Month: August 2018

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App Store 30%

I recently read about the backlash on Apple and Google’s 30% cut on every transaction on their stores.

Fortnite game will no longer be supported on Android. Players are asked to disable the security features and install the application outside of Google play store. I wonder if others will start doing this, or if there will be a new Android store with better economics at least for games.

This is not possible on iOS. Today I was on YouTube app on my iPhone and it prompted me to try YouTube premium free for one month. As usual I like to check those funnels and noticed something weird. It costed 16 Euro per month after the trial even though I saw it before on the web version costing 12. I went to YouTube mobile web version and surprise surprise, it costs 12.

So Fortnite is circumventing Google, and Google can’t circumvent Apple so they are charging more, and probably Spotify have a similar dynamic with both Apple and Google since they can charge less for their music services since they both own Apple and Google music respectively.

What I like about this interesting dynamic is how it shows the strength of the big players, and that there is no single playbook for how to do things.

Fortnite will sacrifice the revenue drop from play store, because apparently they expect to make more from their fanatic users who will just do anything to download the game. And Google is charging more on iOS, expecting users to not bother and still pay.

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Tweets are my own

Many people on twitter have in their bio some sort of a disclaimer such as “Tweets are my own and don’t represent my employer”. In my opinion this is totally useless.

If I say something stupid related to my employer, the audience following me won’t say oh, he doesn’t represent his employer, it is just him. People don’t care and won’t draw such a distinction.

And if it gets worse, you will be sacrificed by your employer. No hard feelings, it is the deal.

That’s why I wouldn’t waste part of my twitter bio on something that useless.

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Premortem

One of the things I observed many times in different jobs is that I am skeptical of something, I raise my voice, no one listens. I talk privately to other people that were part of the same discussion, they have similar concerns to mine, but they they didn’t raise them.

One reason could be not wanting to sound the skeptic in the room, or they don’t feel comfortable speaking in a group setting, or there was this particular person (most of the time a big manager) they don’t want to speak in front of. Regardless of the reason, it is one of those cases where multiple people have concerns but wouldn’t raise them.

I was listening to the knowledge project episode with Annie Duke, a world poker champion. One of the things she mentioned about decision making is premortems. I searched it further and found this Harvard Business Review article from 2007. I normally don’t like HBR articles due to their repetitive boring pattern and lack of insights most of the time (I can write a post specifically on that), but this one is a good start on the topic.

Here are the parts I like the most:

A premortem is the hypothetical opposite of a postmortem. A postmortem in a medical setting allows health professionals and the family to learn what caused a patient’s death. Everyone benefits except, of course, the patient. A premortem in a business setting comes at the beginning of a project rather than the end, so that the project can be improved rather than autopsied.
……
A typical premortem begins after the team has been briefed on the plan. The leader starts the exercise by informing everyone that the project has failed spectacularly. Over the next few minutes those in the room independently write down every reason they can think of for the failure—especially the kinds of things they ordinarily wouldn’t mention as potential problems, for fear of being impolitic.
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Next the leader asks each team member, starting with the project manager, to read one reason from his or her list; everyone states a different reason until all have been recorded. After the session is over, the project manager reviews the list, looking for ways to strengthen the plan.

I didn’t know about premortems before. Sounds interesting as it provides this safe environment where different people can raise their concerns. I imagine the biggest challenge would be when to organize one? which decisions need a premortem? and how open are the people involved to facing their potential failure before a new exciting initiative they are going into? Those are questions I am yet to answer.