juicy tidbits

Benefits, not features.

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:45:43 -0500

As Harmony gets closer to launch, I’ve been putting my marketing hat on more often. Recently I read an article titled “Web Developers Can’t Sell. Sorry.”. I really liked the first point of the post.

“Lead with benefits, not with features. Whether you are developing software or selling it on your website, your focus should be “What problem does my product solve?” Most people don’t come to you looking for specific features. They come to you with a problem. If you lead with features, you are forcing your audience to think in your framework, i.e. software, vs. their framework, i.e. um, fix my stupid problem. It’s like telling someone a car has Fortera TripleTred tires instead of saying “These tires are safer in the rain.” Most people aren’t familiar with that tire so it means nothing to them and you are probable making them feel stupid if you assume they should.”

I took away three things from that point.

Benefits, not features.
Customers come to you with a problem.
What problem does the product solve?

Just thought I would share as I think those are great points. Sometimes we get caught up in features, but the only reason anyone is going to use what they build is because they are your mom or you are solving a problem for them.

"If a restaurant served more food than everybody else but lost money on every diner, would it be..."

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:31:17 -0500

“If a restaurant served more food than everybody else but lost money on every diner, would it be successful? No. But on the Internet, for some reason, if you have more users than everyone else, you’re successful. No, you’re not.”

- The Way I Work: Jason Fried of 37Signals

A screen cap from James Avery’s talk on Bootstrapping at...

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:04:00 -0500

A screen cap from James Avery’s talk on Bootstrapping at Ignite Raleigh. In this shot he is showing what percentage of his industry he needs to have to pay the bills. Hilarious. 0.000002 percent is the number.

"Dogs have Owners, Cats have Staff."

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:43:47 -0400

“Dogs have Owners, Cats have Staff.”

- Quotes

"But MongoDB is worth talking about. As 10gen’s marketing says, MongoDB contains “The..."

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:14:15 -0400

“But MongoDB is worth talking about. As 10gen’s marketing says, MongoDB contains “The best features of document databases, key/values stores, and RDBMSes in one”.”

- Haha. Not so much 10gen’s marketing as me a while back, but I’m glad my quote seems to resonate with people regarding mongodb. Hosted Mongo

"Project Euler is a series of challenging mathematical/computer programming problems that will..."

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:40:24 -0400

“Project Euler is a series of challenging mathematical/computer programming problems that will require more than just mathematical insights to solve.”

- Project Euler - I have been thinking about making something like this. A programmer playground of sorts. I have completed a couple and I am enjoying it thus far.

Glee producers don't understand why we like the show

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:44:09 -0400

I loved the Glee pilot and I’m not talking love the way the word is thrown around today. I’m talking it was freakin awesome. I got chills in a few spots. I ran to iTunes and purchased the Glee version of Don’t Stop Believin and it is one of the few songs that I can listen to on repeat.

Since then, around 3 more episodes have aired. Each one has had moments of the pilot and that is why I keep watching it, but none of them have had the magic of the first. So what is missing?

Made To Stick

I’ve been reading Made To Stick, a great book on why certain things stick with people and why others just scoot on by. The book outlines the acronym “success” like this:

Simple — find the core of any idea
Unexpected — grab people’s attention by surprising them
Concrete — make sure an idea can be grasped and remembered later
Credibility — give an idea believability
Emotion — help people see the importance of an idea
Stories — empower people to use an idea through narrative

Of the list above, the Glee pilot screamed simple, unexpected, concrete, emotional and was full of stories. The only thing it missed was credibility, but I don’t know that credibility applies to tv shows.

Simple. Rachel wants to be famous. Fin loves singing, but doesn’t want to hurt his rep. Will is unhappy in his marriage and misses Glee in high school. Those were all in the pilot. A few episodes later, Fin’s girlfriend Quinn is pregnant with his best friend Puck’s baby, but he doesn’t know and Will’s wife is in a fake pregnancy, conniving with Quinn to make it real. Not simple.

Unexpected. The popular kid joins Glee not only because he doesn’t have a choice, but also because deep down he loves it. A few episodes later, Puck is a pool boy seducing older women and a cheerleader is pregnant. Expected.

I could go on and on, but I’ll stop for now. The Glee pilot was brilliant, but since then, it has only had flashes of brilliance that are barely enough to keep me watching it. Maybe that is their goal.

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the..."

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:09:47 -0400

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

- Mark Twain via Quotes

"Don’t worry about what anybody else is going to do. The best way to predict the future is to..."

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:06:04 -0400

“Don’t worry about what anybody else is going to do. The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”

- Alan Kay via Quotes

"The less confident you are, the more serious you have to act."

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:04:40 -0400

“The less confident you are, the more serious you have to act.”

- Tara Ploughman via Quotes

"If you’re good enough to build a company that can be sold of umpteen millions, you’re probably also..."

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:19:33 -0400

“If you’re good enough to build a company that can be sold of umpteen millions, you’re probably also in the category of people who can’t “retire” and be truly happy.”

- Mojito island is a mirage - (37signals)

"I don’t know exactly what the future will look like, but I’m not too worried about it...."

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 23:47:46 -0400

“I don’t know exactly what the future will look like, but I’m not too worried about it. This sort of change tends to create as many good things as it kills. Indeed, the really interesting question is not what will happen to existing forms, but what new forms will appear.”

- Post-Medium Publishing

"People will pay for information they think they can make money from."

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 23:46:17 -0400

“People will pay for information they think they can make money from.”

- Post-Medium Publishing

"In fact consumers never really were paying for content, and publishers weren’t really selling..."

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 23:40:07 -0400

“In fact consumers never really were paying for content, and publishers weren’t really selling it either. If the content was what they were selling, why has the price of books or music or movies always depended mostly on the format? Why didn’t better content cost more?”

- Post-Medium Publishing

From the office

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:33:14 -0400

Michael: did you pee on a stick?
Jim: I did. It was inconclusive.

johnny and june

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:24:49 -0400

steph and i: *singing* i fell into a burnin ring of fire...
steph: we're totally johnny and june
me: well i'm johnny
steph: and i was born in june
steph and i: *high five*

"Is sitting in a classroom for 4 years, listening to lectures, taking tests, reading textbooks, and..."

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 11:21:19 -0400

“Is sitting in a classroom for 4 years, listening to lectures, taking tests, reading textbooks, and getting drunk at frat parties the most efficient use of our education dollars? I think not.”

- dancroak.com - A Completely Different Model for Higher Education

"I’m very happy to be here today with you all. As some of you know about 5 months ago I had a..."

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:08:41 -0400

“I’m very happy to be here today with you all. As some of you know about 5 months ago I had a liver transplant, so I now have the liver of a mid-20’s person who died in a car crash. I wouldn’t be here without such generosity. I hope all of us can be as generous and become organ donors.”

- Live from Apple’s ‘It’s only rock and roll’ event

"The music has died down, as have the lights… Steve is out! And he’s getting a standing..."

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:08:14 -0400

“The music has died down, as have the lights… Steve is out! And he’s getting a standing ovation!”

- Live from Apple’s ‘It’s only rock and roll’ event

"To an extent we, the community of developers who care about code and software, have forgotten how to..."

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 22:44:12 -0400

“To an extent we, the community of developers who care about code and software, have forgotten how to have fun with what we do. Personally, I’m going to get right back on that.”

- My Why Story