Posts tagged Mike
App Genius Mike Lee Talks Product Engineering
Sep 20th
Mike Lee has been involved in what are arguably some of the software industry’s best applications. Delicious Library, Tap Tap Revenge, the Obama ’08 app, and Apple’s mobile store. Lee has a pretty good idea what users want, and spent about an hour at the St. Louis Strange Loop 2011 conference talking about product engineering and why it’s best to imagine users as lazy, stupid, impatient and selfish. Did I mention he was wearing a Mariachi outfit?
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Lee had the audience’s attention from the start – not by accident. But he didn’t explain, right away, why he was sporting a slightly unusual outfit for a developer conference. Instead he started with some golden rules for application (and product) development:
- Technology is first and foremost a people problem.
- You can’t force people, you must tempt them.
- New must be better than the old.
These apply to all products, says Lee, but his specialty is apps. So how best to approach application development?
Ignorant and Apathetic
In the real world, Lee says it’s best to assume the best of people. In engineering, however, Lee says that it’s best to pretend that people are lazy, stupid, impatient and selfish. That’s not true, of course, says Lee. “People are not ignorant and apathetic, but they do not know and do not care about your product.”
The point, of course, is not to insult users – it’s that software engineers and others on app design teams need to understand that users have better things to do than to learn how to use an app.
Lee also wants to get rid of the idea that great apps are revolutionary. “Great products are not revolutionary, they’re boring with a little layer of revolutionary.”
One example is the classic iPod. At launch, many thought it would fail. There was no legitimate way to put music on it, it had no FM tuner, etc. But it succeeded and ultimately led to the iPad. But Apple couldn’t have started with the iPad, says Lee. “If Apple had simply come out with the iPad 2, heads would have exploded but product would not have moved.”
Most Ideas Are Terrible
Ideas, themselves, really aren’t worth that much according to Lee. “Most ideas are terrible… ideas are not a dime a dozen. I would not pay you a dime to listen to a dozen of your ideas, I’d charge you $1,000.”
What’s important is quality. Lee says that most people are in love with their ideas, but what’s necessary is to cut down to the bare idea. Ask how your solution solves a problem, and how and why is it better than other solutions.
Make a Video
Instead of jumping straight to creating a product, Lee suggests that you make a commercial or video for the product. Explain it, and why people should buy it. The goal is to act it out, and be able to explain to potential hires or investors or customers why they want it. Once that’s solved, then start work.
Marketing, says Lee, shouldn’t run companies – but marketing materials should be produced early.
How to Pick a Platform
One thing that many developers struggle with is deciding which platform to target. Lee says this is simple – pick the platform you like and work on that one.
Maybe Android has more users than iOS, but who cares if you hate Android? Your app is not going to be as good for Android if you love working on iOS. (Of course, the converse is true as well.) Lee points out that most platforms have enough users for an app to succeed. The key is to capture enough users on the platform to succeed, and just moving to another platform won’t fix that.
Once you’ve conquered a platform and have users demanding you port to another platform, is the time to start supporting a second platform.
But don’t try to serve multiple platforms with the same team, says Lee. Instead, companies need “n+1″ teams for the number of platforms they support – where “n” is the number of platforms. What’s the extra team for? Lee says to split out the back-end/business logic support so that one team handles that, the rest is handled by platform specific teams that love those platforms.
Testing
A lot of developers worry about technical debt. What’s worse than technical debt? Social debt. You get social debt by shipping a bad product, and having to overcome that first impression with later iterations of an app or product.
You get one and only one chance to make a first impression. Lee says that companies and individual developers need to test as if they were tested by their archnemesis. “No one should hate you and your company and products more than you.” Test your code as if it were written by your worst enemy, says Lee. You’re not testing to prove that the app works. Instead, you’re looking to prove that it doesn’t. If you can’t prove it doesn’t work, then you’re good shape.
Eventually, you do have to ship. That isn’t an excuse, says Lee, to ship a lousy product. If you have to cut, cut features and not quality.
One example of a product burdened by social debt is Microsoft’s Kinect technology. Lee says that he avoided playing with the Kinect for a long time until coerced by friends. “Microsoft is not a company that has built a reputation for delivering on technical promises… the sad thing is the Kinect is kind of awesome… the problem is the guys [Microsoft] had dug themselves in a hole.”
The Hook
So how do you tel when a product is ready? Here Lee finally addressed the Mariachi question. Why did he dress up like a Mariachi for a room full of developers? To get attention, of course. To give the audience a “holy crap!” moment to convince them they wanted to have their butts in the seats and hear what he had to say.
Apps need the “holy crap!” moment too. They need a hook to be successful. Take Delicious Library, for instance. It’s not the first application that manages a person’s media library. But the “holy crap” moment for Delicious Library is when users realize they can use their iSight camera to scan barcodes instead of typing in all their data.
Special Word for Patent Trolls
After laying down the product development science, Lee spent a short amount of time talking about anti-user and anti-developer forces. Namely, he wound down his talk with some unkind words for patent trolls, which is not new for Lee.
But what was new is the Operation Anthill legal foundation for protecting app makers. An offshoot of Appsterdam, Operation Anthill is an effort to “promote and preserve” app makers and their business from “extortionists who use litigation as a business model.” While Lee’s entire talk was well-received, his anti-patent message got the most enthusiastic response by far.
Finally, Lee closed the talk by promoting Appsterdam as a project, and Amsterdam (his home) as a place to live and work. The Netherlands, says Lee, “is a really well-run country” full of nerds. “Even the non-nerdiest Dutch person is nerdier than the average American.”
Of all the talks at Strange Loop 2011, I think Lee’s was probably the most useful and certainly the most entertaining. If you take Lee’s advice to heart, your apps (and users) will thank you. Me too, if I have to use your apps.
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Fighting Search Spam with Blekko Co-Founder Mike Markson – Deadbolt
Mar 24th
 Deadbolt |
Fighting Search Spam with Blekko Co-Founder Mike Markson
Deadbolt Earlier this week, new search kid on the block, Blekko, founded by Rich Skrenta and Mike Markson, entered into a new partnership with SEO platform leader BrightEdge to take web search into a new era by delivering accessible tools to the … |
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SEO Expert Mike Luchen Has Been Recognized for His Success in Internet … – PR-USA.net (press release)
Mar 6th
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SEO Expert Mike Luchen Has Been Recognized for His Success in Internet …
PR-USA.net (press release) Mike uses a holistic approach to successful marketing that include the use of SEO SEM online marketing advertising, public relations, social media marketing, Google Maps, Yahoo and local listings. Using the most technologically advanced strategies to … |
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SEO Expert Mike Luchen Has Been Recognized for His Success in Internet … – Centre Daily Times
Mar 4th
 1888 Press Release (press release) |
SEO Expert Mike Luchen Has Been Recognized for His Success in Internet …
Centre Daily Times Mike uses a holistic approach to successful marketing that include the use of SEO SEM online marketing advertising, public relations, social media marketing, Google Maps, Yahoo and local listings. Using the most technologically advanced strategies to … Mike Luchen of Westchester County New York Extreme Marketing and Consulting … |
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Mike Luchen of Westchester County New York Extreme Marketing and Consulting … – 1888 Press Release (press release)
Mar 2nd
1888 Press Release (press release) |
Mike Luchen of Westchester County New York Extreme Marketing and Consulting …
1888 Press Release (press release) Westchester County New York SEO SEM Internet Marketing Social Media Websites Mike Luchen – SEO Expert has been recognized for his success in helping business achieve their goals for growth and success using the Internet and Social Media resources to … |
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Mike Luchen of Extreme Marketing Westchester County NY Takes Internet … – 1888 Press Release (press release)
Feb 19th
 1888 Press Release (press release) |
Mike Luchen of Extreme Marketing Westchester County NY Takes Internet …
1888 Press Release (press release) When Talking to Mike Luchen of Extreme Marketing and Consulting and Taking a Look at What Extreme Marketing Does For Clients To Help Them Skyrocket There Business, Product or Service in New York, New Jersey or Connecticut. We Are Just Simply Amazed. … |
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MP Interview: Mike Blumenthal, Local Internet Marketing Pro – Marketing Pilgrim
Jan 8th
 Marketing Pilgrim |
MP Interview: Mike Blumenthal, Local Internet Marketing Pro
Marketing Pilgrim Whether it's the ins and outs of Google local search in general and Place search specifically or the importance of blending your site SEO with your total … |
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2011 Predictions: Mike Melanson
Dec 28th
Editor’s note: Every December the ReadWriteWeb team looks into the murky depths of the coming year and tries to predict the future. How did we do last year? Well, Facebook didn’t go public, Google Wave didn’t make a comeback, and Spotify didn’t make it to the U.S. But our forecasts for Google Chrome, cloud computing, Facebook and something we called the “iTablet” were spot on. What’s in store for 2011? All this week we’ll be posting our predictions. Let us know your prognostications in the comments.
1: The idea of the “real-time Web” will become the standard as dynamic, real-time content permeates every corner of the Web. Beyond updates, commenting, and news, the movement toward real-time will finally begin to fully realize the connection between the Web and the Internet of Things. Instead of hacks and mashups telling us when the next bus is coming or what point in the journey our package is in, we’ll have real-time tracking via RFID or other IOT technologies.
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2: Complex Internet TV systems like Google TV will find a way to become screen-agnostic or simpler, cheaper systems like Roku Box will win out with consumers. For these more complex integrations to work, they’ll also need to refine their operating systems and offer integration with a wider variety of cable TV content. We have plenty of access to our email already. We don’t want to pay $300 to see it on our TV screen too.
3: Mobile payment systems will continue to make in-roads in the US, especially as online payment systems become more widely accepted. They won’t, however, have the same traction as these same systems in countries where the realities of everyday life necessitate them. (IE mobile payment systems in parts of Africa help workers protect themselves from getting mugged on their monthly pay day, according to one story I remember hearing on NPR.)
4: Speaking of money, we’re going to see Facebook really do something with its virtual currency, Facebook Credits, over the next year. So far, the company got rid of its virtual gift store and made credits available for purchase using PayPal. They’re now usable for in-game purchases, but we have yet to see the cross-over to the real world. We might see Facebook Credits become a real live currency in 2011, with users having the ability to buy tickets to events (remember that Eventbrite partnership stuff we saw earlier this year?) and maybe even make phone calls over Skype (there has to be more to that Skype/Facebook partnership, right?).
5: Over the last several months, we’ve heard more and more that Twitter is not just a place to go and tell us what you did for lunch – it’s a place to go read about what other people ate for lunch. Okay, I jest. But really, Twitter is working on transitioning to a more consumer friendly, consumption-based tool and that’s what we’re going to see in 2011. The website redesign was just the beginning. Now, the company is going to figure out (beyond a list of 10 trending topics) how to filter and aggregate all that content and make it useful to the average Web user. And then stick some more advertising in there, likely of the local variety.
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AOL Acquires TechCrunch and Mike Arrington is Really Excited About It
Sep 29th
Yesterday the news broke that AOL had acquired TechCrunch, the technology-oriented and web properties community. A lot of speculation has been going around as to what will happen to the soul of TC and all the people that work there. In the post, Mike Arrington lays it all out on the line.
Arrington explains that nothing is going to change on the blog, they will continue to write and run it as they always have, and that is precisely what AOL wants them to do. He goes on to say that the thing that made the deal the most enticing is the fact that he himself would now have more time to contribute to posts with his writing instead of having to worry about “endless tech problems”. Since AOL runs “the largest blogging network in the world”, Mike and his team need only focus on things that make them great – their tech talk.
He says that he will be staying on for a “very, very long time” and that his staff have all been given good incentive to do the same. I for one am concerned about the future of TC, as it is definitely a daily read for me in my line of work. I know that TechCrunch has a huge and loyal following of techies and non-techies alike that would be very disheartened to see the site take a turn for the worst or become watered down to an AOL-praising series of daily love letters; Arrington assures us this will not be the case. With that said, I offer my humble congratulations to the Mike Arrington, AOL, and the entire TC team for the seemingly good fit!
Lets hope this brings about a stronger, more thriving TechCrunch!
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AOL Acquires TechCrunch and Mike Arrington is Really Excited About It
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