owrange JUICENESS

Side Comments/Unsolicited Advice

Tech Success in Africa is Built on the Ordinary — & might be for the PH

We often miss a huge opportunity too when we try so hard to emulate Americans by building “me too” applications or solutions that we hope will make us look like Silicon Valley techpreneurs. By doing so, we forget that the our Valley counterparts are building solutions that are relevant first in their masses (the American public) before they spill over our way. Similarly, we should concentrate on developing applications that fit into or provide solutions for the lifestyles of the majority around us.
via whiteafrican.com

True that.

The need for Developer Evangelist

Why do you need developer evangelists?

Every day millions of dollars are wasted in companies because non-tech people and tech people either don't communicate at all or completely miss each other's points.

Even more money is then spent on internal promotion of your products or external communication and advertising to get people excited about your new product.

via developer-evangelism.com

Amazon Product Development Process: Start with Customer Work Backwards

Amazon.com Product Development Process

Here’s another example: the product development process at Amazon is centered on the customer.  Amazon follows a process called “Working Backwards”, which means that the first deliverables created are the documents at  launch, then work backwards towards the items closer to the implementation.  Defining a product this way adds clarity and simplicity — you know at the front-end what the customer can expect, and working backwards allows the team to build it.  Here are the general steps followed in this process:

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  1. Start by writing the Press Release.  Nail it. The press release describes in a simple way what the product does and why it exists – what are the features and benefits. It needs to be very clear and to the point. Writing a press release up front clarifies how the world will see the product – not just how we think about it internally.
  2. Write a Frequently Asked Questions document. Here’s where we add meat to the skeleton provided by the press release. It includes questions that came up when we wrote the press release. You would include questions that other folks asked when you shared the press release and you include questions that define what the product is good for. You put yourself in the shoes of someone using the product and consider all the questions you would have.
  3. Define the customer experience. Describe in precise detail the customer experience for the different things a customer might do with the product. For products with a user interface, we would build mock ups of each screen that the customer uses. For web services, we write use cases, including code snippets, which describe ways you can imagine people using the product. The goal here is to tell stories of how a customer is solving their problems using the product.

lean product development

  • Write the User Manual. The user manual is what a customer will use to really find out about what the product is and how they will use it. The user manual typically has three sections, concepts, how-to, and reference, which between them tell the customer everything they need to know to use the product. For products with more than one kind of user, we write more than one user manual.
    • via shmula.com

    To get more comments in facebook, be negative. To get likes, be positive.

    Unsurprisingly, status updates with more positive emotional words receive more likes, and those with more negative emotional words receive less likes. Slightly less intuitive is the fact that positive emotional updates receive fewer comments (perhaps there’s nothing more to say) whereas negative emotional updates receive more comments (perhaps as a consolation).

     

    People also prefer to like a religious comment rather than commenting on it (perhaps it’s not a topic they wish to commit to). Status updates that use more pronouns receive more of both types of feedback, as do longer status updates. As for the one word category that correlates most negatively with both likes and comments? Sleep. [4]

    via facebook.com

    PH included in Top 30 countries for BPO in 2010-2011

    The Top 30 locations for offshore services in 2010, by region, are:

    Americas: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama and Peru.

    Asia Pacific: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

    Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA): Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Hungary, Mauritius, Morocco, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, Turkey and Ukraine.

    Seven developed countries have moved out of the Top 30 this year – Australia, Canada, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, Singapore and Spain. However, they should still be considered important in the context of nearshore locations whose maturity — albeit with somewhat lower cost advantage — offers significant benefits for organizations seeking a balanced portfolio of countries from which services are delivered.

    via technews.com.ph

    Good news. But I'm looking forward that we'll be more than the BPO.

    i love amazon's logo =)

    While looking for Amazon logo image, found this fascinating post about hidden messages in some great company logos http://bit.ly/blMHnc
    http://www.graphicdesignblog.org/hidden-logos-in-graphic-designing/

    Amazon Logo

    This famous logo is extremely clean and simple but this arrow might not look like more than a smile to you. Before, coming to any conclusions I would like you to know the concept behind this…it says that amazon.com has everything from a to z and it also represents the smile brought to the customer’s face.

    (via Instapaper)

    - sent from my iPhone-wannabe

    Career version 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 -- which version you have?

     Interesting read: The 4.0 Career - http://huff.to/b4pxeQ
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/douglas-labier/the-40-career-is-coming-a_b_783566.html

    The 1.0 career describes doing whatever kind of work enables you to survive. It’s what people do when they’re in situations of extreme hardship, political upheaval, or within socioeconomic conditions that limit their opportunity and choices. That probably describes the situation for the masses of people throughout most of history. And of course it exists today, especially among those who have been hardest hit by the current recession. In these situations, your criterion for “success” is being able to earn enough of a living to survive — pay your bills and support your family. The conflicts that people experience within the 1.0 career often include the impact of working conditions, discrimination and limited opportunities for getting onto a career path that can lead to something better.

    Version 2.0 emerged with the political and economic environments that supported the emergence of the modern “career.” That is, work within increasingly large, bureaucratic organizations that developed from about the late 1800s into the early 20th century. Those organizations required layers of management and administration — white-collar jobs, within bureaucracies. Your career could advance along a defined path, and it was available to people who were able to gain a foothold within it. That path was often facilitated by educational opportunities and/or social class advantages people brought with them.

    The 2.0 career is what most people define as “careerism:” Pursuing more power, authority, money and position within an organization. It’s all about performing — doing whatever gets you those external rewards. Our career culture begins conditioning many of us that way in childhood, as Madeline Levine described in her book, “The Price of Privilege.” It probably even contributes to the widespread experience of ADD.

    Over time, you become set up for conflicts between performing to get those rewards on the one hand, and your internal desire to achieve something of deeper value, on the other. The 2.0 career still predominates within today’s career culture. It’s where you find the conditions that generate, for example, work-life conflict, boredom, workplace bullying, hostile management practices, and subtle racial and gender barriers to moving up.

    The TV show “Madmen” highlights much of the experiences of the 2.0 career, and it predominated until harbingers of the 3.0 career began to appear during the last 20 years. The 3.0 career reflects a desire to find more personal meaning and sense of purpose through work. That’s what I began to find among members of the baby boomer generation when I interviewed them in their younger years.

    The 3.0 careerist struggles for more balance between work and personal life, and is less willing than the 2.0 careerist to stick with an unfulfilling job, or settle for one when job-hunting. Conflicts within the 3.0 orientation are visible, for example, in the pushback against the longer hours companies increasingly pressure people into. Or, in rebellion against being available 24/7, even while on a vacation. Also, an increasing number of people say that moving up is a downer for them. For example, a Families and Work Institute report found that promotions are being turned down by workers in the thick of their careers. Workers used to be eager to take on more responsibility, and now they aren’t as much.

    A woman in her 40s expressed that theme, saying, “Simply put, I want more fun in my life.” She added that there was “too much disconnect” between her duties as Chief Operation Officer — including managing her staff and dealing with the other people on the senior management team — and what she described as the “neglected me, this person hiding inside the roles I have to perform every day.” She said, “I’m going to do something different at this point, no matter what kind of adjustments I have to make.”

    The 3.0 careerists do not want their professional lives to be the enemy of their talents or interests outside work. They want less fragmentation and more integration among the different parts of their lives. More than just having a successful career, they want their careers to serve and support a successful personal life.

    That latter point distinguishes the 3.0 from the emerging 4.0 career. The former is more self-development-focused. In contrast, the 4.0 careerist wants more than sufficient work-life balance and personal meaning. To be sure, those remain important. But the 4.0 career is more focused on having impact on something larger than oneself.

    In essence, the 4.0 careerist is motivated by a sense of service to and connection with the larger human community through the product or service he or she contributes to. The vehicle for this is the opportunity for continuous new learning and creative growth, through which you use your talents and capacities for having a positive impact on human lives, through your work.

    (via Instapaper)

    - sent from my iPhone-wannabe