Via Online Schools. Depressing infographics. Permalink | Leave a comment »
Selected by mcc
-
Most Topular Stories
-
Why Congress is way richer than you [infographic]
Holy Kaw!8 Feb 2012 | 4:28 pm -
How do they know you're not a flake?
Seth's Blog8 Feb 2012 | 2:43 amBefore your link gets clicked or your proposal gets read, a busy person is going to triage it to find out if it's even worth glancing at. Since everyone is now connected, the new permeability has created a deluge of noise, and just about everyone worth contacting is taking defensive measures. Do I know this person? Did someone I trust send them over? Where does she work? (Ideo? the FDA? The New York Times?) Has she won an award? Is she famous? Are there typos and is the design sloppy? Are they pestering me? Do I already follow this person online? Does music play when I visit the website? Will… -
Collaging: Getting Answers To The Questions You Don’t Know To Ask
Smashing Magazine Feed6 Feb 2012 | 7:02 amWhen conducting user research, we all know that asking the right questions is just as important as how you ask them, but how do you know exactly what questions to ask? What if the discussion topic is very personal? How do you get a complete stranger to open up? There is a better way to conduct an in-depth interview, and it doesn’t involve a clipboard. Just imagine what you could discover if the participant’s answers weren’t limited to a predetermined set of questions. This is where collaging can help. Collaging is a projective technique by which participants select images… -
Playbooks and visual explanations
Church of the Customer Blog6 Feb 2012 | 8:30 amBy the time the New York Giants and the New England Patriots took the field Sunday for their Super Bowl matchup, the players on both teams had read, re-read and rehearsed their respective game playbooks dozens, if not hundreds of times. They'd studied each play via multiple diagrams and photographs, stats and descriptions of assignments for every player on the field. A playbook is an apt metaphor for any business team that needs concise, how-to plans to deal with the complexity of systems, processes and moving variables, especially with social business. Whether it's for one of the world's… -
Does America run on “Dunkin’ Donuts”?
Service Untitled8 Feb 2012 | 12:29 pmBrands Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index sets Dunkin’ Donuts as number one in customer loyalty for the coffee category. Second only to oil production, coffee is the largest commodity sold. The coffee category included ratings on consumer preferences, the consistency of meeting customer expectations for taste, quality, service, and brand value. This is the sixth year in a row the quick food coffee shop has been recognized with the award. Dunkin’ Donuts has more than 7,000 restaurants in the United States and District of Columbia and another 10,000 restaurants in 33 countries.
-
Holy Kaw!
-
Why Congress is way richer than you [infographic]
8 Feb 2012 | 4:28 pmVia Online Schools. Depressing infographics. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
The bookcase that’s always ready for more
8 Feb 2012 | 4:19 pmThe thing about bibliophiles is that, before you know it, the bookcase is full and it’s time to drag in a few more boards and cinder blocks to accommodate the newcomers. With the REK, such worries are a thing of the past, as the system accordions out when more space is needed and collapses into a handy rectangle when it’s time to pack up shop and move on to greener pastures. Unfortunately, the price is listed as “on request” meaning the 99% is out of luck, but perhaps it’ll inspire you to hit the workshop for a little DIY action if you can drag your nose out of… -
How Harvard spends student tuition [infographic]
8 Feb 2012 | 3:24 pmVia Online Universities. (H/T Muhammad Saleem) The scoop on education. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Lizard shortage offers rare evolution test
8 Feb 2012 | 1:01 pmA devastating 2004 hurricane that wiped out a Caribbean lizard population offered an unprecedented opportunity to put an evolutionary theory known as the “founder effect” to the test. The founder effect describes the loss of genetic variation that occurs when a new population is established by a very small number of individuals from a larger population. “Founder effects are very hard to study,” says Thomas Schoener, a professor of evolution and ecology at University of California, Davis and a co-author of the study. “One must be in exactly the right place at the… -
Petty controversy: The Oscars diss the Muppets
8 Feb 2012 | 12:48 pmAcademy Awards producers outrage Kermit lovers with a proposal to shorten the telecast by scrapping Best Original Song performances It's an odd year for the Oscars' Best Original Song category. Thanks to the Academy's ever-changing and increasingly labyrinthine rules, only two songs earned nominations. At first, critics weren't too troubled by the abbreviated list, since it included the comically existential Muppets ballad "Man or Muppet," written by Flight of the Conchords' Bret McKenzie and performed by Jason Segel and Walter the Muppet. But alas, producers are planning to scrap the Best…
-
Seth's Blog
-
How do they know you're not a flake?
8 Feb 2012 | 2:43 amBefore your link gets clicked or your proposal gets read, a busy person is going to triage it to find out if it's even worth glancing at. Since everyone is now connected, the new permeability has created a deluge of noise, and just about everyone worth contacting is taking defensive measures. Do I know this person? Did someone I trust send them over? Where does she work? (Ideo? the FDA? The New York Times?) Has she won an award? Is she famous? Are there typos and is the design sloppy? Are they pestering me? Do I already follow this person online? Does music play when I visit the website? Will… -
Horizontal marketing isn't a new idea
7 Feb 2012 | 2:09 amBut it is the new reality for just about every organization. Vertical marketing means the marketer (the one with money) is in charge. Vertical marketing starts at the top and involves running ads, sending out direct mail and pushing hype through the media. Your money, your plans, your control. It might not work, but generally the worst outcome is that you will be ignored and need to spend more money. Horizonal marketing, on the other hand, means creating a remarkable product and story and setting it up to spread from person to person. It's out of your control, because all the interactions are… -
Who is your customer?
6 Feb 2012 | 2:26 amRule one: You can build a business on the foundation of great customer service. Rule two: The only way to do great customer service is to treat different customers differently. The question: Who is your customer? It's not obvious. Zappos is a classic customer service company, and their customer is the person who buys the shoes. Nike, on the other hand, doesn't care very much at all about the people who buy the shoes, or even the retailers. They care about the athletes (often famous) that wear the shoes, sometimes for money. They name buildings after these athletes, court them, erect… -
In search of a timid trapeze artist
5 Feb 2012 | 2:01 amGood luck with that, there aren't any. If you hesitate when leaping from rope to another, you're not going to last very long. And this is at the heart of what makes innovation work in organizations, why industries die, and how painful it is to try to maintain the status quo while also participating in a revolution. Gather up as much speed as you can, find a path and let go. You can't get to the next rope if you're still holding on to this one. -
Will energy consumption stay private?
4 Feb 2012 | 11:45 amIt's clear that the consumption of energy has external effects that impact more than just the person who is paying for it. Geopolitical, health and economic issues come to the neighbors and nearby citizens of entities that are using a lot of power. It was always straightforward to see who was burning a lot of wood or drove a huge car. It's easy to see when a company has a huge smokestake belching carbon. What happens when sensors make it easy to see how efficient a machine is, how much of a resource is being consumed and how much exhaust is being spewed? What happens when Google maps shows…
-
Smashing Magazine Feed
-
Collaging: Getting Answers To The Questions You Don’t Know To Ask
6 Feb 2012 | 7:02 amWhen conducting user research, we all know that asking the right questions is just as important as how you ask them, but how do you know exactly what questions to ask? What if the discussion topic is very personal? How do you get a complete stranger to open up? There is a better way to conduct an in-depth interview, and it doesn’t involve a clipboard. Just imagine what you could discover if the participant’s answers weren’t limited to a predetermined set of questions. This is where collaging can help. Collaging is a projective technique by which participants select images… -
How To Use Custom Post Types To Organize Online Marketing Campaigns
3 Feb 2012 | 7:04 amCustom post types add a level of flexibility to WordPress that makes this open-source Web development platform more useful on many levels. Whenever I have been faced with a Web-based task, especially one that involves organizing information, the first thing I do is examine WordPress to determine if it can handle the job. It usually can. Image Source As an Internet marketer and analyst, I need to be able to organize online marketing campaigns in a way that is trackable in Google Analytics. This is the perfect task for WordPress custom post types. In this article, we’ll explain… -
Freebie: St. Valentine’s Day Icon Set (10 PNG/PSD Icons)
2 Feb 2012 | 7:38 amEvery now and then, we release useful freebies for all of our highly valued readers. Today, it is our pleasure to present to you Cuberto‘s fantastic St. Valentine’s icon set — exclusively designed for Smashing Magazine and its loyal readers. The icons presented are available in transparent PNGs as well as Photoshop PSDs (128×128 px) and are perfect for any projects you have coming up for St. Valentine’s Day. Enjoy! Download the Set for free! This icon set is completely free to use for commercial or personal applications without any… -
Ten Things To Think About When Designing Your iPad App
31 Jan 2012 | 9:03 amLike most well-designed things, the magic of an iPad app comes from a union of usefulness, usability and meaning. Games aside, the app must be useful by solving a problem that people actually have through the right set of functionality at the right time. It must be easy to use and, just as importantly, easy to get started using, without a lot of pesky setup and learning steps. And it must hold meaning for the user through visual beauty, an emotional connection, personal insights, etc. In this article, we won’t outline the entire design process for creating an iPad app, but we… -
Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: February 2012
31 Jan 2012 | 5:48 amWe always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one — desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. This creativity mission has been going on for over two years now, and we are very thankful to all designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing each month. We continue to nourish you with a monthly spoon of inspiration. This post features…
-
Church of the Customer Blog
-
Playbooks and visual explanations
6 Feb 2012 | 8:30 amBy the time the New York Giants and the New England Patriots took the field Sunday for their Super Bowl matchup, the players on both teams had read, re-read and rehearsed their respective game playbooks dozens, if not hundreds of times. They'd studied each play via multiple diagrams and photographs, stats and descriptions of assignments for every player on the field. A playbook is an apt metaphor for any business team that needs concise, how-to plans to deal with the complexity of systems, processes and moving variables, especially with social business. Whether it's for one of the world's… -
People trust people
1 Feb 2012 | 12:27 pm[Click on chart to see larger version.] The latest edition of the Edelman Trust Barometer study just came out showing CEO's in the dog house when it comes to being trusted. Who do people trust? Academic and tech experts, sure. But the biggest movers in the study are "a person just like me" and "regular employee." Look at your 2012 marketing plan. Are you providing ways for your customers to get together in-person and online to encourage word of mouth? Are you showcasing your best employees in social media, at conferences, and at private events with customers? Source: 2012 Edelman… -
FedEx's apology: expertly delivered
21 Dec 2011 | 8:29 pmWe've seen this before: 1) company makes an egregious service mistake and is outed by a customer via a YouTube video, 2) video goes viral, 3) mainstream media picks up the story and amplifies it, 4) PR nightmare begins. This week's culprit is FedEx. A California FedEx driver is caught on a security-camera video flinging a package containing a computer monitor over the fence of a gated Southern California house. At no time does the driver attempt to ring the bell for delivery. Just a toss over the fence, and he jumps back into his truck. In two days, the video has over three million views. … -
The simplest definition of word of mouth marketing
28 Nov 2011 | 12:38 pmNice video from WOMMA on the basics of word of mouth marketing. Tweet -
14 new statistics about word of mouth marketing
17 Oct 2011 | 11:45 amThe Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) has a neat infographic detailing the latest stats about word or mouth marketing, online and offline. Source: WOMMA Note: the WOMMA Summit is coming up November 16-18 in Las Vegas. It's a great conference to learn the latest WOM marketing techniques from leading brands and agencies. Tweet
-
Service Untitled
-
Does America run on “Dunkin’ Donuts”?
8 Feb 2012 | 12:29 pmBrands Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index sets Dunkin’ Donuts as number one in customer loyalty for the coffee category. Second only to oil production, coffee is the largest commodity sold. The coffee category included ratings on consumer preferences, the consistency of meeting customer expectations for taste, quality, service, and brand value. This is the sixth year in a row the quick food coffee shop has been recognized with the award. Dunkin’ Donuts has more than 7,000 restaurants in the United States and District of Columbia and another 10,000 restaurants in 33 countries. -
Interview with Rob Siefker of Zappos – Part 3 of 4
7 Feb 2012 | 6:31 amThis is the third of a four part interview with Rob Siefker, the Director of the Customer Loyatly Team at Zappos. In this part of the interview, Rob talks more about the service metrics that Zappos tracks, how the company empowers its Customer Loyalty Team Members (and has avoided bureaucracy), how escalations to managers work at the company, how the Zappos compensates its employees, and the extensive continuing education programs employees have access to at Zappos and how they work. You can read part one of the interview here and part two here. To read this part, click “read… -
Are mobile devices serving customers properly?
31 Jan 2012 | 10:04 amBefore I leave my house in the morning, I grab my car keys, purse and of course, my smartphone. AT&T sold 9.4 million of these in the fourth quarter of 2011. Is it any wonder that the 2X4 inch tidy packages of computer chips have revolutionized everyday behaviors including the way we shop? We read on them, play Words With Friends, make dinner reservations, buy concert tickets, and frequently text. Now smartphone application users have even surpassed the amount of people texting and talking. Online sales from mobile devices continue to increase as applications scan, share favorites, share… -
Interview with Rob Siefker of Zappos – Part 2 of 4
27 Jan 2012 | 6:08 amThis is the second of a four part interview with Rob Siefker, the Director of the Customer Loyatly Team at Zappos. In this part of the interview, Rob discusses how Zappos motivates members of their customer loyalty team, what programs they have in place to recognize good service, and what service metrics the company tracks and how. You can read part one of the interview here. To read this part, click “read more.” Service Untitled: So how do you motivate Customer Loyalty team members? And then how do you keep that motivation up over time? A lot of companies institute programs and… -
The silent exit of poor customer service
25 Jan 2012 | 10:07 amMost customers who feel they have been the recipients of poor customer service will never vocalize their feelings to a particular organization. According to First Financial Training Services and the White House Office of Consumer Affairs, only four percent of dissatisfied customers ever complain making the other 96 percent essentially ripe for the picking when another company offering similar services or products appear in the horizon. Typically an unhappy customer who perceives that attitude of indifference will tell eight to ten of their friends, coworkers or family members about their bad…
-
Profitability Through Human Capital
-
HR CAN Have a Crystal Ball When it Comes to Turnover
7 Feb 2012 | 10:56 amYou know just when I think I have nothing to write about, I get a great comment by one of my readers that sparks my creative juices.This week I would like to thank Micky Jay for his/her (not sure) comment on HR and Predictive Analytics a blog post of mine from last year.He discussed the possibility of being predictive in the area of "who is at risk for leaving our organization?"Think about this for a moment. If you, as the HR Rockstar, were able to go to your managers and say; "I have been doing some analysis and we have discovered that your top performers Jane, Joe and Tommy are at risk for… -
Moving from Transactional HR to Strategic HR
30 Jan 2012 | 10:29 amStrategicLand, where we as HR professionals have wanted to be, for at least two decades. Picture this scenario:You are the VP, Human Resources for a very profitable company that is growing internationally. You realize to do so, that you need to become more strategic than transactional as far as what HR delivers to the business. The problem is this....the leadership of your organization doesn't understand why HR needs to be strategic. Things are going well...the company is in growth mode and making money. So the question is, "Why change if it ain't broke?"Tell me how you answer this question. -
Leadership...Where Has it Gone?
23 Jan 2012 | 2:42 pmOver the last few months I have been so surprised by recent lapses in judgement and leadership. I have to ask, why is this so rampant? Where has all of our character gone?My first disappointment as of late was the whole Penn State, Joe Paterno scandal. I mean how does someone know about an incident of child abuse and NOT report it to the law. I don't care what loophole existed for working in a University. You have to put your morals and ethics first especially when it involves children. Joe Paterno died a few days ago, his legacy forever tarnished. When does a Captain of a large cruise ship… -
What is HR's Moneyball Metric?
16 Jan 2012 | 1:17 pmI finally watched Moneyball this weekend and what a movie that was. Of course, all the way through the movie I am thinking how does this apply to HR and companies in general.It was so interesting that the team was using anecdotal data to "hire" new players. I loved it when the data geek talked about players potential and hidden nuggets of gold that went unnoticed due to poor batting averages. He pointed out it is not necessarily about batting average, but really about getting on the base. It was a metric in baseball, that no other team was using. Historically, the players with the highest… -
Is the HR Generalist Dead?
9 Jan 2012 | 4:08 pmToday I had a very interesting conversation with a few HR consultant friends of mine. We were discussing the status of the external HR Consultant who is a generalist versus a consultant that specializes in particular area of HR. The consensus was that the generalist in the consulting world is dead. Maybe that is a strong statement, maybe not dead....but on life support.The reasons had to do with an over supply of consultants that are generalists and the need for organizations to hire subject matter experts that are deep in their knowledge on a certain subject, like compensation for example.I…
-
Great Demo!
-
Stunningly Awful Demos – Insufficient Discovery
7 Feb 2012 | 8:17 am[Send me an email at PCohan@SecondDerivative.com if you'd like a PDF copy of this article]Imaginewalking into a doctor’s office and, before you can open your mouth, the doctorimmediately writes prescriptions for a broad range of drugs… The doctor then says, “Let me know if any ofthese drugs seem to help address any problems you have.”Or:Imaginewalking into a doctor’s office and (again), before you can open your mouth, thedoctor immediately writes prescriptions for a broad range of drugs… A few days later you come back, at which timethe doctor says, “So what seems to… -
Great Demo! Public Workshop February 29
3 Feb 2012 | 7:11 am[Warning – shameless self-promotionalert!]Our next public Great Demo! Workshop is scheduledto take place February 29 in San Jose, California – registration and additionalinformation can be found here: http://greatdemo120229.eventbrite.com/This is an excellent opportunity forindividuals, small groups or for teams that have new hires. We’ve found that these events are mostproductive when there are two or more participants from each organization(singletons are also fine). This helpsto mimic real-life interactions as much as possible, both when preparing demos… -
21 Clicks Is Too Much – Stop the Demo!
30 Jan 2012 | 9:21 amYes, people do count clicks during demos – and this is the true,brief horror story of too many clicks (I heard this from a recent Great Demo!Workshop participant): During a demo – and not very far into it, the head of agroup of National Account Managers suddenly said, “Stop the demo – 21 clicks istoo much!” And that was the end of thatsales opportunity…His point was very simple: any task that takes 21 clicks to complete is probably going to be toodifficult and too complicated to do for the average person (and in thisparticular case the audience and expected users… -
“Before I demo to you, why don’t you demo to me…?”
22 Jan 2012 | 9:34 am“Before I demo to you, why don’t you demo to me what you arecurrently using?” If a customer has anexisting software system, this can be a wonderful way to understand the strengths,weaknesses and gaps in their current system – particularly from the customer’s point of view. They’ll tell you what they like, what theyhate, what’s missing and a range of other delightful Discovery information.Additionally, this also inverts the traditional process of thevendor presenting to the customer, to one of the customer presenting to the vendor – an experience often rememberedby… -
Practice Your Mouse Movements… All The Time!
16 Jan 2012 | 12:03 pmFor some people presenting demonstrations, moving the mouse smoothlyand deliberately occurs naturally. Forothers, it can be a real challenge! Here’sa quick tip: practice moving your mouseas if you are delivering a demo allof the time. The “muscle memory”associated with constant practice will reward you when you are in the heat of atough demo – and can’t invest time to think about how best to move yourmouse. When we are mousing for ourselves, our mouse movements tendto follow the motion of our eyes. So, ifwe are hunting for a specific…
-
TechCrunch
-
Addressgate: After The Path Fallout, Whose Address Book Is It Anyway?
8 Feb 2012 | 3:39 pmEditor’s note: Guest author Keith Teare is General Partner at his incubator Archimedes Labs and CEO of newly funded just.me. He was a co-founder of TechCrunch. Just.me is a stealth company in the mobile space and as such Keith’s opinions on this issue are likely to reflect his product focus. Addressgate seems like an appropriate name for what is dominating Silicon Valley headlines: Path’s mobile app uploading all of your contacts. Today Michael Arrington suggested that Path delete the data gathered and start over, and now Path CEO and founder Dave Morin has decided to do just that,… -
Here’s What Facebook Stock Looks Like
8 Feb 2012 | 3:38 pmIn a few months time, here’s what the world will be fighting to get its hands on, or get rid of depending on your confidence in Facebook’s business plan. The image of a Facebook stock certificate was included in the amended S-1 Facebook filed today with the SEC. It’s sure to become coveted by Scripophiliacs, or people who collect historic stock certificates, alongside those from Google, Apple, and Yahoo pictured below. At first glance, the designs in the certificate’s margins appear similar to the insignia found within the Facebook hoodie Mark Zuckerberg has worn. -
Andrew Mason’s First Earnings Call: “Stop Sending Me Pole-Dancing Deals”
8 Feb 2012 | 3:13 pmGroupon CEO Andrew Mason just finished his first post-IPO earnings calls with Wall Street analysts. (We covered it live and looked at the numbers). “We believe we are on the cusp of a sea change” in behavior, he noted. “We’re about to see what technology can do for local commerce.” Listening to the call, I’d say his performance was mixed. He sounded a little nervous at first, but warmed up to the task just as he did during the IPO roadshow, joking with the analysts that one of the most requested features Groupon hears from customers to “stop sending me pole-dancing… -
Facebook As A Mobile Platform: 60 Million Mobile Users Visit Third-Party Apps Each Month
8 Feb 2012 | 3:04 pmFacebook is huge on mobile — as an application developer. But questions have circled for years around how it can be a real mobile platform on top of operating systems controlled by Apple and Google. But we got a little more data on what it’s already accomplishing on the platform front, today at the Inside Social Apps conference here in San Francisco. Facebook product director Carl Sjogreen said on stage that out of the 425 million monthly mobile users that it currently counts, 60 million are going to third party apps. And this isn’t just once a month apiece — this is… -
Gumroad Gets $1.1 Million From Chris Sacca, Max Levchin And Others To Turn Any Link Into A Payment System
8 Feb 2012 | 2:43 pmGumroad, the buzzy one-man startup launched by Pinterest and Turntable app designer (and 19-year-old college dropout) Sahil Lavingia, officially launches today with over $1.1 million in seed funding from investors Accel Partners, Chris Sacca, Max Levchin, SV Angel, Josh Kopelman, Seth Goldstein, Naval Ravikrant, Collaborative Fund and Danny Rimer. To use the Gumroad, sign in with Facebook or Twitter Auth and submit any link in the entry form, whether it be to a blogpost, Spotify playlist, Instagram, invite for an iPhone app, research paper or whatever you can come up with you crazy character!
