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Showing posts from 2018

Blackbird Ventures // investments

We invest in Australians with big ideas who want to be the best in the world. We provide equity capital for Seed, Series A and later stage. No cheque is too early. We're committed to the development of our community and the strengthening of the Australian startup ecosystem.   Find out more . Home | Blackbird Ventures

Facebook failing, Zuckerberg and Sandberg absent: Commentary

Facebook failing, Zuckerberg and Sandberg absent: Commentary

Sprint Backlog and the Scrum Sprint

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The sprint backlog is a list of tasks identified by the Scrum team to be completed during the Scrum sprint. During the sprint planning meeting, the team selects some number of product backlog items, usually in the form of user stories, and identifies the tasks necessary to complete each user story. Most teams also estimate how many hours each task will take someone on the team to complete. It's critical that the team selects the items and size of the sprint backlog. Because they are the people committing to completing the tasks, they must be the people to choose what they are committing to during the Scrum sprint. The sprint backlog is commonly maintained as a spreadsheet, but it is also possible to use your defect tracking system or any of a number of software products designed specifically for Scrum or agile. An example of a sprint backlog in a spreadsheet looks like this: During the Scrum sprint, team members are expected to update the sprint backl

Product Backlog - International Scrum Institute

In the simplest definition the Scrum Product Backlog is simply a list of all things that needs to be done within the project. It replaces the traditional requirements specification artifacts. These items can have a technical nature or can be user-centric e.g. in the form of user stories. The owner of the Scrum Product Backlog is the Scrum Product Owner. The Scrum Master, the Scrum Team and other Stakeholders contribute it to have a broad and complete To-Do list. Working with a Scrum Product Backlog does not mean that the Scrum Team is not allowed to create and use other artifacts. Examples for additional artifacts could be a summary of the various user roles, workflow descriptions, user interface guidelines, storyboards, or user interface prototypes. However, these artifacts do not replace the Scrum Product Backlog but complement and detail its content. The Scrum Product Owner uses the Scrum Product Backlog during the Sprint Planning Meeting to describe the

Minimum viable product - Wikipedia

Minimum viable product - Wikipedia : A minimum viable product (MVP) is a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers, and to provide feedback for future product development.[1][2] Gathering insights from an MVP is often less expensive than developing a product with more features, which increase costs and risk if the product fails, for example, due to incorrect assumptions. The term was coined and defined by Frank Robinson about 2001,[3] and popularized by Steve Blank, and Eric Ries.[4][5][6][7] It may also involve carrying out market analysis beforehand.

6 Tangible Steps to Launch an MVP Product

Ever had that feeling of not knowing where to start? For writers, it’s called  writer’s block. Painters call it  blank-canvas syndrome . Entrepreneurs refer to this phenomenon as  analysis paralysis , an affliction all founders experience at one point or another. It’s like having a stroke of genius for the next big idea, but not knowing where to start. Related:  Your Product May Be Minimal, But Is It Viable? Whether yours is a big marketing idea with the potential to double your holiday sales, the way Zappos did with its recent  price-matching  experiment, or the next billion dollar business, your idea -- and everyone else's -- are only as good as the execution behind them. Source: 6 Tangible Steps to Launch an MVP Product :

AI - Artificial Intelligence | Wells Fargo

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AI - Artificial Intelligence | Wells Fargo :  Artificial intelligence (AI) is now part of everyday life. Digital assistants recognize your voice and respond to your commands. Computers help translate vast amounts of data into better-informed medical decisions. Chatbots offer you help with a human touch. By 2020, customers will manage 85% of their relationships with businesses without any human interaction.   RC Note:   the edge will be biocybernetic marketing where algorithmic reactions make possible that the customer becomes an integral part of the process and the reward. Early adopter will have a huge advantage while others will try just to cope with it, trying to understand how to compete while the process change to new usages and tools, and then, the cycle of advantage - dis-advantage starts again and "early adopters keep the pace to win.

The Parts of Customer Service That Should Never Be Automated

The Parts of Customer Service That Should Never Be Automated In Pixar’s WALL-E , oversized humans recline on levitating barcaloungers and are dressed, primped, polished, and served, entirely by robots. Fiction? Maybe not, at least according to a wave of media coverage pointing to a dizzying array of service innovations on the horizon. Look no further than the public debut of Amazon Go, the company’s first cashierless store . Digital imaging technology monitors which items shoppers select from shelves, and when a customer leaves the store, the person’s online account is automatically charged. Down the road in Santa Clara, California, room service robots are being designed that can navigate a hotel’s floor plan and interact digitally with its elevator and phone systems to deliver towels and beverages to guests. Various Silicon Valley startups have deployed robots that make pizzas , craft salads , and assemble artistic bistro sandwiches . In Boston, a robot works with labor

From imitation to innovation: How China became a tech superpower | WIRED UK

From imitation to innovation: How China became a tech superpower | WIRED UK In the early 2000s, this corner of Zhongguancun – the area of northern Beijing now often referred to as China’s Silicon Valley – was mostly famous for its sprawling electronics markets. There were several high-rise buildings, in which you could roam vast open floors connected by narrow escalators and packed with stalls selling everything from cameras to TVs, DVD players to toasters, dancing Santas to neon dildos. Some items were made by major, household brands such as Samsung, Nokia, and Canon; many more of them were knock-off products, with names creatively similar to the “real” thing. Most of the time, the electronics were assembled in China; almost never were they invented in China. This image is still deeply ingrained in the western imagination – that of the industrious “copycat” nation.

The 4 Most Important Key Performance Indicators for Sales Managers

The 4 Most Important Key Performance Indicators for Sales Managers : Four Key Performance Indicators to Track Every Month 1. Lead Flow This is the number of new leads that are coming into the sales department each month. Get very specific and track both the total number of leads and also where each one came from. More and more managers are discovering that to increase sales you don’t need more salespeople; what you really need is more leads. 2. Number of Qualified Opportunities Created Measure the total number of new, qualified opportunities created in the month as well as the dollar value of each one. How can you count a qualified opportunity? Qualified opportunities are those who you've sent or presented a proposal focused on a need you hear about. What doesn't count as a qualified opportunity: sending the same email to 50 people on a list. 3. Conversion Rate The conversion rate is the number of new customers divided by the number of qualified leads. Tha

16 Sales KPIs that Every Team Should Measure | Scoro

16 Sales KPIs that Every Team Should Measure | Scoro : 1. Monthly sales/new customers One of the easiest ways to evaluate your sales success is to compare monthly results over time. Monthly conversions KPI shows how many new customers bought your product or subscribed to your service during the current month. You can frame this KPI as merely the number of monthly sales or as “% of monthly sales quota” to evaluate whether you’re going to achieve your monthly sales goal. To understand what causes an increase or drop in one metric, you need to track further indicators to find correlations between multiple sales and marketing processes. Compare the monthly sales KPIs with previous month’s results to see whether your sales performance is increasing or declining. Always look for the root cause of poor results – is your sales slowing because of low season, lazy salespeople or poor marketing decisions? Moreover, track the number of monthly new leads to get to the core of

7 Key Performance Indicators That Every Sales Manager Should Use - Salesforce Blog

7 Key Performance Indicators That Every Sales Manager Should Use - Salesforce Blog : Conventional wisdom holds that revenue-per-sales-rep is the only metric that ultimately matters in sales management. But sales process optimization is all about identifying key strengths and coalescing your team into an efficient selling machine. In other words, management is about coaching your team to success . When we talk about Key Performance Indicators ( KPIs ), we’re talking about leading indicators - signposts along the way that your sales team is doing the things they need to do in order to be successful. Keeping your eye on nuanced, tactical KPIs is one of the best ways to keep your strategy on track. Practicing great fundamentals leads to great outcomes. 1-Lead Response Time When it comes to lead response, speed is essential to increasing sales reps’ odds of success. The data seems to confirm what our instincts tell us -- that prospects equate a responsive company with a good

Sales KPIs: How to Define the Right Metrics for Your B2B Sales Team | Geckoboard

Sales KPIs: How to Define the Right Metrics for Your B2B Sales Team | Geckoboard : Identifying sales key performance indicators (KPIs) can feel like finding a diet that works: everyone claims their diet is the best, resulting in all manner of conflicting advice regarding ‘superfoods’ and other foods to banish entirely. It’s really quite confusing and frustrating since the ‘best’ is highly subjective both for food and KPIs. The real question is what’s right for you? What sales metrics will help you achieve your company goals? KPIs are never one-size-fits-all. So instead of trying to persuade you that certain KPIs are the best, I want to empower you to define the right metrics for your sales team. Then we’ll look at a list of the most common sales KPIs. Defining the right KPIs 1. Start big. What are your company-wide goals? Revenue? Growth? Customer acquisition? Customer Retention? Typically, companies have one primary objective with one or two secondary goals that

6 KPIs Every Sales Leader Should Be Measuring in 2018

6 KPIs Every Sales Leader Should Be Measuring in 2018 1) New Contacts Rate This is the metric that managers most consistently monitor . How are your salespeople contributing to the expansion of your business in their given territory? Who’s reaching their quota? What percentage of your team is hitting their number? Is quota too high? Too low? Share this data with your team so they can see how they stack up against other reps. There’s nothing like a little competition to get your team motivated. 2) Client Acquisition Rates Another commonly used measurement is rate of client acquisition. Of the new prospects your reps reach out to, how many convert to customers ? It’s natural for some salespeople to perform better than others -- but if there are large discrepancies between conversion rates, dig deeper. Are lower-performing reps approaching bad-fit prospects? Is there something that overperformers do in sales meetings that others don’t? Compare conversion rates to the num

Why Invest in Ethiopia? | Why we are pledging $150M for Ethiopia software

Why Invest in Ethiopia? : SAN FRANCISCO — Amazon is testing a grocery store in downtown Seattle that lets customers walk in, grab food from the shelves and walk out again, without ever having to stand in a checkout line. Customers tap their cellphones on a turnstile as they walk into the store, which logs them into the store's network and connects to their Amazon account through an app. Note: We have informed the embassy about our intentions to make a $150m investment on education, software and web-apps hubs  for 300 nodes in Ethiopia to serve Africa and create jobs. Over $40M will be left for wages and $45 for commuity health plus other interesting activities to help women and children as well as local economies. For more information please contact me: https://reubenportfolio.blogspot.com.au/p/contacts.html

Amazon just opened a grocery store without a checkout line

Amazon just opened a grocery store without a checkout line : The level of China's investment in the continent of Africa is increasing at a rate fast enough to raise concerned eyebrows in the west. Primary motivations that lie behind China's push toward increased investments in African nations include the desire to secure a solid base of raw materials to fuel China's own rapidly growing economy, the desire to increase China's global political influence and the major growth opportunity presented by emerging market economies in Africa. NOTE: If you don't upskill your kids -and yourself- a robot will get that job! contact me to learn more : https://reubenportfolio.blogspot.com.au/p/contacts.html

The 3 Reasons Why Chinese Invest in Africa | AND WHY YOU ARE NOT!!!

The 3 Reasons Why Chinese Invest in Africa | Investopedia : Next time you stop for gas at a self-serve pump, say hello to the robot in front of you. Its life story can tell you a lot about the robot economy roaring toward us like an EF5 tornado on the prairie. WHY YOU ARE NOT: Well, simply becasue it is risky, fast and worse than the wild west in it's worst time...But uisng my "web-app for Africa" you can start build your lateral income platform with less than $150... and buy as you grow from our cloud systems. contact me for more info.!

How Artificial Intelligence and Robots Will Radically Transform the Economy

How Artificial Intelligence and Robots Will Radically Transform the Economy "Next time you stop for gas at a self-serve pump, say hello to the robot in front of you. Its life story can tell you a lot about the robot economy roaring toward us like an EF5 tornado on the prairie." --------------------- And that's why I'm delivering training packs and building your next web-apps for local or international investment.... for more info: contact me : https://reubenportfolio.blogspot.com.au/p/contacts.html