Here’s the approach or ‘cheat sheet’:

Once we decide the tactics we are going to use, it is about execution and optimization. Interesting stuff this.

Hat Tip: Ratan KK, GutsGo emarketing.

Here’s my gist of it for reference.

Principle 1. Be fast

- Focus on latency. App should feel snappy, if it’s slow, people won’t use it.

- Provide shortcuts.

Principle 2. Be yourself.

- How do you want your product to feel and be perceived? It’s about the product having a brand personality. Should it be fun or empathetic or.. you get the point

Principle 3. Engage in conversations.

- Listen to what people are saying

- Use blogs, twitter, facebook to communicate. Also, use Google blog search, Technorati and Twitter to listen.

- Respond with honesty and humility

- Surprise your users. T-shirts still work

- Provide your own support. Use a platform like “Get Satisfaction”.

Principle 4. Be willing to give up control.

- iStockPhoto a good resource, don’t worry about the risk of not using exclusive artwork.

Principle 5. Be polite.

- Make it easy for people to get started. A lot of interface that we use is text. “Copy as interface”.

e.g. Tripit allows non registered users to forward their travel/hotel bookings to plans@tripit.com, creates a shell account and sends them an email.

Federated sign in like Open ID, Google or FB

- Give a way out. People don’t like dead ends.

e.g Brizzly has this on the settings: [Delete this account forever]

Netflix has easy to reach options of

1. Put membership on hold

2. Cancel membership

This gives folks control on their account, which people really expect naturally.

In my personal experience with Seventymm.com, I have felt trapped with their automatically renewing my subscription and they absolutely refused to cancel it. Feeling trapped was such a huge negative experience for me, that I would never go back to Seventymm now. What a stark contrast to Netflix!

Principle 6. Prepare for failure.

- Ensure error messages are kept to bare minimum

- High graphics and low graphics version of website.

- Handle failures

Principle 7. Be reliable.

- Being unreliable is plain bad for all companies.

Lesson # 1 Don’t get in people’s way, or “The Power of Simplicity”

Lesson # 2 Give users what they want, when they want it. (Not everything they want at the same time)

Lesson # 3 User centricity

Lesson # 4 “First and foremost, build a good product”

Lesson # 5 Opinions are easy to come by, but decisions should be data driven

- User studies

- Log analysis of usage

- Feedback from customer support, can contain surprisingly good insight.

Experiment often – iterate, iterate, iterate

“This is the first time in tech history that you have this many companies with CEOs approaching 60 that don’t have any obvious successors,” says John Thompson, vice chairman of recruiting firm Heidrick & Struggles.

In fact, more than half of the companies today cannot immediately name a successor of their CEO should the need arise, according to their research.

Not just for companies

However, succession planning not only affects the direction of large companies, but can also affect the career of every individual. One needs an able successor so that when the time is right, the reins can be handed over, and you are able to capitalize on promotion opportunities.

Of course, replacements can be hired, but this typically won’t happen unless there is a vacancy after you quit.

Succession planning and delegation

Second, when you start executing on a succession plan, you start delegating more and more of your responsibilities, so that you leverage competencies of other people in your own role.

In his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey quotes the late JC Penny as saying that the wisest decision he took was “to let go” after realizing that he couldn’t do it all by himself any longer. That decision, made long ago, enabled the development and growth of hundreds of stores and thousands of people.

Also read: 4 tips for efficient succession planning

If I had to sum this up in one line…

Beyond a point, ability or talent is the most useless virtue to possess. It’s what you do with that talent that matters.

Edit on Oct 03, 2011:

An example from where else but cricket to demonstrate this point.

My IIML GD PI experience
16 Feb 2008, 10 am slot
Venue: Hotel Monarch Luxur, Bangalore

My Profile
CAT 98.84
10th 78.6%
12th 89.2%
BE(Mech) 59.93% aggregate (Pune University)
Work Ex 43 months – Infosys -> Cisco Systems.

This is the only IIM call I had.. Reached the venue at 9:10 am. To my surprise, most junta was already there, with my friend there asking me how I am so late  . Chatted up with people there before the start of the proceedings…

8 of the 10 people turned up in my group..

GD Topic: “Helping hands are better than praying lips”
Was only able to write 3.25 pages of the 4 pages asked of us .

GD was decent.. everyone spoke, no one had really fantastic points.. everyone chipped in with some points.. I got off to a nervous start, language not really flowing smoothly in my first entry… But afterward I spoke reasonably clearly and got in a couple of decent points… Was not really happy with my written or the GD, felt I was not able to make an impression.

Interview
Panellist1, 2 -> P1, P2
[Found this later…. P1 was Dr Abhishek Nirjar, of the Strategic Management Group at IIML
P2 was Dr Madusudan Karmakar of the Finance and Accounting Group]

P1: So.. Army Institute of Technology, eh.. Some army connection?
Yes sir… My father is a doctor in the army.
P1: So what happened at this Army Institute of Technology? You had 78, 89% in 10th and 12th, so how did you drop down in academics?
(I had 59.9% aggregate) Spoke about 65% in my BE degree, and that Univ topper was 75%. Also spoke about extra curriculars.. being part of the squash team, doing a certificate course in graphology, more sports..
P1: So did you not think about joining the NDA, IMA? You were scared?
I smiled.. Spoke about how I wanted to be a part of the India growth story by contributing to profits of companies. And while it is a noble service, it is no longer the place it used to be during my father’s time..
P1: Name the top most squash player today..
Said top ranked was Amr Shabana, but the player to win the last World Open was Ramy Ashour
P1: Do you know any Indian player?
Said that there is a 49th ranked player.. Sourav Ghosal
P1: Any other Indians?
Said didn’t know of others
P1: But the army does come up with lot of squash players isn’t it
Spoke about the army’s emphasis on sports
P1: So why did you move from Mech Engg to IT?
Told about my interest in computers, and that I saw opportunities in the booming IT sector, so wanted to be part of it.
P1: But you have studied subjects like CAD/ CAM and other fascinating subjects, why not do something in that?
Spoke about opportunities being available in IT with lot of growth happening in this sector.
P1: What do you at Cisco
Told I was part of the test team for a new router that Cisco is coming out with, and told about my previous and current assignment.. mentioned the award I had got at Cisco

P2 takes over now, P1 lays back on his chair’s backrest and closes his eyes

P2: You have mentioned that you like tracking stock markets… tell us about that
Spoke about my starting to invest in stock markets after starting to earn… as a great way to learn about businesses and make some savings
P2: So do you do trading or are you a long term investor
Said I was an investor, and liked to pick value stocks
P2: So how do you pick the stocks?
Said I looked into the kind of business the company is in, the business environment, the prospects of the business.. (was interrupted)
P2: How do you judge the prospects of the business?
Took the example of IT sector, how it was the favorite a few years ago, and how rupee appreciation has hurt it….
P2: So you will sell your IT stocks?
Yes sir, I have already exited
P2: whats the value of your portfolio?
Investment amount is 2.5 lakh, market value is 3.2 lakh.
P2: You know about GDP.. what is the contribution of agriculture to the GDP
Told it was between 19 and 20%
P2: The government is taking land from agriculture for setting up industries.. Your view?
Told about how farmers are attached to their land and feel they are unfairly dealt with in regards to compensation. However, the govts do this to spur economic growth.. so while I support this, there needs to be better implementation of the same.
P2: What is the current rate of inflation?
Said it was around 3.8 to 4%
P2: You know about the price hike which came into effect yesterday.. Rs 2 for petrol and 1 for diesel.. How do you think this will impact inflation?
Said increase will impact prices of all commodities, so inflation would increase and this is a concern
P2: Whats the trend in inflation?
Said inflation was on the increase, having increased from 3% last year, and that its expected to increase further to 4.5%
P2: But we have been seeing a steady rate of inflation in the past couple of years.. isn’t that good
Said that the concerns are real and that the indicated inflation might not reflect the actual increase in prices…. spoke about how the indicator used – the WPI is questionable on two counts… first, the goods and services taken into consideration are not representative of the basket consumed. Second, the actual prices that the end consumer gets could be much higher than the wholesale prices that we take into account for the calculation..
P2: Ok, I think we are done here.. shall we wrap it up..

P1 pounces..

P1: I have one last question.. You have studied Industrial Management in your engineering.. Do you know of <insert a few unrecognizable terms>
No sir.. don’t know of it
P1: So what did you study in IM?
Said studied about Linear programming, transport problems, queuing, optimization, organizational behaviour…
P2: Oh they only teach you that much in your college..
P2: Ok, thank you and do take your file..
Thank you..

That was it.. No Why MBA, strengths weaknesses, no grilling on academics.. Feel good interview, was satisfied with my answers.

Sadly for the students and alumni of IIMs, in the coming years the IIM brand is going to come under question more than ever. The class of 2012 of the flagship PGDM programs at IIMs will see the third and final phase of implementation of the Mandal Commission’s recommendations by the government. This will take the proportion of reserved seats to a staggering 49.5%.

This of course means that the classroom has students of vastly different intellectual capabilities. Let’s take the CAT percentile as an indicator of a student’s ability. Historically, IIM students typically had high percentiles between 97 and 100 – meaning they scored better than 97% of test takers. However, now it is not uncommon for students scoring as low as 60 to 80 percentile to be part of this classroom. As can be seen in actual classrooms and by the industry as well, all IIM grads are not the brightest managers in the country today.

During placements, recruiters have already started making requests for the reservation status of the candidates, which of course are politely turned down. If we think from any recruiter’s point of view, there is tremendous competition among firms to bag the best candidates out of the lot. Recruiting MBAs is a high stakes game for most companies, given the salaries they pay to get the best talent in India. Practically speaking, it is natural for them to try and find out the quota status of an applicant or if nothing else, the CAT score and CGPA. Hell, I would try and do it if I were in their place. Ultimately, companies will tire out from not being assured of quality students and would increase their intake from institutes without quota implementation, if not giving a complete thumbs down to IIM campuses.

ISB has already demonstrated what an institute with autonomy in policy making and industry support can accomplish – it stood 15th globally in the latest Financial Times rankings, far ahead of any other Indian B-schools. Without autonomy in policy making including faculty salaries decisions, I foresee that in the coming years private institutions like MDI, IMI, XLRI, SP Jain etc would steadily gain ground and surpass the IIMs in parameters like the quality of students, faculty, placements and overall brand equity.