Likelihood of Success

The sweet spot

Mar 22, 2009 Futurama, Gelt, Politics and Poker, Social networking, Stragety

Scoble’s love-hate relationship with Facebook is on the upswing. He explains First, you’ve gotta realize that in Facebook is “moving from phase four to phase five” out of seven in its development cycle right now, and that in each phase there’s been push-back from users and threats of rebellion:

Here’s the phases of Facebook:

Phase 1. Harvard only.

Phase 2. Harvard+Colleges only.

Phase 3. Harvard+Colleges+Geeks only.

Phase 4. All those above+All People (in the social graph).

Phase 5. All those above+People and businesses in the social graph.

Phase 6. All those above+People, businesses, and well-known objects in the social graph.

Phase 7. All people, businesses, objects in the social graph.

Phase 5 is known as when Facebook is really going to find its business model. This is why Mark Zuckerberg is absolutely correct to say he can’t listen to people who wants Facebook to get stuck in Phase Four. It was a nice phase, yes, when Facebook only had people in the social graph, but those days are over. . . .

Zuckerberg is a real leader because he doesn’t care what anyone thinks. He’s going to do what he thinks is best for his business. I wish Silicon Valley had more like him.

Look,on the other end of the spectrum from elitism and tone-deafness as to the people you’re serving — the most typical, though partly unfair, criticism of Detroit — is demagoguery, which gives you both bad government, P.T. Barnum-quality attractions and a short-term mentality.  And of course we’re not talking about courtesy and deference here.  We’re talking about business planning.  More:

My former boss, Jim Fawcette, used to say that if you asked a group of Porsche owners what they wanted they’d tell you things like “smoother ride, more trunk space, more leg room, etc.” He’d then say “well, they just designed a Volvo.”

When a client tells me he wants me to run each and every microdecision and communication by him, I tell him to find someone who happens to have a law license who will sell him those services; I’m a lawyer, and that’s not what I do for living.  I sell experience, judgment and insight, and I stand behind my work in the long run.

And don’t think for a second that if I gave him the first option, he wouldn’t hold me responsible for the down-side anyway.

Your customers and clients can’t call the shots.  At least not all at once, and certainly not when they’re just reacting to change, which they will usually do negatively. Clients can choose to hire someone who operates their way or my way, something in between or something even far beyond me in terms of detachment.  It’s true in every field.  Finding that sweet spot between delivering a product or service that your customer or client will want to come back for, not just tomorrow but in a year, is what it’s all about. It’s the difference between “true democracy” and republican government; the House and the Senate; junk food and nutrition; TV and the stage.  Why, Scoble has probably even figured out how to get my knees to stop hurting when I walk up the stairs.

But for now, I like his point about business.  Of course, it helps if, like Zuckerberg, you’re not charging customers any money yet, and you’re not quite risking the massive equity of a legacy brand leader with dominant marketing share — see New Coke.

Listen to your customers, yes; obey them, no. (Via Techmeme.)