Month: August 2011
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What “Fail Fast, Fail Often” Means
What if we have so many customers knocking down our door that we can’t support them all? What if our support is so bad, they never come back? We should build our company and technology for that day, just in case. This hypothesis keeps companies overbuilding their product for an eventuality that will probably never…
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The Know Nothing
In a study, participants were asked to estimate something about their own ability. They overestimated. Others were told that statistically every person overestimates their ability, then they were asked to make the estimate. They still overestimated their ability, BY THE SAME AMOUNT. In other words, they told themselves, “Yes, other people don’t think clearly about…
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The Beach Vendor Sales Cycle
There are certain fundamentals of business that can be observed in almost any environment. Today, at the beach in Manzanillo, Mexico, a wide variety of vendors walked passed us, each selling wares that were quite varied: donuts, candies, mangos, tamales, blankets, wooden statues, bathing suits, jewelry, temporary tattoos, and even rubber chickens. All day long…
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Blind Spots
All of us have a blind spot where our optic nerve exits the eye. So why do we not have a floating black spot in front of our eye? Because our eye covers over and fills that area, so that we can’t see the gap. We are blind to our own blind spots. (If you’ve…