Author: Joseph Thibault

Quote – Gary Vaynerchuk

By 2001, we were doing about 20 million. Not bad. Not bad at all. Life was good and business was booming. Most guys my age would have thought they had it made.

Then, on my thirtieth birthday, November 14, 2005, I was driving along the New Jersey Turnpike on my way to work thinking about my day, and I realized that as perfect as life seemed, I wasn’t entirely happy. I knew deep in my soul that there was no way I was ever going to buy the Jets if I stayed on the retail path. It was time to go big.

Gary Vaynerchuk – Crush It! (free on Dailylit.com)

Dear HBO: Tell Cable to Suck It.

I love HBO.  And when I have it, it dominates my Sunday night.  The programming is just awesome.  HBO rarely pilots a crap show (Flight of the Concords, True Blood, Entourage, The Life and Times of Tim and even Hung are all great).  Not to mention Real Sports and all of the great HBO original series and specials like Band of Brothers and Generation Kill which, after watching, have prompted me to read the books and buy the DVDs.

The content is just that good.  But what pains me, is that if I want HBO, I have to pay for 100 crap stations just to get it.  I can’t just get HBO (which is a product of the more general issues with cable station bundling).  I am obliged to support and sustain crappy reality TV, Fox News and other television based disasters that shouldn’t even be on the air.  It pains me that some of my money is going to these stations.

If HBO were to offer a web-only streaming service to paying customers, I would totally pay 10 or 20 dollars a month directly to HBO for the content.  I know there are all sorts of pitfalls (sharing of usernames, cost of development, etc.) but really they could start cutting out the middle men (like Comcast and Verizon) and offer the programming directly to paying customers.  They could even buy the distribution channel from a company from Hulu (which arguably is the best TV on the internet viewing experience).

They’d probably make a boat load more money.

As an alternative option, they could go to a company like Roku and offer it as a premium channel through the Roku player (which is what Netflix does for their users who have the set top box).

If it’s all about $ and sustaining the brand, why limit your customer base?  This is what I imagine (though the people that want HBO is probably too big of a circle):

hbo

Why wouldn’t HBO try to get the entire green circle?  Seems like a “duh” situation to me.  Do you hear me HBO?

What I do as a non-programmer

A few weeks ago Spencer Fry (Carbonmade) posted a nice article about what he does as a non-technical/non-programmer employee/executive at a web-based company. I had already been playing around with a post discussing the same (his is very good) but it inadvertently fell to the wayside while I was…well…doing those things I wrote on my list.

The life of non-programmer at a web-based shop is interesting to say the least. A lot of time is spent either mulling the things that absolutely are necessary to keep the business on an upward trajectory and battling with myself as to whether that thing is actually necessary. That is to say, battling over what to contribute and what not to contribute (I believe the latter is more important than the former in the long run). Additionally, it’s not a rare moment when I’m questioning whether or not I can stay as valuable to the company as our code-contributing staff (who are literally the architects of our future/potential success).

I started in 07 as 50% of our non-programming staff (but 1/3 of our startup). In the early days it was easy to pick up the slack. I was eager to contribute ideas and copy and brainstorming sessions where we laid all of our future successes out like a road map. As soon as I understood the business well enough though, I resigned to do my best to pull my own weight since I was unable to contribute to the code.

Here’s my short list of 9 (but maybe more…) aspects of my non-programming position. Which I might also title my “start up job description”.

1. Test
2. Draw diagrams (but not imaginary screen shots – relational diagrams can help a lot more than “I want this button right here”)
3. find non-technical solutions to user problems
4. be a buffer
5. Build the business: go sell something, find customers, make $
6. Refrain from complexity (don’t spend time asking for additional features, just because you’re not busy doesn’t mean programming staff isn’t chipping away at the most recent revisions, enhancements, bug fixes)
7. write FAQs, site copy, user guide books, make tutorials
8. never use a bug as the basis to add an enhancement
9. PUBLICIZE
  1. Test – never a day goes by when I’m not on the system. I’m a power user. Be it Moodle, proprietary systems or just a home page. No link goes un-clicked, no combination of variables goes untested and no bug is left unearthed. When our programmers think the code is “perfect” it’s my job to point out where things break down or usability becomes confusing or some other practical/common process has been disrupted. I check from different browsers, different operating systems and with different end results in mind. Then I ticket and follow up and repeat. Testing, to me, is really synonymous to providing customer support and it’s either proactive or reactive (so might as well start testing now before you’re trying to test to find out a certain nuance that a user submits later).
  2. Draw diagrams (but not imaginary screen shots – relational diagrams can help a lot more than “I want this button right here”).
  3. find non-technical solutions to user problems. You might also call these “hacks”. If there’s a crazy bug or usability issue, I’ll ticket it. But I’ll also find a way around to ensure it’s not a blocker. Doesn’t load right in IE? Try FF. Doesn’t display in my profile. Unenroll and re-enroll. Blockers get highest priority, so when there’s a back log of those it’s my job to find (and disseminate) workarounds for the non-blocker (but critical) issues. This often means that I’m elbows deep in user interaction, guiding them through ways to fix the issue themselves or fixing this issues remotely to give them the smoothest user experience.
  4. be a buffer: I mentioned earlier that programmers are extremely valuable; that’s why I focus on keeping them out of the focus. The programming staff I’ve worked with is efficient and creates excellent applications for our clients. But they shouldn’t be changing passwords or trouble shooting for specific user issues. This goes the same for the executive/programmer line of communication (if you happen to be at a bigger company). Distractions are costly. If there’s a road map that is worth following, it’s only a matter of time before a client need 0r CEO idea brings you off course. Creating a buffer can help your app “stay the course”.
  5. Build the business: go sell something, find customers, make $, organize paperwork, manage finances (this stuff is the simplest when you’re getting started but it grows and grows in proportion to success).
  6. Refrain from complexity: don’t spend time asking for additional features, just because you’re not busy doesn’t mean programming staff isn’t chipping away at the most recent revisions, enhancements, bug fixes.
  7. write FAQs, site copy, user guide books, make tutorials. I would say that this is probably the 2nd most important role, besides customer support and satisfaction.
  8. never use a bug as the basis to add an enhancement.
  9. publicize/socialize: manage twitter, blog about the business, do the presentation circuit. Whatever you can do to spread the word about your business should be done and done well.

Android is the Ultimate iPhone Killer

Really this all looks like common sense to me.  Apple is great, the iPhone is wonderful (even the ipod touch is a superb product).  The Apple OS for their phones and ipods is flawless, intuitive and crisp.  It’s no wonder they’ve grabbed so much of the “app phone” market (to borrow a phrase from David Pogue); they invented it!

That being said, Google’s positioned Android to bring it down.  How?  Because they understand the fact that distribution is a key factor to success.  It’s interesting that Apple would so easily fall into a similar trap that it did so many years ago.  In my opinion, the Android vs Apple battle really is similar to the MicroSoft vs. Apple battle that’s so nicely portrayed in Pirates of Silicon Valley.  Back in the late 70s and 80s Apple tee’d off with a great product (an OS on a proprietary hardware set) that people loved.  It was user friendly and ground breaking.  MS followed with a knock off that became available to all computer manufacturers.  Distribution was in MS’s favor and they grew more quickly and grabbed a huge portion of the market that Apple (some might argue) created, that is, the personal computer.

Fast forward to the 00s and Apple pulled the same move, great product, easy to use, etc.  And it’s 100% proprietary.  They create a new market (app phones) and quickly become the leader.  A few years later an up and comer is released (that’s kind of a knock off) and is made available (for a fee) to all phone manufacturers.  Looks like familiar territory.  Check out this recent TechCrunch article that shows the progress Android has already made (based on Admob research).

I’m betting that Android will challenge Apple’s hegemony within the next 12 months.  The reason is distribution.  Android is now available on every major US carrier (Verizon, Tmobile, Spring and ATT) and has a legion of developers contributing to it’s advancement.  Additionally, the hardware available to manufacturers is getting much better.  Phones are getting more powerful and better equipped to exploit the software.  This is not to mention the fact that there’s simply variety in hardware (which speaks to our current desire to individualize ever facet of our existence).  iPhone’s don’t vary much, but for Android the hardware and software provide loads of ways to customize to the individual.

In terms of functionality, I agree that the iPhone currently has a huge lead in available applications.  But Android is an unexplored market for many developers, it also provides a more democratic marketplace to list apps and has the potential market size equal to that of the iphone marketplace (if it can be realized).

I would be happy with an iPhone, if it were for the service of ATT.  I was a happy Verizon user, but was turned off by their previous lack of nice phones.  I am a happy Android user, and I bet there will be many, many more like me shortly.  Can Apple out pace the competition?  Sure, but I think they’ll be severely hampered by ATT.

Outsourcing in Schools (how to focus on improving instruction)

Education Sector released a new report on school design last week titled Teachers at Work: Improving Teacher Quality Through School Design (free pdf download).  The report focuses on a new type of school design getting some traction in NYC, the Generation Schools.  These schools are focusing specifically on improving instruction by giving teachers more time to focus and prepare their lessons.  It seems like a great model (I’m still partial to the Rhee plan for teacher effectiveness though).

Another model highlighted in the article was a lot more exciting.  Why? Because it basically outsourced all non-critical, non-instructional tasks to other NPOs in the area.  The school is the Gardner Pilot Academy outside of Boston, MA.  This is what the report had to say about it.

The Gardner Pilot Academy, an elementary school serving the mostly low-income Latino community of Allston, Mass., just outside of Boston, is teeming with adults.  The leadership of Gardner includes and extended services director, whose job is to coordinate the work of all the various people and programs serving students and families.  The school has more than 15 community partners, including Young Audiences, which offers arts  and enrichment; Sports4Kids, which rounds out the physical education program run by the school’s part-time teacher; and a local branch of the YMCA, which serves as the fiscal agent for Gardner’s after-school program.  In all, there are more than 40 additional people who play a variety of roles and work a variety of schedules to support core teaching staff inside and outside of the classroom.  This kind of support, where aides and interns are assigned to oversee recess, lunch, and before- and after-school programs, means that teachers’ work at Gardner can be designed almost entirely around improving instruction.

Eureka!  You mean if we let teachers focus only on improving their instruction (by removing/outsourcing the other “school” distractions) they might help students achieve more?  I love this model for two reasons.

  1. it readjusts a teacher’s role to instruction (and not a hodge podge of other duties as assigned).  In web app building I call that “feature creep”, which is to say that the teacher job descriptions has been continuously added to (including recess duty, managing after-school projects, lunch duty, arts, etc.)
  2. it takes a comparative advantage point of view of educational services and embraces the idea that a school may not be best equipped to provide all common services.  By outsourcing them to partners in education you can help lighten work loads, consolidate services and improve overall efficiency in the system.  A YMCA already running after-school programs may be better able to offer services to a student body than if  the school went about it independently (and therefore would incur less expenses by relying on an organization already with the management and means in place to offer quality programs.

The main objection to this, as far as I can see would be that a school’s overall budget may shrink (because of the outsourced services), but I don’t necessarily see that as a negative if it brings down per pupil costs while increasing quality instruction.  On another note, this might be harder (but not impossible) to achieve in rural areas where such services are dispersed over large areas.