A couple of weeks ago Alexa moved in. And to be completely honest, I didn’t really have high expectations. I’ve always been a voice control skeptic, and the launch of Siri, Alexa and the slightly-more-boring-named Google Assistant didn’t change much for me.
The Lean Startup has become much more than just a book and a methodology. The author (Eric Ries) refers to it as a movement. And it truly is. The ideas put forward in the book have changed how most of the (tech) world approaches starting new companies, but also how many large corporations approach innovation.
Inspired by the broader lean movement, made famous by Toyota, Eric has applied the same basics to innovation, such as small rather than big batches. While the original ideas were all about production, Eric felt that they could help him with an issue he had when starting a new business.
Following up on my last post about the value of being there, about the value of meeting face-to-face, here is my take on video based communication. Video is becoming ubiquitous online, replacing more and more written content. But in most enterprises it is still only an (expensive) content marketing tool.
To travel, or not to travel, that is the question. Throughout my career, traveling has always been part of the job. But it’s also something that always seems to be questioned. For good reasons. Traveling quickly turns into a black hole of expenses and wasted time.
In the midst of a period of extensive traveling, I’ve spent some time thinking about the value of it. About the value of “being there”, of meeting people face-to-face.
There is an ongoing debate in the industry around the value of getting a designer involved early in product development. The importance of products being “beautiful” with a “gorgeous” user interface seems to have become an accepted norm. But should a designer have a seat at the table from day one? Should they be involved in the early product discussions?
Another book read, another book reviewed. But this time I am going give my opinion away right at the start. Start with why is hands down the most inspiring book I’ve read. Interested in leadership, communication or marketing? This is definitely a book for you!
Now I must admit that I am a bit of a Simon Sinek fan. I’ve watched his TED talk, listened to a couple of his presentations and been through a bunch of interviews prior to reading “Start with WHY”. The idea of starting with why resonates with me, and I was convinced already before I started reading. But in the book Simon does a really great job explaining his idea, explaining the reason it is more than a theory (it’s biology) and exemplifying it. The structure, flow and language is top-notch, and makes it easy to follow his chain of thought. I would go as far as saying this is not only the most inspiring book I’ve read, but also the most well written.
Roadmaps cause plenty of debates, admittedly more about their content than their existence. But I believe that by asking our selves who they are for, the rest follows naturally. And not surprisingly, the answer to “who needs roadmaps anyway?” is quite a few, if not everyone.
REWORK is packed with great ideas, advice and experience. Most coming from authors Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson founding and building 37signals. The fact that 37signals is fairly small of course affect their world view. But having worked for small and large corporations my self I strongly believe that the ideas in REWORK are applicable in any environment.
I’m currently reading REWORK, an already kind of classic business book. One of the ideas in the book that really resonate with me is about competition.
Authors Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson argue that in product development, you should pretty much ignore competition. Looking at others, trying to follow or even copy their product/solution, is not the way to success.
Finding product-market-fit is a key success factor for any new product. It is also a key responsibility for any product manager. The minimum viable product (MVP) approach is great at doing just that. But lately it has been questioned. People claim that it is naive, limited or not applicable to their market (or customer base, or vertical, or product type).