funderrated - | Nick Smith | Stuff I like, related to Entrepreneurship, Life Hacking and the Web

August 9, 2010

Some collaborative product research tools

Evernote
http://www.evernote.com/
Pros: Gather notes + captures across platforms (inc mobile), quick process
Cons: No easy way to annotate captures

Skitch
http://skitch.com/
Pros: Very 'graphical', annotate on top of images, quick sharing
Cons: No native app for windows

Notable
http://www.notableapp.com/
Pros: Specifically designed for researching web features, allows capture of underlying html + metadata, group captures together, iterative feedback
Cons: 'locked in' to the platform (and agressive pricing after free version)

Bounce (Notable's baby sister)
http://www.bounceapp.com/
Pros: Dead-simple
Cons: Dead simple

Fleck
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3908/
Pros: *not tested/no comment*
Cons: Project looks like it's dead

ImageSpark
http://www.imgspark.com/
Pros: Great for building image-centric moodboards
Cons: Annotation limited to tagging/commenting

Any other suggestions?

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June 30, 2010

Startups = experimental drug companies

Thoughts & notes from an event last night @ Imperial College geared towards pharmaceuticals, "Attracting the technology buyer"

Facebook & Google are behaving like large pharmaceutical companies e.g GlaxoSmithKline. They have the funds, customer base and manpower to distribute products worldwide - but they are outsourcing innovation in much the same way as drug companies buy up experimental bio-med companies.

Examples: Google recently acquiring Plink, Picnik, Aardvark etc

If they are doing to the web what drug companies have done to the pharmaceutical industry, how can startups behave like experimental drug companies?

- be bold, try stuff
- protect IP (absolutely essential in drug industry)
- look to solve commercial problem for Google/Facebook (thought: should these guys be more open about the innovations they are looking to source?)
- Build your innovation in the context of its potential acquirer's brand/s
- Understand resource constraints of large corps - whether it's time, funds, scope etc
- 'Serendipity is when you find things you weren't looking for because finding what you are looking for is so damn difficult.' —Erin McKean ... Fit this in to the context of a large corp looking for innovative companies to buy
- 'Speak the language' of who you are selling to (whether selling your product, company)

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June 24, 2010

Weird bootstrapped lunch #176

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June 8, 2010

The importance of turning passion for your product into something others understand

Filed under // Bootstrapping Product Management

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June 6, 2010

Monitor how close you are to being Mayor of your favorite venue

http://whenwillibemayor.com/

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June 4, 2010

Make mobile app prototypes, fast

@greypopuon sent through an interesting soon-to-be-released app that makes it easy to create interactive mobile wireframes for iPhone and iPod touch. It's called Briefs, and it looks awesome.

Check it out here: http://giveabrief.com/

Filed under // Apple Product Management

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May 30, 2010

Interesting results from A/B testing button colour

Some interesting insight here into how some simple A/B testing can massively increase conversion rates...

http://dmix.ca/2010/05/how-we-increased-our-conversion-rate-by-72/

and

http://blog.performable.com/post/631526233/button-color-test-red-beats-green

Filed under // Product Management

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May 12, 2010

Always read the label

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April 14, 2010

Connect with Angels!

http://www.meetup.com/Connecting-with-Angels/

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April 6, 2010

Introducing Extra Brain Power: An ultra-light digital execution service

Today I'm excited to announce the launch of a new service called Extra Brain Power.

For the last couple of months I have been working on a variety of early-stage projects in parallel to founding my next company, Emot.io. The work I've been doing has been extremely exciting and rewarding, and has got me really fired up to help more people develop and execute their ideas for web businesses. That's why I'm launching Extra Brain Power - a new kind of service that focuses on helping people execute an internet based idea as quickly and efficiently as possible.

What does that entail?

Extra Brain Power is exactly that. It's an injection of new ideas, fresh perspective, entrepreneurial spirit and hard graft that is tailored to boost your project to the next level. Depending on where a project is at, a shot of Extra Brain Power may involve some or all of the following:

- Concept development and idea generation

- Building a business plan

- Building a minimal viable product or website

- Search engine optimisation, pay per click campaigns

- Setting up project management tools and analytics

- (Basic) graphic design, branding and initial marketing efforts

- Capture of user feedback

In other words, Extra Brain Power fits around a web project and does what's needed to get it out into the public domain as quickly as possible. This service isn't free, but through leveraging e ntrepreneurial experience and Open Source technologies for speed, stability, flexibility and affordability, a functional and attractive product can be delivered rapidly and at a low cost.

There has never been a better time to launch a web business, and I believe that by applying some Extra Brain Power, more interesting ideas will see the light of day. Here's to launching some awesome projects!

To get in touch about an idea or an existing project that needs powering up in a cost-efficient way, head over to www.extrabrainpower.com.

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