Feed Sift (04/24/2015)

Hooray, Friday! Have a read, have a look, hopefully you find something cool - I thought they were all cool.

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WEBURBANIST.COM -- Adaptive Architecture: 12 Transforming & Convertible Buildings

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TECHBLOG.NETFLIX.COM -- Netflix Hack Day - Winter 2015

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ENGADGET.COM -- Underwater Aussie wave farms pump both power and water

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TWISTEDSIFTER.COM -- Iron Man Delivers a Real Bionic Arm to 7 Year-Old Alex

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DESIGNFILE.ARCHITECTURALDIGEST.COM -- Alfresco

New Product Idea: Glitter and Confetti Cannon

Our daughter went to a party recently and when my wife dropped her off, she didn't spot a lot of decoration. In the past, there have been some amazing theme parties.  Lori wasn't sure if she hadn't ventured far enough in the house or maybe the child had outgrown themed parties.

Or, I thought, maybe they just hadn't done it yet. Immediately I imagined a device that you would walk around with shooting stuff onto the walls. The flaws with such a product were immediately apparent, but it was fun to imagine anyhow. The only way it would work is if it were one of those bastardy-products - you know the type - not actually designed to be used, but simply designed to be sold. Once they have your money, they don't care. Not something you'll ever buy again, not something you'll even admit to your friends you bought, let alone warn them off from. It'd have to be sold at discount stores or places where people only shop infrequently, like party supply stores.  And it would have to work just well enough to deter people from demanding refunds.

If anyone makes such a product in the future, I wish for no credit whatsoever for this horrible idea. I promise that at least one of my future product ideas will be decent. (It involves billboards.)

Also, the similarities to Homer's make-up shotgun aren't lost on me.

Feed Sift (04/17/2015)

Happy Friday! Here's some things I wanted to share. Hope you find them interesting.

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SANFRANCISCO.CBSLOCAL.COM -- How Uber’s Autonomous Cars Will Destroy 10 Million Jobs And Reshape The Economy by 2025

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WIRED.COM -- Disney’s $1 Billion Bet on a Magical Wristband

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TWISTEDSIFTER.COM -- A Sanctuary for Orphaned Kangaroos Whose Mothers Have Been Hit by Cars

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MENTALFLOSS.COM -- 25 Words That Are Their Own Opposites

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LIFEHACKER.COM -- How to Give Effective Praise and Better Motivate Your Team

Business Card

I thought Mr. Stevens, Head of Catering, needed a business card.

For those who get it, enjoy (and please share).

For those who don't know what this is, I can't help you.

Call Me Maybe

We found a cell phone in our yard the other day. It wouldn't turn on and it used a proprietary plug we didn't have.  It had a cell phone company's logo on it, but not a company we're currently customers of.  I went to their website and poked around until I found a phone number. I navigated a lengthy phone tree before hitting a point where, without a valid account number, it thanked me for my call and disconnected.

I tried again using the number on the phone itself.  I recognized the phone tree as being the second half of the phone tree from the first call, but this time, I dialed more wisely until I finally got a human. I explained that I had found a phone in my yard and could he look it up and call them (if they had another phone on file) and let them know we'd found it.

He seemed to vaguely understand what I wanted and then started asking for a particular number by some acronym.  None of the numbers on the sticker were prefaced with anything so I didn't know what he wanted.  After several tries, I was able to successfully relay two of the three rows to him and after quite some time, he was able to find the phone but there was no record of ownership and the phone was not active.  So I said that I'd safely recycle it and he launched into a spiel about their buyback program and how I could apply it towards a new phone if it was in good connection.  I said no, the screen was cracked and it looked like it had been run over and the antenna was all chewed.  (At this precise moment I realized it been handed down and was a child's toy.)  But by this point, he was already telling me that even if they couldn't buy it back, that I could activate it and start new service with them. Really, dude? 

(I'm intentionally leaving out the company's name.  This was a weird experience but it's not about this one company.)

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Your company has far more non-customers than customers.  Let's be optimistic and call them future customers.

When was the last time you personally approached your company from the perspective of a non-customer? What happens to edge cases? Is it endless phone trees designed to limit human contact, or is it a place where you'll make a great first impression?  A great first impression may lead to a sale today, a sale in the future, or some great word-of-mouth.

Do you hate us?

I paid bills this morning.  It's not a task I enjoy.  Mostly because I think the credit card companies are really not our friends.

Ok, what am I thinking? Credit card companies have been accused of trying to trick and rip-off customers since the beginning of time, or at least the beginning of credit cards.

But these new tactics seem to be designed to infuriate, frustrate or cause late payments...

Sunday Due Dates - I'm pretty sure that they're not receiving or processing mail on Sunday  This may have no impact on people who pay the credit card company's website, but I use my bank's bill payment system and they don't allow weekend payments, even if the payments are electronic. At the end of the day, it's a minor thing, an error message and a little frustration on my part when I try to choose the payment date, but it still feels designed to be annoying.  If I had a credit card company, payments would be due on Wednesdays and if they were received by Friday, they'd be considered on time.

Obscure, Generic, Easy-to-Overlook emails - I would almost accuse Discover of sending me too many emails... email when a bill's due, email a few days before the due date, an email when the payment is received, except that all of Discover's emails are helpful, easy-to-read and informative. Chase, on the other hand, has moved to generic, text-only emails that are really easy to overlook. They give you no specifics (you have sign-in to their website to actually learn any useful information).

Disconnection from Payment Systems - Chase recently eliminated the online connection to bill payment services (or at least mine).  I can still pay my credit card from my bill pay service, but I can no longer see due dates, the minimum and full amounts due and I no longer get emails from my bank when a new payment is due.  I actually ended up with a late payment.  At the end of the day, I had a bill due and I didn't pay it by the due date, I will accept responsibility, that's on me.  But I can still lament the helpful tool that's been taken away and wonder why on earth it was taken away, why a credit card company would want to eliminate helpful reminders that bills are due.

These types of abuses make me think it's time to turn paper bills back on. Although I wouldn't be surprised if they want to charge me for them.

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So... what about you? Take a few minutes, close your eyes, and think about your customers. (If you don't have a business, think about your constituents, congregants, family.. the people you interact with, the people who you rely on, the people who rely on you.)

What do you see? Do you see nameless voids to carelessly and ruthlessly extract money (or whatever) from, to discard without concern because there are plenty more? Or do you see individuals, people like yourself? People who you want to have a relationship with for the long-haul?

You can build a business being crummy. People will still do business with you in droves if you're just a tiny bit better than the competition, or you're a monopoly, or you try to fill your ranks with people who don't know any better. Do that and you'll get the bottom of the barrel, people will leave as soon as they can, people who will do the bare minimum, people who won't appreciate you, won't spend more with you, won't encourage their friends to do business with you.

Or you can build something spectacular, something that will last, a "take my money!" business with people who love you, who aspire to own or use your products, people who (even if they could never afford your product) will wear a shirt with your logo on it.

Your call. Do you love us, or do you hate us?

My job situation

So, a quick update.

Some of you have been asking why I'm looking for work and didn't I just start a new role? The answer is a rather simple one and a bit of a bummer. Shortly after my position was eliminated with the company I'd been working with for eight years, a consulting firm company came calling, asked me to take a look at several positions and indicate which one I wanted to be considered for. A few phone calls later, I was placed with a great company. In a previous role, I had actually been a customer of this company in a self-service fashion. The role I found myself in was in their Professional Services group - for people who wanted to use the product but didn't want to operate it themselves. So, I got to work with some big clients and help them be successful with the product. Unfortunately, the company was going through a bit of... I don't want to say turbulence or upheaval... adjustment? maybe... anyhow, the company was in the process of being acquired. I was able to come in and help out, but when the contract term was up, there wasn't an option for them to increase headcount. So, the role is ending soon. It's been a lot of fun, and I'd go back to this company and work with these clients again in a heartbeat, if they'd have me.

But for the moment, I'm back to wondering what my next opportunity will be. I'm trying not to be anxious because I know there are a lot of great opportunities out there and it's just a matter of finding the right one. I'm applying for jobs, reaching out to friends and colleagues and doing a lot of praying. At the same time, I'm working hard to make sure that I finish well, that my successor (an existing employee who's having to transition some of her work to someone else so that she can take on my workload) is equipped to be successful and so that the the great people I worked with at the company and the client and the agency remember me fondly.

And if you, dear reader, can connect me with recruiters, hiring managers or other opportunities you might know of, I'd be quite grateful. And if you're hiring, come find me on LinkedIn. I might be exactly who you're looking for.