What a peculiar post. On Tue, Oct 14, 2008 at 7:17 AM, Will Evans <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote:
> I do respect the left coasts Caligula-like ability to party like there is > no > tomorrow! Ms. Wodke made a comment 2 weeks ago about SF/BayArea being > ground > zero for the internet - and for VC's and their cash - it seems true that > investor money vaporizes faster than asphalt after an a-bomb blast :-) God > bless u guys for keepin it real - we on the right coast haven't had that > kind of fun since Razorfish days of '99 If you hire young people, they will act like young people sometimes. I think that's alright. The silicon valley is ground zero (or patient zero, depending on what apocalypsian metaphor you prefer) for internet and technology innovation in general. It requires a completely different approach than building a solid business in a known space. For example, restaurants are such an old business the TV show "Kitchen Nightmares" is formulaic in its approach to making them successful. Fresh ingredients+small menu+execution+interior decoration+marketing=success. New markets without clear formulas require expiramentation, including borrowing from proven successes that may or may not apply to the new field. No one knows what will succeeed until it does. Some bets are long bets, some bets are short bets (sorry to refer to this over and over again, but the gambling metaphor is a decent approximation for the VC approach) and right now it looks like short bets are a better selection. The advice given out as sequoia et al is good: raising money is going to be hard for the next five years. Try not to spend all you've got. Stretch it (which includes trying to make a bit as well as slowing hiring). Hunker down. As designers, we can help by being contributors to the conversation. What models haven't been tried? What do we know about user behavior in digital spaces that could be leveraged to produce more effective results? Is your company in growth mode, usage mode, revenue mode, a combo? When a customer arrives on your site, what do they have to accomplish to make both them and the business successful? Business goals (and sometimes models) are as important as user goals, yet many designer seem to think meeting those goals is someone else's problem to solve. That results in bizarre arguments with business, marketing and product where each side is convinced the other is clueless. But with understanding comes insight, better design and more effective communication. I'm pained by conversations that dismiss approaches without trying to understand them, as it perpetuates the self-imposed ignorance that way too many designers seem to enjoy. First seek to understand, then to improve. Perhaps, with luck, to even innovate. ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
