Hi! My name is Pierre, and I’m a domain junky.
I own close to a hundred domain names and I haven’t bought one in over a week!
*cue for clapping*

Finding a good domain name is a real challenge. You’ll need a lot of creative juice to come up with something that domain squatters haven’t put their hands on… yet!
So challenging it is, but not impossible. Here are some tips on the process I follow:

1. Lexical fields
Start your process by identifying a dozen keywords that identify to your product.
I suggest using a good thesaurus (like this one).
Alternatively, if you can’t find relevant keywords you can use a name generator tool. There are plenty of them, my favourite is Wordoid.

2. Keywords mashing
Throw your keywords into a domain making tool (I use Panabee) and see what comes out. You might get lucky on a .com but most likely this will send you down a path that you didn’t think of.
Make sure you also run your keywords into keywords mashing tools such as BustaName.

3. Creative juice
If you find yourself in a crowded space (all your keywords are already used and abused), my favourite tool to get the creative juice flowing is Domize. Make sure you use the advanced functions that will let you enter multiple lists in a query. For example, type [red,blue,green][light,lamp] to search for redlight, redlamp, bluelight… etc. It’s awesome!

4. Repeat the process until magic happens
As you go on you’ll come up with new keywords that you can look up in the thesaurus and run by Panabee and Domize.

5. The shortlist
By now you should have a shortlist of available relevant domains. The next step before buying them is to check that you’re not setting yourself up for trouble down the track (trademarks, social squatters etc.).
So the obvious first thing to do is a Google search for your domain. See what comes up (a competitor you didn’t know of? Some hidden meaning you were not aware of?).
Next make sure you check twitter for availability. Twitter is an important part of most businesses so making sure that your – candidate – brand name is available on twitter is a must do. Netflix learned it the hard way.

6. Buy it now!
Don’t wait too long once you’ve found the domain of your dream. Nothing worse than seeing it being snapped away by someone else… so don’t wait and spend the bucks! I recommend using Gandi or GoDaddy. For .com.au we use CrazyDomains.

## Generic rules

Focus on the right extensions

.com
Finding a catchy .com has become very challenging but well worth the trouble as it is the default extension for most internet users. If you manage to get them to remember your brand name it is very likely that they will type it with a .com at the end.

.co
Increasingly popular and won’t be an issue if your are targeting a fairly geeky / nerdy market :) Don’t expect “normal” people to type it right though. The cherry on the cake it that it will save you a letter on Twitter :)
Examples: t.co, angel.co, pygg.co etc.

Ignore all other extensions unless you can have them as part of your brand name. ie. youtu.be, pitch.it, about.me, with.me etc.

Beware of dodgy domain name services

Stick to the big players (GoDaddy, Gandi).
DO NOT check domain availability on more obscure domain providers. Some of them have dodgy processes in place where they monitor the domain searches and automatically buy the domain you are searching for and re-sale it back to you at a premium…

If your product is good it will work regardless of its domain name

Finally keep in mind that a great domain name can be a powerful asset but you shouldn’t invest too much energy in hunting down THE perfect domain for your product. Your time and money would certainly be better spent at actually building your product rather than naming it :)

## The tools

Here are the tools that I use when in need for a domain hit:

https://domize.com/
+ The search speed
+ Very cool advanced commands

http://www.panabee.com/
+ Apple app store name checking
+ Creative name mixing
+ Shows you translations

http://wordoid.com/
+ Generates natural sounding names

http://www.bustaname.com/
+ Clever prefix and suffix
+ Includes synonyms

http://thesaurus.com/
+ The visual thesaurus is a great way to discover other lexical fields
+ Definition and synonyms all in one place

http://www.gandi.net/
+ A tad pricey but top notch service
+ Reliable and trustworthy

http://www.godaddy.com/
+ Cheap and dirty

http://www.crazydomains.com.au/
+ Cheap .com.au
+ Local company (Surry Hills)

If you would like to try new consumer products still under development then we’d love to hear from you.

You can register your interest and sign-up here.

Now that’s what I’m talking about! Needless to say that we are now all looking forward to meet James :)
…and I might just watch it one more time :)

Pollenizer is hiring a Product/Project Manager

Pollenizer is looking to hire a Junior / Mid-weight Project/Product Manager.

Woohoo! Is that person you? See below.

The lucky winner will have to do stuff like:

• Spend half of his/her day in Jira and/or wire framing cool products
• Spend the other half in meetings and Skype calls / chats
• Spend the third half doing another gazillion things

The profile we are after (in no specific order):

• You know your web by heart (Facebook and the other birds)
• You can appreciate a good UI / Product design
• You can jabber English
• You can eat in front of your screen juggling in between a sprint planning and a saturated inbox
• You can run a Skype huddle under your blanky in your bed at 11pm
• You have an entrepreneurial streak
• You can tolerate French, Scottish and Ginger people
• You can handle working while Kylie Minogue is playing on the stereo (in other words; you have a good headset – or you’re deaf)
• You carry the fire

Things that are not required but a nice plus to have:

• You can code a little (PHP and/or Ruby)
• You know your way around Photoshop / Illustrator / InDesign…
• You have some practice with the AGILE methodology
• You can speak Swahili and laugh at dads jokes (would make Mick and Andy happy)

Things we know you don’t know you know we know (huh?):

• We are after a Junior or Mid-weight person. Meaning we don’t expect you to be a rock star at anything. It’s gonna be our job together to make sure you become one
• We expect you to work hard and we will reward you for it
• If you are coming from another planet you will need a visa (We don’t have time to take care of any sort of paperwork for you so it’s your job to organise something. If you can get a Working Holiday Visa then you can tick that one off.)

What we will give you:

• A decent wage based on your hard work, profile and experience
• Front line exposure to the vibrant startup community in Australia
• A great office space (in Surry Hills) buzzing with startups and entrepreneurs
• The chance to work with a team of web veterans
• The ability to quickly get experience in all aspects of delivering a web project
• We will make your Skype window look like a xmas tree

About Pollenizer:
Check out our website, read our tweets, come over to the office for a chat…

How to apply:
So if you’re still reading this you might want to apply.
Well that’s the easy bit, just shoot me an email (pierre-at-pollenizer.com) and tell me what makes you tick. Include a resume, your past experience in similar roles and anything else that you think will make you the woman or man for the job!

Note:
We also have a position open for a Junior Web Designer and we are always on the look out for agile, obsessive and passionated developers in our Indian office :)

One of the best thing about the geeky, propellor head Product and Engineering team is that they aren’t just geeks. They’re entrepreneurs, which of course makes them, as Phil’s new hoodie states, Entreprenerds.

This of course is crucial for when you want to start a web business, as you don’t want pure tech guys who don’t think about the customers, the value, the reason to use it or the business model.

So, along with geeky marketing, business and even financial people, you get product and engineering business crew.

* Kudos to Luke Metcalfe for the Urban Dictionary tip.

Sam from Blurb.com next to Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House

It’s fun and challenging working with clients in different time zones, so it is good for the relationship when you can catch up in person. Samantha Howe (pictured) from Blurb visited Sydney in March to spend time with the Pollenizer Blurboz team; attend Blurb sponsored events; and catch-up with Blurb’s partners. I interviewed Samantha Howe, Marketing Account Manager (Global Partnerships and Business Development) for the Pollenizer blog.

What is Blurb?

“Blurb is an online print-on-demand creative publishing platform which enables anyone to creatively express their individuality through a professional coffee-table quality book.”

Who is Blurb for?

“Blurb is for everyone! It’s your content in a printable book form. It is your poetry, your design, your writing, your photography.”

Why is Blurb so cool?

“We never say we’re cool but others do. I think it’s because our platform is creative and accessible and there are no boundaries. Blurb.com has worked hard to remove barriers to making a book. We’re passionate about enabling people to see their work published in a book.”

Blurb.com at 2010 Semi-Permanent Sydney Design Conference

What is Pollenizer doing for Blurb?

“Pollenizer is our eyes, ears and voice in Australia and New Zealand. This means the team is actively ‘seeding’ the market, talking about Blurb.com with cultural and creative influencers and organisations, and creating opportunities for Blurb.com in the marketplace.”

Tell us about the range of books in the Blurb bookstore.

“Blurb.com prints a book every 10 seconds. We have over 40,000 titles in our online bookstore. We see all kinds of books – photographs of dogs in bow ties to artist exhibitions to stunning graphical illustration, photography and brand books.  Everyone uses our platform for different purposes: as a business tool, agency creds book, writing fiction, photo books, fund-raising. Some titles do raise our eyebrows. As long as the content is not illegal there’s a market for it.”

Billy Blue Design School Students at Blurb.com Presentation

What have you been doing while you have been in Australia?

The team and I went to Semi-Permanent Creative Conference in Sydney as a sponsor and exhibitor.We spoke to creative professionals and students about Blurb.com can be used for portfolios, story-telling, brand books and more.

During this week we hang out with Blurb partner Art Whats On; caught up with potential partners; and met with local Blurb Nation designers.

I then flew to Fremantle in WA for the launch of month-long photography festival, Foto Freo, where Blurb was a sponsor and I did Magnum Workshop presentations. While we were in town, we ran a meet up for our WA Blurb bookmakers. Over 80 people squeeze into a small Fremantle bar to talk about book-making, share stories and show-off their books.

Melbourne was the last stop to to visit partner Red Bubble and cool global utility bag brand Crumpler.

We are in Barcelona working at a client site and on the way back to our company apartment, we got a bit distracted talking about software and, as we walked down the stairs at the Plaça de Catalunya station, we realised that we were on the wrong platform. We had gone down to the railway station instead of the metro. We walked upstairs and as we tried to exit through, the ticket validation machines didn’t allow us to get out, it displayed “ticket not validated at entry”. Now, we were getting confused since we had purchased our tickets that morning, we had been able to get in. After a couple of tries, we walked towards the station master and quickly explained to him our situation. He looked at us and immediately took two “exit tickets” out of his pocket and told us “yes, that’s normal, you cannot exit in the same station you entered”.

Exit Ticket

Now, someone must have created that rule, right? Mauricio and I could immediately think of many user stories that would see a client exiting from the same station that they entered and we couldn’t understand under which circumstances you wouldn’t want someone to be able to exit (remember we were using a valid ticket that had been accepted to get in and we had a valid ticket when trying to exit through machines). The most amazing thing is that a decision was made to create an exit ticket, print it, modify the systems to accept it, instead of fixing the system. Why would one put such a restrictive rule onto a user that holds a valid ticket?

Our next step is now to try this exit ticket at other stations. Could this be a master exit ticket that allows us to exit from any station? That would be even more interesting :) If you have any ideas about this system and why it’s this way, I would be very interested in your comment.

Roughly;

• Getting the product to ‘function’ means you can use it.
• Getting the business to ‘work’ means that you optimise it so that it creates lots of value.

And my rough guide for your budget;

• 20% – on your first version. Most will be thrown in the bin as you learn so much about the business.
• 20% – on your second version. So much better than first version.
• 10% – refining the second version so it’s really good (UI, design, optimise).
• 50% – to market, manage, maintain towards traction/profit.

So try not to put 99% into the first version…

Product management consultancy Brainmates was kind enough to invite me over to lead their second “Product Talks” event next week.

Product Talks is a casual, early evening thing. I’ll be talking for about 20mins about some of the lessons I’ve learned the hard way in a product management lifecycle stretching back to the mid 1990s. I’ll keep the Keynote deck to a minimum, take questions from the room throughout, and we’ll probably take some unexpected detours. I’l have some questions for you to answer too!

Anyone working in product management is welcome (you don’t necessarily have to be working on intertube products.) There’s room for 20-30 people max and the Brainmates team will be there, so space is a bit limited. Get your RSVPs in to info@brainmates.com.au or ring +61 (2) 9232-8147.

Tip: take a moment to remember key non-product events!
Originally uploaded by thatjonesboy.

But first, let’s look back on the brighter, shinier future we were promised. As an impressionable adult I look back on when I was an impressionable boy and remember how deeply I had bought-in to that utopian future. At the age of 12 I had decided I’d be working as a journalist in a bustling colony on the Moon by the age of 30, flying to work, my only wardrobe choices the silver one-piece or the bronze one-piece, working late each night on a dinner pill. I’m a geek and I bought it wholesale. This was the future I wanted. Turns out, I was in the minority!

What happened to our bright utopian future? Real consumer behaviour happened. Society did not and does not really want a utopian future. Consider this: each of those emblemic utopian products kinda/sorta exists today:

Flying car: the Terrafugia Transition is more of a driveable airplane than a flyable car but it’s roadworthy, and once it has approval from the authorities you can drive it to an airport and fly it to another airport. The future we were promised included nuclear fusion-powered saucers, so where did the utopian product manager go wrong? He Underestimating the bureaucracy of the FAA, sure, but really the big mistake was an unfounded optimism that if consumer demand was high enough, the nascent nuclear industry would be able to solve the safety and disposal problems of nuclear energy. Turns out, no amount of commute time saved is enough to offset the fear of contaminating your neighbourhood with radioactive waste for the next half a million years. Almost always emotions (fear) beat logic (we’ll solve this) in the consumer mind.

Meals in pill form: turns out in reality meals are more easily delivered in powder form, and you can even get something better than a meal, if what you want to do is lose weight. Turns out the powdered meal replacement marketplace is quite a bit bigger than the market for flying cars but it’s not something most people choose to do. What went wrong? If asked, “Would you like to be able to save time by consuming a meal in pill form?” most consumers will say yes: sometimes they would like that. But the unasked question is, “how often?” and our utopian product manager either didn’t ask that or didn’t want to hear the answer.

Shiny one-piece suits: you only have to go to a fashion show, a car race, or buy one online to debunk the idea that these are somehow more practical and comfortable than jeans and a tee. Our utopian product manager was on happy drugs for this one.

Robot housemaid: the robot housemaid could be easily the most mainstream utopian product that exists today, yet consumers just won’t go for it. The iRobot company of Massacheusetts makes a whole range of the things. I pitch the joys of Roomba ownership to almost every visitor to our house — I’m famous for it — and I’m not too shabby at the art of the pitch. Anybody who doesn’t believe me need only check Amazon – this is a product that gets a 5 star review from nearly half the people who’ve bought one. So why have I been unable to convert even one single person yet?

Two simple reasons: almost everybody who cares about a clean floor already has a vacuum cleaner; and without exception they actually prefer to clean their floor themselves to make sure the job is done to their own high standard. They don’t want to be freed of the burden of cleaning the floor. They might tell a utopian product manager that they would love to be able to trust the cleaning to a robot, but you know what? They never will. Their housekeeping ability is closely associated with their self-esteem. You would have to pay them to allow a robot to do it, and even then they would stand there and watch it work, waiting for it to fail. That’s not increasing quality of life, it’s increasing anxiety. The only product people are prepared to buy that increases their anxiety is tobacco, apparently.

Even good startup founders make bad decisions

As startup founders designing online services, what can we learn from the mistakes of the utopian product manager? It is this: the very faith that makes you a good startup founder makes you a lousy judge of what consumers truly want to buy from you.

To even get a break as a startup founder you need an idea; more than idea, you need a dream, preferably an unshakeable one. You need to evangelise not just consumers but sceptical investors, employees, industry and media. You can walk in with a meter-high stack of convincing-looking qualitative and quantitative research meant to back you up, but at best that’ll help with the post-purchase rationalisation. People will get on-board because they believe you, and they will believe you only if you have faith. And faith does not require facts. In fact, the more you have faith, the less you need facts and the more likely you are to select the facts that reinforce your faith.

The successful startup founders I know often have the uncanny ability to go to bat — and hit a home run — for ideas they don’t have much faith in. It’s a psychological makeup that is useful in sales roles; perhaps that’s why I know many successful startup founders from a sales background. Faith can really get in the way of building products consumers want. Not having faith in your product and your strategy requires you to apply reason, it allows you to subject a business to the strictest scrutiny, to make 110% sure that consumers aren’t just being polite to the nice young man who asked them if they’d be interested in buying a nuclear-powered flying car.

If you have faith, perhaps you have the wrong product, or you are the wrong person for the job. Get yourself a CEO (stay on as founder) an equal partner or an advisory board who don’t need faith and then pay close attention to what they’re telling you about what the market is saying.

Sadly for those of us who’d still love to be flying our robot housemaids, if you don’t have faith but everybody believes you anyway, you’re well on your way to success.

(That’s a depressing note to end on, so here’s a very funny skit about flying cars and what you should — or shouldn’t — be prepared to do to get one.)