Churn, Baby, Churn
Posted by Tim Tue, 03 Jan 2006 11:31:00 GMT
I offered to send a short list of reading material to two friends who are thinking about options in big business and small business. To support my offer I decided to start writing a little bit about the books that make me move.
The first book that I’ll offer up is Rules for Revolutionaries by Guy Kawasaki. Guy is a great writer with major business and buzz building experience. I just finished Rules a few days ago, and there are two chapters that really stand out in my mind. Chapter three, “Churn, Baby, Churn”, confronted one of the issues that I am continually struggling with. As soon as version 1 of anything hits, you need to start working on version 2, and you need a clear and well tested path to move from version 1 to version 2. Many of the newest web companies release their software multiple times in a day, and I think that’s a powerful capability because customers can see problems fixed within a day of reporting them. We’re not there yet, but we’re working hard to get there. My biggest hurdle is model changes—how do I most effectively automate database ERD changes and take the old data with me into the new version? It’s possible, but we don’t have the test infrastructure in place to ensure success or revert in case of failure.
The second chapter that really struck me is called “Eat Like a Bird, Poop Like an Elephant.” At first blush I figured that we’d read about spending very little in the way of start up capital while still producing huge results. And then Guy gives a brief biology refresher. Birds eat. And eat. And eat. Consume information as it becomes available to you. Don’t horde it for later, consume it. Much of the benefit that information gives us is derived in the act of consumption. And don’t just sit on the information once consumed. Share it, use it, grow it. Once you’re in the habit of taking a lot in, you need to get into the habit of putting a lot out as well. Share your knowledge to make things better.
The book is a quick read, and it can be found for next to nothing on Amazon.