by Paul Kortman | Nov 21, 2012 | Startup
I’ve been struggling lately. I’ve discovered that others are struggling with the same problem too, so I needed to write about it, for me, and for those whom I’ve discussed this with.
I’ve been reading, discussing, and learning the Lean Startup Methodology for the last 3 years now. When most people hear the concept of Lean Startup, they think bootstrap startup, ya know lean on funding. While this isn’t always true it’s surprisingly still prevalent thinking. Perhaps Eric Ries should have done an MVP of the movement’s name and received some user feedback on it before writing the book.
The basics of the lean startup philosophy are to get user feedback, do user testing, and discover if people are willing to use (and pay for) the product you are creating both before and throughout the creation process. It’s called lean not due to lack of funding but due to efficiencies inherent in the process. It’ll cost well over $60,000 to build anything of value (app or physical product). Most often, ideators (co-founders) will donate their time to the development which brings down the hard costs, but does not effect the cost of those hours given. Lean Startup philosophy asks: What if you found out that people didn’t want this product after only spending $500 versus spending $60,000 (in time and money). That’s where the lean (efficient) comes in. 
So the theory of Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is born. We all understand what Product means, and Minimum makes sense: what is the bare essentials that you can get away with?
But Viable. That is the issue.
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by Paul Kortman | Jun 13, 2012 | Business, IT
I find that I use my inbox as my todo list. I know I know I know… It’s not the greatest use of the inbox. I mean the inbox was not designed to be a todo list and using an inbox as a todo list doesn’t work with either inbox zero or the GTD methods. But no matter how many other todo list mangers I try I keep returning to the inbox-as-todo-list method.
Yet I have this dilemma, a war wages inside. I like inbox zero, or at least inbox <5. I also have anywhere from 20-50 things on my todo list at any given time. (more…)
by Paul Kortman | Jan 2, 2012 | Social Media
Hi, you’ve likely been sent here by a post on a Facebook page. The administrator of that page has read this and is attempting to reach their audience better through your help. So read on, join the experiment and comment afterwards to let us know if it works.
What is Facebook’s EdgeRank?
Facebook introduced an algorithm called EdgeRank that determines which content to show in each persons news feed. The effects on a person to person level is that no longer will you see everything your friends post to Facebook in your news feed unless you look at their profile/timeline.
This EdgeRank algorithm also effects content posted from a Facebook page (formerly called a fan page). So when the administrator posts an announcement to the page Facebook’s EdgeRank determines who should see the content in their news feed.
What are the factors of EdgeRank?
Most sites point to three factors: (more…)
by Paul Kortman | Oct 24, 2011 | Business
Recently I celebrated with a few other contractors my first official year of being a freelance digital marketer. It’s been over a year and I’ve seen some crazy things happen. The largest one being that I intended to be a freelancer, and now I’m running a virtual digital agency. (Connex pays/represents 5 contractors, I happen to be the salesman, account manager and one of the contractors :)
I try to live my life with no regrets, and I do not regret leaving the best job I’ve ever had, however the road, the journey this first year has not proved to be easy. I’ve made many mistakes and my failures have become brighter, louder and more annoying to me.
So if you want some background on me quitting my job last year or the second company I started in the past year check those posts out, or the inspiration for this post, but if you want to know a fraction of the lessons I’ve learned in my first year read on. (more…)
by Paul Kortman | Sep 14, 2011 | Social Media
There are a lot of twitter list tools out there (see links below) but today’s post will focus on the basics of Twitter List Management, how to create, edit, and use twitter lists. For some of you who’ve already created a twitter list and know how to add/remove people skip down to the Advanced tools section.
Why Twitter List Management?
There is only so much data one can consume in a day. With twitter there are reasons you may need or want to follow accounts that you don’t actually want to read their content on a regular basis. You really have two options, ignore the content they are posting, or add everyone else to a list and just watch that list.
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