Having studied more than a hundred top designers in various fields over the past couple of years (while doing research for a book), I found that there were a few shared behaviors that seemed to be almost second nature to many designers. And these ingrained habits were intrinsically linked to the designer's ability to bring original ideas into the world as successful innovations. All of which suggests that they merit a closer look.

Question. If you spend any time around designers, you quickly discover this about them: They ask, and raise, a lot of questions. Often this is the starting point in the design process, and it can have a profound influence on everything that follows. Many of the designers I studied, from Bruce Mau to Richard Saul Wurman to Paula Scher, talked about the importance of asking "stupid questions"--the ones that challenge the existing realities and assumptions in a given industry or sector. The persistent tendency of designers to do this is captured in the joke designers tell about themselves. How many designers does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: Does it have to be a light bulb?

In a business setting, asking basic "why" questions can make the questioner seem naïve while putting others on the defensive (as in, "What do you mean 'Why are we doing it this way?' We've been doing it this way for 22 years!"). But by encouraging people to step back and reconsider old problems or entrenched practices, the designer can begin to re-frame the challenge at hand — which can then steer thinking in new directions. For business in today's volatile marketplace, the ability to question and rethink basic fundamentals — What business are we really in? What do today's consumers actually need or expect from us? — has never been more important.

Care. It's easy for companies to say they care about customer needs. But to really empathize, you have to be willing to do what many of the best designers do: step out of the corporate bubble and actually immerse yourself in the daily lives of people you're trying to serve. What impressed me about design researchers such as Jane Fulton Suri of IDEO was the dedication to really observing and paying close attention to people — because this is usually the best way to ferret out their deep, unarticulated needs. Focus groups and questionnaires don't cut it; designers know that you must care enough to actually be present in people's lives.

Connect. Designers, I discovered, have a knack for synthesizing--for taking existing elements or ideas and mashing them together in fresh new ways. This can be a valuable shortcut to innovation because it means you don't necessarily have to invent from scratch. By coming up with "smart recombinations" (to use a term coined by the designer John Thackara), Apple has produced some of its most successful hybrid products; and Nike smartly combining a running shoe with an iPod to produce its groundbreaking Nike Plus line (which enables users to program their runs). It isn't easy to come up with these great combos. Designers know that you must "think laterally" — searching far and wide for ideas and influences — and must also be willing to try connecting ideas that might not seem to go together. This is a way of thinking that can also be embraced by non-designers.

Commit. It's one thing to dream up original ideas. But designers quickly take those ideas beyond the realm of imagination by giving form to them. Whether it's a napkin sketch, a prototype carved from foam rubber, or a digital mock-up, the quick-and-rough models that designers constantly create are a critical component of innovation — because when you give form to an idea, you begin to make it real.

But it's also true that when you commit to an idea early — putting it out into the world while it's still young and imperfect — you increase the possibility of short-term failure. Designers tend to be much more comfortable with this risk than most of us. They know that innovation often involves an iterative process with setbacks along the way — and those small failures are actually useful because they show the designer what works and what needs fixing. The designer's ability to "fail forward" is a particularly valuable quality in times of dynamic change. Today, many companies find themselves operating in a test-and-learn business environment that requires rapid prototyping. Which is just one more reason to pay attention to the people who've been conducting their work this way all along.

Warren Berger is the author of GLIMMER: How design can transform, business, your life, and maybe even the world (Penguin Press). He edits the online magazine GlimmerSite.com.

Having studied more than a hundred top designers in various fields over the past couple of years (while doing research for a book), I found that there were a few shared behaviors that seemed to be almost second nature to many designers. And these ingrained habits were intrinsically linked to the designer's ability to bring original ideas into the world as successful innovations. All of which suggests that they merit a closer look.

Question. If you spend any time around designers, you quickly discover this about them: They ask, and raise, a lot of questions. Often this is the starting point in the design process, and it can have a profound influence on everything that follows. Many of the designers I studied, from Bruce Mau to Richard Saul Wurman to Paula Scher, talked about the importance of asking "stupid questions"--the ones that challenge the existing realities and assumptions in a given industry or sector. The persistent tendency of designers to do this is captured in the joke designers tell about themselves. How many designers does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: Does it have to be a light bulb?

In a business setting, asking basic "why" questions can make the questioner seem naïve while putting others on the defensive (as in, "What do you mean 'Why are we doing it this way?' We've been doing it this way for 22 years!"). But by encouraging people to step back and reconsider old problems or entrenched practices, the designer can begin to re-frame the challenge at hand — which can then steer thinking in new directions. For business in today's volatile marketplace, the ability to question and rethink basic fundamentals — What business are we really in? What do today's consumers actually need or expect from us? — has never been more important.

Care. It's easy for companies to say they care about customer needs. But to really empathize, you have to be willing to do what many of the best designers do: step out of the corporate bubble and actually immerse yourself in the daily lives of people you're trying to serve. What impressed me about design researchers such as Jane Fulton Suri of IDEO was the dedication to really observing and paying close attention to people — because this is usually the best way to ferret out their deep, unarticulated needs. Focus groups and questionnaires don't cut it; designers know that you must care enough to actually be present in people's lives.

Connect. Designers, I discovered, have a knack for synthesizing--for taking existing elements or ideas and mashing them together in fresh new ways. This can be a valuable shortcut to innovation because it means you don't necessarily have to invent from scratch. By coming up with "smart recombinations" (to use a term coined by the designer John Thackara), Apple has produced some of its most successful hybrid products; and Nike smartly combining a running shoe with an iPod to produce its groundbreaking Nike Plus line (which enables users to program their runs). It isn't easy to come up with these great combos. Designers know that you must "think laterally" — searching far and wide for ideas and influences — and must also be willing to try connecting ideas that might not seem to go together. This is a way of thinking that can also be embraced by non-designers.

Commit. It's one thing to dream up original ideas. But designers quickly take those ideas beyond the realm of imagination by giving form to them. Whether it's a napkin sketch, a prototype carved from foam rubber, or a digital mock-up, the quick-and-rough models that designers constantly create are a critical component of innovation — because when you give form to an idea, you begin to make it real.

But it's also true that when you commit to an idea early — putting it out into the world while it's still young and imperfect — you increase the possibility of short-term failure. Designers tend to be much more comfortable with this risk than most of us. They know that innovation often involves an iterative process with setbacks along the way — and those small failures are actually useful because they show the designer what works and what needs fixing. The designer's ability to "fail forward" is a particularly valuable quality in times of dynamic change. Today, many companies find themselves operating in a test-and-learn business environment that requires rapid prototyping. Which is just one more reason to pay attention to the people who've been conducting their work this way all along.

Warren Berger is the author of GLIMMER: How design can transform, business, your life, and maybe even the world (Penguin Press). He edits the online magazine GlimmerSite.com.

Sponsor

Graham is an excellent source of valuable information for startups, partly from the essays he posts to his personal website. In the first half of 2010 Graham wrote just one essay, but thankfully has returned to the full swing of writing with three essays in July so far.

"This idea will thus tend to get all the benefit of that type of thinking, while others are starved of it," writes Graham. "Which means it's a disaster to let the wrong idea become the top one in your mind."

For startups and young entrepreneurs, the top idea should be concepts like "How do I raise more money?" or "How do we better engage our customer base?". Unfortunately, the life of a startup isn't always smooth sailing, and hiccups can get in the way of valuable thinking time.

Graham says he has trained his mind to avoid wasting thoughts on negative or inconsequential things. One of the things he avoids thinking about are disputes - something he believes most people allow to overcrowd their thoughts and stifle productivity.

"I've found I can to some extent avoid thinking about nasty things people have done to me by telling myself: this doesn't deserve space in my head," he says. "I'm always delighted to find I've forgotten the details of disputes, because that means I hadn't been thinking about them."

If theres one thing startups should take away from Graham's essay it's that distractions can be devastating to a company's productivity. By avoiding situations that could potentially preoccupy the brain's "top idea" spot, startups and young entrepreneurs can remain focused on the most important goals of their companies.

Sponsor

Graham is an excellent source of valuable information for startups, partly from the essays he posts to his personal website. In the first half of 2010 Graham wrote just one essay, but thankfully has returned to the full swing of writing with three essays in July so far.

"This idea will thus tend to get all the benefit of that type of thinking, while others are starved of it," writes Graham. "Which means it's a disaster to let the wrong idea become the top one in your mind."

For startups and young entrepreneurs, the top idea should be concepts like "How do I raise more money?" or "How do we better engage our customer base?". Unfortunately, the life of a startup isn't always smooth sailing, and hiccups can get in the way of valuable thinking time.

Graham says he has trained his mind to avoid wasting thoughts on negative or inconsequential things. One of the things he avoids thinking about are disputes - something he believes most people allow to overcrowd their thoughts and stifle productivity.

"I've found I can to some extent avoid thinking about nasty things people have done to me by telling myself: this doesn't deserve space in my head," he says. "I'm always delighted to find I've forgotten the details of disputes, because that means I hadn't been thinking about them."

If theres one thing startups should take away from Graham's essay it's that distractions can be devastating to a company's productivity. By avoiding situations that could potentially preoccupy the brain's "top idea" spot, startups and young entrepreneurs can remain focused on the most important goals of their companies.

When a company releases its software for free, how does it plan to make money? If that particular company is Google, the answer is a familar one, advertising.

Industry executives and Wall Street analysts are criticising Google for being short-sighted and focusing too intently on online advertising, accusing the search giant of being a “one trick pony”. Google doesn’t have a problem with that label however, even its CEO Eric Schmidt agrees, stating “I think that’s probably true”.

Speaking in a recent interview, Schmidt added:

“If you’ve got a one-trick pony, you want the one we have. We’re in the ad business, and it’s growing rapidly. We picked the right trick.”

He isn’t wrong. In the second quarter of 2010 alone, Google posted revenues $5.1 billion with advertising accounting for 96% of its revenues during that period, 66% of its total revenue. Not intending to rely on traditional search advertising, Google is said to be readying a huge push into mobile with the aim of securing revenues of $10 billion a year with the help of its Android operating system.

For those who aren’t aware, the Android operating system is feature rich, open-source and free, positioning it as a viable contendor to the Apple iPhone. With over 160,000 Android handset activations per day, Google’s mobile market share is ever increasing, allowing the search giant to adapt and deploy its existing advertising platforms for mobile devices and supplying services that mobile users really need.

As Schmidt says: “If we have a billion people using Android, you think we can’t make money from that?” – Think about it, that’s just $10 per Android user. With Google setting its sights on recommendation engines, building Admob (its mobile advertising platform) and incorporating location-based advertising, it certainly could achieve that.

I can’t see Google amassing a billion Android users just yet though.

Google will undoubtedly find new ways to monetize its mobile offerings, whilst keeping its operating system free for all. Although one billion Android users is a tough expectation, the smartphone market continues to experience huge growth and an increasing number of manufacturers looking to the mobile operating system to power their devices, it certainly will be interesting to see just how close Google can get to its target.

[Source - WSJ]

Original title and link for this post: Google Plans To Make $10 Billion A Year From Mobile, One Android User At A Time

When a company releases its software for free, how does it plan to make money? If that particular company is Google, the answer is a familar one, advertising.

Industry executives and Wall Street analysts are criticising Google for being short-sighted and focusing too intently on online advertising, accusing the search giant of being a “one trick pony”. Google doesn’t have a problem with that label however, even its CEO Eric Schmidt agrees, stating “I think that’s probably true”.

Speaking in a recent interview, Schmidt added:

“If you’ve got a one-trick pony, you want the one we have. We’re in the ad business, and it’s growing rapidly. We picked the right trick.”

He isn’t wrong. In the second quarter of 2010 alone, Google posted revenues $5.1 billion with advertising accounting for 96% of its revenues during that period, 66% of its total revenue. Not intending to rely on traditional search advertising, Google is said to be readying a huge push into mobile with the aim of securing revenues of $10 billion a year with the help of its Android operating system.

For those who aren’t aware, the Android operating system is feature rich, open-source and free, positioning it as a viable contendor to the Apple iPhone. With over 160,000 Android handset activations per day, Google’s mobile market share is ever increasing, allowing the search giant to adapt and deploy its existing advertising platforms for mobile devices and supplying services that mobile users really need.

As Schmidt says: “If we have a billion people using Android, you think we can’t make money from that?” – Think about it, that’s just $10 per Android user. With Google setting its sights on recommendation engines, building Admob (its mobile advertising platform) and incorporating location-based advertising, it certainly could achieve that.

I can’t see Google amassing a billion Android users just yet though.

Google will undoubtedly find new ways to monetize its mobile offerings, whilst keeping its operating system free for all. Although one billion Android users is a tough expectation, the smartphone market continues to experience huge growth and an increasing number of manufacturers looking to the mobile operating system to power their devices, it certainly will be interesting to see just how close Google can get to its target.

[Source - WSJ]

Original title and link for this post: Google Plans To Make $10 Billion A Year From Mobile, One Android User At A Time

Culture determines who will work for you, who stays, and who quits. Once formed, culture is nearly impossible to change. People who work well within the culture quickly self-select. And those who don't fit leave.

In growing companies more than anywhere else, culture is tightly tied to the CEO.

The CEO Sets the Culture.
In a hierarchy, people look up for approval. When a frontline store clerk sneezes, people hand him a tissue. When a CEO sneezes, people rush to the water cooler. "What did that sneeze mean? Was she bored, and sneezing to cover it up?" Deliberately or not, the CEOs actions send constant signals that begin shaping everyone's behavior.

"Walking the talk" is critical for a CEO because people imitate the CEO. If they say one thing and do another, people will follow their actions, not their words. They need to be a living example of the culture they want to create. In a start-up, since everyone has regular contact with the CEO, everything she does signals what is and isn't OK.

Good CEOs Attend to Visible Culture
CEOs also influence culture with visual cues, for example, the design of the office. Take a home products company that started life in an extremely nice space. It became easy for employees to think they were already successful, and to rather cavalierly burn through their seed money. In contrast, LA-based Evolution Robotics's CEO stocked the warehouse office with desks made from doors atop filing cabinets. The space itself said "lean and mean," better than any lecture about cash flow.

Dress codes also shape culture. Scott Cook, co-founder of Intuit (makers of Quicken) set a casual tone by wearing jeans and a windbreaker, while tech pioneer Charlie Bachman wore a suit every day at his company. Clothing choices visibly signal attitudes toward formality and conduct.

Other visible signs of culture include work-hour flexibility, telecommuting ability, and so on. In entrepreneurial companies, all policies comprising the visible culture are created with the CEO's involvement.

Great CEOs Attend to Invisible Culture
Much of culture is invisible, however, in the form of the processes the company uses to get things done. These aspects of culture can be shaped only with deliberate attention. Great CEOs shape the invisible culture.

Decision making. Decision making is where a company's values come to life (or death, depending). When a company is forced to choose between two alternatives, that choice sends everyone a powerful signal about how to behave. It's easy to say, "we care about quality and we care about profit." But when forced to choose between shipping a low-quality product to make profit numbers and slipping a ship date until a product is ready for prime time, what actually happens will speak volumes about what this company values most. The CEO is almost always party to such difficult decisions, and can shape them to help shape the culture.

Who participates in decisions also sends a signal. If one function (marketing, finance, customer service) regularly gets their way, the others gradually take second place. If one person speaks just loudly enough to shut everyone else down, you get a culture that values heat over light.

When a company regularly preaches one set of values, and the CEO condones decisions that trumpet a different set of values, you'll create a cynical culture. One high-tech CEO preached quality but knowingly released defective products and simply budgeted for the subsequent recall. Employees circulated articles extolling the company's commitment to customers, with handwritten margin comments tallying up the lies.

Compensation. People do what you pay them for, which makes money, titles, and responsibility powerful shapers of culture. A CEO who promotes friends and family member sends a clear message: if you're a high performer, great. But family comes first, regardless. Young companies are just forming compensation systems. Thoughtful design is important. Tying customer service bonuses to number of calls per hour can cause reps to shortchange customers just to make call quotas. A culture will develop that's time oriented, rather than customer oriented.

One way compensation warps a culture is by rewarding outcomes over process. For several years in the early 2000s, mortgage lenders's compensation was tied to outcomes — mortgages written — rather than process (quality underwriting). Oops. Compensation has huge cultural implications, and the CEO has final say on compensation.

Mistake Management. The final piece of invisible culture is how mistakes are handled. If mistakes are punished, you'll build a risk-averse, sycophantic culture that plays it safe rather than thinking outside the box. If mistakes are treated as learning and supported by the reward systems, you'll grow a culture that is willing and eager to experiment and innovate.

Stever Robbins is a serial entrepreneur, top-10 iTunes business podcaster ("The Get-it-Done Guy"), and CEO of Stever Robbins, Inc., an entrepreneurial consulting and coaching firm. He teaches at Babson College on building social capital. His first book, The Get-it-Done Guy's 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More, is coming out this September.

Culture determines who will work for you, who stays, and who quits. Once formed, culture is nearly impossible to change. People who work well within the culture quickly self-select. And those who don't fit leave.

In growing companies more than anywhere else, culture is tightly tied to the CEO.

The CEO Sets the Culture.
In a hierarchy, people look up for approval. When a frontline store clerk sneezes, people hand him a tissue. When a CEO sneezes, people rush to the water cooler. "What did that sneeze mean? Was she bored, and sneezing to cover it up?" Deliberately or not, the CEOs actions send constant signals that begin shaping everyone's behavior.

"Walking the talk" is critical for a CEO because people imitate the CEO. If they say one thing and do another, people will follow their actions, not their words. They need to be a living example of the culture they want to create. In a start-up, since everyone has regular contact with the CEO, everything she does signals what is and isn't OK.

Good CEOs Attend to Visible Culture
CEOs also influence culture with visual cues, for example, the design of the office. Take a home products company that started life in an extremely nice space. It became easy for employees to think they were already successful, and to rather cavalierly burn through their seed money. In contrast, LA-based Evolution Robotics's CEO stocked the warehouse office with desks made from doors atop filing cabinets. The space itself said "lean and mean," better than any lecture about cash flow.

Dress codes also shape culture. Scott Cook, co-founder of Intuit (makers of Quicken) set a casual tone by wearing jeans and a windbreaker, while tech pioneer Charlie Bachman wore a suit every day at his company. Clothing choices visibly signal attitudes toward formality and conduct.

Other visible signs of culture include work-hour flexibility, telecommuting ability, and so on. In entrepreneurial companies, all policies comprising the visible culture are created with the CEO's involvement.

Great CEOs Attend to Invisible Culture
Much of culture is invisible, however, in the form of the processes the company uses to get things done. These aspects of culture can be shaped only with deliberate attention. Great CEOs shape the invisible culture.

Decision making. Decision making is where a company's values come to life (or death, depending). When a company is forced to choose between two alternatives, that choice sends everyone a powerful signal about how to behave. It's easy to say, "we care about quality and we care about profit." But when forced to choose between shipping a low-quality product to make profit numbers and slipping a ship date until a product is ready for prime time, what actually happens will speak volumes about what this company values most. The CEO is almost always party to such difficult decisions, and can shape them to help shape the culture.

Who participates in decisions also sends a signal. If one function (marketing, finance, customer service) regularly gets their way, the others gradually take second place. If one person speaks just loudly enough to shut everyone else down, you get a culture that values heat over light.

When a company regularly preaches one set of values, and the CEO condones decisions that trumpet a different set of values, you'll create a cynical culture. One high-tech CEO preached quality but knowingly released defective products and simply budgeted for the subsequent recall. Employees circulated articles extolling the company's commitment to customers, with handwritten margin comments tallying up the lies.

Compensation. People do what you pay them for, which makes money, titles, and responsibility powerful shapers of culture. A CEO who promotes friends and family member sends a clear message: if you're a high performer, great. But family comes first, regardless. Young companies are just forming compensation systems. Thoughtful design is important. Tying customer service bonuses to number of calls per hour can cause reps to shortchange customers just to make call quotas. A culture will develop that's time oriented, rather than customer oriented.

One way compensation warps a culture is by rewarding outcomes over process. For several years in the early 2000s, mortgage lenders's compensation was tied to outcomes — mortgages written — rather than process (quality underwriting). Oops. Compensation has huge cultural implications, and the CEO has final say on compensation.

Mistake Management. The final piece of invisible culture is how mistakes are handled. If mistakes are punished, you'll build a risk-averse, sycophantic culture that plays it safe rather than thinking outside the box. If mistakes are treated as learning and supported by the reward systems, you'll grow a culture that is willing and eager to experiment and innovate.

Stever Robbins is a serial entrepreneur, top-10 iTunes business podcaster ("The Get-it-Done Guy"), and CEO of Stever Robbins, Inc., an entrepreneurial consulting and coaching firm. He teaches at Babson College on building social capital. His first book, The Get-it-Done Guy's 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More, is coming out this September.