In the article Why Good Companies Go Bad, Donald Sull outlines why major change in large organizations is so difficult. Ironically in most cases the very elements that enabled the business to initially scale and succeed turn into what holds the company back. Sull refers to these forces as “Active Inertia”. What holds back change…
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I’m hiring (again)
I’m looking for a Senior UI Designer / Information Architect to join my design team. In this role you will join the team which focuses on enabling eBay buyers to find just the items they want out of the over 78 million unique items available every day. To give you a sense of scale, eBay…
Evidence-Based Management
I recently read the article Evidence-Based Management (HBR Jan 06) which outlines an emerging movement which applies the scientific approach long used in medicine to the practice of management. A number of factors inhibit managers’ ability to make good decisions including: specialty bias (e.g. marketers tend to recommend marketing as a solution) hype (e.g. managers…
What I’ve been up to…
In case you’re wondering where I’ve been all summer, my wife and I had our first child this July. I am constantly surprised by all that parenting has brought to our lives and am excited with each day to see how our son changes. As the fall begins I hope to start posting again on…
Yahoo! shares design patterns
Today Yahoo! made a big contribution to the larger design community. Not thru an innovative product offering or nifty new technology… but thru a site committed to sharing their design patterns with the rest of the world. LukeW (who I suspect played no small role in this) has more on this important launch as does…
eBay Watcher on Google Sidebar
Check out the new eBay plugin for Google Desktop’s sidebar which allows you to see items you’re watching. It’s a great example of two platforms working together. My colleague Alan Lewis (who collaborated w/Google on the project) has more.
What does cable TV and the internet have in common?
Esther Dyson was at eBay a couple weeks ago for a speaker series we have and she made a comment during her talk that really struck me. In discussing her upcoming PC Forum conference “Erosion of Power: Users in charge” she pointed out that in a Web 2.0 world where everyone is a participant there…
I’m hiring
I’m looking for 2 talented UI designers to join my product design team. We focus on the following: eBay’s search engine and results page (how to guide our 168 million shoppers to 20 million items that change each week) eBay’s community-based content platform (e.g. Review & Guides) eBay’s Homepage and other Landing Pages Update 3/28/06:…
GMail Bait and Switch on RSS Feeds
This week I started using the RSS feed functionality (or what Google brands “Web Clips”) which displays my subscribed headlines in the real estate at the top of your inbox. What surprised me was that Google (seemingly for the first time) has decided to share sponsored content in the same location and in the same…
Mayfield on the “End of Process”
Ross Mayfield posted a facinating article on how successful decentralization will only come thru less process and more openness. No amount of process in a large company is going to enable the rapid information sharing that is needed in a large organization. Only tools like wikis ang blogs enable that kind of communication. Speaking from…