As a user, I’m inpatient, unforgiving, and have trouble using/finding features that appear so simple to product managers. If I can’t find what I want quickly and easily you’ve lost me. This poses a variety of challenges for product managers depending upon what stage you’re at:
New product: Who are my early adopters and am I solving a salient problem? How can I communicate this effectively to users? Don’t try to solve ten different problems, but solve one really well. This misconception prevents a lot of new startups from even getting traction
Product with some traction beginning to scale features: At this stage its important to tread the balance between user retention/feature requests while maintaining and emphasizing core …
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“I want to break into the startup scene…but I can’t code”
If I had a nickle for every time I’ve heard that…I’d probably have like $3.20. But seriously, I don’t know if its because the tech scene is hot right now or that the composition of my personal network is changing, but it seems like a lot of people I talk to who aren’t already in the startup scene want to break in to it. I feel that the common misconception many people have is that they have to be a developer or designer to do this. Although these qualifications help, its a far cry from a necessity.
This post serves as a personal case study of my journey to what I …
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I find psychology and sociology extremely interesting and relevant as I blaze my trail in the startup world. In particular, I think its really important to understand our behaviors and what drives them. Having a firm understanding why we do certain things allows us to correct our behaviors to reach our goals.
One thing that I find particularly interesting is how many people wait for all the stars to align before they do something. I see this behavior a lot when people are trying to launch a business, but the general theme spans across a ton of circumstances and needs to change. What compelled me to write this blog post is a recent situation where my friend has been waiting to …
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The e-commerce space is an interesting one to say the least. Being the broke startup guy I am, when I know I want a specific product I typically go to google and type in whatever it is I’m looking for. Moments later I’m taken to an aggregator of some sort where I can seamlessly find the site with the cheapest offering (with shipping included!).
This is definitely great for the consumer for a couple reasons. 1) I can find the product I desire easily and efficiently. 2) This process ultimately results in a race to the bottom for brands cutting in to their beloved margins and in some cases leveling the playing field.
The question is, if I’m a brand how do …
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I have a ton of friends outside the tech scene with ideas for a startup or new business. Ideas are awesome, but let’s be honest everyone has ideas and very few actually execute on them. Along the same token, a lot of people have many ideas and don’t understand where to start. I always tell my friends before you get all excited and go buy a domain at GoDaddy, you should perform a little due diligence to see if your idea is really as viable as you think it is.
But where to start…how do I know whether this idea is worth pursuing and which one of my ideas are the best? My personal philosophy is to develop a set of …
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Everywhere I look there is more and more people coming up complex business models that hinge on cooperation from tons of different actors. I don’t like this. Business models I like are scalable, rely little on the creation of new technology, and are centered around a clear value proposition to the customer.
Right now I’m really digging businesses that center upon the aggregation products/services in a cluttered market. With more and more options for products and services many businesses are finding their niche by aggregating these offerings in one easy place for consumers. Two companies that provide this service and are killing it are SeatGeek and Yipit. Seatgeek aggregates tickets from the secondary marketplace and has a recommendation algorithm that tells …
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I used this new app called Tenka the other day which is actually really sweet. A couple of bright gu
So I’ve been working in this tech co-working space called General Assembly for about two months now. Although the interior is quite nice, I’d have to say the best part about being in the space is the individuals that comprise the community. You’re surrounded by young innovators working on awesome projects across industries. It’s incredible to think about what’s possible if one were to bond all these people together for one project.
In a space like this it would be very easy to spend entire days at a time just chatting with people from different companies. However, if we all did this nothing would ever get done. Its no surprise then to see people heads down most of the day working …
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