justinleach.com | blog

Chaos

2010-11-11T02:41:47Z

If you're rewarded for your ability to manage chaos, does it give you incentive to create more chaos so that you can manage it? Or at least to not prevent chaos?

Some seem to think that IT is chaotic by nature of being IT. Rather than designing and implementing efficient, scalable processes, they manage the daily fire fight, managing issue logs as their daily process rather than designing fixes that create better systems. On top of that, when management measures success solely by looking at one's ability to fight the fires, are they not incentivized to have the fire to fight? If they prevent all fires, they will appear to be doing nothing. Why not reward people for implementing good solutions that prevent chaos?

This isn't just in IT, you see it all over the place. The complexities of IT systems certainly lend themselves to the chaotic nature, however.

When you see someone constantly fighting fires, don't you start to suspect that they're starting them, or at least not preventing them in the first place?

It's been awhile...

2010-10-31T17:14:13Z

It's been a long time since I last posted, I know. I was posting semi-regularly through January and then February hit which is right about the time I decided to end my vacation and get a real job again. As much as I loved the freedom of being able to do what I wanted to do whenever I wanted to do it, it was time to put a little structure back in my life. Since then, coming on here and writing has been the last thing on my mind. But that being said, I need to put things out here a bit more.

So, after I close this, I'm writing a new post.

Google Buzzing...

2010-02-10T22:20:17Z

Have you "buzzed" yet? Yesterday Google announced and released Google Buzz. I had not heard any rumor of this service prior to hearing that it was releasing so I was a bit surprised. A bit more surprising is that Google implemented Buzz as a core component with Gmail, which means they didn't roll out a service with invites and slowly move users onto the platform through beta testing, they introduced the product to millions of users right away.

Google Buzz reminds me A LOT of FriendFeed. Very similar concept. Share links, pictures, articles, thoughts, etc. and integrate across multiple social platforms to aggregate information. Beyond that, however, Buzz goes mobile. Buzzes can be posted with a tagged location where a user can write a review or simply a short message about where they're at, similar to Foursquare and Gowalla. Initial thoughts are that it's a great platform and it's good to see Google finally jumping into the social space. And by jumping, they're not dipping a toe in the water, the plunged head first. I like the boldness.

So Google Buzz is a great concept, yes, and I love the aggregator feature aspect. However, here are some things I'd rather see work different.

Auto-following. I don't necessarily want to automatically follow everyone in my contact list that has a Gmail account. Just becaues they're there doesn't mean I want to follow them on Buzz. Just give me a feature where Buzz will tell me who in my contact list is on Buzz and I can choose to follow or not but don't make it automatic.
Gmail requirement. In order to use Buzz, you have to have a Gmail account. Not just a Google account, but a Gmail account. Maybe Google wants to have a product that will get users to switch to Gmail but let's face it, our email address is what follows us for years, across state lines as we move about. The idea of changing to another email provider is often a frustrating proposition. Gmail can make this transition easy but people generally don't want to do it. So why not allow Buzz to be standalone from Gmail so I can log in with my Google account and use the service? Seems like this would limit the ability for users to adopt the platform and essentially creates this little "Gmail clique". Aren't we always taught that cliques are bad for social integration?
Contacts. Google has frustrated me in this area for awhile with how they utilized the Contacts in Wave. In Wave, there's a concept of Robots that can be added to a wave to allow certain tasks to happen or to add features to a wave, like a game or poll, for example. Google adds these into my contact list and treats them just the same as any actual contact I may know. They've done something similar here, where if I want to follow, say, Kevin Rose, he's now in my contact list, just mixed in with all of the other people. I like my contact list clean as it syncs with my phone and in general I rely on it to be an accurate list of actual people I'll be contacting. Yes, it puts it into the "All Contacts" so these won't actually cause too many issues but why not have a whole category called "Buzz Contacts" or something? I know I'm still thinking of "contacts" through an old paradigm but I think most people do. And by the way, why in Kevin Rose's contact record is his profile URL some weird string of numbers, clean it up so it reads like it does in the address bar.
Isn't it weird that I follow myself? I'm guessing this is the method Google implemented to get my own buzzes to show up in my timeline but it seems weird. Even if you're going to use it that way, remove me from my followers list on the front end. It's not hard to do.

I'll keep playing with it and see if I have more thoughts but so far I do like it. I'm just not sure if it's positioned quite right to really challenge Facebook and it needs the ability to accept more connected sites (can they say "Facebook"?). Also, the Gmail requirement seems to limit the ability for people to adopt. I'm also really curious to see how Wave will interact here.

iPad

2010-01-27T21:02:03Z

The much rumored, much speculated iPad is official.

The device looks amazing. It looks very sexy. But I don't see myself buying one just yet.

Here are some of the thoughts and observations I've had about the iPad.

iPad. A lot of people are raising their eyebrows at the name. Forget about the name. The Apple logo on the back of the device sells the device.

Integration into the ecosystem. A big reason why the Apple logo sells is the product ecosystem. Jeff Dachis wrote about the ecosystem here. This is well worth reading.

Amazon. Steve Jobs basically told Amazon that he's out to crush them in the ebook space. This device can do that. Barnes & Noble came out with their Nook too late to even compete, in my opinion, and the iPad raises the bar.

Price. The device is priced very well. Going in I thought it could be a game changer with the Kindle but that was dependent on the price. $499 is twice the price of the Kindle but it's beautiful, it's sexy, and it does a lot more than the Kindle. A lot of people will pay the premium primarily to use the iPad as a book reader.

Keyboard. I won't comment positively or negatively about the touch keyboard because I didn't think I'd like it on the iPhone either. This being larger, it could work once someone gets used to it. Might take awhile though.

Where does it fit? This is the big question. Is there space in the market for something between a smartphone and a laptop. Apple clearly believes there is and will attempt to define that market. I have questions on if the market truly exists but time will tell. The key is price and at the price point I think there will be a lot of people willing to participate in that market.

I hear people mention that they've pratically replaced their laptop with their smartphone and then I hear people mention that the iPad will take a chunk out of the laptop market. I can see this for some users but there are a lot of things I do on my laptop that I can't do on my iPhone or would not be able to on the iPad. Music is one. With a super mobile device like both of these, the amount of music you can carry is limited, although 64 GB is a lot of music. But remember that Apple acquired Lala. Look for Apple to start pulling Lala into the ecosystem even more, allowing people to listen to their music library from anywhere without needing more device memory.

Multi-tasking. Apparently the iPad still does not do multi-tasking. Apple seriously needs to work this out. This is my biggest complaint on the iPhone and I'm disappointed to hear it carrying into this device. This device should function as a mobile window to the internet but no streaming music while writing emails or using iWork? Only if I use the iPod and I bet Lala will become allowed as well.

No camera. Really? Shouldn't a device like this have a front facing camera and iChat? Seems like it should be there.

Still doesn't support flash. I laughed when Steve Jobs opened the New York Times website and the first thing I saw was the blue lego indicating the device couldn't handle the flash. Come on, Apple, you've got to support this technology. It's there and it's big, you can't ignore it just because you don't like it.

Will I be buying one? No. Not yet at least. Yes it's sexy and yes I want to hold one and play with it but to me the cons are big and I really don't need a big iPod Touch between my iPhone and MacBook. But these will sell because they're Apple. Apple makes great products and I love them but they always seem to skip some critical elements knowing that they'll be forgiven because they're Apple.

I'll go to the Apple store in a little over 60 days (let the crowds die down) and hold one and that'll probably satisfy my iPad desires for awhile.

Location based social networking! It's kinda fun

2010-01-27T16:57:01Z

For those of you who enjoy broadcasting what cool place you found, here's a way to make it fun. Location based social networking. It's addicting.

Foursquare and Gowalla are the two players in the location based social networking space right now. Both launched last spring at SXSW and both seem to be really taking hold. The concept behind each is basically the same but each has their own unique twist that make it fun. The idea behind both is that you go somewhere (coffee shop, restaurant, bookstore, bar, wherever) and you "Check In" as being there. If you're at a restaurant that doesn't exist in the system yet, just create it, simple as that. Oh, and then check in to it. After that, you start to see the uniqueness.

In Foursquare, there is the concept of mayors. If you've been to a place more than anyone else, you will be crowned "The Mayor". Besides narcissism, mayors could possibly get special deals at places they visit, if the business is catching onto the world of social networking.

Also in Foursquare, you earn badges. Badges basically are rewards that show how much of a user of the system you are or what type of user you are. You're started with the "Newbie" badge right away and then you earn additional badges by checking into different types of places and checking in frequently. You also earn points along the way but since Foursquare hasn't decided yet what to do with points, let's ignore them for now.

Final Foursquare twist is To-Dos and Tips. This is a pretty nice feature, in my opinion. Yesterday @ellenreynolds tweeted to try the bevo with turkey instead of roast beef at Cissi's in Austin. Sounds good to me, add it to my To-Dos in Foursquare. Next time I'm in Austin during lunch I'll have this as a To-Do. Build up enough of these and you can plan a trip around it.

Okay, enough about Foursquare. Gowalla.

Same basic idea, go to places and check in. However, Gowalla feels more like a game to it than Foursquare, in my opinion, which might be because Foursquare hasn't decided how to use points yet. But in Gowalla, you find items along the way. For example, if I check into Halcyon in Austin, the Gowalla app will show me what items are there. I can drop an item from my pack to become a "founder" or I can swap an item from my pack with another item there. Now, the way it becomes a game is that people like to collect things. So maybe your goal is to collect all of the musical instruments you can. You come across at drumset at Gruene Hall (I just dropped one so it should be there) and you pick it up for your collection.

The other thing I like about Gowalla is the concept of Trips. For example, there's the Nashville Honkytonk Stomp trip (here). This trip has six spots to guide you through a little tour of some of Nashville's honkytonks. Check in to all of them and you earn a badge.

Both of these are fun and have their own advantages. I've been using both for the last couple of days and found that I'm often thinking of where I want to go to check in. Yes, I have stopped at two coffee shops fairly close to one another (getting coffee at both) just so I could check in. But I swear, I wanted to understand the apps better, not just become mayor at both.

Okay, enough from me about this. Check them out. Foursquare is on iPhone, Android and BlackBerry. Gowalla is on iPhone and Android but also has a nice mobile site.

Here's some other links about these:

Mashable - Foursquare vs. Gowalla: Location-Based Throwdown

Gowalla Rules (i.e. Is Awesome)

Gowalla Rules (i.e. How to Play Gowalla)

By the way, those last two links are from Travis Smith's blog "Unvarnished". He gets my award for most unique blog design. I'm not sure if I liked it or not (doesn't matter, it's his blog, not mine) but it certainly is a unique approach.

"Why?" Symptoms vs Problems

2010-01-25T16:46:10Z

Why are customers not responding to my marketing strategy? Why are my users not using the software I designed? Why are my employees leaving my company? Why is my team inefficient? Why aren't people buying my product or service?

Symptoms to problems are easy to see, therefore they get attention. If a business isn't using the software developed for them, the solution to the "problem" is often stated as, "They need to use the software." Well, that may be true but why are they not using it? Chances are, it does not meet their needs or they haven't been properly trained. Or the software may meet all of the stated requirements but has a poor usability design so it's perceived as being too complicated, which translates into, again, not meeting their needs (they need a simpler application). "Simple" is often an overlooked requirement.

Each one of these potential problems has a solution of it's own which will depend largely on the situation. But the users not using the software is likely a symptom, not a problem.

Fixing symptoms leads into unending loops and unending loops are expensive. The only way to get out of the loop is to solve the problem that is causing the symptoms. Of course it's better to never enter the loop in the first place by understanding the true problem.

So why are these loops entered in the first place? Here are three reasons:

Money. How often do you see businesses with large bank accounts throwing money at symptoms of a problem rather than solving the actual issue? Sure, it happens in smaller companies as well but when money is not an issue, spending it is less of an issue so it's easy to throw money at a situation that may not be the real problem.
Arrogance and denial. Yep, arrogance. Maybe you don't want to admit that your design was flawed. Maybe you don't want to accept that you did not understand your target market. The sooner you do, the sooner you'll fix your problem and the cheaper it'll be.
Internal politics. If you're trying to implement software or new processes that are designed to resolve the problem as it's been communicated but two executives are debating over the future direction, it can hinder success in the implementation.

The question to keep asking is "Why?" When you've answered that honestly, you'll be able to fix the real problem.

Feeds on justinleach.com

2010-01-24T06:23:02Z

Note to subscribers! I'm moving my feed to Feedburner and putting it behind my own domain name. If you wouldn't mind, please visit my page and on the right you'll see an RSS icon under the Keeping Up section. Click it and resubscribe using whichever reader you prefer. Additionally, you can find the feed at http://feeds.justinleach.com/JustinLeach.

Feedburner allows for great options that make it easier for readers to subscribe to the feed through various feed readers. So please take a couple moments to move your subscription so you can keep reading.

How do you keep up?

2010-01-21T18:03:19Z

With all the content on the web and so many ways to consume it, how do you follow it all? There's repetitive content, noise content, and then there's the true value content. I was thinking about this last night as I was looking at FriendFeed, then jumping over to Google Reader, then bringing Tweetdeck back up to see what was new in there, then just seeing what's new in Facebook.

I'm still an avid Google Reader user but over time I've found myself reading less and less of the content coming through RSS. For the most part, it's aging news, if it's not old already. Chances are, if it's value content, it's been through Twitter which means it's probably hit FriendFeed also. I might look at Google Reader twice a day now and look at specific feeds that I know tend to be the most interesting when I catch up on them. It's great for topics I don't need to follow real closely but most of the time I'm skimming a few headlines then marking all as read and moving on.

And then there's Twitter. Twitter has really revolutionized the information sharing. With people using mobile devices to share content over the Twitter platform, it's as close to real time information as we've gotten. But how do you separate the value content from the noise and repetition? When Twitter introduced lists I think they took a huge step toward that. I use lists in a few ways:

Following specific topical writers that I don't care to necessarily have in my timeline. For example, I'm always trying to find the best baseball writers in the country and add them to a list. I don't necessarily care to read what they have to say every day but sometimes I want to see what they're all talking about. When the Seattle Mariners, Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies were involved in the Roy Halladay/Cliff Lee deal, I wanted to see what they were all saying about the topic. The list works for that. I keep it in Tweetdeck and it's there when I want to see what they're talking about, ignore it otherwise.
Filter my timeline. I currently do not follow too many people or brands on Twitter (compared to some) but I know there are some that I have found to have the most valuable content. I can group these into a list so I can filter out a lot of noise from the timeline. This way I can determine how much content I'm able to consume at any time and if I can only focus on the top tier, then pay attention to just that list.
Open up the firehose. Before I start following someone I can add them to a list that lets me see what kind of content they provide. I also can follow other lists out there and find the best content producers and move them to another list if or follow them myself. It's a great answer to the issue many face of finding the right people to follow what they want. Using Listorious, you can find the lists that will likely show the content you want to see.

I also use FriendFeed. FriendFeed is a great aggregator and I love what it does. Content, however, is mostly repetitive of what I've already seen on Twitter, since most users are just linking in their tweets. But if someone does update their Posterous, Facebook, Flickr, etc. FriendFeed can catch all that. I also like that you can comment, group friends, and join groups. FriendFeed can also be used as a content filter similar to lists on Twitter if you want to just parse out some of the best content, but the power is in giving you one place to see all the content someone may be producing across multiple websites. It's powerful, indeed.

So what is the key theme to all of this? To me it's controlled filtering of data. We went from a time where we wanted to consume all we could find with the challenge being to find the good content and get it into our RSS reader to where we can follow so much content that we need to filter it so we only get what we truly want to read. But since what we want to read and have the ability to consume changes from day to day, even hour to hour, we want valves on the filters. The firehose is great but using some of these tools effectively it can be turned down into just the valuable trickle of information.

How do you consume all the content? Is RSS dead to you as it is to some or does it still hold a place for you?

Twitter Question - Squarespace vs Wix

2010-01-19T22:15:55Z

I received a question on Twitter from @RbkhPotter asking me my thoughts about Squarespace vs Wix. So here's a brief overview of some of my thoughts after looking at Wix this afternoon.

First of all, if you look at the footer of this page you'll see that I'm a Squarespace user. I love Squarespace and admit I have a bias toward the service. Just stating that up front. Second, I have not fully used Wix and this is not intended to be a full review of the platform they offer. Okay, let's talk about it a bit.

My first impression of Wix is that it's very cool. It's an impressive system and it looks like it's probably really easy to get a site up and running in very short amount of time. As I dug around a bit and looked at some of the sample sites I came up with some additional thoughts.

Wix has some great premium plans with decent sized storage and bandwidth limits.
Premium plans are priced fairly well compared to Squarespace. The lowest cost Squarespace plan is $8 per month compared to $4-5 for the low end premium plan on Wix. At this low-end point, Wix allows you to use your own domain, a feature reserved to higher priced plans on Squarespace.
Wix offers an eCommerce plan. This is a feature Squarespace currently does not offer. I'm sure it'll exist in a future version of the Squarespace platform but at this time, it doesn't.
Wix sites cannot be viewed universally. Because they're entirely flash based, some devices or browser configurations will not be able to view the page. This may not be an issue to you but to me, having your site able to reach as many people on as many devices as possible is pretty important. iPhone users will not be able to view a Wix site because of the lack of flash support on iPhone. iPhone is a pretty big market to ignore if you're concerned about universal access.
Wix sites were incredibly SLOW. I attempted to launch the same site in Chrome (Mac beta version), Safari, and Firefox. I didn't time each browser but they were all slow. A stopwatch was not necessary to tell me that.
A huge advantage to Squarespace is that it allows a user who is proficient in web design to get into the code and manipulate it fairly easily through their custom code injection. This allows a user to customize their CSS, plug in Google Analytics, etc. This is actually pretty powerful as a user learns more code or wants to gain further control over how their site functions.
Both platforms appear very simple to use with sliders, color palettes, simple clicking.

My recommendation is that you think about what kind of site you want to build, try out each service (free option at Wix, trial at Squarespace) and see which one fits your goals better. My personal preference falls firmly on the side of Squarespace, primarily because I don't like that Wix is all flash based.

I believe this is a growing market. There are more and more small business owners realizing that they can create and maintain their own website fairly easily with services like this. If you know of other no-code website building services I'd love to hear about them and check them out so leave a comment, Tweet me, or send me an email.

Wix

Squarespace

MLK Jr. - Empowering Quote

2010-01-18T20:32:09Z

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

~ Martin Luther King Jr.

Source: Empowered Quotes (http://empoweredquotes.com/2009/03/05/martin-luther-king-measure-of-man/)

POS machines - bad design in daily life

2010-01-18T20:14:39Z

You know the POS machines, you swipe your card, punch in your pin or sign your name, hit OK with the stylus. They're designed to make life easier for both you and the store but I often see design flaws that are contrary this goal.

Overall these machines are easy to use. Read the text, follow the prompts, simple. I've been noticing recently,however, how bad the user experience really is using these machines. Two things I've taken specific note of.

Button Positioning. When signing my name, the POS software often has the OK button on the left and the Cancel button on the right, positioned on either side of the screen. I believe OK should be on the right as after I sign my name, that's where the stylus will be positioned. It's natural to finish signing and have the next step being closest to where I'm at. Understand how the user is going to utilize the system and position the most likely options in the most natural positions.
Poorly worded questions. These machines often ask two questions in one. I'll see them where they ask something to the effect of, "Is this amount OK or do you want cash back?" Well, which question am I answering? Typically the answer is "Yes" to say that it's OK and if I want cash back it'll present me with amounts or let me hit a "Cash Back" button. But I should not be asked two questions in one that have potentially different answers based on my interpretation of the question. Don't make the user review their choices in order to understand the question.

So what's the solution? Obviously each designer of POS software is going to have a different approach. You can't expect that they all behave exactly the same. The solution cannot be "they should all use the same software." I'd be really curious to know how much UI/UX effort goes into this piece of software. It seems natural to me that there would be a heavy emphasis on UI/UX in this space but that does not seem to be the case. So, the solution? Designers of this software need to focus on UI/UX. While there's no real face to the organization or simple way for mass feedback, workshops could be done to observe how people naturally want to use the software. Surveys could be done asking the questions in various ways to find out how people interpret the question.

What are your thoughts? Do you notice these machines and think, "Really? That's what they thought was good?"

I'd also love to hear your thoughts on other bad designs in everyday life.

Limiting choices - Empowering quote

2010-01-15T22:57:28Z

From time to time I'll throw in some quotes that I find empowering or inspiring. Here's one I found earlier that I found interesting.

"If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is a compromise."

~ Robert Fritz

Source: Empowered Quotes (http://empoweredquotes.com/2008/11/27/why-compromise-out-life/)

Wouldn't it be cool if...

2010-01-15T16:27:17Z

The secret to creativity is curiosity. (Links to Seth Godin's blog)

I read this post last night on Seth Godin's blog, immediately retweeted, and then spent some time thinking about it.

Just six words but really so true. We have to become curious in order to become creative. We have to be curious about why and how in order to imagine a better solution.

I'm often working with software, or websites, or whatever it is and think, "I wish it did..." and call these my "Wouldn't it be cool if..." moments. The key isn't that I came up with the "wouldn't it be cool if" idea, I first came up with the curiosity about why they made it the way they did in the first place. Only then could I arrive at my "Wouldn't it be cool if..." moment.

Source: Seth Godin (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/01/why-ask-why.html)

Tags >>> Folders

2010-01-14T20:08:33Z

Tags vs folders, no contest. For the past couple weeks I've been using Google Bookmarks almost exclusively, abandoning traditional bookmark management in the browser. Throughout this I've really, really grown to love tags instead of folders. I've noticed this same thing with Gmail and Google Docs. Tags >>> Folders.

Folders are one dimensional. They treat an object as though they only exist in one context but that seems to rarely be the case. So how do you handle that? In "Folder World" you end up with a big "Miscellaneous" or "Uncategorized" folder, or basically a scrap heap. At least in my experience. Or I'm trying to figure out what the dominant theme or topic is so I can categorize properly and find the file or bookmark next time.

Then you have tags. Tags are multi-dimensional. Tags treat a file or bookmark, or whatever, as an object with multiple dimensions and account for the fact that each object may have many defining characteristics. Basically with tags we can take that scrap heap and organize it, yet leave it in a scrap heap. Then when I want anything from that scrap heap I can easily find it.

It's time to think multi-dimensional, move beyond folders, and embrace tags.

Goliath to kill David? Google vs Dropbox

2010-01-12T19:04:35Z

In the official Google Blog today Google announced that over the next few weeks they'll be rolling out a feature to Google Docs that, to me, looks like a killer of Dropbox (website). Essentially, they're doing the same thing by finally allowing users to upload any file type into their Google Docs account and then share it with other users.

I love Dropbox. I've been using the service for several months and have promoted its use to friends and family over that time period. I now have family using Dropbox to share files and collaborate with each other on things such as genealogy records. It's a fantastic service but now they've got Google to compete with and that's a game changer.

I also love Google Docs and Apps. The addition of this feature is such a natural fit to the platform that it only makes sense. Based solely on the Google blog post, Google seems to be only releasing file to desktop sync to Google Apps Premier clients and there is no mention of whether versioning is an included feature. However, since Docs does versioning, if it's not there out of the gate I believe it'll be there soon.

So what advantage does Dropbox still have? Seems to be syncing and versioning but time and more details will tell if that is enough for Dropbox to differentiate on.

While I love Dropbox and this could be bad news for them, this is such a natural fit for Google's platform and I applaud them for finally releasing the feature.

Read the Google post here.