If we want to understand why people act, we can use the equation: __Behavior = Desire - Resistance__. This means that people with strong self-control either resist desires with high levels of resistance or avoid temptations altogether. 

![self-control](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/3OAEjAd97ixJlG8sabv3DW/38acaaf063517c56d42035876218b0db/self-control.png)

Two well-known studies, the Marshmallow Study and the Everyday Temptations Study, have shown that avoiding temptations is a more effective approach for high self-control. 

In this article, we will summarize the study findings and provide examples of product strategies that use this knowledge to increase user engagement.

1. [Marshmallow study](#marshmallow)
2. [Everyday temptations study](#everyday)
3. [Product examples](#product)

### <a name="marshmallow"></a>1. Marshmallow study
The Marshmallow study investigated how children's attention to rewards affects their ability to delay gratification. 

The study involved 32 preschoolers who were shown a cookie and a pretzel stick and were told that they could have the cookie if they waited for 15 minutes. If they couldn't wait they could get the pretzel stick immediately. The children were divided into two groups, one of which was shown the rewards during the waiting period, while the other was not. 

The results showed that the children who were not shown the rewards lasted almost three times as long as those who were shown the rewards (average wait time of 11.3 mins vs 3.8 minutes).

### <a name="everyday"></a>2. Everyday temptations study
The Everyday Temptations study aimed to investigate the connection between self-control and desire in everyday life. 

The study involved 208 adults who were asked to carry smartphones for a week and report on their current desires, the strength of the desire, any conflict, and whether they acted on it. 

The study found three key findings:
1. People experience strong desires frequently, with almost half of them conflicting with their goals or values.
2. Resisting desires is a common and effective form of self-control. Participants enacted 70% of their desires when there was no resistance, but enactment lowered to 17% when resistance was present.
3. High self-control individuals tend to avoid desires rather than resisting them, leading to lower average desire strength and less conflict. This study suggests that self-control is more about avoiding desires than resisting them. As Warren Buffet said, success is getting what you want, but happiness is wanting what you get.

### <a name="product"></a>3. Product examples
Here are examples of how popular products employ the curiosity gap to increase desire.

__Slack__

Slack sends email notifications to users when someone mentions them or posts in a channel they are following. These messages create a curiosity gap by giving a glimpse of what the message is about but not the full message, encouraging them to open the app and read the full message.

Here is an example of Slack’s email notification to reengage inactive users. Email teases the number of other people who have also sent messages. 
![slack email](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/7jifzjpg3iP9Qcosjdtszd/515d1bb48b1af137a7b61b712b8c9268/slack_email.png)

__LinkedIn__

LinkedIn creates desire by sending email notifications that tells you “X number of people have searched for you in the past week/month” giving a glimpse of the companies who have searched. This notification creates a curiosity gap, they know that someone has searched for them, but they don’t know who or why. 
![linkedin email](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/7qhV8dnZl2QVH6FgfvbiTy/05622de5f75945d521e178789e0ccf23/linkedin_email.png)

### References
- Mischel, W., & Ebbesen, E. B. (1970). Attention in delay of gratification. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology ([link](http://assets.csom.umn.edu/assets/lib/assets/AssetLibrary/2012/Hofmann_Baumeister_Forster_Vohs_2012_JPSP.pdf))
- Hofmann, W., Baumeister, R. F., Förster, G., & Vohs, K. D. (2012). Everyday temptations: an experience sampling study of desire, conflict, and self-control. Journal of personality and social psychology ([link](http://home.cerge-ei.cz/lanchava/Literature_part1/5.%20Time%20Preferences/marshmallow.pdf))


How to use findings from self control research: 1) Marshmallow Study; and 2) Everyday Temptations Study to drive product engagement

self-control

Product Strategies to Modify Behavior - Lessons on Self Control

Commitment bias is the tendency for people to follow actions consistent with their prior beliefs, words and actions and avoid those that are inconsistent.

![commitment-bias](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/64jQHFYz9cGi3m4paOJYvj/346f4a84c3224ec7e8b9601900999f1b/commitment-bias.png)

This helps confirm self-image and avoid cognitive dissonance, which is the mental discomfort of holding two inconsistent beliefs. Robert Cialdini explains that commitments are most effective when they are active, public, effortful and viewed as internally motivated.

Here are three examples of how commitment bias is used to influence people:
1. Organised crime loyalty
2. Selling more toys
3. Good product reviews

## 1. Organised crime loyalty
In solving the problem of loyalty, organised crime groups make use of initiation ceremonies. New members are invited and asked to publicly swear their commitment.
![sopranos](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/2wbk9Z7UM7RGeGalpBexux/ae6632672b53188f79fdeac3ef353fd2/sopranos.jpeg)

An admitted Mafia member reported that his initiation into the Cosa Nostra in Sicily involved a meeting with four men who pricked his finger, required him to rub his bleeding finger on a small picture of a saint and told him to swear an oath of silence while they set the saint’s picture on fire. He was reminded that if he violated the oath the consequence would be death.

> “I had to pronounce the oath…whereby I was to say that should I betray the organization, my flesh would burn like this saint. I was reminded to behave in the appropriate manner…to be silent, not to look at other men’s wives or women, not to steal”
> Tommaso Buscetta (Mafia Member testimony 1985)

The oath-taking commitment is not coerced. New members are invited to join and make a public commitment to other members with their words in a quasi-religious manner (reinforcing their religious self-image), and experience pain via a blood oath to remind themselves of their commitment.

## 2. Selling more toys
In solving the problem of increasing post Christmas sales, toy companies have been accused of over advertising and under-supplying toys. The strategy builds on parents honouring their commitment to buy a toy for their children.

![cabbage](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/3oIU1AgLaiSj5Y94H3KWRZ/b870a22149ac315a3f4aa2fdda9bc219/cabbage.jpeg)
Robert Cialdini explains this strategy:

- First, toymakers will advertise a toy in the lead up to Christmas hoping children will ask their parents to promise to get that toy for Christmas.

- Then they will undersupply stores with the advertised toy but oversupply other toys, hoping parents will be drawn to the stores but left purchasing another toy.

- Finally post Christmas, they will restock stores with the undersupplied toy and resume advertising, hoping parents will honour their prior commitments and return to the store to make another purchase.

Cabbage Patch Kids was forced to halt its pre-christmas advertising after it faced false advertising charges accusing it of harassing children by advertising dolls that were not available

> "Just imagine those thousands of consumers [parents] who lined up in the rain last week, could not buy the dolls, and went home to be greeted by the kids watching the TV commercial. How do you explain this to a small child? It’s unconscionable".
> New York Consumer Affairs Commissioner (1983)

Parents are coerced to return and purchase more expensive toys to support their self-image of teaching their children to honour their promises.

## 3. Good product reviews
In solving the problem of obtaining positive product reviews, online companies employ the strategy of “little ask” before the “big ask”.
![amplitude_commitment_bias](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/7CjAYFplVQz3qeyssI6c4x/1e67935ade1da6fed99f2178ba43cc54/amplitude_commitment_bias.png)

First, identify a cohort of users who have been actively using a particular product feature.

Use an in-app survey tool to ask a simple question about how they are enjoying the feature. Limit to simple one click responses. This is the “little ask”.

> __Question 1__
> How are you liking the new reporting feature?
> 
> Rate: 🙁😑[😄]

If the response is positive, ask an open-ended question to gather their feedback.

> __Question 2__
> Great, what do you like the most?
> 
Write: [Enter feedback]

Finally the big ask. Ask if they will share their positive feedback as a public review. Solicit a commitment response before directing them to a link of how to write and share the public review.

> __Question 3__
> Thank you, will you share your review on G2/ Capterra?
> 
> [Sure] -> Review product link
> 
> No 

SaaS companies like Amplitude Analytics have effectively leveraged this strategy to gather positive reviews they can then use to market to new customers ([Amplitude Analytics G2 public reviews](https://www.g2.com/products/amplitude-analytics/reviews#reviews))

### __References__
- [Admitted member of mafia tells of oath and deadly punishment (1985) NY Times](https://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/30/nyregion/admitted-member-of-mafia-tells-of-oath-and-deadly-punishment.html)
- [Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (2007) Robert Cialdini](https://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Robert-Cialdini/dp/006124189X)
- [Coleco Industries, Inc. manufacturer of the Cabbage Patch Kid…(1983) UPI Archives](https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/11/29/Coleco-Industries-Inc-manufacturer-of-the-Cabbage-Patch-Kid/5539438930000/)


How commitment bias is used to influence people: 1) Organised crime loyalty; 2) Selling more toys; 3) Good product reviews

commitment-bias

Commitment Bias - Examples and Observations

Here is a prescription on how to guarantee your startup will fail to find product-market fit.
![fail](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/3tcA1uNrdFkBl3GN9wuzZf/5d5705b922c91de11f682aee4dbe9f2e/fail.png)

1. Ask customers what they want
2. Build for big markets
3. Promise big returns

## 1. Ask customers what they want
For those of you who want to build a product customers say they want to buy but may never use, I recommend asking your customers these questions:
- What kind of solution would you like?
- What are your favourite features in other products?
- What solutions do you think other people in your company would buy?

Invite your customers to attend your design workshops to share and sketch out their solutions.

Listening to your customers’ wish lists will guarantee unlimited features for your product roadmap.
![homer-presentation](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/5V1WHfdPrzrmprWa0Ckhow/e7f9af2c53c3c35fcbcbaf27da89f7ef/homer-presentation.png)

## 2. Build for big markets
To create hockey stick forecast models, your product will need to serve everyone in a big market.

Focus on finding a v1 solution that will serve as big of a user-base as possible. Repeat step one when discovering your v1 solution.

If you have already found your v1 solution then assume your solution is transferable to customers across the entire and adjacent market. Market and promote your solution’s benefits to everyone and everywhere.

![pumpkin](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/1DHwsVXKAGnQfJWpdF9mtK/bd628a3478fd204a62404160891b3385/pumpkin.jpeg)

## 3. Promise big returns
To ensure your product resonates with companies and the industry, promise your solution will deliver huge dollar benefits and current company objectives. Overpromising will help close sales faster and get buyers excited. 

Build for demo-ability over usability. Focus your roadmap on features for sales demos with mock data promoting financial benefits, especially if your end-users aren’t the main buyers.

If you have no real customers using your product to solve real problems, focus marketing case studies on ROI benefits (it doesn’t matter if they were achieved using your product or not).
![truth](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/1ZAakhwnnQ8rWRj3ZqdzSQ/2909f905012253efa78d4d6d560ad011/truth.jpeg)

## How to find product market fit?
Conversely, for those who want to improve their odds of finding product market fit, here are two articles that may help:
- [5 Questions to Ask to Find Product Market Fit](https://mannhowie.com/user-interviews)
- [How to run a Growth Experiment](https://mannhowie.com/growth-experiment)

3 steps to guarantee your startup will fail to find product-market fit: 1) Ask customers what they want; 2) Build for big markets; 3) Promise big returns

fail

How to Fail to Find Product Market Fit

Here is a playbook with example templates you can use to build a marketing content creation engine that scales.

![content-creation](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/6gPoUDXlBwSm1I6Z8H8iCe/ec23ea4c65e6f1d5cb6b273999e99bfb/content-creation.png)

5 steps to create a marketing content creation engine:
1. [Objective](#objective): Set a Marketing Objective
2. [Keywords](#keywords): Plan Topics by SEO Keywords
3. [Productivity](#productivity): Track Team Productivity
4. [Measure](#measure): Measure Page Performance
5. [Train](#train): Train your Team

### <a name="objective"></a> 1. Set a Marketing Objective
Your job as a marketing manager is to motivate your content team to do their job well. It starts with a focused mission and goal.

Write out a 1-pager setting out your team’s marketing objective, why you are doing this, how you are doing this and your guiding principles. 

At the beginning of each quarter, set out a goal and focus area for your content creation - this will shape your planning and set your discipline.

##### Marketing Objective - Example Template
__Mission__
The mission of the content team at [*company*] is to reach the 99.99% of people worldwide who experience the struggle of [*struggle your company solves*] and who have never heard of our solution.

__Objective__
To achieve our mission we will focus on creating high quality content that people who experience this struggle would search for.

The two primary metrics our team can directly impact are organic visits and new signups. 

__How__
The audience of people searching for a solution to or better understanding of their struggle far exceeds those searching for the services our company performs.

We aim to be the leading authority people find when they are searching for a solution to their struggle of [*struggle your company solves*].  

__Our Principles__
- __We are white-hat__: we respect the rules that search engines, forums and video platforms promote. If it feels like a hack, it’s probably a hack. We emphasise quality work over black-hat techniques
- __We are here to solve struggles__: our mission is to reach potential people who experience a struggle our solution can solve. Therefore, we will only produce and distribute content that is relevant and helpful to them
- __We are data driven__: keyword research and data helps us prioritise our efforts. Measuring key metrics (rankings, visits, conversion rates, time spent on pages) help inform us where to double down our efforts

__Q1-202X Goal__
- Focus content topics this quarter: [*list topics*]
- New high quality content pages: [*100*]  
- Organic visits: [*10,000*]
- Goal: [*1,000 new signups*]

### <a name="keywords"></a> 2. Plan Topics by SEO Keywords

Before you start writing any content, plan your topics based on keyword research.

Keyword research is used to find out within the Google search engine what questions people are asking and how many people are asking it on a given monthly basis. 

Follow the [SEO keyword research playbook](https://mannhowie.com/seo-keywords) to prepare a spreadsheet with four columns tracking the following: keyword term, monthly search volume, topics and competition.

##### Keyword & Topic Tracker -  Example Template

| Keyword     | Avg. Monthly Searches     | Topics     | Competition     |
| ---------- | ---------- | ---------- | ---------- |
| Food Safety       | 60,500       | Food Safety       | High       |
| Food Safety Manufacturing       | 70       | Food Safety       | Low       |
| HACCP       | 246,000       | Food Safety, Regulation       | Medium       |
| HACCP Plan      | 8,100       | Food Safety, Regulation       | Low       |

### <a name="productivity"></a>3. Track Team Productivity
Assign your content team topics to research and publish new pages based on your SEO keyword research. Track productivity based on quantity and quality of content published by each teammate.

Your job as a marketing manager is to set a target as to how many new pages each team member should publish each week. A good rule of thumb is to budget for 75% of a teammates working time spent on content research, writing and publication and 25% on individual learning, self-study and improvement.

Adopt a points-based system when deciding how much time a piece of content should take to write if written by an experienced teammate. Topics with higher volume keywords and higher competition should take longer to write (e.g. 4 points) vs topics with lower volume keywords and lower competition (1 point).

Set new starters lower content targets to hit per week to ensure quality is maintained. Use a spreadsheet to track content completion vs assigned scores against each teammate. Disciplined tracking will help you as a marketing manager identify top performers and where an individual requires more training.

##### Team Productivity Tracker - Example Template

|   Week   | Kelly (Snr) Assigned     | John (Jnr) Assigned     | Kelly (Snr) Completed     | John (Jnr) Completed     |
| ---------- | ---------- | ---------- | ---------- | ---------- |
| Week 1       | 4       | 2       | 4       | 1       |
| Week 2       | 4       | 2       | 3       | 1       |
| Week 3       | 4       | 2       | 5       | 3       |
| Week 4       | 4       | 3       | 3       | 2       |
| __Total__       | __16__       | __9__       | __15__       | __7__       |

### <a name="measure"></a>4. Measure Page Performance
Track your published pages and their key performance metrics. Update this monthly.

Use a combination of Google Search Console, Google Analytics or any tool you may be using for tracking (e.g. Amplitude). These tools are all free to use and easy to learn.

Key metrics you should track include page views, SEO clicks, SEO impressions and conversion goals (e.g. signups, e-commerce purchases, demo requests).

##### Content Performance Tracker - Example Template 

| Page     | Date Published     | Teammate     | Keyword Vol     | Views     | Clicks     | Impressions     | Goal     |
| ---------- | ---------- | ---------- | ---------- | ---------- | ---------- | ---------- | ---------- |
| web_url       | 04-04-22       | Kelly       | 10,000       | 500       | 400       | 1,000       | 20       |
| web_url       | 05-04-22       | John       | 2,000       | 100       | 20       | 500       | 2       |
| web_url       | 05-04-22       | Kelly       | 12,000       | 1,000       | 900       | 10,000       | 100       |
| web_url       | 06-04-22       | John       | 1,000       | 20       | 20       | 100       | 0       |

### <a name="train"></a>5. Train Your Team
Andy Grove in his seminal book “[High Output Management](https://www.amazon.com.au/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/dp/0679762884)” makes the case that “when a person is not doing their job, there can be only two reasons for it. The person either can’t do it or won’t do it; they are either not capable or not motivated”.

> “If you accept that training, along with motivation, is the way to improve the performance of your subordinates, and that what you teach must be closely tied to what you practice, and that training needs to be a continuing process rather than a one-time event, it is clear that the who of training is you, the manager.”

Andy Grove (Final Chapter in [High Output Management](https://www.amazon.com.au/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/dp/0679762884) “Why Training is the Boss’s Job”)

Hence it stands to reason that your most important job as the marketing manager is to motivate and train your team. 

Here are some helpful guides you may use to improve your own understanding of content marketing which you may apply and also train your team on:
- SEO Keyword Research - [How to conduct SEO keyword research](https://mannhowie.com/seo-keywords)
- SEO Content Writing - [How to write content that ranks without backlinks](https://mannhowie.com/how-to-rank-without-backlinks)
- Management & Training - [High Output Management by Andry Grove](https://www.amazon.com.au/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/dp/0679762884)
- Tooling - [Google Search Console](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://developers.google.com/search/docs/beginner/search-console&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1660985691059369&usg=AOvVaw0F2O51s7V-tdC5Ur2LF3IN)
- Writing Guides - [Writing in Plain English](http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/files/howto.pdf)


5 step playbook to build a marketing content creation engine: 1) Set a marketing objective; 2) Plan topics by SEO keywords; 3) Track team productivity; 4) Measure page results; 5) Train your team.

content-creation

How to Build a Content Creation Engine - Playbook & Template

![keyword target](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/7HEA3vbcmPKhrOiQ2nYt61/be2249e4d1d5223a3ad6e3d997e7b171/keyword_target.png)
SEO content marketing is a powerful strategy startups can use to capture sales leads and new customers from people researching solutions to their problems. 

The universe of people searching for an answer to a use-case that a product can help solve far exceeds those searching for the features or benefits of the product itself.

However, one of the most difficult parts of finding good SEO content topics to write about is knowing what to write about and where to start. This is where SEO keyword research can assist.

Keyword research is used to find out within the Google search engine what questions people are asking and how many people are asking it on a given monthly basis.

Here are 5 tactics for picking topics that drive demand generation:
1. [Brainstorm](#brainstorm):  How to brainstorm use-cases
2. [Pick Keywords](#pick-keywords): SEO Keyword Planner tool tips
3. [Assess Competition](#assess-competition): Competitor content assessment framework
4. [Frame Content](#frame-content): What to write about
5. [Measure & Track](#measure-and-track): Topic goal tracking template

Imagine we are a B2B startup with a product that helps customers perform food safety checks in the manufacturing sector.

### <a name="brainstorm"></a>1. How to brainstorm use-cases
Bad SEO content strategies often focus on highly competitive or low volume search topics related to product features and benefits. Good SEO content strategies focus on the use-cases and struggle of the user leading up to the need to use the product or service.

| 👎 Bad SEO Content Topics     | 👍 Good SEO Content Topics     |
| ---------- | ---------- |
| The Best Food Safety Software       | HACCP Food Safety Hazards       |
| How Food Safety Software Saves you Money       | GMP Food Safety Audits   |
| Food Safety Photo Sharing and Digital Tracking Features | Template Food Safety Logs |

Start by brainstorming a list of specific use-cases and tasks that your customers would use either your product or their existing solution for (e.g. even if it’s paper or spreadsheets). Pull out general keyword ideas.

| Use-case     | Keywords     |
| ------------ | ---------- |
| Spotting and recording food safety hazards       | Food safety hazard, contamination, hazard types, salmonella, thawing, violations       |
| Preparing for food safety regulatory audits       | HACCP, GMP, CCP, ISO22000       |
| Managing food product recalls       | Food recall, food outbreak       |
| Food safety prevention       | Food safety control measures, food safety program and training       |

### <a name="pick-keywords"></a>2. SEO Keyword Planner tool tips
Enter your list of brainstorm use-case keywords in [Google Keyword Planner](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7337243?hl=en-AU) and record the monthly search volume. Keyword Planner is a free tool built by Google to assist marketers with conducting paid google search campaigns. You can get free access to it by signing up for a free [Google Ads account](https://ads.google.com/intl/en_AU/home/#!/). 

![keyword planner](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/3W21OY8PVYFnz72hcCgdKn/05fdc98c3f88cb549d0648a847daff24/keyword_planner.png)

The important properties and metrics include:
- __Keyword (by relevance)__: list of exact keyword searches that broadly match the term you searched including other keyword ideas that Google identified based on people’s search patterns
- __Avg. monthly searches__: Google’s estimate of the total average monthly searches for that specific term based on the selected location. Very low search volume is likely to yield low results even if your content ranks whilst high search volume is likely to be highly competitive and will be difficult to rank for
- __Competition__: how competitive a term is in terms of paid search. High competition keywords will likely be dominated by paid search ads at the top of the search results, meaning even if you rank you will likely achieve low click through rates
- __Locations__: country and region for the search volume. Narrow this down for your core regions where you are targeting potential customers or a specific topic 

[Google Trends](https://trends.google.com/trends/) can also be a helpful tool as a leading indicator as to whether a keyword term is trending higher or has recently broken out. In the example below we can see that kinder salmonella has been a breakout term and could be a case study topic for customers to learn about. 

![google trends](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/7xAIsakmODo3zx9IXyEVrU/79748b017194a175fc200b12db88f0d0/google_trends.png)

In a spreadsheet, create a list of your keywords including the avg. monthly searches, competition and general trend.

In our food safety example above, we follow the systematic approach and come to the following conclusion: “__HACCP Plan__” will be the target keyword we should research and write content on:

| Exact Keyword     | Avg. Monthly Searches     | Comments     |
| ---------- | ---------- | ---------- |
| Food safety       | 60,500       | 👎 Broad term covering restaurants, at home, manufacturing. Google may only pick 1 or 2 manufacturing specific results for page 1 given how broad the term is       |
| Food safety manufacturing       | 70       | 👎 Relevant to manufacturing food safety standards but search volume is too low       |
| HACCP       | 246,000       | 👎 Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) is certification of a food safety management system that food manufacturers follow. However, it is quite competitive with lots of great regulatory content on it already. Will need to write lots of amazing content to outrank       |
| HACCP Plan       | 8,100       | 👍 Bingo. The specific plan that is written to implement HACCP certification. Medium competition, not amazing content on a HACCP Plan.       |

### <a name="assess-competition"></a>3. Competitor content assessment framework
Google has one job: 
> “To match a person’s question being searched for with the best possible answer”

After you have determined the keyword is worth chasing after (e.g. sufficient volume, the right audience and where your product could offer a solution related to that use-case) you will need to evaluate the current ranking content to determine what content you will be competing with.

#### How to view competitor pages in the relevant region
Google tailors its search results to individual browsing history and specific localised region. You will need to use Google’s free [Ad Preview and Diagnosis Tool](https://ads.google.com/aw/diagnostic/AdPreview?ocid=97975120&__c=7032476880&__u=2081691172&authuser=1&__o=kp&lang=en&loc=9060914&device=30001) to preview competitor search results as it would most likely appear to your target customers.

![adnetwork](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/1Qs3FWJsvp6ataujgFVh5y/7303672f510529687a187e5c4b6aa2f2/adnetwork.png)

Go through each page and assess for the following:
- __Audience__: is this audience right for our solution? 
- __Authority__: is the writer a high authority figure on the topic? Regulatory agencies will be more difficult to beat, however not impossible if the content is of low value
- __Relevance__: is the answer relevant to the question being asked? Is it still timely or has not been updated in a long time?

In assessing the top search result for our keyword example: HACCP Plan

| Category     | Competitor Assessment     | Good Fit     |
| ---------- | ---------- | ---------- |
| __Audience__       | Good fit audience likely food safety officers       | 👍       |
| __Authority__       | US FDA ultimate authority hard to beat       | 👎       |
| __Relevance__       | Long set of legal regulatory guidelines, difficult for people to digest and understand.        | 👍       |

The audience is a good fit with a relevance to our solution but the competing authority is very high. However, given the highly technical nature of the page there exists an opportunity for us to create better content summarising the key aspects of the HACCP Plan that would be more digestible for a non-regulatory audience. 

Following the competitor assessment and before framing a topic, ask yourself: 

*“Can we write a piece of content within the time constraints that would be better than these pages”?*

### <a name="frame-content"></a>4. What to write about
Frame your content to ask the who, what and why of your customer’s struggle related to the keyword. In our example for the keyword: "__HACCP Plan__"

| Question     | Answer     |
| ---------- | ---------- |
| Who is the target audience?       | Food safety officers working in food manufacturing       |
| What questions would they ask?       | How to develop a HACCP Plan       |
| Why are they asking this question?       | Preparing information and processes to provide to food safety auditor to comply with HACCP       |

With the target customer, struggle and intent established we can propose a title and meta and see how it would compare against the first page results (in essence our book cover).

Proposed title and meta for our content:

__How to Develop a HACCP Plan - Preparing for Audit__
*What is a HACCP Plan? What information to provide to HACCP auditors? Choosing the right food safety management software to document your records.*

This can then be added to the content management plan for further detailed research and content drafting. [See my previous article for a detailed guide on how to write SEO content](https://mannhowie.com/how-to-rank-without-backlinks).

### <a name="measure-and-track"></a>5. Topic goal tracking template
After publishing your content (via your web CMS), request for the page to be indexed via Google Search Console ([click here to learn how](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/crawling/ask-google-to-recrawl)). 

Track the content published in a spreadsheet with the following columns:
- __Exact Keyword__: the name of the main keyword we are targeting (e.g. HACCP Plan)
- __Avg. Monthly Searches__: from Keyword Planner above (e.g. 8,100)
- __Date Published__: date article was published and google search index request made
- __URL__: url of the content page

It will take a few weeks for Google to start gathering search performance data on your newly published page. Use Google Search Console to track the organic performance of your pages by entering the specific URL.  
![search console](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/1VSax2eXPQT4BoofYrZ5vC/277c852f990ce053e518dc2a3364dddc/search_console.png)

The important properties and metrics to understand are:
- __Clicks__: organic unique SEO visits to your page during the date range
- __Impressions__: number of times your page has come up in search query results
- __CTR__: % Click Through Rate being Clicks / Impressions (i.e. the % of people who clicked on your result upon seeing it on the page against other results)
- __Position__: the average position ranking of your page across all queries

Track these results in your same spreadsheet and follow the discipline of benchmarking and measuring the results of your content pages against your original keyword targets. Review your results at the end of each quarter to identify whether further content optimisation is needed to improve the relevance of your pages, or optimisation to the title and description may increase your CTR, or whether further content improvement is required to reflect change in competing pages.   

#### How long does it take to rank
Established websites with high quality pages should begin to rank on page 1 globally within a month and achieve top 3 ranking within 3 months. You can expect this to take longer if you have a newer website that has not published much content.

__Organic weekly traffic of pages published in December (redacted private data)__
![Screen Shot 2019-05-01 at 9.50.46 pm](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/2jbNMVJbLPFob5wK2s7o4c/bfe8e57a46a652465520213df77392f3/Screen_Shot_2019-05-01_at_9.50.46_pm.png)


5 tactics for picking topics that drive demand generation. 1) How to Brainstorm Use-Cases; 2) SEO Keyword Planner Tool Tips; 3) Competitor Content Assessment Framework; 4) What to Write About; 5) Keyword Goal Tracking Template 

keyword target

SEO Keywords for Demand Generation - A Content Marketing Playbook

Product, marketing and sales teams can learn to run growth experiments to validate new strategies in the real world before incurring significant resource investment.
![guess_vs_experiment](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/40uy9hD2VDsloevHEODX5m/7231e7f18856fa8c00e0f9eaef7347ec/guess_vs_experiment.png)

[Confirmation bias](https://mannhowie.com/cognitive-bias#confirmation) is a psychological tendency where we seek information that validates our existing beliefs as well as avoiding contradictory information. This bias often causes teams to waste resources on initiatives that validate existing views but are ineffective in the real world.

This article explains the 4 key steps of a growth experiment and a practical example of how you can run your own growth experiment quickly and cost effectively:
1. [Hypothesis](#hypothesis)
2. [Trigger](#trigger)
3. [Action](#action)
4. [Measure](#measure)

Imagine we are in the product marketing team of a B2B software startup that provides a tool for capturing customer complaints called Capturo.

## <a name="hypothesis"></a>1. Hypothesis
Set a hypothesis early. Start by identifying a customer struggle and business outcome of what you are trying to achieve. Form your own explanation as to what is causing the customer struggle and come up with a solution as to what could ease that struggle. [User interviews](https://mannhowie.com/user-interviews) are an effective tool at this stage if you have the time.

It is important at this stage to avoid the pitfall of falling in love with your explanation and solution. Focusing on the struggle will allow you to run a new growth experiment if the current one fails.

### __Example Hypothesis__
__Struggle:__ Our new users are observed to create a lower number of customer complaint forms on the platform than our existing users which is leading to lower product engagement and complaints captured.

__Explanation:__ We suspect two core reasons: 1) New users are unfamiliar with the types of questions to ask to gather complaints; 2) New users lack the time or know-how to digitise their existing questions into our platform.

__Solution:__ Our proposed solution will address the first explanation of new users not knowing what questions to ask. We will research and propose the most frequently asked questions to address customer complaints by service type (e.g. contact centre, restaurant, consultation).

__Hypothesis:__
> “Teaching new users the most commonly asked customer complaint questions relevant to their business will help them create more forms on the platform and gather more customer complaints”

## <a name="trigger"></a>2. Trigger
Establish a trigger point to communicate with your customer around their struggle and your proposed solution. The most effective mediums are email and calling customers directly. In-app banners, notifications and user flows are expensive if you do not already have the infrastructure in place. As this is a growth experiment we do not need to worry about solutions that don’t scale yet. 

The three most important components of a trigger:
1. __Audience:__ identify your target audience. Start with bigger groups, segmenting at this stage will be time consuming and take longer to gather results
2. __Message:__ keep consistent with your original hypothesis. There is no need to A/B test on a small scale but avoid message variation overkill
3. __Timing:__ identify the best time to contact your users to get their attention. Be sparing for when you trigger again due to lack of response

### __Example Trigger__
__Audience:__ our growth experiment will be to email new users who have created two forms or less in the platform from their first three months of joining

__Message:__ “Real examples of customer survey questions [Dental Practices] are using in Capturo” or “Top 6 customer survey questions [Dental Practices] ask in Capturo”

__Timing:__ Send when admin users are most active on the platform (for example mid-week mornings)

## <a name="action"></a>3. Action
Establish an action that you can measure based on the trigger. This can include opening a link to an article, registering interest via a form, logging in to the platform to perform an activity, emailing or calling back to respond.

Without creating an action it will be difficult to measure the success of your growth experiment.

### __Example Action__
Create a webpage link in the email which takes a user to the top customer survey questions.
E.g email link.
“View top 6 customer survey question examples”

## <a name="measure"></a>4. Measure
Measure and track the performance of the trigger and action stages. Start simple and use a spreadsheet to track key results. Free or cheap email tracking plug-ins are an effective way of tracking email open and click-through rates.

Once you feel you have gathered enough insight (can take a few weeks) assess the results and determine if your hypothesis was correct. Within the same experiment you can go back and modify the trigger and action to gather more data if needed.

### Example Measure
Create a spreadsheet with columns to track the following:
User contact email and id
- Email message sent
- Date and time sent
- Date and time opened email (use email tracking tools)
- Date and time opened link (use email tracking tools)
- Already sent (Y/N)
- Created a new template (Y/N) (check manually each week)

After measuring the performance assess engagement metrics for example:
- Total users contacted
- Average contact count per user
- % email open rate
- % click through rate
- % users creating new template

__Happy case__
If the % click through rate and % users creating a new template is good we have quickly validated that knowing the right questions to ask can help boost form creation. We now have an improved business case for investing more resources in-app to build onboarding tours in the form creation stage.

__Sad case__
If the % open rate is poor after adjusting for message and timing then the solution of our hypothesis is likely incorrect. We can go back to our original hypothesis and form a solution for our second explanation (e.g. already know what questions to ask but don’t have the time to create a new form). 


4 steps to a successful growth experiment: 1) Hypothesis; 2) Trigger; 3) Action; 4) Measure. Practical example for how teams can run growth experiments quickly and cheaply.

guess_vs_experiment

How to Run a Growth Experiment - Learn the 4 Steps

Why do most startups fail to find product market fit? 
![beware_solutions_seeking_problems](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/2rGuWsynYvglJNeJeWcQoz/b11da185061ef24f957efe1f9683d4f8/beware_solutions_seeking_problems.png)

Because our [confirmation bias](https://mannhowie.com/cognitive-bias) creates tunnel vision towards our existing solutions. Instead we should frame our focus on solving the user’s struggle.

Here are 5 questions you can ask in user interviews to validate if your startup has found product market fit.

Imagine we are a startup building solutions for mortgage brokers.

## 1. What progress are you trying to make in X?
__*Example:*__
__Q.__ What progress are you trying to make in finalising loan applications?

__A.__ I’m looking for my team to close more loans and shorten the bank approval times.

## 2. What is your biggest struggle when trying to make progress in X?
__*Example:*__
__Q.__ What is your biggest struggle in getting bank approvals completed on time?

__A.__ Document gathering with our customers. A single important lost or incomplete document can slow the whole process down and cause frustration amongst both lenders and borrowers, both of whom are our customers.

## 3. Tell me about the last time you encountered this struggle?
*__Example__*
__Q.__ Tell me about the last time you encountered this struggle? (create a timeline of the event as if you were in their shoes)

__A.__ Last month one of our new starters had a backlog of 10 applications with one of our newer lenders. An applicant customer did not submit a key piece of information that the new lender required but this only came to light a couple of weeks after the applicant had already submitted all the documents we asked. The lender was frustrated that we missed the information (as they said they had asked us for this before) and the applicant was livid as they had already terminated their rental lease.

## 4. What solutions have you previously tried?
__Example:__
__Q.__ What solutions have you previously tried to avoid or manage this struggle?

__A.__ We’ve used shared cloud storage solutions like Google Drive and Dropbox, onboarding checklists to make sure we don’t miss things and our CRM tool to keep track of emails.

## 5. What didn’t you love about those solutions?
__Example:__
__Q.__ What don’t you love about those solutions you’ve previously tried?

__A.__ Some of the tools create more work for our team in managing the document workflow and version control, we still have to review all the documents to make sure they are complete. As a result we still rely heavily on email to follow-up and confirm next steps with both lenders and customers but then it’s easy for us to miss things and drown in emails.

## Bad User Interview Questions
User interviews to find product market fit should be framed around the user’s struggle and not solution ideas. 

Bad user interview questions include:
- What ideal solution would you like to solve your struggle? ❌
- Do you have any feedback on our solution? ❌
- Would you use this solution if we offered it? ❌
- What do you think we could do to improve your process? ❌
- Do you know anyone else in your company who would use our solution? ❌

## User Interview Insights
Following the insights from our 5 user interview questions we are now better able to frame the struggle for our mortgage broker manager as:

> “Communicating between lenders and customers the missing information needed to complete a loan application”

Solutions we can now explore to solve the problem could include:
- Assignees for onboarding docs (whose court is it in now) 💡
- Automatic email reminders of incomplete docs 💡
- Auto-logging emails to capture a digital chat history 💡
- Identify which docs have not been updated in a while 💡

Framing the challenge around the user struggle allows us to continue iterating on solutions to help users make progress instead of being fully invested into one solution. 

⚠️ Beware solutions seeking problems.


5 user interview questions to validate product market fit: 1) What progress are you trying to make?; 2) What is the hardest thing about making progress?; 3) Tell me about the last time you encountered the struggle; 4) What solutions have you previously tried? 5) What didn’t you love about those solutions?

beware_solutions_seeking_problems

5 Questions to Ask to Find Product Market Fit - User Interviews

> *TLDR; Google’s job is to match the best content to the relevant question. If an answer is better, then it should outrank. Backlinks should be a reflection of, not a source of ranking.*

Do you need SEO backlinks to rank? The answer is no. Here is an SEO Content Template and framework to show you how. Without creating backlinks, we built SEO to be our largest acquisition channel for a world class B2B SaaS company.

By the end of this article you will learn:
- 👈[What are Backlinks?](#what-are-backlinks)
- 🚀[How we Built Huge SEO Traffic Without Backlinks](#how-we-built)
- ✔️[3 Simple Steps to Follow](#3-simple)
- 📥[Download SEO Content Template](#framework)
- ⌛[How Long Does it Take to Rank?](#how-long)
- 🤔[Do Backlinks Still Matter?](#do-backlinks-matter)

📥<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yq7iLrVDq5oWBLXzLw4ZftvnMHFrqYhzJ7amuK87is4/edit" target="_blank">Skip the article and download the SEO Content Template we use to write SEO content that ranks.</a>

## 👈<a name="what-are-backlinks"></a> What are Backlinks?
Let’s start with some background. Backlinks are external websites that link back to your webpages. They occur when others cite you or refer to you as something of interest to their readers through a hyperlink. 

Backlinks formed the basis of Google’s patented [PageRank algorithm](https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/37/a9/18/d7c46ea42c4b05/US6285999.pdf) (named after founder Larry Page). The invention ranked the importance of a webpage not just on the number of citations it had, but on the importance of those citing pages.

#### Google PageRank Patent Filed 9 Jan 1998
[![Google PageRank patent](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/4fep3mpwZl6DRj1fZGtXNT/25e1f20de062f2c0d279811248c80056/unnamed.png?h=300)
](https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/37/a9/18/d7c46ea42c4b05/US6285999.pdf)
> The rank assigned to a document is calculated from the ranks of documents citing it. This implies a recursive definition of rank. In addition, the rank of a document is calculated from a constant representing the probability that a browser through the database will randomly jump to the document. 

Then the world changed forever. Fast forward 20 years and today Google answers over [3.5 billion](http://www.internetlivestats.com/google-search-statistics/) questions daily and has become the information portal for the human race (minus China). People globally are actively using Google to find information and make important decisions.

How well you rank on Google can be a determining factor in your audience reach and success.

## 🚀<a name="how-we-built"></a> How we Built Huge SEO traffic Without Backlinks
I had the privilege and joy to build and lead the SEO team for [SafetyCulture](http://safetyculture.com/), a global B2B SaaS startup with a mission to improve safety and quality in the global workplace. 

Within 12 months we turned a virtually non-existent SEO presence into our largest and fastest growing customer acquisition channel and cut dependency on costly paid advertising to fuel growth. All without link building.

#### SEMrush organic US traffic for safetyculture.com (public)
![SEMrush organic traffic chart](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/3sKDGJ1avIOLWzWonddpWY/8d09c396809791ac12afc250fb7b428f/Screen_Shot_2019-05-01_at_11.32.41_am.png?h=300)

With zero experience in marketing or SEO, I was overwhelmed by the countless guides, tools, hacks, tips and must-dos to rank in Google. I tried many link building strategies, but after  sending hundreds of spam emails only to get a handful of backlinks, I felt there must be a better way and went back to basics.

Google’s [stated mission](https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/mission/) is to: 

> organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Today, people around the world turn to Search to find information, learn about topics of interest, and make important decisions.

Google makes public the factors that determine its search quality ranking in this [164 page document](https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en//insidesearch/howsearchworks/assets/searchqualityevaluatorguidelines.pdf). Google contracts with over 10,000 search quality evaluators worldwide who use this document to rank the quality ranking of webpages to help power Google’s machine learning search algorithms.

Here are the 4 most important factors that Google uses to determine page quality ranking:
- __Purpose__ - how well does the page achieve its stated purpose vs the user intent
- __Quality of the content__ - is it factually accurate, well researched, clearly written and provides value
- __Authority__ - does the author and website have expertise and are they trustworthy
- __Functionality__ - is it mobile responsive, good UX, functionality and widgets all working

[PageRank](https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/algorithms/) remains an important factor, but namely from backlinks to high quality content that naturally gain popularity. 

[Google](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en) has this to say about backlinks:

> The best way to get other sites to create high-quality, relevant links to yours is to create unique, relevant content that can naturally gain popularity in the Internet community. Creating good content pays off: Links are usually editorial votes given by choice, and the more useful content you have, the greater the chances someone else will find that content valuable to their readers and link to it.

The next section will provide a framework for how you can create unique, relevant content that readers want.

## ✔️<a name="3-simple"></a> 3 Simple Steps to Rank
Here are the 3 simple steps our SEO team still uses to write targeted and high quality content
1. Find the Right Keyword to Target - Know Your Audience
2. Competition - What Have Others Already Said on the Topic
3. Write Great Content

💡To illustrate how to apply these steps, we will use the preparation and writing of this article itself as an example.

### 1. Find the Right Keyword to Target - Know Your Audience
This is the most important step. In order to write high quality content that achieves its stated purpose we need to understand who we are writing for and their intent.

- __Who - is the target audience?__ For this article, our audience is online and growth marketers and people working in tech startups
- __What - questions would they ask?__ How to create backlinks
- __Why - are they asking this question?__ What is the intent behind the question? What is the [Job To Be Done](https://hbr.org/2016/09/know-your-customers-jobs-to-be-done) from creating backlinks? In this case, it is to have content that ranks and drives traffic

From here we use Google’s [free keyword planner tool](https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/) to select the right keywords (questions) to target. In our case we know that users mostly search for `backlinks`, `seo backlinks`, `what are backlinks` etc. as opposed to `link building`. 

#### Google Keyword Planner Tool Snapshot
![Screen Shot 2019-05-01 at 4.44.47 pm](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/34zMMRwzeV90S7ZydJks1I/f5dcd5ac29cba9fac639c273710db78c/Screen_Shot_2019-05-01_at_4.44.47_pm.png?h=300)
> ☝️General Rule of Thumb: Top ranking search results on average capture 30% of average monthly search volume (known as the Click Through Rate - __CTR__). So over time if this article were able to achieve a #1 ranking for the `backlinks` keyword that would represent a potential 15,000 global visits a month. The CTR falls exponentially as rankings drop. Very few visitors go beyond page 1 search results.

### 2. Competition - What Have Others Already Said on the Topic
To create a quality piece of content, we need to know what others have already said on the topic and determine if we can write something better. This is where many fall short and end up paraphrasing or writing content that is inferior to existing pages that rank. 

For our target keyword of `backlinks`, we must google and review the first page results to evaluate what has been said.

#### First Page Search Results for Target Keyword
![Google result for keyword backlinks](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/QgLsTaayCrmL9bADStT1y/94796327e61195875a8dfe31ec6ad49b/Screen_Shot_2019-05-01_at_5.20.42_pm.png?h=300)

We see many definitive strategy guides on how to backlink and the importance of backlinking. As I have nothing more insightful to add to this topic I have opted for a contrarian response to the same question:

👉 *__How to Rank Without Backlinks: 3 Simple Steps [Free Framework]__*

### 3. Write Great Content
Now that we have a topic based on a target audience, intent and question, we can get to work. While it is still possible to write high quality content without being an authoritative expert (in fact it’s often easier) finding an author with expertise on the topic would rank content higher.

For this article I felt I have both the authority and experience to discuss this topic. There are basic online writing tips you can follow but never forget to empathize with the user. Don’t be selfish with your writing. Write for your user, deliver value, solve their problem.

## 📥<a name="framework"></a> Free SEO Content Template
On the topic of giving value to your users. I have created a Framework Template you can view, download and customize for your content. Our team uses this framework before researching and writing any piece of SEO content.

#### Download SEO Content Template
[![SEO Content Framework Template Screenshot](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/5H9VRaQTV6pZrU1RCBVAj4/e9b849b2d8462a7bd5728d338b87219f/Screen_Shot_2019-05-01_at_6.26.34_pm.png?h=300)
](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yq7iLrVDq5oWBLXzLw4ZftvnMHFrqYhzJ7amuK87is4/edit)

## ⌛<a name="how-long"></a> How Long Does it Take to Rank Without Backlinks?
The ability to rank for keywords will depend on the relative competitiveness of your content. A piece of content that is better researched, articulated and solves the user's problem should rank well even without backlinks.

Our experience was that high quality pages would begin to rank on page 1 globally within a month and achieve top 3 ranking within 3 months. If we didn’t rank page 1 within a month then we would revisit the content, competition and user problem.

#### Organic weekly traffic of pages published in December (redacted private data)
![Amplitude chart](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/2jbNMVJbLPFob5wK2s7o4c/bfe8e57a46a652465520213df77392f3/Screen_Shot_2019-05-01_at_9.50.46_pm.png?h=300)

However, if the competing content is of higher quality and has greater backlinks and authority ([use a free tool to check](https://moz.com/products/pro/seo-toolbar)), then you are unlikely to outrank others.

## 🤔<a name="do-backlinks-matter"></a> Do Backlinks Still Matter?
Yes, while not the deciding factor, the PageRank algorithm remains an indicator of a page’s authority. It should be used as an outreach tool to amplify high quality content you have already written.

Remember, time spent understanding your user and solving their problems is always time better spent. 

---
*Final note: Thank you to the amazing SafetyCulture SEO team for giving me the opportunity to lead, teach and work alongside all you beautiful humans 💖.*
#### SafetyCulture SEO Team Photo

![SEO Team Photo](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/6XoDFOg6jR7SPmHsRiLHWC/e11229b0e3b39b59184e08ffcd2aadd0/IMG_20190308_160804.jpg?h=300)


What are backlinks? Do you need SEO backlinks to rank? The answer is no. Here is a framework to show you how. Without creating backlinks, we built SEO to be our largest acquisition channel for a world class SaaS company.

unnamed

How to Rank Without Backlinks [Free Template]

Here are the 6 key financial ratios that can offer insights into a business’s operational performance. This guide uses practical examples from well-known companies - Best Buy, Netflix, Meta and Apple. These ratios are:

1. [Gross Margin](#gross-margin)
2. [Operating Margin](#operating-margin)
3. [Free Cash Flow Conversion](#fcf-conversion)
4. [Free Cash Flow Margin](#fcf-margin)
5. [Cash Conversion Cycle](#ccc)
6. [Leverage Ratio](#leverage-ratio)

![financial-ratios](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/5QJuRsYRmu8hUMFsmQxoAm/51781a90e0fd1d0ea40ab5a6f8a2fbea/financial_ratios.png)

### <a name="gross-margin"></a>1. Gross Margin
> Gross Margin = Gross Profit / Revenue

Gross margin is a profitability indicator that shows what portion of revenue remains after deducting the cost of revenues. It's calculated by dividing gross profit by the total revenue for a given period. 

Best Buy, a big-box electronics retailer operates with low gross margins (21%). Its cost of revenues include the cost of products purchased (e.g. from Apple), shipping expenses and in-store staff costs.

Meta has high gross margins (78%) as it primarily generates ad revenue on its social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) and captures the majority of that revenue. This compares to YouTube which has lower gross margins as it splits its ad revenue 55% to content creators.

### <a name="operating-margin"></a>2. Operating Margin
> Operating Margin = Operating Profit / Revenue

Operating margin, also known as operating profit margin, serves as a key measure of profitability. This figure represents the percentage of total revenue that remains after accounting for all operating expenses - these include costs beyond just those of producing goods or services, but do not encompass financing or tax expenses. It's determined by dividing operating profit (alternatively called operating income or EBIT) by the total revenue for a specified period.

Comparing Apple and Meta, we see that despite a lower gross margin (43% vs. 78%), Apple maintains a higher operating margin (30% vs. 20%). This is due to Apple's efficient operations, strong brand, and strategic marketing spending. On the other hand, Meta spends more on research and development (30% of revenue vs. Apple's 7%) on its platforms and new VR technology, and incurs significant data management, privacy, and security costs.

### <a name="fcf-conversion"></a>3. Free Cash Flow Conversion
> FCF Conversion = Free Cash Flow / Operating Profit (EBIT)

Free Cash Flow Conversion is a critical financial metric showing how efficiently a company can turn its operating profit (earnings before interest and taxes or EBIT) into free cash flow. Free cash flow represents the cash a company generates, which is available to all stakeholders, including shareholders, debt holders, and others (net operating cash flows minus capital expenditures). This metric is calculated by dividing free cash flow by the operating profit for a specified period.

Comparing Apple and Netflix, Apple is more efficient at converting its profits into available cash with a free cash flow conversion rate of 93%, compared to Netflix's 29%. 

Under Tim Cook, Apple dramatically improved its cash flow by pushing inventory risks to suppliers such as Foxconn. Cook introduced “Just-in-Time” inventory management, meaning Apple only orders components as needed, reducing storage and related costs. Despite being a hardware supplier and retailer, Apple has less inventory on hand than Best Buy which generates less than 10% of Apple’s revenues. 

Netflix's low cash flow conversion is due to its heavy upfront investment in content. It spends a lot upfront on producing and acquiring shows and movies, which it then gradually expenses over years. This means the cash is spent before it fully impacts their profits, leading to lower cash flow.

### <a name="fcf-margin"></a>4. Free Cash Flow Margin
> FCF Margin = Free Cash Flow / Revenue

This ratio indicates how much of the company's revenues are converted into free cash flow. A higher percentage means the company is more efficient at converting sales into cash. It is calculated by dividing free cash flow by the revenue over the specified period.

Apple leads in this metric as well with 28%. This means that for every $100 in revenue Apple generates, $28 is available to shareholders to be paid out as dividends, share repurchases or further reinvestment. This compares to Netflix with 5% and Best Buy at 2%.

### <a name="ccc"></a>5. Cash Conversion Cycle
> Cash Conversion Cycle = Days Inventory Outstanding + Days Sales Outstanding - Days Payable Outstanding

The Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC) measures the length of time a business takes to pay for inventory from its suppliers to when it collects cash from its customers. Calculated as the days inventory, plus the days sales (receivables collection period) minus the days payable.

- Days Inventory Outstanding = Inventory Closing / Cost of Revenues x 365 days
- Days Sales Outstanding = Receivables Closing / Revenues x 365 days
- Days Payable Outstanding = Payables Closing / Cost of Revenues x 365 days

When we compare Best Buy and Apple, we see quite a contrast. Best Buy has a CCC of 4 days while Apple has a CCC of negative 71 days.

Apple's negative CCC indicates that it collects payments from its customers much quicker than it needs to pay its suppliers. This situation is a result of Apple's efficient supply chain, powerful negotiation position with suppliers, and fast inventory turnover due to high consumer demand for its products.

On the other hand, Best Buy's positive CCC reflects its retail business model, where it must purchase inventory upfront, hold it in stores until a customer purchases it, and then wait for the transaction to clear. Best Buy's shorter cash conversion cycle still reflects efficient operations for a retail company, but its nature of business doesn't allow the luxury of a negative CCC like Apple.

### <a name="leverage-ratio"></a>6. Leverage Ratio

> Leverage Ratio = Net Debt / Operating Profit (EBIT)

The leverage ratio is an important metric that assesses a company's financial health by measuring the extent to which it uses borrowed money (debt) to finance its operations. In this context, we're specifically looking at net debt (total debt minus cash and cash equivalents) divided by operating profit, also known as earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT).

Apple's leverage ratio of -0.6x suggests a strong financial stance, with more cash than total debt, largely due to efficient cash management and substantial profits. In comparison, Netflix, with a 1.5x leverage ratio, carries more debt than cash, attributed to substantial upfront investments in content, often financed through debt.

A more conservative measure would be to look at the leverage ratio against Free Cash Flow. Given Netflix’s poor FCF conversion this would imply a leverage ratio (Net Debt/ FCF) of 5.1x. This means that it would take more than 5 years for Netflix to repay its debts from operating free cash flows leaving nothing for shareholders or reinvestment.


1. Gross Margin; 2. Operating Margin; 3. FCF Conversion; 4. FCF Margin; 5. Cash Conversion Cycle; 6. Leverage Ratio. Understand their significance with real-world examples from Best Buy, Netflix, Meta, and Apple

financial-ratios

Understanding 6 Key Financial Ratios - Best Buy vs Netflix vs Meta vs Apple

Cognitive biases can negatively impact your ability to think critically and make informed decisions. Once you are aware of them, it will help you identify and navigate them.

Here is an explanation of the 7 main types of cognitive bias, some examples and how you can navigate them:
1. [Survivorship Bias](#survivorship)
2. [Confirmation Bias](#confirmation)
3. [Framing Bias](#framing)
4. [Groupthink](#groupthink)
5. [IKEA Effect](#ikea-effect)
6. [Availability Bias](#availability)
7. [Commitment Bias](#commitment)

## <a name="survivorship"></a>1. Survivorship Bias
> Focus on the traits of the successful whilst ignoring the failures.

![survivorship-bias](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/t9fd2snGayd6dZM2Dn9Js/5e615d3df42fa017582a58b9f06a0e57/survivorship.JPG)
This involves limiting our analysis to instances that have passed a success hurdle and not analysing those that didn’t pass the hurdle. This commonly occurs when we adopt key learnings from successful case studies yet remain blind to the unsuccessful instances who may have also followed the same learnings. 

### Examples
The famous [WWII case study](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254286514_Abraham_Wald's_Work_on_Aircraft_Survivability) involves mathematician Abraham Wald who was tasked with identifying where to place more armour on fighter planes. The officers data of bullet holes in returning planes supported placing more amour on the fuselage vs the engine. However, Wald’s insight was to ask where the bullet holes weren’t - i.e. the engine. The surviving planes had fewer hits to the engine because those that were hit didn’t return.

A modern example would be to look at a customer acquisition funnel with a 10% activation rate. Common analysis would be to take key learnings from the behaviour and personas of this group to further lift activation. However, the greater insight would be to analyse the other 90% and ask why aren’t they activating? The latter is more challenging and often involves less access to data, but the payoff is greater.

### How to Navigate?
Ask questions about what other data and groups are missing. Identify the success hurdle and ask why others have not passed it.

## <a name="confirmation"></a>2. Confirmation Bias
> Focus on data to promote our existing beliefs.

![confirmation-bias](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/3Fwt3vluPTrXkA41Yfj6Dx/585fec98fc5647b58a14f4d568b973c7/confirmation.JPG)
This involves seeking out information that validates our existing views and prior commitments. We also discount other information that may invalidate our views. Confirming evidence makes us feel good and people do what makes them feel good. The counter approach is the scientific method, which attempts to ask questions first before gathering evidence to either support or reject a hypothesis. The former is easier and faster, the latter is harder and time consuming.

### Examples
The CEO has a new idea to launch a new product and instructs a team to conduct market research and competitor analysis on the feasibility of this product. The market research team is limited in scope and risks being urged to validate the success of the CEO’s new product idea. A better task for the team would be to investigate what the best product would be to solve a particular problem.

### How to Navigate? 
Try and identify if there is a pre-existing belief (yours or otherwise). Reflect on information you have rejected. Ask others with a different viewpoint.

## <a name="framing"></a>3. Framing Bias
> Solving a problem based on the context it is presented.

![framing-bias](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/1RJWOsPkQawJKKxYk8oIQM/6ee3c51d2e488ae5ecd40e1abd233596/framing.JPG)
The specific context a problem is framed/ presented can influence the options and choices available.

### Examples
The problem of low company profitability can be either framed as a need to cut costs or to increase revenue. The way the problem is framed will influence the options available (i.e. fire and restructure or enter new markets).

### How to Navigate? 
Ask what is the ultimate problem we are trying to solve. For example, ask what the outcome would be if we solved this problem. See if there are other solutions to achieving the same outcome.

## <a name="groupthink"></a>4. Groupthink

> The desire for group harmony leads to poor decision making.

![groupthink](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/3BvESluOEJuRmYVODq44U1/12de08589e23649ad287ff3abba0912b/groupthink.JPG)
People tend to avoid conflict, particularly in the presence of a majority and people of authority. People assume others have made informed decisions and fear the risk of looking un-knowledgable in front of others. 

### Examples
The term groupthink arose from the [case study](https://www.bassberry.com/wp-content/uploads/Effective_SEC_Rulemaking_Letters2.pdf) of the failed US Cuba Bay of Pigs invasion. In 1961, the CIA presented to President Kennedy a Cuba invasion plan formulated under the previous administration. Kennedy accepted it and early objections were dismissed and eventually no objections or alternatives arose. Kennedy learnt from this and a year later during the Cuban Missile Crisis intentionally absented himself from initial meetings to encourage free discussion. Two teams were created to evaluate the options before presenting to Kennedy. 

### How to navigate? 
Be clear on the objective and values. Encourage other views to solve the objective.

## <a name="ikea-effect"></a>5. IKEA Effect
> Overvaluing things we place successful effort into

![ikea-effect](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/1o8egJQ2qvuZqLQjsPpOSf/5c7e44c7d77fc37f809a05fe47b6d357/ikea-effect.png) 
The IKEA effect is a finding that people tend to ascribe a higher valuation towards self-assembled products compared to objectively similar products which they did not assemble ([see article for study](https://mannhowie.com/ikea-effect)).
### Examples
A product team has spent significant time developing a high fidelity prototype based on the sales team's feedback. It has the latest best practice design patterns. They have not shipped an early version yet. The IKEA Effect makes the team less likely to cull or dramatically change the product in response to real world usage. They are at risk of devoting resources to failing projects. 
### How to navigate? 
Treat your ideas like cattle, not like pets. Spike rough prototypes, talk to customers and run growth experiments.

## <a name="availability"></a>6. Availability Bias
> Overestimate the likelihood or frequency of an event when it is easier to recall

![availability-bias](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/3xmF85xOP7EIdJWIa0tJ9D/e54863460e43ac8d37a49683182e7fd0/availability-bias.png)
People tend to assess the relative importance of issues by the ease of which they are retrieved from memory. Factors that influence memory include: recency, vivid emotion, and imagery.
### Examples
Tversky and Kahneman's famous 1973 study had participants listen to a list of 39 names being read and were then asked to recall whether the list contained more men or women. The list either had fewer names of famous women and more names of less famous men (e.g. Elizabeth Taylor vs William Fulbright) or a list with fewer names of famous men and a list with more names of less famous women (e.g. Richard Nixon vs Lana Turner).

Over 80% of the participants incorrectly judged the list with famous names to be more frequent in terms of gender. 

### How to navigate?
Look for different examples: seek out and compare counter examples of what is easier to remember. For example older vs recent instances, positive vs negative experiences, multiple instances of any memorable imagery.

## <a name="commitment"></a>7. Commitment Bias
> Following actions consistent with prior beliefs, words and actions

![commitment-bias](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/64jQHFYz9cGi3m4paOJYvj/346f4a84c3224ec7e8b9601900999f1b/commitment-bias.png)
Following through with commitments help confirm self-image and avoid cognitive dissonance. They are most effective when they are active, public, effortful and viewed as internally motivated.
### Examples
At the height of the Cabbage Patch Kids craze in the 1980s the company was forced to halt its pre-christmas advertising after it was accused of over advertising and under-supplying toys. The strategy aimed to get parents to commit to their children of buying the toy in the lead up to Christmas. Then hoping parents would go to the store but left purchasing a different toy and then returning post Christmas to honour the original purchase commitment.
### How to navigate? 
Remind yourself it is ok to change your mind. Beware sales tactics that employ commitment bias to make prospects agree to a little purchase before a big purchase.

What are the 7 common types of bias: 1) Survivorship Bias; 2) Confirmation Bias; 3) Framing Bias; 4) Group Think; 5) IKEA Effect; 6) Availability Bias; 7) Commitment Bias.

survivorship

7 Types of Bias - Examples & How to Navigate

Here are five rules of thumb to follow when designing user friendly data tables for a web app:
1. [First column readable](#first-column)
2. [Default sort by most common query](#default-sort)
3. [Place filters close to headers](#place-filters)
4. [View more fields using quick view](#view-more)
5. [Use pagination for more records](#use-pagination)

## <a name="first-column"></a>1. First column readable
Use human readable text for the first column. Do not use ids meant for record keeping. It should easily convey meaning about the record. It's ok if you have duplicate names.

![readable first column](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/4kCSVKLBq2bitzrSZqmIQe/a42a5f8d0a2de31051a1ba0f662760b1/readable_first_column.png)

## <a name="default-sort"></a>2. Default sort by most common query
Decide what most users should first query when using your data table. Make this your default sort order when navigating to the table. Avoid sorting alphabetically by the first column.

![default sort by common query](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/UK5tiCHmZK1qZXGhsJPzC/88e0b3dcfe8352e9e517b9296bdd3d08/default_sort_by_common_query.png)

__Bonus:__ 
Develop your data table to support dynamic urls for custom sort and filter options. Use this to design email campaigns for different tasks (e.g. follow up on overdue items, update your assigned items, shout out recently completed items).

## <a name="place-filters"></a>3. Place filters close to headers
Filters with good mapping should be placed close to the columns and headers that they control. Take advantage of spreadsheet conventions where column headers control sorting and filtering. Avoid advanced filter options placed outside your data table which can be hard to find and interrupt flow.

![filters close to headers](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/7qD3btAg9jsuEvO6cP4La1/ae459bf2f3c38753749ad5ee9e5ff202/filters_close_to_headers.png)

## <a name="view-more"></a>4. View more fields using quick view

Show more fields and controls of a single record by using a quick view (side-panel or modal). Place your edit and delete controls inside the quick view. Avoid collapsible accordions. They are inconsistent with table headers and cause user cleanup issues.

![view more quick view](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/3Jo30qeyHzCNh3LwUKRN5W/ff9b753cae1199caeab198fba74081b4/view_more_quick_view.png)

## <a name="use-pagination"></a>5. Use pagination for more records
Decide on the max rows each user should see then add pagination to indicate how many more records remain. Avoid “load more” buttons and infinite scroll. This causes issues of relocating records and false sense of completed search.

![use pagination](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/6JMex6tpn6SA7IZS1fg6mU/a2a87b6e84712ef694db83dd5a034ed9/use_pagination.png)

## Conclusion
Data tables should help users find, compare and update data. Follow design patterns that help your users best achieve these goals.  

### Reference
- Data Tables: Four Major User Tasks ([Article](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/data-tables/)) Nielsen Norman Group 
- Infinite Scrolling: When to Use it, When to Avoid it ([Article](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/infinite-scrolling-tips/)) Nielsen Norman Group


Data tables in web apps should help users find, compare and update data. 5 best practices: 1) First column readable; 2) Default sort; 3) Filters close to headers; 4) Quick view more fields; 5) Pagination

readable first column

Data Table UX: 5 Rules of Thumb

Here are five rules of thumb you can apply to common UI design challenges when building web applications:

1. [Use defaults](#use-defaults)
2. [Obvious settings](#obvious-settings)
3. [Show progress](#show-progress)
4. [Avoid interruptions](#avoid-interruptions)
5. [Flat hierarchy](#flat-hierarchy)

## <a name="use-defaults"></a>1. Use defaults
Provide default values to guide users on the most common choices or behaviour you want to encourage.

![use defaults](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/58lgklls1TQqgvFstGDF0B/938dffbe618bb3d424cf8c3acac015c4/use_defaults.png)

Defaults reduce the number of choices and decision fatigue users must face. They provide context as to the next decision required. Attempt to reduce the number of inputs you require by collapsing optional values. 

## <a name="obvious-settings"></a>2. Obvious settings
Settings should be obvious and unambiguous. Use radio buttons or checkboxes to indicate whether a setting is active. Where possible opt for binary settings instead of multiple states (e.g. flash mode on/ off vs flash mode auto, on or off).

![obvious settings mode](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/7n6LxMmrztHcv9hRjouZbx/82419567536619908d199d5c20f16ebd/obvious_settings_mode.png)

Clearly label preference settings with positive active labels. Avoid negative labels. Checkboxes should enable things, not disable them.

![obvious settings preferences](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/4HvT2YSTTMnzQFeQ5Wvh8x/c3551e5ea801c581972cfff1ede51a9c/obvious_settings_preferences.png)

## <a name="show-progress"></a>3. Show progress
Feedback should be immediate to communicate to users that the action has been received. When feedback cannot be immediate, use loading spinners for short waits (<10 seconds) and progress loaders for long waits (>10 seconds).

![show progress](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/dMSFEcZYTeCzT6K5bx3LL/ce2eb70fb73b68448425fe946840141b/show_progress.png)

## <a name="avoid-interruptions"></a>4. Avoid interruptions
Avoid interrupting users' workflow by making decisions to allow slips with ways to undo. Allow slips with the use of less intrusive toasts vs intrusive warning confirm modals.

![avoid interruptions](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/51iV8AagtUtyl8UeASDp8W/a41fb967b86ee1455f6d21a701419849/avoid_interruptions.png)

## <a name="flat-hierarchy"></a>5. Flat hierarchy
Use flat instead of deep hierarchies. Content is more discoverable if it is not deeply nested inside hierarchies. People are good at naturally grouping categories based on labels without relying on deep nesting.

![flat hierarchy](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/4AoNBBWhKfLtA0ouDCSYjC/9a4ca81d0feb42cbadff92b4e566e7d4/flat_hierarchy.png)

### References
- The Power of Defaults ([Article](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/the-power-of-defaults/)) - Nielsen Norman Group
- Flat vs Deep Website Hierarchies ([Article](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/flat-vs-deep-hierarchy/)) - Nielsen Norman Group
- Designed for Use: Create Usable Interfaces for Applications and the Web (2016) ([Book](https://pragprog.com/titles/lmuse2/designed-for-use-second-edition/)) - Lukas Mathis


UI design patterns for web apps: 1) Use defaults; 2) Obvious settings; 3) Show progress; 4) Don’t interrupt; 5) Flat hierarchy


show progress

User Interface Design: 5 Rules of Thumb

The Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) is a simple three question test that measures people’s tendency to answer questions with the first idea that comes to their mind without checking it.

The first and most popular question is the “bat and ball problem” which more than 50% of students at Harvard, MIT and Princeton get wrong. 

![cognitive-reflection-test](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/55mZtOXLz6Z3uVaaFzEFKy/cce62be0aa1919ebdcf07e80fa73f713/cognitive-reflection-test.png)

### Sections
1. [The Bat and Ball Problem](#bat-and-ball)
2. [How to Improve Your CRT Score](#improve-crt)
3. [Examples of Reacting vs Checking](#react-vs-check)

## <a name="bat-and-ball"></a>1. The Bat and Ball Problem
__Problem:__
- A bat and a ball cost $1.10. 
- The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. 
- How much does the ball cost?

__First Reaction:__
- 10 cents

Nearly all people have a first reaction of 10 cents which is wrong. The correct answer is 5 cents. 

In a study of 3,428 university students, 50% of participants across Harvard, MIT and Princeton gave the incorrect intuitive response and did not actively check their response. A failure to check is instructive because it requires such minimal mental effort.

Anyone who would pause and check would recognise that if the ball is 10 cents the bat would need to cost $1.10 and the sum would be $1.20, which is above the target $1.10. 

Daniel Kahneman describes this cognitive bias as the distinction between a person’s two processes of thinking:
- __System 1__: executed quickly with little conscious deliberation; and
- __System 2__: executed slowly and more reflective

System 1 processes occur instantly and effortlessly for example knowing the answer to 5 x 5 or indicating left when turning the car left. 

System 2 processes require more effort, concentration and calculation for example the answer to 25 x 7 or correcting for car slides on icy roads. 

## <a name="improve-crt"></a>2. How to Improve Your CRT Score
Here are three ways you can improve your CRT score and mitigate against biases of System 1 thinking:
1. __Acknowledge__: that you will always have an initial “gut” reaction to an event or problem and jump to solution mode. This is unavoidable and it is ok. Note your initial reaction and solution;
2. __Pause and check__: your first idea before sharing your feedback. Check who the decision would impact and how much effort the solution would require; and
3. __Ask questions__: to find out who really has the problem and where the problem comes from. Check again whether your first idea would answer these questions.

## <a name="react-vs-check"></a>3. Examples of Reacting vs Checking
Here are three examples of how product, customer success and marketing teams may react with their first idea and how they could pause and check.

| Example     | React First Idea     | Pause & Check     |
| ---------- | ---------- | ---------- |
| __Product__ <br> Watching an end-user struggle to upload a file       | Propose feature solution of drag and drop file upload       | Before solution mode: <ul><li>check funnel data of what % of users fail upload</li><li>are those not uploading files blocking the flow of other users</li><li>are there non-UX factors causing this (e.g. file size, internet speed)</li></ul> |
| __Customer Success__ <br> Unhappy customer feedback that solution was not a fit with their internal system and they may now churn       | Blame sales team for selling to clients with poor system fits and create a new process to screen out incompatible customers       | Before solution mode: <ul><li>check how many existing customers are at risk of incompatibility. Are they using workarounds</li><li>could the cause of the incompatibility be known in advance of the sale</li><li>does the customer still see value in the solution</li></ul> |
|__Marketing__ <br> Prospect complains angrily they are getting too many marketing emails | Disable this week’s new marketing campaigns | Before solution mode:<ul><li>confirm how many other recent complaints have been received</li><li>check if prospect is an existing paying customer or opportunity</li><li>if not, check if prospect fits the ideal sales qualified target</li></ul>|

To learn more about how to pause and check, read about the 4 simple questions you can ask to help identify and solve the right problems before jumping to solution mode ([How to solve the right problems](https://mannhowie.com/problem-solve)). 

## References
- Shane Frederick (2005). ["Cognitive Reflection and Decision Making"](https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/089533005775196732). Journal of Economic Perspectives.
- Daniel Kahneman (2011). [Thinking Fast and Slow](https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0374533555). Chapter 3, The Lazy Controller


Why 50% of Harvard, MIT and Princeton students get the bat and ball problem wrong. 1) The Bat and Ball Problem; 2) How to Improve Your CRT Score; 3) Examples of Reacting vs Checking in Product, Customer Success and Marketing.


cognitive-reflection-test

Cognitive Reflection Test - Examples of Reacting vs Checking

Google acquired YouTube for US$1.6bn in 2006. In 2022, YouTube could be worth over US$180bn achieving a +110x return. Analysis of YouTube revenue and usage statistics and financial metrics.

yt valuation comparison

How Much is YouTube Worth? Over US$180bn in 2022

The IKEA effect describes how people come to overvalue things in which they have successfully put effort into. This cognitive bias can pose risks to organisations in the form of sunk cost effects and “not invented here” syndrome.

![ikea-effect](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/1o8egJQ2qvuZqLQjsPpOSf/5c7e44c7d77fc37f809a05fe47b6d357/ikea-effect.png)

This article explains when and why the IKEA effect emerges and introduces four ways you can defend against it.
1. [What is the IKEA effect?](#what-is-the-ikea-effect)
2. [Pitfalls of the IKEA effect](#pitfalls-of-the-ikea-effect)
3. [Four ways to avoid the IKEA effect](#ways-to-avoid-the-ikea-effect)

### <a name="what-is-the-ikea-effect"></a> 1. What is the IKEA effect?
The IKEA effect is a finding that people tend to ascribe a higher valuation towards self-assembled products compared to objectively similar products which they did not assemble.

A study by Norton, Mochon and Ariely ([2011 paper](https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/11-091.pdf)) found participants who self-assembled an IKEA storage box (Builders) valued the purchase price 63% higher than those who inspected the same pre-assembled box (Non-Builders). Similarly, the Builders also rated liking the box 55% more than Non-Builders. 

__IKEA Effect Experiment A - Perceived value of IKEA storage box by Builders vs Non-Builders__

|   Measure   | Builders (Self-assemble)     | Non-Builders (Inspect pre-assembled)     | % Difference     |
| ---------- | ---------- | ---------- | ---------- |
| Willingness To Pay (0-100 cents scale)       | 78       | 48       | 63%       |
| Liking of Box (1-7 scale)       | 3.8       | 2.5       | 52%       |

*Participants: N = 50*

In another experiment one group of participants were asked to create origami (Builders) and another asked to inspect their creation (Non-Builders). Similar to the first experiment, the Builders valued their creation 360% higher than the Non-Builders who ascribed close to no value to the origami (“nearly worthless crumpled paper”).

__IKEA Effect Experiment B - Perceived value of origami creation by Builders vs Non-Builders__

|  Measure    | Builders (Self-create)     | Non-Builders (Inspect creation)     | % Difference     |
| ---------- | ---------- | ---------- | ---------- |
| Willingness To Pay (0-100 cents scale)       | 23       | 5       | 360%   
*Participants: N = 106*

### <a name="pitfalls-of-the-ikea-effect"></a> 2. Pitfalls of the IKEA effect
The IKEA effect explains broadly why people may come to fall in love with their own ideas. With the effect strongest when people expend a greater amount of their own effort and perceive their effort as successful.

The IKEA effect has negative implications for organisations more broadly as a contributor to two key organisational pitfalls:
- __Sunk cost effects__: people continue to devote resources to failing projects in which they have previously invested
- __“Not invented here” syndrome__: people refuse to use perfectly good ideas developed elsewhere in favour of their own, often inferior internally-developed ideas

Here are some examples of how the pitfalls could occur:

| Team     | Effort     | Pitfall ⚠️     |
| ---------- | ---------- | ---------- |
| Fund Manager       | Creating a company financial model with industry and market share forecasts       | Perceiving company to be more valuable than it may be even when forecasts are not met       |
| Sales Executive       | Developing a sales slide deck on a unique selling proposition       | Selling the solution instead of listening for customer struggles       |
| Product Designer       | Building high fidelity prototype of MVP product       | Over Indexing visual design feedback and distracting from focus on user goals       |
| Growth Marketer       | Developing Account Based Marketing strategy based on LinkedIn research       | Avoid comparing cost of acquisition vs other more effective initiatives like SEO and direct prospecting       |

### <a name="ways-to-avoid-the-ikea-effect"></a> 3. Four ways to avoid the IKEA effect
Here are four ways you can avoid and defend against the IKEA effect.

#### 1. Acknowledge your unconscious bias
In the IKEA effect study, participants were found to be unaware of their unconscious bias. 92% of the participants when asked said they would pay more for pre-assembled products compared to self-assembly. This was in direct contradiction of their actions in the study. 

Acknowledging you are prone to the cognitive bias of the IKEA effect can be the most effective way to mitigate against it. When completing an effort on a solution or idea, admit to yourself that you probably love it more than other solutions, because you worked on it.

#### 2. Spike rough prototypes
The IKEA effect study found that the effect was strongest only when the effort was successful. Failure to complete tasks had corresponding negative psychological consequences. People ruminate more on tasks they failed to complete than on those they successfully completed, leading to negative affect and regret.

Spike rough prototypes and MVPs to test ideas early. Embrace sharing ideas that you are embarrassed with so it will be easier to cull.

#### 3. Talk to customers
Framing your solutions and efforts towards the customer struggle can help mitigate your bias against any one solution.

Talking to customers is the best way to achieve this. Learn how to conduct user interviews to surface customer's struggling moments and understand why they don't love their current solutions ([example user interview questions](https://mannhowie.com/user-interviews)).  

#### 4. Run growth experiments
Growth experiments can help mitigate against [confirmation bias](https://mannhowie.com/cognitive-bias#confirmation) by setting the discipline to state the problem statement, hypothesis and success criteria upfront before expending effort on a solution. Learn how to run your own growth experiment in this tutorial ([How to run a growth experiment](https://mannhowie.com/growth-experiment)).

The Build, Measure and Learn framework popularised by Eric Ries in his book [The Lean Startup](http://theleanstartup.com/book) explains how to apply a learning and feedback loop to measure the success of products and solutions.

__Sources__
- Norton, M. I., Mochon, D., & Ariely, D. (2012). [The IKEA effect: When labor leads to love.](https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/11-091.pdf)
- Ries, Eric. [The Lean Startup. (2011)](http://theleanstartup.com/book)


When and why the IKEA effect causes people to overvalue their own ideas. Examples of organisational pitfalls of the IKEA effect. 4 ways you can defend against the IKEA effect: 1) Acknowledge your unconscious bias; 2) Spike rough prototypes; 3) Talk to customers; 4) Run growth experiments

ikea-effect

The IKEA Effect - Why people fall in love with their own ideas

The average is the most commonly used metric we use to understand data and infer insights - it is also the most dangerous.
![beware_average](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/12kJw6jBqfvjjSCHyMxUNm/2dbf7edf379236641095dffe09c670fb/beware_average.png)

# The Pitfall of the Average
The US Air Force began life in the late 1940s with a high rate of aircraft accidents and pilot fatalities (excluding combat losses) with 23.6 aircraft destroyed per 100,000 flying hours. This dramatically reduced to 4.3 by the end of the 1960s driven largely by the work of one man, Lieutenant Gilbert S. Daniels who saw the pitfall of using “the average” to design solutions.

> The tendency to think in terms of the “average man” is a pitfall…it is virtually impossible to find an “average man” in the Air Force population.
[Gilbert S Daniels (1952 US Air Force Report)](https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/AD0010203)

US Army engineers had standardised the design of pilot cockpits to conform to the average dimensions of a 1926 pilot. This was revisited in the 1950s by Lt. Daniels who measured the bodily dimensions of more than 4,000 pilots and found that zero pilots matched the average dimensions.

The US Air Force responded and demanded that its manufacturers design its cockpits to be adjustable to individual dimensions vs the standardised average. As a consequence, both pilot performance and accident/ mishap rates dramatically improved.
![us_airforce](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/6mtEbxaIXNU60Svdu9uGsO/3c61d041d241f4040e7269db2552b8eb/us_airforce.png)

# A Modern Example
A modern example of the pitfall of the average would be to look at user activity. Imagine we build software that helps users perform inspections and we are tasked with improving user engagement.

Looking at the data we find that the average count of monthly inspections performed by our active users is 32 inspections per month:

![table_inspections](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/3SfYJ8CwfGsBPFptTVL3jB/44bd12fd8ec35a7fc0c8efe608a47ed3/table_inspections.png)

Knowing this, we can deduce that our users on average perform 32 inspections per month or approximately one inspection a day. We begin building solutions such as daily notifications to help remind our users to perform their daily inspection.

__Stop.__

Reducing a large data set into a single number can often mask useful information and give us the wrong answer. Instead we can look at the distribution of our data and graph the same data as a histogram to reveal how often each different value occurs in a dataset.
![histogram_inspections](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/1UixJwtgp0xcrWIvV6I6J2/ce429dc02a478f3c49abb41f28b113bc/histogram_inspections.png)

Now looking at the distribution of our data we can see that none of our users perform the average number of 32 inspections per month. Instead we see that 60% of our users perform 10 or fewer inspections per month and a large group (+30% of users) perform 70 or more inspections per month.

The distribution of our data could suggest that the usage of our software differs widely by different cohorts of users. One cohort could be using it to perform monthly scheduled safety checks vs another cohort using it to perform factory line QA checks. 

Next time when using the average, pause before making any conclusions and ask: "How many instances of the data actually reflect the average?". 

__References:__
- [THE “AVERAGE MAN”? - Gilbert S Daniels (1952 US Air Force Report)](https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/AD0010203)
- [Trends in U.S. Air Force Aircraft Mishap Rates (1950-2018) - Thomas Light, Thomas Hamilton, Spencer Pfeifer](https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RRA200/RRA257-1/RAND_RRA257-1.pdf) 
- [The End of Average - Todd Rose (2015)](https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-end-of-average-9780141980034) 


The average is a myth. Understand the pitfalls of the average and how it can conceal useful information. How the US Air Force threw out the average and saved lives. Use distributions to better understand your data.

beware_average

How the US Air Force Ditched the "Average" and Saved Lives

Here are three core formatting best practices you can apply for financial models and data analyses in Excel and Google Sheets.

[Formatting cheat sheet with examples (free download)](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lPK9rY2XF0C5kbo1EtUGiCEvozOfaUPxt9zilfthTZc/edit#gid=0)

## 1. Color Coding Cells
- <span style="color:black;border:solid 1px;border-width:1px;padding:0px 2px">Black</span> = formula, calculations and links to other cells
- <span style="color:blue;border:solid 1px;border-width:1px;padding: 0px 2px">Blue</span> = hard coded input cells and historical data
- <span style="color:blue;border:solid 1px;border-width:1px;padding: 0px 2px;background:yellow">Blue with yellow background</span> = key input assumptions
- <span style="color:green;border:solid 1px;border-width:1px;padding: 0px 2px">Green</span> = link to other spreadsheets in the same file

__Example - Big Tech Company Metrics__
![COLORCODE](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/1B5GvkyNo7NBDedwEllnDM/1a7fa72588abd089f5d470992a41baef/COLORCODE.png)

## 2. Financial Tables
- __FY20XX__ = Use financial year end for your column headers, include the year end and metric in the table header
- __Revenue__ = bold important headline metrics (Revenue, EBITDA, EBIT, NPAT)
- Cost of Revenue = indent sub metrics used to calculate headline metrics (e.g. COGS)
- Financial formatting = use brackets for negative values and avoid more than 1 dp
- Left to right = older to newer FY dates ordered left to right

__Example - Alphabet Income Statement__
![TABLE](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/1HaM9TUGNg0UkczOVAIDgl/98d7bb87c0cda476c90562f9a85056f5/TABLE.png)

### 3. Key Metrics
- __FY20XX__ = Align your key metrics under the same columns as the financial table
- *Revenue growth yoy* = italic text for key metrics
- *23%* = italic text including the unit metric (e.g. %, x)
- <span style="color:gray;border:solid 1px;border-width:1px;padding: 0px 2px;background:gray">Grey</span> = grey out cells if computed metric not able to be calculated

__Example - Alphabet Income Statement Key Metrics__
![METRIC](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/jKJYZgcCeyTjKK6kjKaR8/e98f783e10d0b4fb8fc2326d4de988ce/METRIC.png)

[Formatting cheat sheet with examples (free download)](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lPK9rY2XF0C5kbo1EtUGiCEvozOfaUPxt9zilfthTZc/edit#gid=0)

Investment Banking Excel and Google Sheet formatting best practices for building spreadsheets and financial models: 1) Color Coding Cells; 2) Financial Tables; 3) Key Metrics

COLORCODE

Financial Model Formatting - 3 Core Best Practices

![fininte state machine](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/6JNh1Rpi6a1VUnTux03TzW/c69b8b54a1be48ec820cec8e721163af/fininte_state_machine.png)

Finite State Machines allow cross-functional teams to visually design complex logic before committing expensive resources to design and code implementation.

It is a powerful tool for product teams and business owners to communicate on customer requirements in order to identify rabbit holes and poor UX early in the process.

They have been widely used in electrical engineering and in the logic design of electronic devices for decades. 

To illustrate the power of Finite State Machines, imagine we have been briefed by the business to build a customer feedback form widget.

## Phase 1 - Simple Feedback Widget
The first phase of our brief is for a simple feedback widget that will do the following:
- Ask for positive or negative feedback
- If positive display a happy success message
- If negative display an apology
- Allow user to cancel the feedback form

We can visualise this simple application using Finite State Machines below:
![phase1](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/3aRVidpZK6c6qevtvEWLfB/9a09666917aeeddc3170c9a4ef80cfcf/phase1.png)

Our application has 4 states:
1. __START__ - our initial state where a user can click to begin the survey
2. __RESPONSE__ - where a user is asked for a positive or negative response and where they can cancel to go back to START
3. __POSITIVE CONFIRM__: an end state upon a user clicking POSITIVE
4. __NEGATIVE CONFIRM__: an end state upon a user clicking NEGATIVE

Our 4 states are also characterised by 4 events and transitions which are conditional upon the current state the application is in.

Our application also triggers actions such as saving the rating and updating the message upon certain events and entering different states.

Once the logic and user flow has been agreed we can easily convert this to design and code stage. In the examples below we use the open source library [XState](https://xstate.js.org/docs/) by [David Khourshid](https://github.com/davidkpiano) to codify our Finite State Machine and use ReactJS to render our UI.

<iframe src="https://codesandbox.io/embed/feedbackphase1-stkhm?fontsize=14&hidenavigation=1&theme=dark&view=preview"
     style="width:100%; height:500px; border:0; border-radius: 4px; overflow:hidden;"
     title="feedbackPhase1"
     allow="accelerometer; ambient-light-sensor; camera; encrypted-media; geolocation; gyroscope; hid; microphone; midi; payment; usb; vr; xr-spatial-tracking"
     sandbox="allow-forms allow-modals allow-popups allow-presentation allow-same-origin allow-scripts"
   ></iframe>

## Phase 2 - Negative Feedback Reason
The business has now come back asking for us to capture the main reasons for negative feedback.

Our application now must:
- Ask the user to select the main reason for negative feedback (Service, Product, Price)
- Also allow a user to select POSITIVE again if they accidentally selected NEGATIVE

With Finite State Machines we can easily modify and expand our logic without breaking any previous logic:
![phase2](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/38VI5AsXioynO833DlaAzM/9f8c7edb547374d6044b6bff26400c85/phase2.png)

Our application has a new __NEGATIVE FEEDBACK__ state which allows a user to select from three of the main reasons for the negative response (SERVICE, PRODUCT or PRICE). Upon selecting an event the reason is captured and the state transitions to the NEGATIVE CONFIRM end state and displays an apology message.

We have now also added a new POSITIVE event which a user can click on to transition directly to the POSITIVE CONFIRM end state.

Our team can now confidently update our application with the new business logic:

<iframe src="https://codesandbox.io/embed/feedbackphase2-lg6sy?fontsize=14&hidenavigation=1&theme=dark&view=preview"
     style="width:100%; height:500px; border:0; border-radius: 4px; overflow:hidden;"
     title="feedbackPhase2"
     allow="accelerometer; ambient-light-sensor; camera; encrypted-media; geolocation; gyroscope; hid; microphone; midi; payment; usb; vr; xr-spatial-tracking"
     sandbox="allow-forms allow-modals allow-popups allow-presentation allow-same-origin allow-scripts"
   ></iframe>

## Phase 3 - Advanced Feedback
The business comes back wanting to direct users to contact sales for pricing discussions if they select PRICE as a negative response. In addition they want to capture any other reasons for negative feedback.

Our application must now grow in complexity to handle the following:
- If user selects PRICE as a negative response, send to different end state with pricing discussion CTA
- New OTHER option for a user to select with ability to leave comment

Once again we modify our Finite State Machines to expand our logic
![phase3](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/6wb9cvXQflR8QIBGul2SOU/b8e775fd2c86f028a3c4652602219969/phase3.png)

Our application has now added two new states:
1. __PRICE CONFIRM__: end state when a user selects PRICE as a negative response. We will display a contact number for pricing discussions. Creating a new end state provides us with flexibility if the business may want to display discount offers or ask the user for more contact information in the future
2. __COMMENT__: when a user selects OTHER as a new reason for their negative response. This state includes three events where a user can UPDATE COMMENT to capture the reason, SUBMIT COMMENT to transition to end state and CANCEL to go back and select a different reason

Once again, our Finite State Machine is able to handle increasing complexity without breaking previous logic. Our designer and developer team can now confidently work on implementing the new logic:

<iframe src="https://codesandbox.io/embed/feedbackphase3-8y5dx?fontsize=14&hidenavigation=1&theme=dark&view=preview"
     style="width:100%; height:500px; border:0; border-radius: 4px; overflow:hidden;"
     title="feedbackPhase3"
     allow="accelerometer; ambient-light-sensor; camera; encrypted-media; geolocation; gyroscope; hid; microphone; midi; payment; usb; vr; xr-spatial-tracking"
     sandbox="allow-forms allow-modals allow-popups allow-presentation allow-same-origin allow-scripts"
   ></iframe>

## Future Complexity
Our application will naturally grow in complexity as business and user requirements evolve. 

Examples may include:
- Ask for feedback for positive response
- Invite user to add users after a positive response
- Ask user to provide the name of the poor service representative
- Introduce a passive response in addition to positive and negative
- etc.

With Finite State Machines we can confidently continue modelling this advanced complexity into our design and visually see how it interacts with previous functionality.


How Finite State Machines allow cross-functional teams to visually design complex logic before committing expensive resources to design and code implementation.

fininte state machine

Finite State Machines - A Common Tool for Product Owners, Designers & Developers

Inversion is a mental model of framing a problem from an opposing objective in order to solve the original problem.
![inversion](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/61qV3DFcVLXMoW1R899hWB/db5a16bc87fc56ff29624d857bbed49f/invert_image.png)
It is a favourite trick of famous value investor Charlie Munger. He gives an [example of how the inversion process](https://youtu.be/_uacTl8Lv_U) helped him in his early career become a better meteorologist:

> “When I was a meteorologist in World War II, they told me how to draw weather maps and predict the weather. What I was actually doing was clearing pilots to take flights. 
> 
> I just reversed the problem. I inverted, __I said:__ __suppose I want to kill a lot of pilots. What would be the easy way to do it__? And I soon concluded that the only easy way to do it was to get the planes into icing conditions they couldn’t handle or to get the pilot into a place where he’d run out of fuel before he could safely land. 
> 
> So I made up my mind I was going to stay miles away from killing pilots by either icing or getting them sucked into conditions where they couldn’t land. I think that helped me be a better meteorologist in World War II. I just reversed the problem.
> 
> Algebra works the same way. Human beings should do the same thing in their ordinary walks of life. Just constantly invert. You don’t think about what you want. You think about what you want to avoid. When you think about what you want to avoid, you also think about what you want. And you just go back and forth all the time.”

This article looks at how others have used the inversion process to innovate big ideas and new solutions in both life and growing start-ups.

## Productivity
In solving the problem of decluttering one’s life, Marie Kondo frames the challenge of effective tidying __not as what we want to get rid of__, but instead __choosing what we want to keep__.

The big idea of the [KonMari Method](https://konmari.com/what-is-konmari-method/) is to keep things that spark joy: “Does this spark joy? If it does, keep it. If not, dispose of it.” 

By reframing the problem she was able to develop her tidying techniques as “involving only two essential actions: discarding and deciding where to store things.”

## Product Innovation
In solving the problem of product innovation, Bob Moesta and the late Clay Christenson frame the question __not as what new features do customers want__, but instead understand __what struggles they experience with their current solution__. 

The big idea behind their innovative [Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework](http://jobstobedone.org/) is understanding the struggles a customer faces in making progress in their lives and innovating around those struggles.

By reframing the problem in understanding the struggle, Bob Moesta innovated his JTBD framework to look at “four forces of progress” where progress only occurs when:

> (__Push__ of the current struggle + __Pull__ of the new solution) > (__Habit__ of the old solution + __Anxiety__ of the new solution).

## Project Management
In solving the problem of delivering meaningful work on time and on spec, Ryan Singer from Basecamp frames the challenge __not as how long will it take to execute__, but instead __how much time do we want to spend__. 

The big idea of [Shape Up](https://basecamp.com/shapeup) is to focus less on estimates and more on appetite in order to narrow down problems and design outlines of solutions that fit within constraints of appetite.

By reframing the problem based on appetite, Basecamp’s Shape Up techniques focus on setting bounded solutions using fat marker sketches and addressing risks and rabbit holes early on. All the techniques are designed to set guardrails based on appetite to de-risk projects from derailing or growing in scope.


How Charlie Munger used the inversion process to save the lives of pilots during WWII. How inversion helps frame innovative solutions in productivity, product design, and project management.

inversion

Invert, Always Invert - Find out how to kill pilots

Alibaba operates three of the largest digital platforms in China: e-commerce, cloud and payments. We estimate Alibaba Group (BABA:NYSE 9988:HKG) to be valued at up to US$900 billion based on a Sum Of The Parts (SOTP) valuation of its various operating segments:

#### Alibaba Group SOTP Valuation (2021)
![alibaba sotp](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/5JX9uAgNOkj85xN3eJWyA8/16003aacd7bc9972fb8da8e3a55152a6/alibaba_sotp.png)

This article analyses Alibaba’s two main operating segments that represent up to 88% of the group valuation (Taobao/ Tmall and Alibaba Cloud) and shows how you can formulate your own valuation and thesis. To learn the fundamentals of valuing any technology company refer to [this article with a case study of how to value YouTube](https://mannhowie.com/youtube-valuation). 

__Key Sections:__
1. [China E-Commerce Market Share](#industry)
2. [Taobao/ Tmall Valuation](#taobao)
3. [Alibaba Cloud Valuation](#cloud)

## <a name="industry"></a>1. China E-Commerce Market Share
China dominates global online spending. Over 57% of total global online spend happens in China with an estimated +1 billion online shoppers spending over US$2.8 trillion annually. Online spending in China alone is more than 70% more than the next 10 countries combined.

#### Global E-Commerce Spend by Country (2021 Forecast) & China E-Commerce Market Share by Company (2020 Actual)
![global ecommerce](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/5RpP7NWgAWsBH0A4nt048d/f2e7b2c21f59148f2c90ad8d99d618e0/global_ecommerce.png)

China is likely to continue to dominate global online spending the next decade and beyond. Relative to the United States, China has 5x the online shopping population and is still only at 20% of US GDP and Income per capita. Across e-commerce there are two economies: China and the Rest of the World.

Within China, e-commerce is dominated by three players: Alibaba, JD.com and Pinduoduo. Alibaba’s annual Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) across its two platforms Taobao and Tmall in China alone is more than all annual online spend across the US, UK and Japan combined. 

#### China E-Commerce Major Players
![china ecommerce table](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/2vOtxucZPBnNJvlZH9KklU/c8ed8fe3cda225faf94169a6df37080a/china_ecommerce_table.png)
Across the three major Chinese players Alibaba maintains its dominant position. However newcomer pinduoduo has grown considerable share in a very short period focusing on a new trend in e-commerce in China, lower basket value social commerce.

## <a name="taobao"></a>2. Taobao / Tmall Valuation
Alibaba’s largest and most profitable segment is its e-commerce marketplace platform in China known as Taobao and Tmall. We value this segment at RMB 4 trillion (US$ 624 billion) representing 80% of the entire valuation of Alibaba.

### What is Taobao and Tmall?
With over 811 million active annual customers, Taobao is effectively the internet platform for e-commerce in China. Nearly all merchants and businesses that sell to Chinese consumers have an online store on Taobao. 

There are two main platforms within the one Taobao mobile and web app: Taobao and Tmall with a total GMV split 50/50:

- __Taobao__ is a marketplace platform where any merchant, person or small business can set up an online store and sell to the Chinese population.

- __Tmall__ is a B2C platform reserved for brand companies where they can set up their own dedicated stores. Most international brands selling into China will transact through their Tmall stores vs their own online shops.

#### Taobao vs Tmall
![taobao vs tmall](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/4QhVDL6MlaqeWzoag1v54z/9ee6f6d521faa305e273bfd0f4407907/taobao_vs_tmall.png)

Alibaba’s e-commerce business model is marketplace-based and facilitates transactions between buyers and sellers. Unlike Amazon and JD.com, Alibaba does not purchase and resell inventory nor does it own or operate its own fulfilment and distribution centres. It is the sellers responsibility for organising delivery to the buyer either direct or via Alibaba’s network of 3rd party logistics providers (via its global Cainiao logistics business).

### How does Taobao Tmall generate revenue?
Ads and commissions:

- __Ads (70% of e-commerce revenue)__: merchants buy keywords and display ads on Taobao and Tmall to attract traffic and purchases to their stores. Ad monetization represents 2-3% of GMV transacted through the platform. Alibaba’s high margin ad revenue model is similar to Google’s cash cow Search business.

- __Commissions (30% of e-commerce revenue)__: merchants pay commissions on transactions through the Tmall network as part of hosting their stores on the largest e-commerce platform in the world. Commission monetization represents ~1% of GMV.

### What is the growth thesis for Alibaba China E-Commerce?
The e-commerce market in China is now highly mature with over 50% of retail sales done online and Alibaba maintaining the dominant share. Having been the dominant e-commerce platform in China for the last decade we expect overall growth to slow. 

Having said that, we still expect Alibaba to remain the dominant e-commerce platform in China and expect Alibaba’s annual GMV to grow another 50% over the next decade and ad monetization to increase from ~3% to +3.5%.

We can represent these assumptions as key operating metrics to arrive at a forecast annual revenue by the end of 2030 of RMB 521bn (US$82 bn), up from ~RMB 300bn (US$47bn) ending 2020.

#### Alibaba China Retail Marketplace Revenue Model (RMB)
![alibaba retail revenue model](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/7AgIVJxBlV9K6uenKzyOX9/af5ab81611f9c3a6cba49f4a7b23d585/alibaba_retail_revenue_model.png)

### China Retail Marketplace DCF Valuation
We arrive at our RMB 4 trillion ($USD 624 bn) valuation for Alibaba’s China e-commerce business applying the following key assumptions:
- __EBITA margins__: remain stable at 72% given the high margin operating model of its ad ad and commission businesses. We expect Alibaba’s other segments to operate at break-even largely to support its high margin e-commerce segment (e.g. Cainiao logistics) 
- __Tax rate__: long term effective tax rate of 20% (China based)
- __Stock Based Compensation__: while non-cash we treat this as an expense as it’s largely a substitute for compensating staff. We expect SBC to remain at 25% of total revenue going forward to attract key talent
- __Reinvestment (Net Capex)__: assume a capital-light sales to capital ratio of 1.5 (in line with Alibaba historical and compares to 1.9 for Alphabet) meaning for every one dollar of incremental annual revenue growth, Alibaba will reinvest 66% back into the business for future growth
- __Discount rate__: assume 8% discount rate, low by historical standards but higher now given subdued global interest rates
- __Long term growth rate__: 3.5% above global GDP long term GDP growth of 2-3% as China is still expected to grow faster than the rest of the world for the next decade

#### Alibaba China Retail Marketplace DCF Model (RMB millions)
![alibaba retail dcf](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/3em6HkDrD1MyZwUDTEdslh/e15b1815727f85c2aadc60bb3221838d/alibaba_retail_dcf.png)

## <a name="cloud"></a>3. Alibaba Cloud Valuation
Alibaba’s second most valuable operating segment is its cloud computing business Alibaba Cloud. We conservatively value this segment at RMB 390 billion (~US$60 billion) on the basis it continues to dominate the Chinese market but will face stiff competition globally particularly given political concerns in western economies around hosting of data by Chinese domiciled companies.

### What is Alibaba Cloud?
Alibaba Cloud is the 4th largest cloud computing provider globally and the largest in the Asia Pacific with +40% share in China. It sells cloud-based compute and storage infrastructure services to businesses looking to host their applications and data primarily in China (although it operates globally).

#### Global Public Cloud Infrastructure Services Spend 2020

![global cloud spend](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/77Vqh2ZPUOpbpsZ2EmAFer/5f135f4d953b45be2e4716c4d5588999/global_cloud_spend.png)

Alibaba Cloud is similar to Amazon Web Services offering similar competing offers often at even lower prices when hosted in China vs AWS. It has a clear advantage over the other hyperscale cloud providers within China given its significant existing presence in the Chinese market and wider local market support.

### Alibaba Cloud DCF Valuation
Our RMB 390 billion (US$ 60 billion) DCF valuation for Alibaba Cloud is based on the following key assumptions:
- __Revenue__: Achieve revenues similar to that of current AWS levels by 2030, largely driven by growth in the local Chinese and Asian market. Alibaba is following in the similar footsteps as AWS (~7 years behind) as both the local market leader and without competition from global hyperscale providers. However growth is expected to slow as we expect international growth to be more difficult
- __EBITA Margin__: Achieve similar EBITA margins of +30% as AWS as it reaches scale and continues to reinvest for growth
- __Tax and SBC__: Effective tax rate of 20% and lower stock based compensation expense as % of revenues vs Alibaba China Retail as lower proportion of costs represented by people
- __Reinvestment Rate__: Sales to capital ratio of 1.5 continuing to reinvest 66% of net revenue growth back into the business each year
- __Discount and growth rate__: 8% discount rate and 3.5% LT growth rate in line with Alibaba China Retail

#### Alibaba Cloud DCF Valuation (RMB millions)
![alibaba cloud dcf](//images.ctfassets.net/vwq10xzbe6iz/1yolWWSzSGMD3dC1BOLU7j/d8fa2dedd86c7bde6d2fa70393c5700c/alibaba_cloud_dcf.png)

Alibaba operates three of the largest digital platforms in China: e-commerce, cloud and payments. We estimate Alibaba (BABA:NYSE 9988:HKG) to be valued at up to US$900 billion based on a Sum Of The Parts (SOTP) valuation of its various operating segments.

global ecommerce

How Much is Alibaba Worth? US$900 billion in 2021

A Director is a person generally appointed by a company’s shareholders to attend, participate and vote in Board meetings and oversee [the role and function of a Board](https://mannhowie.com/board-role).

## 5 Basic Fiduciary Duties of a Director
> A Director has a ‘fiduciary relationship’ with a company which is a duty of fidelity and trust to always act in the best interests of the company as a whole and not oneself or a third party. 

In performing their role, a Director is subject to five key duties and obligations under corporation law, and the company’s constitution:

1. ✅Good Faith & Best Interests
2. ✅Act for Proper Purpose
3. ✅Avoid Conflicts of Interest
4. ✅No Misuse of Position or Information
5. ✅Exercise Care & Diligence
  
## Acting with Loyalty and Good Faith
The first four fiduciary duties relate to acting with loyalty and good faith. Below is a summary with breach examples:

| 	Fiduciary Duty	 | 	Description	|	Breach Example	|
| ------------------ | --------------------------	| ------------------------------------ 	|
| __1. Good Faith & Best Interests__ | Decision making on behalf of the best interests of the company as a whole | ❌ Vote influenced by an appointee or major shareholder |
| __2. Act for Proper Purpose__ | Doing things for their intended purpose in the interests of the company as a whole rather than a collateral benefit | ❌ Issuing shares to dilute a shareholder vs raising proceeds for a valid purpose |
| __3. Avoid Conflicts of Interest__ | Must not place oneself in actual or potential possibility of conflict | ❌Not disclosing material interests in a takeover company or competitor |
| __4. No Misuse of Position or Information__ | Must not misuse position to gain an advantage for oneself or someone else or to cause detriment to the company | ❌Insider trading. Setting up a competing company. Phoenix activities |

## Exercising Care and Diligence
Simply acting with loyalty and good faith is not a sufficient liability defence. A Director must also act with skill, care and diligence in overseeing strategy, risk and management of a company. 

At a minimum a Director should exercise care and diligence across these four areas:
1. ✅Familiarity with business
2. ✅Read Board papers
3. ✅Make enquiries
4. ✅Board approvals

| 	Care & Diligence	 | 	Description	|	Breach Example	|
| ------------------ | --------------------------	| ------------------------------------ 	|
| __Familiar with business__ | Become and stay on top of the business and financials | ❌Not understanding how business operates. Insufficient accounting knowledge. |
| __Read Board papers__ | Request and read all Board papers in advance, carefully review Board minutes | ❌Relying on opinions of other Directors. Disputing minutes in hindsight. |
| __Make enquiries__ | Question management and seek external advice on issues that have significant potential to harm company | ❌Relying on management reports. Lack of reported risks |
| __Board approval__ | Important strategic decisions, contracts and announcements should be brought to Board  | ❌No risk appetite framework. Not reviewing material market announcements |

## Statutory Duties & Liabilities
In addition a Director faces statutory duties and liabilities dependent on the legal jurisdiction:

| Statutory Duty/ Liability | Breach Example |
| --------- | ---------- |
| __Insolvent Trading__ | ❌Incurring further debts of any kind if a company is unable to pay all its debts as and when they become due and payable (including employee pay) |
| __Continuous Disclosure__ | ❌For listed companies not immediately disclosing a material contract loss |  
| __Tax Laws__ | ❌Un-remitted employee withholding tax or retirement contributions | 
| __Competition & Consumer Law__ | ❌Cartel behaviour. Truth in advertising |
| __Work Health & Safety Law__ | ❌Breach of work health and safety regulation (face imprisonment for reckless breaches) |
| __Anti-Discrimination Law__ | ❌Discrimination in relation to age, disability, union, race, sex etc |
| __Environmental Law__ | ❌Federal and state environment protection legislation |

## What are the Consequences of Breach of Directors’ Duties and Laws?
#### __Criminal sanctions__  👮
Imprisonment dependent on the severity of the outcome and if directors found to have acted dishonestly or recklessly in failing to comply with duties. Not protected under insurance and indemnification

#### __Civil sanctions/ Disqualification__ ⚖️
Liable for civil penalties including fines, class action lawsuits and disqualification as a director for long periods of time 

#### __Commercial/ Brand damage__ 📰
Reputational damage can damage the company as a whole well beyond the penalties imposed on its directors 

## How can Directors Best Protect Themselves Against Liability?
A Director should at a minimum follow these seven steps:

- ✅Always act in __good faith__ and best interests of the company as a whole and for proper purpose
- ✅Avoid/ disclose __conflicts of interest__
- ✅Exercise __care and diligence__ by reading Board papers, making proper enquiries and staying up to date with the business and industry
- ✅Engage __external advice__ where required but always make independent assessments
- ✅Avoid __insolvent trading__
- ✅Be familiar with the __laws of your industry__
- ✅Obtain __insurance and indemnification__



Five basic fiduciary duties of a Board member with breach examples. What are the consequences of a breach of Directors' duties and laws? How can Directors best protect themselves against liability?

board-role

What are the Fiduciary Duties of a Director?

Uncle Bob's famous [Clean Architecture](https://blog.cleancoder.com/uncle-bob/2012/08/13/the-clean-architecture.html) is a way to write resilient software.

Resilient software is divided into layers, underpinned by business logic and is independent of technologies. It should be:
1. **Independent of Frameworks**. Libraries and frameworks should be treated as tools and not dependencies.
2. **Testable**. Can be tested without external dependencies.
3. **Independent of UI**. You can easily switch CLI for Web or RasberryPi.
4. **Independent of Database**. Switch out SQL for MongoDB.
5. **Independent of any external agency**. Business rules don't know anything about outside world.

![The Clean Architecture diagram](https://blog.cleancoder.com/uncle-bob/images/2012-08-13-the-clean-architecture/CleanArchitecture.jpg)

In practice, choice of technology should be the last decision you make or code you write (e.g. database, platform, framework).

By following clean architecture, you can write software today that can be easily switched out for different technologies in the future.

## Practical Example of Clean Architecture in Node.js
This is an example of a simple CRUD application with layered software and separation of business logic vs technology. 

It is a simple API for creating `students` and `teachers` and includes validation, persistence and UI. It includes examples using different interfaces (CLI and Web), databases (in memory, MongoDB), and libraries (validation).

[Click here for github repo.](https://github.com/howardmann/clean-node)

*Note: this application is different to the Clean Architecture diagram above but attempts to achieve the same outcome.*

### Software layer overview
The application is separated into three layers. Inner layers cannot depend on outer layers and outer layers should only depend one layer in:

- **Inner Layer**
  - **Models**. Handles the creation, validation and reading of our entities (students and teachers). Note that this should be custom logic and not include the DB implementation of models (e.g. in Mongoose DB ORM, their models should be encapsulated in the DB layer below). Our model schemas live here. 
  - **DB**. Our choice of DB (in memory, MongoDB, SQL), this is independent of the model. Note that in Clean Architecture this is considered an outer layer framework, but for practical applications I find it easier to place it inner and have the data-access layer depend on it rather than injecting it in.
- **Middle Layer**
  - **Data-Access**. Handles transfer between the DB (like an ORM). Depends on the model to validate and create the entity in DB. The key is to have a consistent & custom API that all outer layers communicate with. Testing here will ensure that replacing or using multiple DBs doesn't break anything further upstream. 
- **Outer Layer**
  - **Drivers**. Represents the UI or interface (Web or CLI). It communicates only with the data-access layer.

### Example application structure
```bash
============= INNER LAYER =====================================================================
models                    // create new entity by validating payload and returning new read only object 
  L student
    L index.js            // dependency inject schema/ validation library
    L index.test.js       // tests makeStudent()
    L student.js          // simple model takes info, validates and returns read only object
    L student-schema.js   // student validation schema
  L teacher
    L index.js
    L teacher.js
    L teacher-schema.js
  L validator             // wrapper around JOI validation library
    L index.js            // consistent API if ever to switch out a new validation library
    L index.test.js       // tests for validation schema for all models

db                        // db connection and adapter
  L memory                // in memory JSON
    L students.js         
    L teachers.js         
  L mongodb               // mongodb alternative
    L connection.js       // connection library
    L seeds               // seed library
      L students-seeds.js // async seed students db
    L models
      L student.js        // models specific to mongodb. this is different to our business logic models which handle tests and validation

============= MIDDLE LAYER =====================================================================
data-access               // think of it as our internal ORM (logic for our use-cases lies here)
  L students-db           
    L index.js            // other controllers and drivers rely on this API (findStudent, listStudents, addStudent)
    L memory              // in memory
      L index.js          // expose the memory implementation of findStudent, listStudents, addStudents
      L serializer.js     // serializes to DB specific properties (e.g. serial > id, year > grade)
    L mongodb             // mongodb ORM
      L index.js          // uses mongoose implementation of findStudent, listStudents, dropAll etc.
      L serializer.js     // serializes _id to id
    L postgresql          // TODO: Illustrative
    L airtable            // TODO: Illustrative
  L teachers-db           // per students-db above

============= OUTER LAYER =====================================================================
drivers
  L cli                   // cli driver depends on data-access students-db
  L webserver             // express web-server
    L routes
      L index.js          // routes paths
      L students.js       // requires our data-access students-db
      L teachers.js       // per above
    L server.js
```

### Practical approach
In practice, we can defer technology decisions by writing our application in the following order:
1. Start with models, schema and validation. Write test spec.
2. Defer DB decision by using in-memory JSON store
3. Create a data-access API that depends on model and in-memory DB. Write test spec.
4. First tech decision: UI interface (e.g. web or CLI). Depend on above data-access layer. Write integration test spec. 
5. Second tech decision: DB choice (MongoDB, SQL). Replace in-memory DB store. Write data-access methods specific to the DB choice. Ensure previously written test specs pass.

### Models
Our model is a simple factory function that validates a payload (dependency injected validator) and returns a new object with getters.

```javascript
// models/student/student.js
let buildMakeStudent = function(studentValidator) {
  return ({
    name,
    age,
    grade,
    prefect = false
  } = {}) => {
    let {error} = studentValidator({name, age, grade, prefect})
    if (error) throw new Error(error)

    return {
      getName: () => name,
      getAge: () => age,
      getGrade: () => grade,
      isPrefect: () => prefect
    }
  }
}

module.exports = buildMakeStudent
```
While the model schema is dependent on a validation library and breaks the Clean rules, I find it easier to understand the model by having the schema inside the model. (Note: see the repo for an example of how the validator could be separated into its own software entity).

```javascript
// models/student/student-schema.js
let Joi = require('joi')

module.exports = Joi.object().keys({
  name: Joi.string().required().error(() => 'must have name as string'),
  age: Joi.number().error(() => 'age must be a number'),
  grade: Joi.number().error(() => 'grade must be a number'),
  prefect: Joi.boolean().error(() => 'prefect must be a boolean')
})
```

We then dependency inject the validation library into the model. Note we use a wrapper for the validation library to make it easier to switch out libraries in future.

```javascript
// models/student/index.js
let buildMakeStudent = require('./student')
let studentSchema = require('./student-schema')
let studentValidator = require('../validator/')(studentSchema)

let makeStudent = buildMakeStudent(studentValidator)

module.exports = makeStudent
```

Write two sets of unit tests for our model. First testing the validation library for valid vs invalid payloads and relevant error messages. And second testing the creation and read only of the model entity.

```javascript
// models/validator/index.test.js
studentValidator
  [] validates name:string:required, grade:number, age:number, prefect:boolean 
  [] returns error messages if invalid

teacherValidator
  [] validates name:string:required, subject:string, tenure:boolean
  [] returns error messages if invalid
```

```javascript
// models/student/index.test.js
makeStudent
  [] throws error if invalid payload
  [] must have name
  [] can have grade
  [] can have age
  [] sets prefect to false by default
```
### Data-Access
The data-access layer is one of the most important. We should feel confident to easily replace DBs.

Here we need three key components
1. API and test spec
2. Serializers to adapt custom DB to our model schema
3. DB implementation of the API and passing of test

Start with how we think the outer layers will communicate with the data-access layer and what they should expect to get.

```javascript
// data-access/students-db/index.test.js
// example test spec
studentsDb
  - listStudents() lists students
  - findStudent() find single student by id
  - findStudentsBy() finds all students by property
  - addStudent() inserts a student
  - throws error if student payload invalid
  - deleteStudent() deletes a student
  - dropAll() drops students database
```

Write a serializer which adapts the custom DB schema with our model schema.

```javascript
// data-access/students-db/mongodb/serializer.js
// e.g. mongodb stores property id as _id
const _serializeSingle = (student) => {
  return {
    'id': student._id,
    'grade': student.grade,
    'name': student.name,
    'age': student.age,
    'prefect': student.prefect
  };
};

const serializer = (data) => {
  if (!data) {
    return null
  }
  if (Array.isArray(data)) {
    return data.map(_serializeSingle)
  }
  return _serializeSingle(data)
}

module.exports = serializer
```
Write custom DB implementation of the test spec API. Here is an example of an in-memory implementation (which you should start with) and a MongoDB version. Note: the advantage of writing a test spec is you can focus on simply writing code that just has to work.
#### In-memory data-access:
```javascript
// data-access/students-db/memory/index.js
let STUDENTS = require('../../../db/memory/students') // DB
let makeStudent = require('../../../models/student/index') // model
let serialize = require('./serializer') // serializer custom to db

let listStudents = () => {
  return Promise.resolve(serialize(STUDENTS))
}

let findStudent = (prop, val) => {
  if (prop === 'id') { prop = 'serial' }
  let student = STUDENTS.find(student => student[prop] == val)
  return Promise.resolve(serialize(student))
}

let findStudentsBy = (prop, val) => {
  let student = STUDENTS.filter(student => student[prop] == val)
  return Promise.resolve(serialize(student))
}


let addStudent = (studentInfo) => {
  let student = makeStudent(studentInfo)
  let newStudent = {
    serial: STUDENTS.length + 1,
    year: student.getGrade(),
    name: student.getName(),
    age: student.getAge(),
    prefect: student.isPrefect()
  }
  STUDENTS.push(newStudent)
  return findStudent('serial', newStudent.serial)
}

let deleteStudent = (id) => {
  return findStudent({id})
    .then(student => {
      if (student.id == id) {
        STUDENTS = STUDENTS.filter(student => student.serial != id)
        return {
          id,
          status: 'success'
        }
      }
      return {
        status: 'fail'
      }
    })
}

let dropAll = () => {
  STUDENTS = [];
  return STUDENTS;
}

module.exports = {
  listStudents,
  findStudent,
  findStudentsBy,
  addStudent,
  deleteStudent,
  dropAll
}
```
#### MongoDB data-access:
Note for our MongoDB data-access implementation we depend on the DB from the inner layer. The DB includes MongoDB specific implementation of the model and DB connection.

We write a dropAll function for the purposes of writing a test spec that can be used across any DB choice. E.g. beforeEach test we would drop the DB and seed items for testing.
```javascript
// data-access/students-db/mongod/index.js
let Student = require('../../../db/mongodb/models/student')
let makeStudent = require('../../../models/student/index') // model
let serialize = require('./serializer') // serializer custom to db

let listStudents = () => {
  return Student.find({})
    .then(serialize)
}

let findStudent = (prop, val) => {
  if (prop === 'id') {
    prop = '_id'
  }
  return Student.find({[prop]: val})
    .then(resp => {
      return serialize(resp[0])
    })
}

let findStudentsBy = (prop, val) => {
  return Student.find({[prop]: val})
    .then(serialize)
}

let addStudent = (studentInfo) => {
  let student = makeStudent(studentInfo)
  let newStudent = {
    name: student.getName(),
    grade: student.getGrade(),
    age: student.getAge(),
    prefect: student.isPrefect()
  }
  return Student.create(newStudent)
    .then(serialize)
}

let deleteStudent = (id) => {
  return Student.findByIdAndDelete(id)
    .then(resp => {
      return {
        id: resp._id.toString(),
        status: 'success'
      }
    })
    .catch(err => {
      return {
        status: 'fail'
      }
    })
}

let dropAll = () => {
  return Student.remove()
}

module.exports = {
  listStudents,
  findStudent,
  findStudentsBy,
  addStudent,
  deleteStudent,
  dropAll
}
```
### Drivers
Finally we write our drivers whose only dependency is our data-access layer. The drivers should not communicate directly with the model or db.

Any changes to the inner layer will cascade up and as a result there should be less testing done on the outer layers. E.g. if we were to test changes to the model schema in the driver layer we would need to rewrite our tests here as well.

```bash
drivers
  L cli
    L index.js
  L webserver         // express webserver
    L routes
      L index.js
      L students.js   // depends on students data-access layer
      L teachers.js   // depends on teachers data-access layer
    L server.js       // depends on routes
```

Writing Clean Architecture in Node.js. REST API Tutorial using MongoDB, Express and other best practices. How to write software that lasts and can be independent of technology choice.

Howie Mann
Startup Strategy
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