“….It’s that whole “degree from MIT” thing that allows that school not to worry about sharing its lecture bounty, because in the education system lectures are viewed as worthless unless they lead to a degree.

Why is that?

My friend Richard Miller (he designed the Atari Jaguar video game console eons ago) is one of the smartest engineers I’ve ever met yet he doesn’t have a degree in engineering. Apple II designer Steve Wozniak got his degree from UC Berkeley only after leaving Apple in the early 1980s. In both cases their employers couldn’t have cared less….”

http://www.cringely.com/2009/09/burn-baby-burn/

Why Design is Critical and Needed?

I firmly believe that we are living in a time of radical change. Our economy is shifting at a rapid pace. Jobs are shifting to China, India and Eastern Europe where the routine can be done at a fraction of cost.

(see “The World is Flat“, “The Next 100 Years” – great books, highly recommended)

We feel the shift in our jobs and companies. We cannot expect our companies to take care of us or keep us “safe”.

Nor is it good to be scared and put our heads in the sand.

Automation and abundance (Daniel Pink – “A Whole New Mind“) has pushed us to reconnect to our right brain. It’s no longer important or needed to memorize and retain raw data, computers can do that. It’s no good to do routine work that can be outsourced or programmed. What cannot be programmed is:

• 1. Empathy
• 2. Story Telling
• 3. Aesthetics and Design
• 4. Feelings
• 5. Pattern Recognition and Synthesis
• 6. Architecture

If your job can be stripped to a list of instructions it is absolutely at risk. If you create a software product that users dislike (difficult to use, ugly, disconnected from their life), someone will create a better product for a fraction of the cost.

You have choices in this new environment:

1. Learn the automation skills that are in demand

“Teach yourself Java, HTML, Flash, PHP and SQL. Not a little, but mastery. [... I used the word mastery to distinguish it from 'familiarity' which is what you get from one of those Dummies type books...]“

- Seth Godin, “Graduate school for unemployed college students”

2. Become an amazing story teller and learn to engage customers

“How do we get people to act on our ideas? We tell stories. Firefighters naturally swap stories after every fire, and by doing so they multiply their experience; after years of hearing stories, they have a richer, more complete mental catalog of critical situations they might confront during a fire and the appropriate responses to those situations.”

- Dan and Chip Heath, “PRINCIPLE 6: STORIES”

3. Share empathy to grab the whole story about a customer

“What does it feel like to be old in America? At the Westminster Thurber Retirement Community here, Heather Ramirez summed it up in two words. ‘Painful,’ she said. ‘Frustrating.’”

- NY Times, “Simulating Age 85, With Lessons on Offering Care”

4. Design joyful products that customers feel an emotional connection

- Apple, Apple.com

It’s important that people gain the skills to remain competitive in this new economy. We teach the automation skills.

Really inspired by “The 50th Law” – Robert Greene and 50 Cent

…you’re not how much money you’ve got in the bank. You’re not your job. You’re not your family, and you’re not who you tell yourself…. You’re not your name…. You’re not your problems…. You’re not your age…. You are not your hopes. ~Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, Chapter 18

This is an outstanding piece about building a web based product business

I have been doing alot of thinking and now realize why we share books, music, movies, etc… it’s because it gives us a vocabulary. No need to reinvent the proverbial wheel when thinking up new concepts. It allows people to share a feeling or concept by referring to the shared piece.

The story of Jared is amazing.

I am pretty positive you know who Jared is, but the crazy part is how the story came to life.

One of the most successful advertising campaigns almost never happened.

Jared was truly an incredibly fat college kid, he only limited classes due to his weight. He often had to take up two desks for the class.

One day he finally decided to truly do something about it. Subway was running their 7 under 7 campaign (7 subs under 7 fat grams). There was a subway nearby so he decided to use that as his base for the diet.

He ended up losing about 200+ pounds in a relatively short time due to the “Subway” diet.

Sounds like a great story – right? Easy to sell and would connect to the market – right?

Some months into his “diet”, the shop owner recognized him and his progress. He quickly realized that there was value in this great story. He contacted the advertising agency in NYC to share (his shop was located in the midwest). He was turned down numerous times and was told they would not be interested.

He was not discouraged and ended up in a meeting with the CEO of the firm and shared the story. The CEO loved it immediately and agreed to present it to Subway headquarters.

Subway’s Marketing Director turned it down immediately. It didn’t fit into their “marketing message”. After many tries to persuade the company, the ad agency and the shop owner were told no and left to their own devices.

The agency did something COMPLETELY out of the ordinary: it produced a commercial around the story for FREE. The shop owner agreed to run it in his market.

The results were outstanding with lines out the door at the owners locations.

Subway simply could not ignore this success and retracted their disbelief and began the Jared campaigns. The success was phenomenal. A company that was formerly delivering 7% returns year over year jumped into the double digits and fueled an entire new growth spurt.

It’s crazy how ideas look so simple and obvious, but only in hindsight. How many ideas slip by?

How many employees would you need to serve all of Houston and Dallas using the same software?

37 Signals, a project management software company, answers this question everyday. With over 3 million users and a monthly price tag between $12/mo – $149/mo, they generate serious cash each month.

“Every day the world’s most respected brands, small businesses, non-profits, and entrepreneurs depend on our products to make their businesses run smoothly. Safe, secure, and reliable. Since 2004.” – 37signals.com

They are also generating positive and rave reviews:

“In a recent random customer satisfaction survey, 98% of Basecamp customers surveyed said they’d recommend Basecamp to their colleagues, friends, and family. Since the majority of our business comes from word-of-mouth referrals, this means the world to us.” – 37signals.com

Starting off 10 years ago as a small design agency, they developed a small project management software product they used with their own customers. The popularity of the product, because of the simplicity and elegant user interface, could not be ignored and they focused solely on development of the product.

John Henry could carry the most water buckets to the village. He was respected and celebrated for his ability to get the job done and deliver the most buckets.

One day, Romana, a local company, offered an Auqeduct machine that could deliver large amounts of water over long distances at a fraction of the cost. Henry and the villagers were outraged at being replaced at by such a device! Henry offered Romana a challenge: Who could deliver the most water in a specified location and time frame?

So began the challenge. It was a close race… sometimes the aqueduct was ahead, other times Henry. Finally after a full day, Henry, at the last moment, pulled ahead for the win!!

Alas, while the villagers roared in joy that the Henry had overcome, Henry had passed away from exhaustion.

If you have 20 minutes, watch this video. It’s outstanding and it outlines, from the horse’s mouth, how to create a successful software company.

We want you to leave this class empowered.

The internet gives us a real power: we can change the world. You can affect real change in the world, financially and socially.

PS: A safe, secure, reliable and highly recommended product (37 Signals) with 3 million customers is maintained by 14 people.