Welcome to Chez Cliff!

Finally got the taxes all buttoned up.  The e-file is truly a beautiful thing.  But with California’s budget going to the dogs, I’ll be lucky to get the refund before the end of March.

Usually I try to hang onto my refunds but this year that won’t happen.  Some outstanding family matters have to be taken care of and also my car is due for it’s 90,000 mile timing belt replacement.  Might as well replace the tires before they explode and viola!   My version of the economy stimulus package.

Overall I can’t complain about my car.  The last major repair work was nearly 2 years ago.  Yes it would be nice to roll up to the dollar store in a beamer but for now that’s not required.

Keeping costs down is always good.

* Thanks to all who voted on their opinion.  When I mentioned the idea to a few business gurus they all nodded their heads in approval.

Admittedly when you release a product onto the market you have to become a bit of a trouble shooter.

Pinch Media tracks the usage of my applications.  A few weeks ago, the data revealed that my paid application has a tendency to crash.  Far too often.

This last weekend, I was chasing down a problem.

We solve problems every single day.  In my many years of experience, there are typically two types of problems solvers.  The first are “root cause” solvers: people who find the root of the problem and fix it.  The second are “band aid” solvers: people who quickly fix something, hoping that it works.

I’m a root-cause person.  Probably explains why Sherlock Holmes is my favorite fictional character of all time.  “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

Every single customer who has reached out to me over the past four months received an email from me.  Most reported back that there was no problem.  A few did respond, reporting the application had become unusable due to crashes.  That hurt.

Now it’s a matter of chasing down the root cause.

What type of iPhone/iPod are you using?

What OS version are you using?

Did you jailbreak your iPhone?

Did you buy version 1.0 and then upgrade?

What were you doing when the application crashed?

Yeah, I got trouble shooting down to a science.  Those questions could eliminate 95% of the application and narrow it down to the last 5%.

The first three questions puts responsibility on the customer.  If their OS is severely out of date or if they hacked their iPhone, too bad.  The last two questions puts the responsibility on me.

With this hiccup, feedback from the customers pins the blame on the application.

We’re working on it.

Right now, I’m in process of making some redesigns and enhancement to my software.  And if you’d be so kind as to indulge me, I humbly ask for your opinion.

When I originally designed the software, my thought process was that the user would enter in some basic property information.  The next step would be to go over the Expenses and then finally check the cashflow.

Tracking the usage of my software, my users surprised me by doing the steps out of sequence.  They enter the Property Information and then immediately check the Cashflow and THEN they check the Expenses.

An idea I had was to not bury the Cashflow calculation into the third screen but rather display it on the Property Information screen.  As soon as the user enters the basic information, the CashFlow is displayed on the same screen.

I worked up a mock-up, so you can see what it would look like.

Obviously the finished product will look much better.  This is just my poor graphic skills at work.

The cashflow itself would be button the user could click on, which would take them directly to the cashflow analysis screen where they could see a more detailed analysis.

So here is the question:  Thinking as an investor, would you be interested in seeing the CashFlow on the front screen?

If you have another idea, fill in the Other slot or leave a comment.

Merci!

[polldaddy poll="1381110"]

Amazing how time flies.

It’s been a few years since I made a video.  Before I shot my first one, I read various books on how to frame shots and create interesting stories.  Actually the Hitchcock book was the best.

While I lay no claim to be another Hitchcock, my editing skills are pretty good.  And really, editing is where you tell the story.  You can have the greatest footage in the world but if you can’t stitch it together to tell a story then your movie is going to be bad.

Well guess what?  I blew the dust off the video camera.  Videos are joining the mix.

I now have a crew.  I’m training a camera person in how to line up shots, lighting, make various pans, blah blah blah.  This will be an incredible time saver.

In the sound department, a friend of mine is a recording engineer.  Since I’ll be speaking on camera, I want to make sure my voice resembles something other than Charlie Brown.

For under $40, I’m thinking something pretty slick can emerge.

The video will debut probably within the next month.  I’ll post it here and suck in the feedback.

My mentor recommended a long list of what he considered to be great marketing books.  Why?  Because I’m still not sure what marketing is or how marketing is created.

This year, one of my minor goals was to read one book per month.  I’m ahead of schedule with having read three within the first month and a half of this year.

Go me.

Made to Stick:  The book doesn’t explain what marketing is but it does do a decent job of explaining how to make an idea stick in the head of someone.  But getting an idea to stick is not enough if the people can’t remember the who part of the equation.  Remember the Superbowl commercial where a marching band was playing on a field?  Suddenly someone released dozens of wolves, which chased and bit the band members.  I remember that ad as clear as day.  But I can’t tell you who put that ad out there.

The workable idea: the author creates a formula which you can use to develop the marketing idea which will stick with your customer.  This I believe holds some merit and I’m currently  working on reviewing all my material that customers are exposed to.

Crossing the Chasm: The negative reviews say that it’s a rehash of some of Geoffrey Moore’s books.  The good news:  Geoffrey Moore is completely unknown to me so all the information should be new.  I’ve just started this book so I can’t talk intelligently about it.

I guess by reading many, many books about marketing my mentor is hoping that the adage “Throw enough mud at the wall and eveutually something will stick” will pay off in my case.