The Kolaveri Di school of product design.

Many of you are likely aware of a sensational video that went viral over the past month. Why this Kolaveri di?  has racked up more than 23 million views on YouTube, spawned multiple copy videos and parodies, was covered in Time Magazine and inspired Amitabh Bachchan, iconic Bollywood godfather, to meet Dhanush, the singer.

If you are not aware of this, you should watch it now. It is a very simple Tamglish (Tamil-English) song that speaks of the pain of love on a one-way street.

A friend condescended on Facebook that there’s nothing to it musically. Famous Indian lyricist Javed Akhtar trashed the song (he may prefer this (Bengali) classical version). Even Hitler had a fit of apoplectic rage (must must see, language no bar). My friend did not get it,  Javed did not get it and Hitler did not get it either :-)

"KOLAVARI-D". Every one is praising the robes but the emperor is naked. Tune ordinary, singing substandard. words an insult to sensibility" - Akhtar

I disagree with them all! Mein Gott! (I just got unfriended at Facebook :-))

It prompted me to think about why Kolaveri Di is good. It’s not just a viral video. I don’t write a blog post about every viral video I see. Kolaveri Di is not just a phenomenon! Kolaveri Di is a genuine consumer product. Let’s see what it teaches us musically about a great consumer product.

1. It appeals to the senses.  

Myspace and Orkut  lost out to Facebook because eventually, the products became noisy and garish and did not appeal to the senses at large. If the drums are too loud, or the guitar too distorted, it can hurt! There are many classical music pieces that are complex and involved, but they are not appealing. This brings to mind a must-see scene from Amadeus - Salieri on Mozart - everyone can remember Eine Kleine! I’m not saying Dhanush is Mozart (:-)), but everyone can remember Kolaveri.

2. It is simple.

Initially, I was highly sceptical about Twitter! How could a company provide long-term value with short 140-character messages! Back then, I was passionate about an idea that was  = Twitter + search + Flipboard. While compelling (as it still is today), it was hard for folks to grok.  While it turns out that the Twitter limit is beginning to hurt, and Facebook and Google Plus are marginalizing Twitter with rich features like Hangouts, Timeline, etc., Twitter demonstrated a key point of product design - people like simplicity. Google’s simple interface was critical to success. The iPhone’s single button was magic. Kolaveri Di is simple. Complexity is hard for consumers to consume, and can sometimes be downright ugly - sometimes,  classical music can be contrived and over-done. Sometimes simplicity is more important than power.

Microsoft and Intel can go blue in the face that Wintel is more powerful and flexible than the iPad (which is true) ... but we’re in the “post-PC” era folks! That's why Windows is going Metro! Sometimes simplicity is more important than power. As in this case!

3. It fits!

In good products, things fit! Legos! Redesigns for major products are hard, since they need to fit well, or people who use them will scream and shout. The button size, colors and the font size are important. Even though you have full-featured browsers on smartphones, you can have crappy experiences on some websites on your smartphones - the buttons are too small, you touch things that you don’t want to, etc.  

Kolaveri Di was conceived out of simplicity - dual-language, basic theme (one-way love affair!)  - and was built with rhythm at the core. What the musical snobs don’t get is that it is not the accented words, not the head-nodding beat, not the unconventional use of the Nadaswaram, not the languid voice, not the casual tune, and not the story that make it great. The secret is - they all fit perfectly! The colors complement each other! It’s great design!

The thing is this - once you sing it, and shake your head to it, you get why it’s more cute than when you heard it!

4. It is localized/internationalized.

Many products are english-only, or not localized for global use. Kolaveri-di was designed from the ground up to be multi-lingual, and has therefore transcended barriers - it’s a global product! You don’t need to know Tamil to enjoy this. Even the Queen "liked" it! You don’t need an understanding of the vocabulary - the song speaks of the pain of unrequited love, and the Scotch does the talking!

How many people in Japan are singing/dancing to Javed Akhtar’s songs?

5. It lends itself to repeat use

Movies are hard to see multiple times - only a few have that capacity. Music lends itself to repeated use. But ...I don't know about you, but I hate hearing the same song more than once on the same day - I feel cheated. Very few songs can be repeatedly heard on the same day without causing nausea! Lift Karadey ... Brick in the Wall ... Hotel California ... Money for Nothing ... Kolaveri Di! 

Yahoo! mail is so slow now, and keeps popping up the same IM request from some stranger, even after I say "don't". That's nauseating. I love Yahoo! but repeat use is getting harder. Facebook provides occasional delight - some old friend from decades ago to connect with. Repeat use is critical for product success!

6. It is marketed superbly.

A product needs to be known. All great products are marketed well - either by super ads - Apple - or by word of mouth / viral campaigns - Google, Facebook, Twitter. Viral happens! But you need to put something in the position to go viral. Launching the video was a masterstroke! Give credit, don’t begrudge the marketers. Remember, it’s not the marketing that caused the song to be great!

There are many products I’ve sampled once and will never taste again.

This product speaks sings for itself!

The Issue with Offers

I have never before considered the possibility of providing screenshots of my personal email on my blog; I am now, unfortunately, able to do so. While this is just a sampler of my inbox, it is a reasonably fair representation of what I'd refer to as "Offer Overload". I am, of course, using the word "Offer" loosely, but you will see that both my personal accounts are, in disturbing manner, filled with offers - explicit - from "offer"/"deal" services, like LivingSocial and Google - and implicit - from services that I use or have used in the past. Sadly, also from sources I have no knowledge of ever having interacted with (spam). I don't remember signing up for LivingSocial, but there we are!

This is an issue with the offers model, or at least the model as it stands today, where a daily deal is sent (pushed) to someone's email. Coming at a time when Groupon just went public (issued at a premium, I might add), it is ironic that Amazon just figured that "Deal Fatigue" may be desensitizing users who get too many email offers, and may actually hurt customer relationships. Amazon recently started unsubscribing certain users from receiving offer emails.

Amazon has said that many of its customers had shown significant inactivity in using the daily deals e-mailers and thus, their un-subscription was justified. Amazon seemed concerned about its consumer relationships that span across more than a decade and thus, not bothering its users with unwanted emails was also hinted as a reason.

This does not mean that offers are not attractive, or not useful. Groupon is, in fact, amp'ing it up with Epic Deals this holiday season (what's more Epic than 90% off? (free?)). There's a human penchant for a good deal - something visceral that makes a deal too good to pass up, and therefore a deal to consummate. It is much like the addiction of going back to a social network and seeing "likes", "pluses" or comments on your post, despite knowing that  the visit  is likely unimportant, and will waste valuable time :-)

You'll notice an important change that happened with Facebook - we no longer receive emails when there's activity on our streams. Once there's an important and sticky engagement channel with the user, there's no need for a "reminder" channel, like email, which was really built for a different use. Facebook has earned daily engagement. I still get reminder activity emails from LinkedIn, which goes to show that LinkedIn has not been successful with sticky, daily engagement. LinkedIn is a successful networking tool when professional networking is required - it is an on-demand network, not a social network, as I see it.

The current offers model seems artificial - an "out-of-band" model - and will continue to be so, until it becomes integrated with a stickier model that filters out the irrelevant offers and shows me the right ones at the right time. Instead of impinging on my email-box,  it needs to be integrated at the point of intent, i.e., search, or within, say, my daily social network interactions, or when I watch TV. The "daily dose" services - Facebook, Google - can do this.   Maybe Amazon, if they can take over my regular online music/media needs, or even Yahoo! (did I just say that?) since it is still a destination site for millions!  LivingSocial and Groupon on their own (without sticky channels)??

Offers will eventually have to be made at a destination site/daily "portal" application, e.g., iTunes/Pandora, Flipboard, etc.,. Note that there's also a big difference between the Y! Mail splash page and the actual email stream. An offer needs to be like a relevant targeted ad.

I have already started ignoring all "offers" in my e-mailbox, despite the fact that some of them are great offers. Offer overload is resulting in Offer offload!

The question is, will I ever succeed in cleaning up my email stream from invasive offers?

Or is it time to wean myself off email?

Live your own life!

Two seemingly unrelated things happened yesterday ... 

First, I receive a phone call from my 16-year old son in the afternoon to inform me of the news that Steve Jobs had passed away. It was initially not on NYTimes, not on CNN, but I did see it on Twitter, and I finally believed that it was not a hoax. I was not surprised, given Steve’s failing health, but it was still a very empty moment. 

Second, I went to my son’s school for an orientation on college admissions - how my 16-year old will select his college. As I sat there, noting that one of the parents was making notes on an iPad, it struck me that in a very short time, my son would leave home for college. Time has flown - our time with our loved ones is very limited. 

This morning, on my ride in to work, I saw this Tweet from a former colleague of mine that gave me pause:

Steve Jobs passed at 56. Far too young. He fought pancreatic cancer, had a liver transplant. Individually, he had a very interesting life. Professionally, he had a hugely successful life. Every luminary thought so. He’s left legacy - in multiple fields - computers, movies, music, phones... - technologically, anyone would love to be in his shoes. 

I lost my father earlier this year. He would have turned 84 this month. A good long life. He was diagnosed with liver cancer in early June and passed away a mere 6 weeks later. He left a different kind of legacy - a different kind of field. He was responsible for building a couple of parks in Bangalore that many people still enjoy everyday. 

Many of us are people with no legacy - not big, not little, nothing of note … When I go, there’ll be a few pages that may live on for a while until someone blocks them due to inactivity. Yes, it’s easy to wax eloquent about our accomplishments, but only a few people really matter have enduring legacies. (Correction 10/08 - based on a comment that not only a few people matter)

The question I asked myself today is - “What’s important to people?” Would I trade off 30 years of life for the ultimate glory of being an icon, an innovator, an almost-Edison? Would I rather be rich, successful and famous or would I trade that in to be able to live long enough to be able to see my sons graduate from college, get their first jobs, marry, .... Given a choice, would I trade off anything for living long enough to see my sons’ sons? 

I guess Steve himself said this best (watch this if you have not) - we don’t have a choice about death, and “death is the single-best invention of life - life’s change agent” - so we do the best we can to follow our dreams and live our own lives. 

Your time is limited... so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. 

As technologists, as consumers, we will all miss Steve Jobs. 

As a son, I really miss my dad! Especially today.