Random Thoughts

Now that would be Genius

Did you know that Bruce Springsteen is in town this weekend?  

Neither did I until a couple minutes ago when I found out by accident looking for something else. Turns out Bruce and the E Street Band are playing Sunday night at the United Center.  I wish someone had told me.

How often do you hear about a concert or event that you would have absolutely attended but you found out about it a day or a week late?  Right?  Happens all the time.

Sure you can sign up with Metromix (I did long ago) and get emails all the time.  But they come when I am at work as an interruption, they are not really organized well, and not personalized based on what I really am interested in.

Why hasn't Apple jumped in to solve this problem?  They know where I am, and based on my iTunes library they know what music I have, what music I buy, what music I listen to most.  The Genius is always telling me about music I might like, or offering to build a playlist for me.  Why didn't it tell me Bruce was coming to town?

When I'm in iTunes I am in a far different place than when reading email.  That is exactly the time to give me personalized music related news.  

I put the over-under at 12 months before Concert Promotion is a central part of iTunes.  And considering the greed and tone deaf approach to customer service that Ticketmaster has shown with ridiculous fees and charges even as we print our own tickets, I think that Apple could do to them what it did to the cell phone market.  Come in late to a mature market, redefine it based on user experience, and then own it.

Do you want the over or the under?

Are you creative?

For the longest time I thought about the word creative as an adjective, as in, “she’s so creative.”  Creative described people who liked to think a lot, look at different perspectives, come up with innovative ideas.  Creative people see things a bit different from everyone else and are fun to be around.  Off the wall ideas are more likely to be described as creative. 

Creative was an adjective that described the person or the idea.  And it was totally subjective.

But lately I have been struck that this is not really the nature of creativity.  Don’t get me wrong; novel ideas are definitely important for the creative process.  But I had the wrong part of speech when I thought of creative as an adjective.

Creative doesn't describe the person or the idea, it describes what they do. (don't get all grammatical on me)

A creative person creates things.  Painters, writers, musicians, filmmakers, designers, architects, developers, marketers, are easy to imagine, but creative can exist in every job, or not.  Or completely outside their job.  The measure of creativity is the creation of something new, not the imagining of it. 

The thinking, the imagining is just a means to an end.

I work for a creative marketing agency, and the other day I was in our storeroom and found myself looking around at all the artifacts on the shelves.  The company started as a video production shop and there are literally hundreds maybe thousands of tapes of various formats that are a window into the history of the organization.  I walked around and read the names off one tape after another and tried to imagine the story behind each.  Some of these tapes go back 21 years.

As I read the various titles and dates I had a profound sense of what it means to be creative. 

To commit yourself to create something that didn’t exist before.  To actually make it happen. And then to put it on the shelf, to move on and create something else. 

Lather, rinse, repeat.  Forever.

Creative doesn't describe what a person is, it describes what a person does.

So I ask all of you reading this who consider yourselves creative. 

Are you happy with what are you creating?  What's on your shelf?

Great Expectations

I measure all paid software and web based solutions against my experiences using Turbo Tax.  I measure all breakfast restaurants against Walker Bros.  I measure free web services against Gmail.  I measure hotel beds against the Westin Heavenly Bed.  I measure the way an airline treats me against my experience as an Executive Platinum member of American.  I measure commercials against the Mac vs PC ads these days and the older Bud Light commercials, both of which make me laugh.  I measure TV shows against Seinfeld, 30 Rock and The Office (which also make me laugh.)  And I measure consumer electronics against TiVo and the iPod.

These are the standards against which you will be judged if you want to feed me breakfast, sell me a gadget, or get me to watch your TV show. 

It doesn't matter to me one bit if you consider yourself in a different "space" than Gmail, TiVo or Turbo Tax.  You will be judged by the standard they set because I said so.

I'm not being difficult, I just know what is possible based on my experiences with my favorites and I will hold you responsible every time you fail to meet my expectations. 

It's tempting to "mange expectations."  But be careful, if you manage expectations too low, I will just avoid you.  If you manage expectations too high, you better stack up against the best.  It's a catch 22, it's completely out of your control, and it's the cost of getting my business.  Get over it.

Microsoft spends billions developing and improving it's core software product Microsoft Office and sells it for around $300 retail.  Or you can get a 100% compatible suite of software from Open Office for free.  I used to buy shoes at Nordstrom's, but now I use Zappos because it has a better selection and is a better use of my time.  Two hugely recognizable brands with long histories of being the best at what they do, swept aside because my expectations changed.  Don't get me started on books, music and movies...

And if you think that this only applies to businesses, think again.  I'd bet that every one of you can name a person that does a really good job at something that's important to you.  Whether they work for you, with you, or as a customer or contractor you know who they are.  They set the standard for how you will judge other people you come in contact with. 

When you take a new job, how will you most likely be introduced?  "This is Tom, he is the 'new Steve.'" 

How much of your acceptance in your new job will be based on who you are and what you bring, and how much will be based on how you stack up against Steve?  Fair?  Doesn't matter. 

There are simply too many options available to us consumers to think that anyone can get away with being "below expectations" for longer than it takes me to find an alternative and switch.  And you don't even have to be bad at what you do to find yourself on the wrong end of expectations.  Sometimes a new concept comes along and totally changes expectations (Zappos).  Or circumstances outside your control change how people view you (kinda wish you bought a Prius last year instead of an SUV?)

So you can be the best at what you do, or be so different that you create a whole new expectation.

At the very least make sure you are obsessed with understanding the expectations against which you are being judged. 

And be ready to change.

technology adoption curve

As a public service I have developed a very brief self-test that you can use to determine where you are on the Internet adoption/innovation curve.  Ok, that's not entirely true, it would be more accurate to say I stumbled across a new yardstick for measuring my own Internet savvy.

Actually I was just trying to get some new comfortable shoes for work.  In doing so I discovered that I was not in the place on this adoption curve that I thought I was.  Which was somewhat disconcerting, having long thought of myself as an Innovator.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Here's the self-test:

Have you ever bought shoes online?

Based on a completely unscientific study that consisted of asking the people that I work with, it turns out that I may be the last person on earth to purchase shoes online.  I have been aware of the concept for quite some time, but couldn't get my head around the idea of actually trying it.  And since I only buy new shoes when the old ones actually develop visible holes in them, there really wasn't any urgency.

But I am here to tell you that it works, and works really well.  I used Zappos, but I am told there are a number of online shoe stores (according to my innovator, online shoe buying co-workers.) 

The key is not to stress too much about getting the right size, or even whether or not you will like them based on the smallish picture on the web.  They provide free shipping to you, and free shipping back.  Go wild.

I ordered 5 pairs, tried them all on, walked around the office, got some interesting feedback from people with a wide variety of aesthetic tastes and promptly sent 3 pairs back.  Between browsing and trying them on, I don't think I spent more than 15 minutes total on my shoes, which is reason enough for me.

But enough about my shoes.  Where are you on the adoption curve?  And what services do you think of that justify your position on the curve?

What is innovation?

Merriam-Webster defines innovation as:

        1     : the introduction of something new        
        2     : a new idea, method, or device : novelty  

What is your definition of innovation?  Does it require the creation of something new?  A whole new category of product?  A truly original idea? 

Or is innovation something else, something more subjective?

If innovation requires creation of something truly new, then I suggest that neither the iPod, nor iPhone  comes close to being an innovation.  I owned 3 MP3 players before purchasing my first iPod.  And there is nothing that my iPhone does that any number of different cell phones or PDA's didn't already do.  Yet Apple is widely regarded as an innovator.  I would argue that Apple makes game-changing products because of it's commitment to usability and design, not innovation.

-Arthur Schopenhauer said, "thus the task is not to see what no one yet has seen, but to think what nobody has thought about that which everyone sees." 

What does innovation mean to you?