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5 votes
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Using a "lifetime supply of bacon" contest to distract from negative press about a $473 million lawsuit judgement
6 votes -
Amazon’s US antitrust antagonist has a breakthrough idea
19 votes -
The death of a movie theatre
7 votes -
Lego wants to completely remake its toy bricks (without anyone noticing)
36 votes -
WildStar developer Carbine Studios shuts down
12 votes -
Eve Online maker CCP Games sells to Black Desert Online’s Pearl Abyss for $425 million
18 votes -
Whole Foods workers seek to unionize, says Amazon is ‘exploiting our dedication’
13 votes -
Nestle says slavery reporting requirements could cost customers
8 votes -
Blood-Testing Firm Theranos to Dissolve
6 votes -
Capilano, Australia's biggest honey producer, and supermarkets accused of selling 'fake' honey
8 votes -
What does monopsony mean? "Family-owned" chicken farms offer an answer
8 votes -
Twitter was going to ban Alex Jones — until its CEO stepped in and protected him
19 votes -
Should Grindr users worry about what China will do with their data?
16 votes -
Koch Media acquires Timesplitters and Second Sight IP
10 votes -
While Google is attacked over privacy concerns and perceived bias, DuckDuckGo raised $10M
44 votes -
The rise of giant consumer startups that said no to investor money
9 votes -
Uber’s bundles
8 votes -
Live Nation's grip on music festivals 'stifling competition'
4 votes -
Walt Disney World workers reach deal for $15 minimum wage by 2021
13 votes -
Tesla announces they're remaining a public company
19 votes -
Meet the company preparing to be the last CD distributor standing
5 votes -
Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop expanding to Canada — and some medical experts aren’t happy
11 votes -
Urban Decay discontinues popular Naked palette after eight years
11 votes -
Central Africa's first major video games studio, Kiro'o, trains young Cameroonians to navigate obstacles in real-life business
6 votes -
What if a female CEO acted like Elon Musk? The Tesla CEO’s tearful New York Times interview reveals a lot about the double standards men and women face.
23 votes -
Blind loyalty - How a social network is redefining the future of corporate culture
14 votes -
Advice on Google's OKR Framework
I've hard a lot of great results using Google's OKR (Objectives and Key Results) framework in my roles leading technical and product teams. I've been tasked with bringing this framework across my...
I've hard a lot of great results using Google's OKR (Objectives and Key Results) framework in my roles leading technical and product teams. I've been tasked with bringing this framework across my organization, including to teams like marketing and business development.
My main issue recently has been around defining the key results of the projects that our teams are going to be pursuing. All of the advice I've gotten in the past has been to ensure that KRs are quantitative, NOT qualitative. This has been at odds with some of the projects the marketing and business teams are planning on working on. These are projects like...
- create a new marketing plan given the new budget constraints
- audit the distribution process to increase our information about the retail sales process
The push back I am getting is along the lines of "when I create the new marketing plan, the project will be complete, and therefore it's just whether or not I finished the plan that matters." i.e. if the objective is finished then the project is a success. My point of view is that ALL projects should have metrics attached to them, and if we can't measure the progress then we cannot show the added value to the business as a result of our effort.
The natural response is: what metrics would you attribute to projects like these? And THAT'S where I could use help. Coming from a product/tech background, my understanding of marketing, biz, and operations leaves something to be desired.
For the marketing plan, I suggested a metric could be to reduce the monthly marketing budget from $current to $future. For the distribution audit, I suggest we track the # of insights/recommendations we produced as a result of the audit. The pushback was that these metrics "didn't really matter" and that "how can we set a goal on insights - even one good insight could be worth a lot, but I could come up with 4 crappy insights just to achieve a numerical goal."
I'm a bit at a loss. I understand their point of view, and I really feel in my heart that we need to be pursuing measurable KRs. Do you have any advice?
6 votes -
How to hire
5 votes -
The shareholder value myth
5 votes -
Elizabeth Warren unveils bold new plan to reshape American capitalism
21 votes -
Elon Musk confronts a fateful tweet and an ‘excruciating’ year
13 votes -
StackExchange's new Code of Conduct
21 votes -
The $289 million verdict against Monsanto is scientifically outrageous
12 votes -
This burrito includes an arbitration clause
8 votes -
Uber narrows loss but is a long way from finding profit
6 votes -
The science behind the Roundup lawsuit
6 votes -
Amazon in running to acquire the Landmark Theatres movie chain
4 votes -
Where even Walmart won’t go: How Dollar General took over rural America
8 votes -
Elon Musk’s funding for Tesla wasn’t so secure
13 votes -
$100 million was once big money for a start-up. Now, it’s common
8 votes -
Weed killer in $289 million cancer verdict found in oat cereal and granola bars
10 votes -
Petty charges, princely profits
5 votes -
Saudi fund in talks to invest in Tesla buyout deal
4 votes -
Elon Musk’s Tesla funding wasn’t quite ‘secured’ after all
9 votes -
Where even Walmart won't go: How Dollar General took over rural America
13 votes -
Google adds warning for users searching for Fortnite in Play Store, could lose $50 million or more in 2018 from Fortnite bypassing it
18 votes -
Saudi Arabia is looking to invest big in Tesla as the company teases going private
8 votes -
Layoffs at Watson Health reveal IBM’s problem with AI
7 votes -
After reading Bad Blood (the story of Theranos) I feel conflicted.
Tweetstorm related: https://twitter.com/bioxcession/status/1028322450910732289 Upfront: the basic premise of the book is that Theranos was an exploitative, evil company headed by two exploitative,...
Tweetstorm related: https://twitter.com/bioxcession/status/1028322450910732289
Upfront: the basic premise of the book is that Theranos was an exploitative, evil company headed by two exploitative, evil people. It makes an effort to not apologize for Elizabeth, or blame her actions on anyone else. She was sucked into the vortex of literally being a bloodsucker. In fact, the book - at one point - goes so far as to suggest she may be a sociopath.
Now, the book was a good read, and I think the point makes sense - bad company is bad. But it's stirring up a ton of music in my head - especially since it compared Theranos to "vaporware companies" - practices that the Valley has engaged in since forever (promising endlessly and not delivering).
Vaporware: software or hardware that has been advertised but is not yet available to buy, either because it is only a concept or because it is still being written or designed.
Theranos was no different, except it tried selling vaporware in the form of a healthcare device. Insisting that this device worked (it didn't), and insisting that most of their received blood tests were running on it (they weren't).
It's my opinion that Theranos would have been hailed as an enormous success if they had delayed for long enough to make this technology work. I believe that my point is furthered by the fact that Walgreens waited through two years of delays, of and tolerated outright lies. If the tech ever came out, all would have been forgiven.
My argument boils down to this: Elizabeth wasn't a shitty person, she operated correctly in a shitty system.
She took risks, yes - but they were necessary to maintain the illusion that she had a product that amounted to anything. Eventually, she hoped, her team would crack the nut and she'd come out unscathed.
The problem amounts to our system encouraging this type of behavior - she was visited by the vice president, Kissinger, Mattis, had dinners with the Clintons, and was a fellow at Harvard medical school. Nobody thought twice because the tech was so exciting.
Tildes, what can we do to prevent this type of behavior, and am I overlooking something?
11 votes