Platforms need developers to succeed, so you need stories that resonate with developer’s worldview. Stories that you live to make true.
Your stories must be true. Developers can spot lies and it’s easier than ever to spread bad news, such as on Facebook. Not to pick on Facebook, but they serve as an example of conflict between a platform vendor and developers.
Facebook is a platform for third-party applications. And not just for games; you’ll find a range of business and marketing applications as well. After all, with Facebook’s massive user base there’s money to be made.
I now have my video workflow set up, so here’s the first video: a short introduction to Story Complete for the About page.
Update: I am now showing the YouTube versions of the videos to ensure the widest coverage. I have therefore removed the links to the downloadable self-hosted versions of the videos for the time being.
By default the embedded video player starts with the SD video. To view the HD version click on the HD link in the top right corner of the player. Swapping from SD to HD restarts the video from the beginning.
Seth Godin’s book ‘All Marketers Tell Stories’ inspired me to share what I’ve learnt in 30 years of the software business.
Software companies often find themselves stranded on islands of excellence, serving a small group of customers but unable to grow. Opportunistic sales result in a few more islands from time to time.
It’s depressing to see companies with excellent technology shipwrecked. A love-hate relationship with marketing is often a contributory reason. We love having many qualified leads, but hate getting our hands dirty with marketing.
Why’s marketing hated like this? In my experience the cause is often the developer background of many managers. Developers equate lead generation with advertising. And developers hate advertising even more than marketing!
Apple’s walled garden is becoming a hermetically sealed world with a (secret) licence agreement to sterilise every input.
The clash of worldviews between Apple and developers took a turn for the worse this week. For the first time, Apple will be banning meta programming tools for the iPhone and iPad. Section 3.3.1 of the latest iPhone Developer Program License Agreement states:
3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).
37signals added some mystery to what could be a boring office video. To tell a good story, keep the ending until, well, the end.
37signals has strong opinions about work. But how should an office look if you’re an international team? That often works from home? With a 4-day week? That hates interruptions? For the moment, they’re not saying.
To tell a good story, keep the ending until, well, the end. You can see this in a series of videos from 37signals about their new offices.
I saw first-hand what happens when your worldview hold’s you hostage: we lost out on a deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Worldviews change; ignore at your peril. At Dynasty Technologies Inc. in the 1990s, I saw first-hand what happens when your worldview holds you hostage.
Dynasty was a 2nd generation client/server application development tool. Our main competitor was Forté Software Inc. Founded in the mid 1990s, both companies had significant venture capital funding with a growing global base of enthusiastic early adopters.
The Dynasty Development Environment generated native C/C++ code with no runtime system. Forté generated proprietary code with a runtime interpreter. For some developers runtimes were OK; for others a pure incarnation of evil. Customer’s runtime worldview was decisive for sales.
Software protection schemes annoy customers and don’t stop real pirates. Better to have a remarkable product and a story to spread.
So, it only took 2 days to hack the Apple iPad. Trusting DRM to work was unrealistic on Apple’s part. Even so, we in the B2B software business have our own blind spot when it comes to software protection.
Each of the software products I’ve worked on has included a protection system. Sometimes a hardware dongle, but more commonly software-based schemes linking the software licence to the customer’s hardware configuration.
We were scared customers wouldn’t pay if they didn’t have to. With licence fees starting at $10K for each developer seat, hundreds of thousands were at stake.
Apple launches the iPad today, so time to share my Steve Jobs story. It’s about the nearest I’ll ever come to working with him!
The story’s set 20 years ago when I was building cross-platform application development tools. Our customer’s worldview was that their applications would be running for decades. They expected to move from one platform to another as technology changed. They wanted to build platform-independent apps.
Customers liked hearing what others were doing. One story was about a customer in Switzerland using a Unisys mainframe as a server. Nothing unusual there. What made them remarkable, however, was that their clients were NeXT workstations from Steve Jobs’ Next Computer, Inc. Back then this sounded (and was) an exotic combination.
In a famine of qualified prospects, you’ll try to grab anything that appears edible. Lack of a reliable sales process is corrosive.
When prospects are rare you’ll do everything to win. Development adds features. Marketing invents ROI justifications. Prospects are too precious to waste; you cannot risk letting even one get away. You do whatever it takes.
Lack of a shared worldview is an increasing problem as you grow. Special cases abound; exceptions appear. Everybody is paranoid about saying no.
To see how sticking to a clear understanding of your worldview changes everything, take a look at 37signals. They are a 20 person company selling web-based apps for small groups and individuals. With more than 3 million users, they are very profitable.
The waterfall model for content creation is too slow. You need an agile process to create and ship your storytelling content.
To sell a product you must know what your target audience wants, not just what they need. Wants changes; worldviews are not static. Every message and conversation with peers has an impact, moving the story along.
The software business is quickly picking up qualities of the fashion industry. Both satisfy wants, not needs. Does anyone need designer sneakers? No. Do they want them? Yes!
Worrying about the slippery slope of fashion isn’t new. Windows 3.0 lead business users to want GUIs for their apps. They didn’t need a GUI for their B2B apps, but it was obvious they wanted one. They got what they wanted.
Future employers won’t need you, but they might want you. Your product is now your skills and the stories to go with them.
Many B2B developers are anonymous workers in a software factory, with little or no connection to customers. Perhaps they get a customer visit here, or a user conference there; but typically not much more.
As products become software and the stories to go with them, previously backstage developers have a new role. Your target audience cares who produces your software, where they are and how they do it. These all contribute to the stories customers tell themselves about how they expect your product to make them feel.
Audiences want to go backstage, meet developers and see how they work. But watch out: if you don’t live your story you’ll get caught.
Packaging and labelling carry much of the load for physical goods storytelling. You have it easier: your marketers and software developers can work together and weave your stories right into your software.
Who those developers are, where and how they work is part of your story. Your audience wants to peek backstage, just like developers love to watch insider videos of Google’s fancy offices.
Going backstage used to be expensive. Developers visited customers on-site, or prospects visited the labs. Both were one-offs and not reusable.
