What I hear you saying is...

When you’re developing at an older, established company, your product has history and inertia to build on. Your strategy is incremental — building on old successes and (cough) avoiding new projects that have the slightest whiff of failure. You also probably have a big, vocal customer base. You know that you’re making new stuff for people that already buy your old stuff.

At your start-up, all this goes out the window. No history, no inertia, no customers. The moment your prototype is ready, you want feedback from everyone you can muster. And who are you most likely to ask? Your friends. They’ve been cheering along from the sidelines, investing ramen and rounds of beer along the way to keep you going. Naturally, you’re going to want to show off your hard work the moment you have a working demo. How do they respond? “This is great!” “Can’t wait to start using it!” “We wish we’d thought of this!” Wow, you’re cooking now. What more validation do you need? Ship it for chrissakes!

Not so fast. This is the trap we nearly fell into last July. We had nearly finished the prototype of Keepsy — our group photo-album site — and had rave reviews from those close to us. To make matters worse, we also did a round of conventional user-testing with strangers which had great results (or so it seemed). Nearly every user mentioned how fun the product was, and when asked for criticism, offered little, if any. Our path to product/market fit was going to be short and sweet. Green light, right?

We were about a week from shipping when I noticed that an acquaintance had not yet added his page to a test album we were creating for a mutual friend’s birthday. I sent him an instant message and asked him about the hold up. He response was, “some issues with site”. When pressed further, he declined further comment. He felt it was a discussion best done in person. So I invited him to come by the office to chat.

He arrived the next morning at 9am. What I thought was going to be a quick 30-minute coffee turned into a 7-hour forced march as he methodically began to rip apart each flow, question each design element down to the placement of every pixel, and basically shamed us into believing our product was ever ready to ship. Of course, it wasn’t a problem that his feedback was so thoroughly caustic. No, the problem was that we found ourselves agreeing with over 90% of this comments. It was like the child in The Emperor’s New Clothes shouting above the din of the crowd, “Your product sucks!” and suddenly all of us were standing around very, very naked.

How could we have been so blind? The simple answer is that we’d been soliciting the feedback we wanted to hear — the rosy accolades from those we hold dear — instead of seeking out resistance and conflict. We had resisted the hard cold truth. The next day, we began our redesign. It cost us weeks, but at no point along the way did we hesitate or look back. The path was obvious to us now.

The Lesson

While you should listen closely to criticism from friends, you should take most compliments with a grain, nay, large shaker of salt. Take them for what they are: support and validation that you are a friend. The same goes for more conventional, standardized user testing, too. The average person often just doesn’t want to hurt your feelings, even when they’re repeatedly told they’re anonymous and getting paid to do so.

Mark Suster says that he ends his more brutal feedback sessions with, “My view point is one data point. I might be wrong. Get lots of data points.” He’s right, but I might tweak this slightly as “get lots of data points with differing opinions.” Or simply: Seek out the opinionated jerk.

Even if you don’t agree with everything he or she says, this is where you’re going to get the feedback you really need. The opinionated jerk is your product’s best friend. If you’re in the right, you’ll be that much stronger for defending your decisions. If you’re in the wrong, it may just save your product from disaster.

[After seeing his friend's truck go crashing through the ice] The driver behind in the convoy had stopped well short of the hole in the ice and had already given up his buddy for dead before he saw that gloved hand rise up with the fuel tank. Negotiating the thin ice around the hole, the other driver pulled the fallen man out. A helicopter — an unusual sight, but not unheard of — just happened to be passing over. The pilot saw the incident, and landed nearby, soon flying the fallen driver to the nearest hospital within two hours. The driver was treated for hypothermia and frostbite, and released that night.

The rescued driver immediately went to the bar, where he wasted no time telling his story. A number of his listeners didn’t believe him and even took umbrage with the tale, at which point, the rescued driver became aggrieved, and a fight broke out. Less than twelve hours after he was submerged beneath the ice of the Arctic Ocean — a situation that no one in recent history had ever survived — the rescued driver was nearly beaten to death in a dingy bar. He was taken back to the same hospital he had just left, and this time, he was there for two months.

1) Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
by Alfred Lansing

This is the story of William Shackleton's ill-fated excursion to Antarctica. Stranded on the ice, their ship crushed to splinters by the ice floes, this is the quintessential survival and escape story, and the measure of one leader's total commitment to getting his team out safely. I won't give away the outcome, but it's truly remarkable. Start here if you haven't read it.

2) Into Thin Air
by John Krakauer

The most contemporary and well-known book on this list. The story of what happens when (relatively speaking) mountaineering n00bs attempt Mt Everest and don't follow the rules of the mountain. Reads almost like a mystery in sections, as the teams get separated and Krakauer must re-piece the catastrophe by hearsay and muddy recollection of the other survivors.

3) We Die Alone
by David Howarth

A WWII story of a commando attempting to escape the Germans in Nazi-occupied Norway. Wow, just wow. If it were fiction, you'd question the author for straining plot credulity, but the tale is truly white-knuckle. This book landed on my doorstep as a gift and is one of the best I've ever read in the genre. Get it today.

4) Skeletons of the Zahara
by Dean King

Yes, it's "Zahara" with a "Z". Moving from one temperature extreme to the other, this is the story of a crew of American sailors in 1815 shipwrecked and then captured by Bedouin slavers in West Africa. Make sure you top off your ice tea before starting this one - you're going to get very, very thirsty.

5) The Lost City of Z
David Grann

The story of adventurer Percy Fawcett's Amazonian exploration and his sketchy disappearance. Author David Grann attempts to trace the footsteps of Fawcett in modern times and runs into an interesting set of obstacles in researching the man and the mystery. A great tale with an "El Dorado" theme.

6) Adrift
by Stephen Callahan

I just finished this a couple of nights ago. One man, one raft, 72 days, and open ocean. Interesting narrative as Callahan demonstrates that the Boy Scout's motto "Always be prepared" applies as much (or more) to mental and spiritual preparedness as to having the right gear. A good read, though I might not bring it along on an Atlantic cruise. (Jinx)

7) Mawson's Will
by Lennard Bickel

Another Antarctic mis-adventure that will have you sucking air through your teeth as you witness the extreme abuse the human body and spirit can endure. In fact, "Endurance" would have been a more appropriate title for this book, had it not already been taken. I guarantee the climax will make you yell out loud across the room. (Go ahead… "That's what she said!" Good. Got it out of your system? Let's continue.)

8) Eiger Dreams
by John Krakauer

Another Krakauer, I know. But very few people except fans seem to have read this one. Imagine waking up in pitch black, bivouacked at 22k feet and realize that your tent that was perched on the ridge is now under 2 tons of snow, along with your climbing buddies. The only part exposed is the tiny corner you find yourself in, that dangles over a precipice into the void. Good luck! Great essays if you like mountain climbing.

10) Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook has Gone Before
by Tony Horowitz

I threw this one in for fun because it's really well-written, and I like Horowitz' approach to the book, which is to visit all of the places Captain Cook (remarkable chap!) visited and compare the then-and-now aspects. His interviews all across the Pacific islands and territories are fascinating, as is his biography of Cook.

So there are a few - 10 actually - to keep you busy! Send me your suggestions in the comments so I can write another 10 next summer. Cheers~

Photo Credit: Library of New South Wales

Radio silence for many months, broken with some fun news that our story-telling site, StoryJumper is finally a public beta.

What is it?

StoryJumper is a platform that makes it easy for anyone to create a children’s story. You can quickly create a story where the text is integrated with the art you create by dragging and dropping props on a book canvas. You can also upload photos to include in your story.

One very cool aspect of the product is that you can personalize and remix stories that others have written. While there are a handful of sites that allow users to personalize, we've taken this a giant step further by literally letting you change any element of the story.*

Perhaps you don't like the story's ending or the language? Maybe you want to change the main character from a boy to a girl? Find a great story, but it's too scary? Not a problem -- just click "personalize" on the story page and you'll be whisked into our story creator tool, where you can change whatever you like, creating your very own spin-off of the original.

And of course, pretty soon you'll be able to print hardback (or soft copies) of the book.

You can see some of the stories that are already up, here.

So give it a try and tell us your story!

(* The feature is permission-based, so the original author must enable "Personalize" in their story settings before others can copy and edit.)

I am not a heavy Twitter user, but this seemed like an ideal chance to find out what was happening locally (ala the Szechuan earthquake hype).

Indeed, a search on "caltrain" pretty much immediately summed up what I had guessed: an apparent suicide. And sadly the second in as many days.

As I scanned the results, though, I was really struck by the content of the tweets. Friends and family will laugh at my late-adoption tendencies, but I thought it's worth recording some of these observations for posterity:

1) CalTrain saturation: In less than 90 minutes, there were over 200 tweets about the accident from mostly CalTrain riders. Outside of a tech conference, you'd be hard-pressed to find that much chatter from that many people over such a localized incident. If I were in the mobile product space, I would camp my marketing team on that train or at the stations as often as possible to get customer input.

2)Better than local TV news: While the print media continues its downward spiral into obsolescence, we hear less from those in the local TV news space. I think they have much to fear from platforms like Twitter, even without full video integration.

a) This suicide was not news I *needed* to know, but I was curious. Twitter scratched that itch in real-time. No reason to remember to wait for "film at 11" tonight at home.

b) Twitter actually delivers on the promise of user generated content. The comments (below) have more color than I'd get in the same segment covered on TV.

c) Twitter actually beats TV at its own game of delivering the formulaic, staccato snippets of content that TV news has traditionally covered.

3) Local online news is also in trouble. Online news is going to have trouble keeping up. I was excited to see a Topix result via twitterfeed in the result set, but turns out it was from *yesterdays* suicide. The local ABC affiliate is doing a pretty good job, although their post was over an hour after the first report. But it lacked any insight or observation that I hadn't already gleaned from the other posts. The MercuryNews also joined the fray late, but spammed the results with 3 posts and no additional info. The Twitter stream obviates not just the TV medium, but the news team as well. I can parse my own "man on the street" impressions more efficiently.

Here are some choice bits:

The first report:
alonblue @caltrain 329 just hit something hard, stopped

The fact checker:
icoe According to Twitter search, there was the 2nd suicide on the Caltrain at Palo Alto...yep on my laptop on a bus with other irate yuppies...

Mr. Real-Time:
nbrosnahan NB #caltrain still stopped on tracks south of Cal ave. Apparently it was a suicide. Just saw a SB train slide past us.

The oblivious:
Mnkleo getting ready to take CalTrain, big cup of coffee in hand I am ready to go..CHOO, CHOO

The optimist:
pankaj The announcement on the speakers said 20-55min delay but the train in other direction just moved, so good sign. @caltrain says 10mins

The ponderous:
fureousangel Why was a pedestrian on the caltrain tracks or better question, why didn't he move.

The practical:
sares If your going to kill yourself plz jump off the golden gate. When you jump in front of caltrain it makes everyone late.

The harsh:
TinaTBone Another day another caltrain suicide. what a jerk. Stuck in menlo park grabbing oj at borrones.

The Ugly:
Mojo4Melo @simonp67 (caltrain) Ugh, damn can’t these people go do their final act somewhere’s else? LOL

The know-it-all:
eclaires1 @barrys if you followed @caltrain on twitter, you would know that it's going to be at cal ave in 10 min!

The New Guy in Town:
Marston CalTrain suicide :-/, first I've heard of so far. Hope it doesn't start to get as bad as Holland (or Japan).

Mr. Meta:
joshwolf The real-time Web is a trip... RT: @alonblue @caltrain 329 just hit something hard, stopped

The Loco Moco puff: Meatloaf, a runny sunny side-up egg, GRAVY, served in a cream-puff shell. If it had bacon + cheese in it, the deal would've been sealed. In retrospect I should have tried it, but passed because it was late in the evening.

Still, quite a submission to the pantheon of cardiac cuisine. I wonder why it is that Hawaii seems to have such an awesome array of food that is spectacularly unhealthy (but of course tastes fantastic)?

That just ain't right.

I'm reminded of a post from Fred Wilson a few weeks back on Patent Trolls. I'm all for protecting the small inventor, but it's been nearly 10 years and to my knowledge Discovery hasn't pursued any e-book strategy worth mentioning.

There really should be a statute of limitations on latent patents.

Bottom line: Use it or lose it.

I'd been thinking good thoughts about this place for the last few days, and then checked my inbox to find that they'd sent me an online survey. 99.9% of the time I delete these, but given my recent experience I thought what the heck -- I'd help them out with a response.

Why are online surveys always such a dreadful experience?

There are at least a couple of big problems that I've experienced:

1) Too many questions, too little focus

The survey formats and questions are designed to solicit average responses from average customers -- not the passionate folk that have opinions (they are bored after the 5th question and drop off). Moreover, the "Strongly Agree/Disagree" multiple-choice format lures marketers into thinking that -- because they are so easy and quick to answer -- they can ask for the moon from their responders (e.g. 100+ questions).

So the only people that complete the surveys are those that enjoy the process -- which equals meaningless data from meaningless people. That is, the scores become diluted to the point that there are few data points worth communicating from the results. I used to see this all the time with Big Co. annual employee surveys. ("The overall employee satisfaction dropped from 2.8 to 2.7. What is the cause???")

2) Marketers don't understand or ignore available technology

Most marketers aren't taking advantage of obvious technology that would eliminate the need for many many of their questions. For example, if I'm entering their survey via a link from a mail they sent, why do they then ask me the dates of my stay, since they should be able to correlate this data with my mail account? (e.g. user "blake@mail.com" stayed here on dates X) Or, regardless of state, if on the very first question I've marked my stays as "Awesome" or "Horrendous", why march me through 50 screens of BS, when presenting me with a simple text-entry box on the next screen would probably elicit significantly richer, albeit subjective, feedback? At least they should take advantage of the flexibility in form-variables that you get with an online experience.

THE survey from THE Hotel was so annoying that I closed it after the 5th question out of boredom and irritation. Then, inspired to write this post, I tried to re-open the survey to cull some choice banality for examples. No dice -- Here is the message:

The survey you are attempting to access is still currently active on our servers. This may occur if there was a disruption in your connection to our servers and the survey has not yet been completed.

Please wait 60 minutes before attempting to re-enter the survey and use the URL link and password in your email invitation. When you re-enter the survey, it should resume at the point where your connection was lost.

I'm actually surprised by this. Vegas is infamous for cutting edge analytics in their customer loyalty and retention. You'd think they'd be able to get the art of the survey right. You'd imagine they'd be reluctant to abuse the Permission Marketing model, too.

In contrast, they could learn a lesson from Eric Ries -- He recently ran a survey on his blog the other day with one required question: "How likely are you to recommend [this blog] to a friend or colleague?" That's it. (And incidentally, yes, I would recommend it). Every other question was gravy, but still thoughtful as well as 10x shorter than the dross I received from THE Hotel.

How could they improve? I like Seth Godin's post about this a few weeks back - abridged here for your amusement:

1. Don't ask a question unless you truly care about the answer.

2. Every question you ask changes the way your users think.

3. Make it easy for the user to bail.

4. Make the questions entertaining.

5. Shake up the format.