Many studies have found that an alarming number of IT projects have significant overruns in cost and time—if they don’t fail entirely. In one Oxford/McKinsey study, one in six were outright disasters with costs coming in at 200% of the initial estimates and a 70% schedule overrun. At Appiphony, we…

A long time ago in a galaxy very nearby [Ed. Note: this one], telling people “I build apps” would yield blank stares. Only computer geeks could explain what an “application” was, or how it was distinct from the operating system. The iPhone and modern app stores changed all that. Nowadays…

Do you have clients? Or maybe important stakeholders to manage? Yep, I thought so. Sometimes, it’s easy to build a great working relationship with the key players and everything just seems to “click.” Once in a blue moon, there’s a struggle at every turn. …

You look like the type of product innovator who’s clear about what customer problem you’re solving. Better yet, you have a clear picture of the struggling moment during which your product saves the day. You can see it in your head like a scene from a movie. So you’re working…

“They’re a total mess. When I called customer service, you could totally tell the right hand didn’t know what the left hand was doing.” — Someone who’s hopefully not your customer My daughter is in third grade now, but I remember the day she was born pretty clearly. My wife…

Often times, it feels like enterprise software has a gap when it comes to delivering the promised value all the way to the end user. Though the effect can be large, the reason for it is simple: it’s easier to build extensibility and preferences into your app than to convince…

So, I’m sitting here minding my own business when my Twitter alerts start going crazy. Lo and behold, I discovered that Alex Osterwalder, creator of the Business Model Canvas, author of Value Proposition Design, and all-around great product thinker adapted a drawing I made a few years back based on Jobs-to-be-Done theory: Alex overlaid his concepts of Value Maps and Customer Profiles on top of the Switching Forces that dictate whether a customer will abandon what they’re doing now in favor of what you’re offering. Here it is at a higher resolution:

There’s one time it makes me happy to hear about people struggling: when I come upon a new product designed to help those people. Most teams launch their product by telling you about the awesome, shiny features it offers. …

The people behind the meditation and mindfulness app Calm just released a new product, and it’s not another app. It’s a pillow spray called Sleep Mist. Interesting, right? Not something you see every day. Integrating Around the Job-to-be-Done This caught my eye because it’s the clearest example I’ve seen recently of a company integrating…