#RIPTwitter?

Can @Jack make Twitter more engaging or is it #RIPTwitter?

While the reports of Twitter’s death have been greatly exaggerated; this February, Twitter is getting no love.

CEO, Jack Dorsey, is being pressured by stock traders to grow monthly active users and keep them engaged longer.  

IMHO, Twitter’s recent Shareholder Letter was promising:

• $710 million in Q4, up 48% YoY
• $2.2 billion in 2015, up 58%
• advertisers up 90%
• revenue from advertising, data licensing, U.S., international all up!  

Twitter also added:

• native video
• launched Periscope live streaming video
• expanded direct messaging
• Google, Doubleclick ad bidding integration
• self-service for advertising
•  Moments for keeping up with trending stories as they happen    

This is all goodness; but I’m a glass half full, product guy; Wall Street, not so much.  What has the bankers/gamblers spooked?  two metrics:

1. Monthly Active Users, MAUs, in Q4: 320 million, up just 9%

2. User engagement, measured as percent daily logins: 38%

This is not a financial blog; short term stock price is not of concern to me, but it does present an interesting product design problem.  So let’s dig in!

How can Twitter increase users and keep them coming back, more often?  

Address users’ biggest complaints, I mean, not rocket science.  Home is where the heart is; let’s focus on how they can fix these issues with updates to Twitter Home Page. 

Complaint #1, “Twitter is too confusing.”

To the uninitiated, Twitter can be drinking from a firehose: too much information, all at once overwhelming, quickly streaming past.  

Give users more control of their feed, make it easier to find information.

The Home Feed should be more like Twitter Search, clean and well organized; it gives users control to find information, make refinements, even save searches.  Breaking Twitter users into Hunters and Gatherers, the Hunters have Twitter Search, the Gatherers have been neglected.  Updating the Home Feed algorithm to copy Facebook’s little known “Top Stories” or “Most Recent” News Feed options is a good start, but should be further developed; give users more control of their feed.  

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Twitter Home Mobile updated.

As a Gatherer I want different ways to filter my feed, shape it based on my interests at any moment.  This would give Twitter a “remote control” so I could change “channels.”  So in addition to “Most Recent” feed I should be able to shape my Home Feed by:

• Most Popular - similar to Facebook’s “Top Stories” this re-orders my feed based on popularity algorithm within my personal Twittersphere 
• Most Relevant - of the Tweets in my feed, based on my interests, tweets I like, topics I tweet about, #hashtags I mention, places where I tweet...
• Photos - most recent and most popular images from all of Twitter, not just my feed; make it beautiful! 
• News - display most recent news related tweets; this could rival Google News.  The Hunters already have this in Twitter Search, let’s give it to the Gatherers as well.  
• Near Me - nearby tweets; to see what’s happening around me 
• Top Tweeters - show me the tweets from the most popular Twitter star accounts   

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Twitter Home Feed with "clicker" for choosing channel, giving control to users. 

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Complaint #2, “I can’t express myself with 140 characters.”

I’m a purest, I like the 140 character limit, but if going bigger will expand the audience and increase user engagement then, let’s do this!  But please, show some decorum, keep it civilized.  If this turns my feed into a messy list of diatribes? I’m out!

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Twitter Home Feed ("clicker" set to Relevant) showing an Expandable Tweet

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Expanded 10K tweet, with liberties

Keep the visible portion of tweets 140 characters, with an option to expand for more.  If 10,000 characters is the magic number, also used for Twitter Direct Messages, then let the 140 character tweet be the head with an option to extend to 10,000 as the tail.  Ten thousand character tweets, #10Ktweets, will give more room for expression; could result in deeper engagement; but may even be an affront to Twitter founder, Ev Williams, and his startup, Medium, a site for longer form posts; more Twitter drama?!      

Complaint #3, “I have no voice on Twitter.”   

Sure, Twitter has been a lightening rod for enacting large scale social change, see The Arab Spring, but it falls short for regular people trying to be heard over the “din” of tweets.  So if I want to ask Donald Trump: 

“@realDonaldTrump EXACTLY how do you plan to make Mexico pay for your wall?” 

If my question gains popularity it should make it’s way to his excellence, The Don.  Likes, sorry, ‘“loves” should be used to promote tweets (especially questions) to the @mentioned people, companies, organizations.  So if my tweet to @realDonaldTrump was well loved, voted up, it would eventually bubble up in his Twitter Feed.  This feature brings with it the promise that anyone could challenge public figures, raise awareness, exact change through use of crowd wisdom to democratize the public Twitter Feed.  

Sure, there are other issues to address like safety and privacy, but they’re less linked to user growth and engagement; this is a focused, quick-hit blog, so maybe some other time.  And, yes, there are other ways to grow users and keep them engaged, like live streaming video; but we’ve already covered that, twice, check back, we may cover these again soon.

BOTTOM LINE

With some well crafted product enhancements to the Home page, Twitter could be more engaging, less confusing, and more interactive.  With a solid Q4 finishing out a good year, Jack and the team should be able to grow users and keep them engaged; and start the #RIPTwitter hashtag trending downward.

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24 FEB 2016

Update

Twitter agrees with me that it's time to redesign Twitter Home.  They have a job posting; are you up for it?  Or they could just use this blog and be done with it.  ; )

Don’t Call It An “iWatch”

I no longer think about my Apple Watch, and that’s the genius of its design.  But does it live up to the hype?

This June I went all-in with wearables and gave the Apple Watch a try.  Since then I’ve fielded as many questions from strangers about it than my iPhone, back in 2007.

Actually, if anyone from Apple is reading; I’m pretty sure I sold a few, little something for the effort?  In a year full of cool new devices, Apple Watch is my favorite.

THE GOOD

I like my Apple Watch, it’s the first wearable I feel compelled to… um, wear, and all the time.  It’s light, modern, and swappable bands keep it fresh and right for every occasion: work, working out, out on the town, a band, a style for it all.   

My Top 5 Uses

Aside from telling the time (duh!) here’s how Apple Watch is now integrated into my life:

1. On time, with a haptic little nudge of reminders and calendar alerts, Apple Watch keeps me ahead of my schedule.

2. Healthy, Apple Watch tracks footsteps, heart beats, calories as I move through my day.  It nudges me after too much sitting (the new smoking) and actively tracks my workouts, except in the pool, although some have taken the plunge

3. Politely Informed, I check text messages, game scores (go Stanford!) without being rude, sneaking a quick glance, avoiding a glare from my wife, across the dinner table.  

4. Calls, driving, cycling, whatever, I take calls without missing a beat, the speaker is clear and even better with a bluetooth headset.  Also with a bluetooth headset, my Apple Watch is a stand-alone music source for playlists, no iPhone required.  

5. Payments, I’ve tried many and this is the best; double-click the side button, quick, easy, more secure than plastic, done.  Apple Pay is accepted by most of my usual spots, here’s a list of major stores  with smaller shops covered by the new Square NFC/chip reader. 

"Siri, directions to Michael Mina."

Honorable Mentions

1. Uber, order a car from the Apple Watch, very James Bond.

2. Directions, follow guided turn-by-turn directions, without your nose in the phone like a tourist.

OPPORTUNITY FOR IMPROVEMENT

As I said, Apple Watch is a strong first version and these are just #firstworldproblems.  

1. Longer Battery life, for a typical day, it’s fine, using about 50% battery after 10 hrs.   For long hikes and heavy usage it lasts just 6 hours, while not great, is still longer than my Garmin.  Also, I can’t track sleep if it must be charged every evening.  Full disclosure, two or three times, the battery didn’t make it past 3PM, no warning, bu-bye.  

2. No GPS, for accurate GPS, you still need to take along your iPhone, which is redundant.  awk. ward.  

3. Not Guaranteed Waterproof,  I want to track distance swam and until I have a guarantee, this Apple Watch is not getting wet.  

Seriously, I feel like the guy on a plane next to Louis C.K., complaining about weak WiFi, really?! we’ve conquered flight and he’s complaining because he can’t check Facebook?!   And poor me, my super watch isn’t waterproof with GPS and a 5 day battery life - extraordinary is the new ordinary.

FUTURE

This first gen Apple Watch is just the beginning, Apple is committed to wearables and making technology more seamless, organic.  Future iterations should support more untethered use cases, like GPS for cycling and built in camera for facetime, while moving towards even integrated with the iPhone and other devices, like direct connection to my Mac/iPad.   Someday, in the future, the Apple Watch may simply contain the entire OS, something like Her, without the safety pin.

BOTTOM LINE

The Apple Watch is an awesome product.  If you’re on the fence, go for it!  You won’t regret it.  The first gen iPhone sold 5 million in the first year; compared to the iPhone 6/s which sold 232 million in the most recent four quarters.  Sure there are some things like battery life and GPS which could be better, but don’t be afraid to take the plunge; not literally, until Apple confirms it’s waterproof.  

Does AirBnB Need A Lobby Boy?

It’s no secret AirBnB wants to go from managing one part of travel, the room, to the entire experience, but can they deliver?

While AirBnB’s main growth driver is booking their more than 2 million worldwide listings; expanding into additional services will help them keep customers they grab - both Guests and Hosts.  

This year my wife and I became AirBnB Hosts, so far it’s been great; but we’re still newbies, learning as we go.  Case in point, this summer while in Sardinia we tried an advanced move: back-to-back bookings of our home in SF, having to coordinate:

• check-out/key drop-off,
• house cleaning, restocking,
• welcome gifts,
• check-in/key pickup

all from six thousand miles away, no sweat? yeah, no!  

With beginner's luck, a diving save by our neighbors, it all worked out.  But the experience brought to light opportunities for improvement around core Host Use Cases.

We're obviously stressed.

Let’s take a closer look at how adding basic hospitality services can help AirBnB go beyond the room and enhance their offering, creating an unfair competitive advantage over hotels.       

HELP THE HOSTS

At the heart of the AirBnB experience are Hosts; without them, there are no rooms, no guests, no stays.  Airbnb will never be as consistent as hotels, but that’s the point, right?  there’s charm in a unique experience, not the same monotonous room in every city; all powered by their robust Host community.  While this works, there’s still room for improvement.  I’m not suggesting turndown service, yet, but let’s start with a few thoughtful and much needed tools to help Hosts, well, be better hosts.   

1. Check-in/Key Pickup

2. Cleaning/Restocking

3. Local Insights  

Check-in/Key Pickup

In the time between starting and posting this blog (it was a busy month) August Smart Locks announced integration with AirBnB, so now guests can receive an August Smart Lock code for dates of their stay.  If you don’t know, August adds a cover plate to your door’s deadbolt lock to control remote access and with AirBnB access the code guests receive is active for Check-in and expires upon Check-out.  This, is progress!  

AirBnB Message Center With Pillow and August Alerts

Clean & Restock

As my wife and I soon discovered, when it comes to AirBnB related stress, Cleaning & Restocking is top of mind.  This includes cleaning, fluffing pillows, replacing fresh towels and linens, restocking shampoos, welcome gifts.  It’s great AirBnB gives an option to add in a cleaning fee (ours is $100) but it would be even better to completely take this off our hands.  

AirBnB should offer tight integration with vacation rental services like Pillow (www.pillowhomes.com) so I can schedule cleaning & restocking services through the AirBnB app and then receive reminders and notifications related to these services.

Locals Rule!

Beyond the room, there’s the setting, the sense of place.  

Locals Map To Guide Guests

AirBnB offers guests to feel like a local; it’s touring without being a tourist.  

Along with our House Guidelines (my wife’s handy work) including our favorite local spots from restaurants to grocery stores, a list of “must” things to do in our neighborhood.    

The AirBnB app should allow Hosts to curate their Locals Map for guests to get acquainted with the area; local spots not in tourist maps or guidebooks.  The Locals Map should be situationally aware and two taps away for say an espresso macchiato emergency.

BOTTOM LINE

As AirBnB continues to disrupt the travel industry; hotel incumbents are not going down without a fight; AirBnB will have to answer by expanding further into the travel experience.  A great place to start, their core asset, Hosts and tools to empower them while being situationally aware and not getting in the way of the core experience.  Integration with August Locks is a great start, it’ll be interesting to see what’s next, as they try to go beyond the room.