For my career in helping customers optimize their web sites, I have written a number of articles on how organizations can use optimal metrics to focus their technology on the key things that the customers care about. Customer Experience management is the industry term and it's about empowering the organization's employees to better serve their customers. Have a visit ... Optimal Metrics!
There are a number of more thoughts about Heatmaps and Clickmap technology. I was reading Avinash's latest blog post and stumbled across the new Google Analytics "In Page Analytics". Wow, click maps right there! Very cool. This shows the clicks on my other web site and can give me some insight into where people are clicking. The good part is the "below the fold" orange bar that shows only 10% of people are scrolling down and clicking. This is very useful and more helpful than the pretty heat maps out there.…
I was born in Kampala, Africa but we lived in Mbale. My parents were advised that the hospital in Mbale was not yet the right place for us. We left in late 1965, at a time where first grade in America was beginning but also Uganda was not partial to mazungu at that time. Foreigners are commonly called this in East Africa, literally the meaning in Swahili is “people who go round and round”. Luckily, I was able to return in 1989 by myself and then again in 1996. This time, I brought my father with me and we stayed two weeks.
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After the Dot Com boom and bust took out my company Genuity, I was on the search again for a new job. My friend Scott worked in Sales at Gomez and introduced me to the manager there. It look a few months (okay half a year) to get the job running the Benchmark practice. This was a position we both constructed and were excited to bring to the customers. I was part product manager, part consultant, and part company spokesman. Customers bought the benchmark product to size up their Internet Performance against their peers.
Tealeaf is a small company based out of San Francisco and I had heard about them a number of times over my career. In the meantime, we were bought by IBM but have still kept the core of the small company together. What attracted me was a mission to provide technology that would really help business people. I really liked focusing on the value of helping an organization better understand their customer's digital experience. Reading the Tea Leaves By capturing every single page, click, and form field entry, the software allows…
Ladakh is a magical place. I was fortunate to spend a month there in October, 1989. Beyond all the wonderful, scenic vistas and people, I was able to attend a rally for Union Territory status on October 27th, forty two years after Indian troops entered Kashmir in 1947. The day is symbolic and both Kashmir and Ladakh were planning “bandhs”, the local equivalent of a strike. In Kashmir, the people were striving for more autonomy from the state government. Ladakh had different ideas. They desired Union Territory status from Kashmir. They believed that they had little political authority in the Jammu and Kashmir government. A Union Territory would preserve their culture and heritage. Also, the Kashmiris were hoarding state and tourist money, keeping the business and cash in Kashmir and not Ladakh.
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I started an outdoor adventure magazine when living in Keene Valley, NY in 1983. After 8 issues, the effort to raise advertising to fund the magazine was becoming a full time job and I really needed money to pay back college loans. My dream of an outdoor adventure web site still yearns for a sustainable business model. I have some ideas ... but that's where they are ... ideas!
As a way to turn around negative energy situations in my life, I've invested in personal development or self-introspection research. Certainly running around the mountains helps, but when at home, these books really have had an impact on me. The Four Agreements I was recommended this book by a therapist in 2005 and it made an impact on my life. Miguel Ruiz writes in a spiritual and powerful way that really resonates. I won't disclose his words but by following his simple agreements, I am able to turn around emotional turmoil and…
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to visit the Grand Canyon for almost a week in January, 2014. I traveled with my best friend Tim and we hiked down the South Kaibab trail and back out the Bright Angel trail. The best thing about the trip was every 100 yards was a totally new view. These videos just don’t come close to being there yourself. If you want a brief summary, this article provides a great brief overview of the hike.
(more…)Attending a slide show from renowned climber John Bouchard, I asked what he carried in his pack. "Candy bars and sweaters," was his classic reply.
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