A tale of spreadsheets, complexity and human nature
You’ve probably heard about the so-called “blame game” unleashed in the UK after news surfaced that the authorities failed to report nearly 16,000 positive COVID-19 cases. You’ve probably also heard that this was “caused by an Excel spreadsheet containing lab results reaching its maximum size”.
There are a couple of things (at least) to be said about this.
First, it is interesting to notice that the episode was referred to as “an Excel glitch”. No mention of things that can easily be read between the lines: no one updated the spreadsheet, no one bothered to check if it needed…
According to figures from February 2021, 40% of all websites are made using WordPress. The main reason behind more than 40 million websites operating on their platform is that it was one of the pioneers in allowing people to create websites without having any programming knowledge. In a time when it was already very clear that having a web presence vas very valuable, the only ways to have that presence was either to pay a programmer to design, develop and maintain a website, or learn how to do all that by yourself.
WordPress solved that problem. And the way they…
What it takes to take a startup from inception to scale
A go-kart is a type of open-wheel car or quadracycle. They come in all shapes and sizes, from very simple models often made with scrap wood and ball-bearings, all the way to high-powered racing machines.
While the simpler go-karts are gravity propelled, the higher-end ones are motorized and reach speeds of 40 or 50mph. One could argue that the main difference between one and the other are the control skills required to drive them.
The design of a product can be thought of as building a bridge: our initial problem is that we need to get from point A to point B, and there is something in the way that prevents us from simply walking to the other side.
However, it is important to note that there is at least one major difference to take into consideration: the expected bridge failure rate is 1 out of 4,700 annually, while on average 68% of IT projects fail, according to a report issued by IAG Consulting.
That same report indicates that these projects fail most often…
A different way of thinking about tech proposals.
Most proposals for a tech project share a problem: they consist of a few introductory sections dropping credentials, a list of scope gathered from conversations with the customer, a table with budget, a timeline with deliveries. The problem is that they focus on the wrong thing, and create conditions for a mismatch in expectations:
Businesses evaluate potential providers, not in terms of how well they can do the work, but on how capable they are of putting together an attractive proposal.
If we aim for better outcomes and better relationships, this needs to change. …
a story of frequency and conversations
Many years ago, during one of my first interventions as a consultant, I had before me the Marketing Director for one of the Argentinian unicorns. We were there to discuss the brand’s strategy on different platforms, and she asked me:
With what frequency would you say is best to post in social media?
I took a second to process her question, and in response I asked her if she had a good relationship with her mom. Slightly thrown off, but also quite curious, she answered yes. I asked her then, since she had such a good relationship with her mother…
Digital interaction, unproductive meetings and cups of tea
In these past few months in which the pandemic forced many of us to work remotely, there has been an unprecedented peak of mediated meetings. In all types of organizations, no matter its size, having moved to working remotely overnight made it clear that there is something that happens within an office that cannot be completely replaced –at least not easily– with technological tools.
As an illustrative data point, the value of Zoom shares went from $68 to more than $470 in just 8 months, but the change is much more significant: we are seeing, in real time, the explosion…
Fast-paced decision making to get back home
Surely by now you’ve at least heard the term agile. Maybe you know what it means, maybe you don’t, maybe you kind of know. As it gains popularity and permeates new spaces, we can settle for having a basic understanding: that agile methodologies, and the mindset that they operate on, are essential for fast-paced environments that require quick decision making in high stakes contexts.
A good way to think about –and understand– agility is to imagine that you are living in a zombie movie: the fundamental rule for survival is that you have to keep moving.
Is it a bit…
Lessons learned from a decade and a half of making music with other humans
When I was 15, I formed my first band with a group of high school friends. From that point on, I kept on making music for almost 15 years. I played in shitholes and I played almost decent gigs. I played for literally two people, and I played for more than a hundred people (not much more than that, though… we were never a big deal). I played, in total, with over 40 different people, in a variety of bands, formats and formations. I played in a nuns’ school and would have played a biker’s meetup, if we hadn’t been…
Maxims and guidelines on what makes good graffiti (and good blogging)
In this post, we’ll see how graffiti and blogging are alike, some maxims from the 70s (that we somehow got to losing along the way) and some guidelines to make your blogposts sticky. But before all of that, we’ll talk cinema.
If there is a tremendously relevant movie for these times we’re living, it is the 2011 movie Contagion: it is about the pandemic outbreak of a highly lethal and highly contagious virus, that sets off when Gwyneth Paltrow returns to Minneapolis from a business trip to –you guessed it!– China. …
Martín Pettinati
I want you to communicate better. Marketing & Communications at Manas.Tech. I write, talk, design and execute trainings on communication, marketing, and stuff.
