Marc's Blog
my name is marc gugliuzza and this is my blog.
"i guess i could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me. but its hard to stay mad when there’s so much beauty in the world. sometimes i feel like i’m seeing it all at once and it’s too much. and my heart fills up like a balloon thats about to burst. and then i remember to relax and stop trying to hold on to it. and then it flows through me like rain and i can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life.
you have no idea what i’m talking about, i’m sure. but don’t worry, you will some day.
"
Less is more, and Apple really understands that.
Just look at this screen on the iPad - if you go to Settings > Notes, this is the screen you get. The only option is Font, and it only has three possible values - Noteworthy, Helvetica, and Marker Felt. It is so simple, it’s almost laughable. The technology to have those options has existed for 15 years. If Microsoft or HP was making this screen, it would have 50 font choices, and probably a bunch of other options that people don’t need. And it would be a poorer user experience for that.
And that is why the iPad, and Apple in general, is so dominant. Apple understands when technology is adding value vs when it’s being used for the sake of technology. And they understand that adding 50 additional fonts is not adding value, but it’s something a lot of other software companies would not understand.
Groupon should have accepted Google offer
I think this is now obvious, and official. With 400+ competitors (including Google and Facebook) there is no visible way for Groupon to distinguish itself from its competition, and it’s value is only going to erode over time as all the competitors become indistinguishable.
“product development” is sometimes very simple
Sometimes it is possible to take an existing product, tweak it very slightly, and achieve very different results. For example, what exactly is the difference between a forum (or to use a more antiquated term, “bulletin board”) and a site like yahoo answers or quora? Basically all you have to do is change the name of “thread” to “question” and “Reply” to “Answer”. Maybe there are a few other changes, but it’s really not much.
The point is, pivoting a product can require only a minor functionality change, but can result in access to very different markets and very different success rates.
It Starts With One: Today, you...tomorrow, me.
here’s something pretty cool that happened as a result of uncensored public discourse (powered via reddit.com):
Today I proved the premise of this blog— it all starts with one.
I am a “lurker” on Reddit.com. I read many of the postings, but don’t often respond. The site is an aggregation of all that can be found on the internet: rants, pictures, links, news posts, random comments. However, I’d occasionally…
"[They’re] product people, and when I say “product people” I mean some combination of vision, engineering, and execution—it’s a combination of all those. So that’s number one."
About Me
I'm a programmer turned auditor turned product manager. I live and work in NYC and I'm an NYU alum. You can also find me on linkedin and twitter.
Stuff:
- I created an app to find recipes on the fly via text-message.
- Some books I've read.
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