Author: Robert Pease

Nice run this morning at the 12Ks of Christmas in Kirkland

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I started the day off with a brisk run (faster than I thought I'd do it) in the annual Kirkland 12ks of Christmas run downtown.  This event did not happen last year due to snow and ice so we all missed a year. 

It is a good time, great distance (~7.5 miles), and nice part of the community here in Kirkland.  I ran it in 1:04:21 or 8:38 minute miles (here's the link to the full results). 

The rain mostly held off and I am looking forward to sore legs tomorrow as I have been off my usual running schedule due to work and waning motivation due to rain, cold, and darkness out here this time of year. 

Has healthcare reform become a true ‘Abilene Paradox’?

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This is not intended to be a political post but rather one of the few times over the past 15 years that I can reference something I learned in business school around group decision dynamics – the Abilene Paradox. 

I will never forget the "Road to Abilene" video designed to reinforce it.  What the heck am I talking about? 

Here's the short version pulled from Wikipedia:

The Abilene paradox is a paradox
in which a group of people collectively decide on a course of action
that is counter to the preferences of any of the individuals in the
group.

I agree that healthcare in the US is a wreck and, in many ways, the costs are obstacles to entrepreneurship and innovation.  How many people do you know that are staying in a job because they need the benefits?  But I digress…

Why are we spending the cycles of so many smart people and the enthusiasm behind a new President for something that is not in the line of sight for the American people?  My advice to President Obama and his really scary colleagues (on both sides) in Congress is to focus on the economy and jobs.  The political capital spent to elevate and drive healthcare reform has been substantial but the outcome is not something the American people want…now.  We may need it but it is not what is wanted as unemployment stays high and people are seeing wages flat or below where they were last year.

No one has invited me to the Oval Office (yet) to share my opinion but the further the party in power heads towards Abilene the more they will feel the wrath of the electorate in the 2010 mid-terms and the 2012 presidential contest.

A year off every seven years?

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Sounds like a good plan to me. 

Listen to what Stefan Sagmeister has to say about the power of time off and think about how you'd pull this off.  This is about taking a few less years of retirement and living a little more during your working years.

Thanks to the folks from the TED conference for sharing this and for Stefan for making us think about it.  This event is definitely on my list to work my way into at some point.

The 3 Most Important Trends Affecting Business, Technology, and Communications

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I was recently asked about the three most important trends affecting business, technology, and communications.  Here is what I answered along with some additional thoughts on each:

1.  People are now able to rapidly connect based on shared needs, beliefs, or interests in ever smaller groups.

Connecting and sharing is now easier than ever with Facebook, Twitter, Ning, blogs, etc.  The list of ways to connect and share is very long but the important point here is that you don't need massive numbers to form an affinity group or micro-segment.

2.  Constant connectivity is blurring the line between personal and professional lives.

We all now come to work connected with our own mobile devices and computers as "work days" are evolving into a mix of personal pursuits and professional obligations that start way before 8am and end well after 5pm.  We all now have the ability to publish and build our individual brands so I am not just an employee of ABC company that does job X, I am a person with expertise who currently happens to work at ABC.  Read a few LinkedIn profiles and you'll see what I am talking about.

3.  Individuals are getting their news and information from places other than traditional media and are relying more on those with whom they are connected.

The turmoil traditional news sources, especially newspapers, are going through is widely known.  The cost structures of paper-based, advertising driven news does not translate to real-time news circulating on-line.  There are efforts underway to control access to news content and try to get to a workable new business model.  It is great to watch but I am darn glad I am not in that industry.  As "news" evolves and peer-based information sharing proliferates we will be informed by those we know or are connected to much more than by arm's length journalists. 

My answers are not the product of extensive research but rather how I see things coming together around me as I spend my days dealing with business, technology, and communications.  What do you think?

Workflow vs. Wizardry

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Ok, so I'm trying to be a bit clever with my title here but wanted to put a post out there about the difference between the technical innovation that powers a product and the workflow that product enables.  Cool technology for the sake of cool technology is great and all but in order for it to be worthy of paying for it must serve some functional need – established, in need of optimization, or newly created.

My first start up was a company called Idapta.  We had really cool technology built by some super smart people.  The only problem was that we were building for a market that had yet to materialize (everyone remembers the build it and they will come strategy around B2B marketplaces, right?).  As we tried to pivot into the world of supply chain management, we were woefully unprepared both functionally and institutionally to address the core workflow needs at the process level and the underlying legacy technology.

My point is that it is definitely important to push the window of innovation and build great new products but that has to be mapped back to the demand profile of your market.  There is either pent up or realized demand awaiting your clever new widget or latent (yet to be realized) need requiring you to spend time, money, and energy elevating that pain to the point of need for a solution.  Needless to say, the latter option is super expensive and can be a "long hard slog."

Are you building with the workflow of your target user in mind or just building what you want to?  What do your target customers/users currently use to do what you want them to do with your product?  Nothing?  Then you are going to be elevating pain.  Ridiculously inefficient process or manual workaround?  Then you are on to something.

Happy Thanksgiving…now unplug

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Off the grid mostly this week but wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.

I have much to be thankful for including health, an amazing (and patient) wife, two beautiful girls, and a faithful dog not to mention amazing professional opprtunities and life experiences.

Life moves ever faster these days so please take a moment to unplug, reflect, and appreciate the things that matter most (i.e., not your number of LinkedIn connections).

Three keys to a successful modern marketing plan

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I assembled these notes in advance of a presentation I thought I would be giving.  That didn't come together but I did want to share these three points here as "keys to a successful modern marketing plan."  There are definitely more parts to a plan than what is listed here but I believe these are especially relevant to what you can do and must do given how technology has changed both the approach and pace of marketing.

1.  Launch is a process not an event

Launch is not a one time event for your company.  Launch is a continuous process whether it is the release of new features, a partner announcement, or just a continuous flow of information and events that you are driving. 

I am not a fan of the "one shot" launch events.  Not because I don't think Techcrunch 50 or Demo are good events.  I just believe there are way too many variables that impact a positive outcome…and that the results of the outcome are fleeting.  Isolating everything that could potentially derail a demo or conflicts that could lead to a sparse audience is pretty much impossible so don't set yourself up for disappointment. 

I recommend laying out your time line and finding the events that support it.  Do not spend buckets of money on events although many require some level of sponsorship to get on stage.  Just be frugal about spend and critical of the opportunity.  If it seems to good to be true or it is presented (sold) as the "make or break" event for your company, move on.

2.  Identify on-line influencers in your domain & meet them

Everyone can be a publisher these days and there are no shortage of bloggers, podcasters, and amateur journalists in just about every industry and sub-industry.  A bit of time using a search engine will reveal lots of targets for your given domain that have huge readerships.  Engage with these on-line influencers, share your expertise, and provide content for their audiences.  Traditional newspaper circulation continues to decline so focus on those who focus on what you do and in your space rather than hope for that big article in the Wall Street Journal.  If what you are doing and saying is compelling (and you are really are on expert), those opportunities will find you.

3.  Embrace new technologies but don’t lose sight of fundamentals

Social media is a tactic, not a profession.  It has a role in the marketing mix and is a phenomenal customer support tool.  See it for what it is and understand it is a platform for your brand.  Use channels like Twitter, Facebook, and your blog to share news about you, about your industry, and to show off your expertise as well as that of others (yes, including your competitors).

For a bit of additional perspective, watch this video about how the fundamentals of B2B marketing stay the same:

Social Overload

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I am definitely beginning to suffer from this. 

I'm not talking about being social with people (old school social networking), I'm talking about all the ways I can "be social" while staring at my computer or my mobile device including all the activity streams coming from multiple sources across multiple accounts flowing in many directions.

I maintain accounts both personally and for work across a variety of networks including Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn and use a variety of tools to try to keep up (Tweetdeck, Google Reader, Echofon, Twitterberry, and a few others) with what is being said to me, about me, about my company, about competitors, and about interesting things related to the previous.  This doesn't even include the effort required to share relevant and valuable content back into this swarm of status updates, likes, and shares.  I currently have 343 feeds coming into Google Reader spanning various keyword and content alerts plus blogs that span messaging, collaboration, venture capital, start ups, marketing, capital markets, personal finance, and various towns and cities that I like to keep an eye on.  Oh, and don't forget about news outlets like The Wall Street Journal and CSPAN (yes, I really do follow CSPAN on Twitter).

And I won't even begin to bore you with the email volume in four different work and personal accounts.

The challenge is to actually listen to what is being said versus just talking and, more importantly, hear the important things and be conversational.

It may seem like a shameless pitch (I work there) to mention the value Gist currently delivers to me to make sense out of this massive flow of information.  It gives me the ability to get an update on people who are important to me, companies I am interested in, and all of the associated content, status updates, and related news. I don't even need to worry about not being hip to the latest trendy micro-messaging, sharing, friending thingy because if it is available as a public feed, Gist will find it and associate it with the right person. 

More great stuff is on the roadmap to address my social overload and it can't come too soon. 

Fifteen Great On-Demand Tools for Your Small Business

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I am lifting this list from the Seattle Tech Startups discussion thread because this response from Ksenia Oustiougova is too good not to share broadly.  Ksenia runs a great company here in Seattle called lilipip! that does animated marketing videos.

Here is her list in response to the question of "what tools do you use to manage your personal workload."  Her answer is a great snapshot of the tools used to run a small business and an example of how any company can access a wide variety of really great products on-demand and at relatively low cost these days.

  1. Project management – Basecamp
  2. CRM – Batchbook
  3. Documents (signing contracts) – EchoSign
  4. Docs automatically stored if sent by fax via eFax

  5. Invoicing – Freshbooks

  6. Taxes – OutRight

  7. Operations (manual, overseas VPA's, etc) – Google Docs

  8. Scheduling – Google Calendar

  9. Voice – Google Voice

  10. Newsletter – MailChimp 

  11. Birthday/Thank you cards – Plaxo

  12. Conferencing – Skype

  13. Video management/hosting/tracking – Wistia

  14. Money transferring (anywhere in the world) – Xoom

  15. Sending huge files – DropBox and YouSendIt

This is a great list.  I think I'd add a few like a blogging platform (Typepad or WordPress), a wiki/collaboration space (like PBWorks), and various Twitter tools (like Tweetdeck & CoTweet) as well as the fact that you can address all your email needs with Google Apps.  Other adds would include marketing specific items like PRWeb for press releases, Jigsaw for lead generation/list building, and, of course, Gist for personal relationship management.