Kashif Zaman » Innovation

Geo-location utilities have a $20 Billion Market Potential

Kashif Zaman — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 13:31:45 +0000

Next sustainable digital revolution: innovation that leads back to basic human intuition

Kashif Zaman — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:45:06 +0000

I am very impressed by the thought-process this MIT genius introduces with his SixthSense Technology. While tech cool hunters spam each other with augmented reality examples (that may or may not have any real application), this guy is for real. He is showing us a path that leads to basic human intuition. It makes me feel much better.

Very interesting that Apple iPad pitch is all about basic intuition uses lines like “holding internet in your hands” and “you don’t think about it, you just do!”. I think the next sustainable revolution is intuitive devices like these.

“Design of business” and Blue Ocean Strategy

Kashif Zaman — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 18:41:13 +0000

I listened to Roger Martin, the coauthor of Design of Business on the HBR ideacast. He talks about going half way towards analytical approaches and using inductive and deductive logic for business decision. Funny that I mentioned the process of design in my last post and I am thinking why not! The iterative process of design can be used in business decisions. In fact that is what we do (more of less).

When he mentioned the example of Cirque De Soleil, I instantly connected it to the Blue Ocean Strategy. We are kind of talking about the same thing. Just more creativity and intuition in decision making. I will read the book and post again. But I do think that people struggle with the idea of using too much intuition in business especially in public companies with stockholder pressure and a epitite for short-term gains.

At the same time, if wall street is OK with taking ridiculous risks with “mortgage backed securities” why not take a risk with some of these other “crazy” ideas.

One day Facebook will also be abandoned. Got any relocation plans?

Kashif Zaman — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 03:10:59 +0000

As you can see below, the inevitable decline is inevitable for every colorful logo on the PowerPoint slide you may have titled Social Networking. This curve was probably drawn back in 2007. By now, Facebook may be on the Plateau of Ubiquity on its way to decline at some point. They would have to play too many cards right in order to become another Ebay and Amazon of the Internet.

Source: The ebb and flow of Social Networking

I had the privilege to be in a brand strategy meeting where the goal was to decide which network is suitable as the hub for the brand. Demographics of different social networks were projected on the screen. Are demographics the right way to decide? Or is the choice of a hub even a valid consideration to begin with?

I think choosing the hub is a tactical/short-term decision. OK! I get it. Who cares if it is strategy or tactic? It’s a decision to be made and one aspect to be considered is the portability to the content and fans. We know the content is portable by nature but the user-generated dialog is not very portable. If the network is abandoned, how will the brand relocate to its new hub without loosing much momentum.

The ‘Fun’ Theory vs. The ‘Novelty’ Hypothesis

Kashif Zaman — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:07:29 +0000

VW recently launched a very successful viral site: TheFunTheory.com. Geart idea. Smart execution. The site is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behavior for the better. Agreed. But I do think that the fun has to be sustainable. If all stairs were a live piano, I don’t think it would be fun anymore and 99% people will take the elevator.

Windy Indeed! trendsmap.com does not lie

Kashif Zaman — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 06:27:11 +0000

I zoomed in to Chicago area on Trendmap.com and it does show that windy is the word of the night. No surprise there. It is very windy.

Innovation is now driven by demand not dreams

Kashif Zaman — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 02:04:46 +0000

As I walked through the halls Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry listening to stories of Industrial Revolution, something dawned on me. In the Industrial Age, the dreams and imaginations of visionary inventors drove innovation. Has anyone realized that tables have turned? Innovation is now in demand and there’s simply not enough raw creativity, persistence and motivation – the traits of all those great industrial pioneers.

Take long awaited mobile revolution? After years and years of text messaging being the coolest thing Sony, LG and Samsung “smartphones” could offer, Apple finally invented something that stirred something up. All of a sudden everyone has figured out how to make touch-screens work.

We seriously lack real innovation. There is just too much marketing fluff. Is this a side effect of our version of free market economy that does not have a real solution to the ’short term gains’ issue?

Site analytics for new product development

Kashif Zaman — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 02:03:43 +0000

As I explore the analytical tools used in marketing research, I am fascinated to realize the potential of web analytics as a source of insights for the new product development. It must have extremely high accuracy by the virtue of the fact that it is not just sample data, it represents all users.

Imagine if you have online product demonstration videos. If you use the click-throughs and even video engagement metrics to conduct Conjoint Analysis is simple regression, imagine how accurate you can get with the customer preferences for various product features. Compare that to a survey study you are used to conduct. Where would you put your bets?

For a Web 2.0 app, the “aha!” moment is everything

Kashif Zaman — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 01:58:11 +0000

Especially for business-to-business applications built on Web 2.0 principles, success is a function of time (in seconds) it takes for a user to sign up for a free trial and explore the application until they reach a milestone moment, I call it the “aha!” moment. It occurs when the potential customer realizes how “simple” it is to get started with this tool. Of course, I am going to stick with this one keyword “simple”.

And if it does not happen in the first visit, it ain’t happenin!

If you are the entrepreneur trying to make it work, focus on the getting down your one KPI – time to aha: start the stopwatch on click on the sign-up button and stop it as soon as the user realizes how simple this app is. That is, if the app is really “simple”.