tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68325492706435948842024-03-12T16:17:50.880-07:00Qindi (Cindy) ZhangGrowth hacking, Product, Marketing, Big Data and moreQindi (Cindy) Zhanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06880578132391610364noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832549270643594884.post-20865302856822501422020-04-02T14:00:00.000-07:002020-04-05T10:28:11.644-07:00What has a pandemic to do with marketing?<h3 style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; position: relative;">
<b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What is a pandemic?</span></b></h3>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Many of us learned the word Pandemic for the first time thanks to coronavirus and COVID-19. Pandemic is an outbreak of disease prevalent over the whole world. The H1N1 flu virus in 2009 is a good example of that. By contrast, the famous SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak in 2003 was an epidemic spread in Hong Kong and surrounding Cantonese regions. Similarly, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was considered an epidemic. The difference between a pandemic and epidemic is the size of its impact. Despite that, both words refer to an illness of similar nature and derived from a common source, in excess of what would be normally expected in a community or region.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFTLnacFsohDHMzzkeU_JWpKLSI0z9uhQ3Hbl3rXAWWApUevpilCzj3XqkiAHjVO3InGbRYsej_KjzqeLv7O6hAicQWEpGTQeOUw9EFJyxh7bM4rUbx-ovU0F40uh94YXAGfOnPIdbre6v/s1600/Coronavirus+by+world+map.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><img alt="coronavirus severity by continent and country" border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="741" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFTLnacFsohDHMzzkeU_JWpKLSI0z9uhQ3Hbl3rXAWWApUevpilCzj3XqkiAHjVO3InGbRYsej_KjzqeLv7O6hAicQWEpGTQeOUw9EFJyxh7bM4rUbx-ovU0F40uh94YXAGfOnPIdbre6v/s400/Coronavirus+by+world+map.png" title="A world map of the coronavirus outbreak as of March 2020" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">A map of the coronavirus outbreak as of March 2020</span></span></td></tr>
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<b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">How does "virality" look like?</span></b></h3>
<b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Coronavirus is shutting the whole world down because it spreads more easily than other diseases.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">Because of that, we see the exponential growth in confirmed cases on COVID-19 when not enough measure was in place to stop the spread.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To us marketers, viral growth is a more familiar term. Virality typically refers to the tendency of an image, video, or a piece of content to be circulated rapidly and widely from one internet or mobile user to another. Viral marketing is one of the most promising channels to grow product adoption and product usage organically. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKTMgN110MSj5F_Bc7PW_KBHj90rDaQ-DqoML6E5z3HDFH5pHG-YiZaPF3Rr7GnKWbV8x9NILclcQ_ApyE1T4xyhrtIdVxW6f_GZmRcXis5qznYxA834KLp6J8lVIhT2INu3FI4bDECfOK/s1600/Coronavirus+rapid+spread.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="396" data-original-width="687" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKTMgN110MSj5F_Bc7PW_KBHj90rDaQ-DqoML6E5z3HDFH5pHG-YiZaPF3Rr7GnKWbV8x9NILclcQ_ApyE1T4xyhrtIdVxW6f_GZmRcXis5qznYxA834KLp6J8lVIhT2INu3FI4bDECfOK/s400/Coronavirus+rapid+spread.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Hockey stick growth of COVID-19</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">TikTok is a great example of viral-content-enabled hockey stick growth. SensorTower reported over 700 million global downloads of TikTok, beating Facebook & Instagram in 2019.</span><br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirMqgHj_0PUpkzhxSfZ28E94GJIACtuNVE3f_ISC6akOjpbG2T0I0WPq9DOnSVGaX1hIIQKSdq621yp3wxTEhCaDuOLKJwaAJG1d_NWnHxZjyl9yIsPE93b7tdDmwoHAu-CDTanMNkt1XF/s1600/tiktok-ranking-revenue-by-month-since-2018.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="655" data-original-width="800" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirMqgHj_0PUpkzhxSfZ28E94GJIACtuNVE3f_ISC6akOjpbG2T0I0WPq9DOnSVGaX1hIIQKSdq621yp3wxTEhCaDuOLKJwaAJG1d_NWnHxZjyl9yIsPE93b7tdDmwoHAu-CDTanMNkt1XF/s400/tiktok-ranking-revenue-by-month-since-2018.png" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The same hockey-stick growth seen on TikTok</span></td></tr>
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<b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">How to measure virality?</span></b></h3>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There is a way to calculate the virus’s basic reproduction number, or </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">R</i><span style="background-color: white; bottom: -0.25em; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">0</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> — the number of people on average one infected person will pass the virus to. Coronavirus suggests a range of 2–2.5 in </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">R</i><span style="background-color: white; bottom: -0.25em; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">0</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> exceeding </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">seasonal flu in the range of 1-2. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0jqZanUf_TRB6Bf7AE7oLe5TKHLah2SeGWNkzCJ7S3-a5mNO3x4CYoB8IrmWZ-8S2-Zwf1nwgbMvzygy8a8RJ0Esh4AW0ocCNvOVpG-uBrXw8gzQ7Bmj-PnSLaiCqFJ_A0CaQsaJZ7qcR/s1600/fitality+vs.+R0.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0jqZanUf_TRB6Bf7AE7oLe5TKHLah2SeGWNkzCJ7S3-a5mNO3x4CYoB8IrmWZ-8S2-Zwf1nwgbMvzygy8a8RJ0Esh4AW0ocCNvOVpG-uBrXw8gzQ7Bmj-PnSLaiCqFJ_A0CaQsaJZ7qcR/s400/fitality+vs.+R0.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: small;">R</span></i><span style="background-color: white; bottom: -0.25em; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: small;">0 (Basic reproduction number) comparison on Coronavirus</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There is a similar metric to R0 in viral marketing called K-factor. The K-factor can be used to describe the growth rate of websites, apps, or a customer base. The formula is roughly as follows:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="mwe-math-element"><img alt="i={\text{number of invites sent by each customer }}" aria-hidden="true" class="mwe-math-fallback-image-inline" src="https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/84f6a971af72b50c45fc0057aab78413c535ddb5" style="border: 0px; display: inline-block; height: 2.509ex; vertical-align: -0.671ex; width: 44.638ex;" /></span> (e.g. if each new customer invites five friends, <i>i</i> = 5)</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="mwe-math-element"><img alt="c={\text{percent conversion of each invite }}" aria-hidden="true" class="mwe-math-fallback-image-inline" src="https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/50d15fb8db0fbefb8152de678e9cb23780acd720" style="border: 0px; display: inline-block; height: 2.509ex; vertical-align: -0.671ex; width: 37.329ex;" /></span> (e.g. if one in five invitees convert to new users, <i>c</i> = .2)</span><br />
<span class="mwe-math-element"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img alt="k=i*c" aria-hidden="true" class="mwe-math-fallback-image-inline" src="https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/c40c36b21c9107170a5c021c218b57694b4fff26" style="border: 0px; display: inline-block; height: 2.176ex; vertical-align: -0.338ex; width: 8.314ex;" /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In the example above your K-factor is 1. The higher the K-factor, the higher the virality and the faster the product will grow in downloads or installs. Notice here I didn't say userbase instead - the reason being that active user base also highly depends on the effectiveness of user onboarding and retention, which we can cover in a different post.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1VwQyFlqdozRdrrwJmcV3HGQaXk2YnbE7pIwsCp4O7xVRJ2HtJcJarL70XUUiY3FyCwZ2kGbrcAZxgJIU8fQC7JDdV2yiGwP8KD55hjikcu5yXgDm-XnbpipbUi_3d7S5kI4FViyDJ3_F/s1600/2019+Q4+social+media+app+downloads.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="408" data-original-width="550" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1VwQyFlqdozRdrrwJmcV3HGQaXk2YnbE7pIwsCp4O7xVRJ2HtJcJarL70XUUiY3FyCwZ2kGbrcAZxgJIU8fQC7JDdV2yiGwP8KD55hjikcu5yXgDm-XnbpipbUi_3d7S5kI4FViyDJ3_F/s400/2019+Q4+social+media+app+downloads.png" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">2019 Q4 global downloads of the top social apps</span></td></tr>
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<b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Why is viral marketing so desirable?</span></b></h3>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">First of all, viral marketing is powerful because it is implemented through content and enabled via technology in today's products. This makes it scalable.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Secondly, viral marketing success isn't limited to the size of your marketing budget as its outcome doesn't necessarily correlate to the amount of acquisition dollar put behind your campaigns and the spread of the content could be completely free or just slightly incentivized. Therefore it is more affordable. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Using TikTok as an example, they focused on short-form mobile videos. By providing users with tools to make impactful visual and sound effects, TikTok enables its users to easily create viral content. TikTok further makes it easy to share their videos on other social platforms with TikTok signature look and feel - Douyin, TikTok's Chinese version also includes a sound signature in each video. When users share TikTok content, they are building mindshare in their community about the TikTok brand. With more and more social influencers getting onto the platform, their fans follower their footsteps to adopt the app. What a powerful way to grow a product!</span>
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<b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Final words</span></b></h3>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now that you've learned that every person who contracted COVID-19, with or even without symptoms, may pass the virus on to two or more people, are you finding yourself better at keeping social distance, washing hands often and not touching your face?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Are you interested in learning more about viral marketing? Is viral marketing for everyone? How to construct a successful viral marketing strategy? How to measure k-factor if your budget doesn't allow you to pay for those expensive attribution tools? Let me know if you're interested in learning more and I will follow up with more posts on this topic!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Read my related growth hacking articles:</span></h4>
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<span style="color: #7c93a1; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-decoration-line: none;"><a href="https://qindiz.blogspot.com/2017/03/try-out-beet-because-itll-make-you-red.html" target="_blank">Try Out Beets, Because It Will Make You Red Pee</a></span></div>
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<a href="https://qindiz.blogspot.com/2017/03/test-improved-conversion-over-control.html" style="color: #7c93a1; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Test Improved Conversion over Control by 20%. Deploy? Think Twice.</span></a></div>
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<a href="https://qindiz.blogspot.com/2017/08/why-you-should-ignore-growth-tactics.html" style="color: #7c93a1; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Why You Should Ignore Everything You Have Been Told About Growth Tactics</span></a></div>
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Qindi (Cindy) Zhanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06880578132391610364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832549270643594884.post-48345389202452718392018-05-31T15:17:00.000-07:002018-06-02T19:46:21.618-07:00i18n & l10n - Boost Your Addressable Market by 10X+<h3>
<b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What is i18n & l10n?</span></b></h3>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">i18n & l10n stand for internationalization and localization, meaning I-eighteen-letters-n and L-ten-letters-n. They refer to adapting apps to different languages, regional differences as well as technical and business requirements of a target locale</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">. </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Internationalization is mostly in the product development phase where an app is designed and developed in a way that removes barrier for localization and allows same great UX for users outside of the original country. While localization is the actual adaptation of the app into various language, culture and preferences of the foreign markets, it is often executed in both product and marketing.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Ideally, internationalization occurs as a fundamental step in the design and development process, rather than as an afterthought that can often involve awkward and expensive re-engineering. It has potential to significantly affect the ease of the product's localizations.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">English to English translation: If your original app is built in and for US market, do not easily dismiss the opportunity to localize for your fellow English countries such as the UK, Canada and Australia, especially if written and verbal communication is important for your app. Consider adjusting spelling, date/time format, currency, and local slangs.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">English to other language translation: It is important to leave extra space for translation to another language when doing user interface design. German, Turkish and sometimes French have longer translations. And wait till you take a look at this paragraph in Greenlandic: </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5XaOazlmZNx5gM7rEN2cdxmLHNMWphEF9GVf_a-Ym43umyPkRp7jdhDKu7uLUCejojbV32ZnEw1klvi02boW138OsXKBhBIHqfaG8rHDepIW3fNDp8WeYXMMtmye1kqtCxYFrZcv3wete/s1600/inuktitut-greenlandic.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Greenlandic text sample" border="0" data-original-height="372" data-original-width="556" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5XaOazlmZNx5gM7rEN2cdxmLHNMWphEF9GVf_a-Ym43umyPkRp7jdhDKu7uLUCejojbV32ZnEw1klvi02boW138OsXKBhBIHqfaG8rHDepIW3fNDp8WeYXMMtmye1kqtCxYFrZcv3wete/s400/inuktitut-greenlandic.gif" title="Language with the longest words" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Sure, on an average weekday, you probably won't build for the Greenland market, but you get my point.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Last but not least, don't forget text that is embedded in the images. In an ideal world, instead of embedded text, you would have text overlay with CSS so that it is a lot more manageable when it comes to localization - not to mention how much your designer would love you for that decision. An example of better internationalization approach right here.</span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">More Than Just the Language</span></b></h3>
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Localization is often thought of only as a synonym for translation of the user interface and documentation. In fact it is often a substantially more complex issue.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-weight: normal;">Growth Case Study in Japan Market </span></span></h4>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I recently worked on driving growth of <a href="https://soundhound.com/soundhound" target="_blank">SoundHound</a>, the best music discovery app, in the Japan market. We set the initial goal of the project to be adoption of a certain product feature. After analyzing data on the local market, I realized there was a bigger gap in user adoption of another interdependent feature. We re-scoped the project and discovered as we dug deeper with a native specialist that there is local regulation in the Japanese market which may deteriorate user experience of the said feature. We researched the extent of the impact and </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">went back to the drawing board for a workaround. The takeaway here is to </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">never </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">overlook the potential implication of local regulation and market development.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Referral is one of the most important sources of organic growth and international markets often require deeper thoughts. Japan is an iOS market and</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">users use Line in lieu of phone call and sms service provided by cellular network, as the unlimited data is typically included in one's cellphone plan. When we promoted social share features in Japan, we put Line icon front and centered to achieve better CTR.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEGDF-1doZGnadmfHVkWpo-tXaW-KUmz7susfJ-Kn6H664rBI0C0VLmpUZefTpj9xQPprOIvnz9ha-CB2MHZ_qn0A0hD1ombh507qUfCQOhs1-i8XPp16QqYrGzmrXNj14s0AJJ8yya1ca/s1600/line-train.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Line popularity in Japan" border="0" data-original-height="488" data-original-width="650" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEGDF-1doZGnadmfHVkWpo-tXaW-KUmz7susfJ-Kn6H664rBI0C0VLmpUZefTpj9xQPprOIvnz9ha-CB2MHZ_qn0A0hD1ombh507qUfCQOhs1-i8XPp16QqYrGzmrXNj14s0AJJ8yya1ca/s400/line-train.jpg" title="Line is the most popular communication app in Japan" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Ultra popular social network app Line in Japan</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We also uncovered that Japanese users use SoundHound more for <span style="caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">discovering</span> English songs than for Japanese songs when we compared top charts in SoundHound to the local hottest hits. This differs from European markets where top local charts in and out of SoundHound app are highly consistent.</span></div>
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">i18n & l10n i</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">s challenging, fun and rewarding, especially when you work with a team of product manager, UX designer and developers that keeps l10n in mind. Feel free to share your thoughts and experience in </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">i18n & l10n with us!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Read my related growth hacking articles:</span></span></h4>
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<a href="https://qindiz.blogspot.com/2017/03/how-to-build-recommendation-engine.html" style="color: #7c93a1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">How to Build a Recommendation Engine without Machine Learning Experts?</span></a><br />
<a href="https://qindiz.blogspot.com/2017/03/test-improved-conversion-over-control.html" style="color: #7c93a1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Test Improved Conversion over Control by 20%. Deploy? Think Twice.</span></a><br />
<a href="https://qindiz.blogspot.com/2017/08/why-you-should-ignore-growth-tactics.html" style="color: #7c93a1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Why You Should Ignore Everything You Have Been Told About Growth Tactics</span></a><br />
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;">F</span>ollow me on twitter (<a href="https://twitter.com/QindiZhang" target="_blank">@qindizhang</a>) or add me to your <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/+QindiZhang" target="_blank">Google+</a> circle, my friend!</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Let me know in the comment what other topics you want to read about!</span></span></span></div>
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Qindi (Cindy) Zhanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06880578132391610364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832549270643594884.post-58378842918359772352018-03-19T15:13:00.000-07:002018-05-31T15:58:34.954-07:00Are We Really Ready for Voice Assistant - Why User Engagement is Challenging for Voice Apps<h3>
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<b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Five Levels of Consumer Awareness</span></b></h3>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">All the way back in 1966, Eugene Schwartz laid out the 5 phases a consumer goes through before they buy a product:</span></div>
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<li style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Completely Unaware</b>: The consumer doesn’t even know that they have a problem, though they have their own ideas and preferences</span></li>
<li style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Problem-Aware</b>: The consumer is aware that they have some kind of problem, but they’re not aware there are solutions</span></li>
<li style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Solution-Aware</b>: The consumer is aware that there are solutions to their problem out there, but they don’t know about yours</span></li>
<li style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Product-Aware</b>: The consumer knows that you sell a product that matches their problem, but they’re not convinced that it will completely solve it or be right for them</span></li>
<li style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Most Aware</b>: The consumer knows they have a problem, they know solutions exist, and they know your product is a solution—now, they just need to be “closed.”</span></li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcDiomF31OIUrWDEH50T2b1HUcWmuwAOeL5NJhdoWWjoiqreIkE__Uiy_FEHDbWtEmYwLqJk6jE27YENykwUFdKwuIYLXf_i59hMV6cNK7ETlEyxUy508wLAgTKk6Gsl0GP1RioWUjxgmV/s1600/Five-Levels%252Bof%252BAwareness.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="640" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcDiomF31OIUrWDEH50T2b1HUcWmuwAOeL5NJhdoWWjoiqreIkE__Uiy_FEHDbWtEmYwLqJk6jE27YENykwUFdKwuIYLXf_i59hMV6cNK7ETlEyxUy508wLAgTKk6Gsl0GP1RioWUjxgmV/s400/Five-Levels%252Bof%252BAwareness.jpg" title="Eugene Schwartz's "Five Levels of Awareness"" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The answer is: all over the place!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To some degrees, all of us are somewhat familiar with brand names such as Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant or even Cortana. Does it mean, as long as the shiny little speakers make their way into people's living room, we can all go home? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At the same time, millions of people are still risking their lives and others everyday - texting, typing and swiping on their phone behind a wheel when they should've relied on their voice as a much safer way to command their phone.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjErI2gefI8rH2HjD5yuZvyy5kUQRPiNk8z7X1kV0-DhiC_Z8ODg011bqxCI2EF8PbsLGGYisylZ4ud3AsDYTfxFthMwlgMwvs_Lnd9WvbNCba8I8hHGMFNu_qocc08TPyis_6Xv0BD3Dn1/s1600/voice+assistant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444;"><img alt="Voice assistant wars" border="0" data-original-height="359" data-original-width="638" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjErI2gefI8rH2HjD5yuZvyy5kUQRPiNk8z7X1kV0-DhiC_Z8ODg011bqxCI2EF8PbsLGGYisylZ4ud3AsDYTfxFthMwlgMwvs_Lnd9WvbNCba8I8hHGMFNu_qocc08TPyis_6Xv0BD3Dn1/s400/voice+assistant.jpg" title="Siri, Google assistant & other native voice assistants" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Voice use cases are many but far in between. Alexa has 100+ skills, same as Google assistant as actions and <a href="https://www.houndify.com/">Hound</a> as domains, although all is not equal.</span></div>
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Adopting Eugene Schwartz's 5 levels of awareness:</span></div>
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<li><span style="color: #444444;"><b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Completely Unaware</b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">: Over the holidays Google and Alexa have been educating users on holiday themed use cases such as Play New Year's Mad Libs. I played it and it was fun for the first time but not a use case that sees a typical users more often than once a year.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444;"><b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Problem-Aware</b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">: During one of the in-house user studies, almost all the users acknowledge it is very dangerous to text and drive. 10-20% admitted they're guilty of charge. Are most users not aware that they can use their voice to check messages, reply and launch apps, or the products in market lack appeal one way or another?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444;"><b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Solution-Aware</b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">: Many users know to use their voice on Google map and Waze to get to destinations. These voice add-on features aren't making or breaking the deals though.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444;"><b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Product-Aware</b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">: Philips hue light bulbs are known for being one of the most popular personal wireless lighting solutions, working alongside google homes. The name brand comes to people's mind when you talk about voice controlled lights.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444;"><b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Most Aware</b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">: Streaming music and control home appliances such as lighting on smart speakers. The most commonly known and adopted voice use cases include setting up alarm and inquire weather forecast. They exist in all the voice assistant products, therefore have become a hygiene factor instead of a differentiator.</span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; white-space: pre;"> </span></span></li>
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<b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Summary</span></b></h3>
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In spite of the fact that Amazon & Google manage to convince a dozen million consumers on the initial investment for the hardware, all voice assistant providers still struggle on getting the usage up in volume as well as frequency.</span></div>
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Voice will eventually take over the current UI of type, tap & swipe, but so far, voice assistant providers continue to see screen-involvement & cross-devices to be the engagement key for voice service - counter intuitive I know. This shows us that it will take another few years to see higher adoption and deeper engagement in voice interface as the technology catches up for better UX and more reliable result or action taken upon command.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Read my related growth articles:</span></h4>
<a href="https://qindiz.blogspot.com/2017/03/test-improved-conversion-over-control.html" style="font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #444444;">Test Improved Conversion over Control by 20%. Deploy? Think Twice.</span></a><br />
<div style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://qindiz.blogspot.com/2018/05/i18n-l10n-boost-your-addressable-market.html" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">i18n & l10n - Boost Your Addressable Market by 10X+</a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://qindiz.blogspot.com/2017/08/why-you-should-ignore-growth-tactics.html" style="font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #444444;">Why You Should Ignore Everything You Have Been Told About Growth Tactics</span></a></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Follow me on twitter (<a href="https://twitter.com/QindiZhang">@qindizhang</a>) or add me to your <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/+QindiZhang">Google+</a> circle, my friend! Let me know in the comment what other topics you want to read about!</span></div>
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Qindi (Cindy) Zhanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06880578132391610364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832549270643594884.post-17326205987870126672017-08-29T12:13:00.000-07:002017-08-29T12:25:35.101-07:00Why You Should Ignore Everything You Have Been Told About Growth Tactics<div class="bodycopy" style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: KlavikaRegular, Titillium, Helvetica, Arial, san-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 20px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We have all heard various recommendations on growth tactics: Mandatory registration, rich push notifications, frictionless user onboarding; the list goes on. Some of this advice is very convincing as they come in as learnings from successful growth projects.</span></div>
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<span style="font-style: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Common Mobile Growth Tactics</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://mobilegrowthstack.com/@andy_carvell" target="_blank">Andy Carvell</a> shared a case study from SoundCloud where he tested putting emojis into push notification, a heart 💗 at the beginning and the end of the message title. The open rate improved. The team went ahead and tested with two hearts <span style="font-style: inherit;">💗</span><span style="font-style: inherit;">💗 and the open rate yet improved again.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You probably at some point saw one or more growth tactics</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: inherit;">like the below</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: inherit;">, most of which come with numbers:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-style: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Emojis can increase push notification open rate by 85%</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-style: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Email open rate increase by 4x if a user's name is included </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-style: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In-app behavior based messages increase the open rate by 9x</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-style: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Push notifications lift retention rate by 20%</span></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">Next time when you encounter an exciting and seemingly convincing growth tactic, ask yourself the questions below to get a better understanding regarding the context of the data provided, and evaluate how applicable they are to your particular problems:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. When was the data collected? Has the OS significantly changed in related features for these test results to stay relevant today?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2. How large is the sample size? Does the data cover one app, several apps by one company or many apps by many companies?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3. Is the data industry specific? For example, does it relate to e-commerce, game or utility apps?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4. Does the data cover multiple geo and/or language market?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Growth Tactics Don't Always Work, Now What?</span></h4>
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<a href="https://hipchat.soundhound.com/files/img/emoticons/1/fighterjet-1450116138@2x.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-style: inherit;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">Next time when we feel the urge to flood our push notification messages with emojis</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;"> 😼🤣😘🎉</span><img alt="(applause)" aria-label="(applause)" class="remoticon" height="26" src="https://hipchat.soundhound.com/files/img/emoticons/1/applause-1453750860@2x.png" style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle;" width="22" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;"> in the hope of improving that depressing 2% push open rate, let's first take two actions:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. Discover WHAT</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm all for testing every sensible growth lever, but first and foremost we need to be crystal clear what we are really testing or other factors play a major role in the test result. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For example, </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: inherit;">a rich push was tested on both Android and iOS where users are required to press and slide down the notification in order to see the full content (e.g. an image, gif or CTA buttons) attached to the rich push. This test is highly dependent on users' understanding and adoption of a particular OS feature. If the open rate didn't improve, it may not be your image or CTA, as the users simply need more education on how to use the feature itself</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: inherit;">.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2. Find Out WHY</span></h2>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333;">After we find out about what works and what doesn't, the next and more important step is to understand what drives the user </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">behavior resulting in the data you see.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: inherit;">A</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: inherit;">n app I've worked on tested emoji and saw </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: inherit;">absolutely </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: inherit;">no noticeable lift on the test cohort. User analysis revealed that the app's </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: inherit;">user base</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: inherit;"> gears towards an older age group, and surfaced that some recipients found emojis </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">overwhelming and </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">made it harder for them to read the text of the actual message. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Takeaway</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">The larger goal in testing is beyond individual wins. Rather, it is about getting better understanding of our own UNIQUE user base so that we can apply the learning systematically to future treatments</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">In the long term, we want to be able to design more meaningful test and treatments to address users' underlying needs.</span></span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: inherit;">So test away my friends, with your </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">North Star in mind!</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://justsomething.co/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/brilliant-kids-test-answers-32.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Growth best practice, AB Testing, Growth Case Study, Growth Hacking" border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="660" height="261" src="https://justsomething.co/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/brilliant-kids-test-answers-32.jpeg" title="Growth Tactics don't Always Work" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Do we know what we're really looking for?</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.199999809265137px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Read my related growth articles:</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://qindiz.blogspot.com/2017/03/test-improved-conversion-over-control.html" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: small;">Test Improved Conversion over Control by 20%. Deploy? Think Twice.</span></a></h3>
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<a href="https://qindiz.blogspot.com/2017/03/a-newbies-guide-to-ab-testing.html" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: small;">A Newbie's Guide to AB Testing</span></a></h3>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;">F</span>ollow me on twitter (<a href="https://twitter.com/QindiZhang" style="color: #7c93a1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@qindizhang</a>) or add me to your <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/+QindiZhang" style="color: #7c93a1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Google+</a> circle, my friend!</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Let me know in the comment what other topics you want to read about!</span></span></span></div>
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Qindi (Cindy) Zhanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06880578132391610364noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832549270643594884.post-42145767629643060812017-03-18T07:12:00.000-07:002017-03-13T16:12:40.372-07:00Test Improved Conversion over Control by 20%. Deploy? Think Twice. <head>
<title>Common traps for AB testing and how to read split test result correctly. What to watch out for in split test</title>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The Invisible Traps in AB Testing: A Conversion Optimization Case Study</span></h2>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As a conversion optimization hacker, you pride yourself in making data backed decisions for your business. You follow the <a href="http://qindiz.blogspot.com/2017/03/test-improved-conversion-over-control.html" target="_blank">AB testing guidelines</a> to a tee. After dozens of tests, you've finally found your diamond in the rough - your new landing page is performing 15% better in converting visitors for registrations. You're so pumped, you're ready to go! </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Don't.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">At least not before you've checked all the data. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Case study</span></span></h3>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Pinterest once ran a test on the visual design where they increased the size of the related pin to the original image that brought users to their landing page.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXHT6J11IUbGKEF7-baHUifNvYZMLqIGlB0mmsuPzsESJseixhzOQpMfQxwRESmqmWDDOLO6AAzwr8OUnhyphenhyphene-ue9blofoBa3EHZR5S5dCqcPSsBs_0BFwFyB8qaU-Mg46DkyIIagXFejNr/s1600/Pinterest+Conversion+%25282%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Conversion optimization, successful website design" border="0" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXHT6J11IUbGKEF7-baHUifNvYZMLqIGlB0mmsuPzsESJseixhzOQpMfQxwRESmqmWDDOLO6AAzwr8OUnhyphenhyphene-ue9blofoBa3EHZR5S5dCqcPSsBs_0BFwFyB8qaU-Mg46DkyIIagXFejNr/s400/Pinterest+Conversion+%25282%2529.png" title="How to do AB testing on landing page?" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It created more equality for the extended image roll and may get users into the mode of scrolling on more instantly. Brilliant idea! Data agreed too. They saw a lot of engagement and the new layout was 25% more effective at convincing a visitor to sign up. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>They didn't ship that page. </b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Why? Because the new design broke SEO. Well, kinda. They saw a double digit drop in traffic coming through. The resizing of the images forced search engines to re-crawl tons of pages and the traffic through image search was negatively impacted. This was a highly trafficked landing page so the percentage drop in top of the funnel was considerable. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Key Takeaway</span></h3>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is a simple but often overlooked phenomenon in conversion optimization - when you're laser focused on improving one key metric, make sure you've buttoned up on the entire data flow when making your decision. Pride yourself on being the data detective - keep your ears open when your data is screaming a B-side story.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;">F</span>ollow me on twitter (<a href="https://twitter.com/QindiZhang" target="_blank">@qindizhang</a>) or add me to your <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/+QindiZhang" target="_blank">Google+</a> circle, my friend!</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Let me know in the comment what other topics you want to read about!</span></span></span></div>
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Qindi (Cindy) Zhanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06880578132391610364noreply@blogger.com0Palo Alto, CA, USA37.4418834 -122.1430194999999837.2400059 -122.46574299999997 37.643760900000004 -121.82029599999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832549270643594884.post-21715148952274063782017-03-16T11:41:00.000-07:002017-03-21T18:37:12.925-07:00The Rise of Voice and Collective AI<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
<span style="color: #444444;">WHAT DO WE WANT?</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;">Natural language processing!</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;">WHEN DO WE WANT IT?</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;">Sorry, when do we want what?</span></div>
<span style="color: #444444;">— Benedict Evans (@BenedictEvans) <a href="https://twitter.com/BenedictEvans/status/822961461559324672">January 22, 2017</a></span></blockquote>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span> <span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://techcrunch.com/2014/01/21/andreessen-horowitz-brings-on-londoner-benedict-evans/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ben Evans</a> is a partner at the renown venture capital firm <a href="http://www.a16z.com/" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(8, 158, 0); box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Andreessen Horowitz</a> <span style="background-color: white;">(also called </span><span style="background-color: white;">a16z</span><span style="background-color: white;">). He generously shares his industry insights with the public and has hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In Ben's recent post <a href="http://ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2017/2/22/voice-and-the-uncanny-valley-of-ai" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Voice and the Uncanny Valley of AI</a>, he started with</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Voice is a Big Deal in tech this year. </b></span></span></blockquote>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> </span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Rise of Voice</span></h2>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Ben attributed the rise of voice to four causes:</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<ol><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
<li>The advancement in machine learning reduced the error rate in voice recognition and natural language processing.</li>
<li>Better hardware, lower cost.</li>
<li>If voice most existed as people's side projects in the past, the resource is abundant today. </li>
<li>The desktop-to-mobile platform evolution has shown, the more engaging UX is, the more control companies have which own these platforms - Apple and Google had more control over the mobile user base than Microsoft ever had with the desktop.</li>
</span></ol>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The twitter feed from Ben at the top of the post was mocking at AI not being able to connect dots in a human way. In fact, the ability of today's virtual assistants at </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">handling context in a conversion </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">is continuously</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> increasing. You can ask a series of questions such as:</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"What are the 5 star rating restaurants nearby?"</span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">"How far is the first one?" </span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"How much does it cost for Uber to take me there?"</span></blockquote>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And product such as <a href="http://www.soundhound.com/hound" target="_blank">Hound</a> handles it like a champion. You don't even need to get out of the app to call for a Uber ride of your choice.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Era of Sharing Economy, Knowledge & Intelligence</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Collective AI came into view as one of the key contributors to the increased AI performance. <span style="background-color: white;">Collective intelligence</span><span style="background-color: white;"> is shared or group intelligence that emerges</span><span style="background-color: white;"> from the </span>collaboration<span style="background-color: white;">, collective efforts, and competition of many individuals and appears in </span>consensus decision making<span style="background-color: white;">. What happens when we apply this to building AI?</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">SoundHound is the leading innovator in voice-enabled AI and conversational intelligence technologies. SoundHound's <span style="background-color: #fefefe;">vision of Collective AI is to provide the tools and platform for developers to build more intelligent solutions easily and rapidly. </span></span></span><br />
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> <span style="color: #444444;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="327" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H2MqFbrl7QM" width="582"></iframe></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The era of sharing economy, knowledge and intelligence brings a voice-enabled AI platform and its technology to the ISV community - something once only possessed and controlled by name brands such as Google, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon. What a gift!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The closing thought - what's the face of your personal AI? </span></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;"><img alt="The Rise of Voice and Collective AI, Voice recognition, Natural Language Processing, Houndify: Collective AI from SoundHound Inc." border="0" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt524WSqnpJxkXDw0BKfEDVHEFF7ndcVw2BWExV4YikiNKCPf7xe5ihKRHMlgj98keIs8LsIr2iYYxItRKpXx_WlGZIF6qntOrSDUyGJZB20z8x0PI-Mz5na86xpkPpVLQAh5zse6HYZwR/s400/Ex-Machina.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="The rise in voice and collective AI" width="400" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For the record, my personal AI definitely has the face of Wall-E. ;o)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Read my related machine learning articles:</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://qindiz.blogspot.com/2017/03/want-more-funding-machine-learning.html" style="background-color: white; color: #5dc2c0; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" target="_blank">Want More Funding? Machine Learning!</a></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://qindiz.blogspot.com/2017/03/how-to-build-recommendation-engine.html" style="background-color: white; color: #5dc2c0; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" target="_blank">How to Build a Recommendation Engine without Machine Learning Experts?</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;">F</span>ollow me on twitter (<a href="https://twitter.com/QindiZhang" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@qindizhang</a>) or add me to your <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/+QindiZhang" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Google+</a> circle, my friend!</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Let me know in the comment what other topics you want to read about!</span></span></span></div>
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Qindi (Cindy) Zhanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06880578132391610364noreply@blogger.com0San Francisco, CA, USA37.7749295 -122.4194155000000136.9717915 -123.71030900000001 38.578067499999996 -121.12852200000002tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832549270643594884.post-85249100374936922212017-03-10T07:10:00.001-08:002017-03-15T16:57:34.822-07:00Try Out Beet, Because it'll Make You Red Pee <h2>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Red Pee Proposition</span></h2>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Most parents have had the challenge of convincing their kids to eat vegetables.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444;"><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Try some brocolie, honey. It's good for you."</span></span> </i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Why?'"</span> </i></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #444444;"><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Because it's healthy. It gives you lots of vitamins and fiber."</span> </i></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #444444;"><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">" No, thanks." (Looking away) </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></i></span></blockquote>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> This conversation I had with my kindergartener yesterday wasn't so typical.</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>"What is this red food?"</i></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;"><i>" It's called beet and it makes you red pee tomorrow if you eat enough."</i></span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"How many is enough?"</span> </i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"20 little pieces, I guess."</span> </i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"One, two, three... I got twenty!" (Chewing)</span> </i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></h2>
<h2>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Get Inside of Your Audience's Mind</span></h2>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.392px;">Much of a Product Manager’s responsibility is to juggle multiple streams of conversation and move them towards closure.</span><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.392px;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As a PM, you're required to influence and sell on a daily basis, to different audiences. During a good portion of your day, you <a href="https://qindiz.blogspot.com/2017/03/test-improved-conversion-over-control.html">make data-driven decisions</a> (hopefully) with your left brain. Is it good to extend that capacity and sell with evidence or on the technicality side of the story? </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span> <span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It depends. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span> <span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To an engineering audience, it may very well be the best way to go about it.</span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> At the meantime</span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">, you'd better be prepared to sharpen up your right brain in order to take on an </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">audience made up of sales, design or anyone new to the technology or concept you introduce on. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span></h2>
<h2>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">How to Talk Tech to Non-Technical Audience</span></h2>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Live like an adult and think like a child - If you want to convince a child, you first learn how a child thinks.</span></span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The focus of the left brain is verbal, processing information in an analytical and sequential way, looking first at the pieces then putting them together to get the whole. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;">The right brain of the brain focuses on the visual, and processes information in an intuitive and simultaneous way, looking first at the whole picture then the details. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; text-align: justify;">Left brain thinking is verbal and analytical. The right brain is non-verbal and intuitive, using pictures rather than words.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; text-align: justify;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; text-align: justify;">Left brained organization such as Amazon invented </span><a href="https://conorneill.com/2012/11/30/amazon-staff-meetings-no-powerpoint/" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">non-powerpoint presentation</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; text-align: justify;"> and evangelizes </span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/beauty-amazons-6-pager-brad-porter" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">the beauty of<span style="color: #444444;"> 6 pagers</span></a><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">. If you want to work at Amazon, be sure to brush up on <a href="https://qindiz.blogspot.com/2017/03/a-newbies-guide-to-ab-testing.html" target="_blank">AB testing</a>, <a href="https://qindiz.blogspot.com/2017/03/how-many-nightmares-have-you-ever-had.html" target="_blank">market sizing questions</a> and </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;">learn </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;">how to write </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">hypothetical product's press release and FAQ announcement. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Amazon uses this "working backwards" approach because it forces the team to get the most difficult discussions out of the way early. They need to fully understand what the product's value proposition will be and how it will be pitched to customers. If the team can't come up with a compelling press release, the product probably isn't worth making. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #4d4d4d; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<h2>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Case Study: Tell a Technical Story in the Language of your Audience</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">R2D3 is an experiment in expressing statistical thinking with interactive design. </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Using a data set about homes, they created a machine learning model to distinguish homes in New York from homes in San Francisco. This is the most powerful visual storytelling I've come across recently. How elegant!</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.r2d3.us/visual-intro-to-machine-learning-part-1/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Immerse yourself in the data story</a></span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: #444444; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixCkO3yyzB1i-5zyWmAXqCkCR8rWNvDQIEDnqeVn69nmctOMYxqohDqW80X7JWeYuKdLdcr3NnIT0PqqnT_hBqSiElKUjh1dYNLCpSbMPaGcJrwRQ1rKChzINNLvMfdroXmgfbzM5kxamF/s1600/a-visual-introduction-to-machine-learning-vizzies-2016.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="machine learning 101, machine learning case study, R2D3 machine learning" border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixCkO3yyzB1i-5zyWmAXqCkCR8rWNvDQIEDnqeVn69nmctOMYxqohDqW80X7JWeYuKdLdcr3NnIT0PqqnT_hBqSiElKUjh1dYNLCpSbMPaGcJrwRQ1rKChzINNLvMfdroXmgfbzM5kxamF/s400/a-visual-introduction-to-machine-learning-vizzies-2016.jpg" title="A Visual introduction to machine learning" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is part 2 of story telling series. Find part 1 <a href="https://qindiz.blogspot.com/2017/03/power-of-story-telling.html">there</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;">F</span>ollow me on twitter (<a href="https://twitter.com/QindiZhang" style="color: #7c93a1; text-decoration: none;">@qindizhang</a>) or add me to your <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/+QindiZhang" style="color: #7c93a1; text-decoration: none;">Google+</a> circle, my friend!</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Let me know in the comment what other topics you want to read about!</span></span></div>
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Qindi (Cindy) Zhanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06880578132391610364noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832549270643594884.post-91891413599365051452017-03-10T07:00:00.000-08:002017-03-16T11:41:20.582-07:00Want More Funding? Machine Learning!<h3>
<span itemprop="name"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Crystal ball, what's on the investors' mind?</span></span></h3>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span itemprop="name"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/parkerbarrile" rel="author">Parker Barrile</a> posted on </span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-vcs-talk-after-your-pitch-parker-barrile?trk=v-feed&lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_feed%3BPXqqZ%2FW61aLlROX8H%2BFNLQ%3D%3D" target="_blank">What VCs Talk About After Your Pitch</a> yesterday and as suggested in the intriguing subject line, he has let all the entrepreneurs in on one of the most prized secrets in the startup world. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">All businesses chase after product market fit and in the same sense there's no intel</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> more valuable than what investors are in fact looking for when evaluating an investment opportunity. In Parker's article, he pointed out two things to focus on not only in business plans but also in pitch decks:</span></span><br />
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<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The problem the business is solving</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">Building the moat</span></span></li>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/buffett-on-moats-2016-4" target="_blank">Buffett agrees</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></h3>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">How to build a moat with machine learning</span></h3>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Machine learning can do the heavy lifting for you and turn your big data into a moat around your business castle. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">With machine learning, Netflix has come a long way from a DVD rental business to world's leading internet television network and from a content aggregator to an original content producer. Quite a moonshot accomplishment if you ask me! Youtube is catching up. With all the top influencers and the attached fan base in their pocket, they even have more interesting flavors added into the big data cookbook.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Machine learning can also turn the most bland business ideas into brilliant products that consumers can't live without. I've personally fallen in love with gmail's priority inbox feature. It takes into consideration several dimensions of data features:</span></div>
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<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Social features</b> to examine the relationship between the sender and receiver based on open rate</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Content & Thread feature</b> to determine the recency and relevancy of email content to what receiver has acted on in the past</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Label feature </b>indicates preference explicitly expressed by the user</span></li>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Last but not least, machine learning isn't all science and no art. Gmail team skillfully balances user need on minimizing the false negative rate - users will likely have vastly different levels of emotional response to an urgent email ending up in the junk box vs. a spam message occasionally slips through the priority inbox.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So, ready to adopt machine learning yet, my entrepreneur friends? Or shall I rephrase, ready for a big fat paycheck from your next investor? </span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When you're face to face with investors, discover </span><a href="https://qindiz.blogspot.com/2017/03/power-of-story-telling.html" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">how to effectively engage an audience and work a room</a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvmBO5yyI7sxzFuDa6JBDdEpAZUTIhZhyphenhyphenDRs1H_AigVUym0dxG2h2fRizbra-bp7r-Gj3vJt-lTvGns3fmZx4ppfYgYhv227Ih36CHaMPU_8ThkBL7sseQdMx20EFzKzcW71BGUG7M3jfb/s1600/Buffet+with+mondy.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="Tips on funding pitch and investor pitch deck. how to build a moat around business" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvmBO5yyI7sxzFuDa6JBDdEpAZUTIhZhyphenhyphenDRs1H_AigVUym0dxG2h2fRizbra-bp7r-Gj3vJt-lTvGns3fmZx4ppfYgYhv227Ih36CHaMPU_8ThkBL7sseQdMx20EFzKzcW71BGUG7M3jfb/s400/Buffet+with+mondy.jpg" title="Get investment funding from Warren Buffett" width="380" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">No Machine learning expert? No problem. Learn step by step on <a href="http://qindiz.blogspot.com/2017/03/how-to-build-recommendation-engine.html" target="_blank">how to work around it.</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;">F</span>ollow me on twitter (<a href="https://twitter.com/QindiZhang" target="_blank">@qindizhang</a>) or add me to your <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/+QindiZhang" target="_blank">Google+</a> circle, my friend!</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Let me know in the comment what other topics you want to read about!</span></span></span></div>
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</b:if>Qindi (Cindy) Zhanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06880578132391610364noreply@blogger.com0Palo Alto, CA, USA37.4418834 -122.1430194999999837.2400059 -122.46574299999997 37.643760900000004 -121.82029599999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832549270643594884.post-7644439237131157162017-03-09T07:10:00.000-08:002017-03-13T16:13:21.962-07:00Today Was A Complete Waste Of Makeup<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">An idea is a terrible thing to waste. As harsh as it may sound, the quality of the idea is not as important as the quality of the presentation of that idea.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Show, Don't Just Tell - The Power of Story Telling</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A couple years ago I was at a workshop of </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/profile/James+Whittaker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">James Whittaker</a> where he was teaching stage presence and story telling at an internal Microsoft forum. James is a distinguished engineer, an accomplished public speaker and the author of popular article <a href="https://medium.com/@docjamesw/why-i-left-google-c170e6165f2a#.4gscj0wpg" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Why I left Google</a>. I enjoyed every minute of his stories and believe that following his five laws of stage presence, I'll master that magical super power of story telling. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://docs.com/james-whittaker/7717/the-art-of-stage-presence" style="font-family: "segoe ui"; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 18px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="The Art of Stage Presence">The Art of Stage Presence</a><span style="font-family: "segoe ui"; font-size: 13px;">—</span><a href="https://docs.com/james-whittaker" style="font-family: 'Segoe UI'; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">James Whittaker</a><a href="https://docs.com/james-whittaker/7717/the-art-of-stage-presence" style="float: right; font-family: "segoe ui"; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-right: 18px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Docs.com</a></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><iframe allowfullscreen="True" frameborder="0" height="407px" scrolling="no" src="https://docs.com/d/embed/D25195873-7734-4376-2850-000397306694%7eM767973ab-88ba-27ae-917f-2c5f570d4269" style="max-width: 100%;" width="608px"></iframe><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">5 Laws of stage presence by James Whittaker</span></span></span></h2>
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<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Start Strong</span></li>
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<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Focus on the concept</span></li>
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<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Show, don't tell</span></li>
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<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Speak for the Audience</span></li>
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<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Stick the landing</span></li>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So why it has anything to do with the waste of makeup? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The 6th law</span></h2>
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<ul>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tell a story by pumping up audience's imagination</span></li>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">James shared a interesting moment when he ran into a strange grumpy lady who apparently had a long daunting day. She said nothing more than </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>"Today was a complete waste of makeup."</i></span></blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGqUA07J4xjW_BzTmPiur3ET3Rwf4SAymX2Anb_oWc9iFf-xRW7jB-gOrDeiKwQTTO95-nwCQQSLjH0P015oCyrhZMgfQfkiWxKEUqL7cbeQN_hwM09xg5i_6BKatBv24rVhjfEuQul2MG/s1600/angry-old-woman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444;"><img alt="How to tell a story, six word story, story telling is a super power" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGqUA07J4xjW_BzTmPiur3ET3Rwf4SAymX2Anb_oWc9iFf-xRW7jB-gOrDeiKwQTTO95-nwCQQSLjH0P015oCyrhZMgfQfkiWxKEUqL7cbeQN_hwM09xg5i_6BKatBv24rVhjfEuQul2MG/s320/angry-old-woman.jpg" title="Today was a complete waste of make up - The power of story telling" width="269" /></span></a></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">She shared a story by not sharing one, but you, in the audience, are simply intrigued. Including James.</span> <b:if cond="data:blog.pageType == "item""> <script type="text/javascript">
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Six word story</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Inspired by Hemingway’s famous six-word tale, “For sale: baby shoes, never worn,” the “six word story” has served as a prompt for decades, testing writers’ ability to create their own succinct masterpieces with all sorts of clever results, including the popular 2006 <a data-beacon="{"p":{"mnid":"citation","mpid":1,"plid":"http://www.smithmag.net/","lnid":"Six Word Memoirs"}}" href="http://www.smithmag.net/" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">Six Word Memoirs</a> project. Now, the well-worn idea has gotten new life on Tumblr and Reddit, where users are posting their own hyper-short creations online to show off their creativity and pithiness.</span></div>
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<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Birth certificate. Death certificate. Same Day.</span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">We're lying in bed. She's lying.</span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">"Total media blackout" agreed the President.</span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">BREAKING: Simulated beings realize they're simulated.</span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">"Wrong number", says a familiar voice.</span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #444444; font-weight: normal;">Sorry soldier, shoes sold in pairs.</span> </span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #444444;"> <span style="font-weight: normal;">Brought rose home. Key didn't fit.</span></span> </span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #444444; font-weight: normal;">"Male?""It's an old driver's license."</span> </span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"> Introduced myself to mother again today.</span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-weight: normal;"> I'm done being your "sometimes".</span> </span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #444444; font-weight: normal;">"Joining the President is his husband..."</span> </span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"> I met my soulmate. She didn't. </span></li>
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<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"> Mom taught me how to shave. </span></li>
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<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"> Passengers, this isn't your captain speaking. </span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"> What's your return policy on rings?</span></li>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">N</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ow it's my turn to share two of my 6 word stories today - </span><b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Story telling is a super power. May the power be with you. </b></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></b></span> <span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://qindiz.blogspot.com/2017/03/want-more-funding-machine-learning.html" target="_blank">Now investor pitching, a different story.</a></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;">F</span>ollow me on twitter (<a href="https://twitter.com/QindiZhang" target="_blank">@qindizhang</a>) or add me to your <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/+QindiZhang" target="_blank">Google+</a> circle, my friend!</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Let me know in the comment what other topics you want to read about!</span></span></span> <b:if cond="data:blog.pageType == "item""> <script type="text/javascript">
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Qindi (Cindy) Zhanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06880578132391610364noreply@blogger.com0San Francisco, CA, USA37.7749295 -122.4194155000000136.9717915 -123.71030900000001 38.578067499999996 -121.12852200000002tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832549270643594884.post-90764154092844408822017-03-05T09:09:00.000-08:002017-03-16T11:43:35.855-07:00How to Build a Recommendation Engine without Machine Learning Experts?<h2 style="font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Want to serve relevant content? YES!</span></b> </div>
<div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Have machine learning expert? NO.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Now what?</span></div>
</h2>
<div class="qtext_para" style="margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Before the machine learning era and personalized content, old timers pop the page with a list of most popular items of all time.</span></div>
<div class="qtext_para" style="margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The common issues you'd notice with this approach:</span></div>
<ol>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Content Gets Old - Users finding same content every time they sign onto your service.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">New Items Never Get Surfaced - Since the leader board may not normalize the popularity by time elapsed since publishing, great new contents have a hard time making it.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">You Don't Know How to Pick your Battle - If you decide to let the new content take over, your collapsed conversion may give you a heart attack, especially if you have a less active user base.</span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLuUgXb2oCs9H-52lR_KvRBFLfU1EyCvDM4WnkpK2z7LLoBmiEnxmv_kyrTHgrnJz4hs9gR0dedOpBXXMGgq4y1eb6KndBAqcAJAlqALw4Z2bts-d6q0G_k0KaOYLdRAl27Nk1X0R6QQi_/s1600/Personalization.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img alt="Build a simple and effective recommendation engine" border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLuUgXb2oCs9H-52lR_KvRBFLfU1EyCvDM4WnkpK2z7LLoBmiEnxmv_kyrTHgrnJz4hs9gR0dedOpBXXMGgq4y1eb6KndBAqcAJAlqALw4Z2bts-d6q0G_k0KaOYLdRAl27Nk1X0R6QQi_/s400/Personalization.jpg" title="How to build a recommendation engine without machine learning experts?" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<div class="qtext_para" style="font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">How do you build a simple recommendation engine with the highest take rate and decent user experience? The answer lies in understanding your user behavior, in this particular case: </span><b style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Usage Pattern. </b></div>
<h3 style="font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Here is step by step to build a simple but high performing recommendation engine</span></h3>
<div class="qtext_para" style="margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
</div>
<ol>
<li style="font-size: 15px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Show Only Convertible Items - Remove items from the recommendation list if the user has already taken it in the past, or if a user has clicked through very recently and abandoned the flow thereafter.</span></li>
<li style="font-size: 15px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> Segment your User Base - Analyze the distribution of user activity across a reasonable time period, say 4 weeks. Finding a cut off to group the users into high activity cohort and low activity cohort. For example people who are active once every other day will go to segment A and those who are active only once a week or longer go to segment B. There is no universal formula for that because it varies by the business you are in, use industry benchmark and your own data to make a decision.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">Balance your Recommendations - Test and observe how segment B respond to best-selling catalog items. Since they don't log in as often, you make sure they see the most bullet proof offerings when they do. On the other hand, offer newer popular contents to users who frequent your shop in general as they have likely consumed fair share of the most popular content.</span></span></li>
</ol>
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<div class="qtext_para" style="font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The above three steps to build an effective recommendation engine is for a catalog of moderate number of genres and/or relatively homogeneous user base. For users that may range from young teenagers to business users that could have zero overlap in their consumption, the above approach is not the best - well I highly doubt you want to serve them with one product anyway.</span></div>
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<br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;">F</span>ollow me on twitter (<a href="https://twitter.com/QindiZhang" target="_blank">@qindizhang</a>) or add me to your <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/+QindiZhang" target="_blank">Google+</a> circle, my friend!</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #444444; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Let me know in the comment what other topics you want to read about!</span></span></div>
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</b:if>Qindi (Cindy) Zhanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06880578132391610364noreply@blogger.com0San Francisco, CA, USA37.7749295 -122.4194155000000136.9717915 -123.71030900000001 38.578067499999996 -121.12852200000002tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832549270643594884.post-39282069327780366922017-03-04T11:00:00.000-08:002017-03-10T11:01:27.866-08:00How many nightmares have you ever had in your life?<h2>
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Market Sizing Question & How to explain things to a kid</span></h2>
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My 6-year-old woke up this morning and asked me a question: How many nightmares have you had in your whole life, Mommy? </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnXPjuyImgmnvAhPo3UBaW37YyQjOTLBhjPpcW5huK8dDgyhNY1CKRRg5waxsDkLdeNTlUICwAtsynG2ByVUXRpxuSXBLSzUnL9wDb4JNixEd_i-f5w3Wp0VUVXCKw5NMfSzeux4wL5VeS/s1600/GTY_child_at_chalkboard_doing_math.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Interview questions. Consulting interview. Analyst interview." border="0" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnXPjuyImgmnvAhPo3UBaW37YyQjOTLBhjPpcW5huK8dDgyhNY1CKRRg5waxsDkLdeNTlUICwAtsynG2ByVUXRpxuSXBLSzUnL9wDb4JNixEd_i-f5w3Wp0VUVXCKw5NMfSzeux4wL5VeS/s400/GTY_child_at_chalkboard_doing_math.jpg" title="Market sizing question. How to explain a concept to a kid?" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Sounds familiar? If not, then how about estimate number of shampoos used in the US each year or how many gas stations there</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">are</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> in San Francisco Bay Area, or </span><a href="https://www.glassdoor.com/Interview/market-sizing-interview-questions-SRCH_KT0,13.htm" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">one of these</a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">. And isn't it more exciting now you have to answer that in a way a kindergartner can follow? Okay, let's leave MECE out for a second and see what else we can do here.</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"We'll find that out together, shall we? First, let's agree on a couple small things. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We'll count the nightmares by night. If I wake up in the mid of the night from a nightmare and fall back asleep and this nightmare continued, it count as one. Yes?"</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Nod.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"As long as I think it's a nightmare, even if it's not scary to you, it still counts. Yes?"</span></blockquote>
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Nod. </span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Great! Now let's chop up all my years into three blocks:</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1. When I was a kid, I was a happy kids just like you. I didn't have that many nightmares until I was a teenager. So until 12 let's say I had a nightmare only every 6 months, that makes it? Yes, Number A.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2. As a teenager, I was scared of frogs and roller coasters, in addition to a few movies such as a scientist turned himself into a fly. So between 13 and 18, for every 20 dreams I had one nightmare. How do I calculate that? With some hustling we got to the Number B.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">3. In my adulthood I've learned how to rationalize scary scenes from ghost movies and cope with real life stress. I've been able to reduce on how often I have nightmares by 2/3. How much is that for the next 15 years? Number C.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">OMG we have just one step left to do, adding them all up A+B+C. Ta-da - you got your answer!</span></blockquote>
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Apparently I daydreamed about the second half of the conversation - Of course my kindergartner rambled away when I was just half way into teenager nightmare calculation, but I'm sure you could tell the steps I followed in solving a market sizing question. </span><br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Step 1: Clarify the question and agree on assumptions.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Step 2: Break it down (ideally in a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive (MECE) manner).</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Step 3: Solve each piece.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Step 4: Consolidate the result.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I hope you will never have any nightmare about interviews, or at least market sizing questions after reading this post. </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;"></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;">
F</span>ollow me on twitter (<a href="https://twitter.com/QindiZhang" target="_blank">@qindizhang</a>) or add me to your <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/+QindiZhang" target="_blank">Google+</a> circle, my friend!</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Let me know in the comment what other topics you want to read about!</span></span>
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</b:if>Qindi (Cindy) Zhanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06880578132391610364noreply@blogger.com0Palo Alto, CA, USA37.4418834 -122.1430194999999837.2400059 -122.46574299999997 37.643760900000004 -121.82029599999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832549270643594884.post-7207748153224108882017-03-03T11:04:00.003-08:002017-03-10T07:14:02.102-08:003 Types of SQL Interview Questions You Must Ask to Spot Best Candidates<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
<h2>
<span style="color: #3d596d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">How to prepare for a SQL interview, as an interviewer?</span></h2>
<span style="color: #3d596d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span>
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<div style="color: #3d596d;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">SQL is relatively simple as a programming language. It is a must have for testing a candidate's technical ability when looking for analytics talent. I will share some effective questions for hiring managers to consider.</span></div>
</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_ZIY3JPpR2tMOntzX1U1pj9jn9lZliipwbuhI9X9b0LFgdf9aOlDEgEIDcHbjEmKuOgicnXsGlCqKvoiKWKwsz6iIM5RJ_HMdYUvhZCFVSvNFqDoIpTEjhEc2ly4yCPbfYGRPurM99wDz/s1600/Find+candidate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img alt="How to interview for data analyst" border="0" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_ZIY3JPpR2tMOntzX1U1pj9jn9lZliipwbuhI9X9b0LFgdf9aOlDEgEIDcHbjEmKuOgicnXsGlCqKvoiKWKwsz6iIM5RJ_HMdYUvhZCFVSvNFqDoIpTEjhEc2ly4yCPbfYGRPurM99wDz/s400/Find+candidate.jpg" title="SQL question bank, SQl interview questions, Advanced SQL question" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">SQL interview question bank:</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">On candidate's basic understanding on data structure and SQL fundamentals:</span></i></div>
<span style="color: #3d596d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<ol><span style="color: #3d596d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
<li>Can you interchange where and having clause?</li>
<li>What is a correlated sub-query?</li>
</span></ol>
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</span>
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</ol>
<em><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">On candidate's actual hands on SQL experience:</span></em><br />
<span style="color: #3d596d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<ol><span style="color: #3d596d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
<li>How to perform unpivot in SQL?</li>
<li>How large is the dataset you typically query against? What are some of the things you do to improve query efficiency?</li>
</span></ol>
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</span>
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</ol>
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</ol>
<em><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">On candidate's business exposure and understanding:</span></em><br />
<span style="color: #3d596d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<ol><span style="color: #3d596d; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
<li>What is a business case where you need to use full join?</li>
<li>How do you handle missing days in a transaction report if dashboard users want this information captured and reflected?</li>
</span></ol>
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</ol>
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</ol>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For the technical interview, it's best to combine some actually code writing with conceptual questions such as above. That way you as an interviewer can evaluate how familiar the candidate is with the basics, how comfortable she is at writing code, how much of her knowledge is from book vs. from practice. And furthermore, how well the analyst is able to grasp the underlying business requirement and deliver the analytics product that satisfies stakeholder's need.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Interviewers, I hope this gives you an easy start! </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;">F</span>ollow me on twitter (<a href="https://twitter.com/QindiZhang" target="_blank">@qindizhang</a>) or add me to your <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/+QindiZhang" target="_blank">Google+</a> circle, my friend!</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Let me know in the comment what other topics you want me to cover!</span></span></div>
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</b:if>Qindi (Cindy) Zhanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06880578132391610364noreply@blogger.com0San Francisco, CA, USA37.7749295 -122.4194155000000136.9717915 -123.71030900000001 38.578067499999996 -121.12852200000002tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832549270643594884.post-76056498200231350812017-03-02T14:04:00.002-08:002017-03-15T17:54:33.238-07:00Why is Snapchat a camera company, even before they started selling Spectacles?<h2>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Snapchat IPO</span></h2>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Today, all eyes are on <a href="https://plus.google.com/+OfficialSnapchat">Snapchat</a>. On its first day of trading, <a href="https://www.google.com/finance?cid=756597474414199">SNAP</a> soared nearly 50%. And it's only the beginning.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8h_TYj9Jt96oMEioQ8am-YJ6HEj4sf5G6svUNA29zrDqzo6EMj1lRNdyeaJb6dUNxIVQroD7QVKBbNTjAQK9QkWQwPpLQ1VXX0ij4t7w9m5XCIbTeN6OrJvbsnUXiCrAxQfNTj02UhfXj/s1600/Spectacles-Teal-on-yellow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Shall I buy Snapchat stock? Snapchat valuation and market capital." border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8h_TYj9Jt96oMEioQ8am-YJ6HEj4sf5G6svUNA29zrDqzo6EMj1lRNdyeaJb6dUNxIVQroD7QVKBbNTjAQK9QkWQwPpLQ1VXX0ij4t7w9m5XCIbTeN6OrJvbsnUXiCrAxQfNTj02UhfXj/s400/Spectacles-Teal-on-yellow.jpg" title="Snapchat IPO and Snapchat is a camera company not because of Spectacles" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: center;">3 Reasons Why Snapchat is a Camera Company</span></span></h3>
<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In its public filings, and on its corporate website, Snap refers to itself as “a camera company.” But what that actually means is open to some creative interpretation. Here's mine.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1. When it comes to consumer psychology, Snapchat is in a class of its own.</span></span></h4>
<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A camera product involves two parties of users, the one behind the lens and the one in front - or shall I add, traditionally speaking. Snapchat is the camera company that perfectly merged the two into one. Guess what, it happens to be (almost) everyone's most interested subject: I, me and myself. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Instagram filters make me look as cute as the kitten in the Youtube video who just got another 10k views today. </span></span></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Said no one ever. You get the point.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2.</span></span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> Snapchat's monetization model seamlessly make ads engagement part of the product usage flow. </span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The last company that did that? Google search engine. Machine learning has made personalized ads possible, but displayed ads still require users to disengage with whatever product they are using at the time in order to pay attention to the served ads, needless to say to engage with the ads they'll start a separate action flow which takes them away from their ongoing core product usage. Makes sense to me that </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/alphabet-google-capitalg-invested-in-snapchat-snap-inc-2016-11" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Google has quietly invested in Snapchat</a><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> not too long ago.</span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">3. </span></span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Snapchat's product consumption is not dependent on network effect to be successful. </span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Of course social features make a product more sticky, but the core value provided by snapchat is entertainment, to be consumed by one or more. It is the go-to-app of my 6-year-old's every time he manages to snatch my phone from me. He tries out each filter and make a video or two, and later on keep watching these videos for some more time. A valid use case.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now get ready for the camera company that has 158 million daily active user, creating and exchanging 2.5 billion snaps per day, 10 billion daily video view. These numbers give me goosebumps.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
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<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Read another 2 minute <a href="https://qindiz.blogspot.com/2017/03/test-improved-conversion-over-control.html" target="_blank">case study on Pinterest</a>.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;">F</span>ollow me on twitter (<a href="https://twitter.com/QindiZhang" target="_blank">@qindizhang</a>) or add me to your <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/+QindiZhang" target="_blank">Google+</a> circle, my friend!</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Let me know in the comment what other topics you want to read about!</span></span><br />
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Qindi (Cindy) Zhanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06880578132391610364noreply@blogger.com2San Francisco, CA, USA37.7749295 -122.4194155000000136.9717915 -123.71030900000001 38.578067499999996 -121.12852200000002tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832549270643594884.post-78649023337035072532017-03-01T21:30:00.000-08:002018-05-19T11:21:08.035-07:00Y Combinator is a Waste of Time - Unless You Do This <h2>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Tips & lessons shared by an ex-YC founder, for those of you applying or thinking of applying for YC S17</span></h2>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/steliefti/" target="_blank">Steli Efti</a> is the founder & CEO of close.io, </span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> a SaaS solution that helps people to close more deals.</span></span><span style="background: rgb(255 , 255 , 255); border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; font-family: "open sans"; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> As a YC </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">W11 </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">alumni, he is letting you in for a peek behind the curtain. In his own words.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgICej69yql5yX_E8fS15PmGXBo-V5XGU1w-bazqwe42zP-EmolCTk6jkviNw75dFsfnYxKvU3rcTWzUcRNQUhcjGXZtRtVYevBasViDoQgcwZ99COORRYnBsh4zuzcnsxAWvY38TzQ2btU/s1600/YC.png" imageanchor="1"><span style="color: #444444;"><img alt="Inside stories from YC alumni; how to get into Y combinator; Tips on YC application; How to prepare for YC application" border="0" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgICej69yql5yX_E8fS15PmGXBo-V5XGU1w-bazqwe42zP-EmolCTk6jkviNw75dFsfnYxKvU3rcTWzUcRNQUhcjGXZtRtVYevBasViDoQgcwZ99COORRYnBsh4zuzcnsxAWvY38TzQ2btU/s400/YC.png" title="Is Y Combinator worth it?" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Is Y Combinator worth it? It’s funny: You can ask two <em>totally </em>different YC alumni that question and get two <em>totally </em>different answers, even if they both attended the same batch.</span></h2>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">How’s that possible? Why is it that? For some startups, Y Combinator makes <em>a difference</em>; while for others it makes <em>all the difference</em>? Trust me: It’s not coincidence, luck, or privilege.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I’d know: At Close.io, we owe a huge part of our success to Y Combinator. The lessons learned, resources gained, and relationships built during YC W11 were instrumental in both our initial traction and our <a href="http://resources.close.io/zero-to-thousands" target="_blank">continued growth</a>.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">So yeah, if you ask me, Y Combinator’s worth it—<em>if </em>you take the right approach. Because at the end of the day, <strong>thriving in the YC environment isn’t about having the best idea, the most disruptive product, or the smartest team. It’s all about having the right attitude.</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">More than any other factor, your mindset determines how much value you take away from the YC experience. If you’re willing to invest the (substantial) time and energy required for Y Combinator, you owe it to yourself to take an extra 10 minutes to read this article and make sure you’re setting yourself up for success.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The YC mentality: Academics vs. Hustlers</span></h2>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I’ve been a part of multiple Y Combinator batches. Once as an attendee, other times as a speaker or advisor. And every time, I was fascinated by the stark divide between attitudes.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In every batch, there are two clearly-defined startup “camps”: The Academics and The Hustlers. Both sides find value in the experience, but only one truly thrives.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Meet the Academics</span></span></h2>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Academics view Y Combinator as “startup school.” They show up, sit down, and follow the program. Their motto is, “If I just do what I’m told, I’ll ‘graduate’ successfully.”</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If there’s a dinner Tuesday at 6:00 p.m., they show up Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. If there’s a speaker Friday at 3:00 p.m., they show up Friday at 3:00 p.m. They take notes, do their homework, and follow the schedule.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And this approach works. Y Combinator’s designed to help startups, so you’ll learn a lot even if all you do is follow the program. But just “following the program” is like graduating with a “C.” Sure, you passed, but you left the majority of your education on the table.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Meet the Hustlers</span></h2>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Hustlers, on the other hand, don’t leave any source of potential value untapped. They recognize YC as the resource-rich environment it is and take full responsibility for their experience. Their motto is, “We’re here to make our business successful, and we’re going to leverage every possible resource to make that happen.”</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><strong>Hustlers take, learn, leverage, and ask for as much as they can.</strong> If the doors of the YC offices are open, they’re there. They know the best opportunities and most valuable introductions are rarely a part of the official “program.” After all, that program is meant to be the launching pad, not the finish line.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></h2>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Channeling your Inner Hustler</span></h2>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The biggest mistake I see YC attendees make is playing it safe. If you leave the program wishing you had spent more time with someone or gotten more help with something, that’s <em>your </em>fault, and no one else’s.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The YC leadership is there to help. They want you to succeed. They want you to ask questions. They want you to be proactive. But it isn’t their responsibility to <em>make </em>you do any of those things.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As a result, many YC attendees <em>don’t </em>ask questions. They aren’t proactive. And they don’t reach their full potential. But that’s good news for those that do.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Let me share three short stories to illustrate the importance of taking ownership of your YC experience; hopefully, they’ll help you make the best of yours.</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><b>“As it turns out, something opened up.”</b></i></span></blockquote>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As a relatively unknown founder, there’s practically nothing you can do to force a VC to care about your sense of urgency. I learned this lesson the hard way.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My team and I were trying to close a round of fundraising in the next two weeks, but the VC partners we needed to meet with weren’t available for at least another month.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That timeline didn’t work for us, so we sat down with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Graham_(computer_programmer)" target="_blank">Paul Graham</a> and asked if he’d be willing to reach out to the firm on our behalf to tell them how amazing we are and urge them to prioritize our meeting.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When pg agreed, I was prepared. I pulled out my laptop, which already had a web browser open, and said, “Great! Can you do this right now?”</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">He did. Less than 12 hours later, we had a response from the firm, informing us they “suddenly” had an opening on their calendar in just two days.</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><b>“You’ve got better things to do, just sign it.”</b></i></span></blockquote>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Another time, I needed pg to sign a recommendation letter so I could get my visa. I’d already drafted the letter and all I needed from him was the signature. He agreed but, being the talented writer he is, wanted to re-write my draft to make it really good.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I needed that signature now, and I didn’t know how long it would take for pg (who is an incredibly busy guy) to get around to those revisions. So instead of waiting and hoping, <a href="http://blog.close.io/how-to-become-a-priority-for-someone-the-follow-up" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">I followed up</a>. An hour later, I showed up at the Y Combinator office with letter and pen in hand. “Just sign it,” I said. “Just sign it. I <em>know </em>you’ve got better things to do.”</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">He did, revisions be damned, and I’m still here; so I must’ve done something right.</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><b>“These guys make shit happen.”</b></i></span></blockquote>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And yet another time, we were trying to <a href="http://blog.close.io/startup-hiring-follow-up" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">recruit the unrecruitable by hiring Phil Freo</a>. He wasn’t convinced, so we invited him to a YC dinner to have pg help us convince him.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">He sat Phil down and said something like, “Look, these guys are weird, but they’re <em>really </em>effective. In fact, they’re one of the best startups in the batch, simply because they make shit happen. They’re aggressive. They’re shameless. They’re humble and open-minded, sure, but they’re intense. They don’t <em>wait </em>for things to happen. They <em>make </em>things happen.”</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And to be honest? It didn’t work, at least, not at first. Although his initial answer was no, Phil ended up joining the team a few years later. I like to think pg's endorsement played a big part in that. (Thanks again, pg!)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">You are your own biggest obstacle</span></h2>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I could share a thousand stories but, at the end of the day, it’s as simple as this: <strong>In Y Combinator (as in life), you’re going to get what you take.</strong> YC is a resource-rich environment filled with people who can and will help you; but no one there <em>owes </em>you anything, nor do they know what you need unless you tell them.</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Need feedback on <a href="http://qindiz.blogspot.com/2017/03/how-to-build-recommendation-engine.html" target="_blank">product design</a>? Ask.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Want to <a href="http://qindiz.blogspot.com/2017/03/want-more-funding-machine-learning.html" target="_blank">get connected to investors</a> or the press? Ask.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Need help recruiting? Ask.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In YC, everything you need to succeed is right in front of you (or only an introduction away). The founders who get the most value out of this program are those who know this and leverage that knowledge <em>constantly</em>, sometimes even <em>shamelessly</em>.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So ask for an unreasonable amount of office hours. Ask for off-the-wall favors. Ask for more than you expect to get.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Because remember, you’re in an environment where people <em>want </em>you to succeed. You aren’t doing them (or yourself) any favors by being timid. <strong>So step up, be bold, be loud, and be proactive.</strong> Know what you want, and do whatever it takes to make that happen.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Do this consistently and I promise: You’ll crush it inside <em>and </em>out of Y Combinator.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://cta-service-cms2.hubspot.com/ctas/v2/public/cs/c/?cta_guid=da1ade1e-bb15-4742-afd2-6ad0e24614a0&placement_guid=f838134e-2fdc-4970-9e77-9fc733dafe54&portal_id=315483&redirect_url=APefjpG-ORykuI24ImXskR3N1UuW57xqbP64oxGXjjK7vMu6j6LJHB4zy83DYDykj2XwCmcLdSQoZAv3HAVKLTCPQWALFPUKK0JgS83WWJY2FPwmex4kQ0Ip74jjaUUXEUzJHuB7mwsbkRBxXZ_towJzz4ChKFt9GlAsZl5d5uFMbGw8m8x6gU4RQOTugafv_P3VSQUNpHINNzp1ze--voo86N7RC4K4JZMSpOJ5iJiep1xXoCIAs-B65m8oB79ESH5EMKtTha3Dg2fwOvfPeZpHoLeYr7SJUA&hsutk=e2d19066140e23b124022e6fceee9211&canon=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.close.io%2Fmindset-yc-waste-of-time&pageId=4852037072&__hstc=206970188.e2d19066140e23b124022e6fceee9211.1488991145186.1488993814901.1488998567137.3&__hssc=206970188.1.1488998567137&__hsfp=2817820431" target="_blank">Grow your startup with a free copy of <em>From 0 to 1000 Customers & Beyond.</em></a></span></h3>
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</b:if>Qindi (Cindy) Zhanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06880578132391610364noreply@blogger.com0Palo Alto, CA, USA37.4418834 -122.1430194999999837.2400059 -122.46574299999997 37.643760900000004 -121.82029599999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832549270643594884.post-5194121643710480242017-03-01T07:00:00.000-08:002017-03-13T16:14:36.695-07:00A Newbie's Guide to AB Testing<h2>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">AB Testing 101</span></h2>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Don't set aside budget for <a href="https://www.optimizely.com/" target="_blank">Optimizely</a> and <a href="https://www.google.com/analytics/" target="_blank">Google Analytics</a> before reading this simple and fun AB testing guide for newbies that</span> <span style="background-color: white; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase;"><a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/" style="font-family: Lato, arial, sans-serif;" target="_blank">ENTREPRENEUR</a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">put together to help get the basics out.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Key Takeaways</span></span></h2>
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<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Be prepared to fail, and fail, and fail again before succeed. About 1 in 7 AB test has a winning one.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Try to test on one thing at a time. Be aware of different variables that may come into play. If you can't isolate individual drivers, try to be mindful about them when reading the results.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Make sure your test result is statistically significant. There are some <a href="http://getdatadriven.com/ab-significance-test" target="_blank">online tools</a> available to help you out.</span></li>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">More tips on split testing</span></h2>
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<a href="http://qindiz.blogspot.com/2017/03/test-improved-conversion-over-control.html"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Test improved conversion over control by 20%. Deploy? Think twice.</span></a></h3>
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</b:if>Qindi (Cindy) Zhanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06880578132391610364noreply@blogger.com0San Francisco, CA, USA37.7749295 -122.4194155000000136.9717915 -123.71030900000001 38.578067499999996 -121.12852200000002