Extrapolating some thoughts from Seth Godin & Kathy Sierra

Three posts in the recent past - each one a Codex, from visionary duo Seth Godin & Kathy Sierra - with powerful messages having a strong inter-correlationship - "Back Seat drivers and the wikipedia problem" (Seth Godin), "Listening to users considered harmful?" (Kathy Sierra), and "Don't give in to feature demands" (Kathy Sierra).

I went through them feeling like Professor Langdon, trying to decode the insights contained within, insights that eventually inspired me to pen down the following contribution.

The common point driven home by "Back Seat driver.." (Seth's one line summary is THE actual message) and Kathy's "Listening to users.." is that Customers don't necessarily know what they want. And Kathy's "Don't give in.." tells us what happens if you try accommodating the myriad demands coming in from different types of users: You will end up with 100% dissatisfied users. Not a good shape to be in.

Seth and Kathy, the visionaries they are, make a strong and sensible point, and my take from this is to tell businesses WHY should they absolutely, absolutely focus on Customer Segmentation as a key strategy, and work it out to the 'T'!

Allow me to don my thinking hat and try putting a structure around Kathy's 13 user types from "Don't give in..". Instead of adding more types to the phenomenal work done by her, I'll attempt to categorize those into the following user types:

1. Concerned
2. Complacent
3. Celebrities

These are my 3 C's of Segmentation. Concerned users are your critics, they are "Hopping mad" to tell you things. Complacent users are merely complacent, and usually go "Ho, hum..". Celebrities are the "Happy" ones, they are your Stars.

Remember the above 3 C's give you 3 H's! (Now is this resembling an Organic Chemistry class - C3... H3...?? Some more elements for the Benzene type of formula? Thankfully no!) I will now venture into the type of things these broad Segments will be pestering you with - if you bother to listen.

The varied and interesting feedback typically comes in either of the following: a) Continue (C) doing what you are doing fine; b) Start (St) doing these things that you didn't earlier think of; & c) For God's sake Stop (Sp) doing these terrible things to us. "Continue" / "Start" / "Stop"! The music player for you! Making you sing tunes: start / stop / keep going... .. the core concept of "Listening to users...harmful?" (Kathy)

Now take a look at how the 3 C's typically operate the music player:


The 3 broad categories also have shades within. Something like an "Extremely Concerned" being distinct from a "Concerned bordering on Complacent" .. and so on. And the feedback will proliferate accordingly. For instance, C=These:St=These:Sp=X, is a possible shade. This shade hovers on Complacent<->Celebrity border, and appears to be a Creative Innovator.
Whereas C=X:St=These:Sp=These, probably denotes a Balanced Innovator.
An "All three" C/St/Sp = These contributor is an enthusiastic Celebrity eager to tell you a lot of things!

The moot point is that if you are not a "Basecamp" which can attempt to be an e2e, i.e. everything to everyone (keyword 'attempt' is my disclaimer, I'm neither saying yes they are e2e, nor that they're not); then the only way out for you is to figure out how to divide your market into meaningful segments - each with its own 3 C's; rather than a big huge befuddled mass market.

Why not create Segments with only Celebrities? Tempting though it sounds, that would mean: a) you create a befuddled mass of multiple markets instead, and b) you would spend too many resources building 'exactly' what the Celebrities want in that segment (who might turn out to be THE solitary Celebrity left there..)

So, Segment. Segment judiciously. Identify the 3 C's, know their 3 H's, and the shades of C:St:Sp mix. And NO, don't implement each and every C:St:Sp combo. Apply your subject matter expertise, apply your knowledge of the 3 C's and implement what you know will work. Also try converting the Complacent into either Concerned OR into Celebrities! Extremism may be taboo in Politics; but it's certainly the key lever in business.

Technorati links: Seth Godin Kathy Sierra Customer Segmentation 37Signals

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Signal is Noise - another Point of View

Yesterday I wrote about the advent of the Information era, the phenomenal power of the III (Information & Intelligence Internetwork), and the pyramid standing on its head. (Signal is Noise, Noise is Signal)

Today I get to the point another way. How Signal is not Noise, but how to convert Signal into Noise. Pardon me for making it sound like a DIY series, it's not. It's a commentary on the current partial III embargo we Indians are going through. Which is the trick. The trick of "blocking". The trick to achieve the above How to.

As I write these lines, (and thankfully I can write them because the parent "blogger.com" is still accessible), the whole domains of .blogspot.com, .typepad.com, and some more have been rendered inaccessible in India as an anti-insurgency measure, in response to the recent train bombings in Mumbai.

I am not passing any judgment on the validity of the move, whether it is right-on-your-money or downright-stupid. But I want to re-emphasize the tremendous power of III. Right now it's a one-way street for me (again thankfully at least one-way). I cannot visit many of the blogs I admire (and was stupid enough not to put on my Bloglines). The egotistic touch I referred to yesterday is something I can feel more deeply. Millions of other Indians also must be facing similar difficulties in this temporary 'blog-less' phase.

If by chance someone catches this blog through a proxy, or some other means of countering the How to trick then please, please use My Feedburner feed to subscribe. For those who can still read this on blogspot, I urge you to do the same. Who knows what has future got in store for you?

Thankful having Seth, Kathy, and Tom (Vander Well) on Bloglines, I am now looking out for other noteworthy (remember NOISE?..) feeds myself. That will be my Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity plan for the future........

Technorati links: Seth Godin Kathy Sierra Tom Vander Well Blogging India

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Signal is Noise, Noise is Signal

"Hello.... anyone out there?" - an early geek on his Personal Computer a.k.a. PC, trying to figure out whether he is too early in the networking game.

The pyramid is now standing on its Apex. Paradigms have not merely shifted; they have leaped and bounded. The dotcom boom that for many was a doom, actually turned out to be a boon in disguise.

In the space of less than a decade, the also-on-the-bandwagon crowd now keeps screaming - "Will someone shut up and listen to ME?"...

Myriad dreams that internet promised initially, and then did not fulfill - it replaced with this one element called Information.

The World Wide Web has been converted into a giant Information & Intelligence Internetwork. The 3 I's give an exceedingly egotistic touch to the entire cyber popultation. A certain Google appeared on the scene, and created a level playing field for anyone & everyone interested in receiving or disseminating Information (to the point of creating an overload...).

Ideaviruses spread faster than ever; Ideaviruses that challenged old notions. We understood from visionary pioneers like Seth Godin, Kathy Sierra, and many others: All Marketers are Liars, Small is the new Big, The Future is NOT in learning, Safe is Risky and vice-versa, Everyone is an Expert, Creating Passionate users,...

..All this while, a phenomenon known as Blogging was working away silently, causing bits to bi(Y)te, and generally contributing to making great ideas reach bigger audiences.

Now examine Blogging. Like a zillion other things, it's got the two characteristics representative of the Information age. First, it is counter-intuitive; second, it is from a post dotcom doom (inverted-pyramid-that-shifted/leaped) era.

What intuitions does Blogging counter? The classic transmission principles of Telecommunications Engineers (like me), for one. Intuitively speaking, a Signal propagating through a given medium attenuates as it moves further, and the component of Noise keeps going up. So much so, that after traveling for a while, the Signal stops being a Signal... all you have is ..Noise...When you try tuning into Radio Srilanka sitting in Alaska, for instance, you will pretty much hear static interspersed with occasional blips of information.

Move in Communication folks (not Telecommunication, Human communication). Even here, the concept of Noise is still valid - as corporate communications trainers have shown us through the Chinese Whisper experiments.

Anything that moves, slows down - in the simplest terms - if either type of Communication theory above seems too far removed from common reality.

Cut back to Blogging. It does not seem to be introducing Noise, does it? The further the Signal moves in the chain, the stronger it gets. One idea begins its journey in Blogosphere, and soon you have many more triggered. The medium itself seems to reduce the Noise and cut away the clutter. Whereas, some so called Signals are buried even before they leave the sender's computer (take a look at http://digg.com/..... the in-parentheses info for the non- believers).

So in the Blogosphere, Signal is Noise and Noise is Signal. Sample my version to help you memorize this crazy concept... SIGNAL - Soliloquy In General, Not at All Linkworthy! NOISE - Noteworthy Offerings In the Subscribable Ether!

Hey, standing on your head already? Go generate and post some NOISE.. A new Paradigm just got created!!!!

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On getting a passionate Nod from Kathy

I began my blogging journey a month back. It was a classic 'dip-stick' venture, narrowly limited to 'Customer centricity aspect of CRM' - my domain expertise and hence my passion!!

I still continue with Consulting for Success; reaching out to, and influencing a niche audience. But to expand my horizon I latched on to Seth's blog - and through him to other powerful Idea(virus) propagators like Kathy Sierra.

How your product can inspire The Nod is both a revelation, and hopefully a revolution! I realized that The Nod was the precursor to my 'Create Staunch Advocates' message to the Business Leaders. And so contributed the following comments:

• The 'nod' comes only from the users who have had 'great experiences', in addition to the 17 (or 16??) attributes listed above!! Else the empathetic 'nod' will be the sympathetic 'I feel your pain' instead.
  And my strong belief is that not only should companies 'help users be remarkable'; but take it to the next step where 'the users help other users be remarkable' - the next step of creating staunch advocates!!

Today I went back to Kathy's musings, and was pleasantly surprised by her similar thoughts on the linkage between The Nod and the Advocate! (Kathy Sierra on how your product can inspire The Nod), an excerpt:

• Rajas: "And my strong belief is that not only should companies 'help users be remarkable'; but take it to the next step where 'the users help other users be remarkable' - the next step of creating staunch advocates!!"
  What a wonderful extension of this idea! I'm nodding vigorously... (although in more of an enthusiastic YES YES YES way)

Expanding my horizon seems to be paying off!! Thanks Kathy.

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What is Weirdness: Seth Godin asks mere mortals

A recent post on Seth Godin's blog happens to be on the subject of Weirdness (It's not weird when it's your weirdness).

Seth asks the rest of the world whether there is any science behind the phenomenon of $78000 record players, and very sophisticated golf clubs et al. And many (including marketers) actually answered in the negative!!!

Besides looking at the 'marketer' angle, the keyword according to me is "believe" (Seth does not play golf.., and I suspect either he does not like music, or else prefers his iPod).

My argument is that being weird is a matter of perspective, it's all in the belief. It's about doing what makes sense to you, whether or not it appears as madness to the non-believers. And I also think that most of the time Seth's 'weirdness' (I mean weirdness as referred to by Seth...!!) stems from the overzealous 'increase the specialization at any cost' syndrome.

Marketers want to be one up, they want to differentiate, they want a punchline in their promo - never mind whether the customers want it or not. To that extent it definitely is not a science! It is a mere reaction, a reaction to what competitors are offering.

But if you do what you do, because it makes sense to you, with a clear reasoning - then of course it is a science.... or maybe not! Maybe it's an art as well as a science.

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