:: No longer HPC...please change your feed...

Sorry to lose you

If you can read this...you have, unfortunately, lost contact with the Mother Ship.

HorsePigCow has moved to Wordpress over the weekend and is now available via feed at:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/horsepigcowLifeUncommon

If you don't follow, I understand. :)*** please move over to the following feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/horsepigcowLifeUncommon ***

Moving to Wordpress

This weekend.

Already, this space was hacked.

I lost formatting.

This is fun.

If you aren't already consuming my Feedburner feed, you may want to do so. Sorry about the mass re-posting.*** please move over to the following feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/horsepigcowLifeUncommon ***

Women Who Risk Redux

I just want to re-publish the growing list of Women Who Risk and I want to re-assert that if you are a woman co-founder who meets the criteria of:

Has to be their full-time gig (not a thing they do on the side or that they are doing between jobs)...but they could have been doing it full-time, then been bought by someone else, like Flickr.
Has to be a founder or a co-founder, but it doesn't matter what their title is now (some co-founders are Accounting Manager...but they took as much of a risk as the CEO)
Doesn't have to be '2.0' exactly, but should still be around from 1.0.
Doesn't have to be an engineer, but must be at a technology or technology supporting company.
There should be more than one person at the company, but there are exceptions, depending on the achievements (and I'm not talking making millions or anything).

Please 'toot your own horn'! Obviously not too many people are doing it for us.

Mary Hodder - Dabble
Gina Bianchi - Ning
Ann Crady - Maya's Mom
Sandy Jen - Meebo
Elaine Wherry - Meebo
Emily Chang - eHub/IdeaCodes
Xochi Birch - Bebo
Joyce Park - Renkoo
Jessica Hardwick - SwapThing
Margarita Irizarry - Scrapblog
Monica Heitlauf - Scrapblog
Caterina Fake - Flickr
Mena Trott - Six Apart
Yael Elish - eSnips
Halley Suitt - Top Ten Sources
Elisa Camahort - Blogher
Lisa Stone - Blogher
Jory DesJardins - Blogher
Malgosia Green - Nuvvo
Ryanne Hodson - Node101
Ariel Kleckner Ford - CareSquare
Carla Morton - BrandHabit
Cathleen Wang - BrandHabit
Carolee Reiling - still stealth
Sharra Chan - OrangeDoor
Erica Douglass - Simpli.biz
Lisa Sugar - PopSugar
Louise Wannier - MyShape
Stephanie Hujanen - Savvies
Mitchell Baker - Mozilla
Beatrice Tarka - Mobissimo
Emily Boyd - Remember the Milk
Andra Davidson - Mothersclick
Holly Liu - still stealth
Amie Gillingham - EBSQ
Eileen Gittins - Blurb
Jennifer Myronuk - Storyfield
Rashmi Sinha - SlideShare
Julie Davidson - 30Boxes
Laura Scott - pingVision
Katherine Lawrence - pingVision
Kathy Sierra - Head First Books
Gillian Carson - Carson Systems
Catalina Girald - Moxsie (just setting up)
Alex Vikati - CastTV
Chris Shipley - Guidewire Group
Kate Everett Thorp - Real Girls Media
Milena Berry - Amiglia
Janice Fraser - Adaptive Path
Vanessa Williams - Oponia
Leigh Himel - Oponia
Dina Kaplan - Blip.tv
Rachel Cook - Minti
Maxine Sherrin - Westciv & WebDirections
Jeneane Sessum - Kat Herding Media
Sandra "Sandy" Lerner - Cisco Systems
Shai Coggins - b5 Media
Amy Muller - Ruby Red Labs
JD Millack - Zazzle
Ellen Miller - Sunlight Foundation
Linda Furrier - Podtech
Elizabeth Souther Tarbell - VivaPop
Julie Hanna Ferris - Scalix
Meg Hourihan - Blogger
Maggie Fox - Social Media Group
Maggie Tsai - Diigo
Susan DeFife - Backfence
Di-Ann Eisnor - Platial
Kim Polese - Spikesource
Pamela Johnson - Voxiva
Angela Beesley - Wikia
Priya Haji - World of Good
Cynthia Francis - Reality Digital & Clipshack
Amy Phillips - DeedQuest
Catherine Arnston - Hoteluxury
Kimberly Smithson - Prosperiti
Kathy Woolverton - SoftSearch
Sheryle Bolton - Quixit
Susan Solovic - SBTV
Alyssa Rapp - Bottlenotes
Sharon Vosmek - Women's Technology Cluster
Jennifer McFarlane - Women's Technology Cluster

This list is rocking. Once I'm not so stinking busy, I am going to start something...first a conversation, then maybe a get together or two. I've met some amazing, incredible women already who are pretty excited about a group that is specifically focused on tempting women into technology entrepreneurship.

I've started a Google Group. Email me if you want to join us. horsepigcow at gmail.

Giving Hope to Hopeless Romantics

"This is what you all came for...the moment you have been waiting for. Do you know what te secret to happiness is?

Low expectations"

Barry Schwartz at the 2005 TED Conference

God, that sounds depressing, doesn't it? Well, on one hand it is and on the other hand it is totally empowering.

You see, I'm a hopeless romantic. Do you know why people often prepend the personal descriptor 'romantic' with 'hopeless'? Because being a romantic means that it is extremely difficult for any situation, person, reaction, or product to live up to expectations.

Where a non-romantic will hear of an event and think, "That sounds interesting" and go, expecting nothing, but maybe become pleasantly surprised when they have a nice time, but feel non-plussed when it's a drag, a romantic will hear of an event and imagine all of the amazing things that could happen, the people he/she could meet, the great time he/she is going to have. If the event falls short, disappointment sets in.

I once asked in a public forum: Does being a romantic mean that you are destined to be constantly disappointed?

Instantly, I recieved a resounding reply: Pretty much...sigh...

Once upon a time, I wished for the entire world to become romantic. Since learning that this is my most problematic trait, I've changed my mind. What we need is a good balance of pragmatism and romanticism in the world. Our romantic side to imagine what could be and our pragmatic side to see the world for what it is*.

But what does this mean for community marketing? Well, Barry Schwartz in his book, The Paradox of Choice (one of my faves), makes the point that, while having choice is desirable and good, having too much choice leads to paralysis and disappointment. And there is a sweet spot for everything. Only having 5 flavours of jam may be too little, but having 55 is too many.

But the same thing happens when it comes to software.

It becomes more and more clear to me that 37 Signals talking about simplifying or FireFox avoiding feature bloat or Wordpress's simplicity + extensibility is directly related to this same idea.

Too many features will lead a person to be stuck like a deer in a headlight upon login, then run away screaming towards what they know. Of course, too few features may render an app useless, but it is the ART of knowing which features and when to roll them out that means success or sitting in your corner wondering where everybody is going.

Look at the number of implementations of Yahoo!Maps (64) compared with Google Maps (714)...could it be that Yahoo!Maps are overly featured already...hardly allowing for someone else to imagine (and romanticize) the potential for them?

So, in essence, web apps need to be both romantic and pragmatic when launching into the world. Go ahead and imagine the possibilities: all of them, without getting stuck to one particular notion - what we've learnt being part of startups is that no matter what you imagine, something else will come along and surprise you. However, understand that launching with romantic notions will leave you disappointed (and your visitors).

It is best to start with something non-romantic, even boring - pragmatic. Solve something. Try something. Do it well. Invest a great deal of time into watching where it goes. Make it extensible. Create an API and see what others do with it.

Besides...it's much more fun to be a hopeless romantic with others. ;)

(*btw...I'm still working on that pragmatic thing)

Say Hello! to our New Officemate

We had to ship our Chumby off the other day for repairs and were quite sad, but lucky for us our good friends from Paris arrived bearing gifts the other day and we were blessed with an adorable new Nabaztag!

Say hello to Citizen Nabaztag, who has a twitter address, a website and a Nabaztag email address that you can send us messages through (if you want to send us music, you'll have to go to the website, upload an MP3 and send it to CitizenNabaztag as a username - the twitter account isn't quite ready to receive yet). It's quite cool. If you go through the website, you can pick a 'voice' to speak your messages...and, yes, it receives dirty words, too. When receiving a message, she flashes all sorts of pretty colours. Supposedly, you can have relationships between Nabaztags and use its API to do all sorts of neat stuff. We'll be hacking her soon.

I've actually been suffering Nabaztag envy ever since I met the ones in Paris and subsequently found out that Jeneane has one of her own...so instead of catching up on email this morning, I spent it setting up our new friend.

Chris shot a movie of her receiving an MP3 (up!) singing Banana Phone (careful: addictive).*** please move over to the following feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/horsepigcowLifeUncommon ***

Event with Nick Douglas next Tuesday

Wen Wen Lam invited me to be part of an event next week that I, unfortunately, can't be at, but sounds like a blast! Mainly because I think that's where our favourite former valley gossip columnist will be talking about his new career!

Event: Converting Your Passion into a Real Business
Date: Tuesday, December 5, 2006 from 6:00PM to 8:00PM
Location: Stanford University, Room 420-040 in the Quad

From the vlogging/blogging community to seasoned entrepreneurs, our panelists have done everything from covering internet celebrity smut to running an adult luxury goods business!

» Nick Douglas, Valleywag immediate-past Editor
» Shannon McClenaghan, JimmyJane CEO
» Amy Andersen, LinxDating Founder and CEO
» Christopher Surdi, Global Educational Program (GEP) Co-Founder & President
» Michael Cerda, Jangl CEO
» Moderator: Ariel Poler, TextMarks CEO

Free with a valid student ID and $10 without (some exceptions apply).

Please register at http://dreamjob.eventbrite.com/. Food and drink will be provided.

Sounds like fun to me! Darn...would have killed to be on a panel with Nick.

New article on Vitamin: The Rules of Engagement

Before Lisa even had the chance to tell me my article was up, I starting receiving pingbacks on my recent installment at Vitamin: The Rules of Engagement.

If you've been reading me for a while, you've heard all of these rules come up here and there, but it provides a pretty decent summary of everything I preach (and practice)...the rules?

#1. Become a community evangelist
#2. Design to delight
#3. Embrace the chaos
#4. Find your higher purpose
#5. Get focused
#6. Inbound, rather than outbound communications
#7. Put community first
#8. Be part of the community you serve
#9. Remember the tripod: Environment, Product & Community
#10. Have patience

(some of those appear in the same posts...so I didn't duplicate them) The article goes deeper into how it is done.

This article is a follow up to my 'why' of community marketing: Why 50% isn't Good Enough.

As well, these articles are all leading up to my very exciting engagement at the Future of Web Apps in London next year as a speaker and workshop facilitator, where I will be engaging my group in a very in-depth and intensive discussion and exercises around community marketing.*** please move over to the following feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/horsepigcowLifeUncommon ***

Cross the Chasm? Not from here you can't...

There seems to be a crazy resurgence of a book that was published in 1991...even before the first tech boom called, Crossing the Chasm, by Geoffrey A. Moore. It was one of those books assigned to me in my third year marketing classes to critique. I remember writing some sort of meaningful assessment of it being a narrow worldview or some like thing, but I found it quite decent for what it is...a book you pick up when you've snatched the Early Adopter market and need to go to 'the next level', which is the 'rest of the world'.

I haven't read it in years, but I recall what Moore basically says is that technology companies (especially) have to somewhat alienate the early adopters and make their products more mainstream and accessible to a mass market audience...however, to his credit and foresight, he does highlight that if you want to keep your early audience, you will have to build relationships and keep these relationships throughout this process and that this is important for the growth and ongoing innovation. I do believe he also discusses his omission of niche market products (ones specifically thriving on the edges).

Regardless, it wasn't one of those 'a-ha' types of books for me like The Cluetrain Manifesto (read a year out of university) or Brand Hijack, stumbled upon a couple of years ago. But it certainly seems like an 'a-ha' book for many budding technology entrepreneurs today.

Personally, I think startups should have a measured reading list (read this during months 1-3, then read this during months 4-6...and so on). The issue with reading Crossing the Chasm before one launches is that it compels you to start to think too far ahead.

Recently, I had a not-yet-launched client ask me, "Are you going to help us cross the chasm?" Not yet launched!

My reply? "Well, let's cross that chasm when we get to it, okay?"

I got into an argument with another marketer a couple of weeks back about my strategy of building relationships with early adopters. He asked me, "Won't you just alienate potential mainstream users by concentrating on these early adopters? You'll never be able to cross the chasm with that strategy!"

I went to a BarCamp where a hot-shot marketing dude was waving Moore's book over a bunch of wide-eyed hopefuls, "If you want to succeed, read this book!"

I cringed. No! Read Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihal first, or Getting Real or Defensive Design for the Web by 37 Signals, or The Cluetrain Manifesto, or even Seth's Purple Cow.

The next step is to concentrate on reading feedback and emails and how people are talking about your product and watching how people are using it...maybe even figure out how your product solves problems for certain niche markets and approach them. Build relationships. Start growing a really kickass strong product that helps your users kick more ass, then when you have totally satisfied and delighted everyone and you are ready to 'cross that chasm'...read Moore's book.

Not a second earlier.

Please.

Cross the chasm when you get to it. You should be so fortunate.

:: Ironically enough, Moore wrote the book specifically to Technology entrepreneurs...all of the examples technology. They estimated they'd sell 5,000 copies because of the niche-ness of the subject matter...it turns out that after several prints, it's a best seller and has sold nearly 1/2 million copies. Go figure. I guess he crossed the chasm without having to change a single thing.

Anyone think this, too?

Google does productivity and tools superbly. And tight. Their new groups beta is smashing...and integrates many of their services beautifully. Simple. No fuss.

Yahoo! does social stuff amazingly well. Even their non-cool properties. They just feel friendly and fun.

Microsoft does enterprise amazingly well. They just fit into corporate culture somehow.

Apple does design and aesthetics fantasically. Everything is beautiful about Apple. Everything. Down to the power adapter. They don't miss a beat.

Yes, these are brand personalities, but they go to the heart of the organizations...the leaders...the original purpose...the people they hire. When Google tries to do social, we smirk and giggle. They are the awkward nerd telling his or her binary jokes to a group of cool art students (Apple). When Microsoft tries to do simple, everything has to go through so many levels of approvals that simple gets lost. I can't imagine Apple 'trying' to do anything they aren't. They are just way too avante garde.

There is the urban myth that Google only hires Ph.D. Engineers (not totally true, but they have a very strict hiring process). Yahoo! seems to love to 'acquire' social type entrepreneurs with spunk. Apple hires 'best of breed' designers and engineers who 'fit in'. I think Microsoft has been trying to change, but the shift has been awkward, like that suit & tie guy trying to wear a rock concert tee and ripped up jeans...I mean, he thought Khakis and a blue polo button down were casual.

Ah...I don't mean to poke fun, but these organizations have very distinct personalities and those personalities really come out in the software they design.*** please move over to the following feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/horsepigcowLifeUncommon ***

Build on strong foundations

[leftovers by eye of einstein]

That old cliche, "Rome wasn't built in a day" isn't just an adage. It's true. It took several centuries for Rome to go from a small city state to the empire it was. Today, many of the buildings and monuments still stand, even if the empire is long gone. I'm always in awe touring Europe with its rows of many century old buildings, still standing strong - many through war and major environmental changes.

So, yes, I've gone on and on about strong communities taking time to develop, but what about the foundations? The Romans could have taken all of the time they wanted, but if the foundations were faulty, their monuments would have kept falling down. If you don't have a good foundation, no matter what you try to build will always be unstable.

So, what makes a strong foundation?

An amazing product

And amazing products have strong foundations in themselves...37Signals does an amazing job of describing how to do this:

Build half a product, not a half-ass product
Beware of the "everything but the kitchen sink" approach to web app development. Throw in every decent idea that comes along and you'll just wind up with a half-assed version of your product. What you really want to do is build half a product that kicks ass.

In other words, do the basics really well. Pay attention to detail. Really go through flows and figure out what a person newly arriving to your software is experiencing along the way. Were they invited? Did they find it through a search? Did they click through a review? What are they expecting? How do you help this person kick ass?

Be very aware that this isn't about being 'cool' - this is about being amazing and useful. The moment I met Twitter, I was hooked. About 5 minutes into Flickr, I knew I couldn't live without it. The integration of Google Calendar with the rest of my Google life made it impossible to resist moving everything there. None of these applications started out doing everything. They just did a couple of things really well.
Extreme openness

How can you expect feedback if you are operating in the dark? Blogging, wikis, screenshots posted online, publishing emails and IMs, getting out and talking to people about what you are doing, creating forums and other feedback channels: all of these things are essential to getting answers early.

There are so many enterprise solutions that keep development in the dark. If you develop in the dark, expect narrow results. We have the tendency, whilst working in isolation, to start to get "We Rock" inertia. I can't tell you how many teams I've been on where we thought we were the only people in the world to have this little breakthrough, only to emerge to discover that we were insignificant.

Openness doesn't only allow for you to receive feedback, but it also keeps your eyes open to what is happening in the world and how you can best serve your community.
A Higher Purpose

I wrote about finding your higher purpose over at the CA blog. We don't believe that this is just a 'nice to have' thing. It isn't about our Digital Utopia or Hippie 2.0-ness. What it means is that you are actually giving to the world you want to get from, and I believe that is essential for building a strong foundation.

Think about it. There are about a gazillion applications online these days, why would anyone want to use yours? Everyone competes on features, but very few people are working on heart and soul. Those that believe in a higher purpose are actually kicking some ass (by helping their users kick ass, as Kathy would say): Flickr, Meebo, Craigslist, Wikipedia, DeviantArt, Threadless, Pandora, Dogster, etc.

I like asking people who want to pitch me their soon-to-be-launched 2.0 company: "So, what is it that you are adding to the world?" and "Why will the world be a better place with your application in it?" If you aren't adding value, you will have a tough time convincing people to give a damn about you.
Ability to play well with others

Interoperability is really going to be the make or break for the future. Are you working with existing standards or are you just reinventing the wheel? Do you integrate well with other applications? Are you publishing an API to allow for people to bridge their enjoyment of your application with their enjoyment of another one? Are you working with your competitors?

The biggest beef I have with Google is that they continuously reinvent the wheel. They keep talking about opening data for the end users, but then they lock it into their own proprietary systems. If you are competing on capture, your position is tenuous at best. If you are competing on overall experience, you have a much better chance. Just like Rome, the giants will fall in time and, with them, your data...unless Rome manages to play well with the rival empires.

For smaller companies who don't have the 'eyeballs' that Google has, interoperability is key. If you don't play nicely with other small companies, you are feeding into the Zero Sum Game...and in the Zero Sum Game there is only one winner. Can you afford to bet against yourself?
Ego-less ness

It isn't about you. It is about the people who are taking their time to test, give feedback, invite their friends and otherwise interact with your application. There is a great deal of choice out there, so why should anyone choose you? Well, it isn't about you. It's about them. As Kathy says, "It's about the users" (I know many think that 'users' is a derogatory term...and in general it is...I tend to use the word 'community member', but lets not get hung up on semantics right now).

Kathy lists an amazing 'Clueful Bingo' vs. 'Blame Bingo' in this post, which, I think, sums the difference between ego-less and me-centric leadership. One side takes feedback well and really focuses on creating the best experience for the customer. The other side passes the buck and never accepts responsibility for shortcomings.

Being on the marketing side of things, I've experienced the wrath of "It's your fault" when interest starts waning too many times. I've always had the attitude that marketing is part of the overal ecosystem. You can market the hell out of something, throwing zillions of dollars behind it, but if it is a crappy product, people won't stick around. Instead of shoving something down people's throats, swallow your pride and go back to the drawing board where it is needed. The best leaders have the ability to see when they are wrong and don't pass the blame to anyone else.

I understand people's impatience. I'm an entrepreneur myself. I get panicky each time a new month rolls around - bills are due and I need to collect from clients. I want to grow faster, get bigger contracts: but I know that we need to build a strong foundation. Good case studies, an amazing product, get over ourselves, more openness...etc. We have to practice what we preach and I know that we will get where we need to go.

Don't get ahead of yourself and definitely build strong foundations.