My 20 Favorite iPhone/iPad Apps

There is very rarely a time where I don't have my iPhone with me.  As a matter of fact, I am almost always with my iPad as well.  Whether at home, work, traveling afar, or in the car running an errand, these devices have become an extension of my brain.  They help me to explore new ideas, take notes, and look up just about any piece of information that I might need.  And when I am just looking for some down time, they also serve as great gaming devices.

I use these apps both professionally and personally throughout my day.  I hope you find them as useful (and fun) as I do.  Here is my list in alphabetical order.

Dropbox - Most everyone already knows about Dropbox.  It has become the leading cloud service for synchronizing your files on almost every computing device you own.  This includes your iPhone and iPad.  I keep all my active project files in my Dropbox folder.  Any changes I make are reflected on all my devices.  I can do office work on my home computer without bringing my laptop back and forth.  And the ability to access and share a file from your iOS device has saved my bacon on more than one occasion.  Navigate to a file using your iPhone, and send a link to that file to someone who needs it asap.

Evernote - Yes, another cloud service that most of you have already heard about.  I use it constantly to capture notes that then appear on all my computers.  With the iPhone app, you can also create notes that are snapshots from the phone's camera or even voice recordings.  Evernote will even do OCR (Optical Character Recognition) on images files you add to your notes.  The beauty of this is that you can later do text searches, and images will be included in the search results.

Fandango - Want to go to a movie, you have everything you need in your hand.  Find nearby theaters which you can see on map and get directions to.  See show times and even watch trailers.  And for certain theaters, purchase your tickets ahead of time from your phone.  I've used this and MovieTickets numerous times on business trips when I had a spare night with nothing to do.

Fieldrunners - This is a great game which is available both for the iPhone and iPad.  Your objective is to place various obstacles on a field of battle to prevent an army of little soldiers from reaching the other side.  There is a variety of soldier and obstacle types.  Combined with a near infinite way to arrange them on the field, this creates a game that always finds a new way to challenge you.  It definitely requires some strategic thinking.

Click to read more ...

Jon Hirschtick ... Thanks For Making Me A Part Of The Team

As many people already know, Jon Hirschtick, SolidWorks' founder and original CEO, has departed from the company after 18 years.  The eternal entrepreneur has decided that it is time to explore new directions and opportunities.  I wanted to briefly thank Jon for starting SolidWorks and making me part of the team back in 1995.  It has (and continues to be) been an incredible experience for all of us who have been a part of the SolidWorks community.

I have grown a great deal during my time with SolidWorks.  Much of that thanks to Jon during the early days of the company.  He and I criss-crossed the United States when we launched SolidWorks 95.  For years, we met with every industry analyst and press person that could spell CAD.  During all the time we spent together, he shared many of his insights on entrepreneurship and life with me.  I learned far to many things from Jon to list here, but suffice to say that my perspective on product and the people who use them has been heavily influenced by my time with Jon.

In 1997, after some persistent nagging on my part, Jon gave me the opportunity to work on a new project.  He merely told me, "ok, figure out a way to reach more users faster".  During my time on this project, he did some very couragous things as the CEO of a young upstart company struggling to establish a presence in the market.  First he gave me the lattitude to explore opportunities in non-obvious places.  But the bravest thing he did was to run interference for me.  There were a few influential people in the company that didn't think Rick's "mystery project" was a good use of resources.  But Jon really believe it was the right thing to do, and he made sure that I had the room I needed to get the job done.  In the end, eDrawings was the result.  It was Jon's couragousness as much as anything else that led to that very successful product.

Not everyone has seen Jon in action in front of an audience.  Here is a video of Bill Gates, Jon, and myself during a demo we did in 1998.  Here you can see Jon's skill at delivering a beautifully simple and compelling message.

Jon, thanks for making me a part of the SolidWorks team.  What an incredible experience it has been for all of us.  It was your vision and abilities that acted as the catalysts for this one in a million company's success.  We'll all be watching to see what your next venture will be.  Good Luck!

SolidWorks Demo with Bill Gates and Jon Hirschtick

Steve Jobs

Like many other people, I’ve been a bit sad, if not depressed, since I learned of Steve’s passing.  It’s kind of weird, right?  I’ve never met him, exchanged an email with him, or even seen him from afar at some tech event.  Yet I can’t help but feel the void created when someone close to you is gone.  So how did Steve get this close to so many of us?

I’m a product guy who spends a great deal of my time thinking about how products should serve users in ways they really care about.  I also probably spend more time than most thinking about how a user’s emotions are a part of the overall user experience.   But I’ve always been inspired and in total awe of Steve, the true master of product. 

Steve seemed to be tenacious about ensuring we all consistently and completely experienced his products in a way that was emotionally powerful.  Of course the products performed very well and met all functional expectations, but his products were much more than that. 

Every product helped you feel like the person you aspired to be.  People that use Apple products feel like they are cool, hip, smart, creative, and stylish.  Steve and company made sure that everything related to those products made you feel that way.  The television commercials, the Apple Store, website, and even the boxes the products came in.  Everything we experienced said, “you’re part of our cool Apple family”. 

Steve had a reputation for being a tough and intimidating person to work for.  I can’t help but see this as “tough love”.  He seemed to do everything in his power to give us the best products and experience possible.  We were worth nothing less. 

Thank you Steve, you will be missed!

Strategic Retreats ... Transforming Technology into Product

Let’s start by assuming that your goal is to come up with products that your customers are compelled to buy and use to extract some important value to them.

In general, the best way to pursue this is to:

1. Identify your target customer
2. Identify an important need or frustration that they have
3. Find, invent, or tweak technology to craft an effective product for these customers

The Problem – Starting with a specific technology overly influences the product we deliver

In many cases, companies start with a “great” technology they intend to productize and make millions.  But “Great” depends a lot on whose perspective is being considered, and what their most important priorities are.  Even if you were once one of these customers in a previous life, how similar are your current priorities to that of your current customers?  There may be some similarities in priorities, but also many differences.  It’s this common disconnect that can result in the development of products that customers find “useful”.  But rarely produces products that customers absolutely love.

Click to read more ...

Brainstorming ... Fast & Fun

How many times have you come out of a brainstorming session feeling unsatisfied with the results?  The team never felt like it got into a rhythm.  The idea flow felt like a drizzle versus a storm.  None of the ideas that the team spent much time on seemed especially good (BTW, you should never spend a lot of time on any one idea in a brainstorming session).  There was one or two people that insisted on dominating the conversation and ended up speaking way too much.  This to the frustration of the rest of the group.  The good news is that there are just a handful of things you need to do to run a productive and fun brainstorming session.  

The overall goal of any brainstorming is to generate a high quantity of ideas.  This is really important ... it's all about quantity, NOT quality.  You will have plenty of opportunity after brainstorming to evaluate the quality of the ideas generated and select a winner. 

So if our goal is quantity, what strategies can we employ to accomplish this?  Well, we want to eliminate as many barriers to idea flow as we can.  The two main barriers to idea flow are stress/tension and the left-brain's need to constantly evaluate things.  Like I mentioned in my Mind Mapping post ... when you are stressed, it is very difficult to think about anything else other than that feeling of stress and maybe what is causing it.  Therefore, our strategy is to be relaxed and to conduct the brainstorming at such a fast pace, that the left-brain doesn't have time to interrupt our flow.

When brainstorming, the process is broken up into three parts:

• Setting the Stage
• Idea Generation
• Evaluating the Ideas (only if there is time)

Click to read more ...