Business of Software Blog

What will happen when a software company downs tools for a week?

Three months ago, four Red Gaters volunteered to lock themselves into a converted barn on the Suffolk coast for a week, ate pizza, drank beer and coded. When Alex, Dom, Nagashree and Rob stumbled back into the office, they’d conceived, gestated and birthed SQL Search.

Last week, we launched the product – a free tool to search SQL Server databases.

But this blog post isn’t about that.

It’s about an idea that popped into my head after reading Dan Pink’s excellent book Drive. One section talks about Atlassian and their FedEx days: the company takes a day off, splits up into adhoc teams, and delivers something in 24 hours.

Rather than describing what we’re planning here at Red Gate, here’s the e-mail I sent round internally:

From: Neil Davidson
Sent: 28 January 2010 14:51
To: Product Development
Subject: "Down tools" week

The upcoming SQL Search release has shown how valuable taking some time out to work on side projects can be. Many people have spent much time finishing the project, but it would never have happened if Nagashree, Rob, Alex and Dom hadn’t locked themselves in a house by the seaside for a week.

We’d like to extend this experiment. For four days, starting on March 29th, we’d like everybody involved in building products (both for our customers and internal development) to down tools and work on something different. You can work by yourselves, in your current teams or form new teams – it’s entirely up to you. The only aim is to create something relevant to Red Gate that you wouldn’t have created otherwise. You can build a new product, a prototype for a product, a tool for use by another department, fix some bugs in a current product that would otherwise have gone unfixed – anything really. The only rule is that you have to complete something by Thursday lunchtime. During Thursday afternoon we’ll have a show and tell – a chance for you to demonstrate to other people at Red Gate what you’ve been up to.

If you’re working in product development you should put this in your diary and cancel all meetings for those four days. You can work from home, in the office or somewhere else – wherever you’ll be most effective.

You can take part in down tools week if you're a permanent (not contract) developer, tester, author, designer, project manager or product manager. If you're not in these groups but want to take part then you'll need to get your divisional or functional head's permission and persuade a team you can contribute.

Each team will have a discretionary budget of £500 for hardware / software / other stuff we don't already have in the building (but please check first).

Ideally you’ll have a clear idea of how you’ll spend the four days before they actually arrive.

Neil

Down tools week doesn’t start for a while, but merely announcing it has produced extraordinary results. The forum post announcing it has been read 1,350 times (that’s almost ten views for every person in the company). It has 64 replies. People are hyped. Ideas are flowing. Stuff is happening.

I’m not entirely sure what the outcome will be. I’m hoping that we’ll end up with a slew of prototyped ideas and a bunch of happy people. I’m sure there’ll be a lot more hard work until we can turn those embryonic proofs of concept into living, breathing, releasable software, but it will be worth it. Whatever happens, it will be fun. Even more importantly – and this is what it’s all about – we’re doing the right thing.

I’ll write up the results once the week is over.

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P.S. We’re hiring. Check out our jobs page.

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Ingeniously simple tools ... don't happen by chance

Have you ever wondered what pulling a pint of English ale can tell you about software interfaces? Or are you curious about Steve Jobs's magic ability to create news from a vacuum*?

These are just two of the topics our user experience folk (they're the people who design Red Gate's software) have covered in our new UX blog. You can read more in pride and preference by Adam Walker and the empty magic of Steve Jobs by Marine Barbaroux.

Browse the blog posts, and then put faces to the names.

*The iPad is cool, but this is cooler.

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The rise of the expert

I’m sitting in my doctor’s office. I’ve described my symptoms and he’s asked a few questions. For a few seconds, he seems puzzled. He starts typing at his computer. I shift my chair so I can see what he’s typing into which expert medical database.

He’s on Google.

This episode from a couple of weeks back illustrates the ever increasing importance of experts. As information swells in quantity but shrinks in quality, people who can sift through the muck to find the gold become more important and more powerful. People who can judge and interpret; who tell us, the public, what is worth paying attention to and what we can ignore; experts and gatekeepers; journalists, editors, doctors, lawyers and scientists: they are all more important now than ten years ago. And they’ll be more important in ten years than now.

I wonder what the implications of that are.

P.S. I lied about the lawyers.

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How much is that little piccie in the window? Why product doesn't determine price

In 1989 this tiny oil painting of the Virgin Mary was valued at some $9000.

On November 29th 1991 it was worth $180,000.

A day later, on November 30th, it was valued at between $36 million and $54 million.

The valuation proved accurate. In 2004, the UK's National Gallery bought it for some $50m.

What changed in those 24 hours? Clearly the physical painting didn't change. It had the same brushstrokes and the same paint made from the same chemicals. It was painted with the same degree of technical skill. The subject matter was the same. It was as pleasing to look at after as it was before. It was no better a painting on November 30th than it was the day before.

The one factor that pushed the price up overnight to a staggering $540,000 per square inch of paint was the word of a single man. Nicholas Penny, a curator at the National Gallery, announced that this painting was not, as had previously been thought, by an unknown artist. It was, instead, an original Raphael. In Penny's opinion (and this is only an opinion, and a disputed one at that), the science - the infrared scans, the microscopic analysis of the under drawing and the pigment analysis - proves it.

This is fascinating. The price that people (both the National Gallery and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles who made an identical bid) were prepared to pay for this painting wasn't determined by the physical painting. It was determined by something else - a belief; a mere perception of value. One day, the perception was that this painting was worth under $200,000. The next, the perception had changed and the painting was worth millions. Tomorrow, somebody yet more expert than Penny might announce that it is not, after all, a Raphael. Our perceptions will change and its value will plummet.

Whether you're selling paintings, apples, bottled water or word processors there's a valuable lesson here:

Your product's fair price is determined not by what your product is, but by what your customers think. The two may not be linked.

I will explore this more in a future blog post. For now, you can follow me on Twitter or download "Don't just roll the dice: a usefully short guide to software pricing" (it's a free eBook)

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Inbound marketing by @dharmesh and @bhalligan - a book review

Inbound marketing - get found using Google, social media and blogs is a great book. It's not the book I expected, but it's a great book nonetheless. Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan and their company, Hubspot, are creating the digital wave. They're throwing giant twitter and facebook rocks into the sea of traditional marketing. This book isn't, of course, targeted at the impossibly thin market of people who, like Dharmesh and Brian, are creating this wave. But neither is it targeted at people like myself; those of us who are surfing the wave with differing levels of skill and success.

Instead, this book is aimed at everybody else. It's aimed at the 99% of the business world who are faintly befuddled by the strange world of youtube and delicious that they find themselves living in. It's aimed at plumbers, hairdressers, lawyers and oil company executives who, if by some fluke they ever find this blog post, are still wondering what the @ signs in the title mean. It's aimed at people in large corporations and small businesses alike who are dimly aware that their working lives are about to change - indeed, have already started to change in disconcerting ways - and who don't know what to do. It's aimed at the people standing at the shore, too scared to dip their toes into the water. "Inbound marketing" takes them gently by the hand, leads them to the water, reassures them that everything is going to be OK, and teaches them how swim.

The premise of the book is that the old marketing is dead or dying. Gone are the days where simply throwing money at print or radio advertising guaranteed succees. Instead, you need to engage your customers. Give them reasons to come to visit your web site, and once they are there give them reasons to come back again and again. Turn your web site into a hub, stuffed with remarkable blog posts, videos and interviews. As the authors put it (they have a pleasing way with words) "ten years ago, your marketing effectiveness was a function of the width of your wallet. Today, your marketing effectiveness is a function of the width of your brain."

"Inbound marketing" is clearly - and explicitly - inspired by authors such as Seth Godin and David Meerman Scott. But where this book differs is in its emphasis on hands-on advice. Not only is it inspirational, but it's also brimming with practical wisdom. Sure, it talks about the power of Twitter. But then it gives you advice on how to choose a twitter handle. Sure, it talks about the rise of the superstar blogger and the death of the press release. But then it talks about how to decide whether you need a PR agency and, if you do, then how you should hire one. Sure, it stresses that your employees will need to learn new skills if they are to survive in this new world. But then it talks about what those skills are, what steps your employees need to take to get them and how you can track how they're doing. Each chapter contains a checklist of things you should do, right now, to start improving your inbound marketing.

This is no dry textbook. It's full of anecdotes, some from the usual suspects (Whole Foods, Zappos and Barack Obama) but from others too: accounting software, a shutter manufacturer and a PR firm among others. It's well written, and there are cartoons too.

Inbound marketing - get found using Google, social media and blogs is an excellent, mainstream introduction to new marketing. If you want to dip your toes into the cold water of social media then buy a copy. If you're already surfing the waves, you almost certainly know people who are standing dazed on the shore. Buy them a copy from Amazon. They'll love you for it. This book deserves enormous success - keep an eye out for it at an airport near you.

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How to take advantage of your time at Business of Software 2009 - tips from @asmartbear (#bos2009)

This is a guest post by Jason Cohen, founder of Smart Bear Software and blogger about startups, marketing, and geekery. Jason gave a Pecha Kecha speach at BoS 2008 and has this advice for 2009 attendees.

So you're going to Business of Software 2009! It's going to be awesome.

There's a 100% chance you'll get your time and money's worth from the speakers alone, but that's not the only benefit of the conference. In fact, most of the folks I've talked to agree that getting to know the other attendees is half the experience.

This conference is unlike any other, and you should take full advantage of it, especially if you're working on a small business.

Here are some ways to get the most from your time:

1. Practice your 30-second pitch (w/extension). This is an amazing chance to hone your pitch. Getting your entire business down to a 30-second sound-bite is a wonderful technique anyway -- it forces you to clarify what's truly important, what sets you apart, who your customers are, and exactly why they give you money.

   Start by honing it before the show. Airports and airplanes are good places to practice under your breath. Use a stopwatch -- really force yourself into 30 seconds. Also develop a 60-second extension in case the listener wants more detail.

   Then pitch at the show, all day long. Watch people's faces: What do they react to? When are they bored and look around? Where do they interrupt you for more questions? Use this to hone further.

   Remember that the point of a 30-second pitch is not to tell them everything about your business! It's to get them to be interested enough to keep talking. That makes it easier to cut words.

   Not only will you walk away with a crisp pitch and a well-defined business concept, you'll have the perfect marketing fodder for your home page and advertisements!

2. Be direct and respectful. Everyone there will be smart, no-nonsense, small business folks. Many are founders, most are close enough. Sure there'll be some shills from big soulless corporations, but not many. On the one hand this means acting like you're the smartest, most experienced one at the table won't get you anywhere. On the other hand it means you can jump directly into deep conversations about business operations, philosophy, customers, growth, hiring, raising money, selling the company, or whatever else is on your mind. You're in extraordinary company, so take advantage!

3. Reveal your fears and commiserate. Because we all share your pain, being direct and genuine means you can "talk shop" about anything -- even normally taboo subjects like charging more, firing customers, or being completely sick and tired of your business.

   You can talk to people about stuff you can't even talk to your employees about (e.g. "Hey everyone, I'm totally burned out. Just wanted you to know I hate coming to work. Cheers."). So open up. Sometimes a 5-minute hallway therapy session can give you real perspective, even if it's just knowing that everyone else goes through this too.

4. Promote yourself. Don't be afraid to pitch your business or yourself. This is a business conference with business people. Of course you don't want to be an asshole either, so here's a tip: ask the other person about their business first. Then follow up with more questions -- dig, figure out what's interesting about them. Then you can pitch without looking like that's why you struck up the conversation. Additional benefit: You can tune the pitch to that person!

5. Don't stop at business cards. Everyone gets a pocketful of business cards. They're stuck in a drawer, never to be seen again, unless they get tossed immediately. Instead, every night go through your cards and connect on LinkedIn (or anywhere else). Put a personal message in there so the other person remembers who you are. (Remember they met 20 new people today too.) To remember who they were, jot down notes on their card while you're talking to them in the first place.

6. Have a goal. Like a trade show, it helps to define a result you want by the time you head home. Depending on the stage and nature of your business, a goal could be:

   • Pitch your idea 30 times and see what people say.
   • Get 5 really good critiques of your idea.
   • Get 10 new people to trial your software.
   • Get 20 warm leads for your consulting services.
   • Determine the 5 "keywords" that everyone is talking about.
   • Demo your product to 5 people (after hours).
   • Find a co-founder.
   • Find a whiz at [technology].

7. Take notes. This might sound obvious, but I took copious notes from BoS 2008 and I refer to them all the time. Sure they eventually put the videos up on the Internet -- and thanks for that! -- but you still don't want to scan around 90-minute talks when you could look at your own notes.

8. Move your seat. Never sit in the same place in the auditorium. That way you can meet at least two new people (to your left and right) between every talk, which means dozens of new chances to meet a friend or make a pitch.

Oh yeah, and have fun too.

What are your tips? Leave a comment and join the conversation!

Enjoyed this post? Follow Jason on Twitter (he's @asmartbear)

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#codingbythesea – throw four smart people into a house by the seaside and shake

At Red Gate we like to try new things. The million dollar challenge and the accidental incubator are a couple of examples.

Combine this with an occasional but nagging frustration at how long it can take to get stuff done nowadays and a curiosity about how much a small team can achieve if we just leave them alone, we’ve shipped Alex (developer), Dom (designer), Nagashree (tester), Rob (developer), and – oops, I forgot to send a project manager or scrum master - off to a house by the sea for a week.

I’m not entirely sure what they’ll be working on, but take smart people, a fast internet connection, a good house, beer (I should mention that it’s in Southwold – home of Adnams) and shake and I’m sure the cocktail will be good.

If you want to stay up to date with what the guys are up to, then search #codingbythesea on Twitter. There are some photos up and once Rob’s built an antenna they’ll hook up the web cam.

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Business of Software 2009 program

I’ve just posted up the BoS 2009 program (thank you @thatdesigner). You can download it here (.pdf).

It’s going to be awesome. There are still some places left. You can sign up here.

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Don't just roll the dice - a usefully short guide to software pricing

In 1938, two young engineers were ready to launch their first product. They'd struggled with what to build. After considering amplifiers, radio equipment, air controllers, harmonicas and even muscle-building electrodes for housewives, they'd finally decided to create an oscilloscope. Not wanting customers to be put off by a version one product, they sensibly called it the Model 200A.

The next step? Decide the pricing.

They eventually settled on $54.40. Was that because it represented the cost of manufacturing, plus a decent markup? No. These engineers hadn't taken that into account. In fact, they soon realized that the cost of building each oscilloscope was more than the price they were asking. Was it based on what the competition charged? No. They hadn't bothered to discover that General Radio charged $400 for an equivalent model.

They chose $54.40 because it reminded them of the 1844 slogan used in the campaign to establish the northern border of the United States in the Pacific Northwest ("54" 40' or Fight!").

What a dumb-ass way to price a product.

But these two young engineers recovered from their stumble. The Model 200A went on to become the longest-selling basic electronic design of all time, still selling 33 years later. The company they founded became an institution. Their names? Dave Hewlett and Bill Packard.

If Hewlett and Packard, two Stanford graduates with the rosiest of futures ahead of them, can flounder so badly when faced with the problem of how to price their products, what hope do the rest of us have?

Quite a lot, as it turns out.

You can read more in the free eBook of Don't just roll the dice - a usefully short guide to software pricing.

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Pecha Kucha finalists for Business of Software 2009

This year's Pecha Kucha finalists have got their work cut out for them. Twenty slides, twenty seconds each, it’s the haiku of presentations. Here they are:

Jurgen Appelo, Chief Information Officer of ISM eCompany on “Managing agility: from complex to simple”

JD Brennan, Distinguished Technologist at HP, on "The 6.6 minute design school”

Daniel Kuperman, Director of Marketing and Product Management of Quadrant Software, on “5 marketing secrets for software success”

Glen Lipka, Director of User Experience and Product Design of Marketo, on “UX design – building products people love”

Dave O’Flynn, Integration Product Manager at Atlassian, on “Learning about teams by jumping out of planes” 

Alex Papadimoulis, President of Inedo and Founder of The Daily WTF on “How not to be featured on The Daily WTF”

Adam Ruth, Senior Software Developer at Admin Arsenal, on “Developer addictions”

Mark Stephens, CEO of IDR Solutions, on “Asteroid impact – are you a big lizard or small and furry?”

For an example of pecha kucha, here’s Alexis Ohanian (co-founder of Reddit) on how to start, run and sell a web 2.0 startup. Alexis won last year’s contest.

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