Wired With Purpose

Our little pumpkins

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Frank) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 17:49:00 +0000

Each year, like most American families, we carve pumpkins in the month of October. In order to be a better steward, I started a compost pile about a year ago. That being said, I dumped the pumpkins into the compost after the holiday.

This summer, I noticed some interesting vines start to emerge from the compost pile. I then realized that they were in fact pumpkins!

Keep in mind, I didn't actively plant these pumpkin seeds. In fact, I thought I was through with the pumpkins. However, life finds a way. Even when through what we discard, life persists.

I found this interesting.

Just because a dream may appear to have died, it may sprout to life again at some point. Sometimes, it just takes us stepping back for a moment and letting the natural progression of things take root.

Solving your own problem

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Frank) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 18:19:00 +0000

Looking for ways to alleviate the problems and pressure in your own life is critical to developing remarkable products. It helps you to understand the real problems that people are faced with, because you have lived them too. Not only does it help you to understand the problems, it helps you to see opportunities that you would not have seen otherwise.

For instance, my friend Shawn at Torqued Racing plans and coordinates track day events where everyday people can come together and get a little bit of frustration out on the track. (They have an event coming up October 2, 2011 at BeaveRUN if you're interested in driving really fast and experiencing the thrill of racing!)

One of the challenges that Shawn experienced with his track days was checking in all of the drivers. Prior to the event, he needed to print all of the registrations so he could check in all of the drivers at the gate. Needless to say, it's an extra step that gets in the way of him being able to do what he loves, which is hitting the track and having a good time with fellow driving enthusiasts.

Rather than complaining that there wasn't an easier way to manage this process, Shawn decided that he would solve his problem on his own by building a mobile solution that allows him to check drivers in at the event. And, because he knew the problem that he was trying to solve, he built the application so it would still work in areas with limited to no internet access.

It is better to solve the problem that you have, and then share your solution with others, instead of looking at the problems that others are experiencing and then trying to figure out how to solve them. By addressing the area where you are experiencing the most pain, you end up creating products that are remarkable. And even if no one else uses your product or solution, at least the problem that you had is taken care of.

Doing work this way helps you to better understand the problem, builds common ground between you and your customers, and provides you the opportunity to test the solution, adjust, and retest.

Ultimately, this makes you products better, which of course, makes your customers more happy.

This is broken

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Frank) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 19:48:00 +0000

In a humorous talk by Seth Godin at the Gel Conference in 2006, he pointed out there are things that are just plain broken and explained what makes things broken.

Some of the biggest takeaways I got from his talk include the following:

You don't get to decide if something is broken, the people who use it do.
You need to decide ahead of time how much brokenness you are willing to tolerate before you get to the ship date. Keep in mind, you don't really get to decide if it's broken or not, your customers do. It's probably best to get it in front of them to let them decide, unless it is clearly broken and simply needs to be fixed.
There might be times when stuff is broken by design. The masses may not understand why you have a giant green button on a screen with 30 point font, but the tribe you are leading might understand completely. To 80% of the population, your application looks broken but the other 20% love what you have done. You have tailored it to them because you understand them. It's all about knowing your customer.
Each of us has the opportunity every day to push back on the stuff we think is broken. If we see something that isn't quite right, we should question it. We should ask if there is a way to fix it. Maybe we even need to fix it. And if we can't really fix the root problem, we can at least create a better experience for our customers by providing them an alternate path and making it easier for them.
Finally, if you know something is broken, fix it, or else you risk losing your customers. This doesn't necessarily mean you need to drop everything right this second to fix what is broken. It simply means you take responsibility for it being broken, acknowledge what is broken, and let your customer know you will fix it. As a side note, you should keep the dialog with your customer open to make sure they know you haven't forgotten about them, and provide a few alternate ways they might be able to move forward until the issue is resolved. Don't underestimate the importance of communication.

Here's the video. Enjoy!