General

Over the weekend, I finished Adam Richardson’s book entitled Innovation X: Why a Company’s Toughest Problems Are It’s Greatest Advantages. Admittedly, I was a little skeptical at first. Seemed a bit obvious on title, however, as I read a preview on my handy Kindle App, I saw some early nuggets of good information.

It likely starts with Richardson’s background. He is part of the frog design team, a company known for some great work across a wide range of industries and disciplines. The great thing about the book is the examples that Richardson incorporates to support key points he makes throughout the text. The title of the book, Innovation X, comes from the identification of what Richardson calls X Problems. He defines X Problems as those where not only is the solution to the problem difficult, but also even the definition. He also points out:

Competition is getting better and more diverse.
Customer demands and expectations continue to rise.
Customer are looking for integrated solutions and systems – not just stand alone products.
Iterative approaches to problems are necessary to find resolution.

Richardson highlights a number of things that company’s tend to lose sight of these days. He looks at the iPod as an example. He notes that the “iPod succeeded by being a systems solution, not a hardware solution, to the problem of digital music”. He uses additional examples from HP and Dell (admittedly, I chuckled. The book was published in 2010. Clearly both HP and Dell have some different perspectives – and different types of case studies going on…).

Richardson spends the majority of the book defining various angles that make up X Problems. Interestingly, he closes by outlining four truths:

Customer experience is everyone’s business – expectations continue to skyrocket on the part of the customer and all should be focused on solving those needs.
Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything can that can be counted should – self explanatory
Talent matters – very obvious throughout the book that without good talent, you are not even at the starting blocks.
It starts at the top – as leaders, we have to set the tone and provide the runway to allow for difficult problems to be solved.

Overall a good book and an easy read. Great way to think about hard problems…

There’s Potential for Yahoo

September 3, 2012

Experience, General

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In a great post this morning by Louie Herr on Digital Trends (http://www.digitaltrends.com/opinion/can-yahoo-retain-the-talent-for-a-turnaround/) he looks at what the future of Yahoo looks like with Marissa Mayer now at the helm. The commentary looks at the potential of the company and the dependency on attracting – and retaining – the right talent.

I feel strongly that indeed with the right talent, Yahoo has a good chance to make a good comeback. This has been hotly debated within the tech community in large part because so much of Yahoo’s core properties have been sitting essentially dormant for so long. Talent is absolutely what will make or break Yahoo’s potential. Yahoo has a great core product set, however, it needs strong engineering and UX leadership to revamp the offerings. What is going to be key is getting that leadership in place – quickly. Strong leadership will attract the engineering talent that Louie notes as missing.

Yahoo is unfortunately one of the business school case study examples of a company that lost its way. What appears to never have been in place – or at least adhered to – was a strong set of strategies coupled with a stated mission. One of Mayer’s first tasks should be to evaluate the various Yahoo properties, determine the underlying mission of the company, the strategies that will help it accomplish said mission, and then build a complementary leadership team.

Do I think Yahoo has a fighting chance? Absolutely. Do I think the window is short to turn things around? Absolutely. I am a consumer of many Yahoo products and hope they can find their way.