Measure twice.. cut once but always start with why

It's an old carpenter's proverb but it applies equally to modern business, especially if performance metrics are easy to measure.

The other day I bumped into an acquaintance at CIC.. his legal services company was doing well and he said his next step was going to invest in a new website.

Why?

Now I'm a web technology guy and I'm always talking about how social media can be leveraged and optimized for almost every situation.. so he gave me a very perplexed look when I asked him why

The bit.ly Trick.. Personalize and Track Metrics Across the Boundaries

I mentioned this to a couple of entrepreneurs at the Unconference and was surprised they didn't use it..
I'm customer development metrics nut so I like to track how people get to my site, or how interested they are once they've met me. If you just put your website/blog link on your business card you'll get a bunch of "empty" direct hits on your home page.
Where did they really come from?

I have a pretty basic card that sums me.. "A Passionate Geek". It has my basics but a blank back which I personalize based on the focus of the event I'm attending and the people I want to engage.

Simple Advice for Entrepreneurs - A Next Steps Flow Chart

What's your background?
It's a very simple question but I bet the resulting advice is 95% accurate..

The Power of Intention vs Pitch: A Lesson from #MassTLC

Capture the passion and energy from MassTLC Innovation Unconference, feed it, grow it and keep it alive and we WILL change the world!!
Yesterday was an amazing event where 600+ entrepreneurs and experts gathered to share their passion for Innovation. It's an unconference so the sessions get built on the fly and organized into 35+ rooms with four time slots. There's also 100+ experts who volunteered to hold three One-on-One meetings with sponsored entrepreneurs..
Over 140+ sessions, 200+ expert meetings along with countless spontaneous discussions that exploded between 600 like minded innovators. It's a logistics nightmare and a mind-filling experience, don't drink coffee.. you won't need it!
The problem: Massive amounts of sessions, ideas and shared learning .. yet you can only be in a single place at one time

• Which session do I attend? How do I learn what happened in the other sessions I was interested in (but couldn't attend)?
• How to you capture the content and takeaways effectively, without wasting time searching/filtering though the noise in the webosphere?
• How do you grow the community, building the discussion beyond those physically present in each session?
• How do you continue the knowledge exchange of the unconference after the physical conference ends?

Next Step Labs - My Next Step

I find it ironic that I haven't taken my own advice.. For the past year I have been advising entrepreneurs and small to medium businesses in the fine art of customer development. Have an idea, prototype or question, get it out there and give interested people the opportunity to engage. Build-Measure-Learn then Iterate.
About Me
I turn dreamers into doers and help develop ideas into successful products or prototypes. My specialty, I help people get unstuck and determine optimized Next Steps towards their goals with a focus on customer and product development, building rapid prototypes, coaching and playing devil's advocate or QA etc etc. I have 13 years of experience running startup and advanced development groups that did just that (as a manager/individual contributor). Then I sailed around the world for Six Years and built a support community with utilties to share/discover content through social media.

Next Step Labs - Bookstore for Startup Related Topics

Here is a list of startup related books that I have been collecting. I certainly haven't read them all but they have been recommended and/or discussed in various startup related blogs/sites.
You can also visit Next Step Labs Bookstore directly directly (on Amazon).

Note: This is an affiliate program. A small percentage of each sale goes to Next Step Labs, the prices you pay are identical to Amazon direct.

What are your favorite, most helpful books? Anything missing from the list?

Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

via youtube.com

A great video on what motivates people by Daniel Pink the author of Drive (hint: it's NOT money).

• Autonomy- the desire to direct our own lives
• Mastery- the urge to get better and better at something that matters 
• Purpose- the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves

I really like the animation format from RSA, a UK organization (spelling differences) focused on 21st century enlightenment.

Anyone who knows me (and my unpaid re-integration work) knows money means almost nothing to me. I'm not sure autonomy is that important to me but mastery and purpose are. I also like to push myself into new uncharted territories where I can grow/learn quickly.
What motivates you?