Ups & Downs of Being a Kenyan Web Entrepreneur
June 27, 2008 at 11:54 am
Reboot tends to be an almost exclusively white affair, so it was with great delight that I kicked off day 2 listening to Segeni Ng’Ethe of Mamamikes.com tell us about the ups and downs of running an internet business in Kenya.
Mamamikes facilitates payments from Kenyan expats who want to transfer vouchers back home. Check out their youtube vid.
This can be practical gifts eg. Shopping vouchers, electricity bill, sentimental gifts like roses, cultural gifts eg. Cow (to your granny!). I think that’s a great idea because it overcomes the difficulty of sending money to a home with perhaps an alcoholic parent. They’re seeing a huge growth in vouchers for mobile phones. And ring tones are huge – of local music of course!
In Africa, the mobile phone is the primary communications device because many people don’t have laptops and the bandwidth required to connect them to the internet. As a result, more SMS’ s are sent per day in Nairobi than in New York City. And kids are addicted to Facebook there just as they are everywhere, the only difference is that Kenyan kids access it by mobile phone.
What’s it like to be an entrepreneur in Nairobi?
Challenging. The Internet is still a growing concept in Kenya. Bandwidth is difficult, so you’ve got to plan around that – for example, my email is set up so that everything with more than 1.5mb goes straight to the server, because it would block every other email coming in. When you’re planning on uploading development or even just a simple youtube you’ve got to plan in advance.
Internet Costs in Kenya
56k connection speed costs $400 per month. Now they’ve moved to satellite, they have hooked up with others in their building and now pay $150 for 128k connection. There is no fibre in Kenya. But it has become political, and is on the agenda, but don’t be expecting too much too soon. (Sounds like Ireland)
Recent Violence in Kenya
How the phone was used and his service during the violence in December. What happened was that the elections socialised people to be tribal. So when the results came out, people went to war.
• If there’s violence in your area, people were asked to send an SMS. This was then added to a Google Map so people could see where the flashpionts for violence were.
• Crackdown on tracking hate SMS’s including viral
• Scratch card for phone credit is distributed physically. When the fighting was on, people were unable to leave the house and the shopkeepers weren’t there. Showed the people how reliant they were on the phones. Mamamikes was used by people sending credit to loved ones.
What he expects in the coming years from Africa is innovation the way phones are being used.
It’s like the phone is our version of the internet.
10 Things Customers Would Tell You If You Asked
June 26, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Great talk by Eric Reiss. Someone should get him to Ireland to talk on customer service. Passionate, engaging and very very entertaining.
- Don’t tell me how great, be great
- Go the extra mile
- Don’t get in my way when I’m trying to shop
- If I know what I’m looking for help me find it
- If I have questions, I want answers, not sales talk
- Tell me you’re looking for my size, don’t just turn and leave
- If you expect me to buy something tell me what it costs
- Are your own affairs so important that you feel justified in ignoring me?
- Don’t make me feel stupid
- If you make a mistake admit it
He goes through wine.com as a case study of the above being done badly. I’m thinking - he’d have a field day going through the Golden Spiders nominees!
If we do not demand good service we are never going to receive it.
People of Ireland are you listening?
Addendum in September
In the last three days, I’ve been helpful to 3 different people and in every case I did not receive a thank you for my help. The first was in the supermarket when an Eastern European couple dropped €200 in cash on the floor. I picked it up, ran after them and gave it to them. They didn’t say thank you, their faces remained impassive. I stood there waiting for some sort of interaction and they thought I wanted money!! They tried to pawn me off with €10. How insulting. Not having command of the language is no excuse. I can say thank you in 8 languages, I’m sure they can say it in 1.
Today I noticed a prominent website that had a prominent typo on the home page. I was on to their Head Office about something anyway, I told the receptionist about it, and she was quite rude about it. I know it’s not her job to look after the website, but it is her job to be the voice of that organisation and at the very least placate an old spelling nazi like myself. For God’s sake is she thick - if you’re just about to put someone through to the MD, surely you’d have the cop on to be polite to them?
Lastly, I’ve just bent over backwards for a client. Delivered more than was required and way more than is being paid for. This client hasn’t said thanks to me once. They simply take and don’t give the slightest thanks back.
I’m feeling a bit disillusioned. Representing Brightspark I try so hard to do points 1 & 2 above. Yet people’s rudeness throws it back in my face and makes me question why I bother trying at all. As a customer I consistently do not experience point 10 and that really irritates.
Ireland - you’ve lost your manners. Dunno how or where, but they’re gone.
7 Ways to Make User Experience Count
June 26, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Reboot 10 is on. The annual meeting for ‘practical visionaries’. Rather self congratulatory, but apt. I go for inspiration, as a gift to myself to think about the really big topics addressed by the keynotes, to find out about new apps, services, and ideas in the breakout rooms, and to catch up with friends and see what they’ve been up to for the past year.
Best of the morning was Andy Budd , quintessential Brit user experience designer.
He introduced his user experience graph - time and pleasure plotted on x and y axes. (Am trying to get a pic to add here) and his lively presentation was peppered with real life examples and how to carry them over into the online experience.
1. First impressions count.
Unwrapping your apple product is like undressing your girlfriend for the very first time.
Research shows that women take under 30 seconds to make their minds up about a man. (Men take slightly longer).
To a packed room fuil of designers, he proclaimed that design counts! We all know that fancy product packaging in everyday products can entice us to spend that extra couple of cent.
People can tell the quality of a website in 50 milliseconds. This is based on design.
Nice examples of first impressions:
* First screen of Basecamp, little video to up your skill level and not bombardyou.
* In situ tours on Yahoo. Doesn’t take you outside that experience.
2. ATTENTIVE SERVICE
Real life examples include the waitor refilling your glass, the supermarket opening a new checkout because there’s a queue, etc.
It’s all about process efficiency. Again Apple as an example. They built a protoype of their flagship store. And when they started using it, they realised that it was based around the business model of ie. laptops, ipods, etc. That’s not how users use the products - so they re-engineered it by how users use the products - with a section for photographers, then videographers, musos etc.
3. PERSONALISATION & CUSTOMISATION
Real life examples are going into the pub and the barman remembering your name. Starbucks took this and built it into their processes - they take your name, shout back your order with your name. They’ve even gone further and allow you to customise your drink.
* On the Wii – most popular best feature is “mii” - tiny characters you can customise yourself. Beautiful social interaction.
* Gamers and their characters exhibit a high degree of attachment to that which they’ve created - . World of warcraft gamers post pics of their chars on flickr!
* Second Life – people pay real money for fake designer shoes! Don’t want to look like a newbie.
* Flickr does it well. Welcomes you back using your name… (and I like the hellos in difference languages)
Conclusion: personalisation and customisation works! A 12 year old’s bedroom really does look like a myspace page. No boundaries, no borders, create what you want! Freedom to experiment.
4. ATTENTION TO DETAIL
My favourite one. It’s details that make me smile that resonate.
Real life examples - car companies design the sound of the car door going thunk. They know that we perceive that sound as the quality of the machine.
Disney – even the trash cans are themed. A regular bin would break the magic.
Innocent smoothies – ’stop looking at my bottom!’ on the bottom of their cartons.
Conclusion: if you can build delightful experiences into your service/app, youll will make a difference in people’s lives.
Online:
* Threadless – if you add something to your shoppoing cart and you forget it, they email you if it’s about to sell out. Win win. I feel ilke they care. They might make a sale.
* Moo email confirmation email - beautiful - “Remember I’m just a bitr of software. So if you have anuy questions please contact customer services who are real people… ”
5. GIVE THEM FEEDBACK
Real world example is slot machines/pokies. They’re very responsive, you put your money in and it makes a thunk sound. You press button it beeps. You get immersed into the feedback cycle. Even include speakers in the tray to make it sound like you’re winning more. Or another example -if you press a button in a lift, you think it’s not working if you don’t see a light.
Online:
* Apple .. genius bar in stores where peole can get help to solve their problems based on hotel concierge desk. Take offline nuggets to make online exp better.
* Buttons that look like buttons.
* Process completion bar - Lined in
* Kayak – shows you immediately that the system is working, shows you what it’s doing and updates as you wait…page changes to show you it’s done. (Except I have never bought a flight from kayak because they are always the most expensive. An example of where good design doesn’t entice me to pay more!)
* Google maps ingenious.. people love to play with it. It’s fun to use. Because of the feedback mechanisms built in.
6. MAKE IT FUN
We love having fun. (In fact I think this point has stimulated a little break out chat later today on fun and play). We love collecting especially if there’s a payoff, like free coffee! But beware - as points can lead to leaderboards. And if you show people where they are in the system, they might not want to play anmore.
Real life examples:
* Fly on the urinal in Schipol airport. Reduces spillage by up to 80%! You can now buy your own fly for your loo at home here. urinalfly.com !!
Online:
Collecting photos on Flickr (or I might add Pixie)
Colecting friends on Facebook
Conclusion: we love collecting, but don’t go with leaderboards (like Digg did and that has impacted on the quality as leaders on the diggerboard are digging for position rather than content).
7. CREATE THE PERFECT ENVIRONMENT
Real life: Starbucks… sofa, cd, mug…
Virgin lounge, … make you want to pay ..
Vegas – the centre of design with the purpose of imparting people from their money.
Right now we have too many sites that create negative curves in terms of user experience. We have frustrating sign up processes and spaces you can’t escape from.
A great presentation from www.andybudd.com. I had all the links in above, but the damn connection here is flicking in and out, so I lost it all!! Go find them yourself, use Google!!
Pre Reboot 10
June 24, 2008 at 8:28 am
Am off to Reboot in Copenhagen tomorrow. Looking forward to inspiration, some relaxation (!), and some mind-bending talks and chats to cool people. The theme this year is FREE, here are my thoughts on that. Note that none of these thoughts have been ‘influenced’ by the website because I have given up trying to learn how to use that piece of crap. Reboot is a brilliantly organised inspiring event but the website sucks. I was horrified to find that my profile is still showing as attending last year’s events. And as a mark of just how bad it is - you have to register to attend the boat party drinks - and I have not been able to do so!
Free spirit. Free love. Freedom of choice.
That’s what I think of first.
- The web started out free - should we have to pay? If we don’t pay, then who owns?
- If we give too much for free, then is it valued? That was my learning from last year. No more freebies!! Because freebies aren’t valued as much as even a nominal fee. They tend to get abused and taken advantage of.
- Free delivery and how contentious an issue that can be.
Last year’s theme was human and I have spent the 12 months since last Reboot noting how much more humanity surrounds us in business life these days than before. I’m curious and excited to see how Free works it way into my head, and I’m thankful in advance to those who are responsible.
Firefox 3 Launch Party
June 20, 2008 at 10:10 am
Was great craic. Lots of people there - new faces and old hacks alike! Novelty of the night was Quest.ie who were taking pictures against a greenscreen. Some interesting poses involving power drills. But here’s one for family consumption - all the bloggers who were in attendance on the night. I think the smiles on the faces sums up the general camaraderie and niceness amongst the blog community here. In my opinion that’s a good thing.
Bohoe’s pics of the night really capture it. Well the pre-Lillie’s bit…
Have a great weekend.
Curry 2.1 - Part 1
June 19, 2008 at 1:01 am
Tonight I braved rain and miserableness to attend the inaugural Curry 2.1. Am not sure if that’s what it’s going to end up being called, but it’s a Paul Walsh networking affair, a step forward from Curry 2.0, Jaipur, you know it’s going to be good, and I wasn’t disappointed. Thanks to sponsors Microsoft and BT.
This blog comes in two posts because the format of the night was that we went around the table (16 people) and after intros, we all got to shout out what subjects we’d like to discuss. The worthy ones got approx. 10 mins, and I’m delighted that my topic “Free” started off.
FREE
The reason I raised this is because I’m heading off to Reboot 10 next week and last year’s Reboot topic (Human) has been very much on my mind. I believe that we are in an era where humanity is OK in business. I rejoice in that and get a kick when financials and telcos include words like ‘energy’ and ’spirit’ in their content! Human-ness and all that means is current. I am grateful to the people who put on Reboot 9 for helping to plant that in my consciousness.
I asked the group for their thoughts on FREE, the theme of this year’s Reboot:
Marcus Mac Innes of Pix.ie, photo sharing software (I’ve recently transferred my paid membership and longevity with Flickr) said:
It’s almost impossible to ask people to pay for a product or service they are accustomed to getting for free. You’ve got to get the right balance of free vs. paid from the start in order to maximise any future revenue opportunities.
Martha Rotter of Microsoft said:
Space isn’t the problem. It’s when you’ve got to deal with security breaches. etc
Conclusion: “free” is good. It’s not the problem. It’s when you’ve got too much free. When there’s always someone out there who’s going to offer more free. Then it’s goes beyond having value.
Discussion Topic 2 :(Tech) People in Ireland are Shit
Paul Walsh made the point that it’s not companies that are shit in Ireland, but the people and the traditional track record. Much debate followed, including comments that Irish VC’s just don’t get it. But as Brian Caulfieldpointed out, it’s a two way street as far as slagging off VC’s goes - and in fairness, it’s not that easy to find a backable business in ireland.
Dylan Collins pointed out that it was a lack of good seed investment five years ago that leaves us in the situation we’re in today. Talk then turned to whether or not there is a case for raising capital off high net worths facing into the property downturn these days.
Conclusion: there is an opportunity to include high net worths/business angels in Ireland?
More on other topics tomorrow including: a) how to decipher my own writing on the side of a napkin b) how to quantify social networks c) hiring talent in Ireland today
We are not France
June 18, 2008 at 9:04 am
Located on the north western corner of Europe, our climate and our customs are not the same as our mainland European brothers and sisters. So I’d just like to point out Ireland doesn’t close for the summer. We don’t all migrate to the south for August. And not for July either.
I’m working crazy hours right now to deliver to many clients for the end of June. I think they think we’ll all be sipping cognacs in Cork or something come 1 July. But I’d just like to inform everyone, I’m here in July and in August and am happy to take on work.
On a related note, can I suggest to anyone planning their email calendar to consider August?
Marketing Managers around the world plan post summer emails for September. Retailers all do a blast in early November - they think they’re getting the pre-Christmas rush, but when all of their competitors are doing the same, messages can get lost in the noise. If you’re smart, you’d be sending an email in August and because we’re all not in France at that time, it’ll probably get read!
Brightspark is 5 years old
June 16, 2008 at 9:29 am
Today! Cinco anos, half a decade, in web years that’s like 25 years! To mark it, the office will be closed this afternoon while we retire to the Ely in CHQ for a spot of lunch.
I was thinking about the how long it took me to realise that I had a business that was successful and that wasn’t going away. For the first 12-18 months, I still had the fear of a Sunday night “I hope I have enough work on this week to keep me busy.” Ha! After a couple of yeas, I acquired the confidence to turn down work. The combination of economically booming Ireland and operating in a growth industry, means that we are in the lucky position of having too much work. A good investment for me was with Dublin-based business coach, James Sweetman, who helped me to define my ideal client. For the record, Brightspark’s ideal client is someone who appreciates what we do, ‘gets it’, and pays their bills on time. I highly recommend you define your ideal client if you haven’t done so already. Once you know who you want to work for, it becomes very easy to choose the ones in which to invest your time, creativity, and energy.
I’ll leave today with the Groovy Dancing girl (Sophie Merry). An update on the dance that went so incredibly viral on Youtube, this one sees her dancing in a more stylish set and to a Squarepusher tune that’s got a bit more of a drum and bass feel. This is how I feel inside when I think of how lucky enough I am to do what I love doing every day and get paid for it!
Mobile Phone Scam
June 11, 2008 at 11:02 am
If you receive a phone call on your mobile from any person, saying that he or she is a (mobile phone) company engineer, or telling you that they’re checking your mobile line, and you have to press #90 or #09 or any other number - end this call immediately without pressing any numbers.
There is a fraud company using a device that once you press #90 or #09 they can access your ‘SIM’ card and make calls at your expense.
Lisbon Treaty and Keith Barry
June 9, 2008 at 10:25 am
