Has Facebook Surpassed It's Darkest Hour? Zuckerberg Brings an Aersonal of Stats and Strategy

 Article first published as Has Facebook Surpassed It's Darkest Hour? Zuckerberg Brings an Aersonal of Stats and Strategy on Technorati on 9/12/2012

Facebook is not looking into building a phone. Mark Zuckerberg made that clear during the 30 minute, standing room only interview with Michael Arrington at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco this past Tuesday. It seemed like Mark had quite a bit to cover on his agenda. He spoke like a man with a mission spewing stats about mobile and covering topics from regrets to open graph product opportunities.

He said, "building a mission and a business go hand in hand." As much as he believes in the company mission of building a more open and connected world and a focus on long term growth; he recognizes the importance of both. He had plenty to discuss as his first public appearance since the IPO in May. He was laden with stats and what sounded like a plan that was now humming like a well oiled machine focusing on mobile. You could feel the energy exuding from Zuckerberg as he chatted it up with Mr. Arrington. He spoke quickly to get out all the data that he wanted to share with everyone. It was great to see Zuckerberg really does have things under control, despite investor feedback and forecasts.

What Facebook has done is retool the product infrastructure and the way they build product from a more vertical model into more horizontal product grouping beginning last December. Mark said this retooling did have an impact on the growth of the company. They have just released the iOS improved mobile Facebook app and expect to deliver an Android version in the near future after switching from HTML5 to Native. Mark admitted he regretting putting all his eggs in one basket re HTML5, however they have moved on from that and are in a good place using Native.

Mark said today, "We are a mobile company." He had the stats to prove it. There are 5Billion phone users. Engagement and users are up from Facebook mobile. Mobile users are likely to use Facebook 6 out of 7 days per week. Mark appeared confident in his mobile strategy going forward.

Another idea they have been working on is a search product. Currently, they have 1Billion queries a day. Most users are looking for people, however, they are also looking for pages and apps from a business perspective. Mark said that they are looking to take a new approach to the search engine style and use the data that they have to answer questions that people want to know. He feels that this is a huge opportunity for Facebook, as well as a unique one since they are the only company with this kind of big data about users.

For Mark, he says, "It's not really about the fun. It's about the mission." He wants people to work for Facebook because they believe in the products and the mission. He wants people to be proud of what they are building and share it with their family and friends. It's a great time to be involved with Facebook as a user and an employee.

Mark said that Facebook is very self critical and that he prefers to be in the like of the underdog position where he can take risks and come out wowing stock holders and consumers. It seems this interview spurred on a rally on Wall Street and raised the stock price to close at just under the $20 mark. This begs the question...has Facebook passed it's darkest hour? If you haven't bought stock yet, this might be the best time to buy because based on an interview like this, the forecast looks good.

Pick a Revolution and Join It; Disrupts TechCrunch

 Article first published as Pick a Revolution and Join It; Disrupts TechCrunch on Technorati.

Photo by:James Martin CNET

This week TechCrunch Disrupt has taken over San Francisco with its 2012 conference. The interview conversations with the entrepreneurial speakers from Silicon Valley have proven to be chuck full of inspiration and direction. Jessica Alba, Edwin Lee, Jack Dorsey, Kevin Rose, Matt Cohler and Mark Zuckerberg were some of the speakers with a mission to distribute.

On Monday, Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter and Square, spoke as the keynote. His presentation was short and amazingly powerful. He is a man with direction and vision. To Jack, "The future is already here. It's just not evenly distributed." This was his main point. Iterate and do it quickly. He'd like to see the buzz word disrupt replaced with revolution. "Pick a revolution and join it," says Jack. "Question everything." He believes civilization was meant to connect. "We don't want disruption where we move things from point A to point B. We want direction."

The Honest Company, run by Jessica Alba and Brian Lee, made an impact on stage discussing how they put their customer feedback as top priority and react quickly. Jessica talked about how it's hard running a startup. Both herself and Brian have families with children and work on making the best of a work/life balance. Jessica stole the stage with her honesty about what it's like raising a family and running a startup. It was great to see organic content like that disrupt the stigmas of working parents, yet still brings a sense of reality.

Tuesday, was full of even more wisdom for entrepreneurs and startups. Mayor Edwin Lee, of San Francisco discussed his strategy about supplying local San Franciscans with entry level tech jobs to support their economy and how they are using The Valley to build great relationships between the tech sector and the city. His enthusiasm, vision and candor seem to have only been helping the city of San Francisco.

Kevin Rose, Google Venture Investor and Milk founder had great advice. Some of the best advice he says he has ever gotten was, "Edit your team. Trust your gut." There are times where growth will keep you from always making the best decisions about who you hire. Kevin has found that as one realizes who fits best and who doesn't, that making edits to improve your team for your current needs keeps your team fresh. Ideas that VC's like Kevin are tired of seeing in the startup realm are cloning other startups and slightly changing them. Saying your version is better isn't going to win over VC's.

Matt Cohler, from Benchmark Capital and a prior Facebook product guy, had a great discussion about mobile and the continuing possibilities of growth with Michael Arrington. He says that you and your mobile phone have an emotional attachment and there have been studies to prove this theory. He believes that the mobile market place has exploding opportunities especially when we think of a smart phone as a remote control. The discussion about time to decision is imperative. Being able to use real time data while a customer is in the market place and interactive mobile apps to convert the transaction is key.

Mark Zuckerberg drew a standing room only crowd. He ran circles around Michael Arrington spewing out stats left and right about the growth of mobile consumers, engagement and usage. He said, "building a mission and a business go hand in hand." As much as he believes in the company mission of building a more open and connected world and a focus on long term growth; he recognizes the importance of both. He had plenty to discuss as his first public appearance since the IPO in May. He was laden with stats and what sounded like a plan that was now humming like a well oiled machine focusing on mobile. You could feel the energy exuding from Zuckerberg as he chatted it up with Mr. Arrington. He spoke quickly to get out all the data that he wanted to share with everyone. It was great to see Zuckerberg really does have things under control, despite investor feedback and forecasts.

Today's entrepreneurs have a large amount of support and feedback to work with thanks to companies like TechCrunch that run conferences such as these.

Wednesday is the final day of TechCrunch Disrupt full of speakers and a plethora of new startup company ideas. There is a lot to learn from these industry hackers.

Playing Chicken

Residents on Parsons Drive in Avon Lake have been housing a rooster throughout this past week.  “Tuesday morning I went out to work in the yard and I heard pecking sounds. I looked around and two feet from me was a chicken pecking the ground,” says Sam. They say he is friendly, however there is growing concern of sanitation issues as well as safety concerns for the children in the neighborhood.

One of the neighbors called the police, but was told no one reported a missing chicken. “I was shocked when I first saw it. Of course I took pictures and posted them to Facebook, but I expected it to wander through, not roost in our backyard,” says Laurie. 

 The family had left for the day, but when they returned, the rooster was still there, wandering between the adjoining backyards.  It has been eating the apples from a neighbor’s tree and sleeps in her pine tree. They have only heard it crow a time or two, but not at the crack of dawn.

Despite efforts from the neighborhood, they have not been able to find its owner. One resident contacted Holly Hill only to be told they strictly house horses. They were told to check with the family next door to the horse farm but were advised it was not their chicken. Their chickens apparently aren’t friendly like “Hen”ry. 

The rooster, named “Hen”ry by a neighborhood boy, seems to have become the neighborhood pet. He comes when called and has never bothered anyone, so far. “It’s like he likes hanging out and thinks he’s a dog,” says Dave a Parsons Drive resident who’s yard he has seemed to have taken ownership in. “He must be someone’s pet.”

As of today, these residents aren’t sure what this rooster’s future holds, but they hope it can find it’s owner or a farm so it can fly this coup in Avon Lake soon.

Facebook Unzips How Testing Is Done

-->

     Credit: Matt Harnack/Facebook

 Article first published as Facebook Unzips How Testing is Done on Technorati. Republished 3/9/13.

A little over a week ago, Boz, the Director of Engineering at Facebook, published a write up on why Facebook tests.  He gave us a sneak peek as to how it’s done. You might say their way is a little Clark Kent”esque”.

Facebook holds a vision which “Boz” translated in that article…”We believe that people want to connect with each other in a way that is personal and meaningful and that modern technology can provide opportunities for doing this in ways and at scales that were previously not possible…While this vision unifies us, it is sufficiently broad that the exact path to realizing it is unclear.”

The beauty of testing allows a company to realize what is unclear and create data, on a small scale, that, for lack of a better word, tests whether or not the product is viable.  Facebook utilizes their users, aka customers, to test their new ideas and concepts.  These tests help answer questions and support decisions that might be made off of a gut feeling or future trend expectation.

“Sometimes the answer to these questions is intuitive. Sometimes we do user research. Sometimes we build prototypes and see how they feel. Often, however, we’re working on products that have no analog for comparison in research and whose merits are difficult to gauge in the abstract or at small scale,” says Boz.

One of the fastest ways to grow a company or product category is to test…iterate and reiterate. Learning how customers will respond and finding out how a product will perform is amazingly valuable. When a company tests a product, it is used on a small group of people, whom are usually hand picked by their need or end use.  The information gathered may translate into a broader customer base or may stay streamlined into a niche market.  

“In technology we are constantly looking to the future and trying to see things the way the could be. Once we have a vision we want to work towards we tend to choose the shortest path to get to that place. On projects of sufficiently narrow scope this is clearly the right thing to do. When it comes to strategy, however, our success has come from not concerning ourselves with the entire path to the goal but rather focusing primarily on the next step in that direction. By taking one step at a time and iterating we are able to adapt quickly to a constantly changing landscape and bring our users along for the ride.”

The data Facebook users provide through everyday use and testing can hold the key to answering many questions that is worth its weight in gold. One of the greatest benefits that social networking has provided is the use of real time data. Facebook is able to use the real time data generated from its tests and react. This is one of Zuckerberg’s strengths and mantras: moving fast and breaking things.  Responding to user needs and working on finding the answers when they break is what Zuck pushes his staff to do.

For Facebook, testing provides answers to questions that become building blocks to their future strategy, not to mention your future strategy if you market on Facebook.  Facebook makes hundreds of small code changes to make your user experience the best it can be.  Boz goes on to say, “When you see such dramatic results from the smallest tweaks, you realize how much opportunity there is to improve things—and we feel a constant sense of urgency to do so.”
“When a test goes out we look at the data immediately and adapt the products quickly. We do this on a daily basis. This cycle of iteration is the engine of progress and the people who use Facebook are not just the beneficiaries but are also intimately a part of the process. We don’t just develop this product for them, we develop it with them.”

The one caveat Facebook must deal with while testing is that things often break and can make for an unhappy user experience. In the grand scheme of things, when talking about tests, we are talking about small user groups, therefore the unhappy user experience tends to be small but fixable and holds large benefits for those users in the future. When things break, people fix them, usually. Maybe this can teach us all to have more of an open mind.
 Boz says, “To keep improving, we must constantly test different versions of Facebook with real people to even have a chance at creating the best possible experience.”

So, when you see something different on your Facebook profile page or newsfeed, think about it like a scientist. Ask questions while using it. Use it to figure out if you like it or if you don’t and why. Don’t just post…Facebook is stupid. In the end, you only end up with egg on your face and who really wants that on their Facebook page.  

Could Bambi be a Nuisance?

Protecting the deer in Avon Lake. Photo by: The Morning Journal

Where is the solution for “No hunting” signs that litter the yards in Avon Lake, Ohio in regards to the deer population?  Avon Lake is dealing with more than Bambi strolling through wooded paths and backyards.

Two Parsons Drive residents recall their close encounter with a deer last month only a few blocks from their home. “For a moment, my life went on pause. I couldn’t speak. The deer’s face was pressed up against the window and my thoughts were wondering if this deer was going to bust through. Luckily we didn’t go left of center. It might have ended quite differently.” That incident left a $3,000 bill for their insurance company, not to mention their deductible. 

It’s estimated that 50 resident’s cars have hit deer in Avon Lake over the last 6 months.  News Net 5 reported that AL can only support 50 deer. There are a reported 300 living within the city limits.

Mayer Zilka has stated the case that some residents see the deer as attractive elements of nature and others see them as a nuisance.  This is more serious than watching Bambi. The city is to provide a safe community for its residents. Injuries and significant damage involving resident’s lives are more than a nuisance.

City Ordinance 618.01 in Avon Lake is a city leash law that states dogs and cats must be on leashes and never in public streets or areas. It appears the deer issue needs to be put to rest. Bypassing the money lost on gardens and flowers due to deer feeding habits and jumping to the over population in the city, the deer are causing life threatening danger to it’s residents and city workers.  Must we wait until a fatal accident happens before the city finds a bigger resolution than flashing signs?

Where is the Latest Tech Talk?

Check out my new business venture called YoYoTECHit. Click the link to find out what we are all about. YoYoTECHit

Is Failing an Option?

                                   

To fail. Or not to fail.  To be. Or not to be.  Those are the questions.

Many times we will fail, however we are bombarded with phrases such that failure is not an option.

We must interpret what it means to fail.  To fail is a failure.

However, I believe to fail will always lead to success.  This is true when studying any inventor or scientist.  We can not learn without failure.  We can not.

However, it becomes one's choice to decide how to process failure.  There are a few different ways.

One is to deny the failure, move on and repeat the cycle.

Two is to panic and absorb negative feelings of inadequacy into your soul.

Three is to accept the failure.  Forgive if need be.  Decide what the reason for failure was.  Accept it and decide how to move forward and to either be or not to be.  To either correct or not to correct.  The latter will lead you back to option one.  History does repeat itself.  We are human.  We can learn.  We will fail.  We will survive.  We will progress.  We just will.

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.  This is true.  Sometimes we feel like we are killed and we take those feelings in and let them eat us up.  While they remain a part of us, we remain dead to the world.  We can not function.  We can not succeed.  We harbor feelings that will not allow us to succeed.

We all must face the music.  We are where we are.  We must deal with it.  If we fail to deal with it, then we will continue to fail.  Failing is good, but denying failure or not accepting failure will not allow us to move forward.

Steve Jobs has said that, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well worn path; and that will make all the difference.”

To dissect his comment further, in order to connect any dots, we must acknowledge our failures and our weeknesses.  If we do not, the only dots that we will be able to connect will be those of historical family legacy....the ones that we would like to leave behind and change.

However, accepting the failures we find will allow us to press on.

Don't be afraid to fail.  Don't be afraid to break anything.  For it is in these moments that defines who we are.

So, today I failed.  I did something that was not acceptable....not tolerable.  I had the 3 choices above.  I chose option 3.  I accepted.  I apologized.  I offered to make up for it.  Whatever comes of it is yet to be determined.  What I know today is that I forgive myself for making a mistake.  One that could have easily been avoided, but wasn't.  It is what it is.  The only thing I am going to do is accept that I screwed up and press on.  I am going to make sure it doesn't happen again.....as best I can.  That is all we can do....the best we can with what we have....with what we know....with what we choose.  We all make mistakes and will keep on making mistakes.  It's all in the angle we choose to look at it.  It is our choice to decide to evolve to change or not.

Bon Chance!