get runens for the iPhoneHow Nokia and Microsoft Can Save Each Other and Win the Smartphone Market
Much has been written about the Microsoft-Nokia partnership and the dismal market performance of Windows Phone 7 (interesting reaction here). And though many pundits view Microsoft’s mobile platform as an inevitable failure, I honestly believe that it’s not too late for these companies to reinvent the “smart-gadgets” market rather than piggyback on it. Here’s why.
The lean startup: How to stay lean when your company takes off
(This article was originally published at VentureBeat on November 14th 2011: http://venturebeat.com/2011/11/14/the-lean-startup/)
The Lean Startup concept, developed by Eric Reis roughly two years ago, has been embraced by the startup community. And though I think it’s the best and most consistent framework available for entrepreneurs to methodically evaluate their ventures, what happens when you get a product into the market that customers actually want and your business starts to grow? Does the “lean” focus end there?
The Product Canvas: bringing a product vision to mobile app development teams
There is a fundamental difference between web development and mobile app application development that many people don’t think about: when you develop for the web, although you own the intellectual property of that piece of the software, the page or service is available publicly. Therefore, it’s an asset of the web. When you develop an app for a smartphone, regardless of what it does, it is a product that will be owned by the person who decided to download it. So, even though you will keep the intellectual property of the app’s code, the app itself doesn’t belong to you anymore – it belongs to the user. The user will then decide to use it, to keep it, or to delete it. Once an app gets deleted, it’s hardly going to be downloaded again. Think about how many times you did it.
Lean UX + Agile Development: the next big thing in software development
(a shorter version of this article has featured on both Dr. Dobbs and InformationWeek magazines: http://drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/231902070)
Lean User Experience (Lean UX) is a discipline that will likely become a game changer in web and mobile development of digital experiences (apps, websites, gadgets, etc.) as it introduces changes in the design process that better align with agile methodologies for development.
I am openly standing on the shoulders of people who put forth a lot of effort to bring Lean UX to light, despite all the criticism and pushback from traditional UX professionals and digital agencies that might see Lean UX as too much of a change, or even a threat to their status quo. The Lean UX professional naturally works together with other designers and developers, as opposed to the traditional waterfall model where the UX professional is the “hero” in charge of finding all the solutions and getting the client’s approval before development starts.
Google+: Panic in the Enterprise!
During the fall 2008 my company decided to take a bold move. Literally. We were finally abandoning Microsoft Exchange server in favor of Google Apps. Our emails would be powered by an online tool: Gmail. Some people were shocked and were making lists of things that wouldn’t work anymore if we made the move. I remember mentioning to a coworker that if this was the chance to never again lose emails due to corrupt local files, I’d sign up immediately.
We were cautious anyway and we formed a group of 50 people under the codename “g-50” that would make the transition first and completely, that is, their Exchange accounts would cease to exist day one. We imported our Exchange emails and moved to a new life. After a month or so every single person in the g-50 was excited about the experience and no one really missed the old life. We then rolled it out to the entire company – around 800 people at that time. The motto was a popular saying in Brazil “you may jump because there’s water” meaning that you won’t get hurt if you jump in the “pool”. Today many people are also transitioning to Google Docs and forgetting about Microsoft Office. That includes me.
Two weeks ago Google announced Google+ availability for the enterprise through Google Apps. Coincidentally, we had been discussing for weeks the addition of social features to our new Intranet and Google+ was being mentioned over and over during our meetings. There was a consensus that since we have consistent use of Google Apps throughout the company, it would make all the sense to leverage it and wait for Google+ to power the social engine. So, our dreams have just turned into reality, right? Not quite. We actually found out a nightmare could happen due to the current state of Google+ with Google Apps.
Between Apple’s Siri and Google’s Voice Actions there is Wilson
I was at the Googleplex the day Steve Jobs passed and there are two things about Google I will never forget from that day. First is the fact that Google paid a lot of respect by linking its homepage to Apple’s. The second thing is what a Google VP of sales sarcastically said during his partner summit speech: “Apple says they launched yesterday a revolutionary voice recognition system, something that we introduced to the Android OS more than a year ago.” Well, I did not expect anyone to react at that moment, but I immediately felt that he was missing something.
After comparing my experience with both Apple’s Siri and Google’s voice actions, I am absolutely positive that he was, indeed, deadly wrong. Maybe the approaches are not so different in a feature-by-feature dry comparison. However, from the user experience perspective and potential implications for the future, they are far apart. Apple did launch something with a potential to be revolutionary.