TIGblogs TIG | TIGblogs GROUP TIGBLOGS LOGIN SIGNUP
live the questions now
live the questions now
Jason Fried of 37signals talks productivity at SXSW
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Jason Fried is the founder of 37signals.com – an innovative technology company that has made some simple and awesome web-based productivity apps, like basecamp and campfire. He gave an amazing talk about productivity and collaboration ("Stuff we've learned") – this is a list of advice I’d kind of like to memorize.

-red flag words: need, can’t, easy, only, fast

-“be successful and make money by helping other people be successful and make money” – people are more willing to pay for things that help them – spot chain reactions and be the catalyst for making them happen

-minimize the chance for competition from entrenched players – e.g., build tools that provide just the simple solutions of what people need (vs. the products that are overkill for most people “nonconsumers”)

-question your work regularly – remember that you don’t know everything:
Why are we doing this?
What problem are we solving?
Is this actually useful?
Are we adding value?
Will this change behavior?
Is there an easier way?
What’s the opportunity cost?
Is it really worth it?

-it’s really important to ask what you can’t do because you’re taking on something else?

-many sites don’t just suffer from bad design, they suffer from bad copy that don’t make sense to anyone – PAY ATTENTION TO THE WORDS YOU USE TO CONVEY MESSAGES TO USERS. Words that need fixing are a much cheaper problem to solve than technical ones.

-err on the side of simple – start with the easy way of doing things and see if it satisfies what you wanted to do

-get three things done in one week, instead of one thing done in 3 weeks – “the longer it takes to develop something, the less likely you are to launch it”

-resist the urge to try to do more the next time around

-invest in what doesn’t change – what are the core things about the business that are important now and will still be important ten years from now?

-“what’s your cookbook?” – Celebrity chefs as a metaphor (they don’t try to keep their recipes a secret out of fear that people will open copy-cat restaurants). Figure out what expertise you can share, and share it – don’t be afraid that people will overtake and steal your business – your business is sharing what you build.

-interruption kills productivity – having people around you who interrupt you makes you not get stuff done. Try to combat this with passive communication (wikis, IM, email, etc) – these tools let the other person hear from you when you’re ready, not when they think you’re ready

-be open, honest, public, and responsive – people would much rather hear the truth, even in crisis.

-break problems down to the atomic level – “when you make tiny decisions you can’t make big mistakes”

-everything you do should matter – don’t do stuff that doesn’t matter!

-hire by looking for people who are honest/have good character, curious (most important), and do interesting things outside of work

-use what you build, and then you will know when it works

March 25, 2008 | 6:25 PM Comments  0 comments

You must be logged in to add tags.


Emily Kornblut's Profile

Emily Kornblut's Friends


Latest Posts
I'm sorry to...
YMEX public beta goes...
TIG at the National...
Internationalization/L...
Textbooks of the Future

Monthly Archive
September 2006
November 2006
February 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
October 2007
November 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008

Change Language


Tags Archive
21stcenturylearning career chateau education failure france friends globalkids international iron ironman laptop learning localization man mask media minneapolis multilingual photo profession rolemodels science service sxsw technology textbooks tig tiged translation

Filter By Type
Events
News
Travel
Topics

Friends
Akili Lee
Lisa
aarmstrong
Alana
Alexis Menten
Amita
Andi
bjoseph
Bob Harmon
Caitlin Leigh Chandler
Calin Rus
Campbell McLean
Carleen Huxley
Casey
Cassie
Chiara C.
cmestoque
cmsShaelynn
curtis chandler
Damian Profeta
dan winckler
David Gibson
David Glick
Davina
Donna H
Elizabeth Sanchez
Emily Briggs
Francis
Franziska Seel
fred myers
Gregory M
GSimon
Heather Girling
Hugh Switzer
J.D.Klein
Jane
Jennifer Corriero
Joanne
Jon Sato
Julia Poole
karen
kate raynes-goldie
Kirsten
LauraK
Lawson Shaw
LisaY
liz hitchcock
Lucy Gray
Luke Walker
Mali Bickley
Matt
meganma
Michael Furdyk
Mrs. Meagher
Ms. Strahler
Ms.Margarit
Mwansa Njelesani
Natalie Rodic
Natasha
Neider
Nick Yeo
Ozzy
P.J. Partington
Reshma Pattni
rmatchock
Robert McDonald
Robin White
sarah
SOF-BreannaB
SOF-DejaS
SOF-DemitryB
SOF-ImanG
SOF-NataniaH
SOF-SoleilW
SOF-ZahkiaT
Sofmahcaiyahwg
Stephanie Penev
technologygeek
Ted Bongiovanni
Todd Fraser
Vicki A Davis
Victoria Restler
Vidar Ekehaug
whday-connorc
Ya-Nan (Kim) Lee
Yasmary Mora

Links
The Official TIGed Blog!
TIGed


26390 views
Important Disclaimer