Tuesday, January 31, 2012

More on the REAL Need

I took my daughter to a dance class yesterday and somehow I left with a reminder about how technology can address fundamental needs in creative ways, but still connect people with something they know and are comfortable with.

As we were getting ready to leave, I noticed parents lining up to sign their kids on for more classes. Near the end of each conversation, a credit card came out and the organizer swiped it through her Square reader hooked up to her iPhone.

Forget about the mind-blowing nature of this transaction. We all know that five years ago, nobody could have imagined such a thing. What clicked in my mind was how second nature this transaction has become in Silicon Valley. Whether it's a dance class instructor or a food truck driver, people are willing to hand their card over to be swiped through this device.

Now, I know there's a level of comfort people have simply because they're more comfortable with technology and everyone seems to have a smartphone nowadays.

But what I started thinking about was why people seem to be so willing to finalize a transaction in this way. Afterall, who knows what could be on the dance coordinator's iPhone screen? She could have been stealing the info for later use.

I think a lot of this comes from the fact that this mind-blowing technology is couched in something we're all familiar with:

  • The physical card itself
  • The swipe to pay.

We whip out our cards and swipe away at the grocery store, the gas station, and the ATM. At those locations, the machines are hard wired devices with presumably high levels of security to prevent theft. The mental leap of doing online transactions is actually pretty big if you think about it. There's good reason to distrust random websites and avoid entering in your CC info there. But there's something about the physical swipe of a CC that lends an air of security. Nobody typing in your CC info. Just swiping and you get an email to confirm.

There are lots of payment solutions out there. However, I believe part of the reason Square is succeeding is by tying their payment method back to something everyone understands: the card in your wallet and swipe through a device. Of course they've made things easy for small business owners too, but ease of setup & standardized fees can only go so far if the consumer doesn't feel comfortable using that payment method.

And that's exactly what Square is addressing...the REAL need isn't simply the ABILITY to pay, but having confidence in the WAY to pay. And the way they're providing that confidence by tying it to something that's been in our pockets for years.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Making Social Networks Something Constructive

In my last post I mentioned that I was practicing my coding my building a simple task-list and connecting it to Facebook. This gave me the chance to learn a lot more about Facebook's Open Graph and see examples of how it could be used.

Most of the FB-connected apps I've seen are cool and potentially useful, but typically not constructive. Spotify's connections into FB are slick and I've found new music or re-discovered stuff I hadn't heard in ages just by seeing what my friends are listening to. And I don't need to go anywhere except down my FB ticker.

But let's face it, something like Spotify's postings are cool, but far from constructive. And I know my task-list is similar. It's cool to be able to assign tasks to friends, but it's not going any where if that's all there is. That wasn't my point anyways since it was just coding practice. But as I was building it out I really started to think about how something really useful or constructive could be built to leverage FB's Open Graph or Twitter, G+, etc.

So this morning, I started playing around with Votizen and it's one of the first times I've seen something take advantage of the simple aspects of FB's Open Graph and make it potentially very constructive. Now that I understand more about FB's Graph, things started clicking in my mind as I went through a few pages on Votizen. Simple things like pulling in my friends' Likes of Political candidates or their frequency of voting is something which can be built upon and made into something much greater.

I won't get into what may scare people in terms of whether they want a site to track their voting preferences since there will always be detractors who don't want personal info shared out. Those folks needs to figure out what's personal to them and avoid posting or talking about it. Meanwhile, I'm happy to tell people who I plan to vote for and I want to know what my friends plan to do in that regard too.

Back to the idea of building something constructive on the back of FB's Open Graph...

I see Votizen as trying to change the paradigm of candidate endorsement. Rather than focus on famous or well-connected people or newspapers endorsing political candidates, let's focus on who WE want to endorse. Let's focus on who our FRIENDS want to endorse. Sure it'll be nice to know who Jerry Brown or the LA Times endorses this political season, but I see Votizen as a wonderful way to leverage the social networks we built-up so well and use it for a constructive purpose of getting and staying engaged about political matters. And rather than just seeing endorsements on my FB ticker, I see this as a way to build engagement amongst friends about this.

I look forward to what Votizen has to offer this political season.

I also look forward to what other constructive ideas are built upon our social networks. It's what will take FB/Twitter/G+ from a simple "time pass" activity to being way more useful and meaningful.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

What's the Real Problem?

My friend Maneesh posted this article about BIG problems and, interestingly enough, it got me thinking about SMALL problems. Well, more like fundamental problems, whether they're big or small...


The problem with startups is that they can’t solve the big problems.


I've been putting together a simple to-do list for a little coding practice and it got me thinking about what it could be used for. While thinking about that, I found countless task list applications (web apps, mobile apps, etc). While they each tend to have a compelling feature and some are more elegant than others, I realized that the PROBLEM isn't about the task list itself. I mean, a piece of paper (or txt file) is more than enough to keep track of things that need to get done. Even the prioritization of those things isn't the problem. Again, you can just add a number in pencil to each item and change it as you please. The problem that I think most people are looking to address by using a to-do list is more around actually GETTING THOSE THINGS DONE. The tasks could be in the most elegant app with the coolest font, but that doesn't change things when there's a lack of motivation or thought process around actually getting those things done. Sure many apps add in functionality around helping to organize those thoughts and prioritize to just the most important things (thereby helping with motivation I suppose), but in the end, if the person writing those tasks down (or typing them up) doesn't actually follow-up, then what purpose does any part of the app serve?

So what's my point?

Well, from my week of looking at task lists, I've found there are great apps out there which are clean, elegant, & simple to use. But they gloss over what most "to-doers" likely need (eg, the problem they're trying to solve). They're not looking to write down their tasks. They're looking to get them done. And continue getting them done.

So maybe less fluff in a task app helps focus on actually getting things done and automated reminders can help with the on-going motivation, but I think that unless a solution actually helps clear the way to getting those things done, it may as well be a simple sheet of paper (or text file) with numbers noting priority. Anything beyond that is fluff and doesn't actually get at the real problem.


In the case of task lists, I think a "Getting things done" philosophy is way more important than any app designed to help you track your tasks. I can attest to this since for several years now, I've followed it religiously and it keeps my inbox to a minimum and my tasks keep getting done. So while many app developers may think of great ideas to make managing tasks a little easier, I don't think they're addressing their users' fundamental task oriented problems unless they push David Allen's GTD philosophy.


Of course there's not much money to be made in just pointing to an existing approach or website. So it's no surprise that developers keep trying to re-build task lists. And in the meantime, people will continue to hunt for the perfect task app to solve their real problem.

I'd love to hear more about your thoughts how apps can focus more on the real problems that people face, thereby solving those problems.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Just write it down

I had drinks with a friend today and we got to talking about how much I'm learning as I delve into the world and people behind startups. A lot of it is eye-opening. However, the key thing I told Asad is that my mind is finally racing with thoughts based on what I'm reading.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not having epiphanies or anything. But I feel like I'm finally thinking about things other than my daily tasks. And it's exciting.

So Asad suggested I should write these things down.

So that's what I'm doing.

I've used this blog for various topics over the years. Now I'm going to use it to note down my thoughts as I read and learn. I'm going to try to keep the posts short, but knowing me, I'll end up with long posts since I want to articulate my thoughts and I become wordy in the process.

Anyways, I hope to post short-ish entries many times a week. I may simply comment on an article or I may write down my crystalized thoughts on a huge topic. But I'll get it in writing for all to read.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you continue to do so!