IA THINK

Top Business Books of 2003

If you missed the report on the Best Business Books of 2003 on NPR's Morning Edition this morning, it's worth a listen. Randall Rothenberg, editor-in-chief of strategy+business magazine, discusses which books they selected and why. One I've put at the top of my list is Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology by Henry Chesbrough. It looks at older business models of “closed innovation” (where innovation springs only from research generated within an organization) to newer models of “open innovation” where knowledge is more freely shared among business partners and even competitors.

Considering a Web-Based Survey?

Conducting surveys via the Web is popular for some compelling reasons: they are low-cost, quick to deploy, and results are instantly tabulated. But, there is a risk (as the saying goes) that “when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” Not all research objectives are suited to a Web-based survey. And poorly designed surveys can yield misleading results, leading to erroneous business and/or design decisions.

If you are considering a Web-based survey, I would recommend reading Doing Survey Research: A Guide to Quantitative Research Methods by Peter M. Nardi. It’s highly readable and packed with great real-world research examples. It covers not only Web- and paper-based surveys, but also those conducted face-to-face and via telephone. It also puts surveys in context of other research methods, with Nardi emphasizing the importance of choosing the “right tool for the right job.”

Update:

Since writing this post, two articles about online surveys have been published that are worth a read:

First is Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox column “Keep Online Surveys Short,” which harkens back to the late 1990’s heyday of Alertbox in terms of focused, practical advice (in this case, on how to avoid the pitfall of survey bloat).

Offering more in depth advise is Human Factor International’s “Creating Effective Online Surveys” (subtitled Owning Photoshop Doesn’t Make You an Artist). It draws primarily upon a case study by Andrews, Nonnecke and Preece (2003), which emphasizes the importance of carefully piloting the entire survey process (including data analysis) before deployment.

Crossing the Chasm Revised

I am currently doing some secondary user research for a project that caused me to revisit Geoffrey Moore's book Crossing the Chasm. This book--and its concept of creating a whole product for pragmatic buyers--was extremely influential in the tech industry when it was published in 1991. At the time I was involved with a tech start up and we even had the Chasm Group do some consulting for us. I happen to look it up on Amazon and discovered that there is a revised version (published in 2002). I look forward to re-reading this work in its revised form.

Getting It Published

My interest in organizing information began as an interest in writing. I have always loved to write, even though I often find it quite a struggle. And I carry with me a cautionary lesson about writing, thanks to my 6th grade teacher Miss Almquist, who caught me passing a note. She of course read the note out loud to the class, much to my great embarrassment and horror (and the horror of the boy who was the subject of the note...needless to say that was the end of that relationship). She then reminded the class about the permanence of a written record--that if you say something you have the chance to claim you misspoke or were misunderstood but if you write something down...well, there is the evidence for all to see.

Despite the note-reading trauma, I still write. Now I'm writing this (weblog) but I am also working on a (non-fiction) book. I have submitted the book proposal to one publisher and am gearing up for more in the event that my first-choice publisher rejects it. Here is a book I would recommend for anyone writing serious non-fiction: Getting It Published: A Guide for Scholars and Anyone Else Serious About Serious Books. It is crisply written, witty, and provides straight-forward advice on how to get published. It also does not whitewash the pain involved in the publishing process (once your book is accepted), nor the process of getting it accepted. And so I feel more prepared for the inevitable hassles and disappointments ahead...