As I was considering whether to start a personal blog, I weighed two factors: 1) would I really have the time to commit to maintaining a reasonable level of regularity in my posts, which for me is once every 2 weeks at a minimum, preferably once or more per week; 2) do I have enough content and/or opinions to share that would be meaningful or relevant or useful to a reasonable number of people?
For the first question, I decided that as long as one of my main goals with the blog is to increase the likelihood that my startup, KlickFu, will succeed in getting built and released to hopefully millions of users, then yes, I will make the time to write and promote the blog with a decent frequency, maybe more if I truly enjoy making it and some others enjoy reading and participating with it.
For the second question, I did what any soon-to-be-blogger would do, I started to brainstorm (slash collect) some topics I would write about in the first few weeks of the blog. With that in mind, here is a partial list of topics I plan to discuss in upcoming posts. If any of these seems particularly interesting, or uninteresting, or if you have any other suggestions on the topics of product management, innovation, entrepreneurship, L.A., or life in general, please let me know.
- 5 Lessons from Texas holdem poker that can help your startup be more successful
- 9 Ways to be more creative
- Why I like the “woman with the green face” and modern art in general
- 6 Ideas I would like to see get built or done
- The best user experience design I have ever seen (Hint: it was in the bathroom at Google)
- Is the idea really worth only 1% of the startup, vs. 99% for execution? (Nah, it’s worth more… and this is the wrong question)
- The pros and cons of zigging while everyone else is zagging
- L.A. vs. Silicon Valley–can or should an entrepreneur stay in SoCal to create a new tech startup
- Excellent Internet startup idea looking for a tech co-founder (my friend’s, not mine)
That should be enough to get started. What do you think, let me know.
You really do have roots in being a PM.
A few thoughts on blogs:
- Personal blogs shouldn’t have so much order in them. That’s what sock drawers are for! Think of it as stretching, yawning, and sharing some thoughts.
- Corporate blogs should have a more formal tone to it. Personal blogs should feel more at home. It’s as if you’re inviting people to your house, and everyone’s hanging out on the sofa having a conversation; except in this convo, you’re the only one talking.
Trust me, people will want to hear about how you always have a silly lava lamp in your office because an old friend gave it to you, as opposed to the key points you made at some presentation. Although the latter might be fascinating depending on the details.
- When writing the entries, think of it as if you’re writing a letter to a friend. This will cause the readers to feel as if they know you. Once they start developing a personal relationship with you, they will do the same with your company & your (game) titles.
- Be gracious! Like it or not, in a very short time you’re going to be a celebrity. This will cause a lot of “yes” men and nay sayers to your side.
Please pardon my bluntness.
Those that simply want to piss in your ear will be difficult to ignore. Shrug them off. I know it’s hard to say that. Please believe me when I tell you there will be days you’ll get an offensive email/comment (it might even contain a couple of death threats) that will make you want to find them Jay & Silent Bob style. Don’t do it. They’re not worth the premature wrinkles.
There will be others that are genuinely angry at your company and will take it out on you. By then you will have hired people to help these people by working to solve their issue(s), and to make them happy with the brand.
The “yes” men are the worst! Just as you have to shrug off the people that spew hatred, you must also shrug off the people that claim to give you their undying love. It won’t be you that they love. It’s the image, and it’s the feelings they get when they play your game. It will never be because they personally love you.
- This is a window into your life, your world, and your soul. Wield that power well. It is always your choice into which part of your life you want to let people peek in on.
- Your competitors are always watching! Every so often I hear of stories where it goes well beyond friendly competition, and it absolutely disgusts me. So yes, they are watching.
(Sorry that was so long.)
Parizad, Thanks for your comments, you obviously have a lot of experience dealing with feedback from the community, so your points are well taken.
I should clarify, when I say this is a personal blog, I mean I will be speaking for myself and not necessarily on behalf of the company. Although I will occasionally include some topics of purely personal interest, for example, about travel or music, most of the posts will focus on issues relating to entrepreneurship, startups, and innovation. My model for the types of topics and discussion I hope to generate is Fred Wilson’s blog http://www.avc.com, of which I have been a reader and fan for several years.