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What I learned from teaming up with Google

2012-02-04 12:00
Recently, I was invited by Google to participate in Mobilizing Mobile in Mobile, Alabama. As part of Googleв s Go Mobile initiative, the event demonstrated what happens when a city 8217;s infrastructure and community goes mobile. Below youв ll find four key take-aways from teaming up with Google. I believe they can be applied by any startup, in any industry. Lesson 1: Set the agenda Consumer adoption of the mobile web is outpacing the rate at which mobile web experiences are being built. In less than three years, more people will access the web via a mobile device than by any other way. Google recognized this trend, and now its showing others where the world is headed. By painting the bigger picture for everyone else, Google is also framing what the future will look like. Setting the agenda may sound like a lofty goal for a startup, but that 8217;s what you should be focused on. Startup companies are all about painting the big picture before anyone else can see it. Without a big picture idea, who will join you as a co-founder on your high-risk, potentially hallucinogenic quest Who will fund you Who will buy your product, rent you office space, listen to your pitch, or support your ideas Itв s this kind of foresight that creates new opportunities in the marketplace. Lesson 2: Make your innovation tangible Now that you 8217;ve created your framework, you need to show it to your audience. Google goes to great lengths to make its products approachable for users and developers. And they work hard to get users to test out new products as soon as possible. For the GoMobile initiative, they built the GoMo Meter -В a mobile preview tool that shows you how your current site looks on a smartphone, and provides a report on whatв s working and what you can do better. The GoMo Meter embodies several aspects of Googleв s philosophy when it comes to new products. It has a low barrier to start, requires no commitment to use it, and offers easy access with a simple and obvious interface, all tied to a topic that interests each of us endlessly - ourselves (or, in this case, our websites). How do you make your startupв s innovation tangible Start by figuring out what makes your innovation meaningful to your customers. What do they see and feel in their initial product encounter When they ask themselves, What is this and Is it for me guide them to the right answer. Look too for the human behaviors that your product is working on. Itв s humans who will make decisions and judgments about your products, and you can tap into some enduring human traits in well-known ways. For example, after successfully raising a VC round, Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman mentioned that well-known VC Roelof Botha only invests in consumer companies that let consumers indulge in one of the seven deadly sins. Lastly, give users something obvious and easy to do. This could be watching a video or slideshow, clicking a button to initiate an action, entering a few data points, showing some before and...
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