kevrichard blog

Personal — 1 comment
02
Jan 10

Strategy 2010

This will be a bit of a work in progress so I plan to keep it open for the time being but here goes, the big strategy for 2010!

To Do Something Interesting: Inspired by a Zen Habits post called Do Interesting Things I want to do at least one thing that is noteworthy or interesting this year. Something where I can say “Yes I did that! “. I find I’m in constant contact with so many interesting people but when it comes to sharing my story I feel boring and ordinary. I want to find a hobby or even just a one time activity that can have a story about it. ( If you have any ideas what this could be feel free to post in the comments or let me know!)

Live More the The Moment: Looking back on the past decade I unfortunately saw a pattern that needs to stop. I found that instead of pursuing things that I wanted to do, I let barriers or challenges get in the way and told myself as soon as these are out of the way I can do it. Problem with this frame of thought is that it then never happens because there is always something that will get in the way.

@mynameisguygal told me something recently that stuck with me “You can never find time, you can only make it.” and its very true. There will always be a barrier or situation in life that will prevent you from doing something. Instead you have to make the situation yourself that will make your plans work! The goal will be to create a habit out of this. Instead of postponing and saying it has to happen later I need to just go ahead and do it!

Define the “kevrichard” brand: Not in a business or selling sense but in a life sense. Being in school and being part of a military family made things very structured and planned. This goal fits with my goal of living more in the moment as with focusing on school and being prepared for the next move I put a lot of things off and didn’t take much time in developing myself as a person.

Being free of all of that, its now time to determine what makes me tick! Am I a foodie? Am I into extreme sports? Or am I a culture explorer? Unlike the rest of my goals for this year this will be a longer term process. ‘Discovering yourself’ isn’t an overnight process its going to be a lot of trial and error but it will also be an exciting process!

AND the returning resolution…. Become more healthy! : This didn’t happen as well as I would have liked last year. For the first half it just didn’t happen with early mornings and late nights of working hard in school while also pursuing events that made this learning even more concrete. And then the second half it just fell to the side in my attempts in settling my life post graduation.

So the goal this year is to get it done. Luckily (or unluckily) I’m being pushed on a diet for the time being and I’m going to try a more communal approach in being an active participant of the Reddit Health Project and Reddit Fitness (yes I’m a huge fanboy) . I’m hoping by doing this along with other that my motivation will keep up and I’ll feel guilty if I begin to fall behind.

As I stated in my last post my big goal is to get to get myself to 160 pounds of lean mass ( Update on this to come in the summer!)

Well there is my strategy for 2010! This year is going to be pretty big, especially as its a start to a new decade. I hope to you and your family ( and really everyone else!) this year is a great one!

Got to put in a LOL Cat for good measure!

Have any questions/comments ? Contact me at kevin@kevrichard.com or send me a twitter message .

Reviewing My 2009 Strategy

So its been exactly a year to the date of my post 2009 Strategy. To me I think its important that I revisit it as its been quite a year since I wrote that (1 year blogaversary yay! ) and it should be something I keep in mind moving forward when I set my goals and plans for 2010 … or ‘010 as I like to call it.

So here we go…..

1. Becoming More Passionate: So I think I wrote this with a bit of an expectation that I would suddenly be hit on the head and determine that I would be completely passionate and happy go lucky about a certain job or aspect of my life. Well, it didn’t happen.If you do a quick search on the net you can find a lot of articles and postings on “Finding your Passion” but from what I’m realizing is that it isn’t a fast and immediate process. I made some progress but I would say that I’m still not close enough to choosing a passion and committing myself 100% to it.

Developing passion takes a bit of work- At Social Media Mastermind

That isn’t to say that I failed at my goal, I think as time went by I re purposed it and made it more realistic. Over the year I feel I discovered I really enjoy learning and exploring topics and that I couldn’t be passionate about something that stayed constantly the same. I also think that as a whole it has to be people related but in a more analytical sense. Reflecting back on school my favorite topics often related to how people interacted (be it Consumer Behavior, Psychology, Communications or Market Research ). Right now in my current work I’m exploring net communications and social media which may or may not be the same in the next few years. Overall I think I’ve laid out a bit more of a path for myself but there is still more work to do going forward.

2. Spending time on the right people: I think this has been the area of biggest improvement for myself , but an area that I still need to consistently work on. I made in my opinion 2 huge achievements: Setting my own boundaries and Getting out and meeting with/interacting with new people.

On Setting Boundaries: Looking backwards on 2008, a big downfall for me was not setting my own boundaries. So this meant going along with the group and not looking out for my goals and priorities. In 2009 while this was definitely a bumpy ride ( as some of my friends can attest to) I learned to protect my own interests and refocused on friendships that were really important to me. Overall it was a pretty significant personal endeavor.

Interacting with New People: I think this is what I’m most proud and surprised by. Over the past year I’ve met a ton of new people and really pushed myself to be more outgoing. I’ve met a lot of great people ( many of them are on this list here) and really got to learn* and explore a side of business that I sort of knew about for a while but didn’t completely understand till this year. I’ve met a few great people who’ve really pushed me to be better in getting out there and improving myself. You know who you are, I really appreciate it.

One of the rainier Patio Fridays with Katie Boland and Philip Moreria (C/O Lee Dale)

The Challenge: In the latter half of 2009 I lost momentum in this area ( job search/moving up north were to blame) I definitely don’t want to see the relationships I started with people wither .There are many people I respect and admire and having lost contact with many people in the past I don’t wish for that to happen again. So moving forward with w/e path I end up taking , being more deliberate with meeting people and perhaps just booking more 1 on 1 time is going to be important.

3. Taking Care of my Health: We can’t always get things 100% right? Alright so this was a fail on my part. While in some regards I was active in that if I was able to I would walk rather than take transit or drive overall the idea of moving towards less of a 1 pack didn’t exactly pan out. Well no excuses in ‘010, at minimum mornings will be work out time and when I’m able to I’m also looking to snag a gym membership to be even more serious. To put it out there my goal is to bring myself up to 160 in lean mass (I’m right now at around 150). As a secondary benefit I think it would help me gain a much better mental focus.

All in all I think for what the year was, I ended it pretty strong. The external environment could have been better but then who’s to say everything I’ve experienced would have occurred if it had been different. I plan on making a 2010 strategy coming up (its in the works). It will probably be posted closer to New Years.

*I’ve discussed some great events on this blog but for anyone looking for future reference 2 great places to learn if you’re a business person learning about the web and entrepreneurship are at SproutUps and Refresh Events( a calendar of events can be found here also) .

Around the Web / General Business — No comments
28
Dec 09

Don’t Let Your Project Become Vapor Ware!

I recently came across an article from Wired Magazine called Learn to Let Go: How Success Killed Duke Nukem . I was pretty blown away by it. The author told the story of the latest in development version of the video game Duke Nukem and how despite 12 years of work it will never be released! For someone who casually follows the news in the electronic gaming industry Duke Nukem Forever has been the butt of many jokes, being constantly labeled as vapor ware but still to be 12 years in development with millions spent to not release even a mini game at the end of it all is pretty intense.

C/O Go Gaming Giant

So What Happened? Duke Nukem a game known for its humor and quality as a First person shooter built a loyal fan base over the years with the latest game at the time being Duke Nukem 3d for the PS1 and N64 (1997). Lead by 3d Realms co-owner George Brousard , the studio aimed to make the best game of the series. Unfortunately with graphics technology constantly changing Brousard and his team battled with having the most up to date graphics and effects for the game and quickly began pushing back their set release date year after year from their initial one of of 1998 . After 12 long years and constant graphic engine changes and changes in the game itself this striving for a perfect game ended up killing it in May 2009.

Lessons Learned: Like Digital Realms we all want to deliver great work and are driven perhaps to far for what we perceive as perfection. With no solid launch date Duke Nukem Forever got passed over by many blockbuster games such as Halo, Mass Effect and Gears of War (among many others) who have in the same time span delivered even sequels. Had the developers set a solid deadline , they wouldn’t have had to constantly play catch up to all of these great titles. Instead they could have built a name for themselves.

Rather than giving yourself a wide open time period to complete your projects, set a solid deadline where regardless of where you are at you’ll decide whether to send it out or move on to the next project. You will always find areas to improve or things that could be different, instead of driving yourself mad with an ideal of ‘perfection’ take your ideas for changes and apply it to your next project. This way you can not only see the success of one project but you can continue to grow and develop your skills in the next.

Around the Web — 4 comments
19
Dec 09

Is Your Product Noteworthy?

Ok. So I’m taking this opportunity to write a blog post because I’m really impressed by a company I came across and it really started the gears going in my head ( surprising I know!). Anyways on to the company! I stumbled upon IAmAStuffedAnimal.com casually through Reddit and its such a cool product! The premise is you send 1 or multiple pictures of yourself , your hobbies/interests and a few other personal details and they make a really cool stuffed animal of you!

Mike Bisogno and his Buddy C/O Iamastuffanimal.com

You now can never have to sleep or do anything else alone. You can do it with yourself! You could sort of say that its been done before with cheezy sites where you can send in a picture and you get a Barbie or porcelain doll that generically resembles yourself but I think this is much more cooler! These guys take into account your personality , facial features and even let you choose how your mini-me is dressed and recreate you (or your alter ego ) in this funny cartoon form. To make sure I’m not the only person who thought this was a cool product I checked out their Facebook Fan Page it seems I’m not alone! They have a decent sized community going.

So beyond me being a big geek about this product why am I mentioning it? Why do I feel that a toy is worth a blog post outside of being cool? Well its a product that can be so easily talked about and I think thats such a great attribute for a startup or any other sort of company to keep in mind. So often companies just present a product without thought about how it can be more interesting and have more value than its obvious qualities. What Iamastuffedanimal.com does is takes a basic product of a toy and makes it a piece for discussion. So in keeping this blog short and unrambly , products are much more interesting and easy to sell when they can be talked about. ( Or in true Reddit fashion TL;DR People talk about cool products. Find a way to make your product cool!)

Do you have feedback? Feel free to reach me at @kevrichard or kevin@kevrichard.com

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20
Nov 09

Talking Tech on MacDose!

I actually now have the time to post this! So I’ve been having some back and forth conversations with 3 Canadian techies Alex Flint, Matthew Couto, and Nile Livesey which has been majorly feeding my need for tech and giving me a few laughs ( Matthew especially is an interesting guy! ). Well Matthew and Nile are a pair that run Perpetual Radio networks…. which has a little to do with radio but a lot to do with consumer tech!

They kindly invited me and Alex to take part in their weekly podcast Macdose which I was involved in Episode 5 and spoke as well on Episode 6, but that’ll remain a lost episode(tech issues on a tech show, ironic!) . This weekly podcast and all the hilarity that ensues centers around Apple Computer corp. and in particular Mac products. I’m in no way an expert. I’m typing this right now on an Acer laptop unfortunately! But I figure it may be cool to be involved.

For those of you interested, Episode 7 is going to be recorded live and unedited (which is even more hilarious!) this Sunday starting at 12:30 on Blog TV . It will be later posted on the PRN site. Feel free to check it out! Overall big kudos to these guys for running Perepetual Radio Networks, its a cool upstart site that I hope goes places for them!

This weekend will be a serious time of ‘geeking out’ which I haven’t been doing in a while .Tomorrow I’ll be at Gamercamp which should be absolutely awesome. I’m looking forward to hearing some insights on the Ontario electronic entertainment industry and seeing some awesome independent gaming demos! Should be great times, expect a blog post on that soon!!

Erm yeah… contact information. Time to start adding that again! If you want to get in contact with me directly, feel free to hunt me down at kevin@kevrichard.com or on twitter where I’m @kevrichard.

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01
Nov 09

When Opportunity Knocks

I’m sure many people have seen the recent news story about someone in a BMW who does a comical hit and run in a Extreme Fitness Parking lot( video here) well more recently came the surprise response from Hyundai Canada which can be viewed here.

Looking at the video from Hyundai its pretty obvious that this was done for promotional purposes and to take complete advantage of the viral nature of this hit and run.Even I contributed to spreading it around the net. That being said I think it was an awesome idea that was a great initiative in marketing the Hyundai brand. Heres why:

It was timely: Hyundai didn’t wait forever to react. Within a few days they grabbed a camera and filmed the video while this event was still fresh in peoples minds. Sometimes marketing can be a slow and drawn out process and by not acting on a sudden change in the market or current events companies can miss out on major opportunities.

It focused on the company: The video that Hyundai created could have been an opportunity to take a direct swipe at the competition ( BMW and luxury cars) instead they focused on their company. Sure the parking demonstration teased a bit but in the end it took full advantage of demonstrating their product and how they care for their customers. This way all the attention is on them rather than sharing the attention with another company.

Its a good story: By doing good for the person affected by this park and run incident it makes you feel something for the company. It holds more value to the customer than a commercial or advertisement and its something people are more likely to talk about.

In marketing there is always talk about cutting through the clutter. In the past Gorilla marketing and shock tactics have been used to spur immediate attention from customers but after seeing many of these similar campaigns they become just the same. Instead I think being relevant to the lives of your customers may be a strong way to create a more memorable experience that people will talk about.

Not to seem exploitive but if companies would take a few moments to find a way to do something thats relevant to their customers but also fitting with what they do this may be another avenue of creating awareness for your product.

Communications — 10 comments
18
Oct 09

Is There Still Room For Corporate Communications?

I got commented not to long ago that my writing was to Business style/Corporate and that kind of stuck with me for a bit. Having recently graduated with a business degree and having been rewarded for it for so long I thought of it as a stronger way of writing and a better way to get my point across. But then social media comes along and the trend of being much more informal and completely the opposite of this style begins to start. With this I’ve seen some criticism of corporate writing being seen as the old or caveman way of doing things and it not having any practical use. So my question is, is there still room for corporate writing or do I need to unlearn about 4 years of my educational experience?

Conversational or the ‘new’ way of writing?

So the biggest argument for moving away from the traditional style of writing is that its very cold and unemotional and that its better to write like you’re writing to a friend or like you’re talking to the person beside you. A lot of the time I’ve seen it to be very upbeat and full of personality.

Photo from Alex Barth

Some Criticisms I have: I can see it very easily causing miscommunication especially as companies are trying to reach a larger more international audience. Writing isn’t the same as face to face communications you can’t completely express tone and emotion and everyone can have their own interpretation of things. You can also easily go overboard as well with poor language, use of slang and the appropriateness of subject matter ( ex: will someone be offended by a joke). My personal criticism of moving away from the business style of writing is that it can get too cutesy/expressive and not quickly get down to content .

Corporate or the ‘old’ way of writing:

In my opinion there was a reason that corporate writing became the norm. It standardized things and got right down to the point. When done right there is little ambiguity and the reader can quickly grab the information they need. It also made sure that nothing that was said would improperly anger anyone or put businesses in legal situations which could cost a company a lot of money in the courts.

Photo by PinkMoose

When it can be used poorly: This style of writing has also been known as being cold and very political. When there is pain being felt such as during a crisis event a corporate style press release or letter does not show much sympathy. On the other side of things it can improperly show a company’s excitement for a new initiative or company win.

So here’s my look at both types of communications and the benifits/drawbacks of both. I’d like to suggest a hybrid of both styles as they each communicate well in a specific way. What are your thoughts? Is informal writing in or is business communications not going away?

Personal Thoughts — 2 comments
13
Oct 09

But I Just Want to Be Touched!

A major trend I’m currently seeing in consumer electronics is that we are becoming much more involved with our electronics. We’re touching more, we’re feeling more and we’re also bringing more technology around with us as ‘life tools’ rather than leaving it at home. Here are some examples to show you what I mean:

Mobile Devices: Iphone, Blackberry Storm, Palm Pre ( and many others)

Computers: HP TouchSmart PC, Microsoft Surface, and coming up the Crunch Pad, ‘Rumored’ Applie itablet, and Microsoft Courier. Laptops have gotten a lot smaller, much more tactile and are getting additional screens for added use.

Interactive Gaming: the hold in your hand Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, and the Wii. Upcoming Xbox Natal and PS3’s new motion remote.

Other Products: touch screen GPS and car displays, interactive footwear, Mp3 players with touch screens/internet/ video camera ….(truthfully I have a blank but the list definitely goes on!)

Even more recently I was interested to hear about how some television manufacturers were beginning to make 3d televisions , this is a drastic shift! Television has often been an inactive activity and now you’re getting placed into your shows! Electronics becoming more tactile and interactive is an interesting shift. Perhaps over the years people have felt a lot more passive and immobile with the use of PC’s and low touch devices.

With the improvement of wireless technology’s, smaller devices and a more social internet maybe what we are seeing now are people in general wanting technologies that offer them an experience and further feelings of freedom and attachment. For me thats an important shift to take into account and is something that can be used in terms of business and marketing. Looking at customer experiences ( whether its interactive or passive ) how products are used ( are there ways to let a person know if they are doing this right? How can this product improve their life experience?) and what materials go into these products ( will material X feel better than material Y).

This may all seem very rambly…. or it may put things in perfect sense. I don’t know. Its just been something thats been on my mind for while, driving ideas and thoughts. Am I headed in the wrong direction with this or do I have a sense of sanity in these thoughts ? Let me know what you think.

Uncategorized — 1 comment
10
Oct 09

First!

So umm, first post on this new blog . Out of finally bending to the pressure of guys like Malcolm Bastien and Dan Hocking I’ve started up this blog. I’m going to be looking to bring everything from my old blog onto this site ( just for continuity) and then deliver some great and probably better content. Things are going to be gradually changing with this blog so don’t expect anything to stay exactly the same. I’m probably going to make a more definite choice on the theme and grab a few widgets to make things even better.

Overall stay tuned! This blog has a lot of life ahead of it!

-Kevin

@kevrichard

Branding / Communications / Community — No comments
08
Sep 09

Lessons from Peter Molyneux on Customer Engagement

This is a bit of an old experience of mine but I was inspired by Brian Alkerton with his disccussion of cheezy gaming advertising . Someone I’ve really admired in the electronic gaming industry is Peter Molyneux current creative director at Microsoft Game Studios Europe. A saying from him that really has stuck around with me was’ Reach for the stars and come out with something special’ ( can’t find the exact wording….). But what was really important and that had a lot of impact for me was a game he developed a while ago ( 2000-2004) . Despite going through a name change ( Project Ego to Fable) and taking close to 4 years to make its been hard to find a product that ever made me so excited. He made an experience around this product’s development that was memorable and stuck with me.

So what did he do to make this product launch truly special:

Shared His Excitement About the Product: While he received some criticism for his openness with game journalists he spoke with great excitement about the game. He fully stood behind his product and weaved a strong story around it. Screen shots and game information were shared throughout the development process. Peter and his development firm weren’t afraid about sharing details even those that weren’t completely solidified. This excitement was contagious and kept fans wanting more.

Community engagement: During development and even after the game launched Lionhead Studios interacted with its community. Through a central forum they released trailers and other product teasers and discussed the process of the game. As a fan you really felt like part of the process. They weren’t afraid about being perceived as un-professional or whether they were going against industry norms they were more concerned about sharing with the community that came together around the game.

Fable Goes Gold!!

The above image to the uninformed person just looks like a regular DVD. But this was the final tested version of the game, the final files before its sent to production. Most gaming studios never shared such a moment, but considering the development time of the game Lionhead felt it was important to share such an milestone.The long wait was almost done!

So what can be learned from this other than I’m a giant geek…. well to me it shows the importance of sharing with your companies fans and that product development and even day to day operations can weave stories and create relationships with your customers. By just releasing a product or just providing a service with nothing else your company is forgettable and is just like every other but by becoming more open and creating an experience you can turn your service or product into something much more memorable.

KevRichardTechnology and Digital Communications