Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

Link to this comparison view

Both sides previous revision Previous revision
Next revision
Previous revision
what_would_google_do [2009/11/12 16:53]
Joel Dare
what_would_google_do [2020/06/01 22:53] (current)
Line 1: Line 1:
 +====== What Would Google Do? ======
  
 +The company I work for was recently pulled apart and re-organized. ​ The new company should be leaner, more technical and act more like a "new media" company instead of an "old media" company. ​ From my vantage point, the changes are good.
 +
 +The new president gave each of us a copy of the book, "What Would Google Do?" by Jeff Jarvis. ​ I just finished the book and decided to write about the top things I got from reading it.
 +
 +Before I write the list, I should mention that although the book was okay, it's filled with a lot of useless fluff. ​ I found myself skipping words and sentences in a rush to get it over with.  Sometimes I had to force myself to slow down and read, even though I wasn't terribly interested in the details. ​ Still, the book did inspire some thoughts and ideas and is therefore worth the read.
 +
 +Below are some of the key points I pulled from the book.
 +
 +  - Trust the people.
 +    - Hand control over to the customer, as much as possible.
 +    - Listen to your customer, on their terms. ​
 +    - Give the people control and they will use it.
 +  - Ask yourself, what business am I //really// in?
 +  - Act on data, not intuition, hunches, wishes, beliefs or the way things are.
 +    - Be data driven.
 +    - Do A/B testing and measure results.
 +  - Focus on the user (not necessarily the client) and all else will follow.
 +    - Your customers are (and own) your brand.
 +    - Ask, "Is this the best we can do for our customer?"​
 +    - Ask, "Is this evil? Are we being evil?"
 +    - Ask, "How can we do better for our customer?"​
 +  - Make money through the side door.
 +  - Beware any strategy built on protection from cannibalization.
 +  - The mass market is dead, replaced by a mass of niches.
 +    - Succeed at being small by being part of something big.
 +  - Figure out how to build a platform for entrepreneurship.
 +    - Build a platform that others can build a business on.
 +  - Write essays on topics that interest you.
 +  - Think of your website as answers to questions.
 +  - Advertise to tell customers something they don't know about your product.
 +    - Marketing message, "We share your interests."​
 +  - Mundane information (about what you're doing) is good for friendship.
 +  - Deep reading is indistinguishable from deep thinking.
 +
 +Although this bit of information isn't from the book, it's in the spirit of the book.  Did you know Google'​s Android is "less than free"? Yup, the open source version is free, plus they will share ad revenue on the licensed version. Now that's what Google would do.
comments powered by Disqus