innovation the easy way: stealing great ideas

Innovation Innovation the Easy the Easy Way: Stealing Way: Stealing Great IdeasGreat Ideas

Innovation Innovation the Easy the Easy Way: Stealing Way: Stealing Great IdeasGreat Ideas

Steve KirschSteve Kirsch

ChairmanChairman

InfoseekInfoseek

A confessionA confession

I am a thiefI am a thief

I steal ideas I steal property I steal money

PredictionPrediction

1 year from now, many of you will:

pay me to use your ideas let me use your computers for

free

If you must leave If you must leave early...early...

Please send all your ideas, spare cash, excess equipment, etc. to:

Steve KirschInfoseek

1399 Moffett Park DrSunnyvale, CA 94089

AgendaAgenda

Why steal? How to steal What to steal What we should have stolen When not to steal What you can steal from us Stealing on a global scale

…and…if you get caught...

AgendaAgenda

How toget out of

jail FREE!

Why Steal?Why Steal?

How most companies How most companies innovateinnovate

Put a team on it Look at what others have done Come up with new ideas,

experiment

The smart way to The smart way to innovateinnovate

Why take the risk? Why not adapt proven

techniques?

How to stealHow to steal

The most powerful idea The most powerful idea stealing techniquestealing technique

Question– How does Cisco compensate its

employees?– How does Microsoft compensate its

employees?

Answer

Ask 2 employees

Other popular stealing Other popular stealing techniquestechniques

“How do you know

things?”

Three ways to stealThree ways to steal

Passive stealing– Provide a customer feedback mechanism

Active stealing– Research… who does (or must be doing)

this the best?– Get a contact within the company

Opportunistic stealing– Magazine articles (Inc, Fortune, etc)– Seminars (like this one!)

Stealing ideas from Stealing ideas from customerscustomers

Make customer feedback EASY! Easiest way: add a “Feedback”

link Hard part is asking the right

questions Collaboration may bring

innovative solutions BUT beware… Always better to

observe than to ask!

Ideas we’ve stolenIdeas we’ve stolen

The power of stealingThe power of stealing

Stolen from PSS(They probably stole it too)

“We haven’t come up with any good ideas ourselves. All our good ideas we’ve

stolen from others.”

How to quintuple How to quintuple revenuesrevenues

At Stanford U., can you sell $50 worth of lemonade

in 20 minutes? This innovative technique was

stolen from the winning team of the Stanford Entrepreneur Car Rally

Applies to web sites

Corporate valuesCorporate values

Great companies had them Got their values from the PR

dept STARTED with the best: Cisco,

Peoplesoft, Southwest Airlines, …

…and REFINED

Single, simple goalSingle, simple goal

Stolen from PSS Focuses your thinking Stretch goal Put on everything…

– Presentations– Memos– Signs around the company

Power of a single goalPower of a single goal

Food challenge: $5K 100M page views

Compensation based on Compensation based on customer satisfactioncustomer satisfaction

Stolen from Cisco Over half of cash bonus is

based on customer satisfaction

Product development Product development processprocess

Stolen from HP product manager

Write the datasheet and create the screens before writing the MRD

Getting customer Getting customer namesnames

Stolen from Quarterdeck, others

Works on Web site E-mail required for download In 15 days from installation, we

e-mail reminder

Free access to corp infoFree access to corp info

Stolen from PSS, with help from Apollo

It forces you to be consistent and fair

People love it

Recuiting the bestRecuiting the best

Stolen from Microsoft, Cisco Nice articles in Fortune about

Cisco’s and Microsoft’s recruiting practices

Banner ad ideaBanner ad idea

Stolen from Netscape We even copied the size!

Searching the WebSearching the Web

Stolen from Lycos

Product ideasProduct ideas

Steal from our competitors– Yahoo: directory layout– Excite: channels– AltaVista: portions of our query

syntax

Action-biased Action-biased suggestion boxsuggestion box

Stolen from US Forest Service Old way

– Fill out 4 page form– 60 ideas/yr

New way– Send e-mail or tell supervisor– If no response in 2 weeks, and not

illegal, do it– 6,000 ideas/yr

Ideas we should have Ideas we should have stolenstolen

Yahoo!Yahoo!

Their approach: manual directory Our approach: automated

directory

What consumers liked You are in deep doo-doo

Now what?

Steal an idea from someone else to

change the game!

When not to stealWhen not to steal

When stealing doesn’t When stealing doesn’t workwork

The imperfect copy– Yahoo

Conditions have changed– The Internet– Different industry

The imperfect copyThe imperfect copy

Theory: “We’ll apply technology to do it better and faster and with lower costs this way”

Reality: – Be VERY careful about “improving” a

stolen idea– You may need to vigorously defend

this, in the face of overwhelming support against you

Changed conditionsChanged conditions

ISP “free trial” model didn’t work on the Internet

Internet shopping experience is completely unique– do not expect the same value

propositions to apply

Changed conditionsChanged conditions

Pacific Bell stole their awards program from Frequent Flyer of airlines

Recently discontinued

Ideas you may want to Ideas you may want to steal from ussteal from us

PythonPython

We used Python for Ultraseek Server Python is similar to Perl Python is to Java what Java is to C++

– fast development– easy to learn language– easy to read– object oriented– portable– easy to debug

The homing beaconThe homing beacon

A simple addition to Internet software

Sends message back after installation as to how many documents are indexed

Allows our sales people to prioritize leads

Direct Feedback Direct Feedback

E-mail from feedback page goes right to the doc person that created the page

See software.infoseek.com

Comments visibilityComments visibility

Extract typical comments from your incoming e-mail and forward to upper management

Periodically pretend Periodically pretend you are the customeryou are the customer

Submit feedback and see how long it takes to get a reply

Try the download link… does it download and install correctly?

Product information on Product information on your websiteyour website

There are 18 or so categories of information that I’d love to see about any product

See software.infoseek.com for a list

– Customer sites– Live demo– Screen shots– Feature list– Specs– System requirements– FAQ– Product

documentation– Press reviews– Competitive

comparison

The Art of the StealThe Art of the Steal

(Apologies to Donald Trump)

Stealing saves money!Stealing saves money!

Today– OUR computers index YOUR data

Tomorrow– YOUR computers index YOUR data

(running OUR software)

Ours Yours

Global theft benefitsGlobal theft benefits

User results are more complete and up to date

We leverage:– OPM– OPC

SummarySummary

If done properly, stealing is –safer–easier– faster

than innovating from scratch

Stealing this Stealing this presentationpresentation

Goto Infoseek Type: “Steve Kirsch” Go to the top hit (my home

page)

Be supportiveBe supportive

Failures along the way are expected

Continuous Continuous experimentationexperimentation

Constantly explore new ideas through projects

Fail quickly and often

Don’t overspec jobsDon’t overspec jobs

Give people latitude Encourage people to venture

outside field of expertise Working outside with

customers

Don’t overplanDon’t overplan

Things change too quickly… new info Prefer prototyping to planning Rapid prototyping lets you evaluate

a concept with minimal investment Good ideas can easily get derailed

by too much planning Examples at Infoseek:

– Cowabunga skunkworks– Use of Python

Pair visionaries with Pair visionaries with pragmatistspragmatists

You need both Ideally, we use small groups of

passionate, energetic, opinonated people

Collaboration without compromise

Look outsideLook outside

Home Universities Partnerships with other

companies

Be patientBe patient

Few great ideas happen overnight

Many take years or decades

Ideas from CiscoIdeas from Cisco

Tie compensation to “customer” satisfaction

Recruit in areas people aren’t looking for jobs, e.g., in the movies (see Fortune)

Ideas from PSSIdeas from PSS

We haven’t come up with any good ideas

Masters of stealing The power of a single,

seemingly unattainable goal

AbstractAbstract

Many of the most successful and innovative companies don’t come up with their own ideas; they steal the best ideas from other companies. Infoseek has successfully stolen and implemented a few key ideas from other companies that have made immediate and major impacts on the way Infoseek does business today.

Old AgendaOld Agenda

Python Innovative use of internet (pinging back;

require email to download; advertising tuning)

Battling not invented here mistakes we made success we had

– mulitiseek– ultraseeek server

hiring the right people; recruiting techniques

Improvements to our Improvements to our WWW siteWWW site

Stolen from customers A visible and easy to use

feedback link that is monitored by people responsible for that area (not tech support)