We have been doing quite bit of debating at www.Wcx.me about the future. It is good to keep developing and brain storming ideas.
The more you brainstorm the more you are able to do it.
Blogging is a form of brain storming. As is debating a subject. With debating one can develop many more ideas and understanding of events that happen around us.
I recommend setting an hour per week to brainstorm, call it personal development.
Breath new live in to old ideas. A very nice piece. Organisations/companies have to participate in the conversation or try to influence it. The ivory tower is no more. That is why social media is so powerful. A bit like rock and roll in the sixties that broke down political and social barriers. Social media will do the same in the noughties.
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I remember years ago seeing a business seminar with Mike Southon, who said he had no idea why some ideas worked and others did not. He also mentioned that if it does not work you better move on quickly. Sound advice indeed, research is not a guarantee that a product is going to be successful in the marketplace, I have seen some of the most amazing research done to insure investment in different products here and in the UK only to fail.
So why research? One reason is to insure that basic due diligence in done on the idea. Secondly it is to secure investment whether time or monetary. It is great that you can verbalize your idea, but most people will want some proof of the idea and to take that idea/research away and think about it before making an investment.
So how do you do it? First you need to draw up a list of questions that if answered would achieve your research goal/business idea. For example these questions might provide clarity that there is a need in the market for your product.
Who is going to buy your product?
Why are they going to buy it?
How much would they be willing to pay for it?
Do you have any competitors?
What are the risks?
Then you need to go and find your answers, It is a good idea to get as a wide as possible review of your idea by as many people as possible. Be blunt and upfront, it is better now you get any possibly doubts people may have out of the way than when you have invested your time and money. When you have collected all this information it than time for analysis.
How one chooses to analysis the information is up to you. You could choose to do a swot analysis or my favourite a 360 review.
360 Review reveals crucial usability issues and offers actionable recommendations for improvement – before you invest in design. This review can include two complementary evaluation techniques in tandem: an Expert Review that focuses on what your design brings to users, and Usability Testing to examine what users bring to the design. More than a usability “to-do” list, 360 analysis identifies opportunities for cost savings and/or added revenue in your business model.
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Features |
Benefits |
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Stakeholder interviews to elicit business goals of the site/application. |
A comprehensive usability analysis – before you begin a redesign. |
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Analysis of navigation, task flow, content and visual design – benchmarked against research-based usability principles – with concrete recommendations. |
Keep your design efforts focused on the most important problems. |
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A usability test that targets your most important user task flows and interactions to uncover problem areas (performed remotely). |
Reliable recommendations backed by solid data are easier to “sell” internally. |
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Prioritized set of tactical recommendations based on proven usability principles and validated through direct user testing. |
Get timely, cost-effective feedback in just 3-4 weeks. |
When the analysis has been carried out and presuming that idea has survived and is still viable. It is time to look at competition:
Competition is exactly what it means, you are competing in a local and more and more in a global market. What is it that your organisation can do better then your competitors? You will need to get hold this idea and grow it as it is your biggest selling point against the competition.
As always please feel free to add you own ideas to this.
I do wonder where this comes from,
Simple Simon met a pie man going to the fair.
Said Simple Simon to the pie man
‘What have u got there?’
Said the pie man unto Simon
Pies you dickhead.
Mary had a little lamb
it ran into a pylon.
10,000 volts went up its bum
and turned its wool to nylon.
Georgie Porgie Pudding and Pie
kissed the girls and made them cry.
When the boys came out to play
he kissed them too cause he was gay.
Jack and Jill
Went up the hill
And planned to do some kissing.
Jack made a pass
and grabbed her ass
Now two of his teeth are missing.
Mary had a little lamb
Its fleece was white and wispy.
Then it caught Foot and Mouth Disease
And now it’s black and crispy.
Last couple of days if would appear that we hear nothing else on the radio and TV other than the banking crisis that is happening around the world. It would seem unlike the days of old. When things in the 21st century happen they happen at lightening speed. In the matter of 6 months I never heard so much analysis over the current credit crunch. The more we talk about it the less real it becomes. Just today ideas are being floated for a government managed mortgage lending. In a free society this pushes beyond the realms of reasonable. Is all this discussion helping us? do we need someone to make a decision? What do you think?
It is not particular hard to understand that what goes up must come down. We can not expect to have year after year growth in housing prices. It is just not possible. Of course the problem is nobody wants to feel the pain to put it right. Least of all the current Labour party, but I suspect for a lot people there will be real hardships in this changed environment.
What would be your strategy?
I have just been reading this morning about two companies on Tech Crunch, The first one last year won the Tech Crunch awards for best start up. The company in question is called Mint their website is about managing your finances and they do it very well. According to the stats they are getting ten thousand new users signing up per day. If that figure is correct than they have truly made a mark.
So far they have received flurry of investment in the multi millions since winning the 50,000 dollar prize money from Tech Crunch.
The second company that has caught my imagination this morning is Drive Side, another great idea about taking the guess work out of getting your car repaired. They have set up a website where people can list work they have had done and how much they have paid for it. They can also build there own garages so users can see any work or modification they are doing to their car. Hats of boys, it is a great idea.
Links make the internet, without a doubt the Internet consist of millions and millions of links. These links form the backbone of the internet and also provide a way for the major search engines to monitor which sites are more important than other ones.
How does this work?
If the main objective of your website/blog is to insure a steady stream of visitors then you are going to have to do some linking.
What are links?
Links are URLs or web addresses like this one www.workconnexions.com That can link a word to a website or the reverse.
How do you get them?
1. A visitor to your website may like what she is reading if they like it enough they may decide to put a link on their website or in a blog post to your website.
2. If you have friends that blog you can ask them to link to your website if they blog in the same topic sphere or consider it to be interesting enough?
3. Another way to generate links it to link to other peoples content they will then be able to see that you have linked and may decide to link back.
What are the best links to have?
The best links to have our from high ranking websites. Google ranks all websites from 1 to 10 with Ten being the highest. The higher the page the more valuable the link is.
Is Commenting on a blog/website Linking?
Yes if you leave a comment on a blog or on a news/web site. What you may have not be aware of is that some sites while allowing commenting, do not allow Google to follow the links. So your comment/link may well have no effect on your site. This is known as no follow. There are a number of applications that can monitor this in your browser.
After a couple months of you will be able to monitor how successful you have been by using this tool. http://www.analyzebacklinks.com/ Happy linking…. check some of my links in the link love section.
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