Categories
Business Technology

Tile has never lived up to its initial pitch

The brilliant and talented tech commentator Marques Brownlee (aka MKBHD) has published a video discussing Apple’s built-in advantage and how it relates to the accusations of anti-competitive behavior against Apple by Tile.

I really liked Marques’ piece, and I think he did an excellent job of laying out Apple’s historical pattern, but I feel it missed something big.

John Gruber nailed exactly what it is:

The problem for a company like Tile — to name one high-profile company that is not pleased by Apple’s entry into its market — is that location tags are inherently simple, and Apple’s Find My network is bigger and better than Tile’s device network. Everything about AirTags is better than Tile, if you’re an iOS user. So it goes. If the answer to the question “Would this add-on be better, and be useful to many users, if it were built into the system?” is yes, you should expect it to be built into the system sooner or later.

Long-term readers of this blog may remember I was an early crowdfunding backer of Tile and managed to get some interesting questions answered early on.

Here is the thing: I loved Tile’s trackers, but they have never lived up to the promise of the initial pitch video for a host of reasons:

  • The trackers themselves weren’t loud enough.
    If the missing item was in a coat or a bag, or anything muffling it, good luck finding it.
  • The radio connections were awful.
    I can’t tell you how often the app would fail to connect to a Tile tracker that was in the same room, let alone one that was on another floor.
  • Proximity indication was basically non-existent.
    In the initial video, Tile showed something akin to ‘signal bars’ to indicate proximity. Honestly, that concept was the thing that convinced me to buy it. Nothing even close to it ever materialized

I also hated having to replace trackers annually (or ‘Re-Tile,’ as the company calls it.) It was years before a model with a replaceable battery came along, and it was a more expensive option.

Just based on the core set of features and functionality, AirTags improve on Tile in every regard. And that’s before we talk about Apple’s pre-installed network or the company’s careful consideration of user privacy and safety.

The finding interface alone, with a clear indication of distance and direction, delivers on Tile’s initial promise far better than Tile ever did.

The only thing Tile really has going for it is that it was first to market. If Apple were to be restricted from entering a market like this, consumers would be worse off, not better. In this case, Apple’s innovations and advancements will push the whole market forward, and competitors will be sure to follow.

If Tile wants to make a case that Apple has acted anti-competitively, it will need to show how the company’s actions have harmed consumers, and honestly, I don’t see it.

Apple has built a better mousetrap, and while it has undoubtedly used its unique market position to do so, this is just good product strategy in action.

Categories
Business Technology

On tracking transparency

My good friend and former colleague, Adam Tuttle, shared this article today about tracking cookies.

I think it’s worth a read as I think it does show the digital advertising industry sincerely grappling with a future where tracking is more constrained.

I think this makes a good point:

“As an advertising industry, we’ve done a very poor job of communicating to the end user as to why we’re tracking them, and why this is beneficial. Few consumers understand how any of this works, and with lack of understanding it’s simple to just say no and block it.”

Bill Tucker, Group EVP, Association of National Advertisers & Executive Director, The Partnership for Responsible Addressable Media.

This is absolutely true. I think the marketing/advertising industry has looked at tracking with an intense amount of entitlement (dare I say “privilege” even). Opposition to tracking is often seen as a nuisance that the industry often rolls its collective eyes at.

But truthfully, tracking is a matter of consent. Something many marketers are ambivalent about. (See also: spammers.)

Businesses have rarely had to make the case to consumers as to how being tracked benefits the consumer. These tools and campaigns are often run by outside agencies/companies or departments mainly concerned with showing a great ROI, not customer happiness.

The question becomes, really, IS tracking actually beneficial to consumers?

Can you make a strong argument that blocking cookies/tracking is a harm to consumers?

The defense I often hear from those in the industry that targeted ads are better for consumers than regular ads. Are they? That feels like a false equivalency to me. Do we know customers want to see ads at all? 

Another twist on this I’ve heard recently has been that people would have to spend more time searching for things to buy were it not for targeted advertisement. That, to me, is also a false equivalency.

I know it’s heretical to say, but if consumers never learn about these goods and never buy them, are they really missing out? How many of these things we have advertised to us are things we actually need? How much are these goods really making people happy? Make that case to me. 

Now, I see some validity in the argument of tracking being used to support journalism. But consumers tend to think/act in the short term, so I think it’s a hard pitch to make to many. Additionally, paywalled/subscription content is becoming more accessible and successful than ever. We’re seeing strong evidence that people are willing to pay for quality content. 

As ActiveCampaign CEO Jason VandeBoom once said:

“The best marketing experience is one the person being marketed to enjoys.” 

Jason Vandeboom, CEO, ActiveCampaign

If marketing as we know it wants to survive, it needs to adapt or convince consumers that the benefits of tracking outweigh the perceived cost. But I think, if even the best marketing professionals in the world are struggling to make that sound sexy, that speaks for itself.

Categories
Business

Hold on to your skunks.

Like many Americans in 2020, I found Doctor Anthony Fauci’s calm, no-nonsense approach to the coronavirus briefings to be a moment of solace.

Unfortunately, the information that Doctor Fauci was sharing tended to run in direct contradiction to the message the White House wanted to put out. It seems this often got Doctor Fauci in trouble and caused him to be publicly sidelined by the White House.

The New York Times has an excellent interview with Dr. Fauci with more than a few anecdotes where his commitment to the truth got him into trouble. Some excerpts:

There was one time — we were in the Oval Office sitting in the chairs around the Resolute Desk. We had this interesting relationship, kind of a New York City camaraderie thing where we kind of liked each other in the sense of “Hey, two guys from New York.” And he was holding forth on some particular intervention, and saying something that clearly was not based on any data or evidence. There were a bunch of people there, and he turned to me and said, “Well, Tony, what do you think?” And I said, you know, I think that’s not true at all because I don’t see any evidence to make you think that that’s the case. And he said, “Oh, well,” and then went on to something else.

Then I heard through the grapevine that there were people in the White House who got really surprised, if not offended, that I would dare contradict what the president said in front of everybody. And I was, “Well, he asked me my opinion. What do you want me to say?”

Did Mr. Trump himself ever yell at you or say, “What are you doing contradicting me?”

There were a couple of times where I would make a statement that was a pessimistic viewpoint about what direction we were going, and the president would call me up and say, “Hey, why aren’t you more positive? You’ve got to take a positive attitude. Why are you so negativistic? Be more positive.”

For anyone who has worked closely with a strongly opinionated leader, this may feel familiar.

As leadership teams expand, often so does the peer pressure to agree with the head person in charge. A fear about being perceived as negative, “not a team player,” or even being terminated can set in among generals if they contradict the leader. So it stops, and soon, the leader is surrounded only by those who are willing to agree with them.

While this may mean the leader is more empowered to execute on and attempt to realize their vision. It does little to ensure that vision is successful at achieving its goals.

In a Scrum-based software organization, a development team will form a set of hypotheses, build something based on those, release it. They will then gather feedback and form new hypotheses to improve on it through iteration. When executed properly, this leads to a team that is not afraid to ruthlessly kill their darlings in pursuit of a goal.

In my experience, the greatest periods of growth and success at any company I’ve worked at were the ones where a healthy dialogue existed. In these places, the leaders not only embraced differing opinions but sought them out and used the Socratic method to build a stronger hypothesis and adapt.

From what we’ve learned, I think it’s safe to say that our 45th President did not embrace the Socratic method. I also think it’s safe to say that the administration’s Coronavirus response was objectively a failure.

Now, correlation is not necessarily causation. But pandemics, like markets, don’t care about the ego of the leader. You can’t ‘spin’ a virus away.

Had the President been more willing to trust Dr. Fauci and listened to him seriously instead of fighting against him, it’s safe to assume that the United States would have handled COVID-19 much differently. And perhaps we’d be better off for it.

Weren’t you concerned that you would be blamed for the failures if you didn’t resign?

When people just see you standing up there, they sometimes think you’re being complicit in the distortions emanating from the stage. But I felt that if I stepped down, that would leave a void. Someone’s got to not be afraid to speak out the truth. They would try to play down real problems and have a little happy talk about how things are OK. And I would always say, “Wait a minute, hold it folks, this is serious business.” So there was a joke — a friendly joke, you know — that I was the skunk at the picnic.

Did your wife ever suggest that you quit?

She brought up that I might want to consider it. She’s an incredibly wise person, knows me better than anybody else in the world, obviously. She said, “Do you want to have a conversation to balance the pros and the cons of what it would accomplish?”

And after a conversation, she ultimately agreed with me. I always felt that if I did walk away, the skunk at the picnic would no longer be at the picnic. Even if I wasn’t very effective in changing everybody’s minds, the idea that they knew that nonsense could not be spouted without my pushing back on it, I felt was important. I think in the big picture, I felt it would be better for the country and better for the cause for me to stay, as opposed to walk away.

Leaders beware; if you want your business to succeed, make sure you’re not chasing all your skunks away. They probably have your best interests at heart.

Categories
Business Pop culture Technology

Facebook’s GIPHY acquisition is evil genius.

I’ve seen a decent amount of bewilderment as to why Facebook would spend $400, 000 on an acquisition of GIPHY.

Honestly, I find it surprising that so many people would be confused by this because truthfully, it’s a brilliant strategic move.

To understand why, one only needs to look at all the ‘Like’ and ‘Share’ buttons that litter the web currently.

Even when you’re not using Facebook, every ‘Like’ and ‘Share’ button on the web uses browser cookies, IP addresses, and a host of other methods to track your behavior. These embedded pixels monitor almost your entire browsing experience and report it back to Facebook, who then uses it to profile you to better target ads at you.

But as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself has pointed out:

“I believe the future is private,”

https://www.wired.com/story/f8-zuckerberg-future-is-private/

This is remarkably prescient and brilliant positioning. Because from a PR perspective, it makes it seem like Facebook is moving towards caring about privacy, when that is not really what he means at all.

In the last few years, we have seen the rise of tools like Slack and Discord to communicate and organize. These are perceived as “private” communities to users. And they represent a challenge for Facebook because our behavior in them is cut off from their data mining.

For Zuckerberg, “the future is private” is a challenge the company faces, not a business opportunity. Facebook’s continued growth requires a way to peer into our private communities.

So how do you find a way to track things that go on inside those walled gardens?

Same way you would the web: Tracking pixels.

And who has a large market share of image files embedded in closed chat conversations and “private” communities?

GIPHY.

Categories
Business Chicago General Technology

Congratulations to ActiveCampaign on 100K Customers

Today ActiveCampaign announced they had surpassed 100,000 customers and over $100 million in annual recurring revenue.

When I joined the company in 2013, we were a team of 10 in a tiny office downtown. At that point, we were still transitioning from a downloadable software to a software-as-a-service model and had not yet launched the company’s flagship automation builder that would go on to spike our insane growth path.

Something that has set ActiveCampaign apart from its competitors is its dedication to customer care. Although the company has changed dramatically, and not EVERY practice has scaled (at one point, I would designate a half-hour at the end of every day to handwrite a personal thank you card to every customer who purchased an enterprise account) the team’s commitment to being customer-centric has never wavered. I believe if they can keep that as their guiding light, they will continue to find success.

I’m incredibly proud of the product I built at AC, but I’m even more proud of the fantastic customers and colleagues I helped in the process.

The company released this video this morning, which inspired me to write something. The video not only features a photo with me in it but a few that I shot while working there. It made me smile, and I’m proud to share it. Congrats to the whole ActiveCampaign team. Here’s to 100,000 more!

Cheers!