Hardline Stance Works Against Ad-Blockers

With the rising use of ad-blockers by online readers, the blogosphere is full of advice on how online publishers should move away from advertising and find other ways to monetize their content. Some of the alternatives proposed by the digerati include: Micropayments Subscription Native Ads Harvest PII Remove Obtrusive Ads In this blog post, I’ll examine … Read more

Don’t Throw The Baby Out With The Bathwater

Many people have reacted vehemently against the government’s move to regulate the creation, distribution and usage of Indian maps under the proposed Geospatial Information Regulation bill. Some have even insinuated that the move is a veiled threat to police Google Maps and amounts to “throwing out the baby with the bathwater”. I don’t know whether … Read more

Enhanced Remittance Data Could Multiply Electronic Fund Transfer Volumes

My property management company in UK wanted me to quote the following reference along with my monthly rent payment: MCS MERIDIAN CLIENT ACCOUNT HOUSE RENT 98 MERIDIAN PLACE JUN 2008 The reference field in the fund transfer screen of my bank’s Online Banking was too short to support this narration. While I could’ve written it easily … Read more

Introducing “Multiply UI” To Reduce Churn Caused By Software’s 95% Problem

In The IT Industry’s 95% Problem, Gartner Research VP Brian Prentice notes that an average user of a software uses only 5% of the product’s features. In other words, 95% of the features in a software create no value for the overall customer audience. While you could quibble about the exact percentages, no one will deny that … Read more

Why Do Software Companies Outsource Product Management?

The typical tech startup’s backstory goes as follows: Founders observe a problem in the real world, find a way to use technology to solve the problem, and build a product around the technology. According to common wisdom, product management is the foundation of any startup. Sales, marketing, HR, finance and other functions can come in … Read more

Whose Customer Am I?

I read the following question on Quora recently: You buy a pen from a store. Then, are you a customer of that store or pen manufacturing company? Normally, my answers on Quora are rather short. After seeing this answer by Quora's founder @adamdangelo, I no longer worry about whether my replies are too terse. https://t.co/V6UqD1qinA … Read more

Perils Of Blind Retargeting

Since the time I published Retargeted Ads or Retarded Ads, I’ve come across many more retargeted ads exhibiting retarded behavior. Take for example the ones from Cleartrip. Well after I’d booked my tickets on its portal, I kept seeing its retargeted ads. I hinted to the OTA that it could try setting frequency caps on … Read more