The evolution of the interface

Why would anyone want to take their hands off the keyboard?   I can do things a lot faster via the keyboard than with this stupid mouse.  And thus everyone thought the graphical interface was a fad or a dumbing down of the system.  Of course at first this was true.   It did take longer to go to file, print than / f,  p.  

Then the interface evolved and become not bound by words and text only.  I could have pictures of what the function did.  I could nested menus.  I could multi task and quickly switch applications and thus programmers, designers and users made the most of what was available to them, and no one wants to go back.

I expect a similar evolution with the touch interface.  Everyone today says "the mouse is much faster"  I have to reach up and touch the computer screen.  My guess is that the interface will evolve and my best guess as that manifests itself in being able to talk to your computer.  My andriod device has that feature and it's surprisingly better than any Text to speech I've used.  My guess is partially expectations have changed, partially the technology has gotten better thanks to the cloud, and probably most importantly we have learned how to "speak to the computer" articulating our words better and speaking in short bursts.

There's no going back from touch,  just like no one will want to go back to the monochrome screen, but we will evolve and the technology will evolve with us.

Horse Shoe professional

The days of companies needing someone to "fix their computers" or "maintain their systems" are coming to a close.  You don't need the equivalent of a computer plumber around your Small business or  your house.  At the least you'll  need less of them.  Cloud services and stateless devices will render the days of needing your computer fixed into history like needing your horses shoed .   Local storage will only be a cache of what's on the web and if your computer breaks you'll just replace it login and everything will be just like you left it.

This process will continue into services like email, and even line of business software.  The highest and best use for those people and resources is in a consolidated company where all they do is email, or file sharing or data and storage managerial and sell those services, it's really what's most efficient for everyone.

Real IT people will need to prove their worth by taking their company to levels beyond what can be achieved in the open market.  Your company doesn't need you anymore to pick out the best email, or the best laptops. If your company had IT to just keep things running the good news is you won't need them much longer.  Small business will have all newest technology pushed on them from their suppliers, vendors and business partners.  The bad news is that you'll then be like everyone else.  The good news is you can take those dollars and reallocate them into not being told what to do but innovating into real market differentiators so you can tell others what to do.

thoughts on having the right people

a friend of mine ask me my thoughts on retention and hiring.  I decided to post them here since it too me so long to catalyze them. Many of the ideas aren’t my own but just what I’ve read and incorporated into my management style.  Not sure that there’s much you can use in here.   But here are my thoughts.


As it relates to interviewing people I remember the lesson learned from the book “peopleware”.  The author states that if you were hiring for a juggler for the circus what's the one thing you would want to see?   Of course the answer is juggle.  However, most technical people are hired without ever "juggling".   Therefore, when getting down to a few candidates (normally two or three) we ask them to come in and present to the group a technical topic of their choosing.  If they are a developer usually a code walkthrough is normal with a time of Q&A from the rest of the team.  This does two things it allows us to see the candidate "juggle" and helps other team members have buy-in to the process. During the screening process I look for people with demonstrated drive and passion for what they do. Particular skill sets aren't the most important.  Things that are most important are  fit with the team, aptitude, and passion for what they do.  Getting the right person and not settling is only half the battle as we all know a single good person is worth more than two mediocre people.

Once you get the right person keeping them there is key.  The most important thing is to make sure they feel their work is meaningful. This is the single biggest driver to a person’s happiness in their job.  You want to make sure that key people feel like they are making contribution to the both their goals and that of the organization.  Much has already been written on motivation, money and recognition.  I think Daniel Pink talks a lot about these ideas in “drive”.  My goal is to replace some of the market norms with social norms. This kind of thing was talked about in the book “predictably irrational”.  The methodology is to really get to know my employees and find out what's important to them.   For example, If a guy likes to play golf I'll tell him to cut out at noon and pay for him to play golf.   In turn I hope this builds loyalty to our company.   I don't believe in scheduled bonuses as I think they just become an expected part of salary.  I try and give unexpected project bonuses.   However, the most memorable  bonuses are those like the wii to the game player or the ipod to the music lover.   These type of non monetary bonuses are viewed by the employee as  worth more than just a check.  Additionally,  as a group we try and go on a few departmental outings or lunches and schedule some late night departmental game nights.  Building a tightly knit team who have shared goals and meaningful work is ultimately how you retain the best talent.   Make them love to come to work.

Open mouth insert....never mind I deleted it

It's obvious that the "recall " message function in email systems have become useless in the world of blackberries and distributed systems if you say something you shouldn't that's too bad. Just like the real world you ju st have to apologize over and over if you screw up. The other day I received an offer via email that was an accident. The company spent the rest of the day doing damage control over the accidental email.

Enter the cloud and social. If I screw up there I just delete it. If I catch it soon enough maybe no one sees it. If I don't I can at least get rid of the "evidence" and limit the damage from others who might see it. Of course all this depends on s "closed" system and that I can trust the site to allow me to permanently expunge it from the record. I'm not saying this is good or bad but seems to be a difference in email vs other systems.

Rolex or an app for your company

I really have to hand it to apple. They make technology both elegant and very usable. Almost too much so. People who love tech have seen the possibilities of the moblie internet for a long time but no matter how we tried to explain all execs could see is the utility of email on their very ugly blackberries. Enter apple with the iPhone so easy even a CEO can browse the Internet using it. Then along comes golf apps and other executive apps that are easy to install and use, suddenly everyone can see the "future" and the future is apps.

Now most technologists would say maybe just a nice moblie site will do. No we need an app. Why? Thie app is the new status artifact for the CEO. It says that my company is leading edge and here's a conversation starter let me show you our app. So while a good suit and a nice watch would have worked 10 years ago now to show that we mean business I'll need to show you my app.

Moving about

So yesterday I found out that a friend I had I the fairview youth group passed away in a car wreck. Garrett bowlan was driving about 7:30 in the morning in Woodward when he crossead the center line and hit a semi head on.

Automobile accidents for some reason have become "acceptable" losses for our society. Really technologically there's no reason this has to be the case. An proper infstucture and standards could not only eliminate accidents but also increase productivity during commute time and probably change some social norms about the need to own ones own car.

Pods of single rider trains are the future and hopefully in between we can create something to make our lives more productive and less full of a late night surprise phone call about someone we care about

It's magical

So this is my first post from my iPad. When jobs unveiled it I was Pretty skeptical. So much so I really didn't want one. But as I saw innovation from the devs specifically the flipboard and netflix I wanted to try it. So I bought a used one. (which is a story for another day)

One of the things I noticed quickly though is that it's really a "lean back device". It's great for reading rss and Twitter and Facebook. Is is what I spend the majority of my time doing in the evening on the couch. I'm nit sure how great it will be for actually doing anything but I will say I agree with jobs that the technology really gets out of the way and you can consume the media. Also the battery is all it's cracked up to be.

While I would have preferred to get an android device I don't think we'll see one until the end of the year or maybe first of 2011. Even then the apps will be far behind what the apple devs are doing. But there's no doubt that they will catch up and when they do I'm sure it will be time for the Jackson family to get a new tablet..

Only time will tell if the honeymoon phase wears off and I have buyers remorse. So far though its pert great

Your last 4 years

These are the last 4 years, that should be your thoughts when the right company enters your market. 4 years before my industry is forever changed. In 2000 napster was released and then shortly on the heels of that itunes was released by 2008 they were the largest music retailer. The kindle was released and 4 years later they were selling more virtual books than hardbound books. 1998 google received it's first funding by 2002 they were the largest search engine.

Once the right company enters the market it's too late. How will you know, because by the time you do it will be too late. You won't disappear overnight, it will be happen over time. A little slower next year than last until finally there's no margin or volume left. Do you have a plan B, or can you devlop the right product to be "That company"