of your company's Web site, ask yourself some of the following questions:
1.) Why would someone visit my Web site?
2.) How can I use the site to simplify my customers' lives?
3.) Can the Web site reduce calls to the customer service or parts department?
4.) For a doctor's office or an auto repair shop, can customers schedule appointments online? Can you provide e-mail reminders of upcoming appointments?
5.) Can customers let you know when they are interested in a product or service? Can you contact them when that product or service becomes available?
6.) Can customers easily find out the status of an order?

If none of these ideas fit your business, you can still provide value to customers in other ways. The biggest magnet for visitors is content. Provide research on your industry – written by you or your staff – that is updated constantly. Let people sign up to be notified when you post new content.

[END]

Learn, Earn, Return

I've just joined my first Board of Directors, what an honor.

The organization, eBizITPA, is a non-profit focused on increasing IT investment in small and medium sized businesses in the state of Pennsylvania.

I have my first board meeting next month - I'm sure I'll be boring you with stuff about this in the coming months...