I have been DJ’ing for over 10 years. I started out with turntables and vinyl then slowly transitioned into using a computer. I use Sertato and turntables just for beat-matching and playing tunes. I recently got sick of looking at all the extra crap they have in the interface and decided to re-design it with only the stuff I actually use.

Here is the original:

Here is the redesign:

Creating software products is an interesting process. The best products that I have created have been because everyone is passionate about the end result and everyone envolved has a strong opinion. This might sound like a hellish torture to put ones self through because there are generally disagreements that need to get vetted through confrontation. However, there are many reasons that I feel it creates a better product.

1. Too many of the right type of cooks is a good thing

When you get a bunch of smart people together to make something who all have strong opinions can be very frustrating. Everyone sees things differently and thinks that their perspectives are correct. This can create a highly charged situation where ideas live and die by their ability to be justified. What kind of cooks are best for this type of scenario? The types of cooks who can defend their ideas but know when an idea makes more sense than theirs, even if its defense can’t be articulated better than yours. You want the types of ‘cooks’ who understand that at the end of the day everyone is there to create something cool and just want to be heard. Disagreements can’t be taken personally and emotions must be maintained with in reasonable bounds.

2. Disagreements make a product better

Disagreeing with a feature, solution, or design is a great thing that only makes the end product better. It makes the end product better because it forces one to justify it’s existence in the software. If it’s reasoning isn’t obvious or can’t be justified then most likely the feature or solution doesn’t work.

3. Everyone should be passionate about what they are doing

Anything you are working on, if you want it to be great, you should be passionate about. When people are passionate about the products that they are working on, they will have opinions. Opinions generally mean that there has been some thought put into how something should manifest itself. You want people who have put thought into solutions because thats where answers come from. If someone doesn’t care about what they are working on and are indifferent about a decision, it’s not good for the product and doesn’t help make progress. Compare that to asking someone how something should work and getting an opinionated answer backed up by their reasoning.

4. Selling your justifications and solutions go hand in hand

The average Joe would not realize how much sales goes into creating a product. You have to sell everyone your working with on the feature set, the architecture, the design, the colors, the interaction methods, the list goes on and on. In most cases the ability for one to sell their peers on an approach is what separates someone who’s ideas get implemented vs someone who’s ideas get shot down.

5. Consensus building with your opinion

Building consensus can be tough to accomplish. It’s a pain when you have a successful approach and are unable to correctly articulate why it’s better with out saying, “thats just my opinion”. You can’t build consensus with opinions period. Everyone has opinions and opinions matter as much as Bill Clintons thoughts on Particle Physics. Dont’ ever say, “thats just my opinion” if you ever want to build consensus. You need to justify your reasoning and say, “this way is better because of X, Y, and Z”.

Consistency
Clarity
Continuity
Communication
Consideration
Compassion

I think that a lot of companies like to say that their product is “innovative” because currently it is a marketing buzz word. Green has gone the way of the wooly mammoth and now marketeers trying to make their products seem more appealing by trying to tell the world that their products are Innovative. So I was in the shower thinking about companies that brand themselves as “innovative” and my mind quickly floated into defining what Innovation is and what it is not. Then I started thinking about the relationship between Innovation and Invention, and how it relates to Evolution in a product state. I then drew a model on the shower door that ended being a pretty effective way to visualize how I saw the states of various products. I wanted to come up with a visual model that would help articulate how a business could actually be innovative.

The Kris Davis Model for Product State:

At first glance this may or may not make a whole lot of sense, so let me start off by defining my vocabulary so we can see it from the same level.

Axis Definition:

• Investment is defined as a companies time and resources.
• Risk is defined as the potential for the loss of time, money and or image.
• Research & Development defines the type of focus that the investment must have.

State Definition:

• Stagnant defines a product that receives no enhancements or features as time progresses.
• Evolution defines the natural growth of a product driven by customer requests, internal ideas, market conditions or parody of competitor products.
• Innovation defines the name of products or product features that meet the needs of customers that they didn’t know they had and that have not come from natural product evolution. Innovation is easy to explain because everyone understands it’s value.
• Invention occurs when a product or product feature is brought into existence from “thin air”. A problem is solved that is made from a seemingly non-logical association.

Market Potential in this case, is the measurement of receptivity. People tend to have a low receptivity to products that have not changed at all since their inception. In contrast to Inventive products where the light bulb goes off in peoples minds and they can instantly see that there is huge value in a product.

Where do I think that the typical company resides? I think that most of the companies out there are simply in the standard evolutionary state. Their products and features are driven by: customer requests, competitor features or market demands. I don’t think that any good business can live in the stagnant arena for too long. However, I also don’t feel that many have a grasp on the reality of creating products that are innovative. Innovative products are a little more risky than what a company is used to. It takes time and resources put into research and development and is riskier; although there is a higher reward for getting it right.

I am going to be continually developing this model, so if anyone reading this has an idea of what can be improved in it, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

http://how90s.com/

I love websites that mix functionality with satire. This is a great project that is good for a chuckle. I think that it really nails down what bad habits we got ourselves into in the 90′s.

So this is a notion that I feel is going to be slightly controversial, but hear me out.

So today it is a common thought that every business needs a website today. This is backed up by explaining that you have to promote your brand, let prospective customers know where you are located, business hours and contact information, explain your services, ect. That is all very true and will always be valid for a business to do. Those are fundamental.

Now, the internet is a powerful medium at dealing with those challenges. But websites specifically are not the only way to accomplish this. What business really need is a ‘web presence’, they need for something related to their business to show up in search results and a medium to transmit the basic information to their customers in a branded and meaningful way.

For most small business’s getting a website made is a nightmare. They are expensive, complex, expensive and rarely actually make the business owner happy. Getting a website made provides too many opportunities for the small business owner to make mistakes. They have tons of colors to choose from, images and copy to create, and the end result is never that great.

Today there are a verity of ways that the small business owner can build their web presence for free. They aren’t going to have the same types of options compared to a ground up website but this makes it easier for them to focus on the information and connections with clients.

At the end of the day I don’t think that it is more important for a small business to have ‘web presence’ over a ‘web site’ any day.

I have been increasingly getting sick of new applications and sites that aim to utilize social networking to “interact socially” or connect people. All of the buzz words and marketing hype get to become annoying and vague to a point where the benefits of the actual application become obfuscated. Anyways, end rant…

It is refreshing to see applications that aim to collect data that can be of assistance to society in a broader context. I like this idea because it’s focus is to gather and record data around what makes people happy in their daily context. I think that there are a lot of interesting insights that can come from this data.

www.trackyourhappiness.org/

I have 2 goals with this new blog.

1) To have an opportunity to use and get familiar with WordPress

2) To raise my ranking and online presence

Currently a search in google for Kris Davis brings up my portfolio page on the second position on the second page. Lets see how my efforts affect that.