103: Prude investors, dying in a world built for men, a tool to find your value, and the end of "move fast break things"
Happy Saturday, from snowy Boston.
In this edition #103 of The World's Best Newsletter:
1. The Era of “Move Fast and Break Things” Is Over
2. The secret lives of Facebook moderators in America
3. Study finds artists become famous through their friends, not the originality of their work
4. Deadly consequences of living in a world built for men
5. Music scientifically proven to help you focus
6. What is your personal value proposition? Here's a quiz (no it's not from Buzzfeed.)
7. Quote of the week: Prude investors
1. The Era of “Move Fast and Break Things” Is Over
Hemant Taneja shares a critical point of view in Harvard Business Review:
Larry Fink’s 2018 letter to CEOs articulated the need for a new paradigm of stakeholder accountability for businesses across the spectrum. In the technology sector, venture capitalists must play a role in driving this change. The technologies of tomorrow—genomics, blockchain, drones, AR/VR, 3D printing—will impact lives to an extent that will dwarf that of the technologies of the past ten years. At the same time, the public will continue to grow weary of perceived abuses by tech companies, and will favor businesses that address economic, social, and environmental problems.
In short, the “move fast and break things” era is over. “Minimum viable products” must be replaced by “minimum virtuous products”—new offerings that test for the effect on stakeholders and build in guards against potential harms.
For VCs, questions are the tool of our trade. If innovation is to survive into the 21st century, we need to change how companies are built by changing the questions we ask of them.
He proposes 8 questions every VC should be asking, including:
What systemic, societal change do you aspire to create with your product?
How will you sustain the virtue of your product?
How do you drive the greatest impact on an individual level?
What is your optimal growth rate? How will you keep yourself accountable as you scale?
What’s your framework for leveraging data and AI responsibly?
Does your business foster an ecosystem in which innovation thrives?
How do you define and promote diversity in the context of your business?
How does your company dynamically evolve in response to regulation and account for the various stakeholders your product impacts?
2. The secret lives of Facebook moderators in America
One dire consequence of Facebook's "move fast break things" culture is the harrowing story of individuals who moderate its content.
They are one example of what is being "broken" in the process.
For the low salary of $30k/year, you too can be forced to watch a man be murdered, read racist jokes, and see graphic images, only to decide what goes on to be seen in our news feeds, and what is deemed inappropriate.
The impact is staggering on these individuals: PTSD, depression, anxiety. And very little resources are provided to these already underpaid employees from Facebook's vendor, Cognizant.
What is the cost of these kinds of working conditions? What is the value compared to their mental health? What do we value as tech-builders, Facebook users, as citizens, allowing this to occur under such secrecy?
3. Study finds artists become famous through their friends, not the originality of their work
How important are social networks in how famous an artist becomes?
We inherently know we won't become famous in a vacuum, and should diversify our circles, but it's fun to see that key lesson proven out with data, machine learning, and network visualization. See this MOMA interactive data in particular.
The finding?
"While past studies have suggested that there is a link between creativity and fame, Ingram and Banerjee found, in contrast, that there was no such correlation for these artists. Rather, artists with a large and diverse network of contacts were most likely to be famous, regardless of how creative their art was."
Diversify your circles, earn renown. Simple, right?
4. Deadly consequences of living in a world built for men
Happy Women's History Month! For some women, the consequences of living in a world built around male data can be deadly.
This article in The Guardian from author Caroline Criado Perez details the deadly truth about a world built for men – from stab vests to car crashes:
"Crash-test dummies based on the ‘average’ male are just one example of design that forgets about women – and puts lives at risk"
Other examples cited include:
safety harnesses
standard sizing on hazard/dust/eye masks
personal protective equipment
body armor and police kit belts
bathrooms
research about chemicals used in female-skewing roles (nail salons)
standard size of a bag of cement
hand tools
the average smartphone size
voice-recognition software
crash test dummies and car seat design protecting against whiplash
Fun fact: Google’s speech-recognition software is 70% more likely to accurately recognize male speech. And when Apple launched its health-monitoring system, it forgot a period tracker - but remembered to launch blood pressure, steps taken, blood alcohol level, even molybdenum and copper intake.
Why does this happen? Because a "gender data gap" exists from our historical mindset that humanity is almost exclusively male.
"We continue to rely on data from studies done on men as if they apply to women. Specifically, Caucasian men aged 25 to 30, who weigh 70kg. This is “Reference Man” and his superpower is being able to represent humanity as a whole. Of course, he does not."
I used to tell my friends to handle situations like any other mediocre white guy would -- with the confident assumption that they deserved it - I think I'll start using "Reference Man." He sounds like the world's most useless action figure.
Reminder: feminism is the exceedingly fair demand that there also be a "Reference Woman" when designing the world around us. Greedy, I know. But to continue otherwise literally has deadly consequences for women.
5. Music scientifically proven to help you focus
H/T to Joanna Lord on Twitter -- focus@will - a great resource for music scientifically proven to help you focus based on your specific style of thinking and working.
6. What is your personal value proposition? Here's a quiz (no it's not from Buzzfeed.)
I have a fabulous new office in Allston (part of Boston, but not downtown.) My office-mate Kim Donlan is a brilliant marketer, branding expert, and human behavior specialist.
She recently shared with me a tool that uncovers what your strengths are. As she explained to me: "You are happiest when you are closest to who you are."
Instructions:
Go to the UPenn Center for happiness research and take the test entitled “Brief Strength Test." The test will provide you with ~ 10 strengths.
Make a screen grab of the strengths. Pay attention to the definitions of the strengths. Mull these over. Think deeply about them and what they mean to you. How you interpret the strength is important and it will change as you consider it.
Happy quizzing :)
7. Quote of the week: prude investors
"When prude investors cockblock sex tech, no one gets off."
- a FastCo headline shared by Cindy Gallop in response to a plea from Backstage Capital's General Partner, Christine Pitts, asking for women's health, femtech, and sextech pitches. Go pitch her!
Have a great weekend, and thanks for being here.
Katie
Website | LinkedIn | Twitter
>> Share The World's Best Newsletter on Twitter, or LinkedIn (and thank you!)
March world tour:
Join me for the MeritDirect Marketing Experience, March 6-7, 2019 in Austin, TX.
I'll be at SXSW helping to promote a new music app, Undrground, and speaking on a panel at Google Fiber on Monday 3/11 at 5:30 with Women in Digital. Register here.
Viva Las Vegas... modern marketers, join me at Oracle's Modern Customer Experience event, March 19-21, 2019. Code CXKatie saves you $500 off the ticket price.
Looking forward to the Marketing Nation Summit, now part of Adobe Summit, March 24-28, 2019 in Vegas.
More events:
PLAY 2019 from Brightcove is May 14th-16th, 2019. Let's talk video and how it moves buyers from apathy to action. Join us in Boston
San Diego, here we come, for ConquerLocal 2019 - where technology and marketing strategy converge for companies who sell marketing solutions to local businesses.
Save the date, I'm speaking at Content Marketing World, September 3-6 in Cleveland.
>> Book me to speak <<