The One Question Google Asks All of its Products

Take a look at some of the web services Google has grown, bought or cultivated in its web arsenal.  We have their basic search, the AdWords network, YouTube, Maps and Streetview, Gmail, Documents and Calendar, just to name a few.  We also see some of those little products that don’t quite appear on the main page but they still support, like Google Earth, Chrome, Goog 411, Knol, Picassa and trends.

Some products are related directly to search and finding answers to information, but others (especially products like the now defunct Lively) entered into new worlds and industries.

How could Google possibly evaluate every product and whether or not to continue to support each initiative?  After all, many of Google’s products have yet to turn a profit.  Services like YouTube alone are run at a lost, and YouTube is probably a few years away from entering into the black.

In an article for the New York Times, senior vice president of engineering Jeff Huber says, 

“There’s no single equation that describes us, but we try to use data wherever possible [...] What products have found an audience? Which ones are growing?”

Ultimately, Huber says people at Google ask, “is there an interest in our products?”  If there is—like YouTube—it’s likely they’ll continue to support the initiative, even at a financial loss.  If there product hasn’t found a strong audience—like social mobile network Dodgeball—it’s unlikely they’ll continue with the service.

Secondary questions come in to play as well, such as “does this service solve a substantial problem?” or “did this product have trouble attracting Google employees for development?”

How anyone can use this question

Modern executives, bloggers and entrepreneurs can use the question of “is there an interest in my product?” for almost every new venture.  

• For online entrepreneurs:  Let’s say you took the initiative to launch your own social network  in your free time a few months back.  Take a look at the people using the network.  Are people relying on your service and using it regularly? Do you see consistently more account registrations than when you began?
• For modern executives:  Let’s say you developed a new process within your organization to reduce the amount of reports people are creating and, thus, reducing the amount of time people on your team spend crunching numbers.  Are people using your process?  Does your process actually address the problem you created it for, and does it do it well?
• For bloggers:  Let’s say you launched a new type of section on your blog, such as a fresh back of links every Friday.  Do you find your readers, through stat tracking software, reading those links?

Moving forward

Make a list of each initiative/project that you are supporting.  Is there interest?  If not, what steps can you take to get more people involved?  Are you willing to wait a few additional months to see if there will be any interest?

The IKEA Effect: Why We Keep Failing Projects Alive

Even when signals and coworkers tell us that a project may not work, we push to finish.  We could have exhausted all resources and be well beyond our deadline, but we refuse to say enough is enough.

Why is this?  After all, our time could be better spent on our projects and more innovative ideas.  Michael Norton, for the Harvard Business Review, calls it “The IKEA Effect.”  Imagine assembling a complicated piece of furniture.  Regardless of how much you paid for the piece, you’re unlikely to give up assembling the item until it is finished.  It may take hours to put together a $20 chair, but you continue.  You don’t admit to yourself that you could have performed other tasks, or multiple other tasks, in the same time frame.

Norton adds:

Research conducted with my colleagues Daniel Mochon, of Yale University, and Dan Ariely, of Duke University, shows that labor enhances affection for its results. When people construct products themselves, from bookshelves to Build-a-Bears, they come to overvalue their (often poorly made) creations. We call this phenomenon the IKEA effect, in honor of the wildly successful Swedish manufacturer whose products typically arrive with some assembly required.

In one of our studies we asked people to fold origami and then to bid on their own creations along with other people’s. They were consistently willing to pay more for their own origami. In fact, they were so enamored of their amateurish creations that they valued them as highly as origami made by experts.

Modern executives should take a moment to consider the projects in their lives they’ve refused to abandon because of time commitment.  Unfortunately, sometimes personal relationships are the same way.  What are you doing, or have you been doing, that uses time better spent elsewhere?

Poaching Innovators From Your Customer Base

Media and tech companies may not need to look much further than their own customers for adding value to their product lines. According to a recent article in the Financial Times, companies like the BBC and Last.fm, an online music service owned by CBS, have held events to gather independent developers for a day of invention and creation. People are encouraged to use the companies’ online services to develop a new program or feature. The best creations are awarded with a cash prize, and companies are able to quickly and cheaply get ahold of creative enhancements for their products.

From the article:

Organisations as diverse as the Guardian newspaper, WPP advertising agency, travel site Lastminute.com and O2, the mobile operator, have all hosted unconferences in recent months. These low-cost events are for enthusiasts as well as professionals, who are all required to present as well as listen. Developers compete for prizes, including the possibility of their product being commercialised, while the host organisations can tap into a new pool of talent.

Young and small, old and large; companies across industries are investigating this trend and how it can affect their business. From a talent acquisition perspective, companies have the opportunity to pull a developer aside and discuss a potential position within the company.

These conferences, or barcamps as they are sometimes referred, or barcamps as they are sometimes referenced, will continue to become more popular as technology becomes more social and companies realize constant innovation is imperative to their survival.