Swift Kick Central

What Will You Say No To? Defining Company Values

In a recent post, 37signals showcased what it means for a company to know where it stands. Their example was the NYC bike maker Francesco Bertelli.

Bertelli is a great example of a company that knows where it stands. The best way to know where you stand is to figure out what you won’t do. What will you say no to? Francesco puts his no’s right out in front. It makes the experience better for everyone.

And it's true, Bertelli makes beautiful bikes.

Software and bikes are very similar in this regard. Too many software tools on the college market fight feature for feature and use words like robust, comprehensive, and all-in-one.

We're happy to let them continue to out feature each other. May the company with the longest list of features win. With every new feature comes complexity and distancing from the core values and the schools find it harder and harder to gain adoption.

There's beauty in simplicity. There's also usability in simplicity.

If you're curious about where we stand, check out our previously posted guiding principles: Part 1, 2, and 3

Guiding Principles - Part 3

The following is the third part of our assumptions pulled from our "Guiding
Principles" Wikipage.

Here is Part 1 and Part 2

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Assumptions Part 3:

These are broad based and not as set as principles. It's useful to list assumptions, just to be clear on the thought behind the system. Some of these are more controversial than others. Some were controversial when we started and are not anymore. Some we believe whole heartedly. With others we just needed to pick a side.

On Research

1. Research and "truth" are great. Trying things is an important first step towards both. We are on that first step.
2. Entrepreneurs can't do research and market at the same time. We like research and researchers and hope to work with lots of them. Ethics will require transparency, that's a good thing.

On Academia vs. Business

1. We would like to build a bridge over the "vs." see research above.
2. On average, businesses should be more honest and transparent.
3. On average, academia should be more flexible and experimental.

On Changing the Education System

1. We're not setting out to revolutionize anything. We are doing things that seem smart that are now possible. It's incremental change that's now obvious to us.
2. We might be wrong. That's cool. Luckily we'll only be losing our own money.
3. This isn't foreign policy, if we are wrong, our mistake won't hurt anyone.
4. "If you aren't prepared to be wrong, you'll never do anything original." -Sir Ken Robinson
5. Pedagogy is great, it's just not our focus with Red Rover. There is pedagogy built in to the tool. This list is part of that process, but again, it's not our focus.
6. Very few people do things for the "right" reasons. Most people do it because everyone else is.
7. Most people don't know or care why Facebook or iPhones work or how they change industries. They use them because they work well and everyone else does. We have to figure out the why and how for Red Rover and know that most people will never care.
8. Tools that people use but don't understand can change the world. This can be dangerous. We hope we're not dangerous.
9. We don't know as much history with education reform as we should. We will catch up on our reading as soon as we are done building this thing. In the meantime, we really appreciate summaries and reading lists.

Guiding Principles - Part 2

The following is the second part of our assumptions pulled from our "Guiding Principles" Wikipage.

Here is Part 1

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Assumptions Part 2:

These are broad based and not as set as principles. It's useful to list assumptions, just to be clear on the thought behind the system. Some of these are more controversial than others. Some were controversial when we started and are not anymore. Some we believe whole heartedly. With others we just needed to pick a side.

On Interface / Web 2.0

1. Tags are the way to organize things when the things change all the time. (They are flexible, adaptable, surprising, and folksonomy is fun to say.)
2. "Works well" is pretty.
3. "Good design is clear thinking made visible." -Tufte
4. Bottom -> up organization releases some of the incredible power stored at the edges. This is great for students. It's also good for shrinking school budgets.
5. Top-> down organization is old school. Loosen up. If your school is erring on the "we tried it" side, that's a good sign. Buy insurance and leash your lawyers.

On Education

1. Digital portfolios will become the new grades. Short hand points systems will develop (probably relying on a fair amount of peer feedback, see above, think eBay) where the professor is just one of many inputs.
2. These systems will be transparent and real time, giving learning a video game interface. (Think character development in a role playing game.)
3. Aggregated digital portfolios with tags on time lines will result in automated, personalized recommendations. Sophomores like you liked these classes. Click here to sign up. Click here to see the collaborative notes from years past. Click here to see a list of available mentors who match your life vector.
4. Aggregated digital portfolios will exist outside of the control of the school systems.
5. Students will use free software to see what school is currently the best match for their interests. (Think shopping for books on Amazon.) The enrollment process will dramatically change because of this automated matching.
6. Every student is at a different place. Each +1 has a different x starting place, different maturity, and different vector of relevance. Personalized customization will be the norm and expectation all the time.
7. Engagement is paramount. Relevancy (when defined by right info, right schema, right time, right packaging/ delivery) is 40% of engagement. The other 60% is emotional attachment to community.

On Orientation

1. Everyone wants an introduction. Preferably to people who are like them. Especially when entering anything new where we don't know anyone yet.
2. Common interests are a great place to start relationships. Embracing diversity comes later. It is bad to force too much diversity too fast or let people stay in their comfort zone. This balance will be different for each student.
3. The process outlined above will be visualized with the social graph. It too, will look like a video game.
4. Relationships get better in the real world. Online is a good place to introduce and warm things up.
5. Orientations should not be only online.
6. Orientation should use online components to make the real world aspect better.

Stay tuned for Part 3.

Guiding Principles - Part 1

Our Wikispace reminds me of my over stuffed parents' attic. Among all the "once cool/relavant but now outdated" stuff are gems that got lost in the noise.

In the process of updating a few Wiki pages, I stumbled upon our "Guiding Principles" page and, in rereading, realized it's well worth exposing to the light once again.

Due to the size, I'll post in three parts so your scrolling finger doesn't get jammed.

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Software Principles:

1. Simple. Simple gets used.
2. Students are the primary customers. Schools are secondary. Student desires come before school desires (right up to the simple line). If students don't use it, the rest is moot.
3. Open standards. Users should be free to roam with their data.
4. APIs instead of build in house.
5. Work in the open. Network = learning and adoption. Adoption trumps secrets. (And secrets aren't as smart as what's already in the open.)
6. Features must fight for their lives to be included.
   

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Generally, we like and credit 37signals' "Getting Real" available here.

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Assumptions:

These are broad based and not as set as principles. It's useful to list assumptions, just to be clear on the thought behind the system. Some of these are more controversial than others. Some were controversial when we started and are not anymore. Some we believe whole heartedly. With others we just needed to pick a side.

On Social Networking and Education:

1. Education is social.
2. Social Networks are the new social method. They are here to stay.
3. Therefore schools belong in social networking. (See recent studies.)
4. Staff and faculty belong on Facebook. They need to play nice. They need to not act like parents. Training is needed. So is emotional intelligence with a digital native twist.
5. Students will come to embrace the blend of education and social contexts. They need both and they value convenience; one stop shopping. (This assumes education acts politely, a BIG caveat.) NASPA's "Learning Reconsidered" supports this context blend from the school's side.
6. Social networking specifically, and the internet in general, has flattened hierarchies.
7. Learning is now about flat networks, peer-to-peer, and collaboration in any information vector.
8. Walled gardens are nice for some things, just not higher education. Education needs to get away from ivory towers - it should not try to limit its students, but instead should compete on an open playing field. (Concretely: Elgg is cool. Ning is cool. Students are still, and should be, on Facebook. The students' networks, and their information should be free to roam in the real world. The dangers of this are overstated, the opportunities are endless. And, importantly, they won't, and shouldn't have to, log in to places that provide little value. So good luck competing with Facebook if your in house SNS isn't really clear on value and really easy to use.)
9. There will be a suite of web 2.0 tools on Facebook et.al. They will beat out Blackboard. Google will gobble.

On Colleges

1. As information becomes a free commodity with a very short shelf life, schools will be places for teaching values, building networks, and fostering engagement. The "content" will be a distant 5th on the value proposition.
2. A college needs to be a blend of top down and bottom up organization. (Bottom up, while very real world and idealistic, does not suffice for the majority - see pre-frontal, train surfing, and yes there is friction here with the "no-hierarchy" above.)
3. School should be similar to Wikipedia. "Experts" competing on more or less open ground with the mob - a mob that has to research and reference to be credible.
4. Control of tools, information, and organization exists on a continuum and the pendulum needs to swing towards the students. (In fact, it is swinging that way because the students have the tools. Schools need to work with this fact.)
5. The school, like the parents, must prepare the students to handle ambiguity, chaos, and increasing amounts of responsibility. It's a tricky balance. That's life.
6. Colleges are coasting on social tradition. The early adopter types use them for their networks and then move on, often without waiting for permission or unnecessary validation. (The degree is rapidly losing its cachet with trend setters.)
7. Colleges need to reposition themselves: change up their business model, offering and value proposition. This might take a long time. No one will die because of it, though much student potential will be wasted while we wait.

On Communication

1. Relevance is paramount.
2. Good communicators should embrace filters and empower their receivers. This means schools should give students tools to selectively filter them out (with exceptions only for emergencies.)
3. Communication will follow the social graph. (Relationship = Influence) This is why text messaging is still cool and students use Facebook to communicate. Schools need to build trust and relationship. SPAM is a slap in the face. Requiring students to read email spam to get required information is really obnoxious.

Stay tuned for Part 2.

What's Wrong With the College Speaking Market

There's one name all college speakers know.

That "brand awareness" is a great testament to his ability to market himself and his own products. Not surprising, then, that marketing is what he teaches.

People say he's very successful and that's great.

I'm sure he helps some college speakers with their marketing.

The problem in the college speaking market today, in my opinion, is that there is too much focus on marketing and not enough on meaning.

The marketing message, one of the hundreds of emails we've received from this marketing trainer, has this header:

It addresses a pain of many aspiring and even moderately successful speakers - they are financially stressed. I get it.

It also appeals to our lowest instincts and produces speakers who do the same.

Money is not bad. I'm not against being rich or getting rich.

I simply believe that if you have decided to go into education, in any form, you have to be in it to help first. If you help well, by all means, you are free to make money. If you put money first, however, you won't help much.

Take one minute to watch a segment of this video by Barry Schwartz at TED - start at 12:35

At every conference there are legions of new speakers that will come and go. They will flood the colleges with their postcards and phone calls. They will, in short, market.

But they won't last.

If Barry's morality plea is too squishy for you, Jim Collins will give you 300 odd pages of case studies showing putting money first is simply bad business.

Find your meaning in helping. Do this first.

Filling the Gumption Tank With Some Help From Friends

Had a great day today. A few quick thoughts:

Vid Blog 9/20/2008 from Kevin Prentiss on Vimeo.

I feel like McCain's team: what I meant by "scalability" was: we are trying to hone our app and message to grow faster. I said "Garvee", but meant @garyvee : )

Join Our Team - Hiring an Account Manager for Red Rover

Red Rover is a free online tool for schools to use that improves education by increasing the engagement, effectiveness and relevancy. We are out to change education for the better and looking for someone, maybe you, to join our team.

As Red Rover continually expands to more and more schools, we want to hire a part time Account Manager to be the direct link to the school admins and help schools through the entire setup process. Please review the information below and if it excites you, send us an email to ( tom at redroverhq dot com ). Feel free to forward this message on to anyone else who might be interested.

THIS JOB IS FOR YOU IF:

- You are passionate about improving education
- You have experience with student activities and/or student clubs and orgs
- You know about, or have experience with, student affairs
- You are technically literate with the internet
- You quickly grasp new software
- You are available for 3-4 hours of daily work M-F 9-6
- You are familiar with Facebook
- You have a bigger left hand than right...
- You are personable on the phone and in person
- You quickly solve problems
- You work in an area that allows quiet and uninterrupted phone calls
- You might have customer support experience

RESPONSIBILITIES:

- Reviewing the Red Rover adoption pipeline for friction with schools
- Working with schools to overcome friction points in setup process
- Reporting on adoption pipeline to RR team
- Suggesting RR enhancements to improve pipeline effectiveness
- Testing development tickets and coordinating with Program Team
- Cleaning out old development tickets and posting new tickets
- Trouble shooting RR issues with admins / regular users
- Following up on RR Facebook Page issues
- Following up on UserSuggest issues

DETAILS:

You will initially be hired as an independent contractor on a per hour wage or per month stipend. Wage/Stipend will be discussed individually and based on experience and excitement for the job.

The Tale of Two Grateful Dead Shirts and My Passion for Red Rover

Last week I spoke at U. Penn Erie's freshmen orientation in a huge room filled with 1200 freshman. The orientation leaders were scattered around the room directing the students to fill the seats closest to the front. In my normal approach, I planted myself by the front door with a few orientation leaders and became the informal welcoming crew.

The students filled in as we greeted them with smiles and good morning wishes. I usually comment on cool or unique clothing I see as a way to personalize the greeting and make the students feel more welcome.

With the room about half full a student walked in wearing a torn Grateful Dead shirt, but I couldn't see his face to make eye contact and say hello because his head was drooped to his chest. His shoulders hung low and his feet barley lifted off the ground as he moved past. All his non verbals said he wasn't excited to be there and he hadn't made any friends yet. As he passed me in our greeting line, I pointed to his shirt and said, "Nice shirt." He looked up and smiled quickly and went on to his seat off to the side by himself.

Ten minutes passed and with the room nearly full, another student walked in with a similar torn Grateful Dead shirt and body language. As he passed me in the greeting line, I pointed at his shirt and said, "Nice shirt." He looked up and smiled. I continued,  "There's another guy who came in with almost the exact same shirt. He's seated somewhere over there." I pointed and the student's eyes lit up for a moment as he looked over the crowd of people. But with 1200 freshman in one room, it was nearly impossible to find that one student again.

I held out hope that maybe they'd run into each other throughout the rest of the day and make a connection because they were the only two people wearing Grateful Dead shirts. But the realistic side of me knew that the odds were extremely low and that made me sad because that one little connection could have completely changed their college experience.

The National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Student in Transition says,

"If we don't engage a student within the first two weeks of school, we essentially loose them for the full 2 or 4 years."

That's my fear of leaving the connection up to chance or through some randomly paired ice breaker. We might loose them for the full 2 or 4 years. I know there is a fantasy about meeting interesting people in college by chance, but we shouldn't stop there.

This leads to the passion I have for what we are doing with Red Rover. It's not just a technology solution or assessment tool, it really can change lives and I believe that 100%. It's why we've put so much into it already and continue to do so. When I talk about Red Rover, I don't want to talk about it as just a technology solution, but rather I want to talk about it in terms of changing students' lives, because that's what it does. For the two students at U. Penn Erie, it could have potentially helped them have a better first day at college, a better four years at college, and ultimately a better life.

Cutting the Fat

My fiancee and I (Tom) recently sold our car and signed up for the non-profit car sharing service iGo Cars. Our reasons for breaking free from the car chains were partly environmental, economical, and practical as we live in downtown Chicago. But three months into the program, I discovered another unexpected reason and it interestingly relates directly to my work with Swift Kick.

When we owned a car, the trip to the grocery store would take an hour and some change to complete. The goal was to get our weekly grocery supplies. That goal hasn't changed since selling our car, but the time it takes to do the task has. With iGo you rent by the half-hour, and I realized the exact same trip to the grocery store can be achieved in under 30 minutes. This gives me an extra half-hour to enjoy the better things in life.

Take this same concept and apply it to being an entrepreneur.

Everyday I have a defined set of tasks I'm working on that builds up to our established weekly, monthly and quarterly goals. Since I don't have a "boss" looking over me, the deadlines for individual tasks are set (or not set) by me and roughly have to be done by the end of the day.

"A task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for it's completion." - Ferriss, Timothy. The Four Hour Work Week. pg. 27. New York: Random House, 2007

Instead of just saying my daily tasks have to be done by the end of the day, I also put a minute deadline on each task. In the morning, before I open my computer to start working for the day, I estimate how long it should take for me to accomplish each task. Then I cut off 5-33% of the time and make that my new deadline. It forces me to "cut the fat" from the task and really focus.

I also downloaded Apimac Timer as a desktop timer to give me a visual cue of my deadline.

It's been three weeks since I started reorganizing my work flow and just like with our trips to the grocery store, I'm able to get the same goal completed in about 1/3rd less time.

Next I'll post about our process for deciding our quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily goals and the joy of ruthless prioritization.

An Open Letter to Umair Haque, Applying for Revolutionary Status

Dear Umair,

Your Open Challenge was intriguing. Your manifesto required action.

We would like to apply for "revolutionary" status under your definition. If you have not yet found your five projects to advise, we humbly submit ours for consideration.

We are a start up determined to organize the world's education.

The data model of education needs to be turned upside down.

Currently, a student's information is trapped and chopped up into little pieces in the various departments of the institution. This information is encumbered by old thinking, systems and lawyers. The result is an expensive, top heavy and too often irrelevant model of education.

We give control of education data to the students, where they are free to be public. Leaving education footprints in the open allows us to provide recommendations, peer modeling, and peer mentoring. "People like you were successful when they took x class, joined y group, got z job and click here to see their path or ask them a question." The result is better education at a fraction of the cost.

We have invested all of our revenue in developing our web application. Quite literally putting our money where our mouth is - our revenue is from speaking in higher education. This experience has given us initial capital and more importantly a deep understanding and appreciation for the challenges. It has also given us 40+ schools signed up to use our system. We have made solid progress towards our vision.

Student apathy is a massive untapped resource. We want to free that resource by connecting and galvanizing individuals with common paths and common futures.

Our path to this vision is steep, but achievable. We have clear strategic milestones and reasonable acuity in the market - evident in our early success.

A big vision is a big risk. Your help would be invaluable. With your help we will continue to avoid the mundane and explode a truly renewable human resource.

I'm available on the phone or in person to discuss the project further. Thank you for your voice, it's inspiring.

My Best,

Kevin Prentiss
Founder, Red Rover