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I’m attending the Web 2.0 Expo this week in San Francisco.  Every year, there are a few themes.  Last year it was definitely Twitter and interestingly, even with the massive growth of Twitter since last year’s conference, it feels less relevant this year (or maybe it’s just yesterday’s news).  The big themes this year are: the lean startup movement, mobile, and platforms (everyone likes to say they are developing a platform).

I attended the lean startup intensive session on Monday curated by the man behind the movement, Eric Ries (check out his blog for all info and material on the movement).  I decided to attend this over other sessions because I’m passionate about startups but also because I truly believe that the lean principles can and should be applied inside larger organziations, like my current employer.  I’d like to think that I can apply some/all of these principles in my job now, developing software products and features for Actuate.  Interestingly, while the philosophies make perfect sense:  Define product/market fit, get close to your customers, constantly validate your product with customers and through data, pivot as much as you can or as much as necessary, etc (you can read them all for yourself – this stuff is all over the web), there is little to no information on how to build these practices inside of larger organizations.  I strongly believe that lean principles make perfect sense for defining and building products, regardless of the size of the organization, but in practice, being “lean” is a difficult challenge when many pre-existing structures, processes and bureaucracy are already well entrenched.  These are challenges at most large organizations, at least any that I have experienced through direct employment and through consulting.  As we all know, changing an organizations culture is next to impossible and needs to come from the ground up and likely from the beginning.  My personal challenge will be to do my best to apply the lessons learned from this movement and effect as much internal change as possible inside my organization to work in this manner.  In a startup, it’s much more straightforward, although the challenges are just different. Continue reading »

Since dumping my blackberry after 10 years of loyal usage for an iPhone one year ago, I have guarded my prized toy at all times, especially from the grimy hands of my two little daughters.  In fact, up until a few months ago, there was no way in hell I would let my kids touch my “other” baby!  Recently though, as my older daughter has become a more mature 3 year old (mature is a very relative term here), and in order to stop her from asking the same question again and again, I allowed some tightly monitored access to my iPhone.

image source: http://www.coneinc.com

I was utterly amazed at how quickly a 3yr old, with absolutely no direction, was able to quickly figure out the interface and operate the phone effectively.  This is a testament to the UI/UX design of the iPhone and the game changing nature of touchscreen technologies in general.  On the flip side, I spend a lot of time thinking about how much difficulty my otherwise capable parents have operating computers .  I suppose the next most obvious test would be to hand over my iPhone to either of my parents and see if they are as productive as my 3yr old from the moment they start using the device.

I know there have been countless studies on the learning capabilities of older people vs. young children but I’m constantly astounded by the actual divide between these groups.  One way or another, I think that technology, and especially mobile and touch technologies combined with an evolution in UI/UX design principles will drive a new capability between all age groups and demographics over time.  This evolution alone will drive an amazing trajectory of new technology adoption for just about every consumer segment now and in the coming years.