Thoughts from Candy with a “why?”

The 10 Changes a CEO needs to make to win young consumers – #8 Give up on owning the brand

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I have had an interesting debate with my mobile web friends over the recent Michael Mace post for which he finally wrote a follow up that I believe clarified his real aim was criticizing the top-down distribution!

I am a huge fan of Mace, but my take on it is… there are THREE blatant things that make me believe RIP is considerably overstated and a bit further off.

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1. Exposure - Average people (not just us “dot com” and mobile junkies) have to be able to discover the functionality and be willing to evangelize it over the stupid simple way of being on deck and thinking “ooh what does THIS do?”. 

Also note that carriers are savvy enough to find ways to make more money. Verizon has already capped their “unlimited” plans so that people have to watch their usage again. More than likely, they will try to use this influence to make specialized/highlighted services (driven by ad dollars) that seem to help users save money again. Wireless providers won’t go down easy into “dumb pipe” land.

2. Experience of Functionality - Some things like games that don’t involve syncing or remembering important information and require instant gratification or unique to leveraging the usability of the unique device (like Golden Tee or centipede on a blackberry pearl) don’t make sense via an undependable web connection.

That has nothing to do with the method of distribution though and in many cases why not go to centipede.com or something similar to download it over-the-air (instead of allowing all the networks to slice off the developer’s profits). Going direct is a Win-Win for Developers and End users! … but what business model makes sense for 3rd parties like Nokia, Handango, and wireless providers?

3. Big Business needs some controls and will continue to negotiate special devices, tools, and services to support their closed networks. That’s how BlackBerry and millions of other custom B2B development shops got to the success they have today.

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… All that said, Yes! there is a huge opportunity to cut out the middleman and creating kick-butt, stupid simple apps (web where it makes sense and mobile specific where it makes sense) that people love and are worth telling people about. The ability to circumvent the networks and their greedy pocketbooks is getting the attention of distributors.

Content and services that are in good terms with the Customer are King! On that note, check out Google Gears going mobile… Google Gears in Your Pocket

“…the ultimate goal of Google Gears is to create a standard, web-based mobile platform …” - Fierce Mobile Content

“Mobile browsers simply cannot do much of what you want applications to do,” writes Google software engineer Chris Prince on the web services giant’s official blog. “The mission of Gears is to extend the capabilities of web browsers. It is clear to us that mobile browsers can benefit just as much as desktop ones. By adding features to mobile browsers, it becomes
possible to deploy an increasing number of mobile applications as web apps.”

Yes, I irrationally heart all mobile apps!   

What do YOU think? Will killer mobile web browsers and Google-like services along with improved coverage, like wimax prove Mace right?

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London’s Metropolitan Police Launches Anti Photography Propaganda Campaign on Flickr – Photo Sharing!

… the image in my head of how many of my friends would be stopped for questioning… Although, the concept of finding an “experienced office” seems interesting. I personally got away with “being odd”

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Am I the only one in the world that gets f-ing sick of people that say they don’t want to hear about “the HOW” but they need “the WHAT”?  For me, this is one of the most irritating statements made in Technology that signifies that the person doesn’t really understand or care about “HOW” to do their job and “WHAT” field they are in! Ugh!

For me, designing a high class interaction is a flow of patterns that solve problems– for people (customers, managers, and tech PEOPLE). “How” and “What’ people drive me crazy, because patterns involve both sides and should be discussed without too much digging into details about coding and maintenance… and if it does… uhh DUH that’s what the “e” in e-commerce means! Deal with it!!! 

Generalists in the Tech field need to go back to school or shut up and listen (aka learn something new). A Maverick and/or “T-shapable” person should be a requirement! I don’t care “What” way or “How” you find them!!!

Do generalists realize how many minutes in my life they have taken from me, by attempting to shush meaningful conversation about actually Getting Things Done?!… Losers!!!

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So, just a random thought (before I start researching this)… mobile quality of cell phones give us the ability to get a greater level of location-based info to add to all the information your body already takes in through the senses.

Why not apply information aspects of smell and even air quality to your mobile gadget? In the future, perhaps cell phones will measure “orange alert” air quality pollution as well as “like that smell? She is wearing Happy by Clinique… find closest store.”

I am sure there this is being worked on somewhere in the world!

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Tags: mobilesmell

Come on, people!

Seriously… If you are on a social networking site, there should be some well known rules. It seems like the evil “Marketing” side of the human psyche (aka “dark side” of the force) makes people want to reach out and connect with anyone remotely within 3 degrees as some sort of status symbol (“Look at me! I have cool friends that are really barely acquantainces). Give it up! You are jacking with the system that is built around people that police the quality of connections.

Here is what I want.. the ability to report Marketing Connector people as SPAM! Instead of just passively denying or ignoring someone that is shamelessly trying to promote their status based on your reputation (Linked In and Spock), I want a more punishable reprimand. Even AOL had that “Warn” feature.

So, what set me off? Someone on SPOCK that I have never met and if I have, I definitely don’t know well… asked for my trust. How friggin ironic is that!? H-E-(double-hockey-sticks) NO! I am actually more jaded towards that person than ever before. I not only “untrust” them.. I am suspicious! I am annoyed! I am peaved!

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Tags: social

… I say that only as a friend

So, I have been doing some thinking (big surprise) and I have bought a few new books.

• Writing for the Web 3.0
• Peopleware
• Business Intelligence: Using teamwork as competitive advantage

A few correlations emerge with some of my past work experiences with both large medium and small companies. These concepts seem to be quite foreign to those either (1) new to the workforce; (2) those that have stayed at one type of company for a long time; (3) the idealistic… (even more idealistic than me!).

Business Hierarchies can guarantee failure!
Most organizations start out small with an innovative and “get’r done” group of people that has a set of traits and is able to try and fail. Then after succeeding and becoming funded, all of a sudden or inevitably people get overloaded and start to look at adding other skills.

At some point, there becomes a hierarchy of established roles, job descriptions, and all this structure, buzz terminology, and salary level justification. I call this an industry equivalent of  the “but everyone else is doing it!” syndrome.   Isn’t that the biggest irony of it all? If everyone else is doing it, how do you differentiate? How do you get or sustain a blue ocean of success?

Why titles are meaningless
Whether your title –  seems obvious or menial, like Designer or janitor,  –  is a role, like manager, director, department head, chief, or VP…. it really doesn’t say much about the traits that matter like…

• ingenuitive, innovative, collaborative, lazy, …
• encouraging, inspirational, provides a challenge, …
• will suck the air out of the room and continually be your “devil’s advocate”

Sure, you can say these are more reputation adjectives and interpersonal, but doesn’t it make you think these things should be baked into an organization more so than industry buzz skills. Seriously, I would rather know a coworker “will make you hate your job”, “would be a great encouraging cohort and venting buddy” rather than “can code HTML”.

Where are the qualifiers? How do you get to know someone before you decide to add them to your team!? I would love to see a new business culture centered on personality typing than titles and job ’skills’. For instance, I am an ENFP. Some people will either love me or hate me… and if I don’t think they are stupid or intentionally mean, then.. I usually win over most of the people that start out at ‘hate me’.

I just recently found out that I am a ‘maverick’. I never really heard that term outside of our Dallas basketball team or some western movie. Once I was asked to google it with innovation and read more, I also started to feel sorry for previous bosses and some exboyfriends. Man! I am hard to handle for most people

A department as a joke

Most organizations have subteams, but due to financial requirements, like budgeting and forecasting, as well as HR practices of team building, goals and personal development…. people become categorized and labeled into departments or worse… “business units”. Sounds good and reasonable, doesn’t it?

Well, yes and no… In theory and practice, it can be super affective (intentionally not written as effective!) in creating team comraderie and fleshing out some level of patterns or mentoring.

So, what’s my problem? Okay, it’s great and even necessary to have departmental goals; however, we are all humans. Psychologically, when you segregate people and give specific responsibilities and measures to an individual or a person in charge of a group of individuals, inevitably we really go too far and take things either too literally or too personally. That’s what people do… they think/decide/follow and/or feel before they act. It’s how humans are wired.

Can departments of people NEVER work? That’s definitely not what I am saying. I think the trap most companies fall into is the Mine vs. Yours. (note: this is where I get REALLY fired up about the topic of killing innovation and the concept of team building)

Okay, this is where my angry passion and idealism collide…. Here are some terms and phrases that tell you if your department is in a “Mine vs. yours”

• “that’s a good idea/point, I/we just don’t have the resources right now” (To me, this usually signals a broken set of goals or measures of success across a company. Although, in some rare cases it is true, but usually not followed up with a tangible proposition to get it doen anytime soon!)
• “you need to involve someone on my team” (Okay, the sheer use of NEED and ’someone’ instead of a person’s name sends me red flags here. More than likely, if I or the person saying have the respect for the input from someone in that department, either the ‘need’ would have been apparent or a specific person would have been mentioned! The tone behind this almost always denotes a departmental pissing match, but can also be a general warning against demotivating the responsible team.)
• “we will be contracting out for that” (ugh! this usually means the budgeting and/or  cross-departmental communication is screwed up. If a department decides to hire out because THEY have money to spend to get things done,

Department head conflicts can signify that they really don’t care about the company. Collaborate, compromise, make a decision, move on, and learn from mistakes. It wastes less resources (time, money, people) and retains more integrity in the short and long run. These types of battles make the people in the middle feel like the baby with two mothers that wants to seem them split in half! It’s stupid.

Easy Tips for fighting back!
Even around the most hierarchical and ridiculously segmented organizations, you can still take advantage of being human and may end up being seen as “innovative” for doing it!

1. You are only as big of a cog as you act. Realize departments and teams really only have one “Business Unit” and that is the largest functional organization, brand or company. Do the best you can at meeting
2. Care about learning. That doesn’t mean take classes or get certificates or buzz skills. It means have empathy about the company. Find something you can fight for and do what you can to support it.
3. Find ways to grease the machine. Realizing that you are just one of many moving puzzle parts. If you realize you can make a difference with your idea. Talk to other people and get their input as well. Ask to go to lunch with people responsible in different areas that your ideas will affect and get their take informally. Listen to their pain points and assess areas you may be able to improve or reposition to make it a sweeter sell. Also, it really doesn’t hurt if you even make it feel like it was “their” idea. Sure, it may hurt your ego, and you may feel overlooked, but if any aspect actually gets done. Document it for yourself. You will find a way to use it in your favor. Whether that person, company, or on your next interview. People can’t steal your innovation and desire to make things better.
4. Submit and discuss ideas, even if you think no one cares! Trust me, it is worth your time. If it does nothing else, but show your desire to move the company forward and give your mind a way to think aloud to flesh out your thoughts. It will pay off. You will make others think. If your company does not support that simple activity… MOVE ON! Submit your resume online NOW!

I’ll leave it at that. If you have more tips or want to argue, post a comment.

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Tags: business, politics, stupid

I just made that term up (or so I thought… take the quiz), but it seems true. Apple is as addictive as crack. I have some serious podHeads as friends, but that’s okay. I am an enabler.

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Tags: podhead