aamir virani

What are the death magnets when building a business?

I finished Guy Kawasaki’s book Rules for Revolutionaries yesterday, and there is one chapter in the book I wanted to highlight because it summarizes some common mistakes when building a business.

Kawasaki calls these mistakes death magnets, the “traditional habits and patterns of thinking that seduce companies”. Here are his top ten:

1. picking low-hanging fruit – make sure your initial market focus fits not those most rabid for your product (the early adopters who will nitpick), but those who are strategically viable.
2. just sucking less – don’t be happy with just sucking less than your competitors, because you will remain open to a new market entrant.
3. overemphasizing budget – remember to take opportunities when they come even if it costs more than you wish.
4. overemphasizing consistency – don’t fall into cycles and patterns just because that’s they way it has been before.
5. attacking too many markets at once – this one is so awesome it gets a quote: “You have to pay your dues by knocking down barriers and dominating niche markets one at a time.”
6. diluting your brand – don’t waste any brand recognition by going in an odd direction.
7. outsourcing – don’t outsource core competencies.
8. mimicking the big guys – don’t copy processes and activities just because a big competitor does it.
9. lowering prices – gaining market share, killing competitors, increasing profits on volume… none of these are a guarantee.
10. assuming that “best product wins” – one of the greatest business lessons ever

The book was written in 1999, so it’s great to see how applicable these points are today. I wonder what Guy Kawasaki would say now about #9. The freemium model emphasizes the 0 price point as a way to gain market share (and mind share).

How do you know if your code is fast enough?

One of the big pains I’ve seen while at PR and X is dealing with customers, managers, and critics who go off on performance.

• When you click here, it takes too long!
• When you start up, it takes forever!
• When this page loads, I can go get a cup of coffee and it’s still loading!

All are valid concerns, but it gets a little ridiculous when you hear someone say “it needs to be 0.2 seconds faster” or “we have to be at least as fast as before even though we’re doing 10 times more processing”.

Perception, a qualitiative measure, is more important than quantitative measurement.

Given that Internet connection speeds vary, that client computers can be a few years old, and that humans can be sedated or caffeinated, it’s even more important to move beyond simple clock-watching.

David Weiss discusses performance on his blog and mentions a classification scheme for timing perception:

• Instantaneous (0.1 to 0.2 seconds)
• Immediate (0.5 to 1.0 seconds)
• Continuous (2 to 5 seconds)
• Captive (7 to 10 seconds)

So instead of simply whining about how things have gotten slower by 0.1 seconds, determine where your feature (broken down into actions or features or events, but that’s another topic) falls. Now, are you within range?

The other difficulty is deciding which category the feature should be in. This is where user studies matter. Your boss is not the ultimate arbiter. You are not the ultimate arbiter. Make sure your typical set of users would be happy with your choice by faking time delays in a mockup.

The Brilliance of Starbucks

I’m sitting in a Starbucks right now, and it has been packed all day. Why? Because the company is giving everyone who voted a free coffee today. All you have to do is say you voted and boom – you get a free cup.

Two interesting observations:

1. No one has just a coffee. It looks like nearly everyone (including me) is picking up some sort of pastry to go with the coffee.

2. People are talking and hanging out, both about the election and other stuff.

The second point is key because it falls in line with Howard Schultz’s vision for Starbucks. Here is a Business Week article on what Starbucks is all about. It’s not just coffee – Starbucks is trying to be the hub of your community. The place where you gather, hang out, snack, discuss, etc. Capitalism in a community-building move.

Why does Starbucks succeed where companies like Dunkin Donuts or McDonald’s fail? It’s because of this emphasis on messaging to the community that it’s a participant. Go vote! Come see the local art! If you’re a local group, ask us for donations! If you’re a cop, come hang out! (Maybe that’s just at this Starbucks.) Schultz’s vision of anchoring the neighborhood is definitely true here.

By the way, you did vote, right?