Want to digg something?

Do the buzzwords "Wiki", "Facebook", "Twitter", "RSS", "Digg" resonate with you? If you do not know any of these and you are in IT field, I guess you have to start reading more. :)

These websites have also created some new verbs like Google - while you are googling any of the terms above, someone else is digging an article, your friend is getting "poked" in Facebook (this is where you click a button and a line pops-up on the other person's page saying they've been poked), you wonder "What are people twittering about?". Then, your application is no longer a portal but a mashup and apple is bricking its iPhone. Brick is not even in Wiki encyclopedia yet, it is a term made popular by apple for making iPhone into unusable "brick" if users install unauthorized software.

Above all that, Iphone still has such a cool interface and Apple products always win in usability. See right picture.

Below are 2 videos that explain about Digg:





I think I will not start using Digg, Twitter or Facebook for now. Also trying Friendster but not really keen. But I am totally addicted to RSS & Wiki.

Disable Search Feature

When I was trying to do a search in one of the forum site, I encountered this.

Sorry, this feature is currently disabled.

Please try again during a quieter period.

I am wondering whether this is a good feature trade-off - to disallow users to search when the server is very busy and ask them to try later , or just allow them to do search by letting them wait a long time to view the result triggering frustration and high blood pressure.

Both have problems. For the site that disabled the search, I did not even get to know when the site will be free for me to do search. So, I will probably give it up and go to another site. For the latter option, I probably will "feel" the website is not in a good shape. Because users are guided by feeling or emotion when they choose to buy or use a products/services (ask Apple's loyal users, why they like Apple so much!), this will also have big impact. When people see your brands , they will recall the frustration for having to wait every few seconds to minutes when they click on each buttons of the website. They probably will tell their friends and that is a bad marketing strategy through WOM.

Thus, a great interface design and back-end programming are vital for a web product. That is why Google company is worth billions because their technology allows the search result to be displayed in split seconds.

And that is also why YouTube was bought over by Google even though at that time, there are others video streaming website and Google had enough resources to build their own video streaming program if they want to . In July 2007, YouTube announced that it is serving around 100 million videos per day. What’s more, the site served 2.5 billion videos to nearly 20 million unique visitors over the course of June. So, you may ask, what so special about a video streaming website that enabled it to attract the attention of Google and the rest of the world? My personal guess will be, YouTube has the key to handle that much load of a high video demands without hanging the server or application. And I never encounter this - YouTube asking me or other users to come back to view our selected videos when the server is less busy.

Technical Pre-sales vs. Product Management

The World Is Your Stage - Technical Pre-sales

Pre-sales is a dynamic group of technical specialists based out of regional field offices who go into action when Microsoft launches a product. These are the stage performers of the IT world: immensely capable, adaptable, confident, excellent communicators who are equally cool in front of large crowds and intimate groups. Pre-sales technology specialists work closely with Microsoft Sales to demonstrate the breadth and depth of Microsoft products.

This is not for "heads-down" types; this is a job for those who love people and technology. It means getting pumped about dynamic new products in an infectious way, while at the same time knowing the IT business as a whole in order to speak authoritatively.

Your Strategy Can Make Big Things Happen - Product Management

In an industry that moves at lightning speed, it takes individuals with equal amounts of skill and enthusiasm to create and sustain momentum for great software.

That's the charge of Product Management at Microsoft. Each year Microsoft invests billions of dollars in research and development to explore technologies that will positively impact businesses, education, and everyday life. Product Managers help chart the course of those new products and services as they emerge. They work with the development team to determine product functionality, strategize product positioning, and drive the product launch. After introduction, the Product Management team monitors customer and partner response to the products and refines product strategy to ensure the best possible user experience.

As a Product Manager, you have the freedom to run your own business and the resources to make a global impact. The ideal candidate possesses excellent marketing and business analysis skills, well-developed strategic thinking, and the ability to communicate and coordinate with a variety of product development, marketing, sales, and business development teams.

From Microsoft Website

Change all the design again?

Joey said in his post - "I suddenly took a look at the new web design they've done for us, which I've been approving every step of the way, and didn't like it any more, so I told them we had to start over."

I shared this post with a great designer and she said "Unless everyone sees the same picture. It is hard to even imagine the tiniest bit of enthusiasm everyone is able to squeeze when the whole thing has to be changed."

Very true.

I replied that is the role of a leader, that is to let the whole team know and agree on the direction together. Hardly anyone can do that, especially if it involves changing the whole thing of something people put weeks of efforts into. It is always between too much or too little, too complex or too simple. And the key is BALANCE.

I particularly like the 'sesame seeds' story in the post :

In one of Gerald Weinberg's books, probably The Secrets of Consulting, there's the apocryphal story of the giant multinational hamburger chain where some bright MBA figured out that eliminating just three sesame seeds from a sesame-seed bun would be completely unnoticeable by anyone yet would save the company $126,000 per year. So they do it, and time passes, and another bushy-tailed MBA comes along, and does another study, and concludes that removing another five sesame seeds wouldn't hurt either, and would save even more money, and so on and so forth, every year or two, the new management trainee looking for ways to save money proposes removing a sesame seed or two, until eventually, they're shipping hamburger buns with exactly three sesame seeds artfully arranged in a triangle, and nobody buys their hamburgers any more.

Presales

Quote from Wikipedia:

Presales will become a key competitive differentiator for the demand-driven economy.

Presales is the activity that qualifies in or out a prospect. Such an engagement with a prospect starts from the first point of interaction until an outcome has been reached. These interactions can be started through a variety of engagement triggers such as direct marketing, email and SMS campaigns, interactive advertising, online ads, portals and online billing.

A positive presales outcome is the generation of a warm lead or the trigger of a transactional event. However, the highest value of presales interactions is to understand why a positive outcome has not been reached. The aggregation of these interactional patterns can show the emergence of unmet and latent demand.

Presales is a relevant method for when there is a multiplying of choices for the prospect to consider. The diversity of pathways leading to different outcomes can be significant for complex products and services or when engaging with cross-sell and up-sell interactions.

I hope I know more in this area. But I don't. I think presales is part of the product management process. Even product management have different meanings and approach for different companies.

Parable of the boiled frog

They say that if you throw a frog into a pot of hot water it will quickly jump out. But if you put a frog into a pot of cold water and slowly heat it up, the frog stays put - and cooks. By the time the frog realizes its predicament, it's too late. Poor Froggy will boils to death or can only be saved if only someone pull him out.

The same things are happening to us - in career, in relationship and on earth. This is human nature. The slow developing trend or threat are so difficult to grasp. By the time we realize, it may to too late to do anything. Or, it can be anything we do will not matter anymore.

Organization

The shifting of economy and the world gone flat have great impact on how organization can thrive in this new economy.

Boiling-frog syndrome stands as a warning to managers and team members not to ignore the signs of negative institutional inertia that portend eventual failure. For an improved work environment, it's important to first recognize signs of hot water and then turn down the heat.

Job

In this article, it talks about how the boiled-frog parable apply to our job.

Sometimes the same thing happens to people in their jobs. If they had known on day one the job was going to be this bad, they'd have jumped out of the pot. But they've been in the job awhile, adjusting little by little as circumstances worsen.

"Then they go on vacation, come back to work, and it's like jumping into a pot of boiling water! They can suddenly hear the petty arguments, see the political situation for what it is, realize how little the work means to them. They can see how abusive their bosses are, feel how stressful the job is or perhaps feel how good it was to spend time with their significant other and children, and realize how much the job is stealing from that time," said Wilson.

As uncomfortable an experience as this is, those who have it are fortunate. This back-to-work clarity will force them to pay attention to their careers before it is too late. Many others in the same circumstances will put up with rising temperatures until they end up in a knock-down drag-out fight with their co-workers or bosses, develop migraines or have a family crisis. Or until they lose a promotion they thought they deserved, realize they feel most of the time like quitting or do lose their jobs. We even encounter the occasional soul who says he won't take vacations because it would be too horrible to come back.

Now and again an almost-boiled frog shows up at the door crying, "Fix it!" which, of course, is impossible. Careers cannot be treated in the emergency room. The solution is to manage your career, and not just sit there while the forces around you determine your course.

Relationship

Going through her breakup made my friend realized how she had taken more than she gave. She thought her reservation of love would have make her less vulnerable. But she told me she never thought she would hurt as badly.

She told me again and again that she is those type of person who will not easily trust or care for a person. It made me feel a bit angry because I heard this a lot of times from other people as well. This is absolutely an excuse to avoid responsibilities and commitments. Do you think the people on the other side of the giving end are not feeling unsecured also? Do you think they are not afraid of being hurt or rejected? That they born as silly love fools? It takes a lot of courages for one to be in love and those who give are the courageous one. Do not give the excuse to be a coward.

My friend had taken things for granted. She was the frog in the slowly steaming water. Suddenly she realized the heat. She had been oblivious to burdens of the people around her. She had not been able to understand while she continued to demand attention and care.

But she understand now. She is going to go a very "long distance" this time to save her relationship. I hope she will succeed.

Earth

The boiled frog may be all of us on earth who choose not to do anything about the unavoidable threat of global warming. I first learned about the boiled frog story from the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth". I heard about global warming and thinning of ozone layer for more than 10 years while studying science in high school. Until now, I have not see any major changes to address this issue.

So, we are the frog in the water heating up, unaware and happily living our life.

When will we notice the heat? Will we ever get to jump out before it is too hot or will we boil to death?

Maybe we all can do something now starting from ourselves first. Each one counts!

Visit http://www.climatecrisis.net/ for more information.

Marketing and Innovation

In today product demo to our technical team, there are more people in the team that has put on their thinking cap and really challenge the product. It is a great sight to see as mostly technical people are always considered as geeks and never really think about marketing.

I came from technical background myself and still love technical works. However, I also find great passions in product management and marketing. I do believe, technical people can do a great product management and marketing jobs as well. From Bill Gates, Steve Job , Larry and Sergey , they all do geeks proud! They started very small and get VERY BIG. They create dreams and their dreams changed the world.

From Peter Drucker's famous quote in The Practice of Management
The business enterprise has two - and only two - basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs.

There are so much more to learn and there is absolutely no boundary!

Good Requirements should be Implementation free.

I noticed that many times when the requirements are communicated to us, it tends to tell us the "solution" or "how it should be implemented", rather than really what are the problems customers want to be solved, what they are facing, and what they are currently doing about them.

Hopefully, the requirement gathering process can be enhanced. Most of the people in the our team are able to come out with solutions (great one!!!) given the problems. This is what we are training ourselves to be - to find great solutions to problems. And this is what we work hard for!!!!!

Implementation free. The requirement states what is required, not how the requirement should be met. A requirement statement should not reflect a design or implementation nor should it describe an operation. However, the treatment of interface requirements is generally an exception. Got from this site - http://www.complianceautomation.com/papers/incose_goodreqs.htm

Just some food for thought!

Starbucks Experiences

Photo Courtesy of FreeFoto.com

First of all, I am a Coffee Lover! I cannot live without coffee.

Recently, I began to notice that I was visiting Starbucks more often than its competitors . In fact , it is like 10 times to 1. ( Coffee Bean, Gloria Jean, San Francisco) . Honestly speaking, I prefer San Francisco's and Coffee Bean's coffee more than Starbuck. But why am I choosing to go to Starbucks - the answer is, it is the most convenient. Just less than 3 km from my house, there is a Starbucks. Everywhere I go, every shopping malls I visit, I see Starbucks. It is like San Francisco , Coffee Bean and Gloria Jean is fading...into unknown. Some more , just noticed that 2 of the Gloria Jean's shop has been closed down. San Francisco seems never have any new stores .

Anyway, I love to go to Starbucks to do my work or even blogging. It kinda has a culture that welcome you to go there and do your work with your notebook, sits there for hours (my record is up to 5 hours). It also provides you with extension cable in case the cable point is not enough. At one Starbucks, I saw all the overlapped cables on the floor. Pretty Messy sight! But , hey, nobody seems to mind.

And there is a new bestsellers book on Starbuck!!! (see below). Haven't read this but hope can read someday (when I finish all the books that I have bought for past 1 month. A little bit slow in reading nowadays due to the hectic schedule.)

Next, come to the latest Starbucks gossip about the the email of the Chairman that leaked out for all to see.

Starbucks chairman warns of "the commoditization of the Starbucks experience"
Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz wrote this to CEO Jim Donald earlier in Feb. The memo's authenticity has been confirmed by Starbucks.

Below is the email.

From: Howard SchultzSent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 10:39 AM Pacific Standard TimeTo: Jim DonaldCc: Anne Saunders; Dave Pace; Dorothy Kim; Gerry Lopez; Jim Alling; Ken Lombard; Martin Coles; Michael Casey; Michelle Gass; Paula Boggs; Sandra Taylor
Subject: The Commoditization of the Starbucks Experience

As you prepare for the FY 08 strategic planning process, I want to share some of my thoughts with you.
Over the past ten years, in order to achieve the growth, development, and scale necessary to go from less than 1,000 stores to 13,000 stores and beyond, we have had to make a series of decisions that, in retrospect, have lead to the watering down of the Starbucks experience, and, what some might call the commoditization of our brand.

Many of these decisions were probably right at the time, and on their own merit would not have created the dilution of the experience; but in this case, the sum is much greater and, unfortunately, much more damaging than the individual pieces. For example, when we went to automatic espresso machines, we solved a major problem in terms of speed of service and efficiency. At the same time, we overlooked the fact that we would remove much of the romance and theatre that was in play with the use of the La Marzocca machines. This specific decision became even more damaging when the height of the machines, which are now in thousands of stores, blocked the visual sight line the customer previously had to watch the drink being made, and for the intimate experience with the barista. This, coupled with the need for fresh roasted coffee in every North America city and every international market, moved us toward the decision and the need for flavor locked packaging. Again, the right decision at the right time, and once again I believe we overlooked the cause and the affect of flavor lock in our stores. We achieved fresh roasted bagged coffee, but at what cost? The loss of aroma -- perhaps the most powerful non-verbal signal we had in our stores; the loss of our people scooping fresh coffee from the bins and grinding it fresh in front of the customer, and once again stripping the store of tradition and our heritage? Then we moved to store design. Clearly we have had to streamline store design to gain efficiencies of scale and to make sure we had the ROI on sales to investment ratios that would satisfy the financial side of our business. However, one of the results has been stores that no longer have the soul of the past and reflect a chain of stores vs. the warm feeling of a neighborhood store. Some people even call our stores sterile, cookie cutter, no longer reflecting the passion our partners feel about our coffee. In fact, I am not sure people today even know we are roasting coffee. You certainly can't get the message from being in our stores. The merchandise, more art than science, is far removed from being the merchant that I believe we can be and certainly at a minimum should support the foundation of our coffee heritage. Some stores don't have coffee grinders, French presses from Bodum, or even coffee filters.

Now that I have provided you with a list of some of the underlying issues that I believe we need to solve, let me say at the outset that we have all been part of these decisions. I take full responsibility myself, but we desperately need to look into the mirror and realize it's time to get back to the core and make the changes necessary to evoke the heritage, the tradition, and the passion that we all have for the true Starbucks experience. While the current state of affairs for the most part is self induced, that has lead to competitors of all kinds, small and large coffee companies, fast food operators, and mom and pops, to position themselves in a way that creates awareness, trial and loyalty of people who previously have been Starbucks customers. This must be eradicated.

I have said for 20 years that our success is not an entitlement and now it's proving to be a reality. Let's be smarter about how we are spending our time, money and resources. Let's get back to the core. Push for innovation and do the things necessary to once again differentiate Starbucks from all others. We source and buy the highest quality coffee. We have built the most trusted brand in coffee in the world, and we have an enormous responsibility to both the people who have come before us and the 150,000 partners and their families who are relying on our stewardship.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge all that you do for Starbucks. Without your passion and commitment, we would not be where we are today.
Onward…

Using website to generate business for you

1. Be a customer ourselves first
If we are selling any product, we should be the first customers to really use the product for us to understand the painful or pleasant experience. From there, we also know how to enhance the product (if we are building the product on our own) or look for another products to sell If the product really sucks.

2. Keep your website up-to-date
A good website need to be constantly updated and the contents are fresh. A outdated website does not really look too professional and customers will not trust the information. One indication is the announcements and news in the website, which should be updated constantly. Not good to show the latest news in the website is last year January.

3. Constant communication with current and potential customers through newsletter, mailing list, announcements/promotion, etc.
A good website should collect and build up their mailing list and constantly communicate to this list, sending information on promotions, news, etc. that can prompt customers to come to your website or even buy things from you.
Also, the content is important. Make it look very nice and informational and customers will not hate you for that, even though the information is not useful for them or they would not really buy the products. A good content make the customers believe in your service and your company, even though they are not your customers yet. For e.g., Dell also always constantly have product promotions on their website. It gives a good reason to visit the website again and again to learn about new promotions.

4. Ability to impress customers
I am impressed with website with good & clean design, especially with some flash. I believe sometimes customer buy the products not because of clear logical reasons (do not think they will do a win-loss analysis on the products before they buy them) but because of their feeling (or psychological reason) about the product. Thus, we cannot underestimate the ability of website being able to impress people.

5. Good website is searchable
Need to make sure the website is searchable in major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, and you name it!) and also get listed in some local directories like Yellow Pages, Marketplace, or even some specific target communities like expatriate website.

6. Target industries
You should know your target industries of your product, in order to know which channel you should market your product.
Related to the earlier point, if you are in fine dining business, you need to put up your website and get listed in the website for expatriate, searchable in search engine, so that people can find out more information on your restaurants (foods, locations, etc.) and this will increase sales! (Although u might not know why more customers start coming to your restaurant, maybe is WOM or maybe it is your website)

Importance of SMART Monitoring on Data

Today, we have an incident where our customer sent us 20,000 ++ files to our server and this caused the disk space and DB tablespace to be full. This also affected other customers and we used up around 2 manpower to recover the problem.

In fact, only around 200 files are expected from this customer per day. The number reached 20K because of some issues that either happened at customer's system or our software problem.

However,

If our system is SMART enough, it should flag out a warning because 200 vs. 20,000 is HUGE difference - almost 100 times the original numbers.

If we are SMART enough, we should develop the system that is SMART enough the flag out the warning and prevent the headache and the lost of 2 man-days,and lost of focus.

If we are SMART enough, we should also LEARN from this incidents and do something to prevent this.

That's if we are SMART enough. :)

Footnote: Actually, it is not we are not SMART enough, we just do not have the time and energy to do that. But then, we are still not SMART enough to overcome the lack of time and energy to deliver!!

"In the midst on anxiety, she chattered away."

More Features in the Product does not necessarily mean a good thing

I always thought a good product need to have all sorts of features that your competitors had, but it turns out not necessary true.

Instead of adding new features, a company can concentrate making the service or product much easier to use.

Pay Attention to Details

What I learnt about wanting a kick-butt design in products..............

Quoted from Steve Jobs:
The iMac is not just the color or translucence or the shape of the shell. The essence of the iMac is to be the finest possible consumer computer in which each element plays together.
On our latest iMac, I was adamant that we get rid of the fan, because it is much more pleasant to work on a computer that doesn't drone all the time. That was not just "Steve's decision" to pull out the fan; it required an enormous engineering effort to figure out how to manage power better and do a better job of thermal conduction through the machine. That is the furthest thing from veneer. It was at the core of the product the day we started.
This is what customers pay us for--to sweat all these details so it's easy and pleasant for them to use our computers. (emphasis mine)