ChaosScenario

Interactive project management

I started off my career as a project manager in digital marketing. I was hired because, at the time, most Internet projects would go south due to lack of organization, time lines, deliverables and a process to get done what needed to get done in the time frame promised to the client. This was ten years ago and, for a lot of projects, not much has improved. What are signs that a project, especially an interactive project is heading in the wrong direction?

Lack of planning- Before a project is ever sold, there should be a time line with deliverables attached. Everyone should be clear about what the project is and what the expectations for delivery are. If someone who benefits more from the sale than from the delivery is driving the delivery date and trying to reduce costs by arbitrarily reducing time to complete tasks, you're in trouble.

Communication breakdown - When I was becoming a "certified" project manager, I learned that 70 - 80% of all projects fail due to lack of communication. Things like status reports, status meetings, interim deliverable reviews, etc. help make sure everyone is on the same page and marching in the same direction. If you haven't talked to people on your team in more than two weeks, look out ahead.

Ignoring the risks - During the project it's really easy to get involved and fool yourself into thinking that everything is going to be all right. Sometimes this is even enforced by management or sales who feel that pointing out potential risks is just breeding negativity. On every interactive project it's a good idea to sit down and think about the risk of a project, the probability and how that risk will be handled. This isn't negativity, it's just good planning.

Knowing when it's done - A project by definition has an end. That end should be defined at the beginning of the project and should be as tangible as possible. Too often projects drag on because of constant changes that are a result of not properly defining what the requirements are at the beginning.

Einstein defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." If your interactive projects are constantly ending up with problems, then something has to change in order for a different outcome to result. - Paul Herring

FAA vs. NYC: A Federal Case Against Narcissism and the Abuse of Power

Like a lot of people, I was outraged by the presidential airplane "photo op" that frightened a lot of New Yorkers. In spite of professed knowledge that the stunt could stoke the fears of residents and visitors, federal officials demanded secrecy and even threatened federal sanctions against the city if the secret got out.

Think about that for a second.

This wasn't a matter of national security. It was an attempt to get a cool looking photograph to put in publicity materials.

In other words, it was a "branding" exercise -- or at least what passes as branding in some circles.

Still, federal officials had the hubris to threaten peacekeepers and representatives with the full force and weight of the federal government for being so dastardly as to try to prevent the public from panicking.

(This, by the way, makes a strong case for diligently protecting individual liberty, for it is the peculiar nature of granting the power to incite and destroy that leads it to its intolerable abuse.)

The cost for this photo shoot, not including the time spent on damage control after the fact, was already $328,835, and according to an FAA memo, they knew it would cost that much. On a federal scale, $328,835 isn't a lot of money -- at least, when you're not concerned about whose money it really is.

But if they were committed to wasting taxpayer money (and I've never been alive to witness a time when the government wasn't so committed) they could have at least wasted less of it.

A decent painter -- or even a Photoshop expert -- could have simulated the event for much less.

Heck, with all the Obama sycophants out there, they probably could have found someone to donate their time to the cause of promoting him or the office he now holds.

It's true that the terrible memories of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks are still alive in New York. Given the repercussions of forgetting history, we can all be glad of that.

I suggest we follow New York's example by learning a lesson from this:

No matter how brightly we think our star shines, we cannot fool ourselves into thinking that our wants are more important than those we're supposed to serve. That is a foolish trap. Branding is a farce if we make it all about us. When we do that, it's not branding at all -- but narcissism. - Cam Beck

Social media snake oil

It's the latest thing. What every brand needs to be engaged in if they're going to survive. You have to be on it.

That's the message that a lot of people are sending to marketers out there. Unfortunately, many of them are listening and haphazzardly putting their brands and reputations at risk. Creating a Facebook group, a Twitter feed and a Ning social network is not something every brand needs or can benefit from.

Here are ten ways to know if you're selling social media snake oil:

10. You tell your clients that EVERY brand needs a Twitter account.

9. You really think the web will eventually be more like Second Life and everyone will have an avatar.

8. You think even B2B companies should have a Facebook page.

7. You have more social media presentations than actual examples of social media work that you've participated in.

6. You think Ashton Kutcher really is more popular than CNN because he has more followers.

5. You're considering opening up your own twitter agency.

4. Most of your experience with social media is due to your own self-promotion via social media tools.

3. You're speechless when people ask you how to measure social media.

2. The NING network you set up only has five members, one of which is your mom who hasn't been on it in months.

1. It's the only thing you sell or do.

The bottom line here is that social media is great. It may disrupt and change everything we do in on-line marketing but it's not likely. If you've been doing on-line marketing for more than five years, you've seen a lot of these things come. They don't usually go but they become part of the framework. At the end of the day it's about your competitive environment, your customer and your strategy. Work on those first and then understand which tool is the right fit.

I don't agree with everything he says but Jaffe had a great rant on Twitter:

- Paul Herring

 

Great Marketing by Way of ... Interruption?

"Friction" in physics refers to resistance between two or more things. In interface design, it refers to the resistance a user experiences when trying to accomplish a task. Companies often ask that a process or flow's friction be reduced -- what they call making the experience "seamless."  However, seams have their uses, and reducing it too much in the interface can actually cause cognitive friction that makes the experience more confusing and less enjoyable. Though we typically interruption marketing on this blog, introducing interruption at key intervals in a user's experience can actually increase customer satisfaction and delight.

Why We Hate Interruptions
In the course of their day, American's are supposedly exposed to over 3,000 marketing messages, and most of them are irrelevant to their actual needs. Even with demographics research and the various things marketers do to "target" a customer, successfully communicating with large numbers of people requires a wide reach and heavy repetition.

John Wanamaker famously said, "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half." I think he was being optimistic.

We hate interruptions because they stop us from doing what we intended to do. Interruptions stop us from watching our favorite show. They stop us from reading the article we wanted to read (See ad below for an example of an interruption ad on USA Today's website -- I wanted to see the weather).

 

Advertising is not the only troublemaker. So is clever for clever's sake -- such as that 30 second Flash animation the user must sit through just to access the otherwise awesome site you built. Is it worth the wait (or the effort it takes to find the "skip intro" button, if you included one)?

You'd better hope so, but one way or the other, they'll make up their mind in just a few seconds, and they could be wrong.

Why not just build the site for people instead of for clever?

Why We Need Interruptions
It's often good to let people know when something has ended and when something else begins.

For instance, say you want to buy a pair of shoes from Zappos. You click on shoes, Oxfords (under Mens Shoes), and then finally the pair of shoes you want. You select a size and add it to your cart. What happens?

The system has to somehow inform you that what you wanted to do (add the item to your cart) actually occurred, so it takes you to your shopping cart and lets you decide what to do next.

(This isn't the only way to accomplish this, but it serves the example's purpose).

A system should always provide clear, concise, visual feedback about where the user is -- even if necessity demands interruption.

But Hey, Nobody's Perfect
Although I used Zappos as an example of how to correctly interrupt someone, I could have just as easily used them as an example of how not to do it. I'm not a big fan of their checkout process.

(It isn't terrible. It just could be better.)

If you wanted to purchase the shoes at Zappos, the system would give you a pretty strong example of what not to do: It forces you to either call or to create an account.

Except for a password, all of the information Zappos needs to create an account they also collect when they get your billing and contact information.

It makes good sense to give the user a very easy option to create an account, store the personal data and therefore reduce buying friction for future purchases. However, they ought not require the user create an account, since it is not as necessary to complete a purchase as it would be required for, say, a Netflix purchase (which is membership-based anyway).

Still, Zappos has been pretty successful. They scored higher in satisfaction and purchase intent (78) than the average for top 100 online apparel & accessories retailers (74), and their revenues from web sales ($850,000,000) placed them at #27 in the 2008 Edition Top 500 Guide for Internet Retailers.

This tells us two things:

1. Don't let perfection be the enemy of good. You can still be successful even if you aren't perfect.
2. Everyone is vulnerable. If a retailer were to come along to make shopping for books remarkably easier than it is at Amazon (literally: easily enough for people to make remarks about it), with enough time, they could take some chips at Amazon's market share.

Bear in mind, though, that everyone is watching, and it's a copycat Web. If you're successful, it won't be long before other retailers follow suit.

As the Amazon experience clearly shows, the more quickly you're able to reduce the buying friction for repeat customers and get them used to your system, the more difficult (and costly) it will be for competitors to break your customers from the systems to which they've become accustomed. Changing would just cause too much of the wrong kinds of friction.

So How is This Marketing, Exactly?
Whether you actually sell anything online or not, your website may be the first and only interaction your audience has with your company. You need to make a good impression by delivering something of value that makes sense according to your business strategy. 

While there are many ways you can and should reduce friction in this process, there are going to be times that you will want to reintroduce it. Be courteous. Interrupt only when doing so will aid in the user's understanding of where they are. Those seams caused by judicious interruptions are useful. Don't neglect them. - Cam Beck

Know your limits. And push them cheerfully.

One of the great things about having a toddler is the lessons they can teach you about the value of having the proper outlook on life.

This weekend we cleaned my son's room. And by "we," I mean my wife and my son, Avery. I brought my daughter, Faith, in there just to get in their way provide moral support.

Now, both Faith and Avery have a lot of stuffed animals, but Avery keeps his on top of a bookshelf and far out of reach of anyone who hasn't yet been through puberty.

Still, they're plainly visible to anyone, and of course Faith is still young enough to enjoy them. Finding one that struck her fancy, she pointed up at the stuffed animals on top of the book shelf and said hopefully, "Kitt-ee Cat? Mee-oooowww!"

Those of you with kids might expect that this wasn't a request or a question. She was going to get the stuffed animal she wanted. The problem was that Avery has no stuffed felines. I would have gladly gotten it for her for a "please," (which I would have gotten), but I didn't know exactly what she was asking for.

"No, sweetie. There are no kitty cats. Do you want the stuffed doggie instead?"

"I'we get it," she helpfully chimed. And with no hesitation, she leaped a good inch or two off the ground, coming a mere 5 feet shy of touching the nearest stuffed animal.

Everyone else in the room just lost it, and Faith was happy enough to join the fun (even though she likely didn't know why we were laughing).

I noticed something else, though: She only jumped once.

She didn't keep jumping, hoping the next time the result would be different. She jumped once, learned conclusively that this particular method of obtaining what she wanted was beyond her limits, and then she found another way.

Had I not gotten it for her, I wonder if she would have moved a chair into position to take another shot at it, but there are some things I'd prefer she not have to learn the hard way. - Cam Beck

We added RSS ads

A significant percentage of our readers view our content via RSS feeds. In the last couple of days you may have noticed that we added ads to our RSS feed. We've done this for two reasons: 1) to recoup some of the hosting service cost associated with TypePad, and 2) to learn more about serving these ads on a blog.

I suspect that it will barely pay for the hosting costs. However, anything above and beyond will be invested into developing content for the site.

We'd love you comments on this, so leave one!

- Paul Herring

While Evils are Sufferable

"...all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."

Since I really became a student of the founding of the United States, these words, from the Declaration of Independence, always reflected a immutable truth about human nature that transcended political institutions:

Human beings are resilient, but we're also creatures of habit. We can adapt. We can endure. We can overcome.

Indeed, you can look to any 25-50 year span of time for which we have records, and you will find some major crisis that has tested the fabric of society.

Not every decision we've made in those times of hardship has made us better, but every experience we had should have given us the belief that we can persevere whenever we are faced with something we initially don't quite know how to handle.

But there's plenty of evidence (including this story about 1,500 suicides in India) to suggest that there are enough elements within mankind that may be more disposed to overreact when they suffer -- in a way that causes further suffering in others. They may be more inclined to confuse hardship with evil, and to hurl invectives at those who disagree with them -- or to disregard valid criticisms of their ideas or behavior.

Assuming a reasonably educated society, in order to overcome any crisis, two things are necessary.

1. An honest approach to the facts.
2. A belief that victory is possible.

If we neglect either, then we'll certainly be more disposed to overreact than either suffer or take prudent steps to solve the problems we face. - Cam Beck

YouTube crisis management

Unless you've been sleeping under a rock, you should know about the Domino's incident that happened this week. In case you don't know here's one of about 100 videos on YouTube describing the incident:

What's interesting about this is that, in addition to firing the employees, Dominos had the video pulled from YouTube and posted this response:

I think it's a great idea to use the media to respond to the crisis but I'm not sure if I agree with them removing the video and with the format of the video response.

Pulling the video only allows others to re-post it more rapidly. It's a little like itching a rash caused by poison ivy. It spreads when scratched. If you really want to see the video, its now REALLY easy to find multiple places where its posted on YouTube.

The video response from the CEO is a little staged. It's not hard to tell he's ready a script off camera. There's also no information on cleanliness standards, number of restaurants and what they're going to do to prevent this in the future outside of "looking at their standards".

Truthfully I'm not sure there is much that can be done to keep this from happening. Truth be known, I'm sure it's happening at fast food places all the time, although I doubt it's too common. The response to me, though, gets a C. Yeah, they used social media tactics but there's no real thinking behind it.

- Paul Herring

UPDATE

Take a look at this apology from JetBlue from some time ago:

He even went on David Letterman to apologize. I think this is a much better model for how to handle a crisis that doesn't use social media just as a quick tactic but integrated into the plan. Thanks to Scott Monty for the Tweet!

Insights: The Secret That Every Experience Planner Wants You to Know

"What do you do for a living?"

It seems like such an innocuous question.

But if you're in an immature industry and/or an esoteric field, explaining it concretely, accurately, and thoroughly can be a bit complicated.

Last week at the Click Here blog, I took on the task of explaining what an information architect is, and how one of its evolutionary paths has led to experience planning.

A lot of my readers have asked me the same question over and over again, so I figure it's long past time I gave them an answer.

Drop by, take a gander, and let me know what you think. - Cam Beck

Related posts
Three Essential Qualities of an Effective IA
R.I.P., IA
Experience Planning

Does any other mobile phone matter?

I met with a friend yesterday who had the T-mobile G1. A great phone with a lot of great features. Because of it's non-proprietary architecture and qwerty keyboard, it could arguably be better than the iPhone.

It's to the iPhone what Microsoft's Zune is to MP3 players. No one that I know admits to having a Zune.

The iPhone wasn't the first data phone. It came into the market carrying the brand affinity of Apple and through superior design and marketing, it has dominated the market. Now with 2.5 million subscribers, the iPhone makes up 50% of all smart phone traffic and 50% operating system share (really share of market) of all cell phones. To put this in perspective, in August of 2008 iPhones only made up 10% of all traffic.

Is this a passing fad? Here's some more numbers. 93 percent of iPhone owners have added an application versus only 66 percent of Smartphone owners. 60 percent of users browse the internet at least once per day Three quarters of users do more web surfing on the iPhone than on their previous device. (pdf)

The G1, Blackberry's new Storm none of these matter. They're all playing catch up. The iPhone is cool because they didn't copy someone elses vision, it came from the inside.  It gets used and, in my opinion, will continue to dominate. No other phone matters.

- Paul Herring