At the end of the day, the bottom line is that now is the time to try, do, make and refine these approaches because there has been a lot of talk for a long time.

In a nutshell, the places this new generation want to work are the places that are doing (or at least trying) these things, not just talking about them.

Collaboration
Most offices aren’t set up to encourage collaboration in the most basic ways. The furniture, the cubes, the flexibility of the floor plan, availability of conference rooms, whiteboards, etc, let alone the culture. It takes both to really make things work. You have to have people thinking in new ways combined with an environment that fosters collaboration to really make it work.

What else did I miss? Let’s collaborate below in the comments.

Greetings,

I’d like to contact the person responsible for the development of justinmccammon.com.

We have negotiated an unbelievable promo with a major ad network that includes 500 targeted visitors to your site at no cost as a sign up bonus.

Furthermore, you will also be able to purchase Pay-Per-Click Advertising at wholesale rates for as low as $0.10 per click even in very competitive niches. If you are involved in advertising bidding wars using AdWords, you’re probably already thinking that you’re being charged too much, especially considering that your competitors could be clicking on your ads as we speak further diminishing your advertising dollar. In other words this program is a must for you. Remember, it will cost very little for you to try and it may trim 50% or more from your advertising budget.

For more information please visit http://admediasite.com.

This is a limited time offer, so give it a try now.

Thanks,
John Gerharde

AdMediaSite.com

Now I’m sure John is a great guy and that AdMediaSite.com is a total shitbag of a site, but this is NOT how you sell something to someone. Here’s the deal, if John, or any other human, actually looked at justinmccammon.com they’d immediately see that the site is my personal site. There is no wondering who is responsible for the site’s development. I did it all myself. It has my name all over it. Literally.

So here’s the lesson. Take five minutes. Five freakin’ minutes and do some research. Be a human engaging another human. I like talking to other humans. When I see a human take some time to thoughtfully reach out to me I am much more inclined to respond in return. Robots, not so much.

And then I found Grooveshark. Wonderful, wonderful Grooveshark. It’s beautiful. It’s free. It’s 5 million songs plus whatever you want to upload to augment that. It’s streaming. It’s a desktop player (if you pay for VIP). It’s on mobile (if you jailbreak your iPhone and you’re VIP).  It’s everything iTunes should be.

A key user insight that Grooveshark (and other streamers no doubt) were smart enough to see or lucky enough to stumble upon is that I don’t care about owning music. I care about listening to music. The key thing to realize is that in the recent past those two things were essentially one and the same. Before streaming you had to somehow own the music (be it vinyl, cassette, CD or digital) before you could listen to it (obviously radio is an exception here but you couldn’t choose what you wanted to hear.)

This is the classic case of companies looking at what users want and interpreting it as better versions of things that exist. Sometimes, what users want is actually something that they can’t conceive of because it doesn’t exist yet. That’s when you know you have a game changing opportunity on your hands. It’s also when you know you’re actually listening to your users.

A great example of this story (which may or may not be accurate but illustrates the point very well) is the invention of the VCR.

In the 70′s the Beverly Hillbillies was one of the most popular shows in the US, especially in the South. The show aired on Wednesday nights which also happened to be church night in the bible-belt South. This meant that there were a lot of people who wanted to watch the Beverly Hillbillies but couldn’t because it was church night. The solution using existing means would have been to move the show to a different night. However, when one particularly smart researcher heard about this, they saw a different solution. Why don’t we give the consumers a device that could record the show for later viewing. This device didn’t actually exist yet but soon thereafter the Beta and eventually VHS VCRs came into existence.

Not a single consumer asked for a VCR. That wasn’t even an option they were aware of. They asked to be able to watch their favorite show. It took the smart work of some researchers to not just take the consumer wants at face value but to actually expand them into real wants and needs and then create a solution that fit knowing the advances being made in technology.

I see services like Grooveshark in the same boat. I never cared about owning music. Sure, maybe I wanted album art or some other bonus item but what I really wanted was to be able to listen to my music on my terms. That means in the car, at the gym, in the office, at home and anywhere else I am. In the traditional model that meant owning the music. Today it means having access to that music. There’s a big and important difference there and I think you’ll see many similar disruptions come to pass in the near future (just as many have already happened.) Which one do you think will happen next?

That’s why it’s so important to collaborate. To talk to the guy down the hall. The girl on the 7th floor. The dude in the Starbucks line. Everyone pays attention to different details. And the only way to hear about those details is to talk with a diverse set of people. People from inside, outside and around your industry / point of view.

So next time you wonder why you haven’t heard of something, don’t ask yourself why you didn’t find out about it yourself but rather ask yourself who you’re not talking to–where’s your blind spot and how do you find an interesting human to fill it?

This blog post started as a poem for some reason. So, as a bonus to you, here it is:

The Forgetful Tastemakers

we are the tastemakers
we will tell you what you want
we heard about it before you did

we are younger
we are sexier
we are faster

we drive cooler cars
we wear tighter jeans
we listen to bands that don’t exist yet

we have a beta invite
we read the article first
and we read it on our unreleased prototype device

we only follow one person and he doesn’t follow you
we already blogged about it
we code in HTML 7

we forgot to listen
we forgot to stay ignorant
we forgot the user

What’s your favorite desert?
I have a simple, three-part set of criteria for judging any desert:
-how much it reminds me of dessert
-how snowmobile-able it is
-how much any buildings in it look like a killer top-secret moon base
After running the world’s deserts through these stringent tests, I’ve determined that Antarctica is in fact my favorite desert.

Step two: pull laces tight to your liking. Make sure there’s still blood flowing to all of your little piggys.*

Step three: now it’s going to get a little tricky but I’m going to walk you through this step-by-step. Take a lace in each hand. Cross the left lace over top of the right about in the middle of the lace length to form a “plus.”*

Step four: now take that lace that is on top and twist it behind and around the other lace and back up through the bottom left quadrant of the plus. Pull tight.*

Step five: with the lace in your left hand, form a bunny ear such that the loop of the ear and the remaining slack are roughly equal.*

Step six: take the lace in your right hand and circle the bunny ear in a counter-clockwise manner.*

Step seven: with the same lace you just made a circle with, pull it underneath itself and out to the right until your knot tightens and you have two happy, floppy bunny ears.*

Step eight: revel in your awesomeness, you did it.*

(To untie the laces just grab one of the free laces and pull it like a parachute ripcord–Boom!–your shoe can now be freely removed.)

*Hate things that take more than one step? Get Velcro shoes. Luckily, they’re kind of in fashion. Kind of.

What is your favorite time on a clock?
Either 12:00 noon or midnight are awesome because not only do they both have alternate, non-numeral names but I view them both as turning points. A terrible morning can turn into a wonderful afternoon, well, after noon, just like a great night out can just keep getting better after midnight. Also, as the official sponsor of gentleman’s duels everywhere, you have to hand it to high noon for being a major factor in how the wild west was won.

Which is your favorite finger? Why?
Without hesitation, I can tell you that my thumb is not only my favorite finger but clearly my best and most talented. The way it gently opposes without being too forceful is amazing. My favorite part of my thumb’s story is how it re-branded itself over the years to simply be “thumb.” Perhaps you remember the days when it was known as “thumb finger.” Just another in a sea of fingers, kindergartners could hardly tell it apart from their index finger let alone their pinky finger. But now, so many years later, our language has finally evolved to match out body’s evolution and that’s something we can all give two thumbs up to.

What are the most important and least important letters of the alphabet? Defend your choices.
I think we all know that since the landmark Character Rights Act of 1965 that all letters have been recognized as being equal in the eyes of the state. That said, I realize that sometimes it can be useful to play favorites, just look at what it’s done for the Kingdom of Scrabble. So, since you asked nicely, I’ll tell you what I think the most important letter is: A.

I know what you’re thinking, “What about the rumors of A’s affairs with ~? How can you put your faith in such an unsavory character?” Now, I don’t want to play conspiracy theorist but just let me say that I heard it from a good source that Ampersand was there the night A and ~ got together, playing his usual role as matchmaker. Except this time he had an ulterior motive, if he could get A out of the alphabet there would be no way to spell “and” anymore, thereby securing Ampersand’s place as sole conjoiner of phrases. But you didn’t hear that from me, all I’m saying is that if I had to pick favorites, “A” would be at the top and Ampersand would be somewhere below Q and Z, the lazy, good-for-spelling-nothing bums.

We started in May with a brief from Justin Gold (founder of Justin’s Nut Butter) and Alex Bogusky (of, well, ad legend). There’s a long, awesome story of the behind the scenes of how just a few very dedicated students brought this project to the point where a hand full more could join on and bring this project to life. But for now, I’m exhausted and need a few good nights of sleep before I’m ready for that write-up. If you have a few minutes, check out the video below – from my presentation today at Justin’s Sustainable Squeeze Pack Summit. If you have two minutes, go visit http://leastyoucando.org and become an Inactivist.

Watch live video from bdw_live on Justin.tv

I have to give credit to the AWESOME team I had the pleasure to work with. To give credit where it’s due:

It’s been a lot of fun leading the Least You Can Do team over the past few months in anticipation of this beta launch. I can’t wait to fully implement the site, change the packaging landscape and take on another cause on the The Least You Can Do platform.

To give credit where it’s due…

Core team:
Justin McCammon (team lead, copy, strategy, tech)
Teghan Tracy (UX, strategy, design)
Jake Johnson (production, strategy)
Heather Seal (design, UX)

Designers:
Brad Dechter
Chris Znerold
Brain Fouhy
Jon Swisart

UX:
Dan Henderson

Developers:
Mike Newell
Jesse Weaver
RJ Duran
Josh Kadis

Marketing / PR Team:
Denise Horton
Sean Baxter
Lauren Parker
Megan Newton

Copywriters:
Charlotte Myerberg
Patrick Anders

Mentors:
Joe Corr (CP+B)
Scott Prindle (CP+B)
Darden Longendecker (Mondo Robot)
Alex Bogusky (Fearless)
The Good Apples(Dan Storch, Dan Braha, Justin Fuller)
David Slayden (Boulder Digital Works)
Gordon Brander (Crowdfavorite)
Peyton Lindley (Effective UI)
Dan Viens (Goodby Silverstein & Partners)
PJ Yesawich (Awesome Dude)

The brave client:
Justin’s Nut Butter
Justin Gold (CEO / Founder)
Lance Gentry (President)
Lauren Lortie (Marketing Manager)