I met some startups recently at an event. And it made me wonder: how close might Google be to releasing something just like what this person is doing? One guy was trying to make an app for his city’s mass transit service. It was outside of America and (I guess) something Google hasn’t put into […]
Read MoreHow Do You Gather People Together?
11 June 2018
Categories: Human Behavior, Software
Tags: failure, product design, product market fit, startup, startups
How do you gather people together? You and some of your friends want to go on a hike. How do you coordinate that? You have lots of options… Facebook post Facebook Messenger Facebook event Email SMS WhatsApp Signal Telegram Meetup.com Semaphor Discord Slack HipChat/Stride Twist Trello board And probably more. So how do you do […]
Read MoreCategories: Business
Tags: execution, failure, product design, startup, startups, user research, user testing
This article from April 2018 on Entrepreneur.com covers the top four reasons startups fail. They list reason #1 as “inadequate testing,” and then quote a number of experts. Let’s grab those quotes and break it down to see how every quote is actually about UX and User-Centered Design. Greg Wright, founder of HATCH pitch, says: […]
Read MoreCategories: Business, Human Behavior, Marketing
Tags: digital assistant, Fin, human assistant, startups
When I was still on Facebook, I was getting endless ads for Fin, an “assistant” that claimed to use AI plus humans to take care of any task you can imagine. My favorite thing about the ads was the comments people would leave. People who tried it were pretty unhappy. But let’s warm you up […]
Read MoreNon Solution to a Non Problem
15 January 2018
Tags: audio, personas, problem solving, startup, startups, user research
A few months ago, I was cold emailed by a company that wanted me to sign up for their preview. I think they found me on LinkedIn because I describe myself as someone who does some voice acting. That makes me their target audience. They have a new service for voice talent. OK, let’s learn […]
Read MoreStartups, We’re Your (Outsourced) UX Team
10 August 2015
Categories: Business, News and Announcements
Many startups and growing companies don’t have UX teams yet. The founders do the UX. The product gal does it. The design intern takes a shot at it. The developers are sure they’re great at laying out interfaces. Long story short, you might not have any UX professionals on board. You might not be ready […]
Read MoreAppropriate Expectations for LinkedIn Introductions
29 January 2013
Categories: Social Media
Tags: introductions, linkedin, networking, startups
I recently got an email on LinkedIn. Someone I barely know (but am connected to on LinkedIn) asked me to introduce him to a very famous ex-CEO I’m LinkedIn with so the guy I barely known can pitch the CEO on investing in a startup I’ve never heard of. I told him I wasn’t comfy […]
Read MoreStartups We Don’t Need
07 November 2011
I go to a lot of pitches and demos around the Bay Area. I hit a lot of entrepreneur networking groups. I hear about many startups each week. OK, not everybody is going to love my startup, but there are some I hear over and over that I just don’t get. Here are some that […]
Read MoreMy Secret Project
28 March 2011
I have a secret project. A new startup where I’m Co-Founder. It’s based on something I invented last year that’s now being built… and patent applications filed. The “coming soon” page is up, and it lets you sign up to hear more as we get closer to launch, which I’d expect to be in May. […]
Read More