Jan 24, 2012

Ever wanted a really cool graphic of the history of Google? Get started below. :)
Created By Online PhD

Are the Millennials the best generation ever? INFOGRAPHIC

What do you think?

Are the Millennials the best generation ever?

If not, what is your choice? Spare me the Woodstock argument. :)

How to transition to a new job in 5 easy steps

Transition is difficult. Most of the time, you go from being a subject matter expert with detailed knowledge of the inner-workings of your company to being a complete newbie learning new systems, processes, procedures and how to get things done.

As I’m a few weeks in with my latest transition to Red Hat, I felt compelled to share a few of my learnings.

1. Become a sponge.

While you no doubt have tremendous knowledge in multiple areas, the best way to ramp up is to learn as much as possible about everything around you. This can also include learning about hardware, software or various tools you need to use to be successful.

What are other people saying? What are other people doing? How do they describe your product? How do they communicate internally and externally?

2. Use the buddy system.

Ideally, you know one or two folks in your new company. If so, pick their brain and bombard them with any of the “dumb” questions you may not want to pester your colleagues with.

Where is the bathroom? Where do you usually go for lunch? How do I file an expense report? When do we get paid? What should I wear to the company holiday party?

Having a buddy to bounce the non-critical questions off of is extremely helpful. If you don’t have pre-existing relationships in your new role, buddy up with a peer or neighbor and establish a decent comfort level.

3. Read and do your homework.

While you obviously have some time to ramp up, fast-track the process by doing your own research and due-diligence. Take some key readings home. Read up on your products and competitors on personal time. Many companies will expect this, but doing it proactively shows that you take initiative and are eager to start jumping in on projects.

What documents are provided to new hires? Who are your company’s competitors? Have you scoured the Intranet? What documents do the Sales folks use?

Some companies are great at providing tons of resources when you start (thanks Red Hat!), but for those that aren’t, this can give you help you dramatically reduce the learning curve.

4. Take great notes.

Show up to every meeting with a notebook. Personally, I prefer a nice bound notebook as opposed to a laptop or tablet. There is never the perception that you are doing something else (unless you doodle) and I love going through old notebooks once I fill them up. There are definitely times where it makes more sense to take notes electronically, but a nice notebook is a necessity in my opinion.

What words do you need to look up later? What actions do you have? Who are the people in your meeting (look them up on LinkedIn after)?

Balance your note-taking time with active listening (cough cough eye contact) and capture as much as you can.

5. Meet new faces.

Everyone knows that networking is important. It is crucial when you are in a new place with tons of unfamiliar faces. Meet friends of your existing friends. Reach out to your peers in other offices. Connect on LinkedIn to tie faces with names.

Do you know everyone on your team? What folks are critical to getting things on the website? Who helps out on Project X? Have you asked, who all should I meet?

Don’t miss the opportunity to get to know as many people as possible to shorten the ramp-up time.

Do all of the above and make immediate contributions.

Try to share your expertise and experiences when relevant to become a valued member of the team immediately. You were hired because you bring something desirable to the team – make that clear by adding value.

What tips do you have for making a successful job / role transition?

Image via laenulfean

After several great years at Phonebooth, I’m saying goodbye

Time flies when you’re having fun. After several fast-paced, exciting years at Phonebooth, I’m stepping out of the booth on December 1st. We’ve accomplished some incredible things together though! We’ve experienced great growth, significantly improved the product & marketing and been featured on almost every major press outlet.

I’m leaving a great team, some incredibly smart and talented folks and a growing business. While it is a difficult decision, I’m taking my talents (thanks Lebron) to Red Hat to tackle new, incredible challenges and continue growing their business that is changing the world through open source.

It is a challenge I’m excited to be a part of and I look forward to joining another stellar team. I’ll still be in Raleigh and will see everyone around. On December 5th, I’ll start a new journey with a slightly different shade of red.

Thanks everyone for the support and all the help along the way!

Marketers who aren’t A/B testing will be left behind

I’m passionate about testing. So much so, that I wrote a guest post for SocialFresh.com with a case study from our testing at Phonebooth.com. An excerpt is below, but check out the full post, “You are not marketing unless you are testing.”

An excerpt from SocialFresh.com

testing Ahhhh, metrics and analytics. For those of us that aren’t deeply involved in conversion (cough cough making money), we resort to labels for the “numbers people.” Some call them analysts, technical folks or SEO / analytics gurus and tend to think that this isn’t our job as marketers.

Friends, you are mistaken. Marketing without data is like diving into a pool with no water – it ain’t pretty. Gone are the days of creating messaging with a finger in the wind or creating ideas in your fancy ivory tower.

Good marketers cater to potential customers by learning. What works? What do they want to hear? What do they do with your product? Where do they go on your site? When do they buy? How do they buy? Where do they buy?

If you can’t answer a few of those questions, do a Google search for your local unemployment office and save that in your GPS.

An A/B testing case study

At Phonebooth, we launched a new website late last month after months of research, analysis, content creation, planning, stakeholder meetings and other things you do to try to make sure everyone is on board. One major element of our redesign was to become masters of testing. We hadn’t entirely neglected it in the past, but decided to make testing a focus.

Our first test was the main hero image (an elegant title for the stuff below the top nav / header). We had research telling us that customers buy our business phone solution because of value. Saving money makes people happy and we had data to confirm that.

We established five different messages with similar styles, colors, fonts, etc. The main variance was the actual copy.

Control: $20 per user / month
Variation B: Save up to 60%
Variation C: A usability version better explaining our product with a few key bullet points
Variation D: Save up to $2500 per year
Variation E: Free Your Voice – a creative concept

Visual Website Optimizer was our tool of choice and we built out the different variations. Each website visitor was randomly assigned one of the variations and that became their homepage thanks to a cookie. Every visit to the homepage would give each user their “unique” homepage and we had several goals to track.

Testing is nothing without goals

Metrics are great. Measuring the correct metrics is even better. It is critical to have a thorough understanding of what you are measuring and what it truly means. We created three distinct goals to track for this test.

Engagement – this is defined as clicking anything on the website. What this means is clearly debatable and it may be completely irrelevant, but I wanted to see how many folks clicked something on the page in a digestable way.
Enters the Store – we sell our business phone solution online. Tracking the funnel is extremely important and we wanted to see how many folks clicked into the store.
Buys Phonebooth – does this need an explanation? This is the most important metric for us. While entering the store and engagement are both important… frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn. I want money. It helps to keep a roof over my head

Pretty simple, huh? Now, we’re ready to see what happens. From here, we start our test early on a Monday morning – a clean week.

Have some fun and test for yourself

Before you run a test, I highly encourage you to make an assumption. Guess what you think will perform the best and why. Heck, create a contest amongst your team and have everyone pick their favorite. Give a prize to the winners!

Leveling the playing field for testing will help everyone understand that a website isn’t a symphony of dorks and geeks coding and designing away to make something that they think looks good. It is science. Well, if done correctly that is.

While my opinion is arguably worth two cents, I thought that our control would perform the best. $20 is a really low number. It is inexpensive for a business phone solution. Plus, I had stared at this version for two months. It was stuck in my head, but I thought that folks would gravitate to a killer price and buy our product.