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Thoughts from ETech
As you might know, I announced the launch of Gootodo.com - the Good Experience todo list - at the ETech conference in San Diego yesterday.
I need to develop this into a longer piece, but some quick thoughts on the trip:
- Many smart people developing lots of slick apps.
- With some exceptions, very little thinking about how this might help the bulk of technology users (i.e. non-techies).
- Dominant mindset: is it AJAX, is it RSS, is it geo-located, does it have an API, does it plug into Google Maps, is there a tag cloud? Several people walked out of my session when it became clear that Gootodo had none of these.
- I'm always reminded at events like these - the technology industry is about building technology and selling it; not primarily about improving users' lives. (Again, with some exceptions..)
- The tech industry isn't particularly for or against improving users' lives - it's just not the primary agenda. Cool gadgets, big sales numbers, hefty IPOs - those are the primary goal; genuinely helping users to be more productive is a possible nice-to-have side effect.
- So what do we call the group of people, companies, projects that are primarily about improving users' lives through better technology? The "good experience tech industry"? (GETI? That's not a keeper, just a first draft...) I'm open to suggestions.
- Thanks to Linda Stone (Gel :'06: speaker) for her presentation, reminding everyone there that the metric should be about improving users' lives - and not even (primarily) about ease-of-use, which is what it was 10 years ago.
Oh, and if you're interested, the bulk of comments about Gootodo so far:
- "Nice work, thanks/good luck with it" and/or "I'm becoming more productive already" (thanks to everyone who took the time to write in)
- "Nice work, but I'll only use it if you add my two pet features..." (my response, multiply that by a thousand people and you end up with MS Outlook)
- "Nice work, but you really need Ajax/RSS/an API/etc. before it becomes relevant" (my response - it's a productivity booster, not a gadget with tech-of-the-month baked in)
- "You need secure server" (we're working on it)
- "How dare you ask for my credit card up front before you give me a 30-day free trial"- one person called it "borderline criminal" - my response, guess you don't have a Netflix account :)
- "This is nothing new, David Allen's Getting Things Done method is all this and more" (my response, actually this is quite different, but you'd need to use this method exclusively for a few weeks to really understand why)
Thanks to everyone's feedback! It's a journey.
- - -
Update 11 Mar 06: Don't get me wrong - I would like to add Ajax to Gootodo - it's just a nice-to-have compared to the essentials we're working on: secure server, more e-mail addresses tied to future dates, better documentation on how to use Gootodo, how it fits into the "bit literacy" discipline, and why it's different from and (imho) better than other methods out there. So yes, Ajax may come sometime after the essentials.
Not to sound negative, but the real problem here is that your pitching was-- in a word-- pretty boring. Nothing personal, that's why people hire professionals all the time.
And yes, it is a tech conference, but I don't think anyone left because your piece wasn't techie enough or techie in the right ways. The fact is, your approach *is* different from GTD and that is the method that has really permeated this crowd. We've all gone through LifeBalance, and My Life Organized, and a dozen list managers before deciding that GTD works.
Your way may well be better than all of these (I have to say, you give very little info on your site or blog as to how/why your way is better), but you better get right to WHY if you want to get the geek crowd interested. Join the 43 Folder List, tell people why your way is better, solicit real-world reviewers, participate in the productivity community. People will come to you.
Mark,
I don't care about RSS or an API, and I think Gootodo *is* relevant now... but Ajax makes things (feel) faster, which makes me (feel like I'm being) more productive, which makes me (feel) more positive about a tool, which means I have a strong emotional connection to the tool, which makes me more inclined to use it.
Plus, it's really easy to implement.
Just my 2c.
Kareem
I walked out because it was yet another product pitch. I went to ETech to learn new ideas, not to get product pitches.
Netflix asks for credit card details because they are going to send you physical discs and credit card details are their insurance that you will return the DVDs they send you during trial.
In case of web based app, I don't see any reason why I need to give my credit card details up front. And there is NO WAY, I am going to enter credit card details on a non-secure page. [I really don't know what's so hard about getting a secure page in place. Mind you, I have been doing web development for ages and I am aware about the technicality involved.]
I really don't know what I am potentially be getting after giving you credit card details. You have no demo. No screenshots.
Good luck,
JD
I also left partway through the ETech talk:
* It seemed like too much product pitch
* The concepts seemed less well developed than GTD, specifically in the area of scaling up to having a large number of things to do. I've been to a David Allen seminar, implement quite a bit of it here, and find that it scales well.
Idea is fresh but is trusted hardly