Product Pad

Here is your Typical Entrepreneur

* He is from a middle-class or upper lower-class background, and very few come from backgrounds of extreme wealth or extreme poverty.

* He is usually well educated, with only 5 percent or less having a bachelor’s degree.

* He likely to be better educated than their parents were, with half his fathers and a third of their mothers having at least bachelors’ degrees.

* He performed well in high school and in college, with the vast majority ranking average or above in their respective institutions.

* He necessarily does not come from families of entrepreneurs; slightly more than half are the first in their families to launch businesses.

* On average, he tends to be the middle child in a three-child household.

* He is significantly more likely to be married and have children when they launch their first businesses.

* He is far more likely to have worked for an employer for more than six years than to have quickly launched their own businesses.

* His primary motivation for launching a business are to build wealth, to own his own company, and to capitalize on a business idea that he has.

If you qualify on few of these parameters and always wanted to be an entrepreneur then you need to have a look at the report below.

These are the findings of a report authored by Vivek Wadhwa, Raj Aggarwal, Kristina Holly and Alex Salkever for Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation


17772299 Anatomy of an Entrepreneur

#1: Be Narrow
#2: Be Different
#3: Be Casual
#4: Be Picky
#5: Be User-Centric
#6: Be Self-Centered - Great products almost always come from someone scratching their own itch.
#7: Be Greedy
#8: Be Tiny
#9: Be Agile
#10: Be Balanced
#11 (bonus!): Be Wary

For details, click here

I started using Justdial three years back in Mumbai and one thing that has impressed me about them in all my interactions was the way in which they have personalised the services both in Mumbai and Bangalore.

The first time you call them they login all your details and each time I have called them I was impressed with few things

1.The person at the other end picks up the call maximum on the second ring. I just call them once in a while to check whether they go till the third ring, but it has never happened( I am impressed)

2.He/ She greets me (Good Afternoon, Good Morning, Good Evening) and says my name. Good Afternoon, Mr: Lijo ( I smile and nod(only if it is a she before my wedding) when someone greets me by name)

3.He/ She asks me what I want and helps me in finding the same. (I have asked things from movie timings in Inox to Malayalam Mass timings in an Indiranagar, Bangalore church)

5.They send an SMS at the end of the call and in some cases connects me to the service owner

Justdial is like an offline Google and no wonder they have been quite successful.


Compare this with Subway. The company in which I works give free lunches but I am a big fan of Subwaying my lunch. Each time I call them, the same girl picks up but never greets me by name and I have to recite to her my address and contact number each time. I am tired of doing it every time but since I love subway sandwiches I don't mind that much but sometimes I just don't call subway due to the frustration of doing it again and again.

Compare this with Citibank/ ICICI Bank or any of the six banks I deal with. Each time I call them for my bank account or credit card related issues, I have to hear the music and advertisement on why citibank/icici bank is great. ( Not a good Point to interact with a customer who does not have patience) and I go to some stupid IVR menu which is not personalised even after they have all possible information points about me. The only personalised service ever I get from banks with my name in it is a Birthday mail once in a year and the credit card and account statements.

In Internet, may be the scope for personalising the product is maximum. How often we get invitation mails from addresses like noreply@xyz.com or Hi, emails even after collecting all the information points. Some of the sites and web services just goes on collecting information points one after the another with out any road map on how it will be used(ever).

Personalisation is one of the cornerstone features of any successful consumer Internet product, and the focus of a product manager should be in creating a simple but a personalised experience for users. It not only impressed and wows the users but also helps us in creating a number of visitor segments, and tailor the information that is presented for each segment.

Image Courtsey:http://www.bwired.com.au/web_images/modules/personalise.jpg

Many marketers dont understand channels where you have to talk and listen at the same time. May ne they should have a look at this presentation.

Well, If anyone is thanking the god for the Mumbai floods that happened last week, it should be Aircel.A cool example on how best to use the outdoor media for brand engagement.

Seriously, I know you clicked on the link after seeing the "pr*****" word -and that is how you can market a product by sending the appropriate cues in which people like you and me will be interested in.

Can't agree more with this quote from one of my ex-bosses.

If the product is good and popular then everyone wants to have a piece of the pie. All functions in an organisation like sales, marketing, design, engineering, QA and anyone and everyone will need a share of the credit for being a part of the product.

The Product manager can either be a like a pimp who let his product to be "*****" around or can fight and try to win a battle for the users and community which loves his product.

When you use and admire any product on the internet, rest be assured that there is someone at the back who thought a lot about users like you and struggled hard to make it in a usable format. But these people who can coordinate seamlessly between the various stakeholders are really few . The proof lies in all those prostitute products that come across as old, failed ways of creating products, and life is too short for bad products..