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Have you ever waited on the phone for a customer service representative? Have you waited in a lengthy line to speak with a ticketing agent? Have you raised your hand in class hoping to share a clever thought and ended up being ignored? These are examples of controllable flow. Have you ever read an email and waited for days before responding because you didn’t have enough spare time? Have you felt compelled to respond to a text-message right away, even though you might be preoccupied with an important activity? The root of overload in communication (specifically email) is uncontrollable flow.

In-person communication is generally focused towards one-to-one interaction, or one-to-few. Thus, social cues keep us from being overwhelmed when communicating in person. Digital communication can be a variety of setups, including many-to-one which often makes my inbox a chaotic mess.

You can stand in a room full of strangers eager to have a conversation with you, but unwritten social rules prevent a crowd of people from swarming you with questions all at the same time. This is because there’s a natural flow to social gatherings. You simply can’t have a personal conversation with many people at the same time. Some people will have to wait to get your attention. Or when you’re calling someone on the phone, you can only listen to one person speak at a time. Anyone else that tries to call you will get a busy signal.

The problem with email and SMS messaging is a lack of flow control. An infinite number of people and requests for my attention can flow into my inbox at any given time. There aren’t (yet) any acceptable social cues to control the flow of emails. Email overload is a social problem.

I’m currently thinking of ideas to automatically sort the most common items that flow into your inbox. If you’ve attempted to implement flow-control measures on your email, I’d be interested to hear what did or did not work.

There’s usually nothing easy about moving 2,500 miles away from home where the people and culture are unfamiliar. Fortunately for me, on the New Years day I moved from New Jersey to familiar territory in California with two friends to pursue a startup dream. The technology-centric culture is fantastic, the people we’re working with are results oriented, and the weather is beautiful.

I’ve been surprised by many things that I had taken for granted up until this point, such as paying an electric bill and cooking my own food. I suppose most young people (including myself) forget to consider the miscellaneous costs of living that add up to a large sum just to get settled. Even mundane tasks such as buying groceries require serious thought when planning out the upcoming weeks. We don’t currently have a car but we’ve found Silicon Valley to be an especially bike-friendly place to live. There’re bike lanes on nearly all major roads and many trails or residential roads to bike safely. I’ve been biking 3-5 miles per day on average.

On the work front, it’s now easy to understand the hacker lifestyle. There’s a lot of thought, debate, and careful deliberate decisions on what course of action to take… Many hours of careful consideration are required because each decision we make at this early stage can drastically effect the success of our user experience. I’ve also found that I’m reading a lot more, including real books. A lot of the challenges I’ll encounter are troubleshooting situations where the best solution is to figure it out I go. Flexibility and open-mindedness are key towards making solid progress.

Services that have been particularly helpful to me during this time:

• FedEX – I sent a package from Wake Forest and they put it on hold for no additional cost during the Christmas week.
• Southwest Airlines – 2 bags fly free! Excellent for moving my entire wardrobe.
• Safeway  - $3 grocery delivery any day of the week.
• Ikea – Affordable and reliable furniture.
• Staples – Free shipping on any office furniture.
• Amazon Prime – Free 2-day shipping on any “prime eligible” products. – This has been huge.

I’m currently reading Delivering Happiness and the author Tony Hsieh included a list of principles he learned during his brief stint as a competitive poker player. I believe the principles apply to nearly all pursuits outside of poker or business and I’d like to publish them here for everyone to read:

Evaluating Market Opportunities

• Table selection is the most important decision you can make.
• It’s okay to switch tables if you discover it’s too hard to win at your table.
• If there are too many competitors (some irrational or inexperienced), even if you’re the best it’s a lot harder to win.

 

Marketing and Branding

• Act weak when strong, act strong when weak. Know when to bluff.
• Your “brand” is important.
• Help shape the stories that people are telling about you.

 

Financials

• Always be prepared for the worst possible scenario.
• The guy who wins the most hands is not the guy who makes the most money in the long run.
• The guy who never loses a hand is not the guy who makes the most money in the long run.
• Go for positive expected value, not what’s least risky.
• Make sure your bankroll is large enough for the game you’re playing and the risks you’re taking.
• Play only with what you can afford to lose.
• Remember that it’s a long-term game. You will win or lose individual hands or sessions, but it’s what happens in the long term that matters.

 

Strategy

• Don’t play games that you don’t understand, even if you see lots of other people making money from them.
• Figure out the game when the stakes aren’t high.
• Don’t cheat. Cheaters never win in the long run.
• Stick to your principles.
• You need to adjust your style of play throughout the night as the dynamics of the game change. Be flexible.
• Be patient and think long-term.
• The players with the most stamina and focus usually win.
• Differentiate yourself. Do the opposite of what the rest of the table is doing.
• Hope is not a good plan.
• Don’t let yourself go “on tilt.” It’s much more cost-effective to take a break, walk around, or leave the game for the night.

 

Continual Learning

• Educate yourself. Read books and learn from others who have done it before.
• Learn by doing. Theory is nice, but nothing replaces actual experience.
• Learn by surrounding yourself with talented players.
• Just because you win a hand doesn’t mean you’re good and you don’t have more learning to do. You might have just gotten lucky.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for advice.

 

Culture

• You’ve gotta love the game. To become really good, you need to live it and sleep it.
• Don’t be cocky. Don’t be flashy. There’s always someone better than you.
• Be nice and make friends. It’s a small community.
• Share what you’ve learned with others.
• Look for opportunities beyond just the game you sat down to play. You never know who you’re going to meet, including new friends for life or new business contacts.
• Have fun. The game is a lot more enjoyable when you’re trying to do more than just make money.

Credit: Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos. Additional reading.

I’m sitting at the gate in the Greensboro airport for the fourth time in the last month. For the first time I’m flying home to New Jersey, and for the first time I’m not coming back. Let me explain my story:

College

My thoughts on college are a mix of emotions. I think the college experience is fantastic. I lived in a suite with a Korean game designer from Baltimore, a politics enthusiast from Iowa, and an ROTC cadet from North Carolina. I worked on a project researching electric grid problems in Zimbabwe… with a student who grew up in Zimbabwe. Some of the people I studied and socialized with on a daily basis hit close to home in New Jersey, and my future plans in California. I can’t imagine a better selection of good people just trying to enjoy themselves while they work hard to figure out their future.

Why Wake Forest?

To me, Wake Forest offers a distinct experience that can not be found anywhere else. Andy Chan, VP of Career Development, says it best in his blog post about his decision to transition from Stanford to Wake Forest:

“The visionary leaders at Wake Forest are committed to creating the premier collegiate university – a higher education institution that offers the best of a personal, intimate liberal arts college with the best of an innovative, prolific research university. One key area is a focus on the career development and character formation of each student.”

Moreover, the the type of education each student receives here is holistic, including both the humanities and the sciences. Steve Jobs, perhaps the most prolific innovator in the past generation, is most well known for his creative application of technology in the intersection between humanities and sciences. Even Mark Zuckerberg thrived on this principle as a philosophy/computer science double major at Harvard. Solving 21st century problems requires people who can function in the cross between art and science.

Wake Forest takes technology seriously. Beginning in 1996, Wake Forest issues laptops to all students in an effort to integrate educational technology in the lives of faculty and students. This strong foundation of technology on campus has held strong as proven by the recent introduction of Google+, and Cisco WebEx for all faculty and students. The real benefit of the technology introduced here on campus is an education environment where there are no boundaries for access to people and information.

So, what about the business school? For those concerned rankings, they would probably advise me to seek an undergraduate business education at UPenn’s Wharton School of Business. Take a look at the rankings for yourself, and you’ll see that Wake Forest is #1 in Academic Quality; ahead of UPenn and the rest. Well, if you go to college for the academics, Wake Forest is the place to be for those seeking the highest caliber undergrad business education.

To the surprise of many, Wake Forest is the only school that accepted me. This is largely due to their leading effort in re-thinking the admissions process. Wake Forest remains the only top-25 national university to make interviews highly suggested and standardized tests optional. Achievements in grades and activities that take years to accomplish are often a better indicator of determination and success than excellent performance on a four hour test.

To give you a specific example of Wake Forest’s benefit to me in just one semester: In October I applied for and received a seed grant for my startup. The grant was made possible through a special fund in their Center for Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship. Myself and a handful of other Wake entrepreneurs now have the funds necessary to execute on our ideas starting now. Not a single Ivy League college makes this type of financial resource available to students in the fall semester. And what about the rest of the student body; what are they interested in studying? The most popular minor on campus is entrepreneurship.

Why leave college?

I’m fortunate to have an opportunity, a Thiel Fellowship, that allows me to continue my education outside of a formal school setting. Yes, that’s right, just because I’m leaving school doesn’t mean my education stops. Call it the Peter Thiel school of thought, or whatever you please. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I begin my fellowship by working on a web startup, Ingenic. I’m co-founding Ingenic with a team of three college dropouts, and we believe this is the right time to be working on the problem we’re solving.

In the world of technology there is a limited window of opportunity for certain ideas and innovations. The opportunity I’m pursuing might not be as favorable in four years. For example, if the Facebook team waited until they graduated from Harvard to grow Facebook, their success may have been jeopardized. With the Thiel Fellowship, I don’t have to wait four years to obtain a piece of paper that says I’m qualified to pursue my passion.

My thoughts on leaving college extend beyond my personal circumstances and lead to an overarching dilemma: the education bubble. From my experience it’s common for many people to not really have any certainty on what they’d like to do after college. To cut to the chase, college is a place for most 18-22 year-old students to postpone thinking about the future. All to often the result is a college graduate who has not seriously considered the economic potential of their major. To me, this is a scary thought. I think about the future every day. I think the majority of college students neglect this type of thinking because they are occupied with their work from week to week and not thinking beyond the next test. Perhaps this is even why fear of failure and lack of security is so high among college students.

Students graduating with student loans in 2010 owed an average of $25,000. It could take many years for a new entrant in the workforce to pay off these loans, especially if they have difficulty finding a job. Now for the entrepreneur who is burdened by long-term student loan payments, it’s likely the on-going loans will prevent him from taking a financial risk in his life such as starting a new business. By the time the loans are paid off, it’s even more likely that they will be settled into the a stable career. When our best and brightest people are unable to take the risk of starting a company and devote their full attention to a technological breakthrough, that’s a major problem.

Many people have more than enough money to easily afford the degree of their choice, and they value the social aspect of meeting life long friends. But for the so called “99%” who don’t have tuition fully paid for by their parents, they need to seriously reconsider the dogma burned into students’ brains since their elementary-school days: If you want to make something of your life, go to college. And if you really want to make something of your life, gain admission to an Ivy League school.  There are many examples of top tier schools offering a comparable education and a more financially rewarding opportunity.

College is not a one size fits all prescription. To be fair, maybe most undergrads shouldn’t know exactly what they want to do with their lives, but by graduation day they should have certainly started to make a decision. And there’s nothing wrong with taking those years to figure out what you want to do, but you should be there because its best for you and not just a plan for someone else.

The Game

I hadn’t been able to concisely describe the sequence of events in my life until I learned about “The Game” with an unofficial group at Wake Forest: the masterminds alliance. Things in life can be separated into two groups: things you can control, and things you cannot control. Your hometown, your family, taxes, and a few other things are beyond your control. Everything else that happens in your life is in your control with varying degrees of certainty. You control your group of friends, what you wear, what you eat, where you go to college, your career path, and even how long you live.

Aside from the few things you cannot control, you get what you want. The degree of certainty for getting what you want is determined by how well you communicate. So, how do you get what you want? Getting things that you want is a result of your ability to communicate in three ways: written, verbal, and body language.

Even mundane things such as a post-script note, tone of voice, and making eye contact during an interview have significant importance towards demonstrating your knowledge of your surroundings and your desire for recognition from others. If you want something bad enough, think about how you can communicate that you are a deserving candidate for whatever you want. For most people, this tends to be a written diploma that says you’ve graduated from college.

The Future

The weeks and months ahead during my fellowship are largely uncertain. There will be both extreme excitements and disappointments that I have yet to discover. I’ll be working in Mountain View, California from January – April 2012. After March, the opportunities are endless. I’ll be traveling often in 2012; you will likely find me somewhere between New York, Miami, San Francisco, London, and maybe even Hong Kong.

So, before I make my way down the jetway and symbolically leave my short stint in college, what advice can I offer to you? Take a note from Chris McCandless:

Make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservation, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty.

Finally, I can best describe my decision to leave college with this quote I found in the Wake Forest rowing room:

“To give up requires no effort, only a decision. To win requires everything you have to give.”

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Recently many people have asked me questions such as: “How did you get into this stuff on the internet?”, “Why don’t you play video games?”, or “How did your learn about startups?”.

The best way I know how to encourage continuous curiosity is through intelligent distraction. I read blogs for at least an hour daily, I contribute to online tech communities, I read editorial magazines, and I browse twitter. I don’t play video games, and I rarely watch TV. And my preferred sporting activity is rowing.

To summarize, reading is my distraction and that’s how I learn. I stay curious by discussing or writing about the things I read daily. Two groups at Wake Forest have been valuable to me for facilitating intelligent discussions. First, the Arch Society meets weekly to discuss a high-level issue facing the world and we talk openly about our opinions on the subject. The debate often dabbles into many viewpoints, depending on the background of each participant. Second, the Masterminds group is an unofficial group led by seniors who have taken a special interest discussing social science and psychology. We most recently discussed body language, and how it can invoke positive judgement or actions in others.

It’s these few but precious hours throughout the week that are so critical to me. Take a break from the gossip and TV. Read something cool, and share your thoughts with others.

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Social sharing has changed dramatically in the past decade and it’s not uncommon for ordinary people to be sharing the things they consume daily. The common denominators for the majority of sharing activity are the Facebook platform, Twitter, blogs and email. Mark Zuckerberg first predicted that social sharing functions exponentially at the 2008 Web 2.0 Summit:

“I would expect that next year, people will share twice as much information as they share this year, and next year, they will be sharing twice as much as they did the year before,” he said.

Some computer veterans claim the optimistic prediction was on the basis Gordon Moore’s, Intel Co-founder, prediction that the number of chips on a transistor doubles every two years. Moore was right, and in the three years since Zuckerberg’s prediction, Zuckerberg’s been spot on according to Facebook data.

Zuckerberg’s law is represented in the following equation:  Y = C *2^X — Where X is time, Y is what you will be sharing and C is a constant.

The equation may become inaccurate as you move 10-20 years in the future, but the function is a better reflection of behavioral shifts and pain points associated with non-stop sharing. Just about everyone in my life is sharing and consuming more data than ever, especially when I think about life before smart-phones in 2007. I often find myself asking questions about the social sharing growth curve:

How are we going to make sense of the profound increase in data pinging our way? Will the services we use to create and share more data be the best services for showing us what we want to see?  How can we make better connections between the similar items we’re sharing? How can we better understand this problem if we’ve never had access to so much data about ourselves and other people? Where’s the line distinguishing the artistic element of each item and the technological aspect enabling us to share, or are they intertwined?

The dramatic shift towards exponential sharing boils down to the difference between two functions: manual and automatic. Generally speaking, sharing has required a manual user-input in the form of sending an email, text message, wall post, tweet, among various others. Web services will begin to push automated sharing and the inputs will be controlled by any of our behavior connected to technology. To give you an example, ten years ago a person might have traveled to New York City and emailed their friends to let them know of their time in the area. Today we have location based technology on your smart-phone that will automatically share your new location.

Technology is most useful as a mechanization of a repetitive process. What technology will be in place to filter an exponential increase in automated sharing? Or will manual curation remain the best way to navigate exponential sharing? There will be opportunities to see the results from both approaches. The most effective solution for sifting through exponentially increasing shared content will combine elements of both automation and curation.

More reading on this topic:

http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/06/mark-zuckerberg-explains-his-law-of-social-sharing-video/

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/zuckerbergs-law-of-information-sharing/

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Yesterday I was fortunate to have attended the Jefferson Innovation Summit hosted by the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. This was the inaugural event that Darden hopes will aspire to TED-esque event, bringing together America’s brightest and creative thinkers. The lineup of delegates comprised of many leading visionaries in the fields of education, science, and technology. From my observations throughout the day,  I was pleased to notice two things: Objective thinking on the state of the American entrepreneurial culture, and a lively discussion of action steps to foster entrepreneurial culture in schools.

Over the course of a lengthy two hour debate, the panelists discussed a question looming over the heads of so many technologists and institutional leaders: How can we foster innovation in America? How can we identify the innovators and match them up with the resources they need to succeed? What’s the role of government in subsidizing private enterprise?

The answers were often thought-provoking, often times making me wonder why this type of dialog, immune from self-congratulation, does not occur more often in politics. One particular thought that left me hanging was the discussion of the remaining closed monopolies in the U.S.. Education is included among the few, and it happens to underpin the consequential thoughts and careers of highly capable young Americans. Should we be teaching entrepreneurship alongside math and science? I think so. And should we reward experiential learning? Definitely.

After all, there aren’t any degrees in “App-making” as one delegate put it bluntly. One of the fastest growing segments of the economy is the market for apps on smart-phones, and hardly anyone creating the new software has had formal training in app development. The classes that are being offered in mobile app-development are filling quickly, and this is a sign of widespread interest in de-centralized education outside of formal institutions. Prospective developers aren’t looking for the credential on their resume with another degree or stamp of approval, they’re cashing in on the growing demand for apps.

Entrepreneurship education has been limited for most individuals to the latest stages in their academic careers. Phillipe Sommer, director of the incubator at Darden, mentioned that he recently initiated an entrepreneurship class for freshman students. From his observations teaching upperclassmen, he noticed that the single thing blocking student interest is fear of failure. We now live in a society where many of the students at top American universities are the sons and daughters of doctors and lawyers. In these unchanging professional fields, a degree promises long-lasting success, and failure is rare. Startups by nature are the exact opposite, and thus students are more likely to choose the sure bet when it’s time to make things happen in the real-world.

The panel concluded with thoughts on whether or not we can even teach entrepreneurs to act on their ideas. The answer remains open-ended, but we do know what a promising innovator looks like when we see one. To get a sense of a smart and determined entrepreneur, consider a quote by Paul Graham:

“There are some people who just get what they want in the world. If you want to start a startup you have to be one of those people. You can’t be passive and wishy-washy,”

For the schools that recognize the importance of binding entrepreneurial experiences with traditional coursework, they are likely to begin to churn out more graduates who get what they want. Take a look at a glimpse of shining hope: The most popular minor at Wake Forest is entrepreneurship.

We’ve got the brain power to be competitive for years to come, and we have the resources to support our most promising entrepreneurs. We need more people encouraging our most talented youth towards the thinking that you don’t always have to do what you’re told to do in life. Challenging authority stems fearless minds, and that’s what will empower creative solutions to our most difficult problems.

Online advertising and marketing  tactics have strained outdated Federal Trade Commission guidelines for endorsements. Anonymity on the web has made it easy for nearly anyone to pretend to be something they are not. Just think about how often you may see “Featured on CNN, New York Times, etc”, and then you seriously begin to consider the advertiser’s claims.

In the past couple years, the FTC has investigated many severely misleading advertising campaigns with the aim to protect consumers from deception. Here are the main highlights from the most recent update in 2009:

The revised Guides – issued after public comment and consumer research – reflect three basic truth-in-advertising principles:

• Endorsements must be truthful and not misleading;
• If the advertiser doesn’t have proof that the endorser’s experience represents what consumers will achieve by using the product, the ad must clearly and conspicuously disclose the generally expected results in the depicted circumstances; and
• If there’s a connection between the endorser and the marketer of the product that would affect how people evaluate the endorsement, it should be disclosed.

Unfortunately startups tend to put everything on the line in the hope of converting each visitor on their landing pages. From my personal observations, I’ve seen false press mentions or misleading product claims more than anything else. The recently updated guidelines indicate the trouble is easy to avoid. For example, if the advertiser shows that they’ve been mentioned on any media or press outlet, they must actually prove this claim with something like a link or a quote. Secondly, if the advertiser quotes a customer, the experience conveyed must be typical for any customer to expect.

An undesired situation could arise if the guidelines are repeatedly not followed, both for the misleading advertiser and the organization for which they are misrepresenting. While disclaimers can relieve some responsibility to the consumer, the advertiser should understand the potential long-term damage to their brand.

Looking for a company that documents their press coverage very well? Check out Airbnb.

Don’t be afraid to advocate for other consumers at risk: https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/

The Federal Trade Commission Act allows the FTC to act in the interest of all consumers to prevent deceptive and unfair acts or practices. In interpreting Section 5 of the Act, the Commission has determined that a representation, omission or practice is deceptive if it is likely to:

• mislead consumers and
• affect consumers’ behavior or decisions about the product or service.

In addition, an act or practice is unfair if the injury it causes, or is likely to cause, is:

• substantial
• not outweighed by other benefits and
• not reasonably avoidable.

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The topic of academic honesty is a repetitive lecture subject on every college campus around the world. In the modern academic setting, students are have access to nearly infinite information sources thanks to the Internet. It’s not uncommon for a student to search on the internet for the high quality sources before opening any books. Access to an increasing array of reliable information on nearly any topic makes the task of identifying non-cited research much easier, and it also creates increasing complexity when documenting your research process. The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media has lead an effort to build an academic tool for collecting, organizing, sharing, and citing resources right in your browser. Zotero is primarily funded by the Andrew H. Mellon foundation.

From a high-level, the tool is so simple, but so critical to the academic research process. Among the many preliminary sources you may use to debrief yourself on any subject (Wikipedia, Quora, etc), it’s important to document all of those sources, and then be able to easily determine which pieces of information necessitate a citation. Groups working on research as a team can collaborate to share or organize their resources together. In just one-click, you can cite a source in one of many different styles. The clean and simple UI functions like an iTunes playlist, but for research sources.

Zotero is preinstalled on all Wake Forest issued student ThinkPads. I’m anxious to use it and see how Ingenic can be adapted for scholarly use.

For my entire duration of high school, you could often find me at a computer during my free time, but not once did I ever bring a laptop or tablet into the classroom. The old habit of pen and paper was satisfying and always seemed to be good enough. For any typical class, I would accumulate hundreds of pages of hand written notes or assignments each semester. Before each exam week, I would prepare for each lengthy test by reading reading over all of these pages of notes. Towards the end of my high school career, nearly all of my teachers developed tolerance for  students using computers to take notes in class, but for some reason I never made the leap to going paperless.

My first class at Wake Forest is on August 31st, just about two week away. For this upcoming fall semester, I’m going to try to move as many of my academic habits onto the web as possible. This does not mean taking notes in Microsoft Word (stored locally on your hard drive), but instead on Google Docs so I can access my information anywhere. It also means replacing my traditional academic planner with an internet based project management solution. I’ve been using the visually oriented tool AgileZen for my work, it’s based off the kan-ban workflow strategy:

The solution tracks “stories” as from left to right, allowing you to drag them across the board and see your progress visually.

Perhaps the most common symbol of academia is a stack of books. My plan to go paperless means buying the e-books that are available for the courses I’m taking. Oh and what about all of those PowerPoint presentations? I’ll be using web-based Prezi.

The result is a flexible lifestyle enabling you to access your information from a variety of devices. I will be able to access my documents on my on my laptop, library computers, smartphone, iPad, and anything else with an internet connection. For the occasional class such as Math that requires pen and paper, I will be prepared with my notebook. But for now, I’m moving my “book bag” into the cloud.

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Steven Blank outlined the strategy of customer development in his book The Four Steps to the Epiphany back in 2007 after a career as a serial entrepreneur. His detailed thoughts on understanding customers before building products have become known as the bible for startup businesses. Founders who are in touch with his thoughts fully understand the need for market validation before product development. Customer developmentis challenging because it’s difficult to automate and receive quality feedback. How many times have you clicked diligently through a 10-minute survey? How many times have you beta tested a product and expressed your distaste with a particularly annoying experience? If you’re like me, then it’s not too often.

The process of collecting honest and anonymous  feedback was a tedious task, often leaving the founders without the most crucial feedback they are seeking. The service offered by KSSinsights changes the dynamic of customer development by only asking users simple but pivotal answers. The users are given few options to choose on the survey and you have the ability to ask questions that are relevant to the page they are on.

An example survey we’re using on Ingenic for logged-in users only is the short answer prompt: “Is there anything on this page not working the way your expected it to?”. In addition to the short response, KI reports the User Agent (Browser and Operating System) to make troubleshooting much easier. We’re getting more data from our users, and that helps us make better product development decisions for our immediate and long-term success.

Bottom line, it’s quick, targeted, and specific feedback.  The burden on the user becomes minimal because the short feedback does not interfere with their experience using the product. No more will I have to settle for a generic question and receive generic feedback. And the installation doesn’t take longer than a couple minutes.

I’ve installed the code on this blog post. Take a look on the bottom right of your screen.

View the feedback report*

*Note a 2-hour reporting delay due to Amazon Web Services!

Click the image below to take a look at a few survey questions that might generate valuable customer insights for your product development:

What’s the cost for KissInsights, and are there any benefits for the premium account? It’s $29/month, so about $1 per day. And with the premium account you can create unlimited white-label surveys and receive unlimited responses. Each successful feedback submission then calls the user to follow your Twitter account or like your Facebook page. It’s an elegant solution to a complicated and continuous customer development challenge. 

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