bwagy, the blog of Ben Young

Instead of building the full product, build the rules & intelligence.

Then let others build the interface on top.  Even let multiple people do it.

The best UI wins.

It’s easy to do, in fact in survival situations we gradually do it. Walking in big circles. Unless…

Unless we have a set target, or a goal, if we can keep that in sight we tend to get there.

The challenge is to reduce your possessions till you only have 100 things [2].

Each pen counts, each book counts, item of clothing. You just need to get down to 100.

It is possible, tough, but possible. I once got down to about 76 I recall. It’s now much higher.

But it’s a nice exercise and ethos, what is it that I need? what is adding value? What am I keeping – just because.

It’s almost a classic argument.

A blog is like a house you built yourself from the ground up.

Using a Facebook Page is like renting a shop on a popular street.

If you build the blog, you have to make it interesting enough for people to stop by. You can do what you want.

If you lease, it’s already built & people are already there ready to buy. You just need to personalise and leverage it.

Like most things, you probably want to lease first to get a feel for it, then buy later once you know what you’re doing.

Wow what a new experience, well, since I was flatting anyway. I came in early, had breakfast at a local cafe called Shaky Isles to do some writing and got my breakfast on a chopping board.

The cafe market in Auckland is pretty fierce and this is what happens when competition heats up, organisations have to innovate to hold attention, things like this arise.

And I like it.

On the web when ad space isn’t sold, they plug it into what’s called run of site.

Which means their competitors can bid for that same ad space.

It also means that the number of ad inventory available is vastly over quoted.

Publishers should hugely inflate their value IF when there wasn’t any premium spots available they showed no ads.  It makes them more novel, exclusive and notable.    Thus achieving the purpose of the ad.

• Makers, Chris Andersons latest book, as he does over and over highlighting a new trend starting to snowball. He looks at the world of invention & entrepreneurship blending & how that plays out today.
• A Man and his Ship, a biography of William Francis Gibbs, the Steve Jobs of the shipping era. Follows his life and his mission of making the infamous United States liner a reality.
• Checklist Manifesto, told through medical case studies, implementation of checklists & manuals in a world of complexity, where even the experts cannot remember absolutely everything. Major failure from experts usually a series of simple in-bane mistakes.

And for a few Kindle Singles, I enjoyed:

• Wired McAfee single, talking about his shift to Belize, written just before the recent stream of events.
• A quick summary of Warren Buffetts favourite three books, a nice way to digest wider advice.
• Gutenberg, looking at the man who invented the printing press.

Other notables:

• One Click: Looking at Jeff Bezos and the growth of Amazon. An excellent book which is a must read to know the man behind Amazon but also the early years which formed the company.
• Grouped, looking at how the web has reformulated itself so that your peer groups influence your decision making and moving from a 1-1 relationship with the web.
• NewsJacking, latest David Merman Scott, reminding us of guerrilla marketing in the digital (real time) age. A great prod.
• Stealth of Nations, I have written about it before, but looking at the effect the informal economy has around the world. Marvellous read.

A lot of my job is watching how technology flows through the curve.

That is what’s at the end, what’s upcoming and what’s tipping mainstream.

Mobile (as in smartphones, apps, mobile sites, content) is just beginning to tip.

It’s been massive & growing for a while, those in early have definitely benefitted but now it’s starting to get to the bulk of businesses from the laggards to the late majority.

First tip is to look at your current analytics, how many are already coming via mobile? 15% seems the norm, higher means you need to hurry up.

Being based out of New Zealand gives a unique view of the world, so I’m always keen to get out & about see what’s happening on the ground around the world.

Nothing more telling than experiencing something.

So with that, I’m off up to New York for Ad:Tech NY in a couple of weeks.

If any blog readers want to meet up always keen – just flick me a note.

We have a demo of our technology platform Nudge which identifies brand influencers which we’ll be presenting to a few companies.    If you’re a brand manager (especially in FMCG) trying to figure out how to tackle digital give me a bell.

And we (via Young&Shand) have some great case studies of, doubling FMCG sales through digital, effective digital integrated campaigns and a framework for launching new consumer products.  Straightforward but quite insightful

Our schedule is tight but we’re there from 3rd-11th.

Or if you know anyone that I ought to meet I’d also be keen.

For this email me ben.young@youngshand.com

-Ben

The nature of business is that you have to be diplomatic – a lot.

Disagreements come up all the time. Working with parties who have conflicting agendas are all part in parcel.

Disagreement doesn’t mean you’re right and they’re wrong, or vice versa, it just means you disagree. Even if we can’t agree on these points, here are some we can, to build a relationship lets focus on these.

It’s often the lack of relationship which creates the friction, the differences can exist but a stronger relationship lessens the negative effects.

Never let your ego get in the way of getting to that relationsip. It is tough but means you can get to that bigger goal which makes it worth it.  You’d be surprised of what you can accomplish when you do.

Have some area to play. To de-brief, to talk, to unwind. We have table tennis & foosball, as well as being located in a hub of great cafes & bars, so people can connect outside of work.

Inspire yourselves, let people take ownership of their spaces, decorating, or creating art, posters on the wall.

Have a beer fridge – with all sorts of beverages. Again lets people have some social time at work, meaning a stressful day can be unwound before you go.

Have brainstorms. Get everyone out to help solve a problem. Gets everyone involved.

Team lunches. Again when the company has a big win – take the team out. Share the win with everyone. It’s what the whole organisation is there for.

Share case studies. Little stories or wins that people have. This can be a newsletter, notice board.

Company talks every now and again. We do Y&S talks, with topics from how to sell an idea to art installations. Google Talks are even more impressive.

Pick one and give it a go.

Becks latest album is to be launched only with the sheet music.

To bring it to life you need to play it or find a mate who can.

It’s not real or complete till you take part.

People just want to be involved, acknowledged & rewarded for their participation. It’s the fundamental behind all successful products.

10 years ago having a three or more different email addresses was a pain, way too many.  Too many websites to go and check.

However.

These days we have them, one’s called Facebook, one’s called Yammer, one’s called Twitter, on top of our work and personal emails.

At some point there’s going to be some consolidation. There always is.  Make it easier for us.

This NYT article comments on the struggles of a $4,000 suit maker, a true craftsman making completely custom suits in New York.

Even at that price as everything is hand produced he can only make so many suits, the cost of 1 suit or 10 is the same as the inputs are the same. There are no efficiencies.

The irony here is for craftsmanship to remain, technology needs to come into play. How do you retain that craft whilst embracing technology?

I suspect is starts with technology assistance, what are the 20 little optimisations that improve the process? Rather than looking at factory like churning out, how can technology help him personally. Rather than replace, embrace the craft.

When we learn & train, we’re in essence doing simulations of the real world. What others have done, how we should react and what we should do – based on prior performance.

Simulations give us the opportunity to do better. To experiment. To try something different. Without fair of reprisal.

It’s kind of like how kids test their parents. Where are the limits. What happens when you can circumvent them.

Flight manual checklists are refined based on how pilots respond in simulations. Making sure that they understand what they need to do and that they consistently perform the key actions.

Sales professionals do role practice sales call, refining their pitches.

The military have many War Game simulations to continually test and refine operations.

Stock markets have simulations to allow you to play and learn with fake money.

Always worth a go. It’s when people can test without fear of retribution that they do so.

Games are often the easiest way to get into this, have a hunt around, you’d be surprised at what simulations you can find.