Growth Hacking Word of Mouth | Ryan Hoover [http://ryanhoover.me/post/66965594138/growth-hacking-word-of-mouth]: > Sometimes effective growth hackers execute less scaleable tactics to drive WOM. Every Thursday, Dan Martell, CEO of Clarity, picks up the phone to call 25 to 30 users and asks how the company can make a

The Unacknowledged Compromise – Matt Gemmell [http://mattgemmell.com/2013/11/12/the-unacknowledged-compromise]: > By all means make a choice, and by all means obtain the maximum utility from it. Just don’t deceive yourself about the reasons for your decision. If you can only afford one machine, then that’s

“The Mission of Tesla” = great ‘blog’ PR [http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/mission-tesla]: > It is also why arsonists tend to favor gasoline. Trying to set the side of a building on fire with a battery pack is far less effective. Tesla is maybe my strongest example of communicating your

Am I Going Insane? Snapchat is Intrinsically Worthless [http://roymurdock.com/essays/2013/11/snapchat-is-intrinsically-worthless/]: > If we return to the graph at the beginning of the article we see that the value of Youtube is $1.5bn – this is the price Google bought it at in 2006. It’s

PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii – games for a generation [http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/12/ps3-xbox-360-wii-games-generation] : > The greatest battle of this generation has been the one in which designers cede control to players. They won’t let go. They will have to let go.

Microsoft’s plan is stronger than you think [https://medium.com/product-design/3905096e5f71]: By me on Medium: > I think this advert is a great summary of why Microsoft, though attracting stick from innumerable directions for almost all its current products, is executing in just about the only effective way

How Jack Dorsey Makes Meetings At Square More Transparent [http://www.fastcompany.com/3021208/fast-feed/how-jack-dorsey-makes-meetings-at-square-transparent] : > “Any meeting of more than two people, someone’s required to take notes and send them to an [email] alias,” said Square’s founder and CEO. And that mentality extends to board meetings

Will Apple really move toward two iPad apps on screen? [http://tightwind.net/2013/11/where-does-the-ipad-go-from-here/]: > Many people have suggested that renaming the iPad the “iPad Air” sets the stage for an iPad Pro, presumably with a larger screen. It’s difficult to disagree with that, but I don’

The product design sprint: a five-day recipe for startups [http://www.designstaff.org/articles/product-design-sprint-2012-10-02.html]: > At Google Ventures, we do product design work with startups all the time. Since we want to move fast and they want to move fast, we’ve optimized a process that gets us

How To Write An Email [http://shkspr.mobi/blog/2013/11/how-to-write-an-email/]: > I spent several hours in school learning how to write a letter. From the correct placement of the address, right down to the “Yours sincerely / faithfully” – every aspect was drummed into me. That never happened with email.

Facebook’s future is in your past [http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-10/07/facebook-future]: My latest on Wired: > A wave of services like Timehop and SocialSafe are finally unleashing the years of data that you’ve built up in such profiles in a way that perhaps

Stevey’s Google Platforms Rant [https://plus.google.com/112678702228711889851/posts/eVeouesvaVX]: A great piece by a Googler that gets to the heart of G+’s real challenges, among other things.

Drinking With Your Eyes: How Wine Labels Trick Us Into Buying [http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/10/10/231458853/drinking-with-your-eyes-how-wine-labels-trick-us-into-buying] : > In his new book 99 Bottles of Wine, Schuemann spills the industry’s secrets about how wine labels tickle our subconscious and coerce us into grabbing a

The inspiration of revisiting great books [http://www.antonymayfield.com/2013/10/13/the-joy-of-revisiting-great-books-kindle-daily-review/] : > Daily Review is a tool to help you review and remember the most significant ideas from your books. It shows you flashcards with either your highlights and notes or the Popular Highlights from one of

The Incredible Shrinking Antenna [http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2013/10/25/the-incredible-shrinking-antenna/]: > Chief Technology Officer Carles Puente, head scientist for the company, who in 1995 filed the world’s first application for a patent on fractal antennas for mobile telecommunications, said: “If you use more complex shapes related

MTurk + Google News API = Coverage [http://customerdevlabs.com/2013/09/24/google-news-api-mturk-press/]: > How we got a dozen launch-day write ups with a little JavaScript, Mechanical Turk, and the Google News API. Code included. Probably the most curious approach I ever seen to a PR launch. Undoubtedly misses the point

Mission and Messaging at Instagram [http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887324577304579059230069305894-lMyQjAxMTAzMDAwODEwNDgyWj.html] : > “For the first two weeks, I locked him into a conference room and I said, ‘This is all about getting the mission on paper,’ ” Ms. White recalled. Two weeks later, Mr. Systrom had boiled down the

Shane Richmond on solving Twitter’s problems with a tick [http://shanerichmond.net/shane-richmond/ve4uw2lqz2icm4crv1d8eoj9phe0p3]: Great insight from Shane Richmond around Verified accounts and a way for Twitter to get those all important registered CC details to compete with Google, Apple and Amazon. > Suppose Twitter offered to verify users

Sietsema on the Current State of Restaurant Criticism [http://ny.eater.com/archives/2013/08/the_current_state_of_restaurant_criticism.php] : > the strangulation of reviewing budgets on the part of publications means that we often read print criticism for the witty and thoughtful writing more than for a

the big Apple misunderstanding [http://www.asymco.com/2013/09/17/an-interview-by-eric-jackson-on-blogging-apple-and-whats-next/] : > since for most of its life Apple was personified as an individual, what came to pass for Apple analysis was actually the psychoanalysis of that individual. It makes for great journalism and best selling books. It’s

Cyanogen raises $7 million to build better Android [http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/18/4742828/cyanogen-raises-7-million-to-build-the-best-version-of-android] : > operating system more focused on productivity than commerce. “The mobile devices out there, they’re just not meant for anybody to use,” Kondik says. “They’re essentially mobile cash registers. We want

The Semiotician’s Oath [https://medium.com/design-story/44dba7121a1]: > Story. Story is structure left behind when all of our memory pathways are reduced to their most common overlaps. Story is the method we use to process who did what to whom and where and why and how and when.

Did you know the Twitter bird has a name? [http://thehundreds.com/blog/2013/09/09/at-twitter/]: > The Twitter bird has a name, and it is Larry. Larry Bird. Like Adam Bomb. Totally.

“iPhone Keyboard Secrets” from 2007 [http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/iphone-keyboard-secrets/?_r=0]: A post from a more innocent time — but it’s easy to forget details like this, which were emphasised in the old days: > Although you don’t see it with your eyes, the