Xmrit (pronounced ‘xam-mer-it’) is a free tool by Commoncog to help business operators quickly create and share XmR charts.

An XmR chart helps you analyse your data. In a sentence: it helps you separate signal from noise. It is particularly useful to business operators.

…

XmR charts are so named because they consist of an ‘X’ chart (the ‘X’ variable, or the metric you care about), and a ‘Moving Range’ chart, which shows differences from point to point.

Rule 1: Process Limit Rule

Rule one states that if a point lies outside the limit lines (the blue lines), on either the X chart or the MR chart, something unusual is going on.

Rule 2: Quartile Limit Rule

Rule two states that if you have a run of three out of four successive points that is closer to the limit lines (blue dotted lines) than the centre line (red dotted line), then this is a moderate source of exceptional variation and you should investigate.

Rule 3: Runs of Eight

Rule three states that if you have data points in a row on one side of the average (red) line, this is a weak source of special variation and you should investigate.

The two main business modalities are more different than you expect. When you hit PMF, it’s a culture-shift to switch from one to the other.

…

So, what needs to be done? A radical shift in working style, from “Explore” to “Execute”:

Explore
Figuring out what works, as quickly and flexibly as possible.

Execute
Becoming excellent at doing what works, while scaling.

Explore vs Execute #

Explore		Execute
experiment	→	standardize
fail fast	→	fail never
speed	→	reliability
creativity	→	stability
learning	→	leveraging
gathering evidence	→	data extrapolation
manual labor	→	automation
discontinuous jumps	→	continuous optimization
question assumptions	→	leverage assumptions
short-term tactical planning	→	long-term strategic planning
new	→	valuable

Before Product/Market Fit, you’re figuring out what works. That means answering questions like:

• Who is the perfect customer?
• Why aren’t all of them buying?
• What is the best niche?
• Which few features make them buy?
• What makes them want to buy?
• What is delightful?
• What distribution channel will work?
• What makes us different?
• What does the customer value?
• What is the customer trying to accomplish?
• What is the right price?
• What are our biggest risks?
• How do we avoid the obvious fatal mistakes?

After Product/Market Fit, that list of questions have been answered.

…

The “Execute” modality is required to answer the new challenges:

• Hiring & managing, not building things only #
• Fixing the shortcuts, not new features only #
• De-risking, not new innovation only #
• Solving for rare things becoming common #
• Predictable processes #
• Addressing stalls in growth #
• Measuring “success” #
• Different people, different skillsets #

The Software as a Service (SaaS) model is different since the initial sale rarely covers the cost of acquiring the customer. Instead, SaaS companies recoup their upfront investment over time, often in monthly or annual subscription fees.

The critical question is: How quickly can despair turn into profitability? And how big is the prize outside the triangle?

CATEGORY	DESCRIPTION	METRICS
Unit Economics	How profitable is each customer relationship over its lifetime? Can we scale customer acquisition sustainably?	Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA) Lifetime Revenue (LTR) Lifetime Value (LTV) Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) LTV:CAC Payback Period
ARR	How is our recurring revenue growing, and what are the key factors driving changes in this growth?	ARR ARR Components (Gross New, Churn, Contraction, Expansion, and Restart ARR)
Retention	How effectively are we retaining our customer base, and what are the reasons for customer loss or reduction in spend?	Gross Logo Churn Gross Dollar Churn Net Dollar Churn Gross Dollar Retention Net Dollar Retention Logo Retention
Engagement	How frequently and deeply are users interacting with our product, and what does this imply about its value?	DAU, WAU, MAU DAU/WAU, DAU/MAU A3x7
Investor Benchmarks	How efficiently is our company using its resources to generate growth, and how does it compare to market expectations?	ARR Multiple Burn Multiple Magic Number

SaaS business performance metrics covered in this guide.

See also The Ultimate Guide to ARR.

1. Protect momentum
2. Beware of prioritization
3. Stay close to the design
4. You should be wrong sometimes
5. Only doers can plan what you work on
6. Always plan the How
7. There is no quality vs. speed tradeoff
8. Capture inspiration

Enshittification is the pattern of decreasing quality observed in online services and products … The term was used by writer Cory Doctorow in November 2022¹ … Doctorow has also used the term platform decay to describe the same concept.

The ‘Enshittification’ of TikTok | WIRED

Here is how platforms die: First, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.

More examples:

• The Man Who Killed Google Search by Edward Zitron
• The Internet is starting to Break - Here’s Why - YouTube

DON’T: Say it’ll increase sales

DO: Talk about compliance

DON’T: Pretend to be a lawyer

DO: Speak to a lawyer

DON’T: Promise AI will fix everything

DO: Explore vendor options

DON’T: Narrow the conversation solely to print disability

DO: Talk about readiness and future-proofing

DO: Talk to experts

[for engineers] a technology company is one with a strong engineering culture and empowered engineering leadership. Not the business model, not the legal definition, not “pure” innovation, but having a place at the table and being a table you want to sit at.

how do you determine if a company empowers and supports their engineering organization?

• … CEO’s background …
• … ratio of engineering to total headcount …
• … engineering representation in the senior leadership team …
• … titles and seniority across organizations …
• … extent and quality of their engineering brand efforts …
• navigate your network … [and ask] …
• ask questions … of the their engineering culture to … different interviewers …

Strategic ≠ Planning

What most “strategic planning” is in the world of business has nothing to do with strategy. It’s got the word, but it’s not. It’s a set of activities that the company says it‘s going to do.

… but the results of all of those are not going to make the company happy, because they didn’t have a strategy.

What’s a strategy?

strat-e-gy
noun
An integrative set of choices that positions you on a playing field of your choice in a way that you win.

Strategy has a theory

• Here’s why we should be on this playing field, not this other one
• Here’s how we’re going to be better than anybody else at serving the customers on that playing field
• A strategic theory must be coherent and doable.

Planning

• You control costs.
• You are the customer.
• It’s comfortable. 🙂

Strategy

• Actual customers are the customers.
• You don‘t control them.
• You don’t control revenues. 😬

[Strategy] … means putting yourself out and saying, “here’s what we believe will happen. We can’t prove it in advance, we can’t guarantee it, but this is what we want to have happen, and that we believe will happen.”

Avoid the “planning trap”:

• Accept angst. 😬
  • You cannot prove in advance that your strategy is going to succeed
  • In strategy, you have to say, “if our theory is right, this will position us in an excellent way”
  • Not knowing for sure isn’t bad management. It‘s great leadership.
• Lay out the logic. Then tweak.
  • If something that you say is in the logic that would have to be true for this to work is not working out quite the way you hoped, it’ll allow you to tweak your strategy
  • Strategy is a journey. What you want to have is a mechanism for tweaking it, honing it, and refining it so it gets better and better
• Keep it short—ideally 1 page.
  • Here’s where we’re choosing to play …
  • Here’s how we’re choosing to win …
  • Here are the capabilities we need to have in place …
  • Here are the management systems …
  • … and that’s why it‘s going to achieve this goal/aspiration we have.

Your company may not be in the software business, but eventually, a software company will be in your business.

— Naval on Twitter

Ideas of online services where to outsource some of the most mundane tasks.

The SMILE & SCRATCH test:

SMILE if your name has these 5 winning qualities:

• Suggestive – evokes a positive brand experience
• Meaningful – your customers “get it”
• Imagery – visually evocative to aid in memory
• Legs – lends itself to a theme for extended mileage
• Emotional – resonates with your audience

SCRATCH it if it has any of these 7 deal breakers:

• Spelling-challenged – looks like a typo
• Copycat – similar to competitor’s names
• Restrictive – limits future growth
• Annoying – hidden meaning, forced
• Tame – flat, descriptive, uninspired
• Curse of Knowledge – only insiders get it
• Hard-to-pronounce – not obvious, unapproachable

About Steve Jobs’ theory on naming stuff:

I asked Steve why he thought it was good, and he told me his theory for a name was to start from the generic term for something, then romanticize it . His favorite example at the time was Sony’s Trinitron. Well, it went back and forth for a while. But in the end I agreed that, yes, Mathematica was a good name.

(Actually, I prefer the term “client care”, since “client” implies a relationship, instead of “customer”, which is transactional. But I’ll use the normal term instead of confusing things by using mine.)

1. You can afford to be generous
2. The customer is more important than the company
3. Customer service is a profit center
4. Every interaction is your moment to shine
5. Lose every fight
6. Rebelliously right the wrongs of the world

Interesting left field concept of each business becoming it’s own media company focused on a collateral subject area their target audience is interested in, and not directly about their core business.

You’re in the " media business , legal services" …
I’m in the " media business , agency/wine" …

( Source: https://www.youtube.com/ )

Inspiration is perishable… Inspiration is like fresh fruit or milk: It has an expiration date.

Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson (via REWORK: The new business book from 37signals. )

If you want to do something, you’ve got to do it now. You can’t put it on a shelf and wait two months to get around to it. You can’t just say you’ll do it later. Later, you won’t be pumped up about it anymore.

Mobile is the next computing platform

Benedict Evans (via Whatsapp and $19bn )

… and it is several times larger than the desktop internet.

Step 1: How can you create something of value in a market better than what’s out there?

Step 2: When you do that, how can you reach your potential audience?

If you can answer “yes” to both, do you have something you think you’ll enjoy, and can make an amount of money that may be interesting to you?

Cool. Jump in.

Very interesting round up of all the simple math needed to run a services business selling “hours”.

(via My New Startup is Wasting $35,550/month | Forever Jobless )

To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions.

• AWFUL IDEA = -1

• WEAK IDEA = 1

• SO-SO IDEA = 5

• GOOD IDEA = 10

• GREAT IDEA = 15

• BRILLIANT IDEA = 20

• NO EXECUTION = $1

• WEAK EXECUTION = $1000

• SO-SO EXECUTION = $10,000

• GOOD EXECUTION = $100,000

• GREAT EXECUTION = $1,000,000

• BRILLIANT EXECUTION = $10,000,000

To make a business, you need to multiply the two.

The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20.

The most brilliant idea takes great execution to be worth $20,000,000.

Wordoids are made-up words. They look nice and feel great. They are good for naming things. And more…

Part 1: Why Microsoft’s reorganization is a bad idea

Part 2: The uncanny valley of a functional organization

Part 3: Services, Not Devices is the best way forward for Microsoft

(via stratēchery by Ben Thompson )

Negotiate

Here’s the simple rule. If someone makes you an offer, it’s because they’re interested. If they’re interested, you should negotiate. Not accept; negotiate.

Know what you want

(…) have a limited array of tricks up their sleeve, and you should have considered all of them before setting foot in that room.

• Stake size
• Controlling interest
• Number of Sharks investors
• A royalty
• Help
• Contingencies

Don’t ever leave the room

Don’t let Sharks investors collude.

First, (…) The LESS it has to do with your category, the better.

Second, please pick a real english word, or a string of them. (…)

Third, be sure it’s easy to spell AND pronounce. (…)

Fourth, don’t obsess about getting a short web name. (…)

Nice roundup of articles of software pricing.

The answer is really complicated. I’m going to start with a little economic theory, then I’m going to tear the theory to bits, and when I’m finished, you’ll know a lot more about pricing and you still won’t know how much to charge for your software, but that’s just the nature of pricing.

Customer Self Service
Achieving significant revenue at a low price point naturally entails driving complexity and cost out of the purchase to clear the floodgates for high volume.

**Transactional Sales
** As price increases, customers become less willing to part with their cash without at least knowing there are actual trustworthy human beings behind your website URL.

**Enterprise Sales
** While most SaaS startups gravitate toward transactional sales or customer self-service, some SaaS startups have products that provide so much value per customer and are so complex to buy that their natural starting point is traditional enterprise sales.

(via SaaS Startup Strategy | Three SaaS Sales Models )

If you only ask the first four questions, you are likely to only make enough money to pay your mortgage. If you ask the last two, “when” and “why”, every time you ask the others, you are likely to build a business a real that makes money when you’re not around.

Get off the treadmill. Ask when and why all the time.

Eliminate an old activity before you add a new one.

Greg McKeown (in The Disciplined Pursuit of Less – Harvard Business Review )

This simple rule ensures that you don’t add an activity that is less valuable than something you are already doing.

Instead of asking, “How much do I value this item?” we should ask “If I did not own this item, how much would I pay to obtain it?”

Greg McKeown (in The Disciplined Pursuit of Less – Harvard Business Review )

… and the same goes for career opportunities, business projects, etc.

A conversation with the CEO of a SaaS company today reminded me of the importance of the rule of 78s. What is this “rule”, you ask. If you run a recurring revenue business, it is the most important number you have never heard of.

Incremental revenue added in January will produce revenue for 12 months; incremental revenue added in February will produce revenue for 11 months; …; incremental revenue added in December will produce revenue for 1 month. The sum of digits for 12 is: 12 + 11 + 10 + … + 2 + 1 = 78

Technology giants at war: Another game of thrones | The Economist (via Charted Territory – Tao of Mac )

However, there is one major thing they have in common: a clear formula for positioning your retail operations. Both operations are positioned around a job-to-be-done that has a high priority in people’s life.

Apple offers a place where people can discover and get answers about technology without the pressure of making a purchase. The job is to simplify that which is complex for a price premium.

IKEA offers a place where people can get exactly what they need exactly when they need it. The only downside is that “some assembly is required”. In a way, their job is to introduce some complexity in exchange for convenience and a discount.

(via Chart: Apple’s Astonishing Profit in Context | Statista )

Wow!

So how can you use game mechanics the right way and supercharge your business? We’ve distilled the process down to four steps.

Networking is more about farming than it is about hunting

Ivan Misner ( Founder of BNI , talking at StartupNation about “VCP”: visibility, credibility, and profitability)

Cucumber lets software development teams describe how software should behave in plain text. The text is written in a business-readable domain-specific language and serves as documentation, automated tests and development-aid – all rolled into one format.

So, should you launch a paid app?

Maybe.

Every entrepreneur is different. If you want to build a big/impactful business, it’s not the right path (…). If what you want is a bootstrapped freedom-from-employment effort or are passionate about an idea that’s a lousy fit for in-app purchases, paid apps are a great path.

[BJ Fogg’s] Behavior Model shows that three elements must converge at the same moment for a behavior to occur: Motivation , Ability , and Trigger . When a behavior does not occur, at least one of those three elements is missing.

(via BJ Fogg’s Behavior Model )

BJ Fogg explains “Behaviour Design”

( Source: http://c.brightcove.com/ )

Put hot triggers in the path of motivated people.

BJ Fogg

(“the most important 9 words in behaviour design are: …”)

I would no longer see barricades. Stumbling blocks would now be seen as stepping stones to something better, or something to crawl over or walk around. Previous limitations would now be a mere triviality, at worst a slight inconvenience. There were insanely great things to create and we were here to create them and that’s all there was to it. All thoughts to the contrary were irrelevant.

In 30 years in business the approach above has always worked for me. The key is the letter. Be authentic, heartfelt, compelling. Care. Make it a work of art.

Sales price should be based on value, not on cost.

Ricardo Liberato

A vendas fazem-se com pessoas, não com empresas.

Ricardo Liberato

An apostrophe is the difference between a business that knows its shit and a business that knows it’s shit

Sam Tanner (@sam_tanner)

I guess that the small company, the on-the-side project, both usually complemented by a “real” job or a consulting gig providing “safety” (and most of all social approval), are the nowadays version of the hairdresser salon.

Well, as a result, the way we think, the way we act, the way we communicate is from the outside in. It’s obvious. We go from the clearest thing to the fuzziest thing.

But the inspired leaders and the inspired organizations — regardless of their size, regardless of their industry — all think, act and communicate from the inside out.

People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.

The golden circle

✓ Communicate by saying: why => how => what

✗ Don’t communicate with: what => how => why

( Source: http://video.ted.com/ )

If you are not paying for it, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold.

Andrew Lewis in User-driven discontent | MetaFilter (blue_beetle)

If you have the money and you’re looking for what’ll stick, you’re a small business owner.

You’re an entrepreneur if you believe something is going to stick and you need the money (and other resources).

Having an idea and no resources, it is the act of gathering those resources that is the act of entrepreneurship itself.

Mario Valente on small business owners vs entrepreneurs / entrepreneurship

“Compassion, I’m blind!”

vs.

“Today is a beautiful day, and I cannot see it…”

Share your point of view, your life, your passion, your handicaps… only by sharing can you get feedback from the people that identify with you . (and only from those, as the others were unreachable anyway).

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/ )

When you’re asking for someone to spend time with you, you gotta think really hard about why they ought to do it, that has nothing to do with you.
— Seth Godin

Still boggles my mind to see requests for participation online that state that “we need your opinion because it’s important for us” … the “offline” business has learned that lesson ages ago !

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/ )

To sell innovations, we need an anchor and a twist.

See video on How to Sell New Innovations Without Killing the Excitement | Fast Company.

the amount of time an organization spends discussing an issue is inversely proportional to its importance

Everything Is Media: Law of triviality

nano, mini, micro, pequenas e médias empresas

Gato Fedorento in “Esmiuça os Sufrágios” definem as NMMPME

“Startups that succeed are those that manage to iterate enough times before running out of resources. Time between these iterations is fundamental.” (via Achieving Flow in a Lean Startup )

Product Life Cycle adoption curve: 4 Basic Stage
(via Derek Silvers )

The Bikini Concept: by giving away 90% of the concept, and keeping 10%, the attraction factor is just as strong, if not twice as strong.

by Sean

Just because it is not your fault does not mean it is not your problem.

?

… if you can’t explain your mission in the form, “We help $TYPE_OF_PERSON be awesome at $THING,” you are not going to have passionate users.

Kathy Sierra (via Joel on Software )

If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said ‘a faster horse.’

Henry Ford

Gartner’s Hype Cycles

Innovation adoption curve of Rogers

Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority, Laggards

Richard St. John’s 8 secrets of success in 8 words, 3 minutes | Video on TED.com

Passion, Work, Focus, Persist^*, Ideas, Good, Push, Serve

^* through failure and CRAP
Criticism
Rejection
Assholes
Pressure

… regarding the adoption of innovation

1. Be Genuine\
2. Hustle\
3. Persue Your Passion\
4. Delegate\
5. Watch the Tools\
6. Be the Expert

Gary Vaynerchuk (via JasonKeath.com)

^1^ Be true to yourself.
^2^ Put in more work than the other guy.
^3^ If you are not working on what you love, you won’t make it.
^4^ Learn how to partner and connect with others to get it done.
^5^ “Always pay attention to the nerds, when the nerds talk I listen. The tech scene is the future”.
^6^ Learn everything you can about your industry, know more than the other guy.

2009, o ano da emancipação da “velha guarda”?

SHiFT: Social and Human Ideas For Technology

Conferência em Lisboa, Portugal

Desconto promocional de 20% usando o código: shift08t888ce5ad

… hire a virtual assistant for ~8€/h? Here’s a good round up of some players in the marked:

• Best Virtual Assistant – Virtual Assistant ReviewsVirtual Assistant Reviews

… and why it’s probably no the best idea:

• Hiring an online personal assistant: A potential time-saver becomes a huge time-waster.

aka, “Pictonary applied to Business” 😉

Isso é um “don’t care”!

Constantino