Thoughts on product and innovation from an L.A. based PM and entrepeneur
Category
General
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05.05.10Improving the Windows desktop is so… 2010For a lot of the time my co-founder Rod and I have been working on KlickFu, we have often had the feeling the area of the business we have been focusing on--enhancing the experience working with the Windows desktop--is maybe not the coolest part of the industry. Yes, Windows 7 is an excellent product and has been quite successful for Microsoft, however, for the past year, many of my fellow startup founders have been focused mainly on building new apps for Facebook or iPhone/iPad or Android. Of course, this makes total sense, since these areas are evolving rapidly and many ...
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03.19.10The need for speedErick Schonfeld wrote an article in TechCrunch today called Google's Need For Speed, in which he argues Google is obsessed with speed because it leads users to do more searches, which results in more ad clicks. He notes Google research that shows delays of a few hundred milliseconds returning results translated to 0.6% fewer searches by users, which could add up to tens of millions of dollars per quarter in lost revenue. It is true Google is obsessed with speed. Recent examples include TechCrunch's confirmation that Google's URL shortener is the fastest on the Internet as well as the statement by Gmail product ...
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03.01.10What I learned at GoogleIt has been almost a year since I left Google, yet I am struck how often I refer to lessons I learned there as I make daily decisions for KlickFu. I thought it might be helpful to summarize some of the most important things I learned at Google, some of which may be fairly obvious, and some may be less so. 1. Speed is the most important feature of any product. This is true for any tech product, and especially true for web services. You may believe users are going to love the new bells and whistles you are designing for ...
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01.13.10Bye-bye point-and-shootHappy new year, I hope everyone had a great holiday. I am getting back into the swing of things after returning from a week in Colombia and a brief Disney Cruise to the Bahamas with my family--as well as recovering from the various illnesses one might associate with: a) a trip to South America; and b) a cruise with 800 kids under the age of 10. Business is starting to heat up for KlickFu as well as a few consulting projects, so I have been posting less frequently the past month or so. I will try to write more frequent, ...
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12.10.09Developers wanted… in Los Angeles, U.S.A.Last night, I went to the Jobnob Docstoc Happy Hour at Air Conditioned in Venice. The event was co-hosted by Julie Greenberg and Jason Nazar of Jobnob and Docstoc respectively. The idea behind the meetup is to connect technology startups with prospective hires who may be interested to work for "alternative compensation"--e.g., reduced salary, partial equity, good experience, etc. Jobnob has held 8 events in the Bay Area, where they are based, with huge turnout, not super surprising in a down economy. The turnout last night was excellent, maybe 200 people total, including 30-40 companies and job seekers of all ...
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11.20.095 Unconventional business books for the holidaysThe holidays are coming up, which means many of us will be spending a lot of time on airplanes and other places where we might have some free time. So I thought it might be helpful to post suggestions for some good books to read while you are getting where you are going, or maybe when you get there. Below are 5 books I recommend that deal with business or product, often in unconventional ways: How Successful People Win--Using Bunkhouse Logic To Get What You Want Out Of Life, by Ben Stein. This is a great book giving insight into how successful ...
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11.13.09You and your researchIn an interview with Joe Armstrong in "Coders At Work," the excellent book I described in a recent post, the author Peter Seibel refers to a famous talk by Richard Hamming entitled "You and Your Research" in which Hamming advises young scientists on how to do great work, make significant contributions to their fields, and achieve career success. Hamming addresses numerous issues that are relevant for anyone who wants to make their mark and achieve success, certainly including entrepreneurs. I will go into only one of these points in detail here, although I would advise anyone and everyone to take a ...
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11.12.09Connecting the SoCal Tech dotsToday I wanted to give a shout-out to Dr. Tony Karrer, creator of the Southern California Tech Central (SCTC) web site, which aggregates blogs from various folks working in technology throughout SoCal. As of this week, Tony started including this blog on the site, as you can see from the new banner on the right side of the page. I am excited and flattered to be included among such well-known and respected bloggers, so Tony thank you very much and I look forward to working together. A bit of background on SCTC. Tony founded the site about 6 months ago as a community ...
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11.09.09Read this book: Coders At WorkRecently I began reading "Coders At Work, Reflections on the craft of programming," by Peter Seibel. The format of the book is based on the earlier work by Jessica Livingston, "Founders at Work," in which Ms. Livingston interviewed founders from a dozen or so successful startups on the details of their approach to starting companies. In Coders, Peter Seibel interviews 15 of the most well-known and respected coders from various disciplines, ranging from relatively younger coders leading the development of scalable web technologies such as Brad Fitzpatrick and Jamie Zawinski to the gods of the craft including Donald Knuth and Peter ...
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11.03.09What goes in v1.0?The good news: team KlickFu is close to working through all the major technology issues needed to deliver a fairly solid version of our initial product. Now comes the next challenge, especially for the product manager (i.e., me)--deciding which features are must-haves for version 1. Part of the challenge is deciding what exactly V1.0 is and what is it going to be used for. In the past, this was pretty clear, especially for a desktop software application. V1.0 was the first version of your software, the one that had to make a big splash with the media, users, potentially software resellers and distributors, ...
