Launch Thought

Goodwill is one of the most powerful forces in the world. What is it? It’s a feeling. It’s the “wow” you get when a complete stranger shows you some unexpected kindness. Or when a customer service representative bends over backwards to solve your problem. When you open your new iPad to use it for the [...]

One of my goals is to write one blog post here on LaunchThought.com per week. Normally, coming up with ideas to write about isn’t a challenge. In fact, every time I write a blog post, my handy little Moleskine ends up with at least two more ideas brought on by whatever it is I’m writing. [...]

Limitations aren’t the joy-squelching productivity drains you might think. To the contrary – you can use limitations to unlock massive untapped potential. Here are three ways limitations can make you ultra-productive. The Zone Don’t you love it when you are in the “zone”? Hitting that magic point when we possess the near superhuman ability to [...]

I am thankful for the Lean Startup movement, which has been spawned and promoted by brilliant entrepreneurs like Eric Ries, Steve Blank, Ash Maurya and many others. The simple, yet powerful Lean Startup principles have saved me countless hours of frustration and large amounts of money as I evaluate and build ideas.  BUT… As I observe [...]

Trust drives action. Without trust, you will never develop a deep relationship with your web audience. Your users will never enter their email address, they won’t give you permission to market to them, and they most certainly will not pay their hard-earned money for something you offer. Here are seven ideas on how you can [...]

Scope creep is the nemesis of nearly all projects. It can suck the joy, creativity, and profitability out of almost anything. The web design process is especially susceptible to scope creep because of the truly limitless possibilities and non-physical nature of pixels. Conducting adequate information architecture planning at the right point in a project is [...]

ongrats to the awesome people at Visua.ly for scoring a $2m investment round! I really love the Visual.ly story because they have a huge, audacious goal – to visualize the world’s data – and they move toward their goal with achievable steps. The $2m investment they just received was likely not in response to a [...]