August 2016 Articles

I agree, great questions. Though admittedly they are a plug for one of his projects, DistruptiveInnovation.org

What is an innovation? What is the difference between ideas, inventions, novelties, discoveries and creations?

What is a disruption, formally-speaking? Also, what is it informally speaking? Why the distinction?

What is Performance (or P-space)? How does Performance relate to utility, quantity, price and other microeconomic concepts?

What is a new market? How do we distinguish a new industry from a new market.

A couple weeks old, but a terrific article.

Probably the most important fact when it comes to analyzing Unilever’s purchase of Dollar Shave Club is the $1 billion price: in the world of consumer packaged goods (CPG) it is shockingly low. After all, only eleven years ago Procter & Gamble (P&G) bought Gillette, the market leader in shaving,for a staggering $57 billion.

To be sure Gillette is still dominant – the brand controls 70 percent of the global blades and razors market – but there is little question that Dollar Shave Club is a much better deal, in every sense of the word. Understanding why Dollar Shave Club was cheap means understanding why its blades are cheap, and understanding that means understanding just how precarious the position of P&G specifically and incumbents generally are in the emerging Internet economy.

The following is a list of the best-selling products across several categories:

Car model: VW Beetle 21.5 million Car brand: Toyota Corolla 43 million Music Album: Thriller 70 million Vehicle: Honda Super Cub 87 million Book Title: Lord of the Rings 150 million Toy: Rubik’s Cube 350 million Game console: Playstation 382 million Book series: Harry Potter Series 450 million Mobile Phone: iPhone 1 billion

The iPhone is not only the best selling mobile phone but also the best selling music player, the best selling camera, the best selling video screen and the best selling computer of all time.

I met Corinne back when she was working at Death Valley National Park through my friend Hannah. It’s true, when you constantly post photos from a beautiful national park, I immediately think “what a wonderful life!”. Here’s Corinne’s response.

From the time I left Georgia a year ago to work seasonally in the National Parks, I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve heard “can I have your life?” or “your life is so much cooler than mine!”

In the beginning I took those remarks as innocuous compliments, but then I realized how dangerous it could be for me to end those discussions with just an awkward “thank you?”

What started happening was a chancy game of comparison, and I quickly became aware that if I didn’t put an end to it, my ego would erupt, and the expectation for my life to stay “impressive” or “adventurous” would only conclude in disappointment.

Here’s the thing: my life is hard, just like your nine-to-five job or your college student schedule. Seasonal life in the Parks isn’t easier than yours, and living in Montana does not make me immune to sadness or boredom or running out of money.

We often hear a lot about how other companies are using Machine Learning (ML): Google, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Amazon, etc. One company who is pursuing ML and applying it actively within their products is Apple.

We often only hear about what’s happening technically at Apple once a year or in their marketing materials. I’m convinced Apple hasn’t missed the boat in the least and instead treats ML as a necessary core competency. The biggest difference is they’re not the boisterous kid on the playground showing off and talking loud. Instead Apple is the quiet yet brilliant kid sitting a little off to the side who is doing a whole lot more than the other kid but doesn’t need to shout about it.

Helping startups think critically about their product:

User Observation Tool: Tool for validation of product demand. Create your custom User Observation Plan.

Messaging Tool: Tool for concise articulation of what, how and for whom. Compose your messaging and validate it on typical applications.

150 Second Pitch Tool: Tool for layout of short pitch. Use our guided template to get to practicing your pitching in minutes.

Design Brief Tool: Tool for engagement with designers & description of product context. Create your custom Design Brief in less than 10 minutes.

MVP Spec Tool: Tool for identification of product primary functions and secondary features.

Ben Thompson on sports as the lynchpin of television as we know it.

…I would argue sports are the linchpin holding the entire post-war economic order together. Because sports are consumed live, with significantly higher advertising load and viewer retention, sports are increasingly the only viable place for mass-market consumer companies to reach customers at scale and fight off niche e-commerce companies slicing off their customer base. That in turn helps preserve retailers, themselves both big advertisers and big targets for internet-based companies, particularly Amazon, and so on down the line. This effect is magnified by sports’ role in preserving the cable bundle, which keeps more channels – and thus more inventory – viable (not to mention that some of TV’s biggest advertisers – entertainment companies – also own the cable channels).