The future of web businesses

The future of web businesses
Warning: nothing new for the wise

Marketing is dead. Long live marketing
Enough has been done and said about marketing campaigns and TV spots et al. Money, and tons of it is being spent in the wrong direction. We do not need to entice or woo users, or attract. That is so 2002. We need to go where they are. They are on Google, face book, my space,
and tons of other sites. Why are we creating barriers to entry? Why not go where they already are? Why spend money on advertising when we can do something for the community. plant trees, save the girl child?

Products are dead. Long live Products
It is very simple actually. The focus should be on your products. They should be designed by your customers. CEO's ,Designers, marketeers, get out of office. Play, live, and let the thoughts flow. And do not design products, read Adaptive path, please

Social networking is dead. long live social networking
Why compete. Competition is for the needy. Collaboration is for the wise. Think about it. The who's who of the social networking world collaborate.


Watch this space for a detailed paper on the The future of web businesses

The Apples of my eyes:-)

The angel and the Prince. Have just got back from a highly satisfying game of cricket. Immensly enjoyable. Play, run, enjoy, live:-)

cheers

Why does one blog

The reasons that I blog are unlike the reason many do it for ( there..:-my english professor is already angry:-))

• Clarity
• overcoming inertia
• get going
• letting a 100 flowers bloom (read art of the start by guy Kawasiki)

So, when are you starting?

Cheers

How Linkedin is changing the world

How Linkedin is changing the world

Once upon a time in the not too distant past when monsters were rampant, dices rolled, jobs were ahead and naukris were scarce, the world was a very different place.
this was a world were the seeker hid his work from the wise ones. The seekers were so afraid that it actually became difficult to get the right wisdom.
paranoia ruled and secrecy made tons of gold.
Then came the knight in shining armor, sir linked; upon the steed he came and then a Kawasaki. All hell broke lose. The council gathered, discussed, and then it was decided that
sir transparency is the order of the day. Well, they are working on it:-)
The person to give the best comment will get a painting from me, which is something that will give you immense joy and add to your networth (albeit in a small wayfor now)
cheers
Masood

Marketing Communications "guidelines"

• Less is more
• No "concepts" please
• Do it already!
• Meditate
• Read this blog
• Hang out with a usability "guru"
• Read don't make me think" by Steve Krug
• Don't sell.........
• Reach out, don't advise
• Don't create emotional guilt, make them happy

Marketing "Mantra's"

• Spend less time on marketing. Improve your product. It's a no brainer \
• Get out of your office. Now. Please:-) Visit Ramu makhija, Ray jones....
• Stop smoking
• Print less, pitch more
• Internalize Guy Kawasaki and Jagdish Sheth
• Write more and work less. Blog.
• Join Linked. What, you haven't?
• Comment Here:-)

Leadership Grooming: part one

Being groomed in leadership by exceptionally good teachers. My son rayhaan, neices raahat, Aisha, and nephews Armaan and Zara.

What do leaders require? ( among other things)

• Clarity: Absolute must. for everyone, more for leaders. Sadly lacking in many
• Naivete: Will encourage wishful thinking. Absolute msut for growth
• Positive Intluence: enough said
• Focus: nothing can be done without it
• Command Attention: must have. Most people fear and follow, sadly this should never be the case
• Love: A leader has people who love, respect, and would do anything..well almost.

Please wait for the 2dn part of the article. Will pen my thoughts in detail. and please comment. pleeaaze. :-0

"New" "Guidelines" for Information Architects

1. Thou shall cut back work and start reading
2. Thou shall cut back work and start writing
3. Thou shall start owning content management systems
4. Thou shall help rosenfeld media in testing books
5. Thou shall read "Dont make me think" till it is internalized
6. Thou shall explain to management the difference between wurman and the polar bear
7. Thou shall not make fun of any "usability guru"
8. Thou shall realize that there is enough work for 2 lifetimes and be choosy

"new" "guidelines" for "web design" and "web designers": part one

1. Thou shall not use one more pixel than is required
2. Thou sall not use one more kb than required
3. Thou shall be a miser in colors
4. Thou shall consult your SEO before design
5. Thou shall not abuse thy usability folks
6. Thou shall stray from the web safe palatte
7. Thou shall learn web analytics
8. Thou shall be detached from your design
9. Thou shall learn to spell apophenia ( is my spelling correct?)
10. Thou shall read Jagdish Sheth, and alvin toffler
11. Thou shall stop talking about cognitive psychology

Future of User Experience: part 2

A fellow UX practitioner mentioned some time back in a post on lined about UX being one of the top professions. The question is why did it take such a long time? It seems to be such a logical thing. As someone said ( adaptive path?, the user experience is the product.

While Jeff lash wrote a great article in boxes and arrows about the transition from user experience to product management, but in a few years from now the lines will not be blurred, they will vanish.

The Monstrous team sizes that we see today in UX, will be drastically reduced. To the relief of many, ton's of User Experience professionals, will be operating at strategic levels. Tactical acumen will be most sought after. MBA's will not crave Mckinsey, Boston et al, but will line up for Adaptive path, Rosenfeld media, Razor fish, among others.Will they be taken? That's the moot point.

Branding

Yesterday, we completed the most satisfying branding exercise I have done till date. The team a friend who is a state bank employee and a cricket fiend, a cousin who has 13 years of experience handling corporate accounts, and an unwitting ally in my wife, apart from me a user experience practitioner.

The brand has also passed the "ask woman" test suggested by guy Kawasaki in the art of the start. Branding is one of the professions that has been made so complex, and is so important, that with so many "experts", that it is difficult to get the right people.

cheers

Information Architects & Time management

All good Information Architects are masters in time management. They save time for themselves and thier users. IA is increasingly moving towards saving towards the one commodity that we cannot store, replicate, or create.

Think about it

cheers

Future of User Epxerience

Points to ponder on:

will the user experience profession remain the same?
Will design and management merge, if they have not as yet?
Will management gurus pursue design?
Will designers pursue management?
will design and management merge?
Will customers completely take over design?
Will we laugh at ourselves ?

Off Topic: Aristotle

" We are what we repatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act, but a habit"

Aristotle

The Book all User Experience professionals must read

The Book all User Experience professionals must read: " Gurus on marketing" by Sultan Kermally. You will not find a book that will summarize Peter Drucker, Theodore Levitt, Micheal Porter,Philip Kotler, Tom Peters, George Day, Jagdish Sheth, and Thomas.T Nagle so brilliantly.

If you are asking why should a User Experience professionals read these books, then my friend, you are in serious trouble.

We ( UX, OLM, Analytics, Product folks, Designers) own perhaps the most valuable real estae which is perhaps the cheapest to buy. Think about the responsibility we have. Go on, think about it

Cheers!

Does usability really matter in a purchase decision?

Does usability really matter in a purchase decision? My wife has been after me snice aeons to purchase a new mobile. And we all know that when a lady want's something, she gets it:-)
Recently bought a hummer mobile. These are the factors that influenced my purchase:

• Found it very stylish


• The aluminum color fascinated me


• Wanted a slider phone


• It had a stylus


• Liked the price (10,000)


• Got a free holiday worth 5000
  
  I didn’t know how to operate it. Did not know what features it had. Have been using the most primitive phones on earth till date.
  
  Where did usability fit in?
  
  If we find a way to understand and measure emotional responses to a product, we will be very successful in selling. Am researching this aspect of online shopping a of now.Is anybody willing to work with me on this fascinating area?
  

Thanks

Am extremely happy with the repsonse I have got for my book. Will get a chance to work with some of the better minds in the business and hope to evolve and learn from these experiences.

The reason why our comunity will reach its rightful place very soon is that we are evloving, learning to be humble, and willing to share.

Alok, thanks for the suggestion one and a half year back. You have been one of my many role models, and I have become humble enough to say this aloud.

God bless and god speed
masood

Need help for my Book

Am writing a book on the synergy between online marketing, User Experience, and web analytics. Would like to interview practitioners. I have space for around 15 interviews in my book. Please feel free to contact me if you feel the community needs it.

The folks that I would like, nay love to interview are Lou rosenfeld, Ripul, Rakhee srivastava, Christina Wodtke, Alok Jain, Austin Govella, and Avinash kaushikFolks, I would be highly obliged if you could spare some time from your busy schedules to help me out.

masood [dot] nasser[at] gmail [dot] com

Jakob Nielson: The world’s best online marketeer

Jakob Nielson: The world’s best online marketeer

The world knows Jakob Nielson as one of the leading usability experts. But is he really that? No, in my opinion. Not that it counts for much.

He may well be perhaps the most brilliant online marketing personality the web has ever seen. The Usability field has greatly benefited from the body of research that has been done right from the 70’s. But does the majority, outside the realm of our miniscule community are really aware of schenidarman, Larry, et al?

NO

Do they know Jakob Nielson? You bet they do.
Look at the mind space he was and is commanding.

Around 8 years back, in the silicon valley of India, we had a team dinner with our client, an IIT kharaghhpur alumnus, who was in charge of one of the numerous e-commerce initiatives for their Aerospace Division. The conversation digressed from small talk to the design. While we were discussing, what does our client say? Do you think Jakob Nielson would approve?

As any impetuous, arrogant, and ignorant design upstart may have done I made a grandiose statement? Jacob and design…. Are you serious (am not sure of the exact words I used, this was 8 years ago)

I have seen enough Jacob parody sites. Do you think he cares? No, he has his detractors, giving him traffic, while he has a loyal set of fans amongst the handful decision makers worldwide. Each and every article of his a lesson in cross selling. He makes a statement, “Flash is 99% BAD”. There is a storm in the online world. There are innumerable hate “Jacob Neilson communities”. They give him traffic. What happens a year after that? Macromedia pays him to “set usability guidelines for Flash”

Why do you think he recycles the famous "visited links" guidelines?
Eric Schaffer, another extremely charismatic person in the field of usability, told me in Bangalore: “We like Jakob Nielson. He is good for the field of usability.” And he was not talking about Jacob’s usability knowledge

So, what do you think?

Problems with “leader’s”: Part One

Problems with “leader’s”

Have had the good fortune to move into a role where I have the opportunity to groom leaders. What I am saying is not rocket science at all, In-fact everyone knows these things. It is just that we are not “aware”. There is a difference between knowing and awareness. One of my most important role is to groom leaders. With that in mind, understanding their psyche is very important. These are some of my observations as to why leaders fail:

Insecurity
Perhaps the most crucial element that destroys a leader and his team is the leader’s insecurity.
Insecurity of people overtaking him/her.
Insecure in the feeling of giving knowledge feeling that his subordinate might “overtake him/ her
Insecure in his/her ‘position”
Control
Losing control is the biggest fear of the clueless leader. You cannot control anybody. Remember the commies Their biggest fear in life was losing control and they have ruined an entire generation by their weird indoctrinations and philosophies.
Craving for Respect
Respect is one thing that can never be demanded. The clueless leader will crave for respect which he/ she will never get.
Need to know:
A clueless leader will always feel the need to know everything without which he/ she will always feeladequate. One does not need to be in the “know” about any and everything. They say “knowledge is power”, but I don’t think much about it. How you harness it is what gives you the power. A good leader has to harness that power
Feeling Loved
A clueless leader will always feel that he or she needs to be “loved”. Poor self esteem makes a person feel the need to be loved because he or she feels that he she has not received the love that he/she deserves.

Every body who has ever lived has some or all ofthese feelings. It is when we learn to surmount them that we reach nirvana and become real leaders.

God bless and god speed. Please tell me what you think about this