<ul><li>During the early days, most startups are full of energy with no process. They use their sheer force and energy to figure stuff out. </li><li>Being at Google in the early days was like being in graduate school. There were so many interesting projects going on, but no deadlines or plans. </li><li>The interesting part was all of the raw material was there in the room. The trick is all you need to do is to ask the right questions and the answers would come out. For example: If you asked for a product plan, they could create a great product plan — they just didn’t think it was important at the time.</li></ul>

The startup phase

When Eric Schmidt joined Google, they were at 150 employees. In some periods (2004–2005), he had tripled their employees; this is classic Blitzscaling.The approach: It’s easy to double every year — you can imagine adding a person to each team, adding a country, adding a product line, etc.It’s hard to quadruple. It’s difficult to even imagine what quadrupling looks like within an organization.

Scaling Google

No product scales before it works.

An example of when not to scale was Google Wave. It was launched to great fanfare and a base of passionate users. The difficult part is you can’t tell if something is successful until 6 months after the initial wave of excitement.Great products have this big fanfare, big drop off, then a small bump back upwards, and steady usage upwards. Google Wave on the other hand had a wave of excitement and then a steady drop-off downwards.Once you have an app and business model that works — you can scale and go global fast.

When not to scale

I have also noticed the greatest products are typically designed for the benefit of the people who are building them.In Uber’s case, the original product was a private car sharing for a small set of people. Google was built for Stanford but mainly for Larry and Sergei themselves. The first Google server was in their bedroom. Once they outgrew this, they put several servers in their home, the garage, then took over the whole house, etc.

<ul><li>This is an error especially made by non-technical people. They listen to the technical people who say it works and start to scale the organization before the product is working.</li><li>It’s best to think of this process as a very long and tight funnel. It takes a long time to get the product right, then once you get it right you scale up the team as quickly as possible, then go off to a global expansion strategy.</li><li>Another way you know a product is ready is when you and your team can’t stop using it. </li></ul>

Believing you have a product that works before it works

There is a way to systematically hire people better than anyone else. Bob Taylor (founder of ARPANET) said to “sell the dream.”Here is his approach:<ul><li>He called people</li><li>Described what he wanted</li><li>They either got it and got incredibly excited or they didn’t</li><li>If they didn’t, he went to the next person.</li></ul>How hard is that? If people don’t get it initially, are they really going to get it after some persuasion? Probably not. You want someone who gets it.

How to hire the right people

<ul><li>Stay away from "friends of friends". The constant problem was somebody was a good employee, had someone they had worked with, who was very loyal, but not from a great university, and did not have a high GPA. </li><li>Stay away from "glue people.” These glue people are nice people that sit between different groups who assist in activities. They are very loyal and people love them, but the reality is you don't need them — they just slow things down.</li></ul>

Hiring rules at Google in the early days

I don’t agree that you should narrow your focus, you get the best outcome when you get the broadest appeal. (...) I’d be careful to conclude to just do a small thing. All success stems from doing one thing very well — then moving broader.

The idea is you could ask your employees to work on the company for 80% of their time, and the other 20% of the time they could work on whatever they want. If they are passionate about something, they could work on it as their 20% project. At Google, many of the features started as projects turned into core features. Part of the management job was to listen for those 20% project ideas and then aggregate them.

 "20% time"

One major complaint is the teams who are doing the work with the products you see are far larger than they should be. This is a failure of architecture — when you have this many programmers programming, it means they don’t have the right libraries, aka the problem hasn’t been generalized enough.

Failure of architecture

2 people can go off and change the world. Every successful project I have worked on within Google over the past 40 years has started off with 2 people working on an idea together.

"Don’t be evil"

<ul><li>The right founders. The founders have to be smart and good but more importantly the project they are working on needs to be their life's work.</li><li>You need to have some luck.</li><li>Be careful about how much margin you have. The ideal business is to have a business like Microsoft — a monopoly software business with hardware competitors — who are competing for good treatment by you — in a growing industry.</li></ul>

Advice for entrepreneurs

This is session 8 of Technology-enabled Blitzscaling, a Stanford University class taught by Reid Hoffman, John Lilly, Allen Blue, and Chris Yeh. This class features Reid Hoffman interviewing Eric Schmidt, the Executive Chairman of Alphabet Inc. (formerly Google).

Stashed ideas

Blitzscaling 08: Eric Schmidt on Structuring Teams and Scaling Google

The opportunity in search is not to attack Google head-on with a massive, one-size-fits-all horizontal aggregator, but rather to build boutique search engines that index, curate, and organize things in new ways.The problem, now is not what to read/buy/eat/watch/etc., but figuring out the best thing to read/buy/eat/watch/etc. with my limited time and attention.

In a world of infinite information, it becomes important to organize the world's trustworthy information.

Vertical search players like Yelp, Expedia, Zillow, and Behance fill functionality and relevancy gaps using structured data specific to their industriesRelevance depends on the sociology of the current momentA combination of irrelevant filters, ad-based business models, and unconstrained supply has overwhelmed consumers and made it hard to find signalsVertical search aggregators work when you know exactly what you want. But knowing what you want isn’t usually the starting point, which creates an opportunity to help the overwhelmed consumer with better discovery and curation along the funnel.

Vertical search aggregators

The conversation around curation has been too focused on the content and not enough on the structure. Curation, when thought of in the context of sharing bite-sized, isolated bits in feed-like architectures, is predominantly about entertainment, not utility.﻿The opportunity is in moving curated content feeds away from their never-ending-now orientation and toward more goal-oriented interfaces. People should be able to find whatever content they want on their terms and not be beholden to when the curator decides to publish.

Curators, curators

All curation grows until it requires search, and all search grows until it requires curation.

<ul><li>Searchable, curated interfaces will help us move away from ephemeral, time-bound feeds into contextual, high-signal, trustworthy knowledge spaces.</li><li>Unlike vertical search aggregators, boutique search engines feel less like the Yellow Pages and more like texting your friends to ask for a recommendation. They have constrained supply, which is the foundation for their biggest moat: trust.</li></ul>

Boutique search engines are next-level curation

Over and over again, curation sites fall into an existential trap. They start with high-quality, curated recommendations.As they grow, they scale with crowdsourcing, often filling the gap with scraping. The line between curator, compiler, and cataloguer is thin.A natural invisible asymptote - diminishing returns on more data over time

If the value proposition is signal over noise, how do you scale the signal?

<ul><li>Platforms like Twitter delegate this responsibility to their users, who have to go through a long and arduous process of following a huge number of people to ultimately arrive at a self-curated timeline that mimics their interests.</li><li>Some centralize their curation, while others stay away from curation in favor of more traditional crowdsourcing.</li></ul>

Who curates the curators?

The project of human knowledge, as it stands today, is a vast ocean of fragmented information and ideas, with the best sources near-impossible to find. We need more interfaces with a point of view on what information is missing, how it needs to be organized, and at what point of the value chain the curation has to happen.

Until you can build habitual recall into your product, Google will be how your engine gets discovered.

The way to improve search is not to mimic Google, but instead to build boutique search engines that index, curate, and organize things in new ways.

The Future of Search Is Boutique

Cyberchondria - repeated, compulsive internet searches for medical info that can lead to worry and panic - is a real and troubling phenomenon.Misguided Google searches can also be a deep source of frustration for doctors and other health care providers who say they spend a good chunk of their time with patients tackling inaccurate health advice and self-diagnosis.How to make sure you are using "Dr Google" effectively? Here are five best practices to keep in mind.

90 Percent of Patients Google Their Symptoms Before They Talk to A Doctor

Start your search with well-known, reputable sources like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the American Academy of Pediatrics.Many hospitals and universities also have websites with evidence-based health information.

Start with The Websites of Major Health Organizations, Universities and Hospitals

<ul><li>Look for some basics that can help indicate whether a study holds up</li><li>Was it published in a peer-reviewed journal? That means it has been scrutinized by other experts in the field for quality and accuracy.</li><li>What was the sample size like? What limitations have the study's authors pointed out?</li></ul>

Brush Up Some Study Basics

<ul><li>If you are searching for your symptoms and getting really stressed out, reach out to an actual medical professional who can help provide answers.</li><li>As you're searching, do a gut check: Are you making yourself feel stressed or anxious? Are you trying too hard to push away your nagging concerns?</li></ul>

Check on How Your Search Is Making You Feel

Save any studies or articles you visit, and bring a list of links to the doctor with you so you can discuss them together when you go to see your doctor.Your health care provider should be open to talking to you about any research you bring up.

Keep Track of Any Sources You Find and Want to Discuss

<ul>
<li>Nothing beats going to an actual doctor, nurse or health care clinic to get answers to the health questions you have.</li>
<li>Be transparent about the limits of an online search.</li>
<li>Referrals to a doctor or clinic will direct you to the next evaluation you need.</li>
</ul>

When In Doubt, Talk To An Actual Health Care Provider

Here's how to spot bad medical information — and how to stop freaking yourself out as you do your research.

If You're Going To Google Your Health Symptoms, Here's How To Do It Right

The first step of the FAST Method is to find an initial brute force recursive solution. This is something that you need to be able to do on your own for the FAST Method to be of any use to you. If you don’t know how to implement a linked list, then it doesn’t matter how many tricks you learn for solving linked list problems. your first step should be to dedicate yourself to learning all of the fundamental data structures and algorithms.either the <a href="https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-006-introduction-to-algorithms-fall-2011/index.htm">MIT</a> (Python) or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mYfZeHtdNc&list=PLxc4gS-_A5VDXUIOPkJkwQKYiT2T1t0I8">Princeton</a>

Develop a strong foundation

The key here is simply to get more practice coding, and ideally do so in an environment where you are getting good feedback on your code. One of the best ways to do this is by contributing to open source projects. Not only is this a great way to show off your experience, but you will get the benefit of thorough code reviews and learning how to work in a production environment. If you’re new to working with open source, <a href="http://www.firsttimersonly.com/">First Timers Only</a> is a great resource for those looking to get started.

Get more coding experience

[0:00–0:05] Get settled & fully understand the problem. Work through example inputs.[0:05–0:10] Find a <a href="https://www.byte-by-byte.com/brute-force/">brute force solution</a>.No coding, just talk & draw pictures. If stuck, try by hand and translate process into an algorithm.[0:10–0:15] Optimize your solution. Take these 5 minutes to figure out the absolute best solution you can in this period of time.[0:15–0:35] Code up your solution. Even if it’s not optimal, it is better.[0:35–0:50] Test your code and fix any issues.[0:50–1:00] Questions for your interviewer.

Strategically approach each interview question

The key here is that while in some cases there may be one “best” solution, there are way more problems where you can make different trade-offs and you have to decide which ones to make. As an interviewer, I love to see candidates who weigh the different possibilities. You should always consider the space and time complexity of every solution you come up with. This gives you an objective way to evaluate which solutions are better than others and helps make a way more informed decision.

Consider different possible solutions

I’ll tell you that finding a brute force solution is 1000% better than not finding a solution at all. And if you start by immediately trying to find the optimal solution, it is easy to get stuck and end up without a complete solution by the end of the interview.This accomplishes two important things:<ol><li>It gives you a fallback plan. </li><li>It helps you clarify the problem. </li></ol>

Start with the brute force solution

Often, people dive right into writing code as soon, until you’ve fully worked out the solution. Writing any more code than just for thinking is a critical mistake for two reasons.<ol><li> if you want to move lines of code around, you have to either erase and rewrite them or draw arrows going all over the place.</li><li>issue with starting to code right off the bat is that it can lock you into a specific way of thinking about the problem. </li></ol>

Plan out the full solution before you code

Your thought process is non-linear when you’re solving problems, so you may have thought you needed a HashMap because of some other line of thinking that you have since abandoned. This is why it is so critical to stop every so often, especially if you start doing something that seems challenging, and look back at the big picture of what you’re trying to do. Whenever you’re doing something that seems unnecessarily complicated, look at your end goal and see if you can simplify your approach.

Keep the big picture in mind

I love asking complicated interview problems. If a problem involves several different components, you as the interviewer get such great insights into how a candidate manages their thinking when there is so much to deal with all at once. The key to successfully solving these problems is to use abstraction. At its core, this means breaking out your code into smaller functions with more specific purposes.

Use abstraction to your advantage

I find that many students forget to apply the best practices they know from real-world coding to their interviews. They assume that coding interviews are totally different, so the things they’d do normally don’t apply. One of the things people forget all of the time is to test their interview solution. But would you ever commit code in the real world without testing it thoroughly first?

Test your code

While test interviews has merits, there is one fatal flaw: Companies are notoriously bad at giving you any meaningful feedback. “So,” you might say, “Who cares? I can just judge my own performance.” Well yes, that’s true, but it can be really hard to judge yourself. You don’t know what criteria your interviewer is looking for (just getting an optimal solution to one problem may not cut it). And if you’re struggling to succeed, chances are there’s something that you’re not seeing.

Get good feedback

These list down great points on how to approach a coding interview

by Sam Gavis-Hughson How to make progress while studying for coding interviews Getting stuck is never fun. Especially when you’re working really hard. And yet, I find that this happens to people preparing for coding interviews all the time. You put in consistent work. You’ve gone through hundreds of practice

Tech

How to make progress while studying for coding interviews

Google Search ads are a good way to effectively reach the right audiences. You only need ad copy that is optimised for Google, however, it should be excellent.

Ad copy

Google processes 3.5 billion searches a day and continually maps out the web to connect you to the most suitable information. Running Google ads allows you to reach customers at the moment they want to discover a product or learn about a service. Google Search ads are text-driven, so you only have to focus on creating quality ad copy to get results.

How Google Ads work

Text ads need three parts:<ol><li>Headline text. The standard ad headline is 30 characters.</li><li>A display URL.</li><li>Description texts. The description text is no more than 90 characters.</li></ol> Your ad has to be short and to the point. You should narrow your value proposition down to a few words that have an immediate and effective impact.

Creating text for your Google ads

<ul><li>Consider how to highlight what makes you unique, such as free shipping or the variety you offer. </li><li>Empower customers to take action. Make it easy to purchase your products or services with calls to action like Order Now, Sign Up, or Get a Quote.</li><li>Include keywords to keep your ads relevant.</li></ul>

What to focus on when writing an ad

To start, make lists of everything valuable about your product or service. Rewrite each item in the least words possible and sting together a few value items.
Keep testing variations to determine which combinations get the lowest cost per click. This can be done using Google's responsive search ads.

How to assemble your ad copy

Ensure your landing page matches what you're advertising. Use the Google Search ads integration with the HubSpot CRM to optimize your targeting and drive high-quality leads. Use ad extensions to make ads easier to interact with:<ul><li>Lead form extensions help you generate leads by allowing people to submit their information. </li><li>Call extensions let you include a clickable phone number in your ad.</li><li>Price extensions show offers in detail so people can quickly find what they want.</li></ul>

Tips on creating great ad copy

Learn how to write the best ad copy and how To Use Google Ads with this kit: https://clickhubspot.com/oav The secret to getting the clicks is in the ad copy. But it's not just about writing good content, you need to create ad copy that captures your audience and makes them want to click on your ads. In this video, we’re going to teach you how to write ad copy optimized for Google and we even spoke to an expert at Google to get all the tips and tricks. 🖥 Digital Advertising 101 certification: https://clickhubspot.com/3sf 📔 Grow Your Career and Business with HubSpot Academy: https://clickhubspot.com/Popular-Courses 📔 Favorite Free Certification Courses: • Digital Marketing Certification: https://clickhubspot.com/od6 • Social Media Marketing Course: https://clickhubspot.com/Social-Media-Certification • SEO Training Course: https://clickhubspot.com/SEO-Training-Course • Inbound Course: https://clickhubspot.com/Inbound-Certification • Inbound Marketing Course: https://clickhubspot.com/Inbound-Marketing-Certification • Email Marketing Course: https://clickhubspot.com/Email-Marketing-Certification • Inbound Sales Course: https://clickhubspot.com/Inbound-Sales-Certification • Taking your Business Online Course: https://clickhubspot.com/Business-Online Video chapters: 0:00 intro 0:45 How Google ads work 2:30 Ad copy Step 1- Highlight what makes you unique 2:48 Ad copy Step 2 - Easy to purchase 3:02 Ad copy Step 3 - Keywords 4:15 Keyword match 5:09 How to create ad copy About HubSpot: HubSpot is a leading CRM platform that provides education, software, and support to help businesses grow better. The platform includes marketing, sales, service, and website management products that start free and scale to meet our customers’ needs at any stage of growth. Today, thousands of customers around the world use HubSpot’s powerful and easy-to-use tools and integrations to attract, engage, and delight customers. ⚠ Disclaimer: The videos on our YouTube channel are for informational purposes only, and are not intended as an endorsement for any of the products or services that we feature. #HubSpot #adcopy #googleads

Blitzscaling 08: Eric Schmidt on Structuring Teams and Scaling Google

The Future of Search Is Boutique

If You're Going To Google Your Health Symptoms, Here's How To Do It Right

How to make progress while studying for coding interviews

How To Write Amazing Ad Copy | Google Expert Reveals Top Tips

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