Stealing the Best Ideas from DevOps: A Guide for Sysadmins without Developers
Innovation the Easy Way: Stealing Great Ideas
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Transcript of Innovation the Easy Way: Stealing Great Ideas
Innovation Innovation the Easy the Easy Way: Stealing Way: Stealing Great IdeasGreat Ideas
Innovation Innovation the Easy the Easy Way: Stealing Way: Stealing Great IdeasGreat Ideas
Steve KirschSteve Kirsch
ChairmanChairman
InfoseekInfoseek
A confessionA confession
I am a thiefI am a thief
I steal ideas I steal property I steal money
PredictionPrediction
1 year from now, many of you will:
pay me to use your ideas let me use your computers for
free
If you must leave If you must leave early...early...
Please send all your ideas, spare cash, excess equipment, etc. to:
Steve KirschInfoseek
1399 Moffett Park DrSunnyvale, CA 94089
AgendaAgenda
Why steal? How to steal What to steal What we should have stolen When not to steal What you can steal from us Stealing on a global scale
…and…if you get caught...
AgendaAgenda
How toget out of
jail FREE!
Why Steal?Why Steal?
How most companies How most companies innovateinnovate
Put a team on it Look at what others have done Come up with new ideas,
experiment
The smart way to The smart way to innovateinnovate
Why take the risk? Why not adapt proven
techniques?
How to stealHow to steal
The most powerful idea The most powerful idea stealing techniquestealing technique
Question– How does Cisco compensate its
employees?– How does Microsoft compensate its
employees?
Answer
Ask 2 employees
Other popular stealing Other popular stealing techniquestechniques
“How do you know
things?”
Three ways to stealThree ways to steal
Passive stealing– Provide a customer feedback mechanism
Active stealing– Research… who does (or must be doing)
this the best?– Get a contact within the company
Opportunistic stealing– Magazine articles (Inc, Fortune, etc)– Seminars (like this one!)
Stealing ideas from Stealing ideas from customerscustomers
Make customer feedback EASY! Easiest way: add a “Feedback”
link Hard part is asking the right
questions Collaboration may bring
innovative solutions BUT beware… Always better to
observe than to ask!
Ideas we’ve stolenIdeas we’ve stolen
The power of stealingThe power of stealing
Stolen from PSS(They probably stole it too)
“We haven’t come up with any good ideas ourselves. All our good ideas we’ve
stolen from others.”
How to quintuple How to quintuple revenuesrevenues
At Stanford U., can you sell $50 worth of lemonade
in 20 minutes? This innovative technique was
stolen from the winning team of the Stanford Entrepreneur Car Rally
Applies to web sites
Corporate valuesCorporate values
Great companies had them Got their values from the PR
dept STARTED with the best: Cisco,
Peoplesoft, Southwest Airlines, …
…and REFINED
Single, simple goalSingle, simple goal
Stolen from PSS Focuses your thinking Stretch goal Put on everything…
– Presentations– Memos– Signs around the company
Power of a single goalPower of a single goal
Food challenge: $5K 100M page views
Compensation based on Compensation based on customer satisfactioncustomer satisfaction
Stolen from Cisco Over half of cash bonus is
based on customer satisfaction
Product development Product development processprocess
Stolen from HP product manager
Write the datasheet and create the screens before writing the MRD
Getting customer Getting customer namesnames
Stolen from Quarterdeck, others
Works on Web site E-mail required for download In 15 days from installation, we
e-mail reminder
Free access to corp infoFree access to corp info
Stolen from PSS, with help from Apollo
It forces you to be consistent and fair
People love it
Recuiting the bestRecuiting the best
Stolen from Microsoft, Cisco Nice articles in Fortune about
Cisco’s and Microsoft’s recruiting practices
Banner ad ideaBanner ad idea
Stolen from Netscape We even copied the size!
Searching the WebSearching the Web
Stolen from Lycos
Product ideasProduct ideas
Steal from our competitors– Yahoo: directory layout– Excite: channels– AltaVista: portions of our query
syntax
Action-biased Action-biased suggestion boxsuggestion box
Stolen from US Forest Service Old way
– Fill out 4 page form– 60 ideas/yr
New way– Send e-mail or tell supervisor– If no response in 2 weeks, and not
illegal, do it– 6,000 ideas/yr
Ideas we should have Ideas we should have stolenstolen
Yahoo!Yahoo!
Their approach: manual directory Our approach: automated
directory
What consumers liked You are in deep doo-doo
Now what?
Steal an idea from someone else to
change the game!
When not to stealWhen not to steal
When stealing doesn’t When stealing doesn’t workwork
The imperfect copy– Yahoo
Conditions have changed– The Internet– Different industry
The imperfect copyThe imperfect copy
Theory: “We’ll apply technology to do it better and faster and with lower costs this way”
Reality: – Be VERY careful about “improving” a
stolen idea– You may need to vigorously defend
this, in the face of overwhelming support against you
Changed conditionsChanged conditions
ISP “free trial” model didn’t work on the Internet
Internet shopping experience is completely unique– do not expect the same value
propositions to apply
Changed conditionsChanged conditions
Pacific Bell stole their awards program from Frequent Flyer of airlines
Recently discontinued
Ideas you may want to Ideas you may want to steal from ussteal from us
PythonPython
We used Python for Ultraseek Server Python is similar to Perl Python is to Java what Java is to C++
– fast development– easy to learn language– easy to read– object oriented– portable– easy to debug
The homing beaconThe homing beacon
A simple addition to Internet software
Sends message back after installation as to how many documents are indexed
Allows our sales people to prioritize leads
Direct Feedback Direct Feedback
E-mail from feedback page goes right to the doc person that created the page
See software.infoseek.com
Comments visibilityComments visibility
Extract typical comments from your incoming e-mail and forward to upper management
Periodically pretend Periodically pretend you are the customeryou are the customer
Submit feedback and see how long it takes to get a reply
Try the download link… does it download and install correctly?
Product information on Product information on your websiteyour website
There are 18 or so categories of information that I’d love to see about any product
See software.infoseek.com for a list
– Customer sites– Live demo– Screen shots– Feature list– Specs– System requirements– FAQ– Product
documentation– Press reviews– Competitive
comparison
The Art of the StealThe Art of the Steal
(Apologies to Donald Trump)
Stealing saves money!Stealing saves money!
Today– OUR computers index YOUR data
Tomorrow– YOUR computers index YOUR data
(running OUR software)
Ours Yours
Global theft benefitsGlobal theft benefits
User results are more complete and up to date
We leverage:– OPM– OPC
SummarySummary
If done properly, stealing is –safer–easier– faster
than innovating from scratch
Stealing this Stealing this presentationpresentation
Goto Infoseek Type: “Steve Kirsch” Go to the top hit (my home
page)
Be supportiveBe supportive
Failures along the way are expected
Continuous Continuous experimentationexperimentation
Constantly explore new ideas through projects
Fail quickly and often
Don’t overspec jobsDon’t overspec jobs
Give people latitude Encourage people to venture
outside field of expertise Working outside with
customers
Don’t overplanDon’t overplan
Things change too quickly… new info Prefer prototyping to planning Rapid prototyping lets you evaluate
a concept with minimal investment Good ideas can easily get derailed
by too much planning Examples at Infoseek:
– Cowabunga skunkworks– Use of Python
Pair visionaries with Pair visionaries with pragmatistspragmatists
You need both Ideally, we use small groups of
passionate, energetic, opinonated people
Collaboration without compromise
Look outsideLook outside
Home Universities Partnerships with other
companies
Be patientBe patient
Few great ideas happen overnight
Many take years or decades
Ideas from CiscoIdeas from Cisco
Tie compensation to “customer” satisfaction
Recruit in areas people aren’t looking for jobs, e.g., in the movies (see Fortune)
Ideas from PSSIdeas from PSS
We haven’t come up with any good ideas
Masters of stealing The power of a single,
seemingly unattainable goal
AbstractAbstract
Many of the most successful and innovative companies don’t come up with their own ideas; they steal the best ideas from other companies. Infoseek has successfully stolen and implemented a few key ideas from other companies that have made immediate and major impacts on the way Infoseek does business today.
Old AgendaOld Agenda
Python Innovative use of internet (pinging back;
require email to download; advertising tuning)
Battling not invented here mistakes we made success we had
– mulitiseek– ultraseeek server
hiring the right people; recruiting techniques
Improvements to our Improvements to our WWW siteWWW site
Stolen from customers A visible and easy to use
feedback link that is monitored by people responsible for that area (not tech support)