Is Google+ invite only just a marketing trick?

It's funny that company with maybe most servers in the world says they don't have the capacity to support everyone to get into Google+. It's easy to question that one and think that maybe the only purpose of invite only is to get more visibility and interest to Google+.

Is it a coincidence that GMail and Google Wave where invite only also for a long time. They got a lot of publicity when people where trying to chase the invites from different sources. It's always so that when you can't get something you'll chase for, it becomes more interesting. Could this be the strategy with Google+ also?

Also when you eventually get Google+ account, you can basically invite anyone to use it, without any limitations. So if they would be scared of capacity problems, maybe they would have limited invite possibilities in some way.

Still there's a second change. It maybe that Google guys have noticed that invite only is the best way to limit the speed of adaption of the service and that way control their capacity better. Pier to pier inviting is more predictable than plain open service adaption.

Whatever the reason is, still Google+ invite only is a perfect marketing way. It will raise awareness of service when people who are interested are chasing for invite or when they have received an invite.

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Book I read - The Toyota Way

Mainly because of interest to Agile SW development and Lean thinking, I read The Toyota Way -14 management principles from the world's greatest manufacturer from Jeffrey K. Liker. Like it says, it's a book about Toyota much praised manufacturing system.

Whole idea behind the book is to give an better view what makes Toyota manufacturing system such a good one. It introduces TPS (Toyota Production System), Kanban and lots of other systems they use.Still most importantly it tells about the importance of company culture, continuous learning and true understanding about the thinking behind TPS.

I've always been a big fan of thinking, "understand before you act" and that seems to be one of the key principles in Toyota also. Almost everywhere in this book it comes obvious that thorough understanding is the key to success. Hiding true problems behind quick win fixes is not profitable in the long run.

I really liked the book. It opens quite well the thinking behind TPS and the culture what they have there in Toyota. Of course it's just a tip of iceberg you understand based on one book, but at least I think it's the right ice berg to understand. Just trying to learn Kanban and Lean by how others are doing it, easily misses lot of very important aspects of the whole methodology.

I would recommend this book to all of you interested about Lean or TPS. Also those of you who see it beneficial to understand different kind companies, business models, manufacturing and company culture's.

The only small recommendation I would like to give to Dr Liker is, that maybe in the next edition there could be glossary, since there's so many terms flying around all the time, it's sometimes bit tricky to keep on track of all those.

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

How to make credit cards much more safe

I have simple idea how they could make credit cards much more safe. Often when credit (or bank) cards are stolen, first thieves get somehow to know your pin code. They look over shoulder or even there are these machines that videotape or record you pin code. Then they steal your card and use it asap.

What if credit cards would have two pin codes. Those would be then used after each other. So you would have codes 1234 and 5678. When you are buying something you would this time give 1234. Then on the next buy, or withdraw from ATM, you would use 5678. Then on the next you would again use 1234. Simple.

This would make thieves life much harder. If they would track you and somehow see what was the pin code you used, they couldn’t steal your card right away, since that code wouldn’t work. To somehow track your both pin codes is much harder I think.

What do you think? Isn’t it a cheap and easy way to increase security with credit cards?

This was originally posted 17.12.2010 at lostinux.wordpress.com. I've closed that blog of mine and I'm re-posting some of the most popular and best posts from there to here.  

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Blogging in Summer vs Winter in Finland

Here's an explanation to all why it's so hard to stay in and blog during summer in Finland. And also why it is so easy to stay home and sit with computer during winter time.

Check this video out comparing Finnish Summer and Finnish Winter.




Thanks for jpakkane1 for this really cool video.
 
Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

What can we learn from UX in Grocery store

Have you ever thought user experience on grocery store. They have been thinking it for much longer than anyone on IT. Here’s my observations.

Often first ones when you come in are the fruits and vegetables. I think those have a couple of meanings. First those most often look nice and give a fresh look to the store. Second those actually takes most of the time in store, so having those first make store look popular, since there is always people there. Third, most of the people will always get something from that section, so it is convenient to have it first, to minimize the trouble from everyone.

Shelves in the store are designed so that in the level of the eye and hand there are the most popular and most used items. In the top and bottom shelves are niche products, which users of those will find even from non optimal places.

Many stores also use the trick on placing products, which have a best before date coming sooner, on the right side of line of products. There are more right-handed people, so those products will get sold before the date from the right side.

Then thinking about cash desk. There are products which are often bought impulsively, like candies and soft drinks. Also close to cash desks there are products which are easy to steal, so cash personnel can try to take an eye on those ones.

In addition, there’s lot of stuff ongoing in the background making sure there are things to sell and those are fresh. Logistics and everything is meant to be silent and unnoticed, still having one of the most important parts of user experience. If there’s nothing to sell in grocery store, user experience is always terrible.

If you compare this to any software, it’s not that different. You want your customers to think this is fresh and easy to use. You want to look popular. You want your content to be there. You want people to exploit some new stuff also on the way. UX in grocery store and SW are not that different. And I actually think no user experience is that different from another.

This was originally posted 6.12.2010 at lostinux.wordpress.com. I've closed that blog of mine and I'm re-posting some of the most popular and best posts from there to here.
Written by +Henri Hämäläinen