Rocket Surgery Made Easy. The do-it-yourself guide to finding and fixing usability problems. Steve Krug. 2010. ISBN 97803216572999. Another Lean Management recommendation. Krug wrote Don’t make Me think – which I totally enjoyed and agree with.  True to the author’s intent, this is a very usable book.  He has six maxims (which you will find in the book). His writing style is delightful – tongue in cheek, self deprecating and above all clear and simple.  Check out his sample usability test at www.rocketsurgerymadeeasy.com and watch the Demo Test file.  It is very revealing as to why you will want to read this book.  Is he onto something – well yes. In our practice we are daily being sent to complex, hard to understand what the company does,  completely lacking on customer value company webpages.  Most of the problems would be solve if they followed Krug’s easy to use suggestions.  All I can think is usability is just not done. Everyone who has a webpage should read this book.

Related articles

• Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems (bits.samiq.net)
• How Companies Are Using Design To Get Customers Or Get Acquired (grasshopper.com)
• How Personalized Search Changes SEO (and Doesn’t) (seomoz.org)

Running Lean. Iterate from plan A to a plan that works. Ash Maurya.2012. ISBN 9781449305178.  Part of the LEAN series which started with The Lean Start-up. This is the workbook for the The Lean Start-up and more. Lean development rose out of the AGILE camp and remains a major POV for the technology development sector.  My interest comes from experience with companies that start into AGILE but, fail to implement it in their management structure/style.  This LEAN series is a good way to start on changing how to manage companies who are innovators.  A very few folks are writing about adopting AGILE techniques in sales and marketing , but it will come.   A few key bullets for me from this very clear and well written book.

• Build only the Minimum Value Product – always testing customer response.
• Look for Minimum Marketing Features (what customers value – and you would write up)
• Use Kanban charts ( from The Toyota Way ) to organize and constrain workflow
• Done = validated with learning from customers
• Measure product marketing fit all the time.

On Freemium (he is not a fan) :

• Delays learning about what price buyers will pay
• Low or no conversion – give away too much
• Lengthens validation cycle
• Shift focus to wrong metric – signups vs retention
• Low signal to noise ration – what is important feedback
• Free users are not free – account for free users as a marketing expense

Mailchimp started with a paid version and after much time backed into a free one. Users should easily outgrow a free plan.  This is LinkedIn’s issue. IMHO.  Buy this book and The Lean Startup.

Related articles

• Running Lean by Ash Maurya (instigatorblog.com)
• Why practice trumps theory for entrepreneurs (business.financialpost.com)
• The One Simple Task That Will Help Your Startup Succeed (entrepreneur.com)
• The Different Worldviews of a Startup by Ash Maurya (rocketbuilders.blogspot.com)
• Get Your Customers to Want to Pay Even Before Building Your Product. from Spark59 Blog by Ash Maurya (rocketbuilders.blogspot.com)
• Don’t Ask Customers What They’ll Pay. Tell Them. by Ash Maurya (rocketbuilders.blogspot.com)
• There’s Plan A, and then there’s the plan that will become your business (radar.oreilly.com)
• Excerpt from Running Lean: Iterate from Plan A to a Plan That Works (boingboing.net)
• 5 Tips to Be a Lean, Agile Inbound Marketer (hubspot.com)
• Using Lean To Find Marketing Attributes (pr.typepad.com)
• The Lean Startup. How today’s entrepreneurs use continuous innovation to create radically successful businesses. Eric Ries. (regnordman.com)