Archive for the 'Blog' Category



Reductionism

Reducing to the bare essentials.

What (and only) what is required, at the bare minimum.

When we built Nudge we went through this process, stripping away anything that wasn’t essential to the product.

How we got there was:

  • Phase 1, we reduced our rough version to the bare basics.
  • Phase 2, we then dramatically expanded out the functionality we needed.
  • Phase 3, we then used an existing library to display all of this functionality (it was terrible).
  • Phase 4, we then dramatically reduced, removed colours, layers, buttons, menus, just to the absolute bare minimum.
  • Phase 5, iterate and continue to refine.

This helped make the product distinctive and create an air of simplicity – for a product that is data centric, a great outcome.

As we grow though, there is always the tendency to creep. Why don’t we sneak this in here, or maybe we just put this in this menu. Complexity sneaks up on you.

That’s ok, as long as we keep our commitment to reducing. For some periods of time we’ll be off but we’ll mostly be on track.

It’s like any project it takes commitment, discipline and focus.

And that’s the fun part of the journey.

November 30th, 2018

The end of the beginning

Really enjoyed this talk from Benedict Evans.

It’s fast paced ๐Ÿ™‚ but follow along. He speaks to where we’ve come from in the past 20 years and to where it’s going.

Well, as much as you can at this juncture.

Give it a watch, or do a walk and listen. It’s 23 minutes but well worth it.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF5VIwDYIJk

The practical segway (i.e. how you can think about it). Is if you are in business today through this change – is attention rationalization.

For the past 20 years the amount of attention consumers have given digital screens has gone up year on year. With growing attention it was easy for us all to get more of it – as there was growing appetite.

However that will slow dramatically, for the sheer fact that there is only so much attention in a day.

Pair this, with at this point, most (if not all) of your customers are connected to the internet. And expect some or all of your service to be digitally enabled.

In that world, the amount of attention is a real currency.

The nearest proxy today is a CPC or CPV. Once you remove all the ‘fake attention’ from juiced metrics and bots. It really is a fixed currency, where everyone is competing against everyone else, all the time.

Seems silly but a Netflix show is competing with your reddit thread, is competing with the time you have to research a new doctor.

^ Someone right now is nodding as they read this.

Businesses which don’t adjust will simply evaporate. If they can’t earn digital attention, they are invisible to the market.

A blunt example is the rise of DTC brands, the brands flooding Instagram. Being top of mind drives sales – and if you can’t ‘earn’ attention in the feed. You lose out immediately. This small extrapolation can roll out to the entire digital mix.

As Ben alludes to, software eats attention.

November 21st, 2018

When the existence of one is enough proof

For creators – the existence of one thing is enough to convince them that there can be two.

And if there can be two, there can be three, there can be four.

For some though, it’s not enough, it could be an anomaly, it can be explained away.

And they’re probably both right.

But it’s the founder, the maker, the creator who leans in to it and makes it two.

 

November 10th, 2018

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