Gregory Koberger :: the blog

When I was your age…

• Facebook showed a count of your wall posts, and people would compare their wall post count to their friends wall post counts.  Birthdays were like hitting the jackpot.
• The main Facebook page was a list of text, and you had to search in order to see anything
• Statuses weren’t saved, so you could change your status to the most minute things (“Gregory is at work”) and nobody would be “spamed”
• The status box was hidden off to the side, and merely said “I am ____________.”  You filled it in with something (such as “I am eating my dinner”), and Facebook would convert it to start with your name (“Gregory is eating his dinner”).
• It was called The Facebook
• There were network pages, and networks were much more important
• “Courses” was built in- you would enter your courses for the quarter, and it would show you who else was in your class
• Whenever you accepted a friend request, you had to write how you knew the person.  And, it would display the relationship to anyone viewing your friends list.  So, “Gregory and Brian took a class together in 2008.”  The most abused feature: “__ and __ hooked up in ___, and it was ____.” If you didn’t know someone, it wouldn’t let you add them as a friend.  (This is probably the feature I miss the most- I wish they still had it.)

Anything I missed?

Whenever I have an idea for a new company or project, I start a new Google Doc.  I have a few dozen of them- some have full business models and mock ups, while others are merely a line or two.

It is a great habit to get into.  It is great inspiration to go back to.  There are many ideas I had months ago, but never could get right enough to start on.  Sometimes, months later, the idea finally clicks.  There was something you were missing before, or an angle you did not look at it from.

That Google Doc will store all your ideas, and you can go back and see what you thought of before.

When executing an idea, things change.  The more you think about it and work on it, the further from the original idea you get.  Sometimes, it is useful to go back and see your original ideas.  Often, in your rush to go in a new direction, you forgot a cool feature or idea from the original plan.

You do not have to execute every idea you write down- that is a fools errand.  However, it is useful to have a reference, since some day it might become relevant.

The more I talk to people, the more I hear and say the phrase “I had that idea, too.”  I rarely hear “I did that”, though.

Ideas are easy.  You can come up with ten good ideas right now.

The problem is you did not execute.  That is not a bad thing- nobody has time to make every idea they think of happen.

The people who succeed are the ones who pick the best of their ideas, and let the rest go.

So, next time someone tells you their idea, do not reply “I had that idea, too.”  Instead, be proud of the ideas you did pick to execute.

And, do not feel bad if you tell someone your idea, and they say “I had that idea, too.”  It does not cheapen your idea.  If anything, it is confirmation it might have a market, since someone else thought of it.  They were not the right person to execute the idea- if they were, they would have.

If you are the right person, make it happen.

My brothers 18th birthday was coming up, and I needed a card.  Since Hallmark doesn’t seem to have made it to San Francisco, I went with Papyrus.  I found the birthday cards, and spent ten minutes picking one out.  None of the cards had prices on them- but it was just a card.  How much could it be?

I headed to the counter, where I got my answer- eight dollars.  Eight dollars?  For a birthday card for my brother?  I bought the card (after all, I was invested in it- I had spent some time deciding on it), and left.

If you look at any of the A/B tests I have run on larger commercial sites, you’d see a similar trend.  People are much more likely to go through with a purchase if you don’t show them the price until the last possible moment.  Why is this?  Google Analytics is always a bit fuzzy on the why, but we can guess.  Maybe it is because they are already invested in the product?  Maybe it is because the more they see, the less they think the price is unreasonable?

There is a time and a place for eight dollar cards- however, my brothers birthday was not one of them.  Rather than turning to Papyrus when I do need an expensive card, however, I am now bitter towards them.  Had I walked in and saw the cards were a bit pricey, I would have left and made a mental note that it’s a great place for a nice anniversary card.  That is one of the problems with A/B tests- you can’t quantify the most important variables.  While my purchase shows up as a conversion for the store, they lost me as a future customer.  An A/B test would count my visit as a success, and would never have known Papyrus lost out on my yearly Mothers Day business.

Statistics can’t track when people tell their friends “it was a bit expensive for me, but you should check it out.”  Statistics can’t track when someone thinks “this isn’t what I’m looking for, but these are reasonably priced- I’ll come back later.”

So, before you take the price off your online products just because they numbers say you should, think about what is more important- your brand, or making a few bucks off a conversion.

And if people are still leaving your site when they see the price- maybe you are charging too much?  Lower your price, don’t resort to tricking your potential customers.

Probably the worst thing you can be is an idea person.  I constantly meet people who will tell me about their next big thing.  So, I ask, how will you implement it?  Oh, I’m just the idea person, they smugly reply, I’ll leave that to the programmers.  There are humble idea people, no doubt.  I’m just yet to meet any.  They all seem to treat programmers and designers as lowly tools, waiting for an idea person to save them.

Coming up with ideas is easy- I’ve come up with a good half a dozen ideas today.  I’m sure you have, too.  And I couldn’t even begin to count how many times I’ve read about a company on TechCrunch or GigaOM, and thought to myself- wow, I thought of that idea a while ago.

But ideas are the easy part- anyone can come up with a few dozen ideas in no time.  The impressive part is sticking with the idea.  Finding the right people to help with it.  Making it.  Selling it.  Tweaking the little aspects to perfection.

There’s no pride in coming up with an idea.  Ideas take a few seconds.  Making it happen takes years of hard work.

Don’t be an idea person.