Everyway by Kevin Chau

On Side Hustles and Motivation

hellowisdom — Tue, 14 May 2013 01:30:00 -0400

One of the challenges of being on the business side of a “side startup” is keeping your behind the scenes folk motivated. When most everyone on your team has full time commitments elsewhere, encouraging them to continually devote time to the side hustle is difficult.

The main reason for this disconnect between the business side and the engineering side, is that growing the startup is a continuous job. Whereas with developers, once the product up and running, it is not uncommon to feel that their “job is done”.

When it comes to Stride, we are “forever lean/forever agile”. Meaning we must spend our time and money wisely. We have a plethora of incoming feature requests, and action items in our pipeline, but we must pick and choose what provides the most return in our investment of time and money. Mostly time, when it comes to development.

I am led to believe that developers aren’t motivated by the same things that motivate the business side. I know that when I put in my efforts to hack around with AppleScript or CSS, my immediate goal is to get it working, and that is 90% of my motivation. If it works, and does what I need it to, I don’t really have any reason to go back and tweak it.

Whereas on the business side, we are motivated by a single paid user signing up, numbers on Google Analytics, our revenue growth, the smallest things can be the greatest motivations for us. As the front line, anything we can do to move the team forward, and grow the product, is a motivator.

So, how do we keep the engineering side encouraged, and motivated?

Pass along feedback from customers - The majority of developers like to know what people think of their work, they are curious on other ways to do things, and features they may have overlooked in the design process. Pass along feedback, good and bad, anything to keep them continually interested.
Involve them in some of the business side - We’re working on unique swag items to hand out to our best customers. The whole team is involved, and we’re looking into the tiniest of details. The type of material used, the finest measurements, and even working with prototypes on a tight budget. Tangible items work wonders sometimes.
Discuss growth and numbers - Although it’s not something I push, revenue is a great motivator. I mean, who doesn’t want to know that something they built is bringing in the bread? Anything that can indicate how well the product is doing, and how it’s growing can be a trigger to re-spark that drive.
Schedule regular meetings and keep them - Whether its a conference call, beer night, or hack-a-thon. Whenever you are able to put the side project as the main focus for a few hours, that’s all it takes to get the discussion going.

These are a few of the many possibilities to keep the team motivated. It depends on who you work with, and what makes them tick. Part of leading the growth of anything is to know how to motivate your team. Energy is infectious. Motivation is infectious. Don’t let the bad things drag you down, and your team will reflect your same visions.

Don't Do it for the Money

hellowisdom — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:42:30 -0400

With the recent change-ups in my life, I’ve had an epiphany, it started off as a tweet, then to conversations, and then a full-on realization.

Don’t do it for the money. For me, the bottom line is simple: “I do what I love. If I don’t like what you’re doing, your product, or your leadership; I won’t work with you.”

I’ve had a lot of meetings and conversations lately, with early-stage founders, developers, graduating seniors, and those in mid-career. And it’s obvious who out there love what they do, and who don’t. Those who love what they do, you can see it in there eyes; there’s life, there’s a spark, a spring in their step.

I cringe every time I talk to someone who is about to graduate college, and they would take a crap job for better money, than do something they love, for less money. I cringe when I see someone who has so much talent and potential, and they’re working a graveyard shift doing a mundane job, because “it’s easy”. It’s true, you can’t tell or teach ambition. It’s the whole horse to water, and it still won’t drink, thing.

Taking a look at some reasons on why you shouldn’t do it for the money:

Do what you love - Money doesn’t buy happiness. Sometimes the only way to make an impact, and to be able to rev-up your own internal engine, is to do what you love. The feeling is amazing when you’re able to get a spark going. There really is a difference when your mindset isn’t “I’m only doing this because the pay is good.”

Gain invaluable experience - Let’s face it, there are two types of people out there - Those who follow commands and follow a set career path in enterprise, and those who choose their own destiny. So you want to change careers, work in a different industry, do something of which you have no past experience for. Skip the job applications, hit someone up on LinkedIn, and have coffee with them. Tell them you want to learn more about field X. Let the conversation flow from there. Break the mold.

Start off right - Despite what people say, you don’t have to go work for Microsoft, you don’t have to work for Amazon, and you definitely don’t have to work in a cubicle. I’ve been there, I’ve tasted the enterprise, and I hated it. I had my own desk, my own cubicle walls, my own window view. I had my own set tasks. I was a cog in a machine. That’s it. I wasn’t challenged, I was bored. I wasn’t given the opportunity to fail. Sometimes, the best way to learn is to be given a goal, and to stumble on the way there. But when you get there, you’ll be much better off than someone who had their hand held the whole way. If you don’t struggle on a daily basis, you’re not doing it right. Life is not supposed to be easy, challenge yourself.

Every time that I’ve been presented with a fork in the road, I’ve always taken this path. The first one was between was for an Analyst at Alaska Airlines vs. SEOmoz. Just that decision alone, I’ve been able to hone and refine skills that I can bring to any industry, anywhere in the world. I had the opportunity to build a network that you could actually call a network. And you know what? Alaska would have paid a lot more, but my the lifetime value from working at Moz, was infinitely more.

We live in a money centric society, where how you are perceived by your peers and the public, is based on how much you make. It’s disturbing. Let’s change that. Let’s do what we love, and let’s do it for free. Start a side hustle, volunteer, let your hobby take over your life, why deprive of yourself of true happiness for a dollar sign?

Full Stack Business Development

hellowisdom — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 14:52:00 -0400

I first encountered the term Full Stack Business Development through Scott Pollack’s article on Forbes. Since then, it’s caused me to rethink what it means to do BizDev in a Startup environment.

What I’ve realized in the past few months is that Business Development is a blanket term, a huge one at that. It requires a large collection of skills, a distinct personality, and an endless hunger for the next big thing.

The skills involved in BD touches nearly every part of a startup; customer management and development, product management, business strategy, and lastly, partnership and relationship cultivation. However, BizDev is not; pure sales, pure account management, or pure strategy.

The thought always remains: how do you start doing BD in a place where it hasn’t been done before? And, how do you do it without wasting precious engineering time?

At the very early stage, Business Development is all about strategy and planning. If you go into it with guns blazing, you’re doing nothing but realizing you have no targets, you’re wasting precious time and manpower trying to tackle something that doesn’t yet exist.

With that said, here is how to pilot a successful Startup BizDev program, ideally.

Goals and Expectations - What do you want to accomplish with a Business Development plan? Do you want a better brand image, reach a broader audience, grow the company organically, or bring more people through the door? A successful BD strategy should touch all of those things, while focusing on the key objective.
Short and Long Term Strategy - How do you plan to accomplish your main objective? Will you need development and engineering time? How do you want your BD plan to scale? Any development time spent at this stage should be non-specific, meaning the efforts that go in to this should be able to be used in a wide variety of partnership opportunities - coupon code functionality, landing page generation, a CRM system, etc.. Also, figure out your industry landscape; who is a potential partner, who is a potential competitor, where is the community, which opportunities are mainly short term, and which are more fruitful?
Cultivate Relationships - You’re going to figure out that there will be a range partnership opportunities - those you can execute simply and quickly, and those that are long-term working relationships. Don’t neglect either, time has to be split between closing and launching with the simple partners, and opening and maintaining relationships with ‘long-haul’ partners. Always have your ducks lined up, so when the opportunity to move forward with big deals arises, you’ll be ready.
Spend Development Time Wisely - Sometimes, the most surprising partnerships require little to no time from your devs and engineers. With that said, it’s impossible to over-assess if a potential deal is worth dev time. If possible, pilot the partnership by avoiding any development until you see a benefit from it. It may be more effort in the short-term, but you are allowing development to go towards other priorities. Sometimes, the best deal is the deal that wasn’t made.
Maintain those Relationships - The world is always changing, as you change, your industry is changing faster. Someone who you worked with months ago and decided that it wasn’t worth pursuing, could be an ideal partnership today. It’s extremely important to not burn bridges, especially when in BD. And network, network until you can’t network anymore, then go network some more. The larger your network is, the easier it is to do outreach.

This focuses mainly on the strategy side of things for Business Development, there are a lot of methods are used to go about executing the plan, each person has their own style. As long as stuff gets done and people are happy, there’s no wrong way to do BizDev.

How I do BD, will be saved for another day.

College in the Rearview Mirror

hellowisdom — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 16:46:00 -0500

As my life heads into a true post-college transition, I’m continually looking back at my time at the University of Washington and assessing the lessons learned and the takeaways from my college path.

A bit of my college background- Seeing as where I am now, I most definitely did not take a traditional path through college. Though no one really does, I see it as a sliding scale, and I definitely place myself at the extreme end of non-traditional.

I’m currently working at an internet startup and I love it. I’m a biology major.
I did running start in high school.
Never went through a sitting duck phase, passions were always chased.

Early College - Why Science?

Hindsight is always 20/20, and I’m able to justify my science degree looking backwards. However, the reason I initially went into science is a combination of things: Career path to healthcare, being curious about every damn thing I ran into (this goes way back, my parents hate me for it- I broke and took apart stuff all the time around the house, stuck a paperclip into an electrical socket during 2nd grade, etc.), and passion. Oh, and Bill Nye, that guy is awesome.

Initially I took a college path that would have led to medical school, then I jumped on a career path to pharmacy school. Then my internship at a cancer research biotech company happened. That was the beginning of the end for science. But during my science phase, the one thing that drove me away from business, is the fact that many of my friends during high school and college wanted to sell out. Meaning: biz school, internship, then work at a Fortune 500/1000 for the rest of their life. Ignorance is bliss (works both ways here).

Takeaways:

GOOD: Always chase your passions. Never stop being curious.
BAD: Not everything leads to selling out. :)

Late and Post College - The beginning of the end for science

So my internship at Marina Biotech led to my first professional mentor. The idea that you must fail before you can succeed was first introduced here. This was also where I began to develop my analytical skills, and working with large (not quite ”big”) data sets. This was my stepping stone into corporate America. I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better internship. I was allowed to think freely, own my own projects, and most importantly, grow. What was supposed to be a summer thing, turned into my sole focus for six months. I have to give a big shout out to Narendra Vaish here.

At this point, I was ready to just finish up my last two years of school and get out, it’s true what they say about working: In your first month on the job, you will learn more than you do in a whole year of school.

Fast forward to graduation - this was probably the first time that I’ve ever said “Well sh*t, what now?”. I began a mild job hunt, looking at biotech companies and research labs, interviewed for a few places, then took what was probably the most polarizing job ever. I worked at a company which I will not name for two weeks, before leaving. The idea of ‘cultural fit’ did not exist here. I HATED it. Not only were they paying me garbage, it was not a free thinking environment, and I later learned I was most certainly not hired for my brain. Whatever sciency stuff I found fun at Marina, turned into a nightmare here. Luckily the Gates Foundation was waiting not far along.

Takeaways:

GOOD: Never settle for something you aren’t completely happy with.
BAD: Took something I wasn’t completely happy with.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Actually, I’m pretty sure the NDA I signed with Volt says I’m not allowed to blog in detail about them, so… ;) I enjoyed my time here, but towards the end, I decided it wasn’t for me.

All you need to know is (and all that I’m allowed tell you), it’s a non-profit equivalent of Microsoft, except with fancier people and reverse cashflow. They’re trying to be more transparent with what they do, but they’re still in the trying phase.

My manager and colleagues here deserve shout outs. Not sure if I can actually say their names though.

I’m not poking fun at the foundation here, they do extremely great stuff, and all the things they have accomplished are too long for a single blog post, with one of them being eradicating polio. I have a ton of positive takeaways here and owe the forward progress of my career to my manager and colleagues, but I really am bound by an NDA that is as restrictive as I make it out to be. (I scrolled up to write this disclaimer and now I lost my train of thought, so everything after this might be a big scattered.)

Networking - The #1 skill you need to have that no one in the science world teaches you or tells you that you need.

Scientists are horrible at people skills, if you had a reason not to go into science, this would be your reason. You will not learn people skills and networking skills in a science career. I’ve never been to a research or biotech conference, but if you graphed the social buzz comparing a science conference vs a marketing conference, you would laugh.

This is the best thing I learned while working at the Gates Foundation. This skill led to what I’m doing now, and probably will be the most useful skill through the rest of my professional career.

More on networking skills in a later blog post.

The Now - Contracting at SEOmoz and startup culture as a whole

Towards my last months at the Gates Foundation, using those new found people skills, I reached out to someone who is now my current manager, Andrew Dumont (read his awesome blog here). Working with someone that you can click with is tremendous in it’s ability to allow you to grow. Everyday I learn more about everything than I did at any other previous job/class/seminar/etc.. In antibiotic combination therapy terms, it’s synergistic.

Then there’s the free thinking environment that comes with it. There are times that the freedom I have scares me. Coming from the foundation where there is protocol for literally everything, it’s engrained in my head to avoid failure and stick to the status quo. I’m breaking away from that, one step at a time. You cannot succeed without first failing.

Then there’s TAGFEE. I’ll admit, it’s weird being encouraged to be transparent with everything you do, externally and internally (again looping back to the foundation, quite different). I’ve made changes to my life to be more TAGFEE, small things like sending read receipts with iMessages, baby steps, learning that I really don’t have anything to hide. I’m still getting used to it. Rand is right, you cannot work under TAGFEE without being it yourself, it has to start on a personal level.

This is something I’m currently loving and contracting is a great stepping stone.

All the Takeaways

Chase your passions, if you remain focused in your goals, you’ll get there.
Don’t be afraid to challenge the status quo, it’s designed to be challenged.
Contracting on a job is something to look at positively, it’s a great stepping stone into areas you haven’t explored before, and allows you to not be tied down into something you may end up hating.
Never settle for something that you are not 100% happy with, allow yourself to grow both professionally and personally.
If you think college is going to prepare you for a job straight up, you’re wrong. Do internships, do everything you can do outside of college.
Money doesn’t matter as much as you think it should.
You have to fail before you can succeed.

And the obligatory Steve Jobs photo:

Have questions or comments? Feel free to email me at kevin [at] kevinchau.org or drop a comment below (desktop site only)!

The Impact of Social Media

hellowisdom — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 15:05:00 -0400

Following up on my post concerning community engagement. Social Media is the biggest tool for businesses small and large. It has stirred the pot that is traditional media. It is the next big thing, and it’s already here.

Some people may see Social Media as an evolution of traditional media, but I see it as a complete paradigm shift. Nothing in the past has made such an impact when compared to what we have today. It might be a progression of technology, but when you combine all the factors that have gone into the upbringing of Social Media, it is not evolution, but revolution.

Looking at the impact that Social Media has made; Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn… We are in a time and place where being connected is the norm, and being disconnected is a luxury. It has allowed us to discover the darkest corners of the world and focus on the brightest parts at the same time.

Traditional media has been forced to adopt Social Media in order to expand their audiences. For example, the TV show America’s Got Talent holds a specific episode just for YouTube artists and talent discovery. Just to compare, the historic equivalent to this was calling into a radio station singing into your phone.

In politics and major news events, we no longer have to poll viewers/listeners and guess the impact of a news story or major news event. Major Social Media players go to Twitter to pull insights and analytics from the millions and billions of tweets made on a certain topic.

For Facebook, their users are trending towards a majority in mobile. This is a huge step in our connected world. Users are more and more connected to their digital world as we speak. News hits the digital channels days before traditional media outlets even catch a glimpse of it. In fact, I would be as bold to say as Social Media is now a primary news source. No longer is it traditional media.

These are only a few examples of how Social Media has impacted our connected culture. It is undoubtedly a paradigm shift in how we consume media and share our lives. Of course there are downsides, but with every new revolution to the connected world there will be consequences.

The Importance of Community Engagement

hellowisdom — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 16:54:00 -0400

Recently I have noticed one thing about many companies which have a cult following is that they embrace their consumers into their company culture. In today’s society, a customer centric ideology and business model is crucial to surviving in a time where new companies pop up left and right doing what appears to be the exact same thing others are doing.

However, there is a difference between companies who embrace their consumers, and those whose business IS there consumers. This post will discuss the former.

Let’s take a look at three things which community engagement relies upon: Human Nature, Community Contributions, and Co-Creation

Human Nature

It is human nature to want to be a part of something, whether it is to be a part of the design process (see: co-creation) or whether it is to be a part of a community. If this weren’t true, many things just wouldn’t exist: crowdsourcing, message boards, social media, and the companies that have been recently dependent on these things. It’s also human nature to want what you can’t have, so teaser posts and product leaks really drive people towards the product.

People will embrace attempts to connect them with products and welcome feedback. Lululemon and Speck do this very well, they are the most active of the companies that I follow on twitter. In turn, they churn out great product after great product, and have a cult following.

Community Contributions

A great example of engaging the community would be Yelp. Now because Yelp is majority consumer oriented, I’m talking about the opportunities that arise through Yelp. I recently went to Palisade’s (a nice restaurant in Seattle) 20th birthday celebration, which was done in partnership with the Yelp Elite program. Many of the businesses that partner up with yelp to host events and in turn get (event costs aside) free promotion. The businesses that do this turn out to be rather successful in their industry, I want to say the ROI is better than local deal sites such as Groupon and Living Social.

And it is successful because it boils down to community engagement.

In other industries, such as active wear and clothing, Lululemon is in the right direction as to what should be done. They host free events in their stores weekly, ranging from group runs to yoga classes. These events embrace their company values and bring people into their stores. Nike has been around for much longer, and enjoys a cult following that has pretty much obliterated their competitors, they still host events in their stores for new products (free stuff!).

Co-Creation

I was part of the planning of a co-creation event at the foundation which showcased the various benefits of bringing the target customers into your design and administrative processes. Starbucks has done this extremely well. Have you seen cake pops in their stores? That was someones (maybe your) idea, and they have certainly had great sales and reception. I don’t see Tully’s, Dunkin Donuts, and other coffee houses doing this. Yet, look at who is successful.

So engage your community, chances are, you’ll get free press, bring people into your stores, get great ideas, and most importantly, build the brand.

Hiring a Less than Qualified Employee is Ideal

hellowisdom — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 19:38:00 -0400

There are many reasons why employers should hire people who are overqualified and a “perfect fit” for the job. What most employers don’t realize is that this is a scenario which is set to fail. A recent post detailed on why many top executives leave their jobs, and it’s almost never about money.

The number one reason why hiring someone that doesn’t exactly fit the job description, but has the potential to do great things, is growth. Hiring should be a two-way street, if you want to be happy with what you are doing, you should never be a 100% fit into your role, at any time. If you are 100% fitting into your role, you have reached a tipping point.

The ideal hiring positions is to be in a position where you have personal and professional growth, but the position grows with you, something where the employee-employer combination is dynamic, and always moving. Smart people don’t want to be tied down, they want to be challenged.

Let’s take a look at why people leave:

Top talent leave an organization when they’re badly managed and the organization is confusing and uninspiring.

Three keywords here: management, organization, and inspiration.

Great hiring is almost a pun in itself. The words Great Fit are far from accurate. Cutting to the chase, the reasons for “hiring for growth”:

Room for growth: Employees who are able to grow into their positions are always up for the challenge, they know they have landed the right job and won’t waste their personal time. They wouldn’t have taken the job if they didn’t want it, especially with the expectations that come with it. A new hire that “fits” the position very well, will have low expectations for themselves.
Learning Opportunity: Simply put: capacity to learn, no bad habits to break, only good habits to learn.
Fresh Ideas: Someone who has not been in the industry long will see their new industry in new dimensions. “Break the mold” etc..

If you want to hire great employees, hire the ones that set goals for themselves. Those who are ambitious, with the right attitude, and those who are always looking for the next challenge. Ever heard of the common saying “diamond in the rough”?

Social Media and Why it Matters to Job Seekers

hellowisdom — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 12:57:00 -0400

Social media is the new platform, whether you like it or not. It’s going to do to the internet, what email did to snail mail. Time after time, social media has become the backbone of eCommerce, as well as, the internet as a whole. It is, for all intents and purposes “Web 3.0”.

For the developer, building in Facebook integration makes your app/website easily accessible to nearly 1 Billion users. These are users who do not have to go through a registration process, and are literally one click away from being a user/contributor/reader to your platform. One click away from metrics, tracking, and social sharing. It makes sense.

So, why does it matter to you, the job seeker?

For one, it gives you an online presence. It gives you online value. Suddenly, a name in a list or on a piece of paper, has a face, life, friends, a social presence. Recruiters can easily verify that you are, indeed a real live, (people) person. They can reach out to you, develop a relationship, or find out more about who you are. In turn, you can reach out to them.

Next, for those looking at jobs that require people skills. Having an online social presence, screams out “Yes, this is who I am, this is what I do, and this is how good I am at doing it.” You are transparent to the world, and if you set up your online presence right, you have nothing to hide. All the stuff you want hidden, is already hidden. (Do not blame social media for not keeping your stuff hidden, that’s your own fault.)

And Finally, it’s good for exposure. Not only can recruiters verify who you are, senior-level management can seek you out, find you in a pool of people, and if you have done your job right, you should stand out.

Social media is allowing you to create your brand, and there is no reason why you shouldn’t invest in that. The days of the portfolio, attaching examples of your work, those are over. Create a curated experience of your work, and brand yourself in the process. This way you can ensure that you are never taken out of context.

If you don’t know how to start creating your brand, feel free to contact me on the left hand side.

GPA and Why it Doesn't (Shouldn't) Matter

hellowisdom — Wed, 30 May 2012 14:50:00 -0400

See that little number at the bottom corner of your academic report? Why is it tucked away and small when it is apparently a big factor in your future?

Let’s take a look into a few reasons why GPA shouldn’t matter in your post-college career.

The number one thing that everyone, employers and job seekers alike, eventually forget; is where did that small number in the corner come from? Many colleges and universities grade on academic performance, but the question must be asked:

What is academic performance?

The majority of classes the average undergraduate takes are big lecture hall classes. Your academic performance is graded on how well you remember what is taught, and your ability to regurgitate it on a piece of paper. Sure, you might say a part of your performance is graded on participation, attendance, projects, etc.. But the majority of your performance is exams, usually 60-80%!

Assuming you want to go into a field where you aren’t a pawn in a bigger operation, the majority of the time, a GPA will not be a significant indication of how well you succeed in an influential role. Look at industry leaders who are college dropouts: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg. Yes, they are insanely smart people, but who says you are not?

The grade point is a good indication of your learning ability, what it is not, is a good indicator of your applying ability. Your ability to make decisions on the fly, to work through speed bumps and dead ends, qualities that matter in your post-college career. GPA does not do anything to indicate that, it does not indicate your innate qualities.

When a potential employer asks you about your GPA, go ahead and tell them if it isn’t something you are ashamed about, or ask your interviewer: “how will this information impact your decision process, and why?”

So, advice to those in college: stress less, network more, and invest in yourself. And where GPA doesn’t matter, here’s what does:

Knowing how you learn, and investing in it.
Applying theory and knowledge to real-world applications.
Internships, and professional references.
A portfolio.
Professional writing skills.
The ability to present your information in an effective fashion.
Managing your time.
The ambition and knowledge of how to market yourself and your skills.

Tim Cook at Apple

hellowisdom — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:48:00 -0400

Anyone that read the Steve Jobs biography would take away this one key point about Apple:

The reason why Apple worked, was because engineers were an integral part of the design process for every product released. Other companies have engineers make ‘stuff’ and give it to the designers to ‘build something around this’.

The article that was released today about Tim Cook hovered along the lines of turning Apple into a more corporate environment, and taking the focus away from engineers. But, on the other hand, the CEO is also sitting with random employees during lunch and engaging them in conversations that they would have never had with the late Steve Jobs, who is usually found sitting with Jony Ive.

Product and project meetings are now accompanied with Project Mangers and Senior Managers keeping an eye on things.

So, the question remains, how will this affect the design process and the overall outcome of integral design at Apple? Will this shift to a more ‘standard corporate’ environment affect the M.O. from the original “Think Different” way of life at Apple?

On the bright side, shareholder dividends and increasing revenue. But in reality, when can I get my iPhone 5?