From the desk of Tom petty

My Band was a Startup.

During my school / college years I played in bands. All of my friends did, their friends did — everyone I knew had something to do with making music or the music industry. It’s a lot like that now, except with startups, design and tech, which got me thinking; my band was a startup. The more I pondered, the more I could see the similarities. A group of people coming together to try and create something meaningful. Long hours, uncertainty and going all-in. We dropped out of college to do it, quit jobs, and left girlfriends. When it didn’t work out, we all really, really felt it. But we came out the other side more experienced, if a little scarred. 

I’ll break the similarities down into a few sections:

We built an MVP

As soon as we had the basics of a song written, we’d road-test it on tour. There’s nothing better for feeling out what works and what doesn’t than playing something to a crowd of real people. This is no different than building a minimum viable product today. Songwriting is product design.

We raised VC & Angel money

AS the band played more and more local shows, we started to gain pulling in crowds of people that didn’t just consist of friends and family (traction). This led to shows further afield, which eventually caught the eye of someone who was willing to offer us money and advice, he became our manager (angel investor). As a direct result of this, we attracted the attention of a label (VC firm) who offered to fund the recording of a record (a seed round). Both the manager and label would get a % of any profits.

We had advisors

The CD was recorded with a producer and an engineer — people whose job was to help us get the best product we could in return for a small cut of any royalties. We could go to them and ask for advice and help, contacts and introductions to others.

We launched a product

The CD was our product. A tangible, physical object that was the result of countless late nights, hours of work, creativity, technology and heartache. Sound familiar?

We had a PR / Press strategy

This basically maps 1:1 to the startup world. You write releases, arrange announcements & embargos. You try to get interviews where you pitch yourself to potential ‘users’.

We formed partnerships

A huge part of what goes on in a band is getting in with the right people. These people can help you, and if you can help them, all the better. There’s nothing more unifying than a shared passion. We did this by forming friendships with other bands. Those who we respected and ideally respected us. We’d piggyback on each others tours, sell each others merchandise and generally enjoy a symbiotic relationship, just like a good partership.

We imploded.

This is the traditional ending for a band. There is no world tour, just the toilet circuit. We didn’t IPO, we went and got ‘proper’ jobs instead (although I don’t class my work as a ‘proper’ job. I love it too much). This is also the tradiional path for a startup. The magic lies in the ability of founders to pull themselves out of the fire and get back into the pan.

The next post will focus on what the music industry can learn from startups.

Re-Coupling

There are certain phrases used in the design and technology communities that take us a step backwards each time they’re used. I think it’s time to address a couple:

Style over substance

Surely we’re now at a point where it’s clear that style and substance are fundamentally linked on every level? Indeed, for there to be ‘substance’, style is needed to increase engagement, joy, clarify information and provide context. A sexy product is something we *want* to use, and beauty is something we trust. Therefore it’s pretty safe to say that if we enjoy using something, we’ll use it more. That’s pretty substantial.

User focused vs Business focused

Consider this statement; “I don’t have time to think about the users, I’m too busy keeping this company afloat!” I’m going to say this once: If you focus on your users, You. Are. Focusing. On. Your. Business. What do you think your company is built on? It’s not technology, it’s not design — it’s your users. The best thing you can possibly do for your startup is focus on solving their problems and/or adding real value to their lives. These are just two off the top of my head. It’s safe to say that the industry is full of jargon based on false assumptions, and we should take the time to question whether or not the rhetoric is really helping

Content as Interface on Touch Screens

iPad fluid app layout concept from Moritz Haarmann on Vimeo.

A really interesting concept/prototype of a fluid iPad layout. Whilst the execution is clearly experimental, the idea intrigues me as it is something that’s been floating around at the top of my mind recently.

For me, the key takeaway from this is the whole content-as-interface thing. In the right context, this could work as a button–free UI (buttons are a hack) with the content reacting fluidly in response to intuitive gestures — something that hasn’t as yet been fully embraced by a touchscreen device.

We’re still relying on skeuomorphs, even in the most stripped back, hardcore minimalist interfaces for our interactions. Buttons, switches and toggles provide the key calls to action — adapted items planted into the content to help with navigation. We need to be heading towards content–led navigation, where every action has an intuitive (perhaps a predictable?) reaction and the full potential of gestures are embraced. We all know that the HCI of a touch device is drastically different to a laptop/desktop, yet the vast majority of interfaces utilise patterns and behaviours adapted from the real world for point and click, mouse–led machines.

Yes, gestures (especially those beyond tap, press and hold, swipe etc.) are different, and yes there will initially be a steeper learning curve, but consider that most apps now come with a pre-use instructional ‘how to’. Would you not say that we’re already at the point of steep learning curves? If the user needs to be educated (lets not undermine the joy of discovery) it can be done when necessary, and no sooner. Rather than a long-winded overview of the entire app, a helping hand should be offered when the user is stuck. This much gentler approach is less abrasive and off-putting than the state of the union addresses now contained in many apps. (Khoi Vinh writes eloquentlyabout this)

With content–led interfaces, as with traditional, the aim should be to take inspiration from the physical world; not the man made (buttons, switches) but instead from nature. Nature has no instructions, buttons or walk throughs, and yet we all know how to pick an apple or climb a tree. In the real world, we’re guided by others when we need to learn something or reach a problem. We’re very rarely sat down as children and taught how to hop a fence or not get stung by a wasp. The only exception I can think of is swimming.

I guess it can be boiled down to this: you don’t need to press a button to pick a flower, you reach out and pick it directly. This translates to tablet devices as we have the ability to directly interact with and manipulate the content with both hands. The above video is just a snippet of where that could be heading.