Short version: We made a thing called Mystery Science. It’s starting to get big! Longer version: If you haven’t heard, over a million children experienced Mystery Science in the classroom last year. Every month, teachers in more than 10% of elementary schools in the U.S. use the program. I remember…

The range of options that most people consider available to them is much narrower than the truth. If they can’t find a job description or an enrollment form, they assume it’s not an option. Or if a person of authority tells them, “I’m sorry, that’s not an option,” too many…

If you walk into a casino and on a whim bet your entire life savings and you win. Was it a good decision? No. Even though many would congratulate you on a job well done, it was a bad decision. Or the opposite example of simple expected value. You make…

In recent years there have been some great resources on metrics for startups, in particular Dave McClures metrics for pirates and Andrew Chens articles on user acquisition and KissMetrics article on conversion. Over the last few products I worked on I synthesized this into a core model that I found…

I’ve noticed that over the course of a week that over-working and working smarter are both self-reinforcing. To put it another way: the less I work, the less work I have to do; the more I work, the more work I have to do. I’ve found that during periods where…

Its been a few years since I’ve been in start-up mode: dissecting great products to learn, generating lists of ideas, and meeting lots of new people. In undergoing this process I’m reminded of my fundamental approach to developing a new product and how unusual it seems to be among other…

Pinterest is the best new social application I’ve seen in awhile. Exploring it has rekindled a lot of thinking about what it takes to get users to create online content. This is not an analysis of Pinterest in particular, but the mental framework I use to think about this design…

Have you ever observed that you can live through the same event with someone but afterwards you’re reflecting and the two of you experienced something totally different? What you choose to focus on determines the experience that you have. You have a lot of work you need to get done…

It’s accepted wisdom in the startup space that you begin by testing your product on early adopters and over time you work to expand to the mainstream users in your market. But if you’re struggling to bridge this gap, maybe what you thought were early adopters are actually just mainstream…