Why Temporal Locality?

Temporal locality is fundamentally a function of common sense. Television companies in particular apply this learning on a daily basis. They understand that people’s minds are at different places throughout the day and this knowledge is reflected in the differences between daytime and nighttime programming. The idea is that what we want to watch in the morning is radically different from what we want to watch at night. Our concerns for the weather in the morning, or curiosity about our traffic routes before we leave the house, differ greatly from our desire to simply be entertained, via comedies, reality tv, and dramas, during primetime each evening.

Our performance, behavior, and emotions fluctuate throughout the day. Many studies have been conducted to determine how people of all demographics, respond and react to different tasks and stimuli throughout the day. Even variables such as intelligence apparently tend to fluctuate. Thus, it’s very possible to use time of day research to choose the type of content delivered at specific times of the day in an opportunity to maximize your content’s message.

For example, according to academic studies, time of day is correlated to variables such as optimism and how people deal with problems. This particular study mentions that people tend to feel overwhelmed in the late afternoon; perhaps this is why, according to iMedia Connection, BuzzFeed’s pageviews peak at 4PM. Readers need something funny to pick them up. Other research has been conducted for time-of-day studies; for example, this Shareaholic study shows that the best time to publish to reach high pageviews is 9AM, and the best time to publish for social shares is 11AM.

Bloggers know it. TV producers have understood it for decades (hence the practise of dayparting). Newspapers have started adapting to temporal locality, with news dailies being distributed during the morning, and entertainment dailies near the end of the day. However, content providers and their mobile apps have not taken advantage of this knowledge yet. The mobile phone is a perfect data collection end point to reach an audience with specific content at a specific time. Furthermore, people are very much aware of their phones at all times of the day – simply walk down the street and ask people for the time and watch how many of these people pull out their phones.

Why Spatial Locality?

Another very interesting piece of data that mobile presents, when users allow, is the knowledge of where they are. Leveraging spatial locality data presents the opportunity to take into consideration the location of the user (or viewer) and figure out how that context changes the way they will interpret or need the app for any company creating content. Foursquare did it well with geo recommendations and Passbook notifications is taking a stab at it is as well. Both these apps provide not-so-subtle recommendations when you enter a targeted area.

Google Now is a fascinating real-world application of spatial locality. The service works quietly in the background, aggregating information about users and sending them relevant updates. For example, if a user’s flight gets delayed, Now will let them know.

Similarly, Google Now goes a step farther; it is anticipatory software. It will update you with things that are just about to happen, right when you need it. You will know which route is most effective when you get inside your car. You will know when the next train is as you step on the platform. This entire customization and enhanced experience happens because of the context that mobile devices are able to provide.

Other devices can’t tell you nearly that much: a TV can’t tell you anything besides time spent. Radio can’t give you any feedback. However, the mobile device’s ability to deliver an accurate read on the spatial and temporal locality variables opens up a world of possibilities. You can cross-reference the information with various other pieces of data in order to better serve your customer.

Despite only being two variables, spatial and temporal locality completely change the way you can determine your user’s needs and priorities at the moment. You can read your users much more accurately, and give them what they want right as – or even before – they realize they need it. Google Now is pushing this along and is seeing success. How can your mobile apps take advantage of these two variables to ultimately provide your customer with a better and more intelligent experience?

Connect with Matt on LinkedIn and Twitter.

With technologies like Bitcoin, Square, and NFC technology emerging (to name a few), the world of financial services is changing faster than ever before. Our goal is to help our clients develop a world-leading strategy that will keep them ahead of the competitors. We help them stay on top of the trends, patterns, and developments that truly matter. To that end, we are hosting a webinar on Tuesday, May 21 at 1pm EDT.

Here are some questions that we will be answering in our webinar:

• Which mobile platforms are most important – Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Windows Phone or mobile web?
• How to shift from branch banking to technology banking
• Steps to successfully navigate mobile banking implementation within your own organization
• Differences between internal development and outsourcing to a strategic partner
• Advantages small banks have against large competitors
• Costs and overhead of mobile banking projects
• The future of mobile banking – what’s next and how will financial institutions be impacted?

The webinar will be moderated by Mike Stern, our Director of Business Development, Financial Services. Three panelists will be joining him:

• CIBC’s Director of Mobile Banking Strategy, Ranjit Sarai
• CIBC’s Senior Business Project Manager of Internet and Mobile Banking, Sean Robertson
• Xtreme Labs’ Product Manager Damian McCabe

Join these experts in financial services and learn how to build a world-leading mobile strategy with our mobile banking webinar at 1 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, May 21.

But it wasn’t always that way. 230 million years ago in the Triassic period, mammals lived in the shadow of dinosaurs – large creatures that dominated the world. About 66 million years ago, an asteroid crashed into the planet, causing dust and darkness and wiping out 75% of all animal and plant life. Eventually all dinosaur species became extinct, while mammals underwent extraordinary adaptations. Why did mammals survive and flourish? They were agile.

Today’s businesses are experiencing a new mass extinction event, from the impact of several “asteroids.” Gartner calls these pressures the “Nexus of Forces”:

• Mobile
• Social
• Big Data
• Cloud

Much like the Triassic period, only those who are agile will survive. In today’s world, if you don’t adapt quickly, you will become irrelevant. You only have to look at companies like Blockbuster and Barnes & Noble to see how they were displaced by NetFlix and Amazon respectively. Regardless of the field, if you hope to stay in business, you must evolve. Agile methodology is one such adaptation that can help put you ahead. It has helped Xtreme Labs grow from a staff of 2 to 250 in under six years.

Agile methodology usually applies to a project and has certain principles and methods of management. More interesting, though, is that many of the aspects useful in agile methodology are equally useful and applicable to how you run your business. Here are five ways you can apply Agile methods to managing your company:

1. Cross-functional Teams

No longer should teams be placed in siloed departments. Instead of tossing ideas, e-mails, and memos back and forth, which is extremely slow and uncoordinated, teams must now meld ideas in the earlier stages in multi-disciplinary groups (sometimes called “pods”). This type of structure allows for a quicker and more comprehensive vetting of ideas.

Through this method, responsibility for delivery lies not with the department, but with the team – which means expertise is more quickly and conveniently shared. It also means that projects and initiatives are more quickly started by the team on a small scale, instead of obtaining permission from leadership first (which often serves as a bottleneck).

2. Daily Stand-up and Demos

In order to ensure the team is on the same page, try to make sure the company meets in the morning for a daily stand-up. This 10-minute discussion about company news and activities gives people a chance to keep up with what’s happening in other teams or departments in the organization.

Similarly, weekly demos allow developers and designers to gain input from their peers on the current software build. These demos ensure everyone is on the same page and leverages the wisdom of everyone watching the demo.

3. Work Iteratively

Instead of a two-year-long project, it’s important for companies to work in shorter time frames. In agile development, project teams sprint through short deliverable cycles and identify backlogs and bottlenecks quickly. This short cycle allows for a tighter feedback loop as well, which means that updates can be given more frequently and projects are less likely to be cancelled.

4. Regular Reviews

The greatest part of working iteratively is that reviews happen frequently. These reviews ensure that efforts are aligned to objectives, that milestones are reached, and that mistakes are caught and fixed early before they become serious.

5. Retrospectives

Similar to holding frequent reviews, retrospectives offer insight into how processes, productivity, and performance can improve. These meetings share lessons and accomplishments that have occurred in the past month or quarter with the rest of the team or company.

Final Thoughts

I’ll leave the last word to another expert. As companies start moving into agile methodology on an enterprise level, Gartner offers some sound advice through their Enterprise Agile consulting and articles: “If something works, don’t fix it. Keep things simple. Listen; you never learn anything by talking. Have respect for those you work for, and who work for you.”

Connect with Mark on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Here are three insights that stood out at Wallet Wars:

1. Collaboration and the Ecosystem

A huge barrier to collaboration is the nature and structure that the mobile network operators (MNOs), retailers, and financial institutions should adopt in order to make mobile payments happen. It’s clear that a single entity can’t lead the entire collaboration, so how will this type of partnership work? The structure of this evolving ecosystem will be essential to determining how the collaboration will operate.

A big reason for the free-for-all in the mPayments space is rallied around the conversation of who owns the customer. Retailers feel that the customer is theirs to own, both in data and conversions, while the financial institutions feel that the customers are theirs from a payments perspective. This has led to a stalemate in the industry and the slow movement forward. It is from these disputes that collaborations are formed by various players in the payments industry such as MCX (collaboration of major retailers in the US) and ISIS (collaboration of MNOs).

These collaborations were all the buzz at the event, specifically around MCX. Customer adoption of mobile payment products will dictate who owns the space, which is what makes MCX such an ominous entity to financial institutions scared of being given the backseat. With such a strong collaboration amongst retailers, a clear signal was given to financial institutions that merchants are willing to step up to the plate and take over the payments space for the data, if for nothing else.

2. QR Codes are a Temporary Solution

An NFC payment model is the way to go. NFC makes for a secure, fast, and user-friendly payment system. QR code scans are being used currently right now, strictly by retailers – they are not considered by financial institutions, remaining a temporary solution due to their lack of reliability and security.

The ecosystem to implement NFC has been implemented internationally: Japan did it a decade ago, and Canada has recently started. Anytime you use a credit card’s tap payment feature, you’re experiencing the NFC infrastructure that Canada has laid down. However, the US is still a few years out due to a larger number of players and the lack of infrastructure ubiquity.The challenge of transitioning QR codes to NFC remains: only a few phones have NFC enabled on the device. Apple has no NFC-enabled devices. There is no NFC standard.

3. How Will the Mobile Wallet Enhance the Shopping Experience?

It’s high time we went beyond payments in with the mobile wallet. It’s fine and dandy that companies can make an app, but now we need to move to the next step: how does this app elevate the consumer experience? A major opportunity lies in loyalty programs. For example, customers are receiving points, redemptions, and savings from all these cards. In order to drive mobile payments and the mobile wallet, companies will need to offer cost savings or inherent value that customers will feel, but won’t necessarily see.

Companies can also make a play to expedite adoption through incentives; if customers choose to pay with mPayments, they save a certain percentage off their bill. The opportunities are not just with loyalty programs – mobile devices present opportunities to engage the customer through location-based marketing (such as through coupons or limited offers).

An excellent example of having loyalty integrated into mobile payments is the Starbucks app; essentially, customers can load money onto their profile and pay for their purchases through the app. The kiosk scans the app’s QR code and the transaction is made. Every time a transaction is made, the app automatically dispenses a point to the customer, which can be redeemed for free Starbucks beverages.

Also, much like how YouTube did not kill Hollywood, mobile payments will not overrun cash or credit; instead, they will serve as a new medium to make transactions and enhance the consumer experience.

Final Thoughts

All in all, I came away from Wallet Wars with a sense of excitement about the many exciting innovations that are in store. I look forward to seeing Xtreme Labs continue down the path of being a game-changer in this rapidly evolving industry.

Connect with Qasim on LinkedIn.

Overall, second screen is still a new topic to most marketers, despite being one of the most important developments in marketing. The reason we say this: second screen doesn’t necessarily mean you’re watching television and another screen simultaneously. The Globe and Mail, for example, has the personal computer as its main screen and the mobile phone as its second.

The primary experience, whatever it happens to be, is the main screen. The second screen supplements or enhances it. Levitz summarized it succinctly when he surveyed the audience about who had used Facebook or Twitter during this panel; nearly all of them had, and he pointed out that in this case he was the main screen and the mobile phone is the second screen.

As the varying tablet usage indicates, second screen still needs to be tailored to a specific audience that marketers want to reach. For example, the panelist from Bell mentioned that he had different objectives, and approaches, for every media property that he managed. There really is no such thing as, “One size fits all.” Instead, strategy needs to be understood before development begins. As we see it, there are three methods to run with in a second screen strategy:

The 3 Types of Second Screen Approaches:

1. Lean back:

In this case, the second screen provides more context or information about the experience taking place on the main screen. For example, viewers could be watching an interview, and more information about the subject or the interviewee would be popping up on their second screens (e.g., articles, bio, etc.).

2. Lean forward:

This approach to second screen involves interacting with the second screen as viewers watch the main screen. This could happen in game shows, where trivia is played along with the show.

3. Asynchronous:

An asynchronous second screen contributes to the experience when the main screen is not active; for example, a second screen that syncs up to where users left off in a video clip or a newspaper article. The asynchronous second screen continues the experience when users are away from the screen or deactivated.

Takeaways
The audience – mostly marketers – understood the importance of creating a second-screen experience. Going forward, they learned how they can get more out of the infrastructure that already exists in order to capitalize on the opportunities represented by implementing a compelling second-screen strategy.

From our perspective, the feedback we received and the other presentations we viewed reinforced how powerful and meaningful mobile marketing can be. We look forward to continuing down the path of using mobile to create ways for marketers to reach a broader audience.

There is no magic formula for hiring great people in an efficient way. There is a lot of trial and error, and different companies have tried to optimize their own processes over time. Some do a phone interview then follow-up with in-person sessions, some make the candidate write a test. When I brought people into BlackBerry, I’d ask them to negotiate a partnership deal with me like their life depended on it. But, how do you even get the right person through the front door in the first place?

There are really two ways to get people to walk into your shop for a job opportunity: they either come in on their own, or they are pulled in by you. If you’re a high-growth company (like Xtreme Labs) or a Silicon Valley darling, you might not want the type of people who walk in on their own. But if you have to pull them in, your recruiting team is in for a high-touch game of cat and mouse.

At Deskribed, we’ve noticed a few things after spending some time with Toronto’s tech companies, and hearing from job seekers as well:

Don’t Solicit a Flood of Resumes

One of the least effective ways of getting the right people through the front door is to leave the door wide open. You’ll certainly get a bunch of applicants if you set the bar really low. Some might even be good picks, but it will take ages to go through them all in the hopes of finding that gem. I used to look at resumes at BlackBerry for hours, and sometimes hated myself for making snap judgments about people based on two sheets of paper: interview vs. no-interview. For smaller companies still building traction, this approach might work, but if you’re in growth mode with a pile of resumes on your desk, you probably won’t make it home for dinner (and you still might not get the person you want).

The Best People Already Have Jobs

I know this isn’t always the case, and there are plenty of examples that contradict it, but the truth of the matter is that if a person is great at what they do, it’s likely someone out there is already paying them to do it.

Get to the “I’m Looking” Candidates

If you’re trying to lure someone to join your team, you might be wasting a lot of time targeting people on LinkedIn who aren’t really in the market for a new gig, or don’t know why they should pay attention to you. It’s important to get to the people who have a job AND have an eye on the market, even if they don’t consider themselves as actively looking. These two ingredients aren’t really enough for a great hire, but they form a good starting point. The difficulty is that these people don’t wear badges on their chests, so it’s hard to identify them unless you talk to them on an individual basis. Quick plug: At Deskribed we’re trying to tackle this problem by getting users who are passively looking for new opportunities to self-select themselves as doing exactly that. We’re trying to promote people to act, for just a moment, on that sentiment of “I wonder what else is out there,” which only really exists if that person is somehow unfulfilled in their current role.

Get Alignment on Key Points Quickly

The biggest reason why out-of-the-blue recruiting messages on LinkedIn don’t work is because there is no way to know if the candidate and recruiter are aligned on key issues like compensation, role type, location, company culture, etc. Even things like dress code and commute time play a big role. If a candidate doesn’t know these key points up front, she’s not going to respond. The best tactic is to ensure that the candidate knows that you are only contacting her because you are aligned on all the main items that affect her decision to join your company. If a candidate knew that you wanted to talk about a job opportunity that met all of her criteria, she would not only respond, but would be excited and enthusiastic to do so.

Final Thoughts

As a company looking to hire aggressively, you might have mastered the process of weeding out the good from the bad once they’ve appeared on your doorstep, but getting great people to your doorstep is often not well thought-out. It’s crucial to get to the people who are passively looking for opportunities, and whose criteria are met by the job you’re trying to fill. If you’re not aligned from the onset, they won’t be happy and will ditch as soon as something better comes along.

About Deskribed

Deskribed is an up-and-coming Toronto startup focused on personalizing your career path. For job seekers, it’s a fast and easy way to “see what’s out there” and advance your career for free.

For employers, it’s a tool to discover and contact the best talent in an efficient way. During the limited beta period, recruiters and employers can sign-up for free at deskribed.com.

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The opening keynote came from David Shreni, Walmart’s Director of Mobile Strategy for Global Ecommerce. His talk was about How Mobile is Shaping the World’s Largest Retailer. Walmart is a firm believer in focusing on maximizing the in-store experience to keep customers coming back. This is a topic Xtreme Labs has addressed before, so it was great to have the world’s largest retailer verify the advice that we give to our own clients.

Other points he covered include:

• Why mobile is key to Walmart’s future growth strategy
• Resources needed to deliver an effective mobile customer experience
• An overview of how Walmart is making progress towards its mobile goals

Other presenters and overviews of their topics were:

Lancôme: What the Cosmetics Giant’s Customers Expect of the Mobile Experience

• Bridging the channels gap
• The role of touch in mobile commerce
• What Lancôme sees as the next big thing

Forrester Research: Understanding the Mobile Commerce Opportunity

• How mobile devices are changing consumer behavior
• How mobile will disrupt existing business models
• Mobile best practice for marketers and retailers

Priceline: How Mobile has Completely Upended Travel

• The emergence of the last-minute traveler
• Finding shelter when storms strike: a look at how the weather affects smartphone-toting travelers
• Frictionless payment: the good, the bad and the ugly, or an insider’s view on how Priceline evolved the mobile checkout process

Bank of America: Mobile’s Role in Building More Personal Connections With Customers

• Why building personal connections with and for its customers is key
• The role of partnerships – and why Bank of America seeks them
• Why being right to market is better than first to market

Design Within Reach: Why Small to Midsize Retailers Must Embrace Mobile

• Key considerations for smartphone versus tablet presence
• Mobile as a branding platform or a direct tool
• Mobile commerce best practice for small to midsize retailers

Walgreens: How the Nation’s Largest Drugstore Chain Increases Customer Engagement With Mobile

• Know your mission/vision and tie in mobile to deliver that experience
• Engaged customers spend the most!
• Engagement begins outside the store and continues inside

The Walgreens talk also showcased the fact that their iOS app is one of the highest-rated apps for U.S. retailers, according to our recent Retail Apps Report.

The Mcommerce Summit was an all-around great show, and we look forward to using the knowledge we acquired to further our customers’ mobile presence in the retail space.

In Koo Kim makes really good points about these areas that are worthy of consideration for anyone thinking about how to drive engagement. Here are some highlights.

Development

Kim cites multiple development challenges: too many people doing ad-hoc development, least common denominator development approaches that don’t take advantage of mobile or device capabilities, and using mobile apps as just another venue for info from your content management system. The danger with ad-hoc development is that you won’t drive engagement because ultimately you’ll confuse the user. This reminds me of AAA’s original app strategy, which involved multiple purpose-built apps that eventually were consolidated back into one app. Think before you app.

Control

Control relates to both controlling your budget for apps and control of how you use data that users share with the app. Users are willing to provide data if it improves the user experience. How you leverage that data is key to your success, but it also makes sense to control how that data is used in service of your engagement strategy.

Functionality and Features

Functionality and features connect with your use of the platform. Don’t just re-release your smartphone app for tablets without thinking through the form factor and use of that device. Drive engagement by letting users rate, review, and comment.

Performance

Performance is a tricky area. If your app is beautifully designed and engaging but doesn’t perform well, you’ve wasted your time. Users on devices are filling spare moments. If your app lags, you’ve just lost them and they will quickly “change the channel” and quite possibly delete your app to boot.

Monetization

Monetization is an especially thorny question with regards to engagement. The most common models, subscription and ads, are unhelpful for driving engagement. Asking users to pay for the app or for a subscription reduces adoption, while ads can annoy users. Kim suggests exploring sponsorships and co-branding to fund apps more effectively.

Final Thoughts

Everyone is managing application development, but few are managing it with a purpose. This article offers a great deal of substantive food for thought as you work to drive engagement with mobile app users.

For example, any teachers following Khan Academy can use the flipped classroom model: their students will watch a video clip of the lecture at home, and do “homework” in the classroom during the day, which enables more opportunities for group collaboration and discussion.

Increasing student engagement and participation proves to be a challenge because time spent in the classroom has always been the greatest constraint. The concept of the connected classroom allows teachers to create a more dynamic classroom experience and make the most of their scarce time.

Some teachers are skeptical that technology can fix this problem. While technology is not a cure-all, we can certainly leverage the strengths of mobile technology to create a better learning experience within the classroom.

The connected classroom is the perfect illustration of this point: in the connected classroom, every student and teacher will have his or her own tablet. The traditional blackboard will be replaced by a projector or large screen, because the connected classroom is – by definition – a multi-screen ecosystem.

Here are some benefits that the connected classroom brings:

1. Better Teacher-Student Relationships

In a traditional classroom setting, teachers are restricted at the front of the classroom next to the chalkboard or projector when conducting a lecture. In a connected classroom, teachers can control the content displayed on the large screen from anywhere in the classroom via his/her tablet. No longer do teachers need to restrict themselves to the front of the class. In fact, the separation creates a formal environment, and students are much less likely to ask questions or show what they are doing.

Mobile devices allow teachers to roam around the classroom, creating more opportunities to have one-on-one discussions with students and give them more feedback. Teachers would no longer be just presenters; instead, they would create better teacher-student relationships.

2. Instant Feedback

A connected classroom means that teachers will be able to connect with students in a way that encourages instant feedback. A teacher can launch specific exercises onto the student’s tablets and instantly see all the answers submitted by students from their tablets. Based on the answers submitted, teachers can quickly gauge if the class is comprehending the content. The instant feedback loop lets the teacher know if the teaching method is appropriate for the learners and make a decision about their teaching approach and/or pace.

3. Increased Student Engagement

Often times, if a teacher asks a question in class, a lot of students are reluctant to answer simply because they are embarrassed to speak in front of their peers, or worried about giving the wrong answer. This public fear often destroys the classroom discussion and student engagement. In a connected classroom, teachers can ask a question and instantly have access to answers submitted by students via their tablets. With this information, teachers can push an answer onto the large screen anonymously, which encourages interaction without the associated timidity.

4. Fewer Constraints

The act of learning isn’t physically tied to classroom. Learning can and should be done anywhere at anytime, whether through video, images, text, lectures, or something else. At the moment, education is often restricted in the classroom. With mobile devices, teachers can assign lectures for students to view at home. Class time can then be used for discussion, collaboration, practise, teacher accessibility, and feedback. Teachers can also prep for lessons outside of the classroom or provide feedback on tablets.

Final Thoughts

Mobile technology is not a silver bullet: while they are extremely powerful, mobile devices cannot completely replace the teacher. However, they are well suited to make education more accessible and the learning experience more dynamic by eliminating the historical boundaries of time, location, and scale.

There are still some barriers to bringing the connected classroom to life; for example, not every educational institution has adequate internet connectivity, and not every student has the internet access at home. Furthermore, the reliance on a tablet means that students (or parents) need to ensure that the tablet is adequately charged.

These minor roadblocks aren’t permanent. Every time there’s a disruption in education, it takes a bit of iteration and improvement before it can truly make an impact on the classroom. This is the case for many types of progress, and all we can really do is embrace the change that new digital tools and technology bring.

Connect with Kitty on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Many don’t have mobile app development expertise in-house, particularly given the challenge of developing, managing, and updating mobile apps across a variety of platforms and operating system variants. This latter point is key because even if initially developing the app is cost-effective, you also have to consider what it will take to keep it updated, particularly given the frequency with which iOS and Android are updated.

Quigley also cites a survey by IDG that found that 86% of IT decision makers see enterprise app projects as “a critical or strategic priority,” while two-thirds of those respondents state that it is “extremely or very challenging to deliver these applications on time or on budget.”

Corporate app development may not be easy, but it is a strategic priority. Here are some ideas for cost-effective app development:

• Jumpstart your efforts by outsourcing. You may want to bring mobile app development in-house after a while, but if there are certain apps that just can’t wait, consider getting some help from experts in app development.
• Invest in a platform. Some of the platforms for mobile app development on the market today make it easier to create apps than ever before. Some are on-premise while others are cloud-based. There’s a range of options to look at to help you develop apps quickly and cost-effectively.
• Go with responsive web design. Many believe, along with Mashable, that 2013 is the year of responsive web design. Instead of designing for desktop or browser screens, responsive web design considers the resolution and size of your device when delivering content. While responsive web design is really a browser-based strategy and not an app per se, it does make your content look good on numerous devices, which is both cost-effective and helps buy you time while you sort out your app development priorities.

We here at Xtreme Labs will be glad to advise you on your mobile app development plans and to discuss how we might help you.