Book review- Good Strategy Bad Strategy

A good book to understand good and bad strategy with real life case studies from different companies. One-line summary - good strategy is not about some vision statement but set of coherent actions to tackle one or two identified critical issues. One example that stuck me was case of silver machine that churns silver coins is an advantage but not an competitive advantage. The former is more like a bond. An competitive advantage would accrue when either machine can be engineered to increase output or market be manipulated to increase demand.

Book review- 48 Laws of Power

Wonderful book - Being powerful is an exaggeration but in this world where we socialize with so many people at office and at work, it does help to deal better with everyone. If I would want to pick a few rules, I would say - Never outshine your master, Never get into argument, when asking for help appeal to self-interest, make your accomplishment seem effortless, think as you like but behave like others, despise free lunch, never reform too much at once, assume formlessness. 

I also enjoyed sharing some of the stories with my young son too.

Power User Curve over MAU/DAU for understanding users

Anyone in product development understand the importance of power users as they are the ones that drive successful companies. 

Traditionally, we use DAUs and MAUs to measure engagement. However, they do not measure power users. Introducing Power User Curve, which is histogram of users’ engagement by the total number of days they were active in a month/week depending on your business. You can measure engagement as app logins or for specific features which are relevant to your business. 

The advantage with Power User Curve is that it shows the variability among your users: some are slightly engaged. When mapped to cohorts, Power User Curves let you see if your engagement is getting better over time. Data for different features can help us decipher and make more informed decissions. 

Read the article in detail here - https://andrewchen.co/power-user-curve/ 

This is How Google will Collapse

This is an interesting article on reasons leading to possible collapse of Google empire which has been traditionally been built on ads. 

• Shift in user trends from search to discovery
• Lesser ads being delivered because of blocking ads features on devices esp iPhone 
• Lack of trust amongst users in banner ads
• Over-reliance on screen ads and missing disruptive trend of voice based search

Read details here- https://hackernoon.com/how-google-collapsed-b6ffa82198ee

How Duolingo Built a $700 Million Company Without Charging Users

https://producthabits.com/duolingo-built-700-million-company-without-charging-users/

This is a good article on how Duolingo disrupted the language learning industry and became a $700 Million company in 9 years.

Duolingo provides free app to learn a language. Currently, they have over 25 million monthly active users learning a language each at their own pace.

The company started in 2009 tapping into hundreds of millions of people who wanted to learn a new language but couldn’t afford to shell out a ton of money for expensive software. Duolingo’s early monetization plan was to charge businesses for the content that users translated as a byproduct of studying a language.

From 2009-12, Duolingo didn’t actually partner with companies to build out the B2B translation service, but they designed their app to increase number of users and engagement. Besides web app, Duolingo created a mobile app which used pictures, video clips, and the phone’s microphone to help users learn words, write, and speak.

In 2013, for the first time, Duolingo announced partnerships with BuzzFeed and CNN. With crowdsourced translations, their effective translation cost was around 4 cents per word, compared to translation industry's average price of around 6 to 10 cents per word.

However, Duolingo realized that expanding their B2B services was going to require a more enterprise sales-driven model—which meant potentially less attention on the product and the users. So, in 2014, Duolingo deprioritized B2B translation service and instead released a testing certification service for a small fee.

In 2015 and 2016, Duolingo launched program for Schools and flashcards both of which helped improve engagement significantly.

In 2017, Duolingo started serving ads to users. It also released a subscription plan that removes ads and lets users download lessons for offline use.

Duolingo has raised $108 Million in funding in over 5 rounds with current valuation at about $700 Million.

Book review - Design Of Everyday Things by Don Norman

"Design Of Everyday Things" by Don Norman is a book that not only shares principles of good design but also evaluates those from perspective of human psychology.

Book starts from design principles including making things discoverable, understandable and making it more delightful for users.

It then delves into difference between human and machines and who is good in what. Basically, human strength is being creative, flexible and imaginative while machines are good in being precise and acurate.

It then talks about how humans can interpret precise behavior from imprecise knowledge in the head and in world and that's something that even AI cannot do.

Finally, it talks about errors and how can they be classified as slips and mistakes. It further classifies them and talks about how to use design principles to avoid them.

Overall a must read for everyone interested in solving customer needs.

Big tech warns of 'Japan's millennium bug' ahead of Akihito's abdication

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/25/big-tech-warns-japan-millennium-bug-y2k-emperor-akihito-abdication

The Japanese calendar counts up from the coronation of a new emperor, using not the name of the emperor, but the name of the era they herald. Akihito’s coronation in January 1989 marked the beginning of the Heisei era, and the end of the Shōwa era that preceded him; and Naruhito’s coronation will itself mark another new era. 

It means that most software has not been tested to ensure that it will behave with an additional era. Also, Japanese computers use one character to represent the entire era name (compressing Heisei into ㍻ rather than 平成, for instance), Unicode needs to set the standard for that new character.

Update 21 Aug - The new name will be encoded at U+32FF. Companies in font space will have to work to ensure the new character is supported and any word processing software will have to ensure that the same is interpreted and displayed properly.