From Wikipedia: Parkinson's Law of Triviality (also known as the bicycle shed example, and by the expression colour of the bikeshed) is C. Northcote Parkinson's 1957 argument that organisations give disproportionate weight to trivial issues.
The Board of Trustees will approve the building of a nuclear power plant without much discussion because the complexity of the engineering issues are beyond them and they assume others have struggled over the details. However, the approval of the construction of a bike shed (a small project anyone can do over the course of a weekend) will engender endless discussion about materials and details.
See also http://bikeshed.com
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Constraints encourage creativity
Quote from Igor Stravinsky (composer, 1882-1971): My freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful the more narrowly I limit my field of action and the more I surround myself with obstacles. Whatever diminishes constraint diminishes strength. The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees...
It is a paradox that sometimes tightly constraining oneself by rules (logical or arbitrary) can spur creativity.
It is a paradox that sometimes tightly constraining oneself by rules (logical or arbitrary) can spur creativity.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Watch your users
In the same Hulu article in the Nov 2009 issue of Fast Company:
At Amazon, he learned the importance of studying customer feedback. Twitter takes monitoring to another level. "It's a transparency engine," Kilar says. "I've always said that our brand is what people say about us when we're not in the room, and this is the best tool for hearing what people are saying."
"Customers won't tell you what they want," Kilar says, citing a Bezosism. "But their behavior will tell you if you capture and analyze it."
At Amazon, he learned the importance of studying customer feedback. Twitter takes monitoring to another level. "It's a transparency engine," Kilar says. "I've always said that our brand is what people say about us when we're not in the room, and this is the best tool for hearing what people are saying."
"Customers won't tell you what they want," Kilar says, citing a Bezosism. "But their behavior will tell you if you capture and analyze it."
Cannablize
Another quote about cannabalizing your own business from Nov 2009 article in Fast Company magazine on the Hulu startup.
"If we didn't do this," says NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker, "we knew someone else would."
"If we didn't do this," says NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker, "we knew someone else would."
Friday, November 20, 2009
Kurt Vonnegut quote
We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.
Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night
US novelist (1922 - 2007)
Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night
US novelist (1922 - 2007)
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
About branding
Interesting quote from Timberland CEO Jeff Swartz:
... we had a lack of self-awareness. We undervalued our own brand. We were making utility products: It rains; it snows; this will keep you warm and dry. The consumer says, "I appreciate those benefits, but I'm going to wear this in the summertime unlaced without socks." The consumer says, "You understood the literal benefits of waterproofing and insulation; I understood the psychic benefits of confidence and a sense of self-assurance." And we said, "Check. Wow, got it." We are not a boot company, we are a brand, and our brand is not about protection against the elements; our brand is about confidently striding through life's challenges.
From the Sept 2008 issue of Fast Company.
... we had a lack of self-awareness. We undervalued our own brand. We were making utility products: It rains; it snows; this will keep you warm and dry. The consumer says, "I appreciate those benefits, but I'm going to wear this in the summertime unlaced without socks." The consumer says, "You understood the literal benefits of waterproofing and insulation; I understood the psychic benefits of confidence and a sense of self-assurance." And we said, "Check. Wow, got it." We are not a boot company, we are a brand, and our brand is not about protection against the elements; our brand is about confidently striding through life's challenges.
From the Sept 2008 issue of Fast Company.
Get Back in the Box: How constraints can free your team’s thinking
I was trying to tidy up my desk tonight and came across this old Fast Company article from Dec 2007/Jan 2008.
Quote: Research tells us that brainstorming becomes more productive when it's focused.
Quote: Research tells us that brainstorming becomes more productive when it's focused.
Monday, November 16, 2009
The Good Enough Revolution
Interesting article in Sept WIRED magazine: The Good Enough Revolution
http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/magazine/17-09/ff_goodenough
Some key quotes:
.... what consumers want from the products and services they buy is fundamentally changing. We now favor flexibility over high fidelity, convenience over features, quick and dirty over slow and polished. Having it here and now is more important than having it perfect. These changes run so deep and wide, they're actually altering what we mean when we describe a product as "high-quality."
... New York University new-media studies professor Clay Shirky had a mantra to offer the assembled producers and editors: "Don't believe the myth of quality."
... To reinforce his point, he pointed to the MP3. The music industry initially laughed off the format, he explained, because compared with the CD it sounded terrible. What record labels and retailers failed to recognize was that although MP3 provided relatively low audio quality, it had a number of offsetting positive qualities
... To a degree, the MP3 follows the classic pattern of a disruptive technology, as outlined by Clayton Christensen in his 1997 book The Innovator's Dilemma. Disruptive technologies, Christensen explains, often enter at the bottom of the market, where they are ignored by established players. These technologies then grow in power and sophistication to the point where they eclipse the old systems. That is certainly part of what happens with Good Enough tech: MP3s entered at the bottom of the market, were ignored, and then turned the music business upside down.
... a clear pattern emerges. The attributes that now matter most all fall under the rubric of accessibility. Thanks to the speed and connectivity of the digital age, we've stopped fussing over pixel counts, sample rates, and feature lists. Instead, we're now focused on three things: ease of use, continuous availability, and low price. Is it simple to get what we want out of the technology? Is it available everywhere, all the time—or as close to that ideal as possible? And is it so cheap that we don't have to think about price? Products that benefit from the MP3 effect capitalize on one or more of these qualities. And they'll happily sacrifice power and features to do so.
+++++++++
Apply these concepts to higher ed. Higher ed has resisted (or very slowly adopted) ease of use, continuous availability, and low prices. Higher ed has instead emphasized exclusiveness and quality. What happens when the marketplace finds "good enough" education elsewhere that's easier to use, continuously available, and at a much lower cost? And finds "quality" to be over-rated?
Higher ed is ripe to be picked off by disruptive alternatives entering the bottom of the market. It seems this article makes a very hard-to-counter argument.
http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/magazine/17-09/ff_goodenough
Some key quotes:
.... what consumers want from the products and services they buy is fundamentally changing. We now favor flexibility over high fidelity, convenience over features, quick and dirty over slow and polished. Having it here and now is more important than having it perfect. These changes run so deep and wide, they're actually altering what we mean when we describe a product as "high-quality."
... New York University new-media studies professor Clay Shirky had a mantra to offer the assembled producers and editors: "Don't believe the myth of quality."
... To reinforce his point, he pointed to the MP3. The music industry initially laughed off the format, he explained, because compared with the CD it sounded terrible. What record labels and retailers failed to recognize was that although MP3 provided relatively low audio quality, it had a number of offsetting positive qualities
... To a degree, the MP3 follows the classic pattern of a disruptive technology, as outlined by Clayton Christensen in his 1997 book The Innovator's Dilemma. Disruptive technologies, Christensen explains, often enter at the bottom of the market, where they are ignored by established players. These technologies then grow in power and sophistication to the point where they eclipse the old systems. That is certainly part of what happens with Good Enough tech: MP3s entered at the bottom of the market, were ignored, and then turned the music business upside down.
... a clear pattern emerges. The attributes that now matter most all fall under the rubric of accessibility. Thanks to the speed and connectivity of the digital age, we've stopped fussing over pixel counts, sample rates, and feature lists. Instead, we're now focused on three things: ease of use, continuous availability, and low price. Is it simple to get what we want out of the technology? Is it available everywhere, all the time—or as close to that ideal as possible? And is it so cheap that we don't have to think about price? Products that benefit from the MP3 effect capitalize on one or more of these qualities. And they'll happily sacrifice power and features to do so.
+++++++++
Apply these concepts to higher ed. Higher ed has resisted (or very slowly adopted) ease of use, continuous availability, and low prices. Higher ed has instead emphasized exclusiveness and quality. What happens when the marketplace finds "good enough" education elsewhere that's easier to use, continuously available, and at a much lower cost? And finds "quality" to be over-rated?
Higher ed is ripe to be picked off by disruptive alternatives entering the bottom of the market. It seems this article makes a very hard-to-counter argument.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Understand the business, understand the user, understand the medium.
Understand the business, understand the user, understand the medium.
That's the sucinct vision statement Mark Greenfield has proposed for his web team at the University of Buffalo.
Pretty much sums it up, right?
That's the sucinct vision statement Mark Greenfield has proposed for his web team at the University of Buffalo.
Pretty much sums it up, right?
RIO: Return on Ignoring
Usually RIO stands for Return on Investment. I recently heard RIO in the context of university's getting involved in social networking.
Yes, there are lots of new social networking platforms, websites, and services. And, yes, it can sometimes be demanding to keep up with them all.
But, there's the risk that we take when we ignore getting involved or paying attention (or trying something new). The risk that others will get there before us; the risk that we won't be where our audience is at.
Yes, there are lots of new social networking platforms, websites, and services. And, yes, it can sometimes be demanding to keep up with them all.
But, there's the risk that we take when we ignore getting involved or paying attention (or trying something new). The risk that others will get there before us; the risk that we won't be where our audience is at.
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