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The hole is irrelevant
When doing some sort of public speaking, one of the best tricks in the book to make sure people remember it is to say something that: 1) is broad enough to become a “truism”, 2) is short so that it can be quoted ipsis verbis without much effort and 3) makes the person who heard it and is quoting you sound an incredibly smart, enlightened, expert.
For example, take this quote:
People don’t buy drills, they buy holes.
I know, right? RIGHT?
You’re in the muddy waters of marketing, trying to figure out what way is up and to the right, someone gives this quote while you’re sitting there in the audience and BAM suddenly it all makes sense! You just have to figure out what people want to do with what you’re building, right? WRONG! I fell for it the first time I heard it too, so don’t feel bad.
Let me get it straight: PEOPLE DON’T BUY HOLES! You won’t hear anyone say “Oh my, Johnny old boy, what a wonderful hole you have in your wall! Jolly good, old chap, jolly good!”
But I’ll let you in on two secrets: people do buy drills and people do buy stuff for which they may need to create holes first. But these are distinct kinds of people.
If drills were irrelevant, it wouldn’t matter which drill you bought, they’d all come in a single color (black), at a single price (whatever it cost to produce + $.01 of profit), from a single brand (unattractive market) and they’d be of general purpose and disposable. Or, worse, no one would produce drills at all! Of course, after looking around in a hardware store you’ll be able to say it is bullshit: drills do matter, the reputation of who builds them matters, their features matter, what they’re good for matter, etc.
So yeah, if you’re in the business of building drills, you need to care about it. And you need to make sure that they have lasting value, create repeat business and customers recommend it to others. But your target market isn’t going to be Sally, the soccer mom, it’ll probably be Mike the carpenter or Louie the construction worker. And these people care about the drills they buy.
As for the things normal people buy, which may need holes, this is where you have to dig deeper. So lets say you want in on the drill market because you love drills. You can’t afford to have a full suite of drill products so you’re going to focus on a niche: consumer who need to stick wood frames (photos, paintings, whatever) on walls. So what did those people buy? Was it drillers? No. Was it a drill? No. Was it a hole? NO. Was it the frame? Close, but no cigar.
They bought something they love, want to observe, that brings back memories and is something that they feel proud to display. It can be a photo or a painting or a mirror. Of course, some frames amplify that experience. But the rest is accessory. What you want is to help take that experience up a notch.
To do that, you probably want to steer clear of holes. Holes mess up your walls, and lets pray you don’t hit a pipe while drilling. The drilling itself makes a huge mess. And drillers make lots of noise.
So you dug deep into your niche needs and figured out it just so happens that people don’t buy holes at all! Being resourceful, you end up creating some compound that people can just rub into frames which allow them to stick onto walls. No mess to clean up, no noise to put up with. You’re now on your way to riches and holes became irrelevant.
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The BEST project management tool EVER! Guaranteed!
Every now and then, the question of which is the best project management tool pops up. I’m very opinionated on this particular topic so let me present to you the absolutely best project management tool ever:
But why exactly is this the best project management tool? Let me guide you through its feature list:
- No license purchases need to be approved by the accounting dept., your boss, his boss or the GM; unlimited number of seats;
- No complex software installation required, compatible with all past, present and future operating systems and browsers;
- Backups available for tens, if not hundreds or thousands of years;
- No user interface training required other than being able to read and write;
- Works for all kinds of businesses without having to bring in external consultants to adapt it to your organization;
But what about reporting, I hear you ask? Here is an excerpt of the reporting FAQ:
- Q: How do I track general progress? A: look at the board
- Q: How do I track individual feature progress? A: look at the board
- Q: How can I manage who does what? A: edit the ticket, assign to someone have them look at the board
I’m telling you, when it comes to usability and user friendliness, this one takes the cake, it’s as usable and as friendly as the nipple…
And the really cool thing is that if you need more advanced reporting, there’s a nice companion product called The Spreadsheet (ie. Excel, Numbers, OOCalc, Google Spreadsheets, Lotus 1-2-3, etc.).
Here’s how it works: each individual worksheet represents a milestone/cycle/whatever, you add two columns for each person on your team: one for their estimate, one for how long it actually took’em to get the task done, rows for each task and fill in the grid with numbers that says who spent how much time doing what.
From here you should be able to get who are your team stars and who are the lazy bastards. For the latter, you should always, and I mean always, have The Motivator ready so that when they drag down the performance of rest of the team you hit them hard with it, right in the head.
Don’t trust me? Try it yourself, it costs close to nothing.
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El asso wipo!
