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Finished reading “Cut to the Chase”

I picked up “Cut to the Chase: and 99 Other Rules to Liberate Yourself and Gain Back the Gift of Time“ on the recommendation of Personal MBA reading list. It’s a quick read, containing 100 short (< 2 page) tips on professional behaviors that reduce wasted time.

In the spirit of cutting to the chase, I’ll summarize with a few bullet points:

Pros:

• A quick read
• The short chapters make it easy to pick up when you have a few minutes
• The lessons are good, and tend to reflect the habits of effective senior management
• Feels like the kind of book you could pick up once a quarter to glance over the Table of Contents as a reminder to focus on what’s important
• If you’re new to the professional world, reading this will definitely give you an insight into the type of behavior you’re likely to encounter when interacting with senior management; And it should help you prepare for the type of communication styles expected of you

Cons:

• If you’ve been in business for while, you probably should know this stuff already
• If you’re new to the professional world, you may have fewer opportunities to practice this stuff (though better to get started now then not know how to manage your time when you are tasked with greater responsibilities)
• Depending on your work environment, the lessons may be a little too “harsh” — ie., these are techniques for efficient time management, not for making friends

Overall, my reaction is positive. There were certainly a few lessons in there that I look forward to applying to my working style.

Netflix shows the world how not to treat your customers by dropping Profiles — Updated: Change of plans

Like many other Netflix customers, I received the “Important News Regarding Netflix Profiles” email this week stating that Netflix “will be eliminating Profiles, the feature that allowed you to set up separate DVD Queues under one account, effective September 1, 2008.” Upon reading it, the claim sounded so absurd that I assumed it was phishing/spam. Seriously.

Sadly, the news started showing up with quotes and claims that the statement may actually be true. “Netflix Eliminating Account Profiles” (on hackingnetflix.com) claims that “Netflix spokesperson Steve Swasey said that the decision to eliminate Profiles is a ‘final decision.’”

Here’s the kicker though; The now famous email ends with, “While it may be disappointing to see Profiles go away, this change will help us continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers.” Really? How so?

For those not familiar with Netflix Profiles, the feature was somewhat unique. Instead of having a single persona per account, Netflix Profiles allowed a single account (ie., household) to setup multiple profiles (ie., husband, wife, kids, pets, etc.), so that each profile could manage their own rental queue. It also allowed the main account holder (ie. the parents) to review the other profile’s queue (ie., the kids) and set limitations, like whether the profiles were allowed to rent R-rated movies. The feature was amazingly helpful in eliminating arguments about who controlled the rental queue.

Removing features from a product can be a tough decision for any Product Manager. Features that are rarely used are easy to toss aside; But (market differentiating) features that customers love should never be thrown out without helping the customers replace or replicate the same benefit in another manner. In this case, Netflix dropped a much-loved feature, but left their customers without an alternative (other then opening more Netflix accounts, which isn’t a likely reaction for irritated customers.)

For more:

• Netflix Eliminating Profiles: Tells Us We Don’t Own Our Data

[Update: 2008-06-30] Complaining works! Netflix just announced that they are keeping Profiles:

You spoke, and we listened. We are keeping Profiles. Thank you for all the calls and emails telling us how important Profiles are.

We are sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused. We hope the next time you hear from us we will delight, and not disappoint, you.

Tips for ASP’s

I’ve been doing a lot of work lately focused on researching content and Web-service providers, and it’s amazing how differently companies respond to inquiry. As a result, I’ve pulled together a few tips for the budding Web-services entrepreneur’s out there:

1. Make it easy to contact whomever is responsible for business development. Auto-responders aren’t necessary, but be sure to get back to the person inquiring promptly. A business development manager is the first-line of exposure into a company, and the experience interacting with this person goes a long way in setting the tone for future relations.
2. If your service costs thousands per month, have some marketing materials. This should include a presentation on your product/service, it’s features, and your approach to pricing. It should be a non-issue to email this to anyone who inquires about your service. (If you don’t have materials on your offering, that sends a message that you haven’t really thought about selling it.)
3. If your service is used via Web API’s, have some samples and documentation on-hand to send to anyone evaluating the service. Remember, the person on the other end is trying to figure out how hard it will be to integrate with your service. The easier you can make this person’s job, the better.
4. Follow through. This is a general good-practice, but when you say you’re going to delver a document about your service, follow through. If you can’t follow through up-front, you’re sending a message that things are going to be very difficult in the future if there’s ever a problem. (Sometimes the right business decision is to stay away from a vendor that looks shaky, no matter how good the service sounds.)
5. Know who your competition is and don’t be afraid to acknowledge them. A potential customer researching your service has probably talked to your competitors too, and you should have some ideas on how your product/service differentiates itself from theirs. Note that this includes not just the people you’d like to be compared to, but also the companies that show up in the same paragraph as you on TechCrunch.
6. Don’t introduce NDA’s too early. Remember, it’s your execution that’s valuable, not the ideas.
7. Learn from the experience. Don’t be afraid to follow-up with someone even if your company was not selected as the final service provider. Doing a little win/loss analysis will help you prepare for next time — and maintaining a good relationship may pay off down the line.
8. Don’t forget that the person asking about your service may have done their homework, and you can use that information. They very well may have researched your leadership team, read their blogs, looked at their LinkedIn profiles, talked to your VC’s, and searched for mailing list posts from your engineers. They may know a great deal about how your company looks from the outside, and there’s no reason not to ask their opinion.