This is the third installment of my MVP mini-series. The first part can be found here, and the second part here. Now that we’ve built the foundation, it’s time to start churning out product ideas. My goals are to complete enough of each idea to present either directly at our internal technology day, or to [...]
There’s a fundamental difference between an app that runs on the iPhone, and an iPhone App. An app for the iPhone performs its designed function, similar to an app written for any other platform. It’s written in Objective-C, runs when you tap its icon, and generally behaves the way that app does in any other [...]
This is a graphic I did (I’m calling it a TriPi) to show how a technology practice (or any entity with three components and two metrics) can be quickly scored. In this case, it’s a measurement of the scope of knowledge in a technology practice (level of expertise), how up-to-date with regards to the technology [...]
This is the second part of a series discussing MVP and the technology we used to prove to ourselves that lightweight > heavyweight. The first part can be found here. The classic definition of MVP involves getting almost real-time market feedback on your ideas and letting that determine what your next step is. The increments [...]
This is the first part of a multi-part talk about a successful use of MVP to create a framework for proving and building products quickly. I’m a huge fan of lightweight. Lightweight tools, lightweight management, lightweight processes. Weed out the overhead by not even allowing it in to the system in the first place. Thus, [...]
Wow! I’m looking back at almost 6 months of no posts. Ironically, those 6 months have produced a lot of good fodder for things to talk about. I’m about to hit the road again for a new client – so while I’m getting another keycard to add to my collection, I’ll be able to fill [...]
Well, actually 06 as I spent two of them already. If you follow me on Twitter (@wjklos) – you would have found out first. Co-workers was 2nd priority. Blog 3rd. I may have to change that lineup a bit as my first response on Twitter was a spammer (sorry, no Wave for you) and the [...]
Over the next 10 years, the world will change as much as it has in the last twenty. If you buy into that statement, then 2020, will make 2010 look like 1990. As a business owner, that rate of change is something I probably can’t fathom too well. I’m focusing on my day-to-day operations (or maybe quarter-to-quarter in a public company). I’m dealing with annual budgets, reviews, sales quotas, economic issues, and so on. On top of all that, I probably don’t consider myself a technology company so I happily run my systems, make sure I’m compliant where I need to be, stay out of the newspaper RSS feeds with data security issues, and hope my BC/DR plans are up-to-date (they’re not). I didn’t see the end of my business coming — until it was too late.
Things are changing. Rapidly. The old solutions are just that…old. It’s time we start embracing the change and tell our clients, “Sorry, you used to be an insurance/medical/financial company, but now you are a technology company – and you’re doing it wrong.”
In an area where people are gathered, either physically or vitually, the conversations and comments being made in the background, are often more prescient, and almost certainly more entertaining than than the subject matter being officially presented. Encouraging and capturing these backchannel discussions is a way to make your presentations more relevant to that specific audience and allow the speaker to morph and refine the message based on those sessions of invaluable feedback.
