Recently I won my very first iPad by providing the winning suggestion in a product detail page review for AspDotNetStorefront and it arrived today!  The contest involved reviewing a product detail page for a current AspDotNetStorefront customer and my suggestion involved modifying the color drop down box to display different images, based on the color selected (manual instructions here).  The customer explained that they “chose your comments over all others because you were brief, to the point and pointed us to a feature of ASPDNSF that we were not utilizing. We appreciate the time you took to share your comments with us.”

Thanks to the folks at http://www.safetylightsandsignals.com for selecting me and my buddies at Vortx for sponsoring the contest!

What should I do first??

There are many form validations available to use and each has their own unique features. If you have ever needed to validate checkbox or radio button sets this jQuery validation plugin can do just that. For instance, it can verify that at least two checkboxes must be checked.

This jQuery plugin goes beyond that option with more features and is easy to implement. See the demos and option to download the plugin here.

How to adapt without compromising the soul or your business.

Effective business plans depend on an established value proposition by your organization and within your customer base. This is the belief that the customer value will be experienced as promised by the brand. Value is defined as benefits minus the cost. The visual identity of your brand should become synonymous with this perception of value in the eyes of your target market. Your visual identity is very deeply rooted with your logo as well as the brand colors, type, type stylings, and visual marketing methods. These things must maintain enough constancy so that the market recognizes these things as being uniquely you, but must also adapt to the changing needs of your business.

Change is important! Since the market is always in a constant state of flux and growth, it is vital for your brand to grow with and adapt to this ever changing market. If you haven’t updated your brand since your business began, it is most likely in need of a refresh. Even if there isn’t a need a full rebrand, it is vital to be constantly evaluating your assists and your position in the market in order to assess the direction and growth potential of your business. At the same time, you have a strong history of brand value that is deeply rooted in hard work, great service, or reliable and valuable products in the market. Do everything within your power not to leverage against the established equity you have in your brand while being flexible and growing enough to stay relevant and profitable within the market.

Leveraging your existing brand strengths throughout a rebrand is vital for staying true to your existing customers and making the most of everything you have built. Not only this, but staying true to your essence maintains the perception of honesty and the integrity of your brand. A perception of wholesome values can be a great asset in a degraded marketing economy with “buy one get one free” and “special one time offer”marketing schemes exist at every turn. Flex to take advantage or sales and growth potential, but maintain a honest core at the same time.

When delving into the rebranding process, take this opportunity to do as much research into your market and client base as possible. This is a great time for you to seriously consider the potential growth for your company. After all, a new visual identity system for your company should be one that you can grow into and embraces what you want to become as well as what you are. Think big and collect data from every source possible. Utilize social media as well as more direct communication and research opportunities. Remember, that what people say is not necessarily what people actually do. Don not trust everything you are told when you talk to resources about your organization. There is much more merit in the actions of people and the actions of the market, this should override less quantitative data.

Embrace your competition, cross market, and network. You can utilize connections to benefit from the successful market trends in other industries. Don’t just focus on what you do well, also focus on what others are doing well and how it can tie in what you are doing. This way, you rethink your customer base and learn how to expand, while still staying true to the core of your business by continuing to do what you do well.

To maximize the effectiveness of the rebrand, a plan should be in place to help your organization make the switch over to the new identity system. Employee email signatures, printed collateral, and all digital media assets including the website have to be adjusted to incorporate the new brand, ideally at the same time. That is why considering to tackle a rebrand when you are already planning to rebuild your website and digital collateral can cut back on the cost and time by streamlining the process. Putting out an internal guideline can help everyone make the switch over smoothly and in a timely fashion to increase the effectiveness of the rebrand and to eliminate potential confusion for the customer and to also minimize drawing attention to the change so that it seems more seamless in the eyes of the market.

I personally believe that honesty, handwork and a healthy dose of creativity are the most valuable assets to maintaining a healthy brand. Hiring creative experts to assist your through your rebranding process can breathe life into your business and your ideas and help your business thrive.

When putting a template together or marking up a web page, I persistently save, change to my browser, refresh–and evaluate the last few edits, and then swap back to my editor.  It would be really (really!) nice if the browser just updated automatically, and I just needed to glance at a monitor as development progressed.  (Especially with a multi-monitor workstation.)

Well, I found a script that does just that written by Martin Kool.  When embedded in the head of a document, Live.js  will update a page’s HTML, CSS, and JavaScript on the fly. I’ve tested that it even recognizes when the script itself has been removed from the file and will discontinue running.  It is important to remove this script after development and testing so that you don’t end up seeing a flood of HTTP requests live in production:

And here’s the one-liner to make use of it:

<script src="http://livejs.com/live.js" type="text/javascript" ></script>

I saw this article on Forbes.com about new ways to manage. I agree with each and have used several of these metrics. To read the full article, use the link provided. My comments on each metric are included below. While it is a catchy title, I don’t think managers need to know these to be successful. You can adapt one or more for your own use easily and look for ways to subtly employ each of the strategies described. These metrics won’t drastically change management styles, but they do provide ways to improve your management ability and help drive your team to be successful.

Metric 1 – Flow State Percentage

Basically indicates that people need more think/soak time. When you have time to concentrate (i.e. – no interruptions), you are more productive. Getting to, and staying in, the zone more often makes you a better performer.

Metric 2 – The Anxiety-Boredom Continuum

Keep a balance here. Not too easy, not too hard. Stay engaged and tune the level needed as it suites your team.

Metric 3 – Meeting Promoter Score

I have used this to great effect. If you rate the meetings, you get instant feedback on what works, what does not and what people are interested in. I found that once you have a consistent score, you don’t need to track it and your team knows what to expect and is engaged. Bonus – if you end meetings early, expect your score to increase.

Metric 4 – Compound Weekly Learning Rate

My Father-in-Law, always said “Every day you learn”. You do if you are motivated to do so. Even if you just did this for yourself, measuring your progress would change your priorities and how you spend your time in the office.

Metric 5 – Positive Feedback Ratio

Catch your team doing things right. Even the mundane tasks. The author mentions the payback is realized that when you have legitimate criticism, your reports will listen.

These strategies are easy to implement. You can try one or more with your team and tune them as needed. We should always be looking for ways to improve management skills. Who knows — you may influence your peers and your boss by doing this.

Good luck and let me know what your metrics look like over time.

Information workers are used to solving problems. Approaches can vary to determine a viable solution and can be bound by many constraints. Resources, budget, and timing are among typical real world constraints. I read a column from the author and New Yorker columnist, Malcolm Gladwell, that talks about problem solving. Essentially, they can be thought of either one of two possible types: a puzzle or a mystery.

The article was published by the New Yorker in 2007 and is titled “Open Secrets” and covers multiple topics. The article is part of a collection included in the book “What the Dog Saw” and talks about the Enron financial debacle, hunting for Saddam Hussein, analyzing Nazi propaganda and techniques for cancer diagnosis. What caught my attention the most was the distinction between a puzzle and a mystery.

As Gladwell states it, the difference between a puzzle and a mystery are shown below along with my comments.

Puzzles are “transmitter-dependent”; they turn on what we are told.

For each puzzle, the information source controls what (and how) we are told. Completing the puzzle is possible if we are given accurate and sufficient information. The information source may withhold data that can hinder solving the problem.

Mysteries are “receiver dependent”; they turn on the skills of the listener…..

The skills you (and others) bring to solving the problem then determine if you can devise a solution. All the information is provided but you must be able to logically, sensibly interpret it. There is a related issue with the amount of data provided here. Gladwell argues that we can become saturated with data; too much data is a bad thing and could allow us to get lost in what is important vs. trivial and inhibit progressing to a solution.

If you can assess what problem type you have, it may drive your approach to a solution accordingly. Part of the assessment then will include things like:

1. Do you have enough information?
2. How do you know?
3. Is your data source credible?
4. Do I have the correct skill(s) for this problem?
5. What resource(s) are available to assist me?

I hope this blog has lead you to some insights on problem solving.

Is this a puzzle or a mystery to you?

Whatever we do, we deal with risks. Despite our best laid plans and intentions, there are always those uncertain and unwanted events that happen which are beyond our control. In previous posts, I have talked about risks on projects. This post deals more with risk behavior. Risk management (or, risk tolerance) covers the spectrum from total avoidance at all costs to a laissez-faire, what-does-it-matter attitude. A low risk tolerance leads to “safe” choices that eliminate, or substantially reduce, an unlikely event with a negative impact occurring. Likewise, a high risk tolerance leads to choices where outcomes are unpredictable and not guaranteed. In this scenario, the chances for unlikely risks occurring are higher. Financial investors know their level of risk tolerance and how it influences their investment choices. The occurrence of a highly improbable event that may not always be planned for. The impact can be positive or negative.

There is a related effect with investors called the “Black Swan” that describes what happens when an uncertain, unstable event does occur. In a 2007 book by Nasim Nicholas Taleb, titled “The Black Swan – The Impact of the Highly Improbable“, it is defined as:

1. an event that is unpredictable (an outlier)
2. has a massive or, extreme impact and
3. after it happens, we create rationale to make it more predictable (less random)

Taleb makes a living betting on the occurrence of “Black Swans”. He is a contrarian when compared to the typical financial investor who avoids risk by seeking the small gains in the stock market. The positive effect of a “Black Swan” is seen over time. Likewise, a negative “Black Swan” happens very quickly. For most investors, the preference is to avoid the downside risk of a negative “Black Swan”. Managing risk can be tricky business. Taleb has 2 observations related to risk assessment I would like to highlight:

1. We have more confidence in what we know is wrong than in what we know is right
2. We over-estimate what we know and conversely, underestimate our uncertainty

The first point bears repeating. We are more certain about something we know is wrong. Our intuition, skills and experience tells us what is wrong. Sometimes, we know something is wrong when we see it. That confidence drives our behavior with money, work and our personal life more than we may want to admit. I think that is because we are better at dealing with failure than success. We plan for success, of course, but realize we have to deal with a minimal level of failure.

The other observation related to  uncertainty I have seen at work many times as well. Providing accurate estimates is a skill built on experience and dealing with knowns. When faced with new challenges, it is tempting to minimize complexity. How hard can this possibly be? More than likely, it is harder than you are able to imagine at this point in time.

When a risk is deemed highly improbably, we tend to not spend much time and energy thinking about it. When a negative “Black Swan” strikes, the risk mitigation(s) you have defined will be quickly tested. If your tolerance is low, you will have well thought out and documented options. Your sponsors, stakeholders and clients will benefit from and appreciate your efforts. The path forward that is selected is based on their risk tolerance of those negative “Black Swans”. Positive “Black Swans” can only make things better, right?

What’s your risk tolerance? What method(s) do you use to deal with uncertainty?

Recently a client provided me with over 10,000 product images, from which I was supposed to find the 800 or so files relevant for the current project. Quick calculations told me that searching the zip file manually, one file at a time, from the spreadsheet provided would take many more hours than I had, so I needed to automate the process.  Here are the steps I took:

1. Unzip the file of all images provided and make sure that all images are all in one folder and not in sub-folders.
2. Get a list of all images provided in the folder using a DOS command (I blogged about this earlier here):  dir /a-d /b > filelist.txt
3. Copy this list from the text file to Excel and sort the list by file name
4. Open the spreadsheet provided of the images that should be copied to the website.  Create a vlookup command to search the list of file names copied in #2 (to confirm all images were found in the folder):  =VLOOKUP(A1,’Sheet1′!$A$1:$A$10000,1,FALSE).  This will put an “N/A” in the cell for any image that is not found.  The client was contacted about these images, because they were not provided.
5. In the next column, create a dos command that will copy the image from the current folder to a new one (leaving the remaining images in the current folder and just the ones I need in a new folder):  =”Copy “&CHAR(34)&A1&CHAR(34)&” “&”New /Y”.  The “char” puts quotes around the image names, because many of my images had spaces in them (thanks to this site for assistance with this step).
6. Copy the entire column of copy commands into Notepad.  Save the new notepad file as “batch.bat” in the same folder as the current images.
7. Create a new folder called “New” in the folder were the images reside currently
8. Go to a dos command and type “batch.bat”.  The program will begin running.  Mine took about 1/2 hour, but I’m sure it would depend on network speed, computer processing, number of files, etc.  Regardless, it is not instantaneous.
9. Viola!  A “New” folder with only the images I needed!

Hope this was helpful to you!  Do you have a faster way to automate this process?  Please comment below!

DataTables is a great jQuery plug-in if your site needs table integration with options. Once you have your data ready for this functionality, you can setup the integration fairly quick. For more advanced options it just takes a little more time to get what you are looking to achieve. There are configurable options such as filtering, pagination, sorting, jQuery ThemeRoller support and many more.

You can take it a step further with ListNav integration that allows a navigation bar to be added. This works great for a directory listing.

Click here to see the complete integrated example and code.

Have you been trying to use Goodreads Grid Widget and not able to get it to work? Are you copy/pasting the code and not getting anything but the no script version of the grid with a } at the end of it? If so I was having the same problem and I wasn’t able to find much information online to help me.

The problem I was having was I couldn’t get the code itself to produce an actual JavaScript widget. All I’d get is a static list like this:

I did a little investigating of the copy/paste code to see that there is no actual JavaScript call within the code. That got my attention to the browser. Was my browser doing something to the code box that was messing up the widget code before I got to copy it? So I tried it in other browsers but still no luck.

After this I decided to just find another implementation out there somewhere and try to re-create it with my information. It worked perfectly and quickly (estimated 10-20 min). So along with notifying Goodreads of this issue I wanted to share with others the working solution. I’m not going to say this is the simplest thing in the world but it works. My hopes are that nobody will have to use this blog because Goodreads would have already resolved the issue and we can stick with using the copy/paste feature directly from Goodreads. You can also use the other widgets available to you that all seem to work ok. This is for anyone who REALLY wants the grid list and is willing to do the work behind getting it.  

To create your Goodreads grid widget just follow the instructions below:

1. To get to the widget area log in to Goodreads and go to the edit profile area. The link for this area is located in the drop down menu in the upper right of the site when logged in. Once there click the widgets tab.
2. Scroll down to the Grid Widget and make the settings how you want them. Note* if you have trouble with the preview display on the left just change the max number of items and it should update the preview. This was a different bug I found when trying to Google my own issue.
3. Once you are satisfied with the display copy the code into notepad but don’t close the browser window just yet. Scroll to the bottom in notepad and you will see an random } on its own line. You can delete this.
4. Then at the bottom of notepad paste in the following JS call

   <script src="http://www.goodreads.com/review/grid_widget/5466785-tiffany-may?cover_size=medium&amp;hide_link=true&amp;hide_title=true&amp;num_books=200&amp;order=d&amp;shelf=website&amp;sort=year_pub&amp;widget_id=1335496475" type="text/javascript"></script>

5. Replace the different parameters with the ones you had selected in the widget configuration area. Click image below for larger view.

Then just paste your final code into your webpage and you have a Goodreads grid widget!