Podcast: Download
Subscribe: RSS
What you should know about web developer marketing
Rainy day in Eastern North Carolina feels like a change in the season. Summer is still here, but there is a palpable shift. We talk about football and computer games (and the gamification of NFL.com). There are back to school specials and… for some reason, I always want to buy a new computer around this time of year.
This week’s podcast is a long one. It sort of has the feel of a rainy day chat. We ramble along with our topics with an occasional rant or burst of exuberance. The major theme is “The shifting responsibilities and priorities between designer,developer, Engineer, and Business leader”. We hash out the idea that all of these characters are present in modern day web / business building and that they could improve the way they work together.
Ben’s big question is: How to get the nerdy engineer types to think more like marketing types and vice versa. We compare and contrast the personalities in order to figure out how to approach the problem.We both understand and highlight the Bill Hicks mentality that ‘Marketers should kill themselves’ . My philosophy is to love them and try turn them from the darkside – or at least learn some of their moves and tactics.
Ideas and Links
Perfect Customer LifeCyle from Infusionsoft – A framework model for a business as seen from the perspective of a marketeer.
Gange Nine Events of Instruction – A similar framework model for describing an educational interaction (as opposed to a business one) from the perspective of a teacher.
NFL.com – starting to incorporate gaming techniques into their website. We see it as a practical development of the attention economy. Users trade attention and actions for points and rewards of personal value.
Measurement – “Measure what you want to change” . Once you measure something and have a number that you can influence by your actions, you can start to gamify the work that you do with building, business and design. Games are naturally iterative. No one ever plays one game and then quits, right? The whole point- the thing that motivates us – is to improve and to strive and achieve. Good games do this well
The internet is an AMAZING TECHNOLOGY – Check out Dr. Chuck’s Coursera learn how the internet came to be.
System Thinkers wanted – W. Edwards Demming is one of my favorites. And, the movie “Mind Walk” pretty much sums it up.
The web is shifting from ‘nerd-owned’ to ‘marketeer-owned’ – scary as it sounds, it’s true. From PCs to Macs. From the command line to the GUI. From the concrete to the abstract. … I, for one, welcome our new overlords. 🙂
Winning vs Losing – Winning isn’t all it’s cracked up to be if you never play. “Aim to lose” Ben says. Don’t be afraid of losing. Be afraid of not understanding why.
Lean Startup – Build / Measure / Learn.
Of course, there’s more to tell. Give it a listen – Skip around on the track and see what strikes you. If you are a first time listener, I feel this podcast is a good example of the interactions we like to have. We are long winded, but we are authentic. We enjoy making and hope you enjoy listening.
