David Beach's Blog

The One Thing Principle

I've been on this bent for a few years now. Others too, but I think it's worth keeping top of mind as more sites are created and grow.

The One Thing Principle: a method of product development, especially for online or digital businesses, that focuses strictly on one single service that satisfies a perceived market need. The entire domain must be dedicated to offering this single service. All resources must be dedicated to offering this single service. No distractions, no wavering, no feature creep.

Nearly every successful web product has one thing in common. They are all known primarily for one thing. They do one thing very well, they meet user's needs for that one thing, and they become a viable and popular destination because of this focus. That thing is always the first thing that comes to mind when a person thinks of the brand or site. (enough with using "thing" already.) What can you hang your hat on?

The One Thing:

• Google = Search
• Ebay  = Auctions
• Flickr = Photo Sharing
• PriceGrabber = Comparison Shopping
• MySpace = Friends (started as music)
• del.ico.us = Bookmarks
• Digg = News
• Amazon = Online Shopping
• Ask = Search
• Blogger = Blogging
• Wikipedia = Encyclopedia
• YouTube = Videos

I can go on, of course. You get the idea. Obviously most of these sites do more than one thing, but they all started out with a single focus, executed on that focus, and became the successes that they are because of that focus. Staying focused on a single concept, no matter what, is key to building a successful online venture.

What about Yahoo? Yahoo! started out with this in mind. It's mission was to become the gateway or directory for everything on the web that mattered. For quite some time, this is all that Yahoo! was about.  And it exploded.  But soon they began to want to keep the traffic that they were giving away and become the destination for other services under the Yahoo brand; and the portal was born. Email, news, finance, shopping, etc. You can't blame them. It made perfect sense. Attract people by being the guide, but then keep them by offering a Yahoo version of the service or site that the person was seeking. Many of these services were great successes, but then it started getting out of hand... Yahoo! Pets, Yahoo! Living, etc. Focus was lost and that loss of focus spread throughout the organization. This is why many verticals under the Yahoo! brand seem bloated. They do not adhere to the "one thing" principle. Each and every one of them become their own unfocused vertical Yahoo!'s. It's in the culture.

Now I think they recognize this and some recent products reflect this. Yahoo! Answers is a great example. It does one simple thing very very well. But they have to be careful. Flickr, Upcoming, del.icio.us, mybloglog, bix, and their other new and focused properties need to make sure that they keep perfecting that one thing. Yes they can add features as they grow, but single a vision and focus were why they were successful and thus acquired.

I've said in the past that I think it makes sense for Yahoo! to consider spinning off properties or very focused versions of their properties like shopping, autos, travel, local, health, tech, games, music, etc. Allow them to find their own identity and community using Yahoo! resources as support. We'll see. I would make the same suggestion to other portals as well.

I try to work by this principle. It's been a challenge. Without going into it too much, I hope that very soon you'll see that by applying the one thing principle to the product I'm working on, it will blossom. I've never been hesitant to stick my neck out.

 

50 Axioms of Web Application Development

This is from my friend Cale Peeples. It's been passed around via email, so I decided to publish it. Looks like Cale did too. I've added to the list on the bottom. I didn't want to spoil Cale's prose.

1. If you choose your technology before your application you'll need to re-invent some wheels.
2. If you decide how your application will look before you decide  what it will do you're not building an application for users.
3. You need Personas, Workflows and Use-Cases.
4. Don't let your engineering team define the features.
5. Framework and Feature set can be different.
6. Hire a real project manager.
7. When real users can't be found, talk to Professional Services or Sales. Not marketing or Engineering.
8. Nobody thinks like users - except users.
9. Extra clicks aren't bad if the path is helpful.
10. Wizards are good once - make sure you build a tool that can use  them and turn them off.
11. People like MS Office, and it works.
12. Write proper contextual error messages.
13. Build multiple messaging systems.
14. Sometimes webapps need a training system.
15. AJAX won't save you.
16. AJAX won't scale.
17. Hire a proper DBA.
18. Fully addressable apps are better than not. (Multiple access points)
19. Make sure you have someone on your team that knows about session management.
20. Single Sign-on.
21. If your search is broken, fix that first. Then your filtering. Then your navigation.
22. Data grids are a pain in the ass. Everyone wants one and none of the pre-built ones are any good.
23. Nobody wants to Drag-and-fucking-Drop except for sales guys.
24. Spend as much time as you can with the team that is building you app - they will make it or break it
25. Group consensus will kill you and the project.
26. If anyone tells you they need an icon for something and they can't tell you what that something is - punch them in the eye.
27. Feature creep will happen - this is why you need to have a good relationship with the people building your app. (see #24)
28. Don't ignore your Log-in page, error pages, 404's or anything else.
29. If your app takes more then 2 seconds to do something and you can't make it faster, you need to add a status message, bar, throbber etc.
30. Separate From from Function in the beginning and you can work on them in parallel the whole time.
31. Keyboard controls are sweet as.
32. Users will want to print complex pages - let them and provide them with the right tools to do so. (I like pdfs)
33. If you're going to let your users customize you app, you have to provide support to them.
34. Inline help is awesome, but if you can't support it fully you're better off not having it.
35. Images will need to be localized - make sure your designers have done this before. You do not want to make a "submit" button for every language.
36. German has some very very long words and will ruin your carefully constructed layout.
37. Vertical scrolling isn't bad - Horizontal scrolling looks like a mistake. Always.
38. Your app should use the same language and abbreviations as your users.
39. Business logic doesn't always make sense, but it's what your users are accustomed too.
40. Don't put the "United States" at the bottom of the damn drop down list just to keep it in alphabetical order if 95% of your users will select it.
41. Auto format my telephone numbers, dates and zip/province codes for me. I don't care what the database looks like.
42. Metadata.
43. Prototype everything you can every-time you can.
44. Internal surveys will tell you nothing.
45. Jacob Nielsen and the "Tog" are tools but they are occasionally correct. Although frankly, they've done more harm than good.
46. The Five Hat Racks will save your ass. (Category, Time, Location, Alphabet and Continuum)
47. If you can't draw it on the whiteboard then write it down. If you can't do either you're a manager not a do-er.
48. You need to have a multiple phase and release plan.
49. Testing in the real world is time consuming, expensive and frustrating, but ignore it at your own risk. If you're committed to doing it, hire a professional.
50. Agile development is cool but it runs the risk of becoming too focused too fast and losing sight of the larger picture.
51. Don't read lists. Write your own.

Here are my additions...

1. Focus on one thing; the right thing, then kick that one thing's ass
2. Design for the worst case scenario. This means do everything possible to break the design, then design around that.
3. Bucket tests are great when you're trying to improve a feature, but for gods sake, know what you're trying to get out of it
4. Take risks
5. When in doubt, WWFD (What Would Flickr Do?) except when it comes to drop down navigation
6. Usabilty tests can scare the shit out of you, do them early and often
7. Test it on anyone you can find... even one person is better than nothing
8. Not every bug is a P1
9. User experience first, monetization second
10. Work with as small a team as you can possibly get away with
11. Don't sleep under your desk, nothing is worth not having a life

Checkmates: a mobile friend finder prototype for eTech -- Chad Dickerson’s blog

Link: Checkmates: a mobile friend finder prototype for eTech -- Chad Dickerson’s blog.

Check out Checkmates a Yahoo! Hack by some great, cool folks... Karon Weber, Jonathan Trevor, Ed Ho, and Sam Tripodi. I saw them here last night hacking away.
This is a cool mobile app that allows you to announce where you are to your friends with a map visualization. Very nice.

Take a look.

Checkmates Site

Day One: ETech 2006

Here are my impressions of day one of the Emerging Technology Conference...

• Way too many dudes here
• Had a great time catching up with Scott Beale
• Saw some familiar Yahoo faces
• Bruce Sterling's keynote was very good and entertaining (I met him 10 years ago when he was writing an article for Wired magazine about Burning Man... my company iSTORM built the BM site and was doing the first netcast of the event)
• Nearly everyone has a Mac laptop!
• Web 2.0 is a bunch of crap :)
• Blow-up chairs are stupid
• New web sites and platforms should be about making your life more simple. They should limit your view instead of expand it. Less is more. Display only objects that are meaningful to you...
• At least two guys are wearing kilts
• Spoke with Hans Peter of Plum for a long time. I'm very impressed and excited about their service. I feel we'll all be talking about Plum soon. Hans seems like a great guy.
• My back doesn't hurt because of my new bumbakpak.
• I don't really feel like I fit in. Is that because there are no other Yahoo! Shopping people, because I'm not an engineer, or because none of this really matters and maybe I'm the only one who knows? -- oh don't get all bunched up... of course it matters.
• I'm going to be evangelizing three things 1. Shopping APIs  2. Social Commerce and 3. The Digital Life Manager

Arrived at ETech

I'm here in San Diego. I checked into the hotel and am now sitting in a ridiculous blue rubber blow up chair in the lobby. I'm not certain if these chairs are an emerging technology or not, but one thing's for sure; I look like an idiot.

I'm checking email and am going to grab a bite then work on some stuff until later this afternoon when the conference begins. Hey there's a guy in a kilt, I mean a "utilikilt". Now that's edgy... Yip!

Update: Thanks to my old friend Scott, the Laughing Squid for the photo :)

ETech and SXSW Next Week

I'll be on the road next week. I'm leaving Monday morning for O'Reilly's Emerging Technology Conference in San Diego. I hope to learn about emerging technologies. Then on Thursday I fly to SXSW, in Austin, where I hope to get drunk. Just kidding. I imagine there are lots of folks doing the same thing. I'd like to get a lot out of the trip. I'm missing work. I don't need another pretentious boondoggle. At least I'll get some stickers to slap on my laptop. :p

I'll blog all week about the event and my experience. I'll be brutally honest and forthright.

By the way, I'm listening to an advance copy of the new Flaming Lips album, At War With The Mystics. So far it's awesome. The production quality is tremendous. I'm looking forward to the next tour.

So No gCal Today

No Googalendar today. Oh well. Like I said before you'd think that someone launching a major calendaring feature would want to do it before the new year. This is when people are thinking about time, calendars, resolutions, getting organized, etc. They can wrap up the old calendar and start fresh with a new one. That's what I'd do if I were creating a new calendar... if that's what I was doing... it's their loss if they don't. F 'em.

Google Calendar Expected Tomorrow

Google Calendar tomorrow? We'll have to wait and see. People who know me know what I think about the subject. I've had more conversations about calendars and Digital Life Managers than I've had about any other subject this year. So all you hipsters out there that know what I'm talking about... what's it gonna be?

Link: Google Calendar Expected Tomorrow - InsideGoogle

Hatin' PayPal

PayPal drives me nuts. This morning I went to frontalot.com and saw that my favorite Nerdcore MC is coming out with his first official release. He's offering a pre-order through PayPal. Crap. I hate using PayPal. But I had no choice. I placed the disc and a T-Shirt in the cart and proceeded to check out... this is where it gets ugly. PayPal thinks I live four years in the past. The credit card it presents has expired and the shipping address it first chooses was three homes ago. It uses the information I entered at the time of sign up as the information that's relevant today. Not good.

But here's the worst part. Because all of this is hidden in a form pull-down, it's very easy to skip over. And because of that damn pull-down, it's not clear what your choices are. It needs to, at the very least, remember the last credit card you used for a PayPal transaction. At best, it should allow you to set your default and delete old information... during the transaction path. A transaction is the only time I see and use PayPal. I'm sure I'm not alone.

Also charging the seller $.35 per transaction makes using PayPal for micropayments useless. There should be a choice to tack that onto the buyer's bill.

PayPal has a virtual monopoly on this type of transaction, I would hope that they would take that to heart and concentrate on creating the best user experience possible.

Second Life

Yesterday Philip Rosedale came to give a talk about Second Life. Second Life is one of the most compelling virtual world "games" available. I enjoyed his enthusiasm and the fact that this guy has literally made his dream come true. Very inspiring.

I've dabbled in this space in the past. I helped create one of the first VRML environments. The "IUMA Lounge" in 1994. I also produced the first webcast from Burning Man in 1996 which included a virtual version of Burning Man using The Palace. But that was enough... even though I always felt the draw.
 

Talk about a time suck. These things are so engrossing that some people spend more than 80 hours a week "living" in the virtual world. They create relationships, living spaces, and commerce. Second Life allows you to make and sell goods, property, and anything else, using the currency "Linden Dollars" which trades against the real dollar. Randy Farmer said that he made and sold "fairies" in the Second Life environment. He actually took home real money from making and selling a virtual product in a virtual environment. There is one woman who makes over $150 thousand real American dollars a year buying and selling property inside the Second Life environment. Fascinating. (How long until a Starbucks shows up?)

I can't do it. Oh I've checked it out and have dabbled inside these things and have been extremely intrigued by them... but... It's like drugs for me. The reason why I've never taken drugs is that I'm afraid I'll get lost in them. I'll go insane. My imagination is too out of control as it is, and if I start taking drugs I think I might go over the edge and never come back. Same with this. If start "using" a virtual world, I may never come back. It seems way too easy to get lost.

Plus I spend enough time in front of a monitor as it is...

I'm glad this exists though. It's an incredible social experiment. Probably one of the most profound ever developed. The possibilities are limitless, that's what scares me.

How To Buy a Laptop...

I'm in Grand Junction, Co. We spent a lazy day going around town, getting the kids shoes, checking out Harley Davidsons, and not much else. My daughter got her ears pierced. That was the big event. I can't get on the VPN to pull down email. Oh well. It can wait.

My father has an original iMac. A green one. It was mine and now he has it. He's been using it since '99 maybe. I'm not sure. Before that he had a Mac Centris 650. Again, it was mine before. But his iMac wasn't cutting it, and I made a promise to myself that I'd get him to move up the computer food chain while I'm here.

He's been using computers since the late '80s, working in the valley and all. But because I've given him my computers, he's never had to go out and buy one for himself. I don't think his situation is that uncommon. There are a lot of folks out there that have never purchased a PC or have had some kind of help. But where do they get this help? Online? Friend, family? Bottom line, PC buying can be an intimidating experience. Especially if it's the first time.

How do we as online merchants and providers of online information handle this situation? I can't say that there's a site or store out there that does a good job.

There's a lot to consider. Compatibility. Legacy files and data. Setting up the system, and probably most important, using the system. Everything is new. What else do you need? What will make the purchase worthwhile? These are questions and issues that drive the apprehension. "What the hell do I buy?" Oh yeah... there's that too. Besides the fact that you're letting go of about $1000 bucks when it's all said and done, how do you let go of the confusion and get out there and make that purchase?

There's a tremendous opportunity to serve this type of customer. I don't think too many people realize it. We're all comfortable in our little online world. We have computers and every damn gadget available, we've gotten past that confusion and have forgotten what it's like to be new to the game. The world is much bigger than what is represented by the web population. And even a good deal of those people are dealing with this issue of finding the right tech product. They flail in search engines, get overwhelmed at cnet, hope that Consumer Reports can hold their hand (and perhaps get disappointed by the fees and registration process). It's tough.

It's our obligation to help more people online, use our content, and feel good about it. And the only way to do that is to make the process so simple and so painfully obvious that your grandmother can do it. Without a single concern. That's not too much to ask. We can never assume that our process, or interface, or OOBE (Out Of Box Experience), or content is easy and clear enough. We must never assume that the user knows what he is doing. Certainly things are recoverable and learn-able, but the initial experience must not intimidate.

Buying a new laptop can be very intimidating. There's a tremendous price range. There are many brands and many configurations to consider. And though some people might not think about it, there is the Apple vs. PC decision to make as well. My Pop had a Mac with OS 9; does he buy another Mac or make the jump to a PC? We decided on a PC primarily because you can't buy a Mac in Grand Junction, Co. We looked online for guides and services, and nothing really seemed to help. They all seemed to think that the user is comfortable with the buying and using experience. Non of them offered a personal touch or the warmth of a truly considered recommendation. It's also difficult to trust the source when there are ads promoting the products being discussed on the same page. We tired configurators, we went to manufacturer sites, as well as the usual suspects. We wanted to spend less than a grand and we wanted it fast because I was going to help set it up. Again, buying it is only the first obstacle.

We went down to Circuit City and looked around. There were a few good laptops under the thousand dollar mark. Some with AMD chips and some Celeron. But there was only one there that I would have bought. A widescreen Gateway with a Celeron chip, wireless onboard, DVD/CD Burner and about 4 pounds. $899. I got him hooked up with a wireless keyboard and mouse, some speakers, and a new HP all-in-one printer. But there is no way it would have happened unless I was there. Not that my pop wasn't going to get something someday, it's just I was enough of a help to push him over the edge.

But what about those that don't have the help or don't like to ask for it? That's where we have the opportunity. And we must do what we can to be there for those people.

We got the boxes home and I spent the afternoon hooking everything together and getting him online. Again, I have no idea how a person could have done that if they're not already familiar with the process. How is your grandmother supposed to configure a network? Most content out there online deals with what to buy and perhaps how to buy, but there is very little about how to use. If you need help, you end up in the manufacturer's customer support site. Again big usability problems. Merchent sites do little to help. All they seem to care about is getting you to spend your money, once you've checked out, forget it. BestBuy has their GeekSquad and Apple has their Genius Bar, but this is only the very first step in what should be an all out effort to make the process a cakewalk.

I'm glad I was able to get my Dad up to speed. He has a brand new machine that will last a long time. He'll get used to the differences of Windows pretty fast and I'll be here over the next few days to make sure all is right. But I also can't stop there. I have to do everything in my ability to take this confusion and intimidation away for others. No matter what I'm working on...

I hope you'll do the same.

Now to get my pop broadband and wireless.

Tidbits: New Dell, Blocking Retention, and Other Random Stuff

It's been a few days... I received my Dell yesterday and set it up in our Mystery Room. It's a mystery because there's no practical way to enter it except for a ladder. It's like a barn. I love it though. Since we had the wiring done, we set up the office up here. Now our living room is geek free. I'm getting used to the ladder, it's 10 feet high. Gravity and me have a strained relationship, so knock on wood nothing happens.

The Dell is great. I set it up in about 10 minutes. The wireless is working fine, but I'm thinking about getting an airport express to increase the signal a bit. My imac is set up as well and sitting next to the PC on my desk. The Dell is black and the imac is white. Good vs. evil.

I'm downloading music like crazy from Yahoo! Music Unlimited. The new Negativland, Gorillaz, Fiery Furnaces EP, Common, Outkast Stankonia, New Thievery Corporation, etc. So far so good.

I find the following links interesting. Some old, some new, but interesting nonetheless:
http://psychology.wichita.edu/optimalweb/images.htm
http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2005/05/why_google_imag.html
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20041206.html
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20010902.html
http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/Banner_Blindness.html
http://www.guuui.com/issues/01_05.php

I love contextual stuff... I think there needs to be some innovation around CPM advertising and/or graphical media. The idea is to find a way to best serve the end user by giving them what they are looking for or expecting (at all times) while driving brand and product awareness of the sponsoring organization. There has to be a better way than the IAB way. There must be an engaging, contextual and highly relevant way of delivering this type of advertisement.

I've always believed that classified advertising was the best way to hock a product or service. People are looking for ads. The ads are the content. The success of craigslist is a great example. Obviously adwords and overture are in the same category. When used within a search context, these ads often times provide a service to users because they are as relevant or more relevant than the results. Again, in search people are looking for something and these ad technologies deliver.

Can graphical media be delivered the same way? Google is trying. If you are looking at content about a Chevy Truck, then a Chevy Truck ad appears, right? Well that's great, except for the fact that people mostly ignore or disdain graphical advertisement interruptions. And one needs the Chevy Truck content to begin with.

There must be a better way. What do advertisers want? What do users want? If we took the time to really figure out the answers we might have something. I'm not against advertising, but I want to find a way that works that benefits both parties, but especially the user. If the user is happy, they come back, if they come back they use the site more, and they may even tell their friends. If they do all of this, the sponsoring organization would surly be happy.

The single most important metric for any site to consider is retention. Are people using your site and are they coming back, again and again? Are they loyal customers? If you build that loyalty and trust without retention blockers, then you can build a sponsorship model that supports the needs of the business, the sponsor, and the user. There must be a way for the three to thrive.

Update: I got my return key to unstick.... Thanks Jeremy. :)