Tell me if you’ve heard this one before. You have signed up to deliver the improbable, your project is tracking better than you expected and against improbably odds you might even pull it off – if only you can figure out what to do next. This is a blog post about stories and the noesis [...] Read more – ‘The Protagonist is You: Using Storytelling to Solve Business and Life Challenges’.
There are 168 hours in a week. Surely a few of them could be spent creating something awesome. At the end of each week, what if we all asked ourselve’s- “what is my artifact of awesome?” Be it a research paper, a song, a painting, a photo, blog post, or thank you card. What would [...] Read more – ‘52 Awesome Things’.
To succeed at companies with a high concentration of brainiacs you need to be willing to go toe to toe with brainiacs and those who envision themselves brainiacs. How do you tell an intelligent person they are wrong? With a healthy serving of hubris. Why does telling an intelligent person they are wrong require hubris? [...] Read more – ‘The Embedded Hubris of Intelligence’.
Since graduating business school in 2005, I’ve been fascinated by the application of design thinking and concepts to business strategy, operations and products. My fascination, which began as an exploration of how brands are built and communicated, is now all the rage. Design Thinking, Design of Business, Change by Design- you name it and design [...] Read more – ‘Designing Work’.
Thesis: to build a successful startup you need to approach mastery in no shortage of two disparate disciplines (for example Business Marketing and Computer Science, not Business Marketing and Product Management) or a combination of mastery of one discipline and one skill. Think of it this way – these individuals could lead the company in at [...] Read more – ‘Master Two Disciplines’.
What’s longer than 30 minutes but less than 1 hour? NOTHING, at least according to Outlook’s Calendar. The work day suffers from bloat, 20 minute meetings turn into 30 minute meetings, 40 minute meetings turn into 1 hour meetings and on and on for a few simple reasons. No one has an agenda, so everyone [...] Read more – ‘Meetings: End the 30 Minute Meeting or How To Change Default Meeting Length in Outlook’.
My favorite productivity tool of the moment is Dropbox. Dropbox is a simple tool that accomplishes two tasks; it backs up your computer data and affords automatic access across multiple PCs and your Phone of choice. We need applications like Dropbox in a world where things go wrong. If you’re a Windows 7 user, Windows [...] Read more – ‘If You Back Up Your Data, Don’t Forget to Back Up Your Brain’.
Over the past year I’ve formed a core belief that any sustained success relies on the collaboration between people. The opportunities that have transformed my personal career have been the results of relationships that were cultivated when they could have more easily withered. For example the instructor for a competitive intelligence course I took in [...] Read more – ‘Be Sticky’.
I’ve seen the view from the top. I’ve seen the view from the bottom. The scariest view is when you have to face the mirror. Never compromise who you are. Of course this requires that you know who you are. -Mikal Read more – ‘The Scariest View’.
After placing as an NWEN first look forum finalist, Qworky has faced many of the same challenges other startups face. Burn rates, valuations, funding rounds. While the journey has surely been the rollacoaster promise- we remain committed to “Meetings that Don’t Suck” Through this journey one thing we’ve learned is that the path to better [...] Read more – ‘Meetings: Better Meetings Start Here’.
I’ve talked a lot about goals and goal development. And it’s for good reasons. Goals are the centripetal force of my workday and in my personal view the lack thereof is one of the greatest challenges facing organizations. I often ask managers and people I admire ‘what books have influenced your business perspective?’ one of [...] Read more – ‘Chapter Four Part 1’.
It’s been a while, since I updated. My startup, Qworky is currently in the middle of 30 days of Better Meetings. Who knows maybe even a product release? Sometimes I find that to solve some of my most pressing challenges all I need is a blank piece of paper. Many of the times the ‘piece [...] Read more – ‘Sometimes All You Need is A Blank Piece of Paper’.
So a meeting has taken place and your friend or colleague has said or done something that you really think you should give them feedback on, but how to do it without upsetting them? To give feedback here is a tactic I’ve learned: State one thing you think they’ve done well And state one area [...] Read more – ‘Meetings: How to Give and Receive Critical Feedback after a Meeting’.
I’ve got one word for you . . . Plastics. There is a great future in plastics. Will you think about it? Of course you will. Why? Because you’ve been hooked with that timeless teaser. Research shows there are seven types of Meetings and the purpose of many of them is to persuade- or in [...] Read more – ‘Meetings: You Sell More Ideas by Teasing’.
So you’re going to have a meeting, and this time your meeting requires a pitch or presentation. You may not think of this until the day of- but here’s a question: When is a good time for questions? Common practice says the time for questions is during or after a presentation. However you might want [...] Read more – ‘Meetings: Time for Questions’.
Interpreted from ‘Business Writing and Communication’ applied to meetings. No we’re not talking about Nintendo Wii. Even though, those were pretty hard to find a few Christmas’ ago. Finding the ‘We’ is all about finding identifying the shared goals between yourself and your meeting participants and finding a ‘participant’ focused way of orienting the meeting [...] Read more – ‘Meetings: Find the ‘We’’.
Introducing All In. note: this post announces our just released product for better meetings: All In All In is the 100% free and simple way to set up meetings that work. Why All In? We designed the All In Meeting Guide to eliminate any objections to recommending our product to a friend or colleague. It’s [...] Read more – ‘Everybody- All In?!’.
Today I just received ‘Delivering Happiness’ as a part of their blogger giveaway program. While I’ve yet to read the book, its title and Tony’s management philosophy got me thinking about meetings. It’s well documented that we hate meetings so you can love them. Even so, just because we hate meetings, shouldn’t prevent you from [...] Read more – ‘Meetings: Deliver Happiness in Meetings’.
Sometimes the difference between a bad meeting and a better meeting is 5-10 minutes. As Tony Schwartz, president and CEO of The Energy Project and author of The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working, discusses in this week’s Harvard Business Review IdeaCast. Any significant expulsion of energy has to account for a period of recover. Well with [...] Read more – ‘Meetings: Break Please’.
Qworky is in the final stages of ‘ratifying’ our company values. We’d love to hear your thoughts and discussion either here or on our getsatisfaction community post. Specifically, do these sound like the values of a business you’d want to work for? Partner with? or do business with? We are global citizens, our aim is [...] Read more – ‘Qworky Company Values: Please Comment and Discuss’.
Recall the last time you went for an important promotion. I mean a big promotion; something you really wanted. Do you recall? Now think back on what it felt like, what soiree you missed out on, what priorities you shifted in search of that one accomplishment which was to—in some way – change- your- life. [...] Read more – ‘The Biggest Promotion of Your Life’.
Disclosure prior to joining Qworky I was a Product Planner at Microsoft working within Television, Music and Video one of the groups that gave birth to the Kin. While I did not work directly on the Kin, it’s ‘codename’ was a semi-frequent resident of meetings and product plan discussions. This post is cross posted from [...] Read more – ‘Social Media Lesson's From Microsoft? What You Can Learn From Microsoft Kin’.
Yesterday, I had a conversation with a good friend Bernard Ablola who has just started a new resource for small businesses with his blog at Small Business Accelerator. While hanging out he and his team brought out their camcorder for an impromptu conversation on Mantras, Mission, Vision, and Position statements. In it we discuss how our [...] Read more – ‘Video: Qworky Discusses Mission, Vision and Positioning Statements’.
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again- thank you to the world’s best community and advisors. Tomorrow Qworky presents at Northwest Entrepreneur Network’s First Look Forum, an event designed to give qualified investors a first look at the hottest companies in the Northwest. Getting to this point has been a sacrifice and labor [...] Read more – ‘For the Love of the Craft’.
Do you ever wonder how much indispensable information lies in our inboxes, inaccessible from Google’s search inbox? Or on our personal hard drives? Memories of shared events no one else has access to. Well, I’ve been wondering that a lot recently. Cleaning out my inbox I revisited a treat sent to me in August ’09 from Jennifer Morla of [...] Read more – ‘33 Designisms by Jennifer Morla’.
Don’t go it alone. I’m preparing for a pitch competition. Over the last 48 hours, I’ve received deep feedback from more than 15 professionals I greatly admire. Individuals such as Max McKeown whose expertise exceeds any budget I’ve ever managed- and yet has still managed time to help myself and my startup, Qworky. Why Do People [...] Read more – ‘Startup Lesson: Ask for Help’.
Now that the first quarter of 2010 is in the bank, this is a good time to follow Balsamiq’s model and look back on 2009 before we look ahead to where we’re going in the rest of 2010. In short, 2009 was all about Learning, Adapting, and Executing. Learning Qworky was sparked by a conversation. [...] Read more – ‘Qworky Inc – 2009 in Review’.
As we build our software house the social media way- we’ve been engaged with our community across the web. For example, if you follow us on Facebook you’ll see we tend to post articles and commentary at once daily. Twitter we do so multiple times a day. Like many businesses, time is no luxury; so [...] Read more – ‘How to Deliciously Use Social Bookmarking to Fuel Your Social Media Growth’.
Eat To Live Listen on Posterous Diet of an Olympic Champion If your personal goal of ultimate desire was to be Olympic champion. Let’s say you were a track star. In the months and years leading up to big competition how much attention would you pay to what you eat? How ‘diet’ conscious would you [...] Read more – ‘Nutrition for a Startup’s Goal’.
If your work day involves colleagues and an inbox, at some point you’ve probably wondered: is this as good as it gets? The answer to that question may surprise you. Consider: Work related stress is at pandemic levels in large part due to excessive work hours. Our work day is now 24/7 powered by our [...] Read more – ‘A New Software House for People Who Outsmart, Outdream and Outlive’.
As CEO of a startup the buck stops with you. If you’re anything like me this can be both new and challenging. You may be placed in a position of responsibility in many cases exceeding your prior experiences. You may be expected to have the right answers and guidance in areas you’ve never experienced. [...] Read more – ‘Ghostbuster Conundrum: As Startup CEO, Who Are You Gonna Call?’.
We go our whole lives acquiring specialized knowledge. We choose majors, master job roles, and perfect positions. But startups are unlike college, corporate America, or even sports. There are no second basewomen or second basemen at startups. There are teammates trying to win. I grew up envisioning myself to be the next Roberto Alomar. Focusing [...] Read more – ‘No Room for 2nd Basemen’.
(photo via Flickr by marcel601) “Everyone has a perspective, says Jensen Huang, but to call it a “vision” implies elitism and exclusion.”” via Stanford’s Entrepreneurship Corner: Jensen Huang, NVIDIA If you want to start a company, a tech startup; good luck. Startups are time consuming labors of love. And if your goal is to simply start [...] Read more – ‘Why Being a Startup Just isn’t Good Enough’.
Welcome to Carter G. Startups, a community and discussion list for African American and minority technology entrepreneurs and startups. Every movement starts somewhere and this is the inaugural post. Join the movement by subscribing to the Carter G. Startup community and discussion list here: http://bit.ly/cartergstartups Too many black owned businesses lack access to capital- especially in the [...] Read more – ‘Kicking Things Off the 80 Dollar Startup Way’.
With months before launch we’re forming the product launch checklist. I find Balsamiq has a great collection of resources. What is your prelaunch advice? http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/2008/04/18/preparing-for-launch/ Read more – ‘With months before launch we're forming…’.
Our first public prototype is on the way– Kudos Jon+ the entire development team. ‘Of Sprints and Marathons’ indeed! The amount of progress that can be made when we all pull towards a common goal is astounding. Qworky, working as a distributed team has tackled quite a few ‘sprints’ on multiple fronts. Establishing our presence [...] Read more – ‘Accomplishing Goals’.
I always wondered why UPS makes me choose from a drop down what country I’m from the very first time I visit their website. I’ve never used proxies, so it baffled me why in 2010 they still haven’t implemented the simplest reverse IP lookup technology. Before I was able to click the drop down. UPS [...] Read more – ‘Branding Lessons: UPS Brand and Usability’.
2009, what an eventful year! Even more in store for 2010, including the launch of our first product. More and more I realize that Qworky’s success in 2010 will come from our ability to infect our users, advisors, community, and collaborators with the spirit of Qworky. And if enthusiasm is contagious consider yourself infected. We [...] Read more – ‘Happy New Year from Qworky’.
Mikal Lewis, CEO of Qworky. This is my business card on the web. Things have gotten pretty tough to keep track of, with twitter, linkedin, facebook- this that the other- now its simpler. You can find me on the web, here at http://Mikal.FM all the appropriate contact information can be found here: Mikal’s Business Card A blurb [...] Read more – ‘Mikal.FM’.
Mission, Vision, and Positioning Statements oh my! Whats the difference among them? Well it depends on who you ask. Wikipedia, the go to source for known unknowns states: A Mission statement tells you the fundamental purpose of the organization. It defines the customer and the critical processes. It informs you of the desired level of [...] Read more – ‘Mission, Vision, and Positioning Statements – Make Mantras’.
Just got my new HP up and running. And I have to say their first run experience is beautifully elegant, and inviting. All until I actually landed on my Win7 home screen and saw how many applications were on this machine with no easy way to remove. When uninstalling the HP Games application – I [...] Read more – ‘HP First Run Experience’.
