Crossroads Dispatches

your work: when you hold back, it holds back; when you hesitate, it stands there staring, hands in its pockets. But when you commit, it comes on like blazes.

“To require perfection is to invite paralysis. The pattern is predictable: as you see error in what you have done, you steer your work toward what you imagine you can do perfectly. You cling ever more tightly to what you already know you can do – away from risk and exploration, and possibly further from the work of your heart. You find reasons to procrastinate, since to not work is to not make mistakes.”

“To the critic, art is a noun. To the artist, art is a verb.”

"Look at your work and it tells you how it is when you hold back or when you embrace. When you are lazy, your art is lazy; when you hold back, it holds back; when you hesitate, it stands there staring, hands in its pockets. But when you commit, it comes on like blazes.”

Those three quotes are from Art and Fear: The Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking, by David Bayles and Ted Orlund. Now read them again. This time substitute "love" wherever the words "work" or "art" appear.

Now read it again one last time, substitute "life" wherever the words "work" or "art" appear.

Intriguing, ain't it?

I haven't touched a business book in a few years. Partly due to burn-out since I used to review business books as a hobby, and since surviving the Indian Ocean tsunami they just felt a little bit, well, cold (no offense intended to business book authors) compared to so many other things I could be doing with my lifetime. After one survives a disaster, reading "Execution: The Art of Getting Things Done" drops a few notches on the "to do before I die" list.

In October I decided I wanted to shake some things up a bit, by attempting to break my routines (being a Gemini a "routine" is anything I've done for more than a year ;)).

I was desiring to break through a personal plateau.

For instance, I decided if I walked into a bookstore (now that act of walking in is a definite decades-long habit--why not a knitting shop instead?) I'd at least be open to "new" topics or ones I was purposefully averting. So I my eyes fell upon, "Who's Got Your Back," by Keith Ferrazzi. I had recently heard it mentioned in one of those ubiquitous "how to get rich" newsletters I decided to subscribe during the same timeframe so I wasn't averting money (part of the shaking things up process). Keith Ferrazzi charges CEOs $250,000 to coach them to better relationships in their networks, often peer networks (in case alarm bells of "too warm and fuzzy" are sounding, although close connections are their own reward in my book).

"Once when I was in Italy visiting my extended family near Milan, one of my great-aunts took me to a local churchyard where many of my relatives are buried. The church itself is one of those Renaissance cathedrals with a soaring dome. Looking up from the pews, it's hard to imagine how it was built. But outside, when you trace with your eyes up and down the exterior, you can see how the vaulted dome rests on firm columns, which in turn are supported by substantial foundations. It's all out in the open, for anyone to see.

To me, the courage to reveal your vulnerabilities reminds me of the structure that supports that dome. No one would ever attempt to build a church from the top down.

. . .The key to building that kind of foundation, leading to respect, empathy, and trust, is to do so gradually, through increasing degrees of intimacy and self-disclosure." - Keith Ferrazzi, "Who's Got Your Back: The Breakthrough Program to Build Deep, Trusting Relationships That Create Success--and Won't Let You Fail"

Ferrazzi intertwines vulnerability and candor with successful risk-taking--which is basically what courage is. In The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace, which I also read recently, M. Scott Peck shares how vulnerability and commitment lead to bonafide community (not a superficial one where it everyone gets along because they avoid everything of any consequence) or a clique.

I don't typically follow Internet meme flurries, yet I was drawn to this video presented by Dr. Brené Brown (Dr. Brown's blog, Ordinary Courage) making the rounds lately (I took notes over in my Footnotes blog):
 
Dr. Brown is firmly rooted in her Ph.D. academic researcher credentials and identity and in the very beginning she shares how uncomfortable she feels with the TED organizer's suggestion to change her title from "researcher" to "storyteller" so it doesn't sound dull in the event program. 

Dr. Brown exclaims, "You're going to call me a "storyteller"? Why not a magic pixie!" I laughed particularly because it echoes my journey. I clung to the identity of computer engineer for so long as it gave me a wide berth from the sticky stuff of people patter. (Machines made much more logical sense.) Then I dipped my toes into soft stuff by route of marketing. Then I started to call myself a writer (eh, close enough to "storyteller").

Not that any stamp of identity is necessary, but if you were to pin me down nowadays "magic pixie" is fairly spot on because what I care about are the enchanting possibilities that most people label "impossible." It's a work-in-progress, however go ahead and peek as I crystallize the vision (that's not the end-product, rather it's a public doodle of its coming into being), please see http://soundwhole.posterous.com--I'd love your feedback.

p.s. There's still time to accept my inviation to be my miracle partner, http://bit.ly/miraclepartner

p.p.s. Wonderful example of aiming for perfection compared to aiming for execution from Art and Fear, "Throw More Pots."

art credits: mural by Jesse Reno; unknown source for the trapeze artists

The Celibate Unemployed Phase

I laughed out loud, nearly toppling off the barstool at breakfast, when I read this cartoon from Hugh.

I'd recently written a friend, "God knows that I am just coming out of the longest self-imposed celibate stretch in history since I was a virgin; all part of that ascetic renunciate 'enlightenment at all costs dammit' chic." It was just a phase. It's also known as the dark night of the soul.

That phase is totally unnecessary. Since folks seem to care more about outcomes...heck if the renunciate's phase gets me something rocking Blissfully Big in the future Someday then all the drek is worth it right?

Well I'm a lousy salesperson then. I think I've inadvertently talked a male friend out of nirvana. He looked crestfallen when I said I don't really have the capacity to be carried away by sexual fantasies anymore. 

It only got worse. I'd recently been to a peace conference and learned about non-violent communication. So he mentioned the Sex, Spirituality, and Nonviolent Communication upcoming course at NVC Santa Cruz.

"I guess they won't be covering S&M then?" I replied.

"Not even spanking," he retorts.

I'm not upset that mixing up pain and pleasure is nigh impossible for me. And my friend, probably along with many men, may be disappointed to learn that I'm no more (nor less) turned on by them than I am by watching a sun ray glint off the spider web, then bounce off my backyard table.

In my book, you're not really living until that is erotic.

"For happiness, how little suffices for happiness! ...the least thing precisely, the gentlest thing, the lightest thing, a lizard's rustling, a breath, a wink, an eye glance - little maketh up the best happiness. Be still." - Friedrich Nietzsche, "Thus Spake Zarathustra"

"What does it mean that I am in this endless universe, thinking that I'm a man sitting under stars on the terrace of the earth, but actually empty and awake throughout the emptiness and awakedness of everything? It means that I'm empty and awake, that I know I'm empty, awake, and that there's no difference between me and anything else. In other words it means that I've become the same as everything else." - Jack Kerouac, "The Dharma Bums"

p.s. There is no Someday.

My friend Ruby rocks - if she doesn't kill me for posting this - she says: "It's erotica strolling down the beach. It's erotica biting into a strawberry. Erotica is E-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e." Re yesterday's post: I think she's going with 'Nature's Divine Erotica' to define one of her photographic bodies of work.

This post was not an underhanded way to fish for dates now that I'm available. However leads for work would be welcome. With the availability of the podcast of the "We Got Naked, Now What?" BlogHer panel at SXSW,  I recalled that the BlogHer 'naked blogging' poll results showed that sex (and money) are taboo subjects bloggers prefer to stay clear of.

Heck, if we can't talk about sex, God, and death, what's there to talk about? (Lust is certainly a key component of Apple's strategy but that's another post.)

"We are embarrassed by sex. We’d rather not think about death. And if we bring up God (or god or gods), noses will get out of joint. Yet sex, death, and God are the most profound considerations of mankind. How can companies hope to remain relevant if they won’t discuss them?" – “Breakthrough Ideas for 2005: A Taboo on Taboo”, from Harvard Business Review, February 2005

Profound Multicultural Misunderstanding and Understanding

I finally asked John Moretti, whose been here on and off for much of the year post-tsunami, why the motorbikes insist on riding on the shoulder of the road. I often have to get off the shoulder and onto the grass.

"That's the motorbike lane you're walking in," John replies.

"Uh, oh, I see." 

I assumed. For whatever reason. Maybe because the foreigners blindly walked three abreast on this motorbike lane without regard to traffic. No matter why. I just assumed it was my walking lane.

Misunderstandings happen not just in multicultural exchanges, of course. But they seem to escalate across cultures. Some people adjust in their own ways. I've heard responses to cultural bafflement from the who-knows-why shrug "That's just Thailand" to the frustrated "I fucking hate this country!" and everything in between.

Sometimes the misunderstanding is a bit more fundamental and profound than simply not being privy to a type of highway lane.

A European business owner that's lived here for nearly twenty years tells me that sometimes Thais have such petty concerns. (You must understand this is after a nerve-wracking telephone exchange with a clueless customer service rep at the cell phone company: "I must have interrupted her from filing her fingernails.") The griping continues: "Even here, the staff often have no better topic of conversation than when they're eating next. Sadly, a common greeting literally translates to 'Have you had your rice yet?' They actually go around asking, 'Have you eaten rice yet?'"

It's taken me two weeks to realize how deeply misunderstood that greeting 'Have you had rice yet?' is. And it would be so easy to never have truly been enlightened to its meaning but go on believing that I might know.

The National Identity Board of the Royal Thai Government (yeah, sounds officious and it is) recently published a book "Tsunami 2004: Nam Chai Thai". In its preface they explain the subtitle. I won't need to say more after their explanation, but it kind of makes you wonder how often we miss the profundity and fecundity around us because we already know all the answers.

The closing statement is ambiguous and maybe I'm forced to make an assumption: "This is evidence that old values have remained deeply ingrained in Thai society and culture." I can only assume "this is evidence" refers to the rally of generosity I witnessed after the tsunami for myself.

Nam Chai (nam meaning water, the source of life, and chai meaning mind as well as heart) has the broadest and deepest meaning in Thai society that cannot be explained in just one or two words of English. Let us briefly retrace our steps into Thai history to gain some perspective.

In rural Thailand, as early as the Sukhothai Period (13th into 14th centuries AD), each household would have a water jar placed on a low, wooden platform in front of its house. This jar was closed with a wooden lid, on which was placed a ladle made of halved coconut shell attached to a stick. By custom, anyone thirsty passing by, locals as well as strangers, would be welcome to quench their thirst from this jar and ladle. This being an open invitation, the ones partaking of the refreshment did not have to ask permission. This custom has been upheld in the countryside of northern Thailand to this day.

In the event of personal encounters, the house owners would greet passers-by literally asking, 'Have you eaten any rice yet?' If the latter signalled that they were hungry, they would be given helpings of sticky rice along with a spicy dip, wrapped into pieces of banana leaves. This kind of provision for the journey, known as 'khao ho', is common to this day.

Farmers have also upheld the tradition of accomplishing major work, requiring a large labour force, through mutual assistance. In the rice harvesting period, for example, when time is of the essence, farmers would, in turn, come to each others' assistance. This has been upheld to the day, covering a whole range of activities and known by corresponding terms. These terms include 'chuay luea', helping; 'kho raeng', requesting help; and 'long khaek', rotating help.

These traditional practices are manifestations of an innate tendency encapsulated in the term 'nam chai'. Adhering to the principle of 'nam chai' has been of great benefit to society-at-large. With the passage of time, modernization propelled by the advancement of technology has made for rapid changes, which in turn affected the Thai outlook and value system. Some have bemoaned these changes that give more weight to material achievements and successes, power and prestige, shunting other values like sharing and doing good without showing off, an attitude circumscribed as 'pit thong lang Phra', attaching the gold leaves onto the back of the Buddha image when worshipping. This is evidence that old values have remained deeply ingrained in Thai society and culture.

Tsunami Anniversary Trek: T-Minus 2 Days

He said, "When you draw people out, you'll find that everybody has something to tell you."

That's Doris Drucker speaking at her husband Peter Drucker's eulogy in Claremont (in the hills of east Bay Area) this past Saturday. The blurb also says how Drucker championed that "marketing and innovation should come before worries about finances." If you read my bio, you know how much Drucker's ideas have rippled through my own.

Drucker's quote reminds me of one reason I chose the final photo in my slides to be one of Po Bronson (the photo was primarily chosen because of Bronson's Writers Grotto for the slide titled "The (Accelerated) Salon Effect".)

“I live in a different world now. Or one I perceive differently, thanks to the openness of the people I’ve met. I feel like I’ve rediscovered my awe. Let me explain what that means. I used to look at the world through the eye of a magazine writer, filtering out the ordinary while waiting for the sensational and buzz-worthy to trigger my muse. There  were so many people I didn’t listen to, so many stories I passed on, because I couldn’t imagine them grabbing the attention of news-hungry editors.

By writing this book – as a book, not as a series for magazines – I have opened up my filter and learned to see the extraordinary in the once castaway ordinary. Good stories used to be rare; now they’re everywhere, and better than anything I used to find…

If some of the stories are amazing, it suggests to me that amazing stories must be everywhere. If stories are inspiring, then inspiring stories are everywhere. If the stories are ordinary – which is how I think of them – then many ordinary people, everywhere, are daring to be true to themselves.” - Po Bronson, What Should I Do With My Life?

BONUS: Red Herring covers the Emergency Syndication panel at Syndicate. Kudos to Brian for organizing and moderating. BTW, he's part of a slew of folks in the disaster & recovery & web 2.0 is the revenge of English majors (his words, but I agree) salon. He was the first person to financially support this TsunamiAnniversary.com project with a small, private donation which is really how most things from independent films to disaster aid really are funded.

I loved Brian's SOS theme. Share Our Stories: "Can we tell stories with such power that we can actually change the ending."

p.s. I serendipitiously found the photo by Googling "San Francisco literary salons". Freaky enough it's from Craig Newmark's (of Craigslist) photo album.

tags social media citizen journalism journalism blogging disaster relief katrina tsunami syndicate

Field Reports: Breakthroughs and Being Swept Away

This article reminds us that Howard Schultz got the inspiration for Starbucks sipping espresso in Milan's cafes. And the Waltons owe a debt to French hypermarkets. I've already said that Japanese brand Muji was struck by the aha! bug while in the beer aisle in a US grocery store.

Market Busters, by Rita Gunther McGrath and Ian MacMillan, takes a less analytical [than Blue Ocean Strategy] to the development of breakthroughs, using analogies with companies successful in other industries or geographies. - "Sailing Beyond Luck", Best Strategy Business Books of 2005, Strategy+Business, Winter 2005.

The Walton brothers took the idea of self-service from Ben Franklin, employee stock ownership from J. C. Penny, the large-purchase discount club from Price Club — and the Supercenter from the French Carrefour Markets. - "Wal-Mart - Yesterday's GM?", The Globalist, January 17, 2005

As my departure date of December 15th approaches, I'll be switching gears. I have no idea how much I'll cover innovation and/or marketing - directly that is.

That said, all of my epiphanies are unplanned. I had no intention of learning about marketing (but stay open anad curious) on last year's romantic (cut short) holiday to Thailand. Nonetheless, my most influential marketing teacher in past 12 months was a small business, a bungalow operator on the island of Koh Jum, Thailand.

Stephen King advises writers to read. "If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above two others: read a lot and write a lot."

Being swept away by a combination of great story and great writing - of being flattened, in fact - is part of every writer's necessary formation. You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.  - Stephen King, On Writing

Being swept away by a store, a product, a captivating customer experience outside your own company is equally critical for business folks' formation. Translated to business, "reading" means you get up a bit and experience other's businesses.

On another trip - this time to Seattle - I was swept away by a sandwich shop and in the process learned applicable information which I experienced - not just read about - first-hand.

More than anything, if I share marketing insights, it'll be because I'll be practicing two innovation skills for two months straight as a citizen journalist:

Sandwiched between anthropologist (keen observer) and storyteller are the eight other roles in The Ten Faces of Innovation, IDEO's general manager Tom Kelley's terrific new book. Says Tom, "Stories persuade in a way that facts, reports and market trends seldom do, because stories make an emotional connection." - "If Kevin Sites is a Rock Star", Crossroads Dispatches

While reports from the field will be stories, I'll try to share what I'm learning about being a better Anthropologist and Storyteller from the road too.

Get out there in the field yourself and allow yourself to be swept away.

p.s. I'll be temporarily mapping this blog over to www.tsunamianniversary.com by Monday - your current feeds and permalinks will continue to work just fine. That URL may be a simpler way to pass along this site to friends. Or if you have RSS-challenged friends, they can sign up for emailed posts by clicking right here.

Coupa Café: Secrets of Buzz

"A brand is not built by acquiring customers; it is built by keeping them," Nick Wreden writes in ProfitBrand, selected by Strategy + Business as the best marketing book of 2005. (Honorable mentions include All Marketers Are Liars, Brand Hijack, How Customers Think (not new but s+b still likes it in 2005.)

I mentioned cafes and Silicon Valley culture the other day. (Coincidentally, noticed Palo Alto Weekly has a recent "Caffeine Scene" story.)

The University Coffee Cafe on bustling University Avenue is very inviting with it's sunny golden tones and high ceilings. It makes me nostaglic for cafes in Paris or Vienna. You're in the middle of a meeting and your guest whips out their laptop to check on the location of next appointment or perhaps share their latest Flickr upload of their kids with you.

And in that instant, the minute the screen flickers (or earlier) you will truly feel in Paris as a scolding waiter descends on you. Laptops? Strictly forboden. "One minute - (purty) please?" A stiff shake of the head. I'm whisked away from a vibrant salon to Nazi Germany. Things are worse in the late afternoon when one is scurried off to make way for their dinner crowd. Four tries: I won't be back.

I see I'm not alone (thank god for customer reviews): "I love the space of the cafe: high ceiling, big open windows, and sidewalk tables, but nothing can redeem this place from its group of lousy staff." And that's coming from one of the restrained reviewers.

I briefly mentioned the most buzz-worthy cafe of late and so has Om Malik a few times.

It's not quietness but "buzz" that draws doctoral student Alexandra Haugh to Coupa Café to work on her dissertation about the 17th century Russian colonialization of Siberia. A connoisseur of both coffee and ambiance, she reflected on what makes Coupa one of only three shops in town where she can work... [Outlining what places Coupa on her list, she continues:]

She wrapped her fingers around the ceramic cup, cradling the perfect cappuccino in her hands. "This is sacred to me," she smiled. - "Caffeine Scene", Palo Alto Weekly, 11/16/05

You can smell the freshness when you enter Coupa. The ripe coffee scent blends with temptation from sweet delicacies, like cakes, tarts, scones and bonbons. Mellow chatter bounces off the yellow mustard and brick red walls as patrons, employees and the owners catch up and mingle. Some curl up on oversized couches near the fireplace in back. Others work on laptops, taking advantage of the free WiFi.

Nancy Coupal prides herself on the comfortable atmosphere. “I painted the walls myself,” she says. - "The Perfect Cup," The Wave Magazine (this review is an incredibly loving testimonial)

Strategy + Business' selection for best book in the strategy category was Blue Ocean Strategy: "While most businesses are stuck competing within boundaries and rules set by others, questioning such assumptions can lead to unprecedented value propositions for customers, and hence blue oceans."

While not a classic "blue ocean", the Coupals have a distinctive product and service in a Starbucks-endeared nation: "Venezuelan coffee is not easy to come by in the States, so the Coupals arranged to have a 1,000 pounds of beans – from 18 Venezuelan farms hand-chosen by Jean Paul – shipped every month to their Palo Alto café." Everyone raves about the coffee. And the white corn Venezuelan griddlecakes. (Yeah, the whole product matters. That is the brand, AT&T. And that encompasses the experience too.)

What I noticed even more than the coffee was a warmth that resonates. Reading the review I see that it's the Coupal family's personality that pervades the space. Here conversations cackle with a magnetic energy - yes, over laptops. (With free Wifi.) Unlike other cafes that draw in mostly solo poets and entrepreneurs hunched over keyboards, this is a prime meeting spot.

Coupa didn't do it with advertising. And the media attention followed - not lead - enthusiastic word of mouth. A while back Hugh tells us about a favorite juice joint:

"Wow," I quietly gushed, "Your stuff is the best. It really is..."

"Sure it is," said the guy. "That's because we make it with reverence."

The publicist for the bestselling Tuesdays with Morrie shares, "Tuesdays with Morrie is a classic "word-of-mouth" book -- it got great media coverage, but when people bought it and read it, it affected them deeply, and they would talk about it, recommend it, and buy it for others as gifts." If you've read Tuesdays, you know that's its secret: It stirs you, penetrates you because the product was assembled with reverence.

Reverence resonates.

What I want most of all is resonance, something that will linger for a little while in Constant Reader's mind (and heart) after he or she has closed the book and put it on the shelf. - Stephen King, On Writing

Bonus: WOMMA has released its Word of Mouth Basic Training (WOMBAT) today, the site features a new blog, podcast series, and companion email newsletter.

Since a secret of buzz is having a buzz-worthy product, I absolutely cannot wait to get Douglas Rushkoff's book, Get Back in the Box: Innovation from the Inside Out, although I doubt I'll have time to read it before I head off on the 15th to Thailand on the first stop of the tsunami anniversary live-blogging tour.

Check out the series with Rushkoff at Fortune Magazine's Business Innovation blog: Everything Matters; Goodness, Outside and In; Work as Play; Open Source Everything; The Nintendo Brand as Social Currency; How the Scarcity Model Curtails Innovation; Social Currency; and The Demographic Trap.

p.s. The photo is of a "perfect" cappuchino at Coupa from Palo Alto Weekly.

tags word of mouth buzz consumer insight wom customer insight marketing product management social media web2.0 web 2.0 innovation silicon valley

Watch People And You'll Know, Part 2

Bringing a sense of what writer and teacher Jeff Davis calls vismayo, the Sanskrit word for being open to wonder and amazement, to understanding your customers isn't only productive -- it's a big exhilarating adventure.

I enjoyed reading this riveting account of a market researcher using "video interviews with ordinary consumers in ordinary contexts to get feedback for the companies in what makes their products sell (or not)." In this particular instance, the CIA videographer was sent to Cameroon, Ghana, and the Ivory Coast to be wondrous and amazed by customers on behalf of Unilever's laundry detergent Omo and Johnnie Walker's whiskey. (That's Consumer Insight Agency if you're still wondering.) After some firsthand whiskey research in a Lagos bar, the researcher writes:

That said, I wasn’t loving my job too much at 6am the next day: hunched over a tin basin of foaming laundry, and doing my best to look riveted as to exactly why Mrs Funmi Adeneken chose Omo Multi-Action over Duck Detergent Soap. As the intense pounding of the hangover began lifting, so the sun started to beat down. Slowly the neighbourhood stirred from its slumber and, for the first time ever, clothes washing became a hugely popular spectator sport. Crowds were captivated by Funmi’s shrewd use of the overnight soak method for her whites, and her driving scrub-action technique on dirty jeans. Nah, in truth I suspect they were just totally gobsmacked as to what the hell this crazy whitey with a camera was doing da washin’ with der sistah for...

What we always find with our work is that (although it seems that way at the beginning of a project) it’s never about a product. So even watching a person going through the mundanity of their laundry routine becomes interesting (at times) because its not the Omo you’re interested in, but rather how and why it fits into the jigsaw puzzle of their life. Best I stop before I get too carried away here and make my job sound like a rose-tinted, National Geographic honeymoon. Because it’s not. Some days your mojo is just not there so you don’t connect with people. It can be stressful being a confident, curious, charming, chatty, clever, intuitive, insightful, empathising, patient, nice guy all day.

Bonus: Contrast watching to simply asking. As narrative journalist Gay Talese says, "What people say isn't necessarily what they really believe. And what they say to you today isn't that they are going to say to you later on when you know them well." From Diageo (coincidentally parent company of Johnny Walker) press releases:

In consumer research during the production phase, the 'Don't see a Great Night Wasted' ad performed very well with 72% of those surveyed saying that they agreed with the sensible drinking message the ad conveyed and 66% saying they would be more likely to consider drinking more sensibly having seen the ad.

flickr photo by carf | tags market research product management ethnography consumer insight travel customer insight focus group marketing innovation adventure

Stretch, Read, Write Outside the Confines of Your Club

The most productive state to be in is at the edge of chaos where there is maximum variety and creativity, leading to new possibilities. - "What are Complex  Adaptive Systems", Trojan Mice, by Peter Fryer

"My thought when I saw that the newest storm was named Beta: now Google's going after the weather," says journalist and Paidcontent.org executive editor Staci Kramer. I'm struck at how much the software development vernacular has weaved its way into popular culture. (Beta version of a software product is like a first draft for a writer; you only show it to a few for critique and feedback. Although many companies today seem to open up their betas to the world and they are nearly final draft, that's not original use of 'beta'. Alpha is an even rougher draft.)

(Or maybe simply weaved its way into the blogosphere vernacular.) My sister is a university professor and she can't understand much of my blog. It might as well be written in Russian. "Jargon is like proprietary software in a world moving toward open-source," say Stephen Baker of Business Week in his recent post "Why Jargon Leads to Dead-Ends."

When I write only for the bloggerati, I miss out out. When I read only the digerati, same thing. When I devour only tech.memeorandum and the Technorati 100 blogs my world of possibilities and creativity shrink. (Uh, what's Technorati?, I can hear her ask.)

Why so? Breakthroughs occur at the borders between discliplines and cultures. Think of the advances in biotech and nanotechnology, and even digital media. It's people with different specialities--biologists, physicists, guitar virtuosos, computer scientists--blending their knowledge. - Stephen Baker

The reasons that the thought processes and attitudes and worldviews and business models of the software world have spread is because someone somewhere explained without jargon and without assuming a priori knowledge of the discipline. For instance, here's a jargon-free description of agile software development:

Agile software development is much like handcrafting candles: you can build  a quality product one dip at a time... Even though it doesn't look like much, the very first dip creates an embryonic candle - a tiny but functional version of the final product. Each subsequent dip merely serves to increase the size  (and capability) of the candle... You determine that the candle is "done" when it is big enough for your needs. - "The Butcher, The Baker, The Agile Developer," Software Test & Performance, October 2005 (PDF)

It's second nature to me as I'm a former computer engineer, but it's fascinating to watch software memes (Uh, what's a meme?) trickle into all kinds of areas from politics (Howard Dean) to marketing (citizen marketing) and beyond. And with blogs that worldview can spread quickly into all domains --  if we don't read and write only for the club.

"Jargon is a language of insiders. It undermines communication with everyone else." - Stephen Baker

Three years ago there weren't many PR professionals that would grok the following, much less advocate "open source" naked conversations. (Now it's old hat.)

Mozilla's Mitchell Baker did an excellent job of debunking this point of view, not by directly disputing it but by explaining exactly what's so great about Firefox: "Our goal is to make things easy to change," she said. "It's easy to try things out. You can try things out quickly. We can try 15 or 20 things at once and see which work."

And, she added, that "we" there? "It isn't us." That is, the people trying out 15 or 20 things aren't sitting in the offices of the Mozilla Foundation or even part of the core development team; they're all over the Web. And they can try those things out because, er, the code is open, not because the product costs zero dollars. Sure, most Firefox users aren't programmers and can't do anything with the source themselves. But they can benefit from a much broader set of improvements and options made possible by the open source model. -  Scott Rosenberg, Web 2.0 Jottings, Oct 7, 2005

Re-read that and you'd note it's fairly clear language. It wasn't said just for geeks and chief technology officers. It's not clubbie. And therefore it may just plant a seed in a chef's or coach's or filmmaker's mind as much as it does a software development team.

There is a place for clubs. When I lived in Salt Lake, a group of radicals (it was radical then) banded together for mutual support and shared learning and dialogue every month to discuss agile software development. There I learned that local agile gurus like Jim Highsmith and Alistair Cockburn were influenced by complex adaptative systems and biology and rock climbing and fencing and exploratory oil drilling and Miyamoto Musashi. Somehow somewhere they went outside their domains and read up on biology and chaos and complexity theory. Although probably not in the clubbie academic journals. And they brought what they learned from their passions in climbing and fencing to the work.

Alistair and Jim are highly sought after consultants. When I was at a venture-backed startup back in 2000 (read: well-funded, none of this coming out of my pockets minipreneur stuff), Alistair cut me a deal. And still we could only afford a half-day of his time. Oh, yes, they're clubbies. Alistair corralled the rest of the agile methodology gurus (wasn't termed agile until this gathering) to Snowbird ski resort and that's where they collectively penned the Agile Manifesto and formed the Agile Alliance.

But more importantly, they're ambassadors. My sister could read and understand books like Adaptive Software Development: A Collaborative Approach to Managing Complex Systems (overview titled Messy, Exciting and Anxiety-Ridden)  and Agile Software Development.

When Jim and Alistair spoke at an Agile Development Summit I organized, they spoke to the whole audience. Some of them were QA engineers, some of them were software engineers, some of them were business school deans, some of them were VPs of engineeering, some of them were executives, some of them were management consultants, some of them were project managers. And they wowed them. That was 2002. The ripples have spread far and wide. Many of those in the audience have quit their regular business school gigs or management consultancies (or whatever) to focus on applying agile to their domains. 

So before you're tempted to be confined to clubbie status (it's an irrestible lure that I've succumbed to), don't forget it doesn't preclude you from being an ambassador. And reading and watching others in fields a world away from any of your own clubs.

p.s. I'm going to be an ambassador and also write more about writing, media, running, meditation, India, buddhism, defining moments, Tao, Thailand, grief, psychology and much much more here as I prepare for the tsunami anniversary trip. You'll be surprised how much of it is relevant to many arenas.

That reminds me I've yet to post (it's coming) a promised post on the beyond competition mindset. It's my most vivid and influential customer experience in the last 12 months. And it happened to me in a country far far away. In an industry that has nothing to do with what I do. And I learned so much anyway.

Update bonus from Kate Yandoh over at Worthwhile's blog: "Go pick up five magazines that you've never heard of in areas you've never chosen to read about. Flip through at will, maybe tear out some images or articles that speak to you in some way, then watch for breakthroughs.

Wow. Courtesy of Aquarium USA, Sing Out! Folk Music, Grassroots Motorsports, Modern Drummer, and Wooden Boat, some new thoughts about a web project, seeds for a future blog postings, a few new words and who knows what else are mine."

tags creativity innovation marketing language writing agile development product management citizen marketing

Watch People And You'll Know

Ask, and people will guess at what they do. Watch them, and you'll know.

This is the simple idea behind gotomedia. We study people. We're passionate about understanding how real people interact... - from Gotomedia's site

Met a director of market research for a local company at a party recently. He loves marketing because he loves the study of human nature all the way from psychology to literature to spirituality to...well, heck loves people period.

He certainly reminded me why my blog is so damn b-r-o-a-d.

People is a big topic.

I'm reminded of a hike in one of those posh L.A. canyons not too far from my sister's home, after I'd immersed myself into marketing and it was beyond doubt I'd passed through a one-way stile. No more VLSI chip design for the graphics board, no more C++ code for the software application, not even visionary-pie-in-the-sky-CTO-dreaming.

"Interesting," she commented, "now we're all students of human nature." (She's in human resources and my other sis is in psychology.) Harry Beckwith (love his books) once said that to be a better marketer we should read more literature. I'm jiggy with that.

Another thing about the study of human nature? Become a better observer. (Works more effectively if your lens aren't clouded by filters and preconceptions: Know thyself. And then get out of the way!)

Think like an anthropologist. Like a journalist.

"[Market] researchers must take the mindset of a journalist, investigating cultural details and crafting compelling narratives from those nuances", says Alex Wipperfurth in Brand Hijack.

I'm trying to think like a reporter these days. Geesh, so how does one report in Thailand, Sri Lanka, and India without even speaking the same language? And the alphabet resembles curlique squiggles from outer space. Easy, says a master observer:

Q: How do you do interviews in places, like China, where you can't speak the language?

Gay Talese: The linguistic barrier isn't really a problem because, no matter where you are, most of what people say isn't really that interesting. Because what people say isn't necessarily what they really believe. And what they say to you today isn't that they are going to say to you later on when you know them well. In the beginning, the interview is all but meaningless. [This was a common refrain among the journalists interviewed in this book.] All I'm trying to do is to see people in their setting.

Language isn't even all that important when I'm reporting a story in a country where I can speak it. I didn't want to interview Sinatra for "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold." I got more from watching him, and the reaction of others to him, than I would have had we talked. When I wrote recently about Muhammad Ali's trip to Cuba in Esquire, I never talked to him, because he can't really talk clearly. The reporting I do is more visual than verbal. My reporting is less about talking to people than what I've called "the fine art of hanging out."

Q: How much thought do you give to an interview's setting?

Gay Talese: A lot. I like to be in the place where the person works. Or I like to do interviews someplace where I can see the person interact with others. I don't care too much who it is: your wife, your girlfriend, or a belly dancer you're involved with. I like to have some dialogue. - interview with Gay Talese from The New New Journalism: Conversations on Craft with America's Best NonFiction Writers by Robert Boynton

p.s. Related discussion on customer insight over at Jennifer Rice's blog. There, Tom Asacker says:

In most cases, customers have no idea how to articulate their "ideal world." Also, they may say they care about something, and do the opposite.

In addition, a discussion of the company, the category, and the competition can make things muddier, not clearer.

In my experience, the key is to have a broadbased and visceral understanding of the marketplace; including trends - and possibilities - in technology, the media, corporate pressures, societal trends, end customer frustrations, etc.

Being immersed in "it" will lead to innovations that no one has ever considered, let alone articulated.

p.p.s. Disrupt markets. Why settle for product innovation? "Uncovering social truths does not lead to mere product innovation. It leads to market innovation. In other words, brands based on social insights make a major leap that dismantles the status quo and changes the rules of the marketplace." (Yup, Alex Wipperfurth again.)

tags brands market research focus groups product management innovation journalism ethnography marketing

Why Google Is Going to Get There First

I believe Google is going to get there first. Why? Just because they have a development model that lets them move very quickly and get stuff out the door faster than Microsoft or Yahoo. Why do I believe that? Past behavior. Google had its new UI out months before Microsoft and Microsoft had its new UI out months before Yahoo. - Robert Scoble, "Yahoo’s new pretty maps are doomed (and so are Microsoft’s)"

Hugh thinks this is Robert's best post in a while. Robert continues: "We don’t know how to thrill influentials. Google does. Maybe by accident. Maybe by plan. I don’t care anymore." Robert speculates: "How did they do it? They didn’t do it by doing committee meetings. By doing focus groups. By studying millions of users. They did it by understanding the leading edge of users and serving them well."

In case you do care how Google does it internally, here are my notes on Google's product development process (download notes: GoogleProductDevProcess.pdf)  from a presentation given by Marissa Mayer in 2003. Marissa is on the cover of Fast Company this month (congrats!). (Cover story)

(So Robert's mostly right...but they do statiscally compare and study millions of their users using one feature versus another set of millions using a different implementation. Read on for yourself (they're notes, but hopefully you can glean enough from them.) Another tidbit useful for startups: Free pizza and lots of observation of Stanford students using Google without instruction were involved in early user studies.)

One thing that stands out in my memory of this presentation is all the people whom asked questions as if this was a rigid step-by-step formula. (Mayer was visibly perplexed too.) Verbatim copying is never a formula for success.

I've presented these notes to eager executives at a large corporation. That's eager on the onset. "That's too Silicon Valley," they say deflated. "We can't do that here." (Which echoes the comments that Ricardo Semler gets when executives came to see how his successful company operates: "Perhaps. This could only work in Brazil.")

But I think this crowd will gobble this process up. Enjoy.

p.s. What I'm up to... I thought Jon Krakauer, author of best-selling Into Thin Air and Into the Wild, was a slacker when he said he sent out ten query letters a week to break into writing (just ten?). That's after he learnt how to type (brief interview about his unlikely career transition into writing). I'm heads down working on landing some sponsored blog gigs and magazine and/or newpaper bylined articles in place before I take off to Asia on this backpack journalism vogage (Tsunami Anniversary TARA Trek FAQ, continually in progress).

And working on a blog essay on regeneration and phoenixes rising from ashes (what does Web 2.0 rising from the rubble of dot-com bust and folks resurrecting a year later from a major international disaster and Bob Dylan have in common?)

And working on microfund and fundraising "stuff" (very generally speaking and beyond solely for artisan journalists. For instance, what about Katrina folks? Hat tip to Brian whom spurred even more innovative thinking on that front).

Warning: Posting may be light on originality for a few days as I'm writing so much offline.

p.p.s. Continue seeking bottom up, grassroots leads-resources-tips-inspiration. Thanks to everyone, the microfund is a bit over 25% way to goal. Donations accepted via tipjar on upper right and here. Checks to: Evelyn Rodriguez, PO Box 490, Mountain View, CA 94042 (by Dec 1st latest).

tags product development entrepreneurship product management google design agile software web 2.0 software development marketing innovation