Ankur Sharma

that they are "MASS" mailers. They are not written to me, they are not written for me and yet they land up in my inbox day after day, week after week, month after month.  So here is a solution: I need these mass mailers to be renamed as -mailers where denotes my name I need -mailers to talk to me Don't ask me how for #2. After all every time I transact with your website, your Facebook page, your Twitter profile; I leave so much of my critical information there like my name, browsing history, demographics - go and use that Make me partner in crime - use my information to benefit me.  See which city/country/hotel/airline I book and get deals on those for me at my -mailer See what do I read and publish that for me at my -mailer. Don't give all the junk authors I don't care about When you will do all this, may be our relationship can finally get better!

"But I have never done this before, so why should I do this?" "But my business unit uses different tool, then why should I use your tool?" "But it is working fine, so why do we need it!"  As soon as we get overly tied to the lessons we are taught in business school or elsewhere, we start doing things the way it’s been done in the past. And then we’re going to have a company that’s like those that existed in the past

Henry Ford, after "invented" the car and the process around it was asked if he asked around for what his customers want - in other words did a market research? He said, "If I would have asked them, they would have asked for faster horse, not car!" A lot of organizations with their razor sharp focus on their stakeholders requirements get into what I call a "faster horse" trap, where they just end up building a better version of what their stakeholders have used/already been using. What's more. at times, it backfires and "faster horse" ends up being "pooped horse". Then there is other side of the spectrum where data rules and whatever stakeholder wants in as a requirement, she has to substantiate with data. Sounds great and works great (most of the time). It becomes an Achilles heel when there is no data to substantiate a requirement, an ambitious requirement  which needs people to be intuitive and only people who have gone thro

Steve Jobs did it by building Apple aficionados . Marc Andreessen did that with Netscape when he forced people to look web browsing as an entertaining experience and not just "a geek activity". Sean Parker ,  Shawn Fanning and John Fanning did it with Napster when they changed the way people look at the music. They all are/were great product guys who knew what the tribe wanted even before the tribe had laid eyes on their products. They didn't do the focus group studies or market research to know the viability of their idea. They didn't show the stakeholders, mocks of their products so that they can "fill in the blanks". But is that the only way to leave the product legacy? I don't think so. Google products , passes through at least 3000 eyes, before they get released even for the Beta. Agree, their hit rate is low but that is because they churn products dime a dozen, an evidence of their agile environment - one of the most important as

It is becoming a rarity (because of work and me juggling at least two books at a time), but yesterday , after a long time, I finished a book in just few hours. The book's name is " Sh*t My Dad Says " and it is written by Justin Halpern . An insanely hilarious book, the lesson it imparted was prophetic. And yes, for most of the book, though I was laughing my heads off, I still managed to jot down my most favorite excerpts (call them gems!) from the book, for keepsake and for sharing with you all, so that it can make you wiser, just as it made me. From " Sh*t My Dad Says " by Justin Halpern On Showing Fear : " When it's asshole-tightening time, that's when you see what people are made of. Or at least what their assholes is made of . On Sharing : "....If he wants to be an asshole and not share, then that's his right. You always have the right to be an asshole - you just shouldn't use that right very often ." On Dea