Category: culture

Subtracting

FabrizioLeave a comment

Challenge yourself (and your team) with a question that begins in the following way: what is the minimum amount …?

What is the minimum amount of information we need from a customer before we let them download the whitepaper?

What is the minimum amount of words we have to force our customers to listen to before connecting them to a human being?

What is the minimum amount of steps a visitor to our website has to take before finding what they came for?

What is the minimum amount of words we can use to describe our product?

What is the mimimum amount of people we need to tackle this problem?

Subtracting is often the best approach.

Fake

Fabrizio1 Comment

[During the first three quarters of 2019], Facebook has shut down 5.4 billion fake accounts on its main platform, but millions likely remain, the social networking giant said Wednesday. That’s compared to roughly 3.3 billion fake accounts removed in all of 2018.

CNN Business, full article here

Let that sink in.

In Q3 2019, Facebook reported 2.4 billion monthly active user, and at the same time they had to remove almost 600 million fake users per month since the beginning of the same fiscal year.

The fact that Facebook is doing something about it is praiseworthy, yet isn’t it perhaps time to have a first principles look at how social media accounts are created?

Prompt response

FabrizioLeave a comment

There are very few cases in which a prompt response is required.

The more infuriating, unnerving, frustrating of messages demand that you take a step back. Clear your mind, go for a walk, take a full night of sleep, pause for a few days if necessary. Process what is going on within you, try to not second guess the sender, talk about it with someone you trust. Honestly evaluate if an answer is really needed. And if it is, when the time comes, craft it as if the person you most love and respect would be the recipient.

The damages made by prompt responses are immense. What is written or said once can never be taken back.

Urgent and change

FabrizioLeave a comment

Urgent usually comes from one person. It is a way to counter a fear, a discomfort, a stressor. It spreads very fast, it gets things done, and it kills motivation.

Change on the other hand is usually a collective action. It is pursued in reaction to a habit, a behaviour, an action, a system. It takes time, it has a non-linear progress, and it gives purpose.

What are you working on these days?

Find and nurture

FabrizioLeave a comment

Communities are built because of the active commitment of a small number of people.

Starting something, anything, with the masses in mind is nonsensical and counterproductive. Only a small fraction of the full potential audience is going to pick up your message, use it as trait to signal their identity, and spread it.

Your job is to find them and nurture them.