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A Note on Product Strategy – Phil Libin

February 8, 2010 By

Todd Sattersten captured this strategy advice during an interview with Evernote’s CEO, Phil Libin:

  • Make a product that a billion people will fall in love with and use for the rest of their lives.
  • Make it easy for a single-digit percentage of them to pay you a few bucks a month once in a while.
  • Make sure your variable costs are low enough that you can make a mountain of profit if you get #1 and #2 right.

    • Simple enough but that first one sure is a big step.

    On a side note, I haven’t given up on Evernote yet but I am still not using it on a daily basis.  I do like how they have incorporated a great demo video (see Don’t Hide the Demo Button) on their front page for showing how Evernote can save you from the note monster.

    Filed Under: Product Strategy Tagged With:

    Twitter is Not a Focus Group*

    October 25, 2009 By

    I have seen a lot of articles lately discussing how Twitter and social media is going to kill traditional market research.  Here is an example from the Creativity Unbound blog:

    Yes we all want to get closer to our customers, know what they’re thinking, and unearth the insight that might make us, as marketers, more responsive to their needs and wishes.  But with all the alternatives available to us today, the question becomes even more relevant.  Are focus groups necessary at all?

    Here is the main problem that I have with these statements:  unless you are developing a product that just happens to correlate exactly with the Twitter users that are giving you feedback, you may be missing parts of the picture.

    So let’s go back to Evernote and use it as an example.

    [Read more...]

    Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , ,

    Evernote

    August 31, 2009 By

    iStock_000003999272Large

    The NY Times had an article this weekend on giving software away in order to make money down the road.  In the story they featured Evernote, a data saving service that I had signed up for last year. After reading the article,  I checked out Evernote.com and found that they had released several new features and a lot of useful walk-through videos since I last visited.

    Evernote’s goal in life is to help you “Remember Everything”. If you are not using it, check it out now.  I guarantee you are going to find it very impressive.

    But the truth is, I hardly ever use it.

    The strange part is that I have been looking for this type of service for years.  The ability to store and recall anything, anywhere, at anytime?  I would pay for such a service (which makes Evernote even cooler since it is free).

    So, why am I not hooked yet?  Is there some key features missing?  Some hook not quite there yet.  Looking at the product feature list:

    • Easy to use – check
    • Search – check
    • Web access – check
    • Web tools for quick add – check
    • Desktop clients (pc and mac) – check
    • Mobile apps (iphone, BlackBerry, Pre, Windows Mobile) – check
    • Flash drive install (For those that can’t install apps at work (how cool is that!))  – check

    So, what is the problem here?  I am hard pressed to think of anything that Evernote is missing so why am I not using it?

    It has to be me.

    Well, its not just me.  According the NY Times, ” About 75 percent of the customers walk away within the first four months.”  That means that only 25% of users find a way to make Evernote’s features part of their everyday process.

    I think that this is a great illustration of the challenges of  new technology adoption.  Even with an amazing product and an unbeatable price, changing behavior is hard.

    Filed Under: Marketing Resources, Product Management Tagged With: ,

    Are You Making It All Work?

    February 2, 2009 By

    tetris

    Just started listening to the new book from GTD guru David Allen, Making It All Work.  Billed as a companion toolkit to the now classic, Getting Things Done:

    David Allen shows us how to excel in dealing with our daily commitments, the unexpected, and the information overload that threatens to drown us. “Making It All Work” provides an instantly usable, success-building toolkit for winning “the game.”

    It is still early so check back in a bit for a review/recommendation.

    I have been off and on again with GTD for quite some time.  I have found that when I am not swamped, I am too lazy to keep up with a system and when I am swamped, my system is not ingrained enough to keep up.  Basically, I am still at level 1 GTD, list management (trying to find a spot for everything hence the Tetris reference).

    In an effort to improve my GTD skills I am going to try and be explicit on what I am tracking and how I am doing it.  Here is my current system and tools:

    • Evernote - Vacation ideas, gift ideas, and other long term items that I will want to look up at some point in the future.  You can access Evernote on your computer, on the web, and even on your iPhone so there really is not an excuse not to use it even more.  So why don’t I?  It may just be me. but it seems like overkill when you are trying to quickly capture something.
    • TextPad – work to-dos. Have been using TextPad for years since it is so light weight and you can manage multiple tab lists for different projects.
    • Outlook – work calendar.  When there is something I have to get done (reports, presentations, etc) I try to schedule time in advance on the calendar to make sure I get it done in time.  I am getting better at email management but quite a ways away from “InBox Zero”
    • Google Calendar – family events.  My wife and try to put all our events online so we can track all the b-day parties, dr. apts, soccer games, and other out of work stuff.  Its great for helping to avoid double bookings.
    • iPhone Task List – for errands.  I don’t even know the name of this app but is really nothing special.  Just something to track all the stuff I need to get next time I am at Target, Costco, etc.
    • del.icio.us – web site tracker.  Used for saving good web articles, web references to access at a later time.

    More to come here.

    Filed Under: random Tagged With: , , ,