Archive of posts from February 2020

Your work doesn’t have to be perfect to make a difference, because perfect isn’t the point:

Preventing morally bankrupt subcultures designed by adults from continuing to permeate our youth? Whether you lead a brutalist “let them see where it takes them” movement or a delicate “protect them and nurture a new path” movement isn’t the point. Shaking the status quo is the point.

Challenging big tech privacy erosion to avoid a global police state dystopia? Whether you lead a macro...

We know Amazon is a lousy place to work for a lot of people. Underpaid drivers and stressed out middle-managers galore.

We know the Amazon machine has eroded competitors because they need to make profit but Amazon doesn’t.

We don’t have to like Amazon to recognize what they got right:

• Buyers want prompt, free delivery. So they ship fast, usually for free, even if it loses them money.
• Buyers want great prices. So they eschew profit in exchange for...

Who decided how we should do things and who the market leader is?

Facebook ads are the best way to attract leads? Facebook and Facebook advertising vendors would have you think so. Our Creative team produces advertising (albeit in an aggressively privacy-conscious and no-snooping way) but they wouldn’t try to convince you it’s the only way, the easiest way or the fastest way. It’s a way, not the way.

Google Chrome is the best web browser there is? Google‘s website...

It’s never just about price. Or just about value.

Our Creative team’s consulting-only package (called “Execute”) works because the information is valuable and the cost drives action.

• If the information wasn’t valuable, it wouldn’t be effective (partners would implement the wrong things).
• If the information was free, it wouldn’t be effective (partners would feel no need to take action on what they heard).

The latest iPhone sells because the product is good at what it does and the...

After completing the ‘big rocks’ of the day’s schedule, do you ever look at your to-do list and think to yourself…

”…Some of this stuff doesn’t seem worth doing”?

You know the tasks… …the adjusting logo size in all your documents. …the meeting that didn’t come with an agenda. …the blind calendar block of ‘email’. …the bland newsletter blast that basically nobody reads.

Some things enter our work world in the name of ‘productivity’, based on the assumption that ‘productivity’...

Here’s how to own the world:

Step 1: Define “the world”. It could be your neighborhood’s vegan delicatessens. It could be your state’s urban homelessness problem. Scope “the world” as tightly as you can, because only specific goals get met.

Step 2: Define “owning”. It could be to barter or partner with those delicatessens, being the best viable source for your work. It could be to be orchestrate the best focused effort toward solving that homelessness problem. Scope “owning” as...

We strive to make things simple.

Why not instead strive to make things…simpler?

“Website you can make yourself” is simple. “Website made for you that is better than your current one or your money back” is simpler.

“Email software that organizes your email” is simple. “Email software that chastises spammers so there’s less to organize” is simpler.

“Choosing a plan for your team head-count or usage” is simple. “Pay one fair rate for everything” is simpler.

Trying to simplify the...

Parts of the Internet tends to struggle with Privacy and Respect.

We have a right to not be tracked. To not have Facebook stalk your every move online regardless of whether you opt in or out. To have sites respect the “do not track” signals that web browsers send to them, honoring them as rules rather than mere suggestions.

**But we also have a responsibility to be good stewards of that right. **That means treating other netizens with respect (instead...

‘Sales’ has a terrible culture.

Yet ‘sales’ itself is hugely important.

How do we reconcile the two?

Ridiculous sales targets create compromising conversations and pushy practices. Why not instead just not recruit people who need arbitrary targets in order to do their jobs? What if we nurtured a culture of helping the right people solve their problems, rather than celebrating “closer” ‘bad-assery’?

Bad leadership enables those environments to develop. They turn a blind eye to it “because it works”. Yet...

It doesn’t matter your role…

Operations Managers: Is your job to maintain the system and put out fires, or to create a system so remarkable you can be proud of your design, one that others will spread the word about? Both options are possible, but one requires you to be brave enough to really do your job.

CEOs: Is your job to keep the company afloat and delegate out the stuff you don’t feel like doing, or to design a...

You’ve likely seen them for yourself:

YouTube has enough gurus repeating the same messages in the same styles, who ‘followed the formula’ because they were too afraid to reveal their true selves to us.

Instagram has enough fakers in Maseratis teaching you how to get rich, selling formulas that may have worked once but don’t work again when downstream in the hands of thousands.

The market has enough business consultants who never ran a successful business, selling false promises because...

I spotted this quote while switching internet service providers.

We’re used to making these seemingly throw-away comments while crafting customer experiences designed to delight.

Every word counts, though:

If it won’t take long, I wouldn’t be buying this. If the speed was acceptable, why would I be migrating? Would it not better empathize with an prospective customers abysmal speeds, affirming their decision to switch, instead of blasting them with ill-considered pleasantries?

This page was never about them. Remember, marketing isn’t...

How does our Creative team’s BuiltForImpact system produce award-winning websites at a fraction of the cost of anyone else?

How does an iPhone outperform a device with the same technical specifications by software optimizations alone?

How do our advertising team get targeted attention for 3 cents each when many ad teams get the same for 10x the cost?

Magic is even more impressive when we see how skilled and well-rehearsed the magician’s slight-of-hand is. Showing the process creates a greater...

Our teams, like yours I’m sure, meet regularly to discuss how to make the client experience even more accommodating, delightful and memorable.

But those discussions must always remember “house rules”. I’ll paint a picture of this using an airline flight as an example:

When you board the plane, you don’t get to skip the safety briefing. House rules say it’s going to happen, and you’re expected to pay attention. Even if you don’t, you can’t say you didn’t get that...

Those doing meaningful work are usually high achievers.

Which often breeds comparison. Comparison weakens your ability to create change.

Someone else made a bigger impact in their chosen field than you? Unless your mission is the same as theirs – unless you’re playing the exact same game – comparison makes no sense. Play your game.

Someone else made more dollars in their industry than you? Unless your mission is measured exclusively by dollars – unless you’re playing by those rules...

One hour isn’t a very long time.

Yet it could be so much longer if we let it.

You don’t need maniacal working hours to make a difference with your meaningful work.

Most of us don’t get one hour of productive time dedicated toward meaningful work all that often. More often, we get:

Half an hour plus distractions and switches. That’s 30mins of work wrapped in 15mins of getting in the right headspace, 15mins of distractions. It’s an hour, but...

Why does the business world – cause-driven or otherwise – have so much war-talk in its vocabulary?

Don’t ‘kill’ competitors or ‘target’ prospects. Our teams simply serve those they can serve best. Never found any benefit in trying to “take over the world” when improving the right lives is so much more effective. No need for war-talk or war-practices.

Serving outperforms conquests. Our teams serve our clients well, happily. Those clients serve us well, happily. Make a difference with the...

When you have lots to do, a good idea might be to use a calendar to help visualize your time.

“Great, now I can see all the time I actually have available to do things in!” we might say to ourselves.

The danger then becomes attempting to resist the urge to fill in the empty boxes.

“I’m doing nothing from 2:40 until 2:50, I’ll add another task there.”

This post is in defense of the empty boxes. Consider this:

#1...