You should do more writing when you’re thinking about the list of things you need to do. I wrote this list in longhand. That may seem strange in a world where we type practically everything, and I find it a…
Understanding what it takes to provide great service starts with the famous adage about customers: that they are always right. The next step is to acknowledge that the adage must not always be true when you learn about the customer’s…
You may have heard of the new app Jelly – it’s a simple idea, really – that people would rather share questions with each other through pictures and then use those pictures to elicit discussion. Find answer to important things, the…
Seth Godin “You don’t need to be more creative – you need a quieter lizard brain” –Seth Godin Your brain is not your friend. At any moment now you might encounter something scary or unexpected or just plain wacky that…
This year I learned how to be a writer. The easy part was deciding to start. The hard part was continuing to write. I don’t mean that any individual piece of writing was hard to start, or hard to finish.…
photo by “What’s a Web Log”? Once upon a time there was a Blog (web log). It was a place where you would go to read pithy insights, long form articles, and think pieces by people whose writing you respected. Over…
Like you, I have lots of accounts for applications. And I usually remember the passwords (ok, maybe not always). To avoid this problem, I use two factor authentication whenever possible. Two factor authentication is the use of an external token…
The average person can hold between five to seven items in working memory. You are probably using a couple of those items already. The takeaway – especially when you’re asking customers to do something for you – is for you…
Websites are inherently anonymous. I don’t mean unknowable in the absolute sense of the word, but rather that when your first interaction with a customer is through email you can lose sight of that person’s humanity. When you talk to…
Think Like MacGyver Using duct tape and baling twine, you can build almost anything you need. It won’t be pretty, and it’s a good metaphor for finding a way to create a solution for an unknown problem. The first step…
