What’s Hip Hapnin?

Alex Koritz has a great post on his blog that he calls “The Harvard Syndrome”

“Some schools, “Branded” schools (tempting, but I’m not going to mention school names), put it into the heads of graduates that upon leaving the workforce, they can enter a company mid-level. They’re too good for the typical grunt work that most ‘newbies’ are asked to do. They’re ready to manage accounts! I’ve come to call this the “Harvard Syndrome”. “

I like this post because I graduated from UVSC (soon to be UVU). There is another side to this story, not only do people from the schools with big brands have a sense of entitlement. But many people automatically assume they are “more qualified, more intelligent, or more whatever” than people who choose another school. How did dropping out of Princeton get more street cred than finishing something you started?

There is another thing that really bugs me. When somebody has worked for a big well know organization and they try to throw that weight around for the rest of their careers.

This is what I want in an employee:

Somebody who can finish what they start - college, car payment, home improvements, Eagle scout project, Marathon, anything really I will take a finisher over a coaster every time. Starters are good to have around but don’t have too many on your team or you will never go anywhere.
Somebody who is intelligent but not an intellectual - don’t talk DO, Stop thinking and start DOING.

Somebody who has made small things bigger - I don’t care if you were a small part of a big thing I want you to be a big part of a small thing

Somebody with bad grades - “C’s get degree’s”, “Someday the A students will teach the B students how to work for the C students” - I worked full time while going to school. I graduated with 6 years of full time work experience with a bunch of random companies. I had about a 3.0 Average and I Damn proud of it. I should put that on my resume.

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I don’t usually get this much action in a month.  It is like the prom and my date is REALLY drunk.  Now the pressure is on to post something insightful.

We recently moved from Divinci Draper (great central location) to Divinci Cottonwood (nicer larger office).  We were all talking about what made our new office space better.  Melissa made the observation that when you are a girl you know you are in a nice building when your heals click as you walk in.  This struck me as profound for some reason.  It is a simple thing but really ads to the “brand” of the building.

• Have you noticed that laminate floors look the same but don’t sound as nice as real wood?
• Have you noticed that nice cars have a different sound when you close the door than my Mazda?
• Jen pointed out today that she doesn’t like to work at starbucks because they make it too noisy.  I bet that noise is part of the brand.
• Your Ipod makes a nice comforting click when you do something.
• Leather sounds “rich” when you sit on it
• Did you know Harley Davidson trademarks the sounds of it’s bikes?

Sounds are an important part of the user experience.  It seems like I knew this once before but I just realized it again.

Garfield is better without Garfield

What a great use of a Tublr account.

In the spirit of removing things I googled: “take the” + “out of”

Yogurt may take the bite out of gum disease
take the shock out of culture shock
Take the sting out of SAX - Java World
9cays: Take the pain out of group email
Taking the Bite Out of Bruxism
Amazon.com: Take the Fight Out of Food: How to Prevent and Solve …
Take a Bite Out of Cyber Crime
Ceramic Hybrid Needles Take The Sting Out Of Shots
Reason Magazine - Take the Federal Out of Farming
Yogurt may take bite out of gum disease - Health care- msnbc.com

Yogurt made the top ten twice - that must be some amazing story!

I watched an interesting documentary the other day.  It was on the history of cold.  Apparently 100 years ago there was a booming ice industry.  Many people became millionaires by exporting ice to places that are warm.  We don’t talk about the ice industry anymore.  I have a feeling that the consumption of ice hasn’t changed much since then.  We still want cold drinks, ice cream etc.  The ice guys should have become the refrigerator guys.  After all they were the “cold” experts right? The problem is they weren’t in the “Make things cold” business they were in the ice distribution business.   It was only a few years after the invention of an affordable freezer that the whole industry stopped.

The record industry is in big trouble.  They blame illegal downloading on the Internet as the cause of their failure.  The problem is the entire industry was built on controlling distribution.  Before recording to physical media was invented the industry didn’t exists.  People would go to a concert or play an instrument and performance defined what music distribution was since 10,000 BC.  That model is dead…they don’t realize it yet but they are already out of business.  Everything they are working on are just desperate efforts to continue to control distribution.   I have a feeling that artists of the future will make money on performances again instead of record sales.  When we look back there will be a 100-year blip on the radar where people could make money on music distribution.  If you ask me that is a good thing.

I was just registering on the HP website (trying to buy a printer) and this is the password requirement.

“Your new password must be a minimum of 6 characters and composed of at least 3 of the following alphanumeric combinations: lower case letters, upper case letters, numbers and/or special characters (@#$&*, etc). “

How could that possibly be necessary and what does it even mean? What are they doing on that HP website that is so secure they are going to force me to use a password I will forget?  The only thing they have accomplished with this requirement is to create a need for customer service department.  So people can call in and have their password reset.  Either that or they will just go away.

Another example:

Earlier today I was in the middle of  West Valley/No Where Utah and I was desperate for some food.  Then I found a Taco Bell/KFC and I noticed a lot of things you already know about but this time, for some reason, I was thinking about UI.  They had done many things right.

They have a package with a very large napkin, wet whipe, salt and peper and a spork.  Only one thing to grab and you are on your way…after all it is supposed to be fast food right?

The spork by itself is a great user experience and it probably saves a ton of money.  I wish they had silverware sets at bed bath and beyond with sporks in them.

They also had the sauces color coded.  Yellow = mild, Orange = Medium, Red = Hot.  You don’t have to read anything to get that immediately.  But if you did happen to read them they have clever messages on them they took something boring and made it slightly less that way.

They took my name instead of assigning me a number.  My name is easy to remember, a number is impersonal and I have to study a tiny cryptic piece of paper to find it.

You may not like the burritos but they did a good job with the usability.

24

This was posted on the Advertising Design Goodness blog.

Not sure who the band is but the album is called “Doll House” and obviously the CD case becomes a doll house and you can put the band inside as paper dolls.

I had an interesting conversation with my Brother in Law - Eddie the other night. We were talking about how CD’s seem very old fashioned and outdated and we are embarrassed to buy them for people. Everyone uses iTunes but a download isn’t that fun to give. The problem is there isn’t a replacement for the CD.

vinyl>8track>cassette>CD>…

mp3’s are amazing but how do you give away something digital? So if the record companies are going to keep selling us old fashioned crap they could at least give me an incentive not to steal it. Don’t just sell me a disk for $20. I got in my car, I drove to the store, make it an experience. If all I wanted was the music I would jump on a torrent site and download the whole album for free in 10 minutes. Make me want to buy it because it is cool. Don’t force me to buy it because it’s the law.

I am working on a web redesign project right now with a great ecommerce consultant, Sally McKenzie. It is a huge project that is supposed to be completed in 9 months but will probably take 12.  We are doing some innovative things that will make this client relevant on search engines and put them far ahead of the competition.  I will talk more about this project later. Today Sally shared a great example with us that had been created by a friend of hers (sorry friend I would give you credit but I don’t know who you are) I have taken this example and I am going to share my personal/true version of this example.

We were on our way back from California where we had spent thanksgiving with my wifes parents.  As you can image at the end of a holiday weekend like this traffic was very heavy.  We heard a blizzard was coming but because I had to be at work Monday morning we decided to go for it and thought we could get through the mountains before it arrived.  As you are guessing we didn’t make it…and neither did the other 1,000,000 cars on the road that night.  So there we were bumper to bumper traffic in the middle of nowhere Utah.  Crawling along at about 2 miles per hour as the snow continues to pile up.  Then it hits me…I shouldn’t have had that gatorade at our last stop.  But I am thinking I am a big boy I can make it.  We will just pull over at the next gas station it couldn’t be more than 30 or 40 miles to the next stop.  An hour passes and we have not made it very far.  I have to pee so bad I am starting to sweat.  I have tipped me seat back a little to give my now aching bladder just a little more room.  I am pretending to pay attention to whatever my wife is talking about when really I am just weighing my options.  I realize now I will never make it to the gas station so I decide that I will pull off at the next exit and take care of things.  With this goal in mind I am full of optimism and hope sure it is really really painful but I am a man I can take it.  Then another 20 minutes goes by and there is no sign of an overpass.  I begin to panic, the pain is crazy now and I am pretty sure I am just going to pee my pants.  I keep thinking of Tycho and I begin to pray that I don’t share the same fate.  Finally I give up I have to take action now.  I slam on my brakes in the middle of the highway jump out and begin to pee.  As the pressure is released I  finally begin to notice my surroundings.  I am right  in the middle of the highway.   When I slammed on my brakes  my car slid to the middle of the road blocking both lanes.  Headlights of about 500 minivans are pointed at me and they are all honking.  The snow is deep and I am almost up to my knees and I am wearing flip flops and shorts.  I also noticed that my windshield wipers are completely iced over and haven’t been working for some time.  (Later my wife told me she had pointed that out many times and that I was really scaring her).

So what is the point of this story? I was so focused on my goal of not wetting my pants that I was completely oblivious to everything else.  Our website visitors are the same.  They may have an urgent need something that is at the forefront of their mind and until we address that need we can’t pay attention to anything else.  So ask yourself, are you letting your customers pee?  Or like Tycho are they dying because you are leaving them unfulfilled.  Just like I became aware of my surroundings after solving my problem your customers will do the same.  But don’t let your goals get in the way of their goals.  Let them pee and once they are fulfilled they will be able to pay attention to your other services and offerings.

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When I was in college one of the required courses for the business major was an executive lecture series. For most people this class was an easy “A” all you had to do was show up. Because I always worked full time while going to school showing up wasn’t very easy for me so I had to take the class 3 times. I don’t regret it though I heard some amazing speeches. One speech that was surprisingly good was from David Burbidge.

David Burbidge was a garbage man, he started in college with one garbage truck and over the next 25 years built it into the largest garbage collection company in Utah. In 1997 he sold out and made tons of money and now is a consistent doner to the Mitt Romney Campaign.

The main thing that I remember from his speech is he said the turning point for his business. The moment he started making so much money he didn’t know what else to do but give it away. Was when he purchased a garbage truck scale that could weight the dumpster you were picking up. You see the problem in the garbage collection business is that you charge your customer based on how frequently you dump the garbage. But you pay to empty your truck based on the weight of the garbage. If you pick up a dumpster of feathers you make money if you pick up a dumpster of rocks you lose money. He took that truck with the scale on it to every account and figured out what his average cost was to dump their garbage. What he found out was that there were some accounts he would lose money on every time. He would refer those accounts to his competitors. It wasn’t about market share it was about profit. From that point on he would only work on the most profitable accounts and let his competitors take the rest.

So what is the moral of the story? When was the last time you weighed your garbage? We all have clients that suck up our time, energy, and resources. Let your competitors have those bad clients and move on. It takes courage to give away money, be brave.

The client I was talking about in the previous post should have been dropped before they dropped us. We talked about it…they were abusive, unappreciative, proud…we weighed our garbage and knew we should get rid of them but in the end didn’t have the courage.

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