The 5 Golden rules for presenting technology

"No one wants to know how the watch is made. They want to know how well it works and the advantages it brings them"

1. Tell the audience What it is doing? What you see here is ..

2. Tell the audience Why it is doing it? - The benefits of this is that ..

3. Tell the audience how this is Unlike previous technologies or competitors! The alternative to this was ..

4. Tell the audience How exactly it is doing it. This is achieved by ..

5. Tell it as you would a story you are very passionate about to good friends

WHAT - WHY - UNLIKE - HOW - PASSION!
WHAT - WHY - UNLIKE - HOW - PASSION!
WHAT - WHY - UNLIKE - HOW - PASSION!

Google vs. FAST relevancy

Relevancy Introduction:

Relevancy is the measure of how well a set of results answers or addresses the intent of a given query.

Relevancy is the balancing of: The truth, The whole truth [Recall - all documents related to the query terms] and nothing but the truth[Precision - only those docs related to the query terms].

In general, customers need to strike a balance between finding everything related to a query and only the documents that relate to a given query.

Precision is the ratio of the number of relevant records retrieved to the total number of irrelevant and relevant records retrieved.

In an e-commerce or e-directory environment, users prefer much more precise search results so that customers are not swamped with too many non-specific results.

Recall is the ratio of the number of relevant records retrieved to the total number of relevant records in the index. knowledge discovery or compliance applications will rate recall as being more important than precision – in other words, customers do not want to “miss” any important documents.

GOOGLE vs. FAST Relevancy

The mechanism underpinning Google's relevancy model is called Page Rank. This is a formula developed by Google to determine a web page's "inbound link ranking". That is the number of web pages that link to that page. Or, to put it in other words, the number of times that page has been cited. The purpose of page rank is to measure a page's relative importance within a set of pages.

In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote.

Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important".

This algorithm works well within a network of hyper linked documents, such as the web . However, within the enterprise we do not solely have web documents, and the documents are rarely if never linked. Therefore, within the firewall Google cannot lean on its page rank algorithm which set it apart from other search engines.

FAST's enterprise search relevancy has needed to evolved beyond Web relevancy techniques. The ranking models are now based on multi-faceted quality measurements such as - context, freshness, completeness, authority, statistics, quality and geography. Each of these dimensions can be augmented by the search business manager. For example for company news search we may want to give a greater relative weighting to the freshness of a document. Where as, with the IT intranet search we may give a greater weighting to the authority of an article, how many times it has been cited or viewed.

Google offer a closed black-box approach to relevancy. However, relevancy is not one-size-fits-all it needs to be contextualised.

Who are the users? What are they trying to achieve? What are they interested in? What are they not interested in?

FAST provides an open flexible relevancy model. Out of the box a set of pre-defined relevancy model profiles are available that align with specific uses or audiences – site search, news, shopping, self-service, market intelligence, surveillance, etc. From these starting sets the relevancy profiles can be tuned based on user feedback or query log reporting.

A convenient way to understand the importance of relevancy models is to visualize a graphic equalizer on an audio system, which has pre-sets for audio environments such as concert hall, car, home, classical, and rock, for example.

It also allows for individual adjustment to meet the needs of the listener.

Similarly, FAST provides pre-set relevancy models where each of the parameters can be independently adjusted, and a change in one does not affect the others.

Four Tips for Improving Relevancy:

1. Understand the rank profiles – by understanding the user base. What are their objectives? What are their interests? What sources do they use most often? Which of the six dimensions do they value the greatest?

2. Augment the rank models – search business manager can alter the rank calculation assigned to documents for given queries. This can be based on user feedback, query log reporting, seasonal changes.

3. Use linguistic tools –
1. Apply lemmatization to improve precision and recall. Go is expanded to going, gone and also went, unlike stemming which fails to capture went.
2. Synonym expansion to improve recall. Flat is expanded to apartment, studio, condo.
3. Abbreviation expansion to improve recall. ST is expanded to street, RD is expanded to road.
4. Acronym expansion to improve recall. U.S.A. Is expanded to united states of America.
5. Spell checking to prevent futile queries - zero hits.
6. Activate antiphrasing to remove the “noise” from the query, such as the text of the phrase “how do I”.
7. Custom vocabularies to increase recall allow for short cuts. List of company specific terms used to generate a dictionary.

4. Relative query boosting allows the promotion of ranking score to ensure a particular document is always displayed.

5. Test, measure and refine – use a “golden set” of well-known documents and queries to test and tune relevancy. Providers should use at least 2,000 documents and more than 50 queries.

6. Entity extraction to unstructured data and dynamic drill-down to structured content

This allows users determine what is relevant to them and gives them hints - e.g. price, rating, availability

FAST & Google - The Property Agent

Comparing FAST and Google Search Appliance is like comparing is like comparing Oracle Databases to Microsoft Access. ok . And I will tell you why. FAST not only returns a black box relevancy we provide an open platform that gives you the full flexibility to connect to limitless repositories, enrich content as it is fed into the engine, manage and define the entire search experience for multiple groups of users. Furthermore, because FAST ESP is a true platform we can create multi-purpose applications and not just plug in a point solution.

In saying that, it is possible to keep it simple as Google. but on top of this, we provide richer and more comprehensive management tools and also a richer and more effective user experience.

So we have determined and implement what is required to provide a Google like experience. Because let's face it, we all use Google everyday and it works well. However, we have further innovated beyond this point to what we call Search 2.0, how can we improve over a simply dumping a list of text links in front of the user.

To illustrate with an analogy, let's pretend there is a property agency called Google properties. They are a brick and mortar property agency, but they operate in a similar way to the Google search engine.

So, we call into this agency in search for information on a properties. So we go in and ask them for information on all the properties in a particular area, lets say Hampsted. Now, rather than asking any questions to disambiguate what exactly you mean by properties in Hampsted they say, I just have what you are looking for and pull out a several thousand page directory listing everything they know on properties in Hampsted and dumping it on the table in front of you without asking any further questions. They then ask you to flick through the different pages to find what you are looking for.

This is the search box, keyword, text link paradigm made famous by our good friends at Google.

Now, apply the FAST ESP model to this scenario. In this case the agent is the FAST search engine:

The agent firstly disambiguates the customer's query by breaking it into different categories.

Is it property for purchase, rent or to sell? By asking this question the agent/engine can quickly narrow the possible results by discarding irrelevant categories. This enables the customer to start understanding what exactly it is she requires because we do not always know that as we commence the query. By suggesting information through tag clouds and category dividers we can guide the user down the path to answers.

Let us now say that the customer elects to purchase property. We can now narrow the result set and utilize dynamically generated facets to further guide the customer. In this example, we could ask the customer questions such as:

What is your budget?

What type of property - apartment, bungalow, house?

How many bedrooms?

How many bathrooms?

And so on.

These questions are essentially the guided navigators that the FAST engine provides alongside the results set. They act as questions that further refine the result set as the user steps through.

Furthermore, because FAST can interact with the content as it is being ingested we can begin to extract the key concepts, words and entities mentioned in the document. At results processing time we can present these items extracted from the underlying result set alongside the list of links. They essentially act as a "table of contents" over the results set. They mention the key elements of the under lying results and selecting them direct consumers to the relevant content. This is useful when the user is 'Discovering' an area for the first time. The extracted entities and words give a quick overview of what areas pertain to the query term.

German Jokes

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
The police. I'm afraid there's been an accident. Your husband is in hospital.

A man walks into a pub.
He is an alcoholic whose drink problem is destroying his family.

Did you hear about the blonde who jumped out off a bridge?
She was clinically depressed and took her own life because of her terribly low self-esteem.

What do you call a cat with no tail?
A Manx cat.

Why do undertakers wear ties?
Because their profession is very serious, and it is important that their appearance has a degree of gravitas.

How many electricians does it take to change a light bulb?
One.

Why do women fake orgasms?
Because they want to give men the impression that they have climaxed.

Two men are sitting in a pub.
One man turns to the other and says: 'Last night I saw lots of strange men coming in and out of your wife's house.'
The other man replies: 'Yes, she has become a prostitute to subsidise her drug habit.'

Two cows are in a field. Suddenly, from behind a bush, a rabbit leaps out and runs away.
One cow looks round a bit, eats some grass and then wanders off. (PARAMOUNT COMEDY AD)

Why are there no aspirin in the jungle?
Because it would not be financially viable to attempt to sell pharmaceuticals in the largely unpopulated rainforest.

What do you get when you cross a chicken with a centipede?
A media circus about the debate over the morals and ethics of genetic engineering.

So, there were an Irishman, an Englishman and an American wrecked on an island. One day, they found a bottle, and when they opened it, a ghost came out and offered them each a wish. However, even though they wished for different stuff, nothing happened, as the three guys of varying nationalities were just having shared hallucinations from hunger.

How do you drown a blonde?
Hold her head underwater until she can no longer breathe and stops struggling.

Why did the blonde get fired from the M&M factory?
Repeated absences and stealing.

A black man is going to get a vasectomy. He shows up to the doctor's office wearing a suit. The doctor says, "Why are you wearing a suit?" The black man says, "I just got back from a funeral"

What do you say to a woman with two black eyes?
"Would you like an ice pack?"

A duck walks into a bar.
Animal control is promptly called, the duck is then taken to a near by park and released.

Why did the deaf man take his parrot to work?
He was weird.

A Blonde and a Brunette jump off a tall building at the same time. Who hits the ground first?
Both of them hit the ground at the same time. Hair colour doesn't affect acceleration due to gravity.

What's worse then finding a worm in your apple?
The Holocaust.

A man walks into a whorehouse and pays a prostitute for sex. He contracts an STD and passes it onto his pregnant wife. Their child is born deformed and has a difficult life.
When asked if he could see the humour in the situation, the child replied, "No. No, I don't."

A man called a lawyer and asked, "How much will you charge me to answer three questions?"
The lawyer said "$400."
"Wow," said the man. "Isn't that a lot?"
"I guess so," said the lawyer. "When are you going to ask your questions?"

How do you know when a Frenchman has been near your house?
You don't, really, unless you were there to see him or if one of your neighbors saw him. I wouldn't worry about it, really.

Three men are at the FBI Building for a job interview. The interviewing FBI agent tells the first man, 'To be in the FBI you must be loyal, dedicated, and give us your all. Your wife is in the next room. I want you to go in there and shoot her with this gun.'
The man takes the gun, hesitates, and says, 'Sorry, I can't do it.'
The next interviewee enters the office and the agent tells him the same thing he told the first guy. The second man takes the gun, walks into the room, and walks out. 'Sorry, I can't.' he says.
The last man enters the office and the interviewer said yet again explains the test.' The man says "I'm sorry I love my wife too much to do such a harmful thing, I guess the FBI is not for me after all."

What's sad about 4 black people in a Cadillac going over a cliff?
They were my friends.

Why did the chicken cross the road?
Earlier that morning the farmers daughter had inadvertently left the gate to the yard open as she was preoccupied by her worry over a maths test set for that day. She hadn't studied for the test as she was still deeply distressed over her fathers recent heart attack. This, coupled with the added burden of household chores now delegated to her because her mother was out trying to get the west field prepared for sowing, had made her quite forgetful and distracted of late.
Whilst several chickens escaped, only one strayed so far that it actually encountered the road facing the farm. After crossing the road and gorging itself in a soybean crop, the chicken was struck by a furniture removers van as it attempted to make its way home.
Several hours later the dead chicken was spotted by a Community Mental Health Worker who was doing his bi-weekly rural clinic run. The chicken, being a bantam caught the eye of the Mental Health worker, who was a keen trout fisherman.
"Cool" thought the mental health worker- "those feathers will make for excellent trout flies". He stopped and plucked a handful of the most iridescent blue, green and orange feathers and placed them in an envelope. He rolled himself a cigarette, sat on the trunk of his car and admired the clouds. "God, I love this job", he muttered to no one in particular.

Satan takes the form of Jesus and appears to three priests saying that if they do something evil, he'll let them drink of the holy water.
The three priests discuss the offer and come to the conclusion that Satan must be tricking them into committing sin. When confronted with this accusation, Satan reveals his dastardly plot and salutes the priests on their cunning and steadfast faith.

Why couldn't Helen Keller drive?
Because she was blind and deaf.

The Pope walks into a bar. The bartender says, what'll ya have, Pope? But the Pope's grasp of English is tenuous at best, so he mumbles something in Latin. The bartender doesn't know any Latin. The Pope gets frustrated and leaves.

Have you seen Stevie Wonder's new house?
No.
Well, it's really nice.

Where did Hitler keep his armies?
The brunt of his forces were applied to the Eastern front, but throughout different periods of the war, a sizable chunk were used to protect the Atlantic Wall and a handful of divisions were used in Africa, to secure shipping routes.

A kid is riding down the street when his chain pops off his bicycle. The kid yells "God damn!" as he begins to fix it. A priest walking nearby overhears the boy taking god's name in vein and says "Don't say 'God damn' say 'God help us'".
The kid says, "I am an atheist, get away from me".

What's the difference between a Jew and a pizza?
A Jew is a person adhering to the Jewish faith and a pizza is an oven-baked, flat, usually circular bread covered with tomato sauce and cheese with optional garnishes.

Personal Brand

As Tom Peters from FAST Company puts it:

We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be chief marketer for the brand called "You".

So what is your brand slogan?

Start by identifying the qualities or characteristics that make you distinctive from your competitors.

What have you done lately to make yourself stand out?

What would your colleagues or your customers say is your greatest and clearest strength?

Your most noteworthy (as in, worthy of note) personal trait?

So what is the "feature-benefit model" that the brand called You offers?

What do I do that I am most proud of?

What have I accomplished that I can unabashedly brag about?

If you're going to be a brand, you've got to become relentlessly focused on what you do that adds value, that you're proud of, and most important, that you can shamelessly take credit for.

The key to any personal branding campaign is "word-of-mouth marketing."

Your network of friends, colleagues, clients, and customers is the most important marketing vehicle you've got;

You need to think, how can I leave an impression at every point of contact.

It's influence power.

The way I like to illustrate it is as Personal Stocks.

Stock of personal brand increases/decreases depending on the following:

Thinking outside the box: Exhibiting creativity and solution focus to challenging problems.

Organisational Skills: Functional skills, preparing effectively – for example for a meeting: who are attendees? what is their lens? How do I avoid calendar conflicts? Use To Do lists. Organization notes.

Communication: Using power phrases, using examples, painting analogies, utilising similes, using personification , using control phrases - Right. OK? You See? Exactly Right? Correct!

Knowledge: Demonstrate that you are well-read and knowledgeable on topics;

How do you bring in customers?

How do you bring in customers?

1. Busy gas stations do it by selling petrol at a loss, so customers could buy stuff at their convenience stores.
2. Busy supermarkets do it by selling milk at a loss, so customer could buy their more profitable items.

The strategy:

1. Sell an enticing item at a ridiculously low price (either where you're selling at a loss or no gross margin).
2. Bring in customers to sell more profitable items.

Just copy how american electronics firm Fry's or IKEA promotes its Stores.

Frequent Fry's/ IKEA Electronics promotions:

1. Hot dogs and Coke for £1.
2. Ice-cream for 25p.
   

End Result:

Greater exposure to their customers = Customers have greater exposure to their products = Customers happy after getting a cheap hot dog, feel they have saved so are willing to spend

The Golden Belief of Marketing:

• The more exposure you have to your target market the more you will sell.

How should we do it?

Creativity thrives here. Examples:

1. Sell at a loss, to upsell more profitable items.
2. Sell at a loss, to generate a recurring customer.
3. Offer a "basic" version at a loss, to sell a more premium version.

What do I need to know after meeting with every prospect? Qualification

[A Shop Of ]

• 1: Their History. Where are they coming from? How did they get here? What do they know about your and your firm? What dealings have taken place in the past?
• 
  
• 2: Frames of Reference. What ideologies and situations might affect their decision-making? Do they have a certain way of viewing your offering? How do they feel about their own firm?
• 
  
• 3: Pains and Objectives. What is the compelling reason to act? Why is the pain so great that they cannot choose to wait? Where do they want to go? How do they expect to feel when they get there? How do they think they’re going to get there? What do they think will prevent it?
• 
  
• 4: Likely Objections. What is going to cause them to balk? How fervently do the believe in that objection? How real is it? Might it block the deal, no matter what you say or do?
• 
  
• 5: Capacity to Act. Are you communicating with decision-makers or seat-warmers? If decision-makers, what decision do you want them to make? If not, why are you talking to them?
• 
  
• 6: Decision-making Style. If they’re decision-makers, how do they make decisions? Are they all about facts and figures? Or do they decide according to a gut feeling?

"Who is the actual final decision maker."
"What is the decision making process"
"Who will be involved in making the decision"
"What one or two critical factors (or People) will play a role in making the final decision?"