Rework
Rework - by Jason Fried and David Hansson
It’s a place where new ideas, unfamiliar
practices and foreign concepts are not appreciated. Scratch the surface to find
the real world! The real world is less of a place and more of an excuse. Come
out. There is lot more interesting world outside.
“Mistakes are our best teachers” is not true all the time. What do we really learn from our mistakes? We learn what not to do again, but how valuable is that? We still don’t know what to do the next. Harvard Business study found already successful entrepreneurs are far more likely to succeed again. That’s around 34%. Although no one prefers failure over success, the point is not to over rate failures. It injects the feeling that ‘Failure’ is alright and that can reduce the intensity to win the next challenge.
Plans let the past drive the future. The
problem we oversee after planning is that it puts binders on us. Plans are
inconsistent with improvisation. The other possibilities are often missed while
following plans. Rohit Sharma started
his career as an off spinner whereas in the same under 19 team, Ravichandra
Ashwin was chosen as a batsman. Now we know them with completely reverse identities.
We need to be watchful with the opportunities while following a plan.
We hear about people burning the
midnight oil. It’s considered a badge of honor to kill ourselves over a project.
Not all kinds of work demand too much of hard work. Workaholism tries to make
up for intellectual laziness with Brute force. This results in inelegant
solutions. We stop being able to decide what’s worth extra effort and what’s
not. We wind up just plain tired and no one makes sharp decisions when tired.
The easiest way to create a great
product or a service is by making something we want to use. The coach Bill
Bowerman a track and field coach decided that his team needed lighter shoes. So
he went out to his workshop and poured rubber into the family waffle iron.
That’s how Nike’s famous waffle sole was born. People like Bill scratched their
own itch and exposed a huge market of people who needed exactly what they
needed. Bill was the cofounder of Nike.
For idea to be tried, work on it
immediately in the field without too much of thinking. For you to be a cameraman
get a camera first and start exploring. Ideas are plentiful. The original pitch
idea is such a small part of business that it’s almost negligible. The real
question is how you execute. The most important step is to begin.
Strong opinions aren’t free. It’s ok to turn
some customers off. Don’t try to keep everyone happy. If no one’s upset by what
you’re saying, you’re probably not pushing hard enough and you’re probably
boring too. We should be willing to lose some customers if it means that others
love our products intensely. That’s our line in the sand.
ING direct has built the fastest
–growing bank in America by saying no. When the customers ask for credit cards
the answer is no. Can I open an account with a million dollars in it? The
answer is no. When customers ask for online brokerage, the answer is no. ING
wants to keep things simple, cheap and effective and they are happy serving the
customers who agree to their beliefs. Although the other customers are not
insane by demanding more, it’s just that ING has decided to serve the customers
that agree to their thinking. Support your own beliefs. There are enough
customers, who agree to your beliefs.
“I don’t have enough
time/money/people/experience.” Stop whining. Less is not bad all the time.
Constraints are advantages in disguise. Limited resources force you to make do
with what you’ve got. There’s no room for waste and that forces you to be
creative. We’ve seen prisoners making weapons out of soaps and spoons.
We can turn bunch of great ideas into
crappy product real fast by trying to do them all at once. Sacrifice some of
your darlings for the greater good. Cut your ambition in half. Lots of things
get better as they get shorter. Directors cut good scenes to make blockbusters.
Musicians drop good tracks to make the song best. This book Rework is reduced
to 27000 words from 57000 words to avoid diluting the messages. Remember that
the Best is the subset of all the possibilities.
When you put off decisions, they pile up
and Piles end up ignored, dealt with haste or thrown out. It ends up with
increased stress and no work. The problem comes when we postpone decisions in
the hope that a perfect answer will come to us later. It won’t. We are likely
to make a greater call today as we are tomorrow.
Focus on substance first, fashion later.
Focus on the business core that will last long. The core of the business should
be built around the things that won’t change. Things that the people will like
even 10 years later.
Amazon focuses on fast shipping, great
selections, friendly return policies and affordable prices. The technology,
trends, customer tastes are not taken as the core of the business.
When you make something you make
something else as well. Making by-products is a substitute to launching a new
product under diversification.
Big decisions are hard to make and once the decision is made there is a tendency to continue with your decision, even if the decision isn’t right. Once ego and pride are on the line, you can’t change your mind without looking bad. The better option is to make choices that are small enough and are effectively temporary. With tiny decisions we can’t make bigger mistakes. We can also afford to change. There is no big penalty if we mess up. Making tiny decisions does not mean we can’t make big plans or think big. It simply means that the best way achieve these big things is with successive tiny decisions.
Copying is a part of learning process. Keep it till that. Unfortunately, copying in the business arena is usually nefarious. Some things are worth copying, not business methods. If we are a copycat we never keep up. We are always in passive positions. We never lead, simply because we continue to follow and we remain behind the competitor.
In
the competition focus on the scope of improvement in your processes. Forget
what the competitor is doing. What’s going on here is lot more important than
what’s going out there.
Conventional wisdom says that to beat
your competitors, you need to one-up them. If they have four features in their
products you need to have five. This sort of one-upping cold war mentality has
no end. We get suckered into the arms race. So what to do instead?
Do less but different. Solve simple but
core problems to catch thecompetitors surprised.
Take example of bicycle brands. For
years major bicycle brands focused on the latest in high-tech parts in the
bicycle. Say suspensions, ultra-strong disc brakes, and light weight titanium
rods with carbon fiber. It was assumed that bikes should have multiple gears,
three, ten or twenty one. But recently fixed –gear bikes have boomed in
popularity, despite being as low tech as you can get. These bicycles have only
one gear. The bikes are simple, cheaper and need less maintenance.
So instead of trying to out-spend,
outsell or out-sponsor competitors, try to out-teach them. By out-teaching it
means to make the customers aware in a way that is much better than the way competitors do.
The products that look good in showrooms
or online displays, but doesn’t deliver the quality in home use, doesn’t last
long in the market. Even the products
that have too many features that we never use, give us a feeling of being
cheated. So make products that are home-good.
In today’s world of social media audience
along with customers is needed. It is very expensive to reach the potential
customers on large scale. With an audience in place it becomes easy, quick and
cheap. So have large scale followers on Social networking aps.
Instead of spending time on ad campaigns spend time in making your products better. Make it so good, so addictive, so ‘can’t miss’ types
that giving customers a small free taste makes them come back with cash in
hand.
The online services do give some part
free and then they want you to pay for the services ahead. Car dealers give you
Test drives with the same purpose.
You can’t create culture. It happens.
This is why new companies don’t have cultures. It’s a byproduct of consistent behavior.
Don’t force a culture to happen. If at all you want to install a culture, give
time like a fine scotch to develop.
Rock star environment develop out of trust,
autonomy and responsibility. They are a result of giving team mates privacy,
appreciation and the tools they deserve. Great environments show respect for
the subordinates or the colleagues on how they do the work. If the employees
are treated like they are thirteen years of age, the work accordingly.
Employees asking permission before they do anything or they needing approval
for tiny little things is a toxic environment.
Only money in terms of salaries or
incentives is not an appreciation of work. Giving time, freedom and space for
working with their own style is a complementary appreciation.
There are four letter words we should
never use in business. They’re not F**k and Shit. They’re ‘Need’, ‘Can’t’ and ‘Easy’.
These words often pop up during debates (and also be watchful with the cousins
of these words: everyone, no one, always and never). Once uttered they make it
tough to find an amicable solution. They box you into a corner by pitting two
absolutes against each other. That’s when head-butting occurs. These words are
especially dangerous when you string them together. “We need to add this
feature now. We can’t launch without this feature. Everyone wants it. It’s only
a little thing so it will be easy and you should be able to get it there fast.”
Only thirty six words, but a hundred assumptions. That’s a recipe for disaster!
We all have ideas. Ideas are immortal. They last forever. What doesn’t
last forever is inspiration. Inspiration s like fresh fruit or milk. It has an
expiry date. So if you’re inspired on Friday do the work on Friday without
procrastination. Inspiration won’t wait for you.
The write-up is an attempt to save some
points liked by me. While doing so I have added my own comfort to make it more
useful to me.
Vinay Wagh
Bulls Eye.
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