Any.do

I've long searched for the perfect to-do app. I was a power-user of rememberthemilk for a few years. As much as I liked its flexibility, ultimately the interface, both mobile and desktop, was too cumbersome.

Any.do might be the answer. It has the cleanest, smartest interface I've encountered. The Chrome plug-in is brilliant. It clearly has a mobile-first design (let's face it, to-do lists are most valuable when you are away from your computer).

For any to-do app to work, you have to want to use it. Any.do seems to be just that. Like any startup, I hope they can find the resources to keep it going, and keep improving. The email-to-task function could be better (I have multiple email addresses to use), and the iOS integration appears to lag slightly behind Android.

The rabbit-out-of-the-hat trick would be Salesforce.com integration...since the only thing less productive than not keeping a to-do list is managing that list in SFDC (RIP do.com!).

Tolosa

It's time for a wine post. I still drink it, in case you were wondering.

Some notes below on Tolosa, a super little winery in the Edna Valley near San Luis Obispo. We hit it when we were down in Pismo Beach last month. It's definitely worth a stop if you are in the area. 

Some tasting notes on wines we picked up, all estate grown:

• 2012 "No Oak" Chardonnay. A really nice fruit-forward Chardonnay that's a welcome change from heavier efforts in Northern California. It's almost French-style, crisp and light, and would pair well with shellfish, chicken, or just some crackers on a warm day.
• 2011 Pinot Noir. The Central Coast is a good Pinot region, and this wine picks up some of those characteristics. It's medium bodied and earthy. I actually enjoyed it a bit more at the winery than my first bottle at home, which was sharper than I remembered. Still, if you like Pinot you should pick it up.
• 2010 Syrah. I don't usually go out of my way to drink Syrah. While I was there we tasted it, I thought it was pleasant, so we picked up a few bottles. It was far better than I remembered when we got home. It has a pepper spice that really pops when you sip it, but is smooth on the finish with a bit of citrus. It's a great wine, and I wish I bought more of it (I guess it's an excuse for a return trip).

 The people down at Tolosa are really friendly, know their stuff, and the grounds are beautiful. I'm definitely looking forward to returning, for more Syrah if nothing else!

Met expectations...

Sometimes, when you extend into the edges of the product you sell, you don't know what to expect. So, when I had a question from a customer about Google Analytics, I thought I'd try it myself. If you're a regular reader of my blog, you know I track everything. 

Of course, I'm the only regular reader of my blog. But humor me!

Tableau makes visualizing Google Analytics dead simple. Like, "this is so simple why would I ever do it another way" simple.

It goes like this:

• Choose the Google Analytics Data source
• Sign in to Google
• Choose your property and profile
• Choose your date range, measure group, and dimensions

Then, drag and drop in Tableau as you would any data source.

What makes Tableau great is not just that new features are added, it's that they are added (in the words of our leadership) the "Tableau Way" - simple and elegant. I guess I've used (and built) enough software that was - ahem - inelegant, so I appreciate a good thing when I use it.

If I were in Marketing for a living, this would be a must have. Especially if I'm doing some A/B testing (shout out to Optimizley). I'm not in Marketing, but I like most of the Marketing people I meet. They tend to send well-formatted emails, which is a dying art in our society.

For me, I just want to see if I can come close to the popularity of Big Daddy Paul. Doubtful, but a guy can dream.

Disclaimer: I work for Tableau. But it really is that easy.

Selling and racing...

Every sales review is a chance to reflect. Since we had an epiphany last week, my first at Tableau, it's time to share some thoughts.

Sales goals bring me back to 2009, when I was in the middle of training for Escape from Alcatraz. The prospect of swimming across the San Francisco Bay with 2000 other people struck plenty of fear in me, and fear is a tremendous motivator. So I talked it up, out of pride, and out of nerves, and all my co-workers were part of my training squad, in spirit.

A friend on my sales team at the time asked me 2 months before the race: "What is your goal, to win?"

This, I thought at the time, is a really good question. After all, I'm competitive. Of course I want to win. But this simply wasn't going to happen. I was competing against profesionals, experienced age-groupers who had raced it before, and some people who were just better suited for Escape.

But does this mean I shouldn't try to win?

I stepped up my swimming leading up to the race

At a prior company, at a sales kickoff meeting, all sales people were encouraged to write down their 3 goals for the year. "Think big!" "Don't settle for 100% of quota!" "Shoot for #1!!!" and other lofty objectives were encouraged by sales leadership. Everyone dutifully wrote down "300% quota!" "#1 Sales Rep!" and other goals that would be put up in cubicles and on monitors on every sales floor. 

But here's the problem with lofty goals: they don't make you successful. As I was training for Escape, if I had simply written down "Goal: win the race" - I would have done myself a disservice. Instead, I wrote down my training objectives, 3 things that would make me a better triathlete, and give me a chance to win:

• Improve in the water: training swims at least 4x per week
• Diet: maintain my optimal race weight during training
• Hills: add elevation to every training session to get faster

Instead of focusing on winning, I focused on the things I needed to do to put myself in position to win. And by doing that, I went to the start line with one mindset: to win the race.

For the record, I finished 411th. 

Salesforce & Oracle

The Salesforce/Oracle partnership has been widely reported, but here are a few points that probably weren't:

It's symbolic for Heroku. 

When the Heroku acquisition was announced, it sure sounded like the next generation Salesforce Platform. Heroku's shared-nothing approach and open standards fix two oft-leveled criticisms of Force.com. But it's an uneasy relationship, at best, with little coordination (how long does it take you to find mention of Salesforce on the Heroku website) and departure of many key Heroku execs in recent months.

It relegates Salesforce's HR strategy to the periphery. 

Many speculated that the launch of Work.com would be the start of a full-on assault in the HR software market. But this agreement seems to boost Oracle HR applications, while Salesforce stays in their defined niche of employee perks and social performance reviews.

It's good for Workday.

Workday is already competing with Oracle. This takes away the threat of competing with Salesforce, which in some ways would be much more difficult. Sure, they lose a customer, but that's a good trade.

There's still a place for Postgres.

The Salesforce application underpinnings are in dire need of an upgrade. But who's to say Postgres won't be a part of that? I haven't seen anything that indicates this is an exclusive relationship, even if it is for 9 years...

I have an awesome new job

So, you have a new job...

That line, or a variation thereof, has been sent to me dozens of times in the past month. I've taken 2 things from it:

• I'm very, very grateful for the outpouring of support from friends and colleagues.
• A lot of people I know are searching for something different in their own careers.

On the first point, many thanks to many great people I have the privilege of knowing and calling my friends.

On the second point, I want to feel valued for my experience, but challenged to get better every day. Just like many of you. Some points from my job search:

• Interview. A lot. There's absolutely no downside to taking an interview. Like anything else, the more you do it, the better you'll get. Informational interviews are a great way to practice.
• Find the right role. A lot of companies, good companies, will try to sell you on a role you might not want as a "foot in the door" or "a way in" a company that you admire. You have to be 100% passionate about the job you have here and now. It does neither you nor the company any good to take a job with the expectation that "something better" will come along. So...
• Be patient. It's easy to want to jump at the first thing that's better than where you are, but you owe it to yourself to wait for the job that will get you fired-up to get after it every day. Figure out what that is for you, and don't make a move until you find it.
• As a candidate, recruiters work for you. Once you get past the initial interview, recruiters (external and internal) have incentive to get you in. Use them to sell for you when you aren't there. Get them to give you insight into the people, the decision making process, and the company culture. Keep asking them questions, and questioning their answers.
• Always be open, honest, and professional. I've heard different schools of thought when it comes to interviewing. I heard advice on "playing your cards" and "negotiating the deal." But I think it's best to be honest and upfront with everyone, from the admin to the CEO. The whole thing is really unique: good companies are in demand, as are good people. Both sides have to agree to make it work, and both sides will always have options for any given role. Good companies, and good candidates, will communicate and negotiate with honesty and transparency. 

With that, I can honestly say I'm incredibly happy with the choice I made. And, by the way, we're hiring.

Cheers!

Mobile and Enterprise Applications: Answers Questioned

I've been talking a lot about mobility with customers over the last several weeks. It's top of mind with the release of the Mobile SDK 1.2, which makes it simple to create mobile applications for just about anything. Some common themes from customers:

• Mobile use cases are different. Many (if not most) need to be quick logging of activities. It's not working through a complex business problem on your iPhone.
• An analogy from consumer software is Foursquare versus Facebook. Foursquare is fast, designed to get a user in and out of the application in seconds. Facebook is designed to hold your attention for minutes (heck, hours if you're stuck in the airport).
• Like Foursquare, there should be no barrier to the end user for mobile data entry: logging a sales activity, a shipment, an idea. And geo-location tags make that even easier. 
• Like Facebook, users will need to connect with others in the company. And almost all users need some kind of document library available. That generally dovetails into social media business requirements.
• BYOD just makes sense, it's ultimately much easier for most businesses to support, and is one less thing to manage. So HTML5 will be a natural design choice for a lot of this...even more so as the specification and support evolves.

Ultimately, progressive companies want to use mobile trends as a competitive advantage. Obviously, mobile personnel become more productive. But capturing more data, and more accurate data, will eventually lead to more agile, productive businesses. And that's where it gets interesting...