Twitter’s move to test doubling the character limit of tweets this week can’t help but remind me of internal discussions we used to have 10 years ago at eBay around Item Title length. In hindsight those discussions were pure navel gazing and distracted us from the core issues our business faced. I fear Twitter is…
Category: business
5 Questions to Ask Yourself before Applying to Business School
This time of year I often get asked by people for advice on whether they should apply to business school for an MBA. Over the years and many coffees with folks, I’ve settled on the following key questions… Why do I want an MBA? I’ve heard of a number of reasons but they mostly seem to…
Product Design and The Recession
One topic that continues to come up in discussions I’m having with colleagues, friends and family is the economy–what’s the macro-level impact of the recession we’re facing and how it may affect our industry. I’m somewhere in the middle on whether we’re looking at a deep 10 year recession or a shallow 12 month one….
Thoughts on Product Planning and Innovation
I’ve discussed with a few people recently different models for product planning and strategy which reminded me of a paper I put together last fall in my design innovation class. I’ll post the PDF here now and hope to make it a more formal blog post soon. PDF: Leading Innovation Strategy and Process in Firms…
Back of the Napkin
I’ve mentioned Dan Roam’s visual thinking approach here before and you haven’t heard of him you should check him out. Congratulations to Dan on releasing his first book: The Back of the Napkin (available March 13th). He shared a pre-release copy with me in the fall and I must say it is going to be…
Haas moves up to #2 in WSJ Poll
I’m very happy to announce that UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business moved up to #2 in the 2007 Wall Street Journal annual survey (up from #5 in 2006) of corporate recruiters. This is a testament to the high MBA education that we’re receiving at UC Berkeley and I’m thrilled to see the WSJ recognize…
Making Meaning
After working with Darrel Rhea of Cheskin for the past few months, we invited him to speak to our design team this week on his recent book Making Meaning (co-wrote with Nathan Shedroff and Steve Diller). At the core he speaks about how companies have three ways to create a long term strategic competitive advantage:…
UX role within Corporations
One of the sessions I attended last week at CHI2007 I found useful was moderated by Richard Anderson on the increasing the role of User Expeirence teams within business. He was joined by the following on a panel: Jeremy Ashley (Oracle), Justin Miller (eBay), Secil Watson (Wells Fargo), Shauna Eves (Blue Sheild), Jim Nieters (Cisco),…
Six Styles of Leadership
Daniel Goleman who writes on emotional intelligence, also lays out six distinct styles of leadership. Last week, Ryan Lahit of OrgLeader visited eBay to give my organization’s management team an overview of these concepts. I found this vocabulary useful in understanding and observing the styles of leadership I see in others. Six Styles of Leadership:…
Berkeley MBA moves up to #8 in BusinessWeek
On the heals of the Berkeley MBA’s rise in the WSJ ranking (to #5), the Haas School’s ranking moved up to #8, from #17 last year, in the annual BusinessWeek ranking. The combination of a small class, exceptional faculty, and a collegial atmosphere impressed students. Recruiters, meanwhile, were wowed by the quality of the grads….