Game Progress so far

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Not changing the world, but heck I like them!

A couple of simple design innovations I like in recently used products:

1) Reliance Data Card: The cover attached to the USB using a thread

 

2) Tuborg beer: Beer bottles with cap working as opener

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Nice one on Indian Innovation (love the definition of creativity – mindset to solve problems): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWUe8G2r6go

Train Your Brain to Focus – Paul Hammerness, MD, and Margaret Moore – Harvard Business Review

Train Your Brain to Focus – Paul Hammerness, MD, and Margaret Moore – Harvard Business Review.

My first online Pizza

We have all bought movie tickets and made travel bookings online for a while. These segments were the first to get traction online and continue to form a major part of the eCommerce pie. Primary reason for the same can be attributed to the nature of the product they were selling – you got what you bought. There was no scope for counterfeit and the most important barrier that had to be crossed to drive volumes was to provide secure payment mechanisms.

Recently, we are seeing companies like Flipkart selling us books. With their brilliant execution and big discounts they are breaking the India’s online shopping inertia. And now we see plethora of startups selling everything from shoes to diamond online.

Now coming to the latest entrant to the growing chain of online ventures is online food ordering. To me this sounds really exciting and has great scope. Reading through some of the posts on Zomato’s online blog, these are the reasons why someone would want to order food online:

1) One click ordering. I can reorder my saved favorite order which was ordered by me earlier. My credit card is already on file, and it takes me less than 30 seconds to place my order.
2) Use of credit/debit card because lack of cash at home.
3) The ability to browse the menu at my leisure, adding customizations to the order along the way and take my time to order exactly what I need. I feel sometimes on the phone I may forget to mention something or feel a little more rushed.
4) The ability to combine orders from multiple restaurants into 1 single order. This may be a good option if I feel like eating Indian food and my girlfriend wants to eat chinese food.
5) Ability to check my order history online and see how much or what food I have ordered online.
6) I would prefer to type my credit card online rather than give it to someone over the phone.
7) I dont like talking on the phone

I want to add another reason – making food ordering social – I know what my friend ordered from Domino’s Pune. What is Domino’s most selling pizza (based on orders through the resp. site). As I said in another post knowing what to order is as important as where to order from.

Now coming to my experience – my first online pizza! I recently ordered a Pizza from Domino’s and it was delivered within 20 mins flat! But a few points which any such order site should consider:

• After I placed my order, I got a confirmation email. But I didn’t get a confirmation SMS. I believe a SMS is always more comforting than email (esp. given a new concept)

• There was no mention of the delivery time for the order. Neither during the ordering process nor in the confirmation email. I got the pizza in 20 mins, but I had no clue when it would come. Also, it shows I have no flexibility in case I want to order in advance.

• The address was asked twice – once to locate the nearest Domino’s outlet and second time for delivery. This was confusing.

• There was no option to add additional notes/instructions for e.g. extra seasoning!

• The ordering process can also be made more visual, a big advantage of digital over paper. How about showing my the Pizza as I order them with the different toppings I select.

• Social features as I mentioned before should be included and biggest advantage to me for ordering online.

Overall a smooth and good experience making me look forward to further online orders (Pizza Hut doesn’t have online order??). To sum up, like their predecessors the first movers are not just creating a alternate delivery channel for themselves but validating a concept. If they do it right, they will make this a de-facto standard. If not, they will push back the innovation cycle…

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Grass-root innovations…
http://www.india-at-davos.ibef.org/Ideas-for-change.aspx?PlayerID=4

A restaurant is as good as what you order

During my stint at P&G, I was introduced to the concept of First Moment of Truth (whatever lures a buyer to try your product – marketing, recommendations, etc) and Second Moment of Truth (what makes him/her a repeat buyer – primarily product quality). I was reminded of this recently during a meet with my friends last weekend.

Sitting at Smoke House Deli, Promenade mall waiting for the yummy Flourless chocolate cake and Blueberry cheesecake to arrive; my eyes stopped on a handwritten board. It was divided into 3 columns – Must Try, Should Try and Must Have. In each column there were 3-4 dishes mentioned. I was curious, what’s the difference between these! Esp. Must Try and Must Have 🙂 On asking the confused waiter, he mentioned Must Have were Chef recommended and Must Try were popular ones. This made me think.

Most of the websites/marketing efforts that exist today do the best to tell you which restaurants to eat out at (focusing on First moment of truth). They rarely mention explicitly what to eat there (focusing on Second moment of truth).  Yes, there are customer reviews which have them, but it’s not always possible to dig into those. There are no top 5 things to eat, best Chicken dish, best vegetarian dish, etc. Given the long laundry list of menu’s that restaurants have, waiters not usually being too aware and difference between your personal favorites vs. restaurant specialty makes this a confusing choice which ends up frequently going wrong. And then we blame the restaurant is over-rated.

Giving some e.gs. Even though I hate paying to eat veg food the Paneer Makhani at Punjabi by Nature is not to be missed. If you end up ordering Malai Tikka at Punjabi by Nature you will think it’s over-rated, but order Kasturi kebab and it even turned my 99.9% vegetarian friend Sid into a carnivore. Similarly, not everything at Khan Chacha or Big Chill is the best.

So, here is a proposal to the Zomato’s, Burp’s of the world. You already have the Menu for most good restaurants around. How about converting that menu picture into database entries and have users (and then you can make it social etc. too) not just rate/review restaurants but dishes within them (esp. through a mobile app). To take it one level further, how about having the restaurants link their item wise sales to the most popular dishes at their place.

A restaurant is as good as what you order!

Simple five step plan for just about everyone and everything

Says it all —

The number of people you need to ask for permission keeps going down:

1. Go, make something happen.

2. Do work you’re proud of.

3. Treat people with respect.

4. Make big promises and keep them.

5. Ship it out the door.

When in doubt, see #1.

Seth’s Blog: Simple five step plan for just about everyone and everything.

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Nice concept -> http://handywashingmachine.blogspot.com/

Laptop to iPad | iPad to Laptop

I have an itch these days. To buy a iPad. Without getting to reasons and justification whether I need it or NOT here’s what I thought of.

Sometime back I wanted to have a touchscreen on my laptop as I was fiddling around. In addition to that, how about putting all the processing power (and other stuff) on the back of the LCD/LED screens and the bottom keyboard thingy (which currently holds all the important stuff apart from the display) only to have the keyboard. May be keep the other not to important stuff like CDROM, etc along the keyboard.

Now that the laptop is split in the right ratio, make the two portions detachable. So, when I am not in office or on my desk (basically I am not typing around much) I just take out the screen (along with the important stuff) portion and voila I have my iPad. Attach it back and I have my laptop back.

The screen size can be worked around by trial and experiment (currently optimal laptop screen size seem to be 14 inches vs. 9 inches for the iPad).

What say?

Runners High

When  Training, Running and Education comes together what you get is runners high — watch this video to hear from the “Horse” (s) mouth about the Motivated Running Community –