Vijay Basrur

Keeping it Simple

I love explaining concepts using analogies. I think if you understand the concept very well, an analogy is a great way to explaining it to someone who doesn’t understand it.

I was talking the other day with a colleague about Internet advertising and he complained about the fact that some of the traffic it brings in, is undesirable. Is there a way to avoid it? Actually its very akin to window shoppers or casual shoppers who walk into a store but never buy anything. Would you stop them? At times more people in a store attracts even more people. Eventually only a few would buy. But as long as you have the correct merchandising, some interesting offers etc., the conversion rates would be comfortable. Its very similar online as well. The rules pretty much stay the same.

Explaining things in plain English always helps the other person to understand the concept very well. This way I think the ability to retain that information is also quite high. A VC has started a nice series called MBA Mondays which explains concepts in lucid English. Check this article to know a bit about Compound Interest

Another gem I came across was sent by email by my friend MJ was a video explanation of how differential gears work. Check the video here. I had a tough time understanding this concept in college but the video tutorial makes it sound so easy.

As the adage goes, just KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)

Rewriting to make it simpler

I have been working on some of our mailers to make the content more simple. Ironically it is much tougher than I thought. We are striving to ensure that the user experience is simple yet helpful.

Like Guy Kawasaki says about his 10/20/30 rule and Rajesh Jain shares his thoughts on Public speaking, it does take a lot of effort in keeping things simple.

Google exemplifies simplicity. In the Indian context I think there are very few folks who keep it simple. Cleartrip does a great job. I worked with the folks at Bookeazy and I think their efforts were pretty good. There are quite a few but much less in number that you would want ideally.

For now it’s back to the simple stuff!