Communicating w/ brilyuhnt software developers

Most entrepreneurs excel at communicating their business vision, but when it comes to websites and mobile apps, they sometimes lack the background to explain the finer details of what they are seeking.
If entrepreneurs simply let a product developer take the reins, they may be surprised and even frustrated when the end result is inconsistent with the vision. To minimize misunderstanding and save time and money, entrepreneurs should learn how to sketch board, wireframe and prototype their ideas, web pages and the screens of their application.
If this all sounds too technical, don't worry. Below are tools and tips that can help improve communication between you and your software engineer:

1. Sketch boards and storyboards: Sketch boarding is a simple technique that doesn't require any technology. Using a pen and paper, you should think through the specific parts of the user interface and draw a sketch for each of your application screens. You want to create a lot of quick sketches without worrying about how they look, discuss them and your ideas with your team, and pick the best solution.
Next, develop what's called the "user flow." This refers to how your user will navigate through and interact with all the screens and pages in your application. You can use tools such as templates and special markers when sketching out the user experience.
The sketches you create are also known as a storyboard, and the important thing with storyboards is to find the most optimal path for the user to accomplish a task. Because it's easy to shuffle sketches around, you can explore many possible solutions within minutes.
2. Flowcharts: In a flowchart, you use pre-defined symbols to represent each step of the process. The symbols are linked together with arrows showing the process flow direction.
The most common flow chart symbols are:

As an entrepreneur, you should use flowcharts to visually communicate your desired processes and user flows to developers. When you discuss flowcharts with your developers, you can identify flaws, bottlenecks and inefficiencies in the flow or process.


3. Business use cases: These explain how you should deal with specific situations. For example, if you have a web application with an event registration system, you might want to define how a user purchases a ticket, how a payment is processed and how refunds are issued.

It's important to define these situational use cases for developers because they probably won't be familiar with the inner workings of your business.

4. Wireframe with annotations and interaction flow: A wireframe is a visual guide that represents the blueprint of a web page and shows what it does. A wireframe usually contains the layout of the content, page elements and website navigation system and shows how they work together. Annotations are symbols used to add notes and details for developers about specific features and interactions.
As a guide, you can reference a sample wireframe I created for our development team for the TechSpeak for Entrepreneurs upcoming events page.
You can draw wireframe layouts using PowerPoint. If you need help, you can hire a wireframe expert, also known as a user experience designer, to guide you through this process.

5. Click-through prototypes with links: Click-through prototypes are clickable wireframes that allow users to interact with the screens. The first step is to create a wireframe for each of your pages. Then, you can connect the pages using the links feature that most wireframe tools provide.

Prototypes bring the screens to life, helping you see and understand the problem you are trying to solve and uncover any potential usability issues.

Brain interfaces

Brain interfaces are on the verge of becoming household technology. But something stands in the way of widespread adoption--namely, the myths we have about them that we’ve inferred from sci-fi movies and television shows, which base their ideas of brain interfaces on bad sciences.

In most sci-fi, moving information in or out of the brain is painful to the subject, even when the technology is noninvasive. Subjects’ heads are immobilized and their body reclined to a resting position, as if to minimize potential damage and discomfort. This frame is problematic because it isn’t true for today’s real-world, state-of-the-art technology, and isn’t likely to be true in the future, either.

In the real world, the closest science has come to putting data directly into the brain is with a procedure called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMI). At best, it can keep subjects alert and aware, and Australian TMI researcher Allan Snyder has shown it can improve subjects’ scores at math tasks. Otherwise it can dim localized faculties such as inhibition, cause involuntary jerking of muscles, or cause the subject to see white spots of light in their vision. At worst, it can induce seizures, but it doesn’t give subjects bodice-ripping migraines like sci-fi would have us believe. Nor has it deposited any “information” into anyone’s brain, and it is unlikely to.

The closest we’ve gotten to getting data directly out of the brain is with functional magnet resonance imaging (fMRI) neuron reading, an MRI procedure that measures blood flow to different areas of the brain. The resulting image is rather crude, certainly not a rich visual experience. Furthermore, the process isn’t painful.

Some sci-fi properties show skills and information being plugged in to the hard drive of the brain (either through a jack or through the eyes) and uploaded. Just wait for the painful progress bar, and--poof!--you know kung fu.

This metaphor is problematic because it runs counter to modern brain science, which says that the structure of the brain is the knowledge of the brain. Furthermore, this structure is holographic, meaning bits of information related to a single thought are distributed throughout the brain, and the neurons involved are also used for other thoughts. To “upload” information requires a precise physical restructuring of some significant portion of the 100 billion nerve cells in the gray matter. Neither flashes of light blasting the retina nor electrical impulses shooting through a jack will do it.

 

These two myths bias the regular consumer against brain interfaces, out of a fear of losing knowledge, personality, or sensory perception. But the truth is that our brains are neither that malleable nor our science that advanced to create the dramatic mind-altering effects we see on movie and television screens. Plenty of good ideas come from fiction, but when it comes to viable brain interfaces, the stories we generally find entertaining are just that--fiction.

A brilyuhnt team

Hiring the right people -- who really want to see you succeed -- is probably the biggest challenge in starting a business. The first five people you hire will determine whether you'll have a viable company. The first 20 people will likely determine whether you can create the culture to create the next masterpiece.
These are the traits I look for in prospective team members:

• Ambition – What fuels them to succeed?
• Discipline – Are they willing to go through hell and back with me several times?
• Purpose – Do they want to make a dent, make a difference – and why?

If your employees have all three qualities, they will become a tremendous asset to you. You also want to hire the smartest people you can find. Smart people make beautiful music together. Lots of smart people, working in unison, can have the power and beauty of a Beethoven symphony.
When building a team, remember that a company becomes successful when the culture of entrepreneurialism is deeply rooted in everything it does -- and never changes. Innovation does not have a stopwatch. You want to hire entrepreneurs, people who are natural problem solvers -- the ones who see opportunity when most see impossibility.

When you pick your "All World" team they will surround themselves with other A-list players who also solve problems -- whether it's from a product, technology, or sales perspective. A-list people want to work with other A-list people. Never surround yourself with deadweight.

Creativity also becomes the lifeblood of a company. You want to allow everyone to have a voice. People should know their opinions matter so it fosters innovation. You may not always agree with them – but at least their voices are heard. I know at times people sometimes feel nervous about voicing their opinion because they think it might come across as a stupid idea. But if you've hired A-list people – I can guarantee you one thing – no suggestion of theirs will be stupid.

And if you're wary of hiring entrepreneurs, thinking they'll just break away and start their own companies, remember that's fear creeping up again. As I've said before, the day you decide to live in fear is the day you've already lost your battle. Great people require trust. If they leave, that's okay. They were great for a reason and were there for a purpose. Foster the same DNA across your company, and losing one or two team members will never affect the livelihood of the company.

Once you hire the right team, and they are aligned on the same objective, you'll always innovate. Stagnation will be your worst enemy. You'll execute on your vision and you'll grow exponentially. And, more importantly, you'll create a culture that fosters speed, innovation, and winning. Fear and failure will never be part of the vocabulary.

Sustaining brilyuhnt technology

Innovation is widely regarded as the single most important ingredient in today’s economy. But innovation as a destination isn’t enough.
Sustained innovation is a high-productivity state in which an organization to innovate in all aspects of its business, including management, divisions, operations, customers and suppliers. It requires a seamless, structured management approach that begins with board- and CEO-level leadership and connects all the way through technology investment and implementation. Above all, sustained innovation is a journey, not a destination. The enterprise doesn’t stop innovating after attaining one goal; it’s engaged in a continual process of reinvention, invention and discovery.

Sustained innovation is powered by people who come together to share ideas, compare observations and brainstorm solutions to complex problems. Enterprises with a strong focus on sustained innovation share three common principles that act as the glue binding people together in productive collaboration. They are:
1. Converged disciplines: Ideas aren’t isolated; they’re celebrated in groups that enable the entire organization to act as one entity. Of particular importance is the convergence of business and technology management to ensure that no one unit or division is missing the opportunity to capitalize on new ideas and possibilities.
2. Cross-boundary collaboration: No enterprise operates in a vacuum. Every manager, employee and contractor potentially has a piece of the puzzle to create a new breakthrough business opportunity. Suppliers, partners, distributors, and customers are an equally valuable source of information and ideas.
3. Innovative business structure: Not every organization can empower an unstructured development culture like the Lunatic Fringe who led innovation at ground-breaking tech pioneer Texas Instruments; most require structure that compels convergence of disciplines, management and operational units.
To bring these principles to life, enterprises operating with sustained innovation focus on three distinct, intimately related practices that require business/technology/management convergence to perform at a high level of organizational maturity.


Sustain Innovation Playbook
Designing and operating organizations capable of sustained innovation requires a playbook that demands a systemic process constructed around the following core steps:
• Listen broadly for ideas through vision, innovation and external networks. Listen to the customer. Listen to the front lines in your organization.
• Understand who your actual and potential customers are, what they want and need, what they will need and why those needs have not yet been met.
• Organize the innovation team to include those with a stake in the innovation, organize the innovation program and organize the resources and investments needed to address the problem.
• Create an environment and capability for innovation by giving the team the ability to fail. Create many alternative solutions by leveraging the cascaded innovation lifecycle.
• Experiment and learn from failure. Conduct many experiments in parallel, using prototyping and other iterative, feedback-driven techniques.
• Listen again to the customer to help them imagine. Use prototypes to elicit feedback. Listen to customer acceptance/buying criteria. Listen to what could go wrong, but don’t let the devil’s advocate take control.
• Design the concepts to address customer-centric values, such as cost, intuitive use, ease of change and sense of enhancement.
• Implement the final go/no-go decision. Consolidate or eliminate competing alternatives to a manageable number. Send concepts back for reinvention, retesting or redesign. Implement the second stage of the innovation lifecycle: manifestation.


Get out of the Garage
Sure, some people work better alone. But most people are more prolific as part of a team or extended community of ideas and talents that fosters some of the world’s most important inventions. Garage inventors can’t possibly compete with myriad breakthroughs born from sustained, systemic innovation. The first single chip microprocessor publicly introduced by Intel in 1971, the first car safety air bags offered in the 1973 model Chevrolet and the depression game changer drug Prozac in 1988, are all considered great innovations developed and perfected by teams, not individuals. Even Oppenheimer needed the Manhattan Project team to create the atomic bomb. The true test of sustained innovation isn’t the invention itself, but the ultimate and ongoing benefit produced by the innovation for the business.

Discipline and innovation are not opposites, but complements. Establishing an innovation culture consumes a great deal of organizational energy in overcoming the forces of inertia and entropy. But once an idea has been successfully commercialized, respected champions emerge to drive new sources of the energy, creativity, discipline and resources that sustain and grow an enduring culture of innovation. Successful organizations manage innovation from concept to commercialization so that good ideas not only get created, but also continually find their way into the products and services portfolio

brilyuhnt innovation strategies

For many, innovation has become synonymous with small, agile, and social.
But there’s a quiet revolution happening in corporate America. Big companies are applying startup strategies and tools to jump-start innovation. It’s not about pontificating on the innovation process. It’s about being lean, focused, and maniacally strategic.
• Intuit organizes multi-day “lean start-ins” that gather “intrapreneurs” together from across the company to teach them how to apply rapid experimentation to create new products, services, and business models.

• Kimberly-Clark promotes one-day “expert acceleration sessions” that bring hand-picked outside “thought leaders” face to face with business teams to bust mental models and create game-changing strategies.
• Whirlpool uses a network of innovation mentors (also called i-mentors), who are loaded with innovation tools and guidance to help business teams focused on challenging market “orthodoxies.”
Big companies that behave like small startups focus on two things. First, they accelerate the speed of innovation, just like a Silicon Valley incubator. Second, they give internal businesses and teams an outside-in perspective, similar to the type of reality-checking that comes from advisory boards or venture capitalists.

1. Follow customers Home

Intuit’s innovation success is tied to a value for finding and savoring customer surprises--unexpected insights about customer needs, problems, and desired experiences that can’t be anticipated or pre-defined. That’s why the company does customer “follow-me-homes,” where everyone from CEO to engineers and marketers immerse themselves in the customer’s natural environment to see how things are working (or not) in the real world.

2. Tap Outside Collaborators

Kimberly-Clark knows that insular thinking is the death knell of teams and organizations. That’s why they work with their businesses to define specific problems and opportunities that need a jolt of external insight. They then recruit a small group of “thought leaders” from other companies, universities, startups, or think-tanks to join a collaborative innovation session for a day to lend their expertise. These deep dives deliver strategic and practical insight that would otherwise take months to gather through traditional research.

3. Stay Small

Big innovations don’t necessarily have to begin by taking big risks or making bet-the-farm investments. Intuit, for example, provides guidance to its “intrepreneurial” teams that they should use the “lean startup” model. It’s not about waiting around for senior leadership to sponsor and fund the next big idea but rather rapidly testing ideas to identify the things teams can do to have the biggest impact.

4. Adapt and Innovate

Speed and agility come from realizing we don’t have to invent everything ourselves--either the approach or the innovation itself. When going after breakthroughs, it’s essential to dismiss the “not invented here” stigma, as Apple learned the hard way with its foray into mobile maps. There’s no shortage of tools and templates out there. The strategy is to use the best--like the one-page Business Model Generation tool (from the book with the same name)--and then adapt it or combine it with other approaches that work within the specific company context. Same goes for the innovation itself. The most innovative companies don’t always wait to build a new technology themselves--they look outside, find what exists, and then go from there.
These big-company strategies aren’t about ivory-tower innovation departments, wacky hats, or Kumbaya creativity. They’re focused on pushing entrepreneurial thinking and practices into the places they’re needed the most--inside established businesses. And their explicit objective isn’t about reaching that elusive holy grail of creating a “culture of innovation” (though it can be the by-product of these efforts). Their strategies combine strategic thinking with the practical tools required for driving forward new products, services, and strategies, all focused first and foremost on leapfrogging to the next big thing.

Great companies that Mitt has funded

Here’s what you probably know about Bain Capital, the private equity company cofounded by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in 1984: It buys up shares of companies like KB Toys and Dunkin’ Donuts, offering sweet bonuses to board members and loading the company up with debt in order to finance “dividend recapitalizations.”

Now here’s what you probably don’t know: If you’re a fan of receiving quick shipments from Amazon, use Apple’s iCloud to store your favorite songs, or recently updated your LinkedIn profile, you’ve boosted the bottom line of Bain Capital.
Let’s connect the dots.
How do you think that box from Amazon gets outside your front door just 48 hours after you place an order--with free shipping, to boot? You’ve got Massachusetts-based Kiva Systems to thank for that, and Kiva Systems has Bain Capital Ventures to thank for most of the seed money that got it off the ground. Kiva created a fulfillment model based on burly, but compact, orange robots that shuttle stacks of inventory around massive warehouses.

If you’ve recently purchased the iPhone 5 or upgraded your legacy device to iOS 6, you’re taking advantage of the software’s cloud-based music management properties developed by Lala, a company backed by BCV that was acquired by Apple (another MIC--you seeing the trend here?) in 2009. BCV led multiple financing pushes, including the Series A round in January 2005, that helped move the company’s business strategy from CD-swapping to cloud-based uploading and licensing of songs. Apple acquired the company for $80 million in December 2009 after bidding against Google.
Over half of the $103 million in venture funding LinkedIn raised from 2003 until its IPO in 2011 came in 2008 when Bain Capital Ventures and three other companies made a Series D investment. That round of funding helped the business networking service expand by nearly a factor of 10--from just over 100 employees to 1,000, and from 17 million members to 100 million.
Bain Capital Ventures has over 100 companies in its portfolio, and each has its own story. But Bain’s work with Kiva Systems from 2004-2012 seems standard enough to be educational. And it resulted in Kiva being purchased by Amazon in March for $775 million.
Bain has been involved in a lot of successful companies, it depends on how you measure it before rattling off BCV connections with LinkedIn, Doubleclick, Liberty Dialysis, and SolarWinds. (There’s Tennis Channel, Vonage, Princeton Review, Minute Clinic, and others, too.)
But Bain were investors pre-revenue, and they were the largest shareholder, and … the absolute return on dollars was significant.The limited partners and folks at Bain were thrilled about it, it was a very good outcome and an outstanding outcome for the team.

After a few years, what some potential investors saw as a $100 million risk started generating cash with just a third of that investment. Eventually it became an appealing target for Amazon.

This is all proof that Mitt can get this country back on it's feet.

Mobile Advertising

Mobile advertising is becoming more popular as people use mobile devices to access websites, shop and make purchases. For business owners, now can be a good time to start experimenting with mobile advertising -- especially while it's still highly affordable.
If you're on the fence about whether advertising on mobile might be right for you, consider some new research from Williamsburg, Va.-based research firm Borrell Associates: nearly half of small-business owners are somewhat or very likely to purchase mobile advertising in the next year, while more than one in four expect to increase mobile ad spending.
How can you figure out how mobile advertising might best benefit your business?

1. Determine where your customers are.
Most mobile ad networks allow geo-targeting so that only mobile users in a defined area see the ads. But narrow targeting to only a zip code or two will likely yield few prospects and little new business.
Mobile ads offer the best return on investment for businesses that can serve clients who are located anywhere, or at least throughout a major metropolitan area. A jewelry designer who ships anywhere or a motel owner near a popular tourist destination might be a great match for mobile advertising. But a massage therapist who relies mainly on local customers probably should spend her ad dollars elsewhere for now.
In a couple of years, however, that may change as technologies improve and mobile users begin to outpace computer users in conducting local internet searches.

2. Define your conversion points.
If you develop a mobile advertising strategy, you not only want to tell mobile users your business exists, but also encourage them to take action.
What can people do on their smartphones or tablets that can help your business? Plenty. They can call or email you, submit their contact information via an online form, make an appointment or reservation, follow you on social media, sign up for your email newsletter or text alerts, register for your events, or buy something from you online.
These actions are measurable "conversion points." Tracking your conversion rate (number of mobile site visitors divided by the number of actions taken) is how you'll discover which kinds of mobile ads work best.

3. Build a mobile landing page.
Your existing website, even if it's mobile friendly, might not be the most effective destination for your mobile ad. You need a useful landing page designed to convert mobile visitors into customers.
Your mobile landing page should link to your main website, of course. But it's even more important that it display your address on a map, list your phone number and hours, indicate the region you serve, and offer features, such as online appointment scheduling, that are directly relevant to the pitch you made in your mobile ad.
If you can build a mobile landing page in your existing website platform, that's great. If not, your mobile landing page doesn't need to be part of your main site.
You can build a simple mobile landing page and access analytics data about traffic to the page and users' activity on it. DudeMobile also offers free mobile landing pages with analytics. You may want to set up more than one mobile landing page if you're running multiple campaigns targeting different market segments or making different pitches or offers.


4. Explore other mobile ad networks.
You'll need to supply a mobile banner ad for other networks, most of which deliver ads to apps and some mobile websites.

The cost, reach, targeting and other features of these networks vary widely. Most allow you to specify your maximum daily spend. The MobiThinking "Guide to Mobile Advertising Networks offers useful overviews of the different types of networks and detailed reviews.