tag:milesbeckett.com,2014:/feedMiles Beckett2013-02-08T02:00:49-08:00Miles Becketthttp://milesbeckett.comSvbtle.comtag:milesbeckett.com,2014:Post/the-dorner-lapd-story-is-tragic-scary-terrifying-and-ohsometa2013-02-08T02:00:49-08:002013-02-08T02:00:49-08:00The #Dorner #LAPD Story is Tragic, Scary, Terrifying, and Oh-So-Meta<p>I’m back. Yes, it’s been awhile. The holidays. New Years in New Orleans. Lotsa work post-acquisition. Blah, blah, blah. No excuses, back to blogging.</p>
<p>Anyway, this Dorner story is fascinating. it’s tragic, scary, and terrifying, but it’s also a fascinating example of how news propagates through our new media network of Twitter, blogs, and traditional outlets like CNN. I’m curating all of the activity online with <a href="http://storify.com/mbeckett/the-dorner-lapd-manhunt-a-balanced-perspective">a Storify</a> that I’ll be updating regularly and attempting to provide a balanced perspective.</p>
<p>But… what’s even more interesting is observing how information flows across the new media landscape. Here’s how I experienced the story today:</p>
<ol>
<li>Heard on NPR that there was a manhunt for a former LAPD officer who had killed another police officer and a civilian</li>
<li>Saw an update on Flipboard, a story on the LA Times website, updating that more police officers had been shot and that the manhunt was intensifying</li>
<li>Became curious and began searching on Twitter. I saw that #LAPD was trending and began following the tweets. I discovered that the former officer’s name was Dorner and that he had released a manifesto</li>
<li>Saw on Twitter that Anonymous had leaked the full and unedited version of the manifesto</li>
<li>Read the manifesto on our drive up to Mammoth (it took awhile)</li>
<li>Began following all the tweets for #Dorner and #LAPD and began re-tweeting and @replying anyone who seemed to have information about the story</li>
<li>Saw that the LAPD had shot a truck that looked like Dorner’s, injuring two women delivering newspapers</li>
<li>Created a Storify and started writing this blog</li>
</ol>
<p>What’s even more interesting is my emotional and cognitive response at each stage as the story developed and I experienced it in real-time over the course of the day:</p>
<ol>
<li>Wow, that’s horrible. Who is this nut job? Why did he kill a cop?</li>
<li>Woah, this is getting much bigger. It sounds like he’s on a rampage. Why is he doing this? What’s going on? Are we safe?</li>
<li> There’s a manifesto? There’s a lot more to this story…</li>
<li>Whoah, Anonymous is involved? They took down the LAPD website with a DOS attack? This is getting real…</li>
<li>Dorner doesn’t sound like a lunatic. He’s eloquent, but sounds depressed and in a very bad place mentally. If the information he’s presenting is true, the LAPD is in trouble.</li>
<li>Seems like the manifesto is resonating with people. A lot of them support Dorner if what he’s saying is true, although very few people condone his actions. I definitely don’t condone his actions, but I’m very curious about whether what he’s saying about the LAPD is true.</li>
<li>Uh-oh, that’s not good</li>
<li>This is going to become a much bigger story</li>
</ol>
<p>I’m going to keep updating this post. It’s 2am and I’m exhausted. I’m really interested to see how this story develops, through which sources I learn new information, and how I experience the story both emotionally and cognitively as it develops.</p>
<p>More to come…</p>
tag:milesbeckett.com,2014:Post/the-role-of-empathy-in-product-design2012-11-02T15:27:17-07:002012-11-02T15:27:17-07:00The role of empathy in product design<p>Good product design is about building a tool that solves a problem. Great product design is about empathizing with your users and building a product they completely fucking love (or hate). Indifference is the enemy. It’s all about sex, love, and violence (<a href="http://www.slideshare.net/dmc500hats/starting-up-with-sex-love-violence">thanks for the inspiration Dave!</a>).</p>
<p>Like it or not, we’re just talking, domesticated apes, and no matter how intellectually enlightened we like to think we are, each of us is moved as much by emotion as logic. (PA1) If you want to build a product that <em>moves</em> your users, then you <em>must</em> understand their needs, wants, and desires. You need to get inside their heads Inception-style.</p>
<p>Professional UI/UX designers have formalized this idea into a comprehensive user-centered design process, at the heart of which are idealized user [personas](<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persona_(user_experience)">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persona_(user_experience)</a> created by synthesizing feedback from interviews and other data gathering techniques. It’s a bit wonky, but I’ve found it to be useful as a loose starting point.</p>
<p>Even better, I like talking to users directly. Maybe it’s the writer in me, but once I’ve talked to enough users face-to-face, I can usually feel their pain deep in my bones. I’ll drink a cup of coffee, throw on my Bose noise-canceling headphones (best-gadget-ever!), queue up some chill music on <a href="http://8tracks.com/">8tracks</a>, close my eyes and imagine our customers using our product in their day-to-day lives. I’ll try to <em>feel</em> what it’s like. Once I’m in the zone, feeling the world the way they feel it, I’ll run through our product and take notes.</p>
<p>It’s not unlike writing a screenplay. You need to <em>be</em> the character in order to understand how they would react in a given situation. Great screenplays follow well thought-out characters who act incredibly realistically despite being placed in extraordinary situations. The decisions they make drive the plot forward, and when these decisions feel natural, it creates a highly relatable and enjoyable experience for the viewer.</p>
<p>I think it’s critical for us as product designers and entrepreneurs to have empathy for our users. It’s empathy that informs understanding, and understanding that lays the foundation for great product design.</p>
<p>So, if you’re more Scrooge than Donald, how do you increase your capacity for empathy? (PA2) Here are some things that have broadened my mind and pushed me to become a more empathic person.</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Travel</p>
<p>You’re hometown isn’t special. Take a trip. Visit another city. Another country. Another continent. Don’t stay in fancy hotels. Go native. Backpack. Ride a motorcycle through the backcountry. Steep yourself in the local culture and make new friends. Learn their traditions, eat their food, drink their beer (or wine, or sake, or hooch). You’ll quickly gain an appreciation and tolerance for different points-of-view and lifestyles, and you might even have some fun.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Fraternize with people who are not like you</p>
<p>See the dude with the piercings and tattoos? Go talk to him. Ask him where he’s from. What he does. What he wants out of life. If you’re a dude with piercings and tattoos, go talk to a guy in a suit. Ask the girl with the hemp skirt what music she listens to. Go outside of your comfort zone and surround yourself with people from all walks of life. You’ll learn pretty quickly that our differences are much more superficial than our similarities.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Do something you’ve never done before</p>
<p><a href="http://chromatik.com/">Learn how to play an instrument</a>. Go skydiving. Write a play. Cook a meal from scratch. Try something new that you’ve never done before even if you’re worried you might suck. New experiences force you to see the world from a different perspective. And, maybe you’ll like it and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famous_Amos">turn your hobby into a career</a>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Always ask yourself, “Why?”</p>
<p>Instead of assuming, ask yourself “Why?” There’s always a reason why someone does something, no matter how crazy their actions might seem. In order to truly empathize, you need to understand where they’re coming from. This understanding always starts with the question, “Why?”</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>What have you done to improve your own capacity for empathy? Hit me up on twitter @mbeckett and let me know!</p>
<p>Philosophical Asides</p>
<p>PA1: Neurobiologist Antonio Damasio has spent his career studying the interplay between emotions, feelings, and decision-making. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wup_K2WN0I">Emotions are actually required to make decisions</a>, without them we end up in the human equivalent of an infinite loop.</p>
<p>PA2: What’s incredibly scary is that we are <em>less</em> empathetic as a society than we used to be by nearly 40%! Check out <a href="http://artofmanliness.com/2010/07/25/our-disembodied-selves-and-the-decline-of-empathy/">this Art of Manliness post</a> for a great read about empathy in modern society.</p>
tag:milesbeckett.com,2014:Post/dont-worry-it-isnt-porn2012-10-12T12:46:00-07:002012-10-12T12:46:00-07:00"Don't worry, it isn't porn"<p>BuzzFeed recently featured lonelygirl15 on a list as one of the <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/summeranne/the-20-most-important-online-videos-of-all-time">Top 20 most important online videos of all time</a> (wow!), and it got me thinking about how the show came to be. It actually almost didn’t. Many times.</p>
<p>I’ve learned over the years that taking the direct approach in business is always the best. Having an uncomfortable conversation is never easy, and everyone prefers to avoid conflict. This is why so many people are passive aggressive or simply avoid difficult situations. But, if you want to actually solve a problem and communicate effectively, you need to cut to the chase.</p>
<p>This was one of those times where the direct approach worked, even though it meant I had to explain to our top choice for the lead role why lonelygirl15 wasn’t porn.</p>
<p>We had spent weeks wading through hundreds of headshots and dozens of auditions searching for our star, and Jessica Rose was the only actress we liked for the part. Unfortunately when we revealed the idea for lonelygirl15 to her and Yousef at the famous Urth Cafe on Melrose, she didn’t seem impressed. In fact, she seemed confused. Mildly disturbed even.</p>
<p>Back in 2006, the concept of a web series was foreign territory for anyone but the most web-savvy video producers. There was a nascent video podcasting movement, with series like <a href="http://www.rocketboom.com/">Rocketboom</a> and <a href="http://askaninja.com/">Ask A Ninja</a>, but no one was producing original web series for YouTube and there certainly wasn’t an industry built around online video (<a href="http://www.tubefilter.com/2012/05/21/machinima-raises-35-million-funding-google/">like</a> <a href="http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-02-20/youtube-original-content/53170394/1">there</a> <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/07/entertainment/la-et-ct-youtube-channel-awesomenesstv-attracts-outside-funding-20120807">is</a> <a href="http://allthingsd.com/20120815/movieclips-will-now-star-as-zefr-adding-18-5-million-in-new-funding-for-category-expansion/">now</a>). At the time, the only mainstream videos online were movie trailers, sports clips, and porn. Lots and lots of porn.</p>
<p>Yousef, who we’d cast to play “Daniel” on the series, called me up after the meeting and told me Jessica was worried this was some “weird internet thing.” Beyond her MySpace page she wasn’t much of an internet person and definitely wasn’t that excited about starring in an online video series, particularly because she thought it sounded like porn (with a name like lonelygirl15, who could blame her). He said I needed to meet with Jessica if I wanted to convince her to take the role.</p>
<p>We met up at the Coffee Bean on La Cienega across from the Beverly Center. It was a critical meeting. If I couldn’t convince her to take the role, I didn’t know what we were going to do… we had searched for weeks and none of the other girls held a candle to Jess. She was perfect for the part.</p>
<p>I didn’t know where to begin, and fiinally, I just blurted it out.</p>
<p>“Don’t worry, it isn’t porn.”</p>
<p>Thankfully, the direct approach worked and she started venting about all the creepy producers who had tried to take advantage of her since she had moved to LA, including one guy who wanted her to buy him film stock with her student ID so he could get a discount (seriously?). I reassured her that not only was it not porn, but that her character was completely non-sexual. She was home schooled and from a <a href="http://www.lg15.com/lgpedia/index.php?title=Hymn_of_One">religious family</a>. In fact, we were going to steer as far away from her sexuality as we could because we didn’t want anyone to think this was just another “sexy girl dancing on YouTube” channel (a popular YouTube genre right up there with cat videos).</p>
<p>I explained that although we were playing with a new medium, we were actually using classic character archetypes and telling a very traditional story. It was “Dawson’s Creek” online. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” shot with webcams. She would be the star of the first online TV show.</p>
<p>The conversation flowed from big picture ideas to more detailed conversations about where I wanted to take lonelygirl15. The original idea was to use the online video series to propel her channel to the number one spot on YouTube, and end the series with a cliff-hanger that would serve as the kicking-off point for an independent feature film that we’d sell as a DVD online. (PA1)</p>
<p>The channel did make it to the number one spot, but the indie feature never came to be. Instead, we spent the next couple years building a digital studio and producing extensions of the story around the world, including <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KateModern">KateModern</a> in the UK, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N1ckola">n1ckola</a> in Poland, and licensing the lonelygirl15 format to companies in Italy and Japan.</p>
<p>Everything we learned producing these series ultimately informed our decision to create EQAL and build a platform for influencers to reach and monetize their audience online. And none of it would have been possible if I hadn’t taken the direct approach and addressed Jessica’s fears head-on.</p>
<p>Any ideas for future posts? I’m planning on posting more business advice, thoughts about the technology and media landscape, and occasionally random stories about lonelygirl15 and producing web series.</p>
<p>Hit me up on Twitter @mbeckett with your ideas!</p>
<p>Philosophical Asides</p>
<p>PA1: Interestingly, this model of using a popular web series or social media audience to drive DVD sales has since been used very effectively by <a href="http://jonreiss.com/2009/06/producers-of-web-series-test-release-strategies-digital-tv-dvd-itunes-play-an-important-role/">Crackle and other studios</a>, and comedians like <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/22/technology/louis_ck_million/index.htm">Louis C.K.</a> and <a href="http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/03/20/aziz-ansari-releases-comedy-special-online/">Aziz Ansari</a>. I think we will see more to come.</p>
tag:milesbeckett.com,2014:Post/small-tasks-big-goals2012-10-03T11:58:00-07:002012-10-03T11:58:00-07:00Small tasks, big goals<p>How do you achieve your goals? When you think about a big goal that you want to achieve, it can be overwhelming and often you don’t know where to begin. Back in 2005 when I was slaving away as a surgery intern, I realized that medicine wasn’t the right fit for me and I <a href="http://techonomy.com/2012/08/miles-beckett-of-eqal-on-breaking-the-rules/">decided to switch careers</a> into the burgeoning world of online video.</p>
<p>Google had recently gone IPO, MySpace was blowing up (in the good way), and podcasting had <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_podcasting">recently been invented</a> and was rising to prominence. Everything indicated that the advertising base, audience scale, and content syndication tools were in place for online video to finally become a major industry. I wanted to be a part of it.</p>
<p>Needless to say, I had zero connections, little experience producing videos, and very little technical knowledge. The goal seemed overwhelming and the number of steps I needed to take to achieve my goal seemed to expand to infinity.</p>
<p>How did I do it? By breaking my big goal into a collection of short-term milestones and small, achievable tasks.</p>
<p>On the one hand, it’s important to have a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Hairy_Audacious_Goal">big goal</a>. it keeps you motivated when you’re in the bottom of the well and provides a target that you and everyone else in the company can shoot for. But, you can’t tackle a big goal each day. It’s not tangible. You need to create small, actionable tasks that you can work on each day to achieve your goal. (PA1)</p>
<p>Here’s an example of a big goal that I’m tackling right now:</p>
<p>Write a consistently high quality, well respected, and widely read blog.</p>
<p>Needless to say, this is very hard, but hopefully achievable :)</p>
<p>The biggest problem is that I’m a HUGE procrastinator when it comes to writing. Luckily, I’ve found that when I have a deadline that I need to meet, I’m forced to cut through the blockage and produce something on schedule. When I was writing lonelygirl15, I was forced to produce multiple scripts a week and it did wonders for combatting my natural tendency towards procrastination (it also led to a lot of episodes where the kids were on the run from the Order, but that’s another story).</p>
<p>So, right now my “easy task” that contributes to my big goal is to write one new blog post each week. It’s a task in my <a href="http://www.rememberthemilk.com/">Remember the Milk</a>, and it’s something I can focus on each week and work towards achieving.</p>
<p>This is just a small example, but there are a <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=break+goals+into+tasks&sugexp=chrome,mod=8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8">ton of resources</a> out there that can help you figure out how to break your goals down into manageable tasks, including the fantastic book “The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right” by Atul Gawande that Jack Dorsey <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jack-dorsey-square-red-book-2012-10">apparently gives out to every new employee</a>.</p>
<p>Got any tips on how to achieve big goals? Let me know on Twitter @mbeckett</p>
<p>Philosophical Asides (PA’s)</p>
<p>My attempt to avoid run-on-paragraphs will be to throw any random musings that come up in the course of writing the post into a “Philosophical Asides” section at the end. Read at your own risk.</p>
<p>PA1: In fact, one could argue that the entire process of managing a team and growing a business is taking a series of goals and properly dividing them up into milestones and achievable tasks, delegating responsibility, and communicating and monitoring the company’s progress to make sure everyone is on track.</p>
tag:milesbeckett.com,2014:Post/new-beginnings2012-09-27T13:40:00-07:002012-09-27T13:40:00-07:00New beginnings<p>After months of negotiations, it’s now official - <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/25/everyday-health-has-bought-social-media-marketers-eqal-price-up-to-20m/">EQAL has been acquired by Everyday Health</a>.</p>
<p>It’s been an incredible few years founding and growing this business from an idea to over 80 employees and a successful exit. The lessons I’ve learned are numerous, and I’m looking forward to sharing all of them with as much transparency and candor as I can stomach (or legally divulge).</p>
<p>Over the past few years I’ve watched the LA startup community go from wannabe to reality. I’m a mentor at Launchpad LA, an advisor to several of the best startups in LA (IMHO), and a product geek at my core.</p>
<p>I haven’t done much blogging in a long time, except for a couple stints on <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/25/divorce-in-the-age-of-twitter/">TechCrunch</a> and <a href="http://pandodaily.com/2012/01/27/hollywood-is-dead-long-live-hollywood/">PandoDaily</a>, but I figured it would be fun to try my hand at it again.</p>
<p>My next post will be something juicy… I just need to cook it up…</p>