Interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt

Posted on April 9, 2007 by John Hunter

This interesting interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt covers many topics:

Sergey gives this nice speech about what is the biggest cost to Google. And everybody assumes it’s like engineers or something. He says, ‘opportunity costs‘
…
The trick is to have everybody participating in the decision and make sure everybody has been heard. The book Wisdom of Crowds (by James Surowiecki) says that you have to have two things to make better decisions in groups. One is you need a deadline, which someone — at the end of the day is me or some external factor, and the second is that you need a dissident. There needs to be one person who will sit there in the room and say I disagree, and then the person next to him or her will say, “Well, yeah.” See, everyone waits for the first person to be the dissident, and then they pile on, and that’s how you have a healthy argument.

The culture of challenging ideas as done in the academic environment seems a key cultural component of Google. So many other organizations may talk about striving for the best solutions but so much actual activity is driven by who says what not by what is best. Even at Google that is certainly true to an extent, but Google seems much more committed to the best solution. The culture is one of finding the best engineering solution.

Related: Eric Schmidt podcast – Meeting Like Google – Google Shifts Focus – Google Management – Innovation at Google

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Google Website Optimizer

Posted on April 7, 2007 by John Hunter

Google’s Website Optimizer allows for multivariate testing of your website.

Website Optimizer, Google’s free multivariate testing application, helps online marketers increase visitor conversion rates and overall visitor satisfaction by continually testing different combinations of site content (text and images).

Rather than sitting in a room and arguing over what will work better, you can save time and eliminate the guesswork by simply letting your visitors tell you what works best. We’ll guide you through the process of designing and implementing your first experiment. Start optimizing your most important web pages and see detailed reports within hours.

Google provides an online slide show with audio (a good example of one way to share online information sharing in my opinion). This tool seems to have limited experimental options to what is on the page (it does not appear, for example, that one variable could be current customer v. new visitor…). Still it looks like an very easy way to do some simple multi-factorial experiments. Google offers a list of partners [the link that Google broke was removed] for those interested in consulting and more advanced features (and for those experts reading this you can apply to be a partner).

Related: Design of experiments posts – articles on multi-factorial experimentation – Google: Experiment Quickly and Often – Data Based Decision Making at Google

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Posted in Design of Experiments, Google, IT, Management | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Deming Seminar Update

Posted on April 5, 2007 by John Hunter

Ian Bradbury, President of Peaker Services Inc., will discuss his company’s implementation of Dr. Deming’s theory of management at a seminar in Lansing, Michigan, 23-25 April 2007. As I mentioned previously I will be co-presenting this seminar. Several interesting articles:

So What’s System[s] Thinking by Ian Bradbury

Improving Problem Solving [the broken link was removed] by Ian Bradbury and Gipsie Ranney.

Appraising the Performance Of Performance Appraisals [the broken link was removed] by Harry Goldstein discusses some of the management decisions at Peaker Services.

Related: Deming’s Ideas at Markey’s Audio Visual

Posted in Career, Deming, Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | 3 Comments

Agile Software Development

Posted on April 4, 2007 by John Hunter

Nice presentation for those interested in software application development: Waterfall Bad, Washing Machine Good. I must admit I think this slide show would be much better with audio adding details… As it stands now it is a nice slide show (though maybe only if you already agree with the idea of agile development practices).

The basic idea: reduce the initial planning phase and increase the iterations (similar to turning the PDSA cycle quickly) and interaction with users. The application of agile methods does require some different thinking – less up front planning can seem odd strategy (when so often lack of planning is a problem). But within the context of software application development “planning” is largely about trying to document every single detail to eliminate the need to cooperate in the process of developing the application (keeping walls up between IT and the rest of the organization…).

Related: If Tech Companies Made Sudoku – Agile Software Development
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Posted in IT, Management, Software Development | 10 Comments

Management Improvement Carnival #8

Posted on April 3, 2007 by John Hunter

Good is not almost as good as great by Seth Godin – “They understand what a customer wants. They’re not just better than good. They’re playing a totally different game.”
Great point (says John Hunter)
“Fire half your salesforce. Then, give the remainder, the top people, a big raise, and use the money left over to steal the best salespeople you can find”
Not a great point (John again), instead change your system to support the behaviors you want to encourage.

  • Demystifying Design of Experiments by Ron Pereira – “This engineer was using your traditional OFAT [One Factor At a Time] problem solving approach. The problem with this technique is that you cannot determine how the various parameters interact with one another.”
  • Kaizen tips for Getting your music heard by George Howard – “For instance, ‘Actively pursue a superior, complete customer experience,’ becomes relevant when we replace the word ‘customer’ with ‘fan.'”
  • Management By Standing Still by Mike Wroblewski – “this technique can be directly linked to the famous ‘Ohno Circle’, a circle drawn by Taiichi Ohno on the Toyota shop floor for engineers to stand in for hours on end ‘to see and understand’.”
  • Nine Rules for Fighting Endless Meetings by Jon Miller – “Meetings will be more productive when you start with an agenda that answers the questions: Why am I at this meeting? Who requires that I be here? When does this meeting end? How will we know if the meeting is successful?”

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Joel Barker Podcast

Posted on April 1, 2007 by John Hunter

Innovation with Joel Barker at the Cranky Middle Manager Show:

Innovation isn’t necessarily all great. Unintended consequences are something to be considered- what Joel calls “Cascade Thinking”. What are the long-term consequences before you invest. “the answer to the problem is only the beginning of the solution”. Check out www.implicationswheel.com.

How do you make sure that checking out the implications doesn’t turn into a reason not to innovate? The implications wheel is a tool you can use. You can identify and mitigate threats before you invest millions or kill off a species.

The implications wheel is a powerful tool that is underused. It seems to be something that people don’t really see as worthwhile at first glance. The key is how it is used to identify and mitigate threats (to the organization’s future) and to spot opportunities.

Broken links removed 2013 🙁

Related: Ackoff, Idealized Design and Bell Labs – Systemic Thinking – articles on innovation by Clayton Christensen

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A4 Paper Art

Posted on March 31, 2007 by John Hunter

Fun A4 Paper Art – unrelated to an A3 report. Another innovative use of paper: Teaching Engineers Experimental Design With a Paper Helicopter by George Box.

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Goodbye Quarterly Targets?

Posted on March 31, 2007 by John Hunter

Goodbye Quarterly Targets? [the broken link was removed], Business Week:

For about a decade, companies have tried to goose their stocks-or manage the market’s expectations-by putting out quarterly earnings projections. Now the practice has come under fire as business leaders fret that the focus on short-term targets undermines long-term growth.

On March 14 the Commission on the Regulation of U.S. Capital Markets in the 21st Century, a project of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, urged executives to stop issuing their short-term goals. The practice is a “self-inflicted wound by American CEOs,” says commission member Robert Pozen, chairman of MFS Investment Management, a Boston fund manager.

Debate over this issue has simmered for years. Indeed, dozens of companies, including Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, have quit publicizing quarterly earnings targets. Now the issue has become urgent, the Chamber argues, as U.S. companies face growing long-term competition from overseas, where such projections are not widely made.

Learning that a fixation on short term profits is bad for the organization is a good step. Deming talked about this problem over twenty years ago in seven deadly diseases of western management one of which was: the emphasis on short term profits.

Related: Life Beyond the Short Term – Dell Falls Short – Constancy of Purpose

Posted in Deming, Management | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Data Visualization Example

Posted on March 28, 2007 by John Hunter

[I replaced the embedded video, since Google broke the original link with the way they shut down Google Video after buying YouTube]

In Myths About the Developing World, Hans Rosling shows some great graphics to display data on health care outcomes. This is one of the talks from the great TED conference that we have mentioned before. They really have some great webcasts available on their site.

The presentation also gives a concrete example of faulty knowledge (people thinking things which are not so – related to theory of knowledge). He also makes good points on stratifying data at the 14 minute mark. See gapminder.org for good additional material.

Related: Great Charts – Open Access Education Materials

Posted in Data, Economics, Health care, Management, webcast | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Metrics and Software Development

Posted on March 27, 2007 by John Hunter

Lean-based Metrics for Agile CM Environments [the broken link was removed] by Brad Appleton, Robert Cowham and Steve Berczuk:

Measure Up! Don’t use metrics to measure individuals in a way that compares their performance to others or isolates the value of their contributions from the rest of the team. The last of the seven principles of Lean software development tells us to “Optimize across the whole.” When measuring value or performance, it is often better to measure at the next level-up. Look at the big-picture because the integrated whole is greater than the sum of its decomposition into parts. Metrics on individuals and subparts often create suboptimization of the whole, unless the metric connects to the “big picture” in a way that emphasizes the success of the whole over any one part.

I agree that measuring individuals is normally not an effective way improve. And “measuring up” can often be valuable. Often a fixation on small process measures can result in improvements that don’t actually improve the end result. But rather than the measure up view, I find looking at outcome measures (to measure overall effectiveness) and process measures (for viewing specific parts of the system “big picture”) the most useful strategy.

The reason for process measures is not to improve those results alone. But those process measures can be selected to measure key processes within the system. Say finding 3 process measures that if we can improve these then this important outcome measure will improve (using PDSA to make sure your prediction is accurate – don’t fall into the trap of focusing on improving that measure even after the data shows it does not result in the desired improvement to the overall results that was predicted).

Also, process measures are helpful in serving as indicators that something is going wrong (or potentially going better than normal). Process measures will change quickly (good ones can be close to real time) thus facilitate immediate remedies and immediate examination of what lead to the problem to aid in avoiding that condition in the future.

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Posted in Data, IT, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles, Software Development, Theory of Constraints | Tagged , , | 5 Comments