Product Development: 9 Steps for Creative Problem Solving [INFOGRAPHIC]

Alvin Toffler e o "choque do futuro" Alvin Toffler nasceu em 3 de outubro de 1928 e é um escritor norte-americano conhecido pelo seu estilo futurista. É doutorado em Letras, Leis e Ciências e desenvolveu grandes ideias sobre a revolução das comunicações e a revolução digital. Foi professor da Russel Sage Foundation, da Cornell University, e é muito conhecido pelas suas grandes obras famosas (Choque do Futuro e A Terceira Onda). O escritor futurista é casado também com uma escritora futurista, chamada Heidi Toffler. Ideias de Alvin Toffler Alvin Toffler acreditava que havia uma sobrecarga de informações devido ao aumento das tecnologias e que isso impactava diretamente no cotidiano das pessoas. A sobrecarga informativa era o tema mais defendido por Toffler desde o início de sua carreira, atribuindo este fenómeno a um grande stress da população que gera um problema social. O sucesso de suas ideias é que Toffler teve a capacidade de prever que todas as pessoas seriam dominadas pela tecnologia e teriam um computador em casa.

The Web & Business Tools Startups Use Most [INFOGRAPHIC] Putting the likes of the super-funded aside (Color, anyone?), most early-stage startups operate on tight budgets and spend their dollars sparingly. A bevy of web services have made start-up costs all the more affordable, but now there's the conundrum of nearly too much choice. The folks at BestVendor surveyed 550 startup staffers — most in marketing and executive administration positions — on their favorite tools for email, accounting, web analytics, CRM, productivity, design, storage, payment processing, operations and so forth. Their answers, in aggregate, speak to the growing trend in startups moving toward predominately cloud-based operations. So what's hot among startups these days? Check out the infographic below for even more insight on the web and business services that today's startups are selecting en masse.

Structuring the software design process I had a great time last week discussing software architecture across a mix of QCon, our software architecture training and the IASA session that I ran. I mentioned this earlier in the year, but we've enhanced our material around the architecture definition process to include much more guidance on how you go about actually designing software when all you have is a set of requirements and a blank sheet of paper. In addition to understanding the requirements (functional and non-functional), constraints and principles; it's really about putting some structure into the diagrams that you might draw during your initial agile modeling rather than drawing up a single very complex and cluttered picture that is hard to explain or understand. I've already written about not needing a UML tool to undertake the software design process and I normally use either a whiteboard, flip chart or index cards, especially when I'm collaborating on the design with others.

How Entrepreneurs Can Create Their Own Luck Editor’s note: James Altucher is an investor, programmer, author, and entrepreneur. He is Managing Director of Formula Capital and has written 6 books on investing. His latest book is I Was Blind But Now I See. I’m in even worse trouble now. Now I’m speaking for one hour at Defrag in Boulder, Colorado next week on November 9 and I’m terrified. I could open up with the same line I used on Barry’s panel, “When I was walking over here I had an erection. Technically, the title of my talk is “Success is a Sexually Contagious Disease” but I only gave them that title because it sounded neat and it was the title of a blog post I then published. The conference itself is about entrepreneurship. So I guess right now I can see if it was luck or if I learned some lessons. 1) Luck is similar to “being at the right place at the right time”. 2) My venture firm being sold I learned one thing: have at least one partner who is a great negotiatior. So here’s how you “Create your luck”: D) Quantity.

To Create Long-term Shareholder Value, Start with Employees - Kenneth W. Freeman by Kenneth W. Freeman | 12:38 PM October 12, 2011 This blog post is part of the HBR Online Forum The CEO’s Role in Fixing the System. When I first became head of MetPath in 1995, a troubled Corning subsidiary that eventually became Quest Diagnostics, I dropped in on what was one of the largest clinical testing laboratories in the U.S. As I walked the halls, I found that almost no one would look me in the eye. Something was clearly wrong. The attrition rate turned out to be 45%. As Raymond Gilmartin writes, people work not just for money but also for meaning in their lives. That would require, as Dominic Barton observes, balancing financial metrics with measures that track the ability to forge internal alignment. Why employee satisfaction and not customer satisfaction? That means not only treating all employees with dignity, respect, and fairness but also helping them see how critical they are to the enterprise. Eventually, the voluntary attrition rate fell to approximately 10%.

Eric Ries On How To Make Any Company Move Like A Lean Startup "It's like an alternate reality," Eric Ries says. The entrepreneur-turned-author whose Lean Startup--the book, then the movement--infused the Valley/Alley lexicon with now-ubiquitous terms like "pivot" and "minimum viable product," is now boldly going where few startup guys have gone before: corporate America. It's "like on Star Trek or something," he says of his consulting forays with organizations including Intuit, GE, and the U.S. government. While a 300,000-person company looks nothing like one with 100 people, Ries says the problems that entrepreneurs in those super-sized ecosystems are dealing with are the exact same ones that he made a name for himself researching. "It's not 'intrepreneurship,' it's not 'like entrepreneurship,''' Ries says. In turn, entrepreneurship is a management discipline, one that can be applied regardless of company size, but only under a certain disruptive context. Entrepreneurship is uncertain--extremely so. Not by slogan.

Four Strategy Gurus to Avoid - Scott Anthony by Scott Anthony | 3:29 PM October 12, 2011 About a year ago I miscalculated — badly — on the Microsoft Kinect. In terms of speed of adoption, only Apple’s iPad has rivaled the Kinect. Aside from some tough comments on my blog, the long-term repercussions were low. That’s pretty much what happens to a pundit who gets it wrong — nothing. Life is tougher for the strategist. The non-user. The projector. The freeze framer. The opiner. As an occasionally unhelpful pundit myself, I hope I’ve helped you dodge these dangerous characters — or at least put their opinions into perspective. "Entrepreneurs are crazy" and that's a good thing By Kurt Wagner, reporter FORTUNE -- In a crowded seminar room in Silicon Valley recently, author Steve Blank asked the audience who among them wished to start their own company. A few dozen hands shot up. Blank has never been shy about his opinions. You've said that entrepreneurs are "crazy." What is the biggest mistake that young entrepreneurs make? Epiphanies can have a powerful impact on an entrepreneur. How important is it for young companies to remain flexible and understand what it means to 'pivot'? Do entrepreneurs put enough focus on customer relationships? The Startup Owner's Manual is your second book. The second book was very funny because ten years later I would say these things and people would look at me like, 'well of course.' If you could work for a startup today, which one would it be?