Rework – 37signals (Marketing)

April 15, 2012

Devon Sampson Business , , , , Leave a comment


 

We’re willing to lose some customers if it means that others love our products intensely.

 
There’s no such thing as a marketing division, because everything has to do with marketing.

Don’t blindly copy your competition even if something they’re doing is clearly working. The problem with copying is that it skips understanding, and you cannot grow without understanding why something works.

The main way to de-commoditize your project is to inject yourself into it. That way, you’ll always be leading; it would be stupid for anyone else to try to better than you at being you.
 

When you don’t know what you believe, everything becomes an argument. Everything is debatable. But when you stand for something, decisions are obvious.

 
“Emulate drug dealers. Make your product so good, so addictive, so can’t-miss that giving customers a small free taste makes them come back with cash in hand. This will force you to make something about your product bite-size. You want an easily-digestible introduction to what you sell.”

“Instead of trying to outspend, out-sell, and out-sponsor your competitors, try to out-teach them.”

“Big companies can afford a Super Bowl ad. You can’t. But you can afford to teach. They can’t.”

The reason you’ve heard of great chefs like Emeril Lagasee, Jamie Oliver, and Paula Deen rather than other top chefs is because the aforementioned chefs share everything they know.

It’s okay to share your secrets because no one can beat you at your own game.

People have an insatiable need to see behind the scenes, so show your customers behind the scenes of your company (eg: Youtube videos of your creative process, making-of documentary) and you’ll pique their interest – not to mention create a unique bond with them on account of the fact that they’ll see the personality and humanity of your company.

“Don’t be afraid to show your flaws. Imperfections are real, and people respond to real.”

Rework – 37signals (Project Management)

April 14, 2012

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“Long-term business planning is a fantasy. There are just too many factors beyond your control.”

If we can’t accurately estimate projects that take 2 hours, how can we estimate projects that might take a year? The longer the project, the more magnified that planning errors become.

“Working without a plan may seem scary. But blindly following a plan with no relationship with reality is even scarier.”

“Details make the difference. But getting overly infatuated with details too early leads to meetings, disagreements, and delays. You waste time on decisions that are going to change anyways.”
 

“Directors cut good scenes to make great movies.”

 
Be a curator. If you just took a bunch of paintings and put them in a room, it wouldn’t be a museum – it would be a warehouse. What makes a museum great is the stuff that ISN’T on the walls; what makes a museum great is there’s someone saying “No” to things.

“The best is a sub-sub-sub-set of all the possibilities. It’s the stuff you leave out that matters. So constantly be looking for things to remove, simplify, and streamline.”

It’s easier to add things later on than it is to remove a piece from a bloated monstrosity.

Instead of looking to fill up your shelves, be a curator of your shelves.
 

“Adding something is easy. Adding value is hard.”

 
“Sometimes it’s fun to play a bit and build something cool. But eventually, you’ve got to stop and ask yourself whether it’s useful too. Cool wears off. Useful never does.”

“The enthusiasm you have for a new idea is not an accurate indicator of its true worth.”

Rework – 37signals (The Creative Process)

April 13, 2012

Devon Sampson Business , , , , , 2 Comments


The “real world” that most people talk about when shooting down ambitious ideas isn’t a place, it’s an excuse.

Learning from successes is much more valuable than learning from failures because there are almost infinite ways to fail (things to learn not to do), but very few ways to succeed (learning what you actually should do).
 

“Evolution doesn’t linger on past failures, it’s always building on what works. So should you.”

 
The best way to make something great is through iterations. Stop theorizing about what will work. Find out now.

Inspiration has an expiry date. SEIZE IT.

“Do everything you can to remove layers of abstraction. The problem with abstractions, like documents and reports, is that they create illusions of agreement. A hundred people can read the same words, but in their heads they’re imagining a hundred different things.“

Only by getting to something real do you get to true understanding. Whenever possible, show rather than tell when discussing ideas.

Listen to feedback from your customers, but don’t write it down. If it’s really important, it’ll keep coming up and you won’t be able to forget it.
 

“If I had listened to my customers, I would’ve gotten them a faster horse.”
-Henry Ford

Rework – 37signals (Productivity)

April 7, 2012

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“When you put off decisions, they pile up. And piles end up ignored, dealt with in haste, or thrown out.”

“Sometimes abandoning what you’re working on is the right move, even if you’ve put a lot of time into it. Don’t throw good time after bad work.”

“Interruption is the enemy of productivity…interruptions break up your work day into a bunch of work moments.”

“You can’t get meaningful things done when you’re always going start-STOP-start-STOP”

Getting into a flow state of productivity is like going into REM sleep – it doesn’t happen as soon as you fall asleep. It takes a certain amount of uninterrupted time for true productivity to take place.

When collaborating with others, use passive forms of communication such as e-mail whenever possible; this way, people can respond when it’s convenient for them instead of having to drop everything at unexpected times.

Meetings are toxic because:

  • they’re primarily about abstract concepts rather than real things
  • they get off-topic far too easily
  • the agendas are often so vague that no one is quite sure of the goal

    •  
    Meetings are also black holes of productivity. If you have a one-hour meeting and you invite 10 people, you don’t just lose 1 hour of productivity, you lose 10 hours because each of those people lose an hour that they could have spent on actual work.

    If you NEED to have a meeting, at least follow these guidelines:

  • invite as few people as possible
  • set a timer and conclude the meeting as soon as it rings
  • have a clear agenda
  • begin with a specific problem
  • meet at the sight of the problem instead of a conference room
  • end with a solution and make someone responsible for implementing it

    •  
    If it’s good enough to get the job done, do it. You can always turn “good enough” into “great” later.

    “Just because you’ve got a list of things to do doesn’t mean it’s not done.”

    “The way to build momentum is to finish one thing and then move on to the next. No one likes to work on an endless project with no finish line in sight.”

    “If you absolutely have to work on long-term projects, try to dedicate one day a week (or every two weeks) to small victories that generate enthusiasm.”

    “Long lists are guilt-trips. The longer the list of unfinished items, the worse you feel about it. And at a certain point, you just stop looking at it because it makes you feel bad.”

    Break your lists down into smaller lists. By breaking down a list of 25 items into five lists of five items, each item you finish completes 20% of the list instead of just 4%. Don’t you feel better?