I have this ongoing fantasy of coming up with the perfect internet side hustle. After a blinding flash of inspiration, I set it up. It gets people visiting due to my fantastic SEO skills, and it ticks over with some high-value affiliate or advertising business that I don’t have to do anything with. I sip […]
You’ve heard that your brain gets worse as you age, and your neuroplasticity disappears. As a result, as you grow older, you need to do more Sudoku to keep you intelligent and stop the brain rot. By consistently challenging yourself and learning new things, you keep your synapses firing and stay sharp. But learning and […]
Even though I’m nearly 50 years old, I still have a childish enthusiasm for trainers. Over the last year, during the lockdown, when I couldn’t even wear them anywhere, I bought a couple of pairs unavailable in South Africa (because there is extra joy in having something unique). I bought these from two different platforms, […]
A (smart) friend of mine sent me this Whatsapp the other day. It looked like a scam to me, but I was interested in understanding a couple of things: how smart people get taken in (i.e. what marketing/persuasion tactics were used) what benefit the person who set it up gets As I went through it […]
I recently upgraded my Balsamiq subscription and I thought this was quite a good example of what I mean by a nudge: a consistent always on reminder of the payment option and the benefit that you’ll receive. I think it works best with industries like SAAS where you are on the site fairly frequently, but […]
My Headspace subscription was coming to an end and I wanted to cancel . As I went through their cancellation funnel I wanted to look for dark patterns and see if there was anything I could learn from what they had done. Overall I thought it was OK, but I think trying to rescue a […]
Machine learning and AI are frequently used buzzwords. In terms of application I’m not sure whether we’re in the killer app territory yet. I read someone on Twitter saying something to the effect of most AI can be replicated with some good SQL queries (which is a nice soundbite). From a conversion perspective I use […]
I’ve drunk the jobs-to-be-done Koolade and there is no coming back. Jobs-to-be-done is a framework which allows for uncovering customer requirements in more depth, so that you can ensure what you build maps to what customers want. through the process you’ll conduct open-ended interview to understand: what solutions customers are currently using how they feel […]
We’ve been using Intercom for Now Novel since 2012 and have watched it turn into the behemoth it currently is. It is a great tool that helps us communicate personally at scale. Intercom doesn’t leave a lot of extra customer value. They know the value of their service and what people’s propensity to pay is […]
Lean customer development- Cindy Alvarez My first completed book of the year was very useful. I’ve read a fair amount in this area (the book references the Lean Startup and Steve Blank), but this was a useful addition to the canon. The best thing about this book was the practical /tactical method it was written […]
Brendan McNulty 