A lot of success is down to being in the right place at the right time, rather than having a great idea. Take twitter for instance. Its popularity is skyrocketing, but I’m still struggling to see what it offers other than an offline chat room that lets you decide who’s in your ‘room’.
I used to think that Facebook though had the magic touch, but I’m not so sure now. The recent homepage design is awful and I think you’ll struggle to find someone who likes it. There’s just too much information on there, and unless I’m going to spend hours on the site everyday it’ll take me too long to filter out the noise.
And what the hell happened to the apps? I can’t find mine. These are what initially drew me into using Facebook, and now I can’t find them.
Whenever I’m given the opportunity to visit a partner’s office I always take it. Visiting a company’s office can tell you a lot about a business, as you get to see the people who make the business really tick, rather than just the sales, marketing and bus dev types who get rolled out whenever there’s a deal to be done or a pitch to be made. Meeting the troops can tell you a lot about the talent available to an organisation and whether they have the energy to drive a company forwards.
Web comedian Julian Smith was lucky enough to get invited to Facebook’s offices. Although he didn’t get to talk to Facebook employees, just check out the grim looks on the faces of the staff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0gMFrJss5g
Do they look like dynamic people who are enjoying their job? I’m really worried that this crew really might make the Facebook homepage look like this in a few years:
Maybe working for one of the top internet companies isn’t as great as I thought it would be. Maybe they aren’t the best places for people who want to make a big impact. Douglas Bowman seems to think so. His post on why he left his post at Google as their top designer is very enlightening. Working as a designer in an organisation that tests 41 shades of blue to see which one performs better when it can’t decide between two blues, must be very soul destroying!
