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Microsoft

skype

The global adoption of online tutoring due to various reasons, including the COVID-19 pandemic, has led to educators embracing video conferencing tools to conduct classes. While there are dozens of choices in the market, the most obvious choice for tutors is either Skype or Zoom. For educators just starting out tutoring online, free video conferencing tools would be more inviting. Two of the most commonly used video conferencing tools in the market currently are Skype and Zoom. Zoom vs Skype is the most extensive debate that happens among online tutors who are just entering the world of digital education. As an independent educator, which platforms among these are the best for tutoring online? This blog intends to look into the benefits of and what makes tutors choose Zoom over Skype. using zoom for teaching What’s better, zoom or skype We once lived in a time when everyone “Skyped” each other. Skype was the ultimate choice once, but it was replaced by “Zooming. Once the COVID-19 pandemic hit and people were confined to the home and remote working culture, everyone started turning to Zoom. So if you ask whether Skype or Zoom dominates now, people who chose Skype initially start turning to Zoom. So, what is the real reason? Zoom is relatively simpler to use than Skype. It means even the non-tech-savvy people can easily use Zoom without any friction. And Zoom is as close to that as you can get when it comes to classroom-based teaching, as the powerful features allow educators to teach as in real. To know what’s better, Zoom or Skype, let’s take a close look at the features of both. Zoom vs Skype- Ease of use and user-friendliness Both Zoom and Skype features are easy-to-use and have straightforward interfaces, making setting up and attending meetings a breeze. When setting up meetings on both, hosts are provided with a unique link that they can share with their invitees. Zoom vs Skype: Scalability To understand which is better, Skype or Zoom, it is great to look at the scalability of both platforms. One of the main capabilities a must have is the ability to hold large video meetings. Skype supports up to 50 members on one call. Zoom can support up to 1000 people, which better suits educators who host classes with a large group of students. video conferencing platform for online tutoring Zoom vs Skype: Plans tiers and pricing Zoom comes with a free plan and the other three paid plans. The pro plan for Zoom costs $14.99/month and comes with features like social media streaming, 1 GB cloud recording per license, and supports about 100 participants per meeting. The business plan comes at $19.99 every month per license and can host up to 300 participants. Users receive perks like receiving recording transcripts and more. The last one, the enterprise plan, is for businesses to buy 50 or more licenses. The cost per license comes around $19.99 every month. This plan can support up to 500 participants in every meeting and comes with features like unlimited cloud storage and recording of transcripts. All Zoom premium plans come with a large meeting add-on that allows you to level up the participant limit to 1000 for a fee of $50 per month. When it comes to Skype, it has a free video calling service for personal use and small business teams. Microsoft teams have replaced Skype’s Business solutions ranging from $5-$12.50 per user per month. Zoom vs Skype- Security Skype has end-to-end encryption and has a . It leverages Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), also called as Rijndael (A standard used by the US Government to secure sensitive information). good reputation regarding system security Skype uses strong 256-bit encryption while it is not responsible for the content of external websites. All skype-skype conversations, including audio, video, instant messages, and file transfers, are encrypted.When it comes to Zoom vs Skype regarding security, Zoom has end-end encryption available on all plans. However, due to Zoombombing. Zoom’s security has been questioned recently Zoom vs Skype: The common features and differences First, let’s see what’s common between Skype vs Zoom. Zoom and Skype have many features in common. Both provide a free plan and allow users to access meetings, record sessions, share screens, and chat within the live class, all without signing up for an account. Both video conferencing solutions are available on different OS, including iOS, Mac, Windows, Android, and Linux. While and Skype can set up meetings, learners don’t have to join either platform to attend the sessions. educators tutoring on Zoom Now let’s explore the difference between the two software. Skype doesn’t not offer a premium plan for organizations, whereas Zoom has three premium plans ranging from $14.99-$19.99 per license per month. The maximum participant capability of Skype is 100, and that of Zoom is 1000. Skype allows video meetings for up to 24 hours, whereas Zoom’s free plan limits the meeting duration to 40 minutes. But one-to-one sessions can go up to 30 hours. Zoom offers breakout sessions, whereas Skype doesn’t. With the premium plans of Zoom, you can live stream your sessions on social media, whereas this feature is not available with Skype. Now, why do we use zoom instead of skype? Zoom features polling and whiteboards for interactive and engaging sessions, which skype does not. Both Zoom and Skype offer the ability to change your virtual background, which is great for educators who want to look more professional during their classes. Users can use Skype with an Alexa device and Xbox, but Zoom doesn’t support these options. Benefits of using zoom for teaching While both Zoom and Skype are popular video conferencing tools, we see a trend of most educators relying on Zoom instead of Skype to conduct their classes. If you wonder why do schools use zoom instead of Skype, there are several reasons Zoom wins the battle. Zoom records the classroom with ease; Skype can’t One of the biggest benefits of using Zoom for teaching is that it comes with an in-built recording feature. Skype has added the feature for voice calls but not for video calls. Skype supports video recording through third-party programs, which makes Skype less reliable when compared to Zoom. So if you ask what’s better, Zoom or Skype, if you have attempted video conferencing with Skype, you will know how it lacks reliability. With Skype having difficulty in finding users via the search function and frequent connection issues, Zoom is better in many aspects. The integrated recording feature of Zoom is very useful for educators as learners can get a copy of the sessions. They can revisit areas they struggle with and revisit the concepts explained in the class. Zoom was designed for online teaching Skype has its reputation, and that is for casual use and casual users. In contrast, Zoom was designed to conduct video conferences with multiple participants while also having features like screen sharing, instant, group messaging, and a lot more. When you analyze Zoom vs Skype, the former is becoming the go-to solution for educators who want to tutor online as it comes with all essential functionalities for a dynamic and interactive classroom environment. Whereas Skype was designed for simple classes, you get all you need to build an outstanding online tutoring environment if you plan to adopt Zoom tutoring. Learners can be invited with no user names Many users have reported issues with not being able to find each other on Skype. But Zoom is simpler to use. One of the main reasons most online tutors rely on Zoom for online tutoring is that they can easily invite learners to attend their online sessions. No user names are required, no need to add people; things happen with a single click. This leads to an excellent user experience for all involved parties and allows the educator not to worry about learners missing their classes. Zoom has a free plan While you are just beginning with just a couple of students or have a vast fan base, Zoom can accommodate you. It must be noted that Zoom has a free plan for users. So when should you upgrade if you want to use Zoom for online tutoring? When you expand your user base and plan to have a lot of students in the classroom at the same time, you can consider upgrading to pro plans of Zoom. Additional features that make Zoom better Zoom allows users to take screenshots, create groups, mute participants, send invitations and other relevant files during the classes. Zoom supports virtual backgrounds, which is important for online educators. (Skype has launched the feature of virtual background recently, but it doesn’t match the quality of Zoom.) Conclusion While there have been talks about security issues related to Zoom, it is a superior choice for most online tutors over Skype. Long story short- Zoom offers more robust business features than Skype, which makes it the ultimate choice for online educators over Skype. With Zoom, you can even hold meetings with up to 1000 participants, whereas Skype limits you to 100 members per meeting. Zoom has whiteboards, polling, social media streaming, breakout sessions, great tech support, and a lot more. To know better, go ahead and put it to the test to understand it yourself.

Skype VS Zoom for Online Tutoring

A lot has been written about Zoom in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The share price has risen 800% since its IPO, valuing it at $144 Billion, it is well funded, profitable and has attracted some of the smartest people in tech and business into its ranks. Zoom is riding a high that is well deserved. It has an amazing product that cut through a crowded field to do things better than the well-established competition, including the likes of Oracle’s Webex, Google Hangouts and Microsoft’s Skype. When I first started to use skype in the mid-2000’s it was easy to use, lightweight and always maintained a connection in other words… it just worked, first time every time. So when I first used Zoom, I instantly had warm a feeling of Déjà vu. When I first tried it, it was a delight to use, it just worked, even when one participant had a low-quality bandwidth. Setting a meeting was easy, entering it was easy, and the quality was superior and rarely dropped out. This is why, as a startup founder (who at that point had not raised any money) Zoom was the first SaaS product we paid for. It was that far ahead of the competition in my eyes. In my opinion, there are a few essential metrics to measure any video conferencing service by. Some of these are more subjective than others. Number of clicks to set a meeting Number of clicks to enter a meeting The experience of someone who hasn’t use zoom before but joins a zoom meeting for the first time Audio & Video Quality (Audio being the most important here) How often a “critical issues” occurs (I define this as anything that stops a participant from engaging in the call, including dropped participants, connections issues etc.) Skype, over time, got more bloated, less reliable and less intuitive to use, it started to fall behind in many of the measures I list above. It didn’t get the fundamentals right, and eventually, this is why I and many others like me stopped using Skype. In 2021, Skype will be dead, almost precisely ten years after its acquisition by Microsoft, I doubt many will mourn its demise. Zoom is at risk of making the same mistakes, over the years of using Zoom, the number of complaints from my employees has increased significantly. Unable to join meetings, the app closing mid-call repeatedly, people inside the organization (company email) unable to join without being let in, and in one instance in a meeting of four people, two were put in one room and two into another with the same zoom Id. Someone in each room almost simultaneously messaged asking why the other party hadn’t shown up. Some of these may sound like small issues, and yes I agree, but small problems and annoyances are how we judge these types of products because ultimately they should blend into the background and facilitate rather than dominate. It was these types of issues that had in the past driven me, and many like me from other competing products. Zoom is in a great position to become the next big platform, but it risks it all if it doesn’t get the fundamentals right. The fundamentals are, after all why I, my company and many other Zoom users were attracted to Zoom in the first place, it just worked… and it worked well. Don’t get me wrong I am excited by the slew of new features in the pipeline, and third party integrations can transform Zoom from a mere video conferencing service to a full-blown platform. However, these integrations and new features mean nothing if they come at the sacrifice of the fundamentals, high-quality video conferencing that just works. Zoom has grown quicker than even it had anticipated due to Covid-19, and many of these issues I mentioned above are probably growing pains. Still, they should be addressed quickly because as we have seen in the past consumers and businesses are fickle, especially with video conferencing tools.

Will Zoom Become The Next Skype?

Why everyone should stop using Skype, Google Docs etc. for taking tech interviews! The things mentioned in this article are my personal opinion and true to the best of my knowledge and experience :P I take a lot of interviews at work and it was hampering my productivity. Specially remote interviews where you have to download tools like skype and connect with the candidate. This all makes need of strong internet connection a must have at both the sides while taking interviews. I have tried to come up with this article to explain how using latest tools can help you overcome those challenges and improve productivity at work as well. :D Few things coming in the way of taking remote interviews correctly! Skype Collab-edit Google-docs Telephonic interview Other random code sandboxes Screensharing Combination of any of the above This guy is not happy with the tools listed. Are you that guy? or may be your are about to know by the end of this article. All of the above mentioned have the following drawbacks: Complicated with no real programming environment Too many downloads/tools for one interview Not made to take interviews Bulky Learning curve Promotes theory or Rote learning Uninspiring & Uncoordinated Image describing loop-holes in the current process of taking remote-interviews and calling anyone on-site with no proper judgement To further explain the gravity of the situation Google Doc: It is a collaborative word doc. It was not made to take interviews Collaborative: YES Audio/Video Calling: NO Code Editor: NO Code Compilation/Output: NO Any programming language supported: NO Skype: Video calling tool not meant to take tech interviews. Screen-sharing via skype and typing on a code editor is a heavy operation and candidates can take advantage of it in a slow network for sure. Audio/Video Calling: YES Collaborative: NO Code Editor: NO Works without download: NO Code compilation/output: NO Telephone/Mobile calling: Only meant to talk to the person for introduction and initial impression. Not meant to take coding rounds. Also, it is not very comfortable for both interviewer and candidate to talk on the phone while giving a coding round Audio Calling: YES Video Calling: NO Code Editor/Compilation: NO Tests practical knowledge: NO Collab-edit and other random sandboxes: Meant for code playground to test small chunks of code. Does not serve the purpose of taking a complete remote round Collaborative: YES Audio/Video Call: NO Code Editor: YES Code compilation/output: NO Programmer friendly or Intuitive: NO Random tools cannot bring out the best in candidates. Candidates end up trying to give their best on tools that give them a hard time. They end up downloading additional softwares and co-ordinating between the softwares becomes a task as well at the time of interview Candidates hate them: Interviewers expect the candidates to type on tools that will never be used in real time Interviewers do not care enough: HRs cannot standardize the process and end up losing quality talent most of the times HRs give up: Here are some tools that can help you save your time, increase your productivity, and help you assess the candidate the right way without downloading any additional software Intervue.io, Coderpad.io, CodeInterview.io: Latest tools that can be used to take remote tech interviews Lets go over them one by one: I have used all of them, hence, I am giving my opinion for each tool. Intervue.io This is by far the best tool I found in terms of User Experience. Lots of languages are supported. My opinion: : URL https://www.intervue.io/ : C, C++, Python2, Python3, Javascript, Node, Typescript, CoffeeScript, Java, Bash, Swift, R, Rust, HTML/CSS/JS, Ruby, Erlang, Elixir, PHP, Plain Text Languages supported Collaborative: YES Code compilation and output: YES Code editor: YES Audio/Video calling: YES Tests practical knowledge: YES Candidate friendly editor: YES Schedule Interviews: YES Organisation support to add teams or multiple interviewers: YES Organisation branding: YES Interview feedback can be written: YES Comes as a free trial of one month after which user can upgrade to different plans which are not very expensive. Free/Paid: Intervue.io: An easier and efficient ways to take remote programming interviews Coderpad.io This is also good. Has more languages supported as compared to intervue.io. Intervue gives slightly better usability experience in my opinion. My opinion: : URL https://www.coderpad.io/ : Haskel, Go, C, C++, Python2, Python3, Javascript, Node, Typescript, CoffeeScript, Java, Bash, Swift, R, Rust, HTML/CSS/JS, Ruby, Erlang, Elixir, PHP, Plain Text, SQL Languages supported Collaborative: YES Code compilation and output: YES Code editor: YES Audio/Video calling: YES Tests practical knowledge: YES Candidate friendly editor: YES Schedule Interviews: YES Organisation support to add teams or multiple interviewers: YES Organisation branding: YES Comes as a free trial of one month after which user can upgrade to different plans which are not very expensive. Pricing is slightly on the higher side at the time of writing this article as compared to Intervue Free/Paid: CodeInterview.io : This is not very rich in user experience. Looks a little bulky as well while using as the look and feel is on the heavier side, but it serves the purpose of taking a remote round. My opinion : URL https://www.codeinterview.io/ : Haskel, Go, C, C++, Python2, Python3, Javascript, Node, Typescript, CoffeeScript, Java, Bash, Swift, R, Rust, HTML/CSS/JS, Ruby, Erlang, Elixir, PHP, Plain Text, SQL, React, Angular, Vue (Beta mode) Languages supported Collaborative: YES Code compilation and output: YES Code editor: YES Audio/Video calling: YES Tests practical knowledge: YES Candidate friendly editor: YES Schedule Interviews: YES Organisation support to add teams or multiple interviewers: YES Organisation branding: YES Demo pad can be created free of cost. Post the demo pad it is paid. Free/Paid: Conclusion There are some more tools that I have not mentioned but you can take a look. These tools did not make it to the best tools available list as they have their own pit-falls Codebunk https://www.hackerrank.com/products/codepair https://codeshare.io/ Hope this article helps you to be more productive at work if you are taking interviews! This article is my opinion on the tools that I have used as I take a lot of interviews at work and I was losing productivity. These tools came to the rescue. I will also write about more such tools and articles for different things to increase productivity at work but that is a scope for another medium article. Stay tuned!!

Stop Using Skype and Google Docs for Remote Interviews

Merely removing apps on Mac OS X is not a hard thing to do: drag & drop or just delete to the Trash. But sometimes after such removal on your Mac, there could be left system files, caches, logs, and other debris – called app leftovers. That is why it is better to use special third-party for removing programs from your Mac with all their service files. app uninstallers During the development and research of system files, applications, we reviewed a variety of different applications. Sometimes its service files occupy tiny space calculated in KB, other times – comparable to the size of the application itself. Here are the most “dirty” apps that can take tons of MBs on your hard drive without any warning. Applications with Large System Files: 1. Shazam (for Mac) Service that helps people around the world to not lose their favorite tune. Its system files occupy around 17.1 MB. Not huge, but it’s around 70% the size of the application (23.5 MB). 2. Pixelmator A simplified and very convenient alternative to Adobe Photoshop. After removal leaves you with ~20MB scattered on your startup disk. 3. Skype One of the most common messengers in the world. Its service files take up about two times more than the app itself. In our case, it was 475.6 MB with the original app size of 257.4 MB. 4. Xcode The basic environment for the development of Apple software. By the size of files outside of the container, it is the undisputed leader. But, firstly, the app is not very common among regular users, and secondly, the specifics of the application justify such dimensions.  Xcode client – 11.91 GB, service files – 5.2 GB. 5. Google Chrome And of course, no one could get to the first position other than the king of the dimensionless. It uses both RAM memory and the memory of your drive. His Majesty the Google Chrome. System files of which have a royal size of around 1.2 GB. It is commonly recommended to regularly clear applications` service files to keep your Mac running fast. You can clear applications` service files manually. However, you should note that this method requires understanding the macOS catalog system which takes a bit more time.

5 Mac Apps with the Largest Service Files

The world has been evolving ever since its inception. There is no doubt that Generation-Z (1997-2012) has witnessed many changes. These changes were related especially with the advancement of science and technology. The concept of video calling dates back to the year 1910, and back then it was termed as video telephony. So, the concept is pretty antiquated, but with time innovation played its part and kept it looking contemporary. Having said that, we’ll now look at the options we have when it comes to video calling. The above-shown picture is the earliest concept of Video calling by an artist of the year 1910. According to the artist, this is how people were supposed to communicate by the year 2000. The year 2000 is now behind us past 20 years, and apparently we have exceeded the expectations of the people in the past. In year 2020, the top video chat apps are mentioned below; Skype: For many people, Skype is one of the earliest memories of video calling. They remember using it for making video calls to family members living abroad. And people still use it to do a video chat, with anyone they want to or need to. The app for Skype is free and you can easily make free calls from any device that’s in your use. Facebook Messenger: Facebook messenger is one of user’s favorite video apps. It is quite comfortable and easy to use. Facebook Messenger can also be used with or without Facebook. But Facebook for phone can’t be used without messenger. As we connect on Facebook with people all over the world, we make friends, we have video chats to exchange knowledge and we showcase our expertise there. Anyone who uses Facebook can organically. This way you can make a very good social media presence and you can also have a lot of people to have live video chat with.  For this purpose Facebook messenger is a must have app. It is like a Facebook exclusive WhatsApp. buy Facebook Likes WhatsApp: In the year 2020, if you aren’t aware of WhatsApp, then you are probably an alien. It is impossible not to have WhatsApp if you have a phone. It allows free calls to the numbers in your phone contact list. So, if you don’t have credit to make a call from the SIM network you are using, then you always have the option to use WhatsApp as long as you have an Internet connection. It allows simple text messaging, voice messaging (we also refer to them as voice notes), simple calls (video off) and video calls with video on, of course. WhatsApp is a necessity for smartphones. You may have many apps for making video calls, but you’ll always revert back to WhatsApp. Botim: Relatively new app to facilitate video calling, chatting through typing messages and voice notes. It is pretty similar to WhatsApp, and as mentioned it is comparatively new. So in the year 2020, in all the options that you have, you can also have Botim as another option. Microsoft Teams: Considering, the current pandemic situation which is created by Corona virus. Microsoft teams is the one app that is on the phone of every other student. The students are using it because countries have decided to stay in quarantine. The use of Microsoft team is more suited for educational and professional use. Although once the teams are created, the members can chat and do video calling with their own discretion as well.  Microsoft Teams is a pretty engaging platform, more then we realize. During lectures it allows you to share material. Take, for instance, you have a presentation to deliver and you want your PowerPoint slides to be shown. In such a case, Microsoft teams gives you an option of ‘slide share’ and your task is done. There is so much to learn at Microsoft teams.

Crypterium’s new crypto-fiat solution is here

Full-fledged remote work has become a global trend. The trend of a remote team (virtual team) has become popular with top world companies such as Skype, Slack, Github, MySQL, Opera, Groove, and others. In the world, there are quite a lot of large companies operating completely remotely. Businesses that implement remote work policies see increased efficiency, productivity, and fulfillment from their employees. So why do companies choose remote or distributed teams for software development? Benefits of having a virtual team. The performance of important functions is delegated to contractors. Therefore, the necessary corporate result is achieved by external efforts. Getting results from business processes without managing them. Outsourcers are professionals in their field. Therefore, they cope with the solution of highly specialized tasks like no one else. The attraction of competent specialists. The reduction in staff leads to a decrease in the total payroll. This, in turn, provides a reduction in the cost of contributions to social funds and tax payments. Saving money resources. To get rid of non-core functions is to get an opportunity to concentrate on the main direction and increase its effectiveness. Increased core business performance. Although accountants, lawyers, and other employees serve the customer company, they officially work with the contractor. Lack of formal labor relations with specialists. If a specialist is dissatisfied with something, he can only make complaints to his employer. The client pays the agency for the services and does not engage in personnel management. Exclusion of disputes and disagreements with staff. The partnership between the contractor and the customer is executed. It spells out all the duties and responsibilities of the parties, as well as important nuances of cooperation. Contractual form of relationship. Let's look at how large companies directly use the remote team. Skype was one of the most disruptive tools and technologies during the early 2000s. The idea of Niklas Zennström and the Dane Janus Friis wouldn’t have been part of our lives if they hadn’t outsourced the back-end development of the app to three Estonian developers named Jaan Tallinn, Ahti Heinla, and Priit Kasesalu. Skype. The important thing here to stress is that thanks to outsourced developers, who later became partners, Skype was able not only to enter the market but also becoming a widespread tool among businesses of all sizes. From 2011, Skype is part of Microsoft who bought it for $8.5 billion. If you work with remote peers, there’s a high chance you use Slack, an online collaboration tool app for teams based on Instant Messaging.  Before opening it up to the first beta testers, Slack’s development was outsourced to a design firm, who took care of the app, website, and even their logo. Slack. After that phase, once the product was good enough for the founders, they started to invite other users and teams to test it out and provide feedback (8K users signed up the first day). Today Slack accounts for 5 million daily users. Founded in 2008 by Chris Wanstrath, PJ Hyett, and Tom Preston-Werner, as a way to host, document, edit and share private code, it has its roots into an outsourced development consultancy. GitHub. As Tom recalls: I was thinking Git might be really cool and could get really popular. Scott was the ideal candidate for that. The problem was they didn’t have enough money to hire him as a full-time developer. So they had only one choice left to reach their goal of simplifying their product and push it further: they hired Scott as a Git outsource contractor to eventually build the backend of Gist, a sharing feature within GitHub. With its first release back to 21 years ago, MySQL proved to the world it was something we needed when it comes to working and manage databases. Part of its success is due to two key elements: the release of its source code under the GNU General Public License and the smart outsourcing strategy implemented by the management right from the beginning. MySQL. In fact, the company saw its growth strategy would need to include mostly outsourced developers and staff all over the world to boost operations in each location. Today, MySQL runs on millions of servers, and it’s used by many of the world’s largest and fastest-growing organizations such as Amazon, PayPal, Nasa, Cisco, just to name a few. Nowadays, hundreds and thousands, of companies use outsourcing to some extent, especially when it comes to the IT department. From the article, we learned how large companies have successfully used and are using remote teams for their development.

Corporations Goes with Remote Devs: Skype, Slack, GitHub, MySQL cases

The tech industry is at the forefront of cutting-edge innovation. Everywhere you turn, someone's talking about disruption, transformation, or unlocking new possibilities – but the truth is, not every new tech trend aligns with actual user needs. And as product managers, we would do well to remember that the innovation should always serve the customer, not the trend. Last week, I was invited to share my experiences of leading product at companies working with emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and the new iteration of the internet focussed on data ownership (web3) on a Product People webinar. Using a few examples from my career, I argued for ignoring the hype and focussing on solving real user needs – aligned, of course, to business objectives – when introducing AI or web3 into the product. Product People webinar Understanding the temptation Understanding the temptation Of course, it's tempting to jump on the bandwagon. After all, if everyone is hyped up about something, shouting about how it's going to change the world, that energy can be contagious. Even more so in the tech sector, where we're all afraid of missing out on the next big thing. So whether it's accepting crypto or integrating AI tools, there's often pressure – from consumers, from leaders, from investors, hell, even from ourselves – to "do something with the trend". But here's the catch – just because we have access to a new technology doesn't mean it makes sense for our users. A cautionary example is the way businesses have been introducing AI chatbots. Sure, you can now say that you're AI-powered, but how is the experience for your typical user? Far too often, poorly executed chatbots frustrate users rather than helping. Instead of enhancing their interaction with your product, it can lead to friction as they struggle to get access to human support agents. In other words, adding AI just for the sake of it can end up alienating the very users it's meant to serve. It's not all about the tech It's not all about the tech This tends to happen because we get so caught up in the possibilities of the technology that we forget the most important thing, what problem are we solving? This is especially relevant when we talk about driving adoption of new technologies. technology what problem are we solving I was once on a panel with a woman who'd been an early adopter of Bitcoin and blockchain-based currencies more generally, and she drew a comparison with the success of Skype and no one caring about Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). The underlying technology is secondary. Its main purpose is helping you achieve your goals quickly and easily. Skype helped connect you to relatives across the world without paying exorbitant fees, that's the value. helping you achieve your goals quickly and easily that's The other interesting thing to highlight from my fellow panellist's observation is that, of course, it benefits from hindsight. We know (as we knew then) what problems Skype was solving, but we didn't know at the time whether the Skype protocol would win over the other variations of protocols being developed. I must admit that I don't know the history in detail, but I would hazard a guess that user experience had something to do with Skype's ultimate success. hindsight didn't In the same way, blockchain is just the facilitator[1]. Of course, there are significant advantages in terms of security and permanence, but ultimately, it's about the problem it's solving for users. And right now, it's lacking on the user experience side, though we have made great strides in improving this. I'm personally a firm believer that blockchain, crypto, NFTs, and especially AI do add value, but my overarching point is that we as product managers need to look past the technology and solve for users. have do Uncovering the "why" Uncovering the "why" As such, when it comes to our users, we need to get to know them so well that we can anticipate their needs and build solutions without worrying about the underlying technology. There's the often-quoted Henry Ford statement that if he had asked user what they wanted, they would've said a faster horse. While it's unlikely that he actually said this, not the least because he didn't actually invent the car, the quote conveys an important point about the user need state to (a) get somewhere faster and (b) to be able to afford it. Ford's invention, therefore, becomes the solution to a very specific problem – getting from point A to point B more efficiently. without worrying about the underlying technology Therefore, it's always a good idea to take a step back and ask a simple question: why? Why are we adding [insert feature here]? If you can't answer in a way that addresses a key business objective, whether that's increased revenue, improved retention, better engagement, or whatever else, through a better customer experience, it's time to reconsider. It's easy to get caught up in the hype and think that blockchain or AI or some other new technology is the magical silver bullet solution, but you can't lose sight of what you're trying to achieve – both as a business and as the product with the customer top-of-mind. why The benefits of web3 and AI The benefits of web3 and AI So what benefits are there in web3 and AI? Of course, we haven't yet reached the mass adoption of, say, Skype circa 2013, and it remains to be seen whether we will from a consumer side. From the consumer side, there's a disconnect between the promise (store of value) and the reality (speculation) of crypto, as well as the promise (owning IP) as well as the reality (again, speculation) of NFTs – so while the technology is innovative, the why hasn’t been fully addressed, at least not for consumers. But blockchain is already being used in government and business applications. Estonian and American government bodies, for example, are using the KSI blockchain for protecting privacy and security. Governments and big companies store value in bitcoin. are consumer side why is And then when we think about AI, it's more of the same. Maybe we haven't quite identified the overarching why of consumer AI, though in my personal opinion, it's just a matter of time before mass adoption for the simplification of mundane tasks (my mother regularly uses DeepL to check her English, neurodiverse acquaintances swear by ChatGPT for tackling simple emails that would otherwise take hours, etc). From a business perspective, however, AI is already embedded into our meeting software, into collaboration tools, and even into the core of software development through tools like GitHub Copilot, with more use cases added daily. why Knowing when to pivot Knowing when to pivot A few years ago, I was working with a company that encountered this very problem – it failed to find product market fit among consumers, but found it for businesses. This was a mission-driven crypto startup focussed on bringing Bitcoin to emerging markets as a hedge against inflation. We gamified the experience, rewarding users with small amounts of bitcoin for engaging with the platform. On paper, this seemed like a great way to build user engagement, but the reality was that this didn't support our business goals long term. consumers businesses Given the market and the industry, we had to do everything by the book – complying with regulation, receiving the necessary licenses, partnering with banks and authorities. This was not without its challenges, often financial. It quickly became apparent that our target audience wasn't able to sustain our growth ambitions, and while target users were using us to earn bitcoin, we weren't seeing enough traction in terms of transactions to make any money off the exchange. Now, I was young, a bit naïve, and so committed to the mission as central to the product – in other words, the technology and the mission became inextricably entwined for me – that I left when the CEO decided to pivot, leveraging all our banking relationships and licenses to actually improve the experience of transferring money to more complicated regions using blockchain rails and our user-friendly UI. But with the wisdom of hindsight, I can admit that this use case actually solves a problem and adds value for users, and, from a business perspective, it's a clever repackaging of our existing tech and partner stack to solve a different problem for a different set of users. These new users don't care that the money transfers are cheap and convenient because of blockchain, they just care that they're cheap, secure, and get the funds to a heavily regulated market compliantly. because When technology becomes the solution to a problem that doesn't exist When technology becomes the solution to a problem that doesn't exist But it doesn't always work that way. Sometimes, we want to work the technology into the solution so much that the problem we're solving for users is forgotten. In another company I worked for, the founding mission was the ability to register Certificates of Authenticity for physical artworks on the blockchain as a permanent record, which matters to artists who want to track provenance. Blockchain was seen as a solution to the question of permanence, as well as security. The issue was adoption – this is an issue for the art world generally, why there isn't a single database of Certificates of Authenticity is that each artist, gallery, museum or whatever it may be issues their own, which makes it difficult to track and authenticate. So while there was a use case, the same issue pursued the startup, because in order for these Certificates to continue to exist as intended to, they needed to be transferred alongside the artwork. This was then complicated by the emergence of NFTs and our company's entry into the space, because NFTs were intended, first and foremost, to serve as proof of ownership in and of themselves – you own the NFT, therefore you own the underlying art, and any transactions are visible on the blockchain, therefore establishing provenance. However, instead of doubling down on the use case and pursuing the vision of establishing an immutable repository of Certificates, we focussed on the technology, and tried to certify NFTs alongside physical works. The logic being that NFTs can be faked, because it's easy to make an NFT with an underlying image that isn't your artwork – though, of course, NFTs track which address created the artwork, so the artists for whom this matters can prove or disprove authorship anyway. So how does this all reflect on the problem we were trying to solve? Well, the issue is that the decisions we were making (pursuing NFTs in parallel to certification) were contradicting the why of what we were doing (establishing authenticity of certification). And, of course, the big one – we were solving a very niche problem in a very complicated way, which prevented us from driving adoption by focussing on simplifying user needs. The main takeaway being, of course, that before getting too carried away with how to build the solution, determine whether the problem being solved matches your business objectives. simplifying Build or buy? Build or buy? To top it all off, there's the additional consideration of whether to build the solution yourself or to delegate the work to a third party. This becomes especially relevant when it concerns AI, because ownership of the underlying data model is a competitive advantage. In my current organisation, we have a number of products that are introducing AI-powered solutions that address specific user need states, such as manual and labour-intensive purchase invoicing. This kind of repetitive process with clear parameters is ripe for AI automation. Why AI? Because it needs to account for nuance in business operations, which is why attempting to address it with rule-based processing is not sufficient. But this kind of solution comes with additional considerations of tradeoffs (time-to-market versus long-term value, as well as who builds it and who handles the legal questions like data processing), all within the context of the breakneck pace of AI. nuance In Silverbucket, the product I am currently working on, there are many areas in which we can improve usability through AI, both internally and customer-facing. The important thing is to recognise what is actually relevant for us – for example, there's no need for us to screen "easy" customer service queries trained on our knowledge base, because we don't typically get any queries that don't require engineering. This then paves the way for a more comprehensive question of how to build AI assistants for our customers, because a simple AI chatbot for the sake of it is unnecessary. The main question that we need to answer when we think about how our solution addresses user needs is, how do we facilitate the user's intended result in the easiest way possible? As you can see, that last question doesn't say anything about AI – but in our day and age, this can very well end up being the answer, which is something that we're therefore obligated to explore as a potential (but not only) solution. how do we facilitate the user's intended result in the easiest way possible? Conclusion Conclusion The main takeaway is that companies need to solve real pain points, and the technology is just there as a facilitator. If we use it correctly, our users benefit; if we don't, we risk alienating them. The only thing we can really rely on is continuous discovery – watching users, speaking to them, looking at product analytics, exploring their need states, and understanding how to solve their problems, and this can be with or without web3, blockchain, AI or whatever new technology appears on the horizon. [1] I do want to sound a note of caution here, because AI is a bit of a different beast, the inputs do matter, because they can replicate existing inequalities or spread misinformation, but that's somewhat of a different conversation. do

Stop Jumping on Every Tech Trend—Real Innovation Always Puts Users First

Launching a startup for the first time can be exciting, terrifying, and, more often than not, chaotic. Between chasing down the first investors, refining your product, and questioning whether you’re the next Elon Musk or just hopelessly delusional, it’s a miracle anyone willingly signs up for startup life. Yet, despite the chaos, there’s one area startups consistently overlook—how they handle technology infrastructure. Traditional setups, complete with physical servers and dedicated IT teams, are expensive, cumbersome, and often overkill. The better way? Cloud technology. Cloud tech isn't just some trendy buzzword to throw around at meetings. It’s the ultimate hack for any startup founder trying to accelerate growth, cut costs, and sleep better at night. Here’s exactly how startups can leverage cloud solutions to boost their growth—without bankrupting themselves in the process. 1. Scale Quickly Without Breaking the Bank Scaling your startup sounds fantastic in pitch decks, but when reality hits, your website crashes, and your engineers scramble, it’s not a pretty site (got it? lol). Cloud technology solves this exact issue by letting you scale instantly. Cloud technology solves this exact issue by letting you scale instantly. Slack’s story is a great example—When starting out, they scaled rapidly without stressing about building and managing their own server infrastructure. Instead, they trusted AWS to handle traffic spikes smoothly. As stated in their case study: "Using AWS, we can look at user metrics weekly or daily and react with new capacity in 30 seconds."
— Slack Case Study | AWS "Using AWS, we can look at user metrics weekly or daily and react with new capacity in 30 seconds." — Slack Case Study | AWS Then, take Airbnb’s early days. Instead of building costly data centers, they relied on AWS as well. This meant they could direct their limited resources into refining their product and creating a top-notch user experience—exactly what a startup should prioritize. According to Airbnb's case study: "Initially, the appeal of AWS was the ease of managing and customizing the stack. It was great to be able to ramp up more servers without having to contact anyone and without having minimum usage commitments." — Airbnb Case Study | AWS "Initially, the appeal of AWS was the ease of managing and customizing the stack. It was great to be able to ramp up more servers without having to contact anyone and without having minimum usage commitments." — Airbnb Case Study | AWS In cloud computing, the feature responsible for this is called Autoscaling, and every major cloud provider supports it. So, you don’t need to throw thousands of dollars into emergency hardware purchases when starting out. Instead, spend that precious cash on other areas like marketing, product development, or, heck, even some decent coffee for your hardworking team. 2. Use Advanced Tech Without a Huge Engineering Team Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are powerful—but also intimidating. Hiring a team of expert data scientists can feel impossible when you barely have enough funds for your core product team. Cloud providers solve this headache by offering easy-to-use AI and ML services; all you have to do is configure them, and everything from provisioning to scaling is handled automatically. AI and ML services Duolingo, for instance, smartly leveraged cloud-based ML from AWS and Google to personalize lessons. They didn’t hire an army of data scientists but used accessible, cloud-powered solutions to innovate quickly and cheaply. The lesson is clear, the cloud makes advanced tech achievable, even on a startup’s tight budget. the cloud makes advanced tech achievable, even on a startup’s tight budget 3. Make Your Remote Team Happier and More Efficient Remote work isn't going anywhere. While it’s great for flexibility, it can also lead to communication chaos. If I had a penny for every time a missed Slack message caused hours of confusion, I’d be Jeff Bezos-level rich by now. Cloud-based collaboration tools simplify your workflow dramatically. Platforms like Firebase streamline backend development, keeping your engineers productive instead of frustrated. With fewer roadblocks and clearer communication, your team can focus on what truly matters—building amazing products. And happy teams, in case you didn’t already know, build better products faster. 4. Never Fear Disaster Recovery Again Startups often underestimate the reality of data disasters. A single misstep can erase customer data, halt your business, and severely damage your reputation (ask Yahoo; they never recovered). With traditional systems, disaster recovery can be expensive, slow, and complicated. erase customer data halt your business severely damage your reputation Cloud providers, however, integrate robust disaster recovery measures right into their service packages. Netflix, a cloud pioneer, utilizes AWS to ensure its services remain uninterrupted, even when things go wrong behind the scenes. Your startup deserves the same reliability and peace of mind, and you don’t need millions of dollars to get started—I’ll expand on this in the next section. 5. Level the Playing Field With Bigger Competitors Start-ups often find themselves facing giants with seemingly limitless resources. With cloud technology, however, the playing field is surprisingly equal. Unlike traditional data centers that require you to pay huge upfront enterprise fees to get access to quality servers, most cloud providers operate on a pay-as-you-go model, which means you only pay for what you use, not what you might. With as little as $10, you can spin up a Digital Ocean server right now and compete with SAAS giants with no contracts, no signup fees, or bottlenecks. GoToMeeting, for example, started small, going head-to-head against established giants like Skype and Cisco. But because Zoom smartly leveraged cloud infrastructure, they scaled rapidly without major upfront costs, ultimately outperforming their bigger, more traditional competitors. You can do the same, no matter how small your startup currently is. 6. Tap Into Generous Cloud Provider Programs (Yes, Free Stuff!) Cloud providers like startups. They want you to succeed, grow, and—let’s be honest—become loyal customers down the line. As a result, companies like AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure offer incredibly generous startup packages with free credits, training, mentorship, and resources. AWS Google Cloud Azure AWS Activate alone provides thousands of dollars in credits; Google Cloud has similar programs that grant $300 for first-time users, and Microsoft Azure isn’t far behind. Not taking advantage of these resources is leaving free money on the table especially when starting out. AWS Activate thousands of dollars in credits 7. Focus On Your Core Business, Not Tech Maintenance As a founder, your focus should be on growing your business, attracting customers, and refining your product—not maintaining servers. Cloud solutions handle infrastructure management so you don’t have to. Instead of worrying about backups, updates, security patches, and uptime, your engineers can focus purely on creating value for your users. After all, why waste valuable brainpower on tasks that cloud solutions handle effortlessly? 8. Improved Security Without Hiring a Security Team Security breaches can end startups overnight. However, maintaining robust security systems in-house can be prohibitively expensive and technically challenging. Cloud providers take security seriously, employing entire teams dedicated to securing their infrastructure. By using their services, startups inherently benefit from top-tier security practices. It’s like having a fully staffed security team without actually having to hire one. 9. Faster Market Entry, Faster Innovation Speed is everything in the startup world. The faster you innovate, the faster you can capture market share. Cloud tech enables rapid development cycles and efficient deployments. It dramatically cuts down the time from ideation to launch, meaning your startup can test, refine, and release products faster than ever before. Wrapping It All Up Startup life may never be completely stress-free, but adopting cloud technology can make it significantly smoother, cheaper, and more productive. Got your own cloud stories, tips, or doubts? Drop a comment below, and let's keep the conversation going.

Stories, News & Mentions about SKYPE

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Stories, News & Mentions about SKYPE

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