Author Archives: Eric

About Eric

I like eating yummy food and watching movies. Co-founder of @HuskyLaboratory, @FoodSkipper, @8893Project.

The Problem with Web-based Productivity Apps

by Eric Posted on March 12, 2013

Just read this TC article on Draft, a new word processor. Tried it out, the interface is quite nice and slick, I like it a lot.

But, as with any web-based productivity software, after a while I will just default back to Office on my computer.

The truth is, as with all browser-based productivity apps, I have problems not being able to use my shortcuts (often limited, if existed at all), not being able to access my files offline, not being able to have the comfort of managing the files in a way that I’m so used to. As nicely designed as these apps are, they face the very fundamental challenging of altering user behavior.

Sure, casual users will be using things like Google Doc for collaboration, but these apps in their current state are not conducive for power users.

My money is still on Microsoft – though Office + SkyDrive integration is still clunky, I think with a bit more work it will deliver something that users will be happy with. It will be interesting to see how Chrome OS further develops its offline capabilities to compete with Microsoft, but I suspect they’re still got some catch-up to do.

Posted in Marketing, Thoughts | 1 Comment

Don’t be offended

by Eric Posted on February 20, 2013

A friend was telling me yesterday about how oblivious his friends seem to be to the app he’s working on.

I told him, don’t be offended! It’s not like your friends have become LESS of a friend (ok, that could also be the case), but it’s more than likely that:

1) Yes, there is a distinct possibility that your product just… sucks. Or not relevant to your friends. Know who your customers are – sometimes it won’t be your friends! With Husky Chat, our primary user base are turning into 8th graders who log on to chat with friends on game sites – I don’t expect my friends to get on and chat with them.

2) Guess what – people don’t spend 100% of their time working on your app like you do. There are other things in life that they’re busy about, so sometimes they just forget. You will often get the “so what are you working on now”, “how’s the app doing”, or get an unsubscription email here and there, but that’s all to be expected!

So don’t be offended! Work harder, create a good product, and if affirmation is what you crave, look to your loyal users – because they are just as awesome as your friends.

Posted in Start-up | Leave a comment

Facebook needs to solve the “trust” issue before rolling out payments

by Eric Posted on February 1, 2013

Yesterday Facebook announced the Facebook gift card, which got me pretty excited.

This is similar to what Google Wallet is doing (they’re testing a physical Google Wallet card that you can use, using the app to choose what card you want to associate with your Google Wallet card), and very similar to what PayPal was attempting to do with the physical PayPal card in store. Instead of jumping to NFC payments like Google Wallet attempted to do, it seems like the trend now (and rightfully so) is to create an intermediate product (the card) as the infrastructure / consumer behavior catches up.

I think we can (and I believe Facebook is) looking to Google Wallet to see where Facebook is heading toward.

The biggest problem for Facebook comes down to TRUST. Whereas Google has (somewhat) established themselves as a trustworthy company, Facebook has a long way to go before they can catch up in that arena. With all the privacy issues that Facebook has, it is going to be very difficult for people to get on the Facebook payments bandwagon!

What do you think? Would you trust Facebook to hold on to your money?

Posted in Payment, Thoughts | 2 Comments