Tips, tricks and tools I used to build Gist and other companies. Focused on internet or software product development.
- 1.T.A. McCann create something great
2. Mental muscles Data accumulation Resources, features, time
Pattern recognition Decision making Coordination Communications
Measure Critique, learn and repeat Read Tim Ferris post regarding
Noah Kagan (AppSumo)2 3. Filling in the blanksCustomer Value prop
VisionFeature setBusiness modelGist is a next-generation contact
manager for business professionals, that combines all your
contacts, alltheir updates so you can focus on who and what is most
important and is monetized via premiumsubscription plans.3 4.
Filling in the blanks Better than(existing way or competition) What
and how will you tell your friends All of this in 140 characters,
actually 110 ifpossible 4 5. Copy the leaders (for some stuff)
Marketing Positioning User/market data Feature priority Key thought
leaders 5 6. A valuable target customer Business professional
Places high value of relationships (>8/10) Has significant
(>50%) of key relationships outside company >5 meetings/week
with outside people (more/new is better) Uses technology to gain
information advantage Actively builds and manages his network Pays
monthly information service fees (mobile, CRM, wiki,contact manager
(more is better)People like this include;T.A. Roles include (execs,
sales, recruiter, PR, journalists, lawyers)Brad Influencer of
others and/or small teamsBuzzKendall Technical, early but not
bleeding edge adopterBrandtMilesDave Thomas Often fits in GTD
category as well Reads books like never eat alone or 4 hour work
week Attends networking events or activities 6 7.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZTH5BJR7 8. Kevin Spidel"I am the
Managing Director of aninternational PR firm and am very active
onthe social web. Gist allows me to cutthrough the noise and manage
my contactsdirectly. I am able to monitor what matters...the
relationship."Managing DirectorPatriot Strategies Gist user since
11/03/09 has invited 34
usershttp://patriotstrategies.comWashington, DC, USA5300 contacts,
1279 companies 9. 9 10. Vision to value10 11. Product planning 11
12. Development process 12 13. Do what you say13 14. 14 15. Build
for an 10 year old 15 16. Tool set www.mindjet.com - mind maps
www.pbwiki.com - wiki www.surveymonkey.com - user targeting
www.gotomeeting.com - engaging directly with users
www.launchrock.com - capture early interest www.crazyegg.com - web
user tracking www.zendesk.com - support and new ideas from users
www.skitch.com - quick mark-up of pages
http://blog.gist.com/2011/10/24/20-apps-and-services-that-helped-us-build-gist/16
17. Crazy Egg -17 18. Making it social Sign in with (Facebook,
Twitter, OpenID) Bring my friends Tweet my success Join the club 18
19. Beta users Engage them early, often and on a regular basis Be
hyper-critical of who gets in, when Bring new users on in groups
(200-1000) test andmeasure (cohorts) Build your user communications
models (bi-weeklyupdates) Help them find more users 19 20. The new
influencer Usually has a day job, writing for passion Well
connected and socially enabled Selling to other influencers as much
as customers Easily co-opted with first looks and attention
Leverage your own influence to gain theirs20 21. Make someone else
the champion 21 22. Jump on someone elses message 22 23. Track your
influencers 23 24. 24 25. Set big goalsGet connectedListen and
learnFail fast and iteratePersistGo make something great. T.A.
McCann [email protected]/tamccann
