Jeff Widman (.com)

Marketing is a delicate craft. A rhythmic balance between planning and executing. There are overnight growth wonders. (The hockey stick pattern–think Twitter.) But creating a world-class product cannot happen overnight. By definition. It takes time, user-testing, iterations. (How many generations of iPod Nano’s?) Truly, it is a journey of a thousand miles. Launch. A little [...]

  I didn’t want to post this. It’s basic. We forget. That’s why it’s worth your time. Last week, a guy I’d never met tweeted that he’d spend a half-hour meeting with any Seattle-ite willing to drive him to the airport. In that brief conversation, Dave McClure used words like: Customer acquisitionUser engagementOrganic growthViralSEOIntimidating Okay, [...]

Today begins a month and a half of traveling adventures… My upcoming itinerary:     -August: Boulder, CO. http://www.TechStars.org/    -August 25: Road trip home. Boulder–>Seattle.    -Sept 2-5: Boston, MA. http://www.businessofsoftware.org/    -Sept 5-12: Washington, DC. Visiting a friend/backpacking.    -Sept 12-17: Kansas City, MO. http://www.apics.org/education/conference/ Then back to Redmond for a few weeks…   I enjoy blogging. I [...]

It’s been 5 weeks since my last post–I was burned out… I’m refreshed now.  I can once again look at the trees, feel the wind, and say, “Thank God–I’m alive!” Thanks for patiently waiting.   I’ve asked myself why I blog. Simple. Passion demands an outlet.   My friend Delaney recently asked my thoughts on [...]

Despite the silence, I’m still here… Working at a camp in North Dakota for the past one and a half weeks–I’ll be here through the end of next week.   While I originally intended to post here, the 26.4 kbps has stifled my online presence–takes 15 minutes just to upload a blog post!   The [...]

Some marketers lie on purpose. You know who I’m talking about.   The rest of us are tempted. By definition, a good marketer is an expert in creating WOW experiences. We understand the importance of a great story. But sometimes……it’s impossible to surpass customer expectations… …the competition has a better product……the deadline won’t be met……the [...]

Not all neighbors are as friendly as Mr. Rogers. While some invite you in for a cup of tea, others limit you to the porch. A few merely gawk from behind shuttered windows. The same responses happen when you market to consumers. Seth Godin is a genius for reminding marketers to mind their manners, and [...]

In January, I spent a week with Genie Industries participating in a kaizen event. This week was special–Genie paid a lean manufacturing Sensei upwards of $30k to supervise. (Shingijitsu’s website looks like crap… Yet my Genie contact told me, “We’re working hard to wine/dine them–otherwise they’ll fire us.” That’s abnormal.) I’ll never forget asking the [...]

Back in March, best-selling author and thought-leader Seth Godin announced a summer internship: Send your application (you decide what’s on it, that’s part of the application) as a pdf of no longer than four pages… So I created this PDF.   Next Life Goal–Speak at TED! (Seth Godin Internship application) View SlideShare presentation or Upload [...]

I never thought of my friend Matt as clairvoyant. Until recently: “So ABC happened…” – Jeff.“Of course you did XYZ…” – Matt“How did you know that?” – Jeff“You responded that way to DEF and HIJ.” – Matt Matt pulled together two situations to predict my response to a third situation. It shocked me; I saw [...]