Personal notice, ain't just my stock and trade. If the job's too tough for you to handle, you got a job for me, George Valentine. Write full details. Standard Oil Company of California, on behalf of independent Chevron gas stations and standard stations throughout the west, invites you to let George do it. The house that Jack built. Another adventure of George Valentine. Dear Mr. Valentine, my name is Lacey Jack. Yeah, Jack is the surname. I always have to explain that. As a boy, I never appreciated that handle Lacey in the front, but I got over it. We changed, don't we, as time goes by, to a lot of things different. Mr. Valentine, for the first time in my life, I'm going to be really different and ask for help. I need you tonight. If you'll meet me at the club casino at 11 o'clock, you and Miss Brooks, I'll explain to you what it is. The man likes to just sit and look, Brooksine. What's the matter? Take you half an hour to size people up? No. We don't even really know who you are. I know you don't. Mother died when I was seven or eight. She was a mess, but can you imagine anybody even on five cents a bucket beer hanging a name like Lacey on a board? Well, friend, it's a nice nightclub, but let's get down. Oh, would you? Excuse me, this is it here. What? A girl, a sinker. What about her, Mr. Jack? What do you think? Nice look. You don't mind a few extra circles under the eyes? It's rattling up and down. Oh, brother, I give up. Come on, Brooksine, let's drink the champagne. What do you think about the way she sings? What's my opinion? You've been around a lot. She's a little inexperienced, I guess. Oh, brother, that doesn't... Did you get us all the way here just to get an opinion on some little blonde you've got your eye on? I want to know, Mr. Valentine, I must know. All right, so I'll tell you. In a word, she'd be a great dressmaker's dummy. All for her, I don't care. Only, when it comes to her singing, excuse me, but I'm afraid I don't get it.  Oh, Lord, she's not as bad as that. Just asking. I can't carry a tool in a bucket myself. I guess you're right. That's not the important part. Her name is Lila. She's my sister. So Daddy has friends. Imagine Daddy with friends. Has he drunk his champagne like a real nice friend, Miss Brooks? Lila always kids a lot. You mustn't mind her.  How'd you like my applause? All people with one arm. Hi, Joe. How's the baby? It was great, kid. You got a great talent. Hello, Joe. How may I see you? I see you. Excuse me. Excuse me. Daddy's got friends, all right. Isn't my brother the most impressive, important man... Take it easy, Lila. Mr. Valentine... That you ever met for the first time in your life. Hey, where have I seen that guy, Joe? That's not important. Daddy, so drink your champagne, stranger, and do not... Wait up. Bring me to Bill, William. Mr. Jack, I said where have I... You don't have to be a friend, Valentine. You've got a job tonight. I'm hiring you. Now we start, and that's good enough. Oh, here. Take it out of this. Oh, no, Mr. Jack. Compliments to the house. I'm sure the owner wouldn't want me to give you a bill. Go on. Go on. I don't want anything free. Now take it. Oh, no, dude. No, sir. Really. Compliments to the house. George, no wonder I keep my job. Well, you coming, Valentine, Miss Brooks? Yes. Yes, we're coming. Don't waive that money at me yet. But at least you've hired my curiosity. We're all going home to our place. Mr. Valentine and Miss Brooks are going to stay with you tonight, Lila, so come on. What? Why? What are you going to do? Please, Lila, do what I say, just tonight. I'm sorry. I'm coming. Whatever you say, Lacey. Good job, Bill. Nice looking apartment. Hiya, Lacey. Hello, kid. You see a good movie? It's the rest of the family, the brother. Miss Brooks and this Mr. Valentine. Hello. I'm very pleased to meet you. His name is Mickey, and he's the best half back in town. Ha-ha. Second string, he means. Gosh, he's the one who could have played ball. He's twice as fast as I am at everything, and he's still in better condition than most of us. I got him fooled, you see. Come on, Valentine, in here. And there's no fool like an old man.  What's your trouble tonight? Keep them apart, Miss Brooks. They're all right. Just kids is all in here. So, uh, you're the daddy around here, huh? The house that Jack built. Skip it. I'm sorry I've stalled so long. I just wanted you to meet them. I'm going out now. I'll be back in an hour. Hey, wait a minute. Hold it, hold it. My job isn't babysitting. There's a gun in the desk drawer if you need it. What? The job really starts when I get back. Lila is worried about me, that's all. I'm running crosstown, see a man in a boarding house on Commercial Street. Hey, wait a minute, Buster. I said I don't... What are the credentials? There they are. I'm a writer, Mr. Valentine. I write about crime. Huh? I'm ready to blow the lid off this town. Oh, wow. Special Deputy DA's office. Mm-hmm. There's a big shot or two the police can't get because they don't have facts. The man I'm going to see has them. We'll go over that when I come back. That man in the nightclub, the one named Joe, who knew you, works for one of those big shots. Yeah, that's where I've seen him before in police line-ups. He works for Duke Averson, right? Well, he's not the one I'm seeing. Joe, I mean. There's nothing on Averson, is there? Maybe we'll get something, who knows. Only now I've got to get my car out of the garage before the night man leaves. Mr. Jack, I'm not gonna... It's a dangerous game I play, Mr. Valentine. I told you I need your help. There's too many wrong people loose. Sure, I know people. And they know me. So I don't want anything to happen to the kids in there. Do you? No. Well, that's the idea. I can get the gun out of the desk later on, I guess. And you don't have to worry about me any because I carry another one myself right here, you see? Yeah, I noticed. You... You play it straight, and I will. Always have all my life. I'll be back in an hour. What a priceless stuff that was. Lila, where's your telephone? It has a long cord. Oh, yeah, thanks. Won't I do instead? Oh, you do fine. Keep it up, I'll like it. Oh, I got a great talent, Joe. George, what's the matter? Everything. Now, Brooks, you get over there and talk to the boy. Keep him busy. Well, who are you gonna call? Lieutenant Riley, go on. Well, you play that pretty well, Lila. Better than you sing. What? Friendly, that's fine. Say, why do they keep you at that club? What's it got to do with your brother Lacey? He got me started. I earned 200 a week. Should I complain? It's not what I meant. Who is your brother that they're so anxious to please? Won't even take his money, but won't talk to either. Makes him all look nervous. You've never heard of him, Mr. Valentine. Nobody has. He's nobody. Hey, listen to this. Has he ever done any writing in his life? What? Ever worked at the DA's office? Special deputy? Jerk. No, not a sucker either. I'm sorry. What are you doing? Who is your brother really, Lila? Why don't you like him? Why are other people afraid of him? Oh, hello. This is George Valentine. Give me Lieutenant Riley. Yes, sure, I'll wait. Well, they won't do any good, Mr. Valentine. They don't know anything. Nobody does. And nobody ever tells anybody... I'll get it, sis.  Lieutenant Riley, speaking of Valentine's... George, why did you hang up on Lieutenant Riley? What about it, Lila? Thought you might like to have a little fun with it. Wow. Hello. Hello. Come in. Your place is familiar, young man. So is yours. I don't recall a name. I only stopped by to ask the three jacks upstairs... Well, I recalled yours. So you live in the same building, Uncle Mar. Well, not really, his uncle. Short for Marmaduke. Hideous, isn't it? Old friend, that's all. Short for Duke. Duke Averson. Well, I'm really impressed, Mr. Averson. This is the real big time.  Still rolling at least. Don't be rude, young man. Well, Lacey isn't here. He went out a second and go to see a man in a roaming house. Oh, is that so? I didn't know. Yeah. I'll bet you did know. You're not surprised. Oh, for heaven's sakes. I'm giving a party, young man. That's all I care about.  Join us or bring them along. I don't care. George, what on earth is going on? Haven't you figured it, Angel? We're on top of a powder keg. And there is the dog that chases the cat, that worries the rat that lives in the house. Lila, does your brother work for Averson? Who's the rat in that poem, Lacey? Is he really one of Duke's thugs? Mr. My brother's all right. He's straight. Take it easy, Mickey. And so is Duke. You just don't know him. He's a nice guy. Oh, sure. It's so nice that people who cross him end up dead. Only the police can ever prove it. You're moving a great circle. Lacey's no rat. He's straight.  Leave him alone. He doesn't know anything. You? Why did Lacey get you in the first place? Where did you come from? We're going to find that out when Riley gets here. What? Hey, let's go. And don't argue. He wants the two of you protected. Maybe he was telling that much of the truth. Here, Brooks, see the guns for you. Now, Riley's probably in a lather because I hung up on him. So get him back. Get him over here. You won't have any more trouble. George, where are you going? Blow the lid off this town. The house that Jack built, it's made out of straw. It's falling down. I don't know why. But I will if I can get down a commercial street in time to stop a murder. We'll return to tonight's adventure of George Valentine in just a moment. When your car acts as if it had taken a sleeping pill, instead of giving all the pep and power it was designed to give, it may be the fault of gummy gasoline. That's because most raw gasolines contain impurities that form power-robbing gum. And the only way those impurities can be got rid of is by refining. That's where Chevron Supreme gasoline comes to the rescue. It's super refined to prevent engine-sticking gum. Remember that next time you buy gasoline. It is carefully balanced to give your car superior performance under every driving condition and wherever you motor in the west.  Why not try it tomorrow? Ask for it where you can depend on careful battery inspection. That's at standard stations and independent Chevron gas stations where they say and mean we take better care of your car. And now back to tonight's adventure of George Valentine. The house that Jack built. Lacey Jack, a strange man that you've never heard of before, but that other people seem to be afraid of. A man who apparently works for Duke Averson and the police have been trying to get for years. But why would such a man hire you? If your name is George Valentine, you know this is one case where you'll probably never have all the answers. But you also know that tonight there is a chance to blow the lid off this town as Lacey himself put it a few minutes ago before he left. And as you hurry downstairs to your own car, you know that if two and two make four, your first job is to stop a murder. Lacey, I thought you'd be halfway across town by now. Night man was off duty. I had to find my car in the garage myself. I thought I told you to stay with the kid. Take it easy, take it easy. A police lieutenant, I know he'll be there any second. Nothing's gonna happen to him. Policemen? Oh, I know, I know. He won't find out any more than I have. You got your family well trained. When I talk about you, they keep their mouth shut. There's nothing on anybody, Valentine. Oh, sure, I know. Particularly on you. You're the member of Averson's gang nobody's ever heard about. You're not popular like the others. All right, all right. But a few people who know seem to want to do you favors.  You say you got to work tonight and your sister gets nervous. All right. So I hired you under false pretenses. Sure, and you're late for an appointment, aren't you? A little guy in a rooming house on Commercial Street, who knows something about the big shots about Averson, maybe. You could never even have... For several years, the enemies of Duke Averson, the guys who know things, who might be squealers, have had a habit of dying. Only nobody ever gets caught. There's never any evidence. Don't try to tell me... I'm just saying I figured you out, Lacey. Now, wonder you don't have any friends. It's high price specialized work, isn't it? But it must be lonesome work, too. Like being a hangman. Only all out by yourself, way on the other side of the black fence, like being a private executioner. Now, you think I'm a killer? Is that it, Mr. Valentine? You should learn to move faster. Now, do you think I stayed alive in the business so long? Hey, where is this? Hey, it's Commercial Street.  You'll feel better. Come on, brother. You know all the tricks, don't you? Lightning Lacey, Billy the Kid. Fast on the draw, fast on the rabbit watch. Advice, that's all. How many men have you killed, Lacey?  Never mind. Keep your hand off that car door. Oh, I know, I know. You're the expert, all right. Lila is a mess on account of what you are. But Mickey, just because you're not the usual type, Brad says you're straight, thinks you're a big hero. I've lost your temper, huh?  I'm not mad. You just talked. 3157 Commercial Street. It'll be easier if you come with me. I don't get any ideas. It's well-prepared. Three other borders, they all work night shift. Landlady's gone. What's this guy's name? I don't know. Whitey's something. It comes from Detroit. You don't even know his name. He's been pointed out. The young kid, darling, is luck. Just a kid.  What's this whitey got on the big boy anyway? You waste your time asking me things. I'm here. Oh, sure, sure, I know. You don't squeal. You're a straight, nice, honest, loyal guy. Well, how do you know for sure this whitey's a squealer? Just a new kid from Detroit. He knows something or saw something. Well, how does that prove that he's the guy... Get back in there, whitey! Nobody's hurt. Faster every time. What is this? I saw the two of you coming up outside. What's going on? I'm from Averson. Yeah, take this. What do you mean? It's a thousand bucks, and I'm a sucker. There's a plane leaves for Canada for AM Direct Connection B on it. Wait a minute. I don't want to go to Canada. I'm not B on it, I said. And when you get there, whatever it is you'll know, forget it. You understand me?  Yeah. All right. What have you said? I'll go. Hmm. Well, Valentine, you see how wrong you can be? All right, so you didn't...  Soft in the head. Sure. The house that Jack built.  That makes a big noble guy out of you. Lights are on in the apartment so the kids are all right. We'll take the back elevator. Oh, yeah, sure. The penthouse express. Where the big guy lives and gives parties. I've always played it, have we? Duke and I were kids together. Oh, you were kids together, huh? Oh, I wouldn't expect you to do any squealing. It's a code, isn't it? For a loyal man whose only vice is he kills people? Who even his own friends are afraid of like a rattlesnake? What happened? Stort yourself, Duke. This guy's been on my tail all evening. Yes, yes, at Valentine. How on earth did he... He picked me up in the night club. He's been glued tight ever since. But what did you do about it? Well, I couldn't rub off that whitey kid from Detroit for you. Could I with him hanging around? You saw that yourself. But Lacey, look here, that whitey... I gave Whitey a thousand bucks and a ticket for Canada. Valentine didn't even tumble. He stayed in the car. So now I can shake him. I bought myself a ticket for the same plane. Oh, it's pretty good. So it happens in Canada instead of Commercial Street. Yes, yes. Good work, Lacey. Whitey's a squealer. We can't afford to let him live. I guess I'll be going then. No, no. You've got time. Stick around. It's a good party. Full time, say. Girls, bring me a pal, Lacey, a drink. What are you doing with that phone? I just want Lieutenant Riley up here. Can't even come in without a warrant. There's nothing to search for or find either. This is the big time, detective. Now look, Lacey, I've stuck around because you're going to give Averson to Riley on a silver plate. You're going to squeal.   Easy now. Maybe that's how you can make some of it up. You and your code.  What did you say? Yeah, that's right.  Well, if I hadn't been with you tonight, it's you who'd be dead by now. Oh, you're crazy. I'll cut it out. We'll get the truth out of Whitey. And I don't mean he's a squealer either. Oh, that's right. Get mad now. Show me the muscles in your head. You know what I'm saying is true. There wasn't a soul in that rooming house. It was a perfect set up both ways. Did you see how surprised the Duke looked when you walked in? Yeah, he expected Whitey, not you. I don't believe it. That's not true. I died for Whitey to knock him down. I bumped his chest. He was packing a gun. You think I've gone soft, afraid to kill, huh? Why don't you face it, Lacey?  Oh, no. No, you're not going to pull that trigger. You know it's true yourself. You're a has-been now, and anybody around you could see it. That Whitey you were supposed to kill, he's Everson's new executioner. Tonight, if I hadn't been there, you'd have walked straight into it. I'll... I'll go on. I know what side of the fence I'm on. For me, it's simple. Now I just had... The elevator. Yeah, that's right. My friend Riley, maybe. The telephone's still off the hook, see?  So long, Lacey. Have a nice sleep. Valentine. So Whitey came up to report. He'd get me, but he... he couldn't have done it in the first place. Not fast enough, did you see? Don't brag yet, Lacey.  Duke and me, kids together. Why did he hire that guy? Why did you kill people? My brother Mickey thinks I'm straight. He doesn't know much, he'd never get over it if he thought I was... a squealer. You mean you'd lose your last friend? Yeah. I saw what Lila thinks of you. You'd be all alone then, wouldn't you? You're scared. I'll talk. I'm a squealer. I want Mickey to know that, Valentine. I'll tell you about Averson. We'll brood the lid off this town. Believe me, he's it. All right, put your hands up. That's it. Valentine, you stand over there. And you dropped that gun, Mr. Averson. Well, of course. Hello, Lieutenant. I just heard the shooting. I came out here to find out what... I know. I know. I heard it from the front elevator. Oh, welcome to the party, Riley. But get a secretary quick.  Hey, come on, Lacey. Come on. Wake up. Snap out of it. He's dying. Can't you see it? What can he say? Lacey and I are old friends, that's all. And if you try to go to court... Oh, Sheriff Averson. That's right. Nothing I can say now. Do any good against him. There's never any proof. Oh, Valentine, besides, I... I'm straight, see. You can't get him. I... I'm too washed up, even the squealer. Only, only... Keep it with me, gun. Get out of the way, you suckers! Look, I'll stab him. Lacey, don't do it! All right, killer. You got him all right. You blew the lid off the town, all right. You killed the Duke. Only now drop it. Uh-oh.  The killer's always too fast for us. He's dead. He was a heel, wasn't he? That's right, McGee. He was a rat like all the rest of him. And the pinch he'd turn on anybody. He was no more straight than a... What he was like? Why don't you admit it?  You just don't know it yet. We'll grow up like I have. Talking football. She ain't eating fast. My wonderful brother I'm so loyal to, sure. That's the trick, Sid. This is the dog that chased the cat that worried the rats that... Come on, McGee. We gotta buy some flowers for the funeral. Oh, George, they're so lost. I know it, Booksy. That was Lacey. But maybe they won't be now. But Lacey wasn't really a squealer. Should I tell McGee that? When Lacey himself practically told me how he wanted it. Said he'd lose his last friend and McGee if the kid thought he went against the code, against loyalty. And the kid'll be all right now. Lacey really wanted to disillusion McGee. He couldn't have been such a bad person. Certainly the way he died. Booksy, he was a heel. He lived that way. He died that way. Let's just say he could see better than anybody else what a mess of a place it really was. How it had to be torn down. That house the jack built. Did you know that today's automobiles need 40% more battery power than the cars of ten years ago? That's because of the added electrical equipment. On most cars a decade ago, the battery took care of the starter and the lights. That was all. It had the finished power for the radio, heater and other accessories as well as for the starter and all the extra lights. To avoid trouble, have your car's battery checked regularly at a standard station or independent chevron gas station. Here they do a speedy job right at the pump block. Make sure that battery water is at the proper level. The terminal clamps are clean and tight and that your battery has a high enough charge. And don't forget, frosty weather will be here all too soon. That's another good reason for having your battery inspected tomorrow.  Make it a date tomorrow at your independent chevron gas station or your standard station where they say and mean, we take better care of your car. Tonight's adventure of George Valentine has been brought to you by Standard Oil Company of California on behalf of independent chevron gas stations and standard stations throughout the West. Robert Bailey has starred as George with Virginia Gregg as Bruxy. Let George do it is written by David Victor and Jackson Gillis and directed by Don Clark. Wally Mayer is Lt. Riley. Larry Dobkin was heard as Jack. Vivi Janis as Lilith. Eddie Firestone as Mickey. Ken Christie as Duke. Dana Hurley as Whitey. And Dick Ryan as the Captain. The music is composed and presented by Eddie Dunstetter. And again next week, same time, same station to let George do it. This is the Mutual Don Lee Broadcasting System.


Just a quick video.  Yesterday I slept like six hours and today I slept about four. Yeah, really bad. You know, the brain is really working and well, you know, I'm really not happy about it. So it's not like, you know, oh, yeah, I don't care about that. It's like, no, I really it's like negative motivation, so I'm gonna make sure not to do that again and I'll use this message to, you know, in case you're like me and you're kind of a very all-over-the-place person that likes to, you know, try new things all the time. Just remind yourself that sleep is the foundation for the brain working properly. So thanks for tuning in and go back to the schedule straight tomorrow. So see you soon.


What do the phrases Star of All Valleys, Little Switzerland of America and Starvation Valley all have in common? Well, they're all names once given to a 50-mile long valley located in Western Wyoming known as Star Valley. The Little Switzerland of America moniker stems from its beautiful farm surrounded by steep rugged mountains. The area used to have many dairy herds and produced its own cheeses, which enhanced its claim to the European title. With its gorgeous high alpine settings and mountain backdrops, this valley can still seem like an excursion to the Alps. Primary sources indicate Star Valley was proclaimed the Star of All Valleys for its natural beauty by Mormon pioneers, who came to the area to settle in the late 1870s. When the pioneers first arrived, they enjoyed some mild winters and were cut off guard by some incredibly harsh weather during which a large number of livestock were lost and hardships suffered. This brings us to the final nickname, Starvation Valley. This less supported theory about the origin of the name was gained during bitter winters in the late 1880s, especially in the March of 1889 when over 40 inches of snow fell in two days. So no matter what you call it, get out and make a trip to Star Valley, Wyoming. From the University of Wyoming Extension, I'm Ashleigh Garls, Exploring the Nature of Wyoming.


Wait a minute kill sleep gets home He's gonna have something to say about that he sure is tonight in the fifth of a new fall and winter series of Wednesday evening broadcasts The craft foods company presents willard waterman as the great gilder sleeve The gilder sleeve is brought to you by the craft foods company makers of park a margarine and all those other wonderful craft quality foods The big reason millions prefer park a margarine to any other spread is that it tastes so good And it tastes so good because it's always so fresh But there are other reasons as well for instance if you live in a state where colored margarine is sold There's the convenience and extra protection of yellow park a's new flavor saver package Yes, each golden quarter pound is individually wrapped in a new flavor saver aluminum foil So easy to handle already colored ready to serve and all the freshness and flavor are sealed in Stailness and odors sealed out elsewhere You get that same superb park a flavor and freshness in the handy color quick bag or regular park a package So find out for yourself. Why so many prefer this superb margarine to any other ask your grocer for PARK a Y park a margarine made by craft get some tomorrow The great gilder sleeve has just been appointed chairman of the summer field community chest drive The first thing he did about the drive was to drive home and tell his little family about it.   Thank you, Bertie. Oh, why did they pick you, Anki? Oh, I well, why did they select you to head the community chest? Well, because I've got the biggest chest in the community What have you planned for the campaign the first thing I'm in charge of is the kids football game Saturday afternoon We've got the two best junior teams in the city. Oh, that's a wonderful idea Yeah, we expect to make a lot of money for the community chest. Is little Leroy gonna play? Leroy with those feet? Poor Anki for years. He's hoped Leroy would be a football player. Yes, but that's hoping too much Leroy will never be an athlete. He can't run 10 yards without tripping over his own shoe strings Now Anki Leroy tries. By the way, where is the boy? He's across the street with Mr. Bullard's pretty little knee. Hey Brenda Uh-huh. You can see him here from the window sitting on Mr. Bullard's steps. Aren't they cute? Cute.   He should be out practicing football. When she flutters them big people that him All he does is giggle. Yeah, I know Bertie. Yes They was over here this afternoon eating doughnuts and she was furthering them people that him through the holes. He was All Leroy did was giggle now. They're sitting over there and all his doing is giggling. Yeah, I'm aware of that Bertie Mr. Gilsey, you know all Leroy does when he gets with that little girl? He has Bertie. That's right.  If anybody told me I'd be sitting by anybody as important as you are. I wasn't eavesdropping. I Just came over to tell Leroy it's time for dinner. Mr. Gil Deslee, isn't Leroy dreaming? But isn't the hero part going a little too far? Watch, Mr. Gil Deslee. I've been in a swoon since he told me he's playing in the game tomorrow. Well, fine. I'll come along Leroy. You're playing in the game tomorrow? You didn't tell me my boy. Gosh, the coach just told me this afternoon. I'm playing in quarterback. Quarterback? Yeah, brains. Well, just the boy to run the team.  Yeah. Leroy. Yeah? You weren't the only one out for quarterback, were you? Yes, no. I beat our Clyde Cooper. I had the brains. And the brawn. Well, let's be sure about the brawn. Bertie, throw on another steak. We've got a football player in the family. You like some more potatoes and gravy, Leroy? Sure. Here's the raisin bread again, my boy. Eat a lot of it. Raisins have iron. That's what a football player needs. There's one more piece of steak. Who wants it? You make room on your plate, Leroy. Bertie, get him another glass of milk, please. Gosh, stop fussing over me. I can't see over my plate now. But you surprised us so. Didn't you, Anki? Well, I knew Leroy had it in him all the time. Yes, sir. We just didn't know where it was hid.  I can see the stands now, crowded, and a dollar ahead for the community chest. And little Leroy runs out in the field. Yeah. And Brenda waving to him from the sideline. Now, listen, Leroy, if you win the toss, be sure to receive the kickoff. Possession of the ball is very important. The other team will never get their hands on it. I'll rattle dazzle them to death. Yeah, that a boy. I can't wait to tell PB and the Jolly Boys. By the way, Leroy, what formation are you using? The T or the single wing back? I'm just using Leroy back. All right. Then everybody else goes out for a pass. Wait, I'll show you with a hard roll. And not at the table, Leroy. Anki, you and Bertie run out for a pass. Leroy, don't you throw that hard roll at me. Oh, you're just a decoy. Get ready, Anki. All right, my boy. I'm right in the gravy. Box all over me. Leroy, now look what you've done.  Well, I guess I better go to my room, huh? Of course not, my boy. It was all my fault. It was? I should have scooped it up before it hit the gravy.  Holy cow. When you're an athlete, you can get by with this. Can I do for you this morning? PB, you can give me a dollar. Okay. If it's a community chess football game tomorrow. Oh, you don't say anything. After you give me the dollar, I'll give you a red feather. Just like the one I have in my hat. Oh, that explains your feather. I thought you'd been where the wild goose went. Hey, what's this, Bibi? You know the song, my heart goes where the wild goose goes. Bibi, ask Bibi. Where the wild goose goes. All right, Bibi. Wild goose running loose with his best. You're wondering fool or a heart at will. All right, Bibi, stop. I will. I'm out of breath. Bibi, you're too chipper this morning. What happened? Nothing happened. Mrs. Bibi left this morning to spend a week with her mother, but nothing happened. Sure, sure. Well, I'm happy today, too, Bibi. Now, I'll tell you why you shouldn't miss the game. Well, here's another customer. That's no customer. That's Judge Hooker. Good morning, gentlemen. Hello, Judge. You're just the man I want to see. Oh, why the feather in your hat, Gilda? As the water commissioner been dressing poultry. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Yeah, you know very well why it's there. Yes, I do. Congratulations on being chairman of the drive, Gilda. Thanks.  You're heading a very worthy cause. As the slogan goes, everybody benefits, everybody gives. Oh, that's true. But Judge, just give me... Red feather services provide the health, welfare, and recreational facilities the community needs to make it a better place in which to live. Oh, doing a lot of talking to get out of paying the dollar. What's that, P.B.? Judge, I'm selling tickets to the community chess football game tomorrow. One dollar. Well, I've made my pledge, but I'll take a ticket. Thank you, P.B. I made my pledge also, but I'll take two tickets. I can take Miss Matterhorn in my new car. Great. This is a game I don't want anybody to miss. Because here's the big news, fellas. Big news? Yeah, the most important thing that ever happened. Little Leroy is going to play in that game. He is? We'll have good for him. Just imagine. Leroy on the gridiron. Yeah? He's playing quarterback. Well, we'll all have to go out and cheer for Leroy. Say, I have an idea. Instead of just cheering, let's take our Jolly Boys band out to support Leroy's team. You call that support? It's a good idea, Horace. As chairman of the drive and president of the Jolly Boys, with the boys starring on the team, I call a special meeting for this evening for band friends. I'll be there. Anything for Leroy? Quite a boy. Baby, I thought you had trouble getting out on weeknight. No, no, I wouldn't say that. I'm as free as the wild goose. My heart goes... All right. All right, baby. See you tonight. Where's Leroy? I think he's upstairs. Oh, give this to Bertie. That big package for Bertie? No, Bertie is for Leroy. Oh, a football, Anki? Nope. More steak. Yes. I think I'll go up and have a little skull practice with a quarterback, Marjorie. You just can't wait for tomorrow, can you, Anki? I can't wait for the next two years, either. Someday Marjorie will be going to college football games to watch Leroy's Snake Hips Forester.  You bet. I'm proud of you, too, my dear. But, of course, you're not a football player. See you later, Marjorie. Don't hear anything up here. I guess the little fella's figuring out play. Leroy? May I come in, my boy? I'm a scout for the Green Bay Packers. Ah, what are you doing? Growing up bad medicine for the opposition? No, just sitting.  Good. By the way, I bought home some more steak for you, didn't I? You and Bronco can eat it, Anki. All right. I'm not hungry. Ah, I guess you're excited about the game. Better eat, though. You've got to be strong to make those touchdowns. I'm not going to make any touchdowns. You're not? Leroy? I'm not going to play. Teasing your old uncle, aren't you, Leroy? No, I'm not going to play. Clyde Cooper's going to be quartered back. Clyde? Leroy, yesterday you had the job. Well... What happened? Well, gosh, I got a little cold, I think. Leroy, you don't have a cold. You've never been healthier. What? I sprained my ankle. Your ankle? Which one? Both of them. Oh. Leroy, you're making up excuses. You have to play tomorrow. I bragged to all the Jolly Boys.  And I'm chairman of the community chest in charge of the game. What are people going to say? Sorry, honk. But I told you why I can't play. Those weren't very good excuses. They weren't, huh? No. Now tell me why you aren't going to play. Well, look at the other team, honk. Gosh, they're pretty big guys. So that's it. Leroy. Yeah?  And what about Clyde? He isn't as big as you, is he? No, but... All right, my boy. 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Parquet margarine made by craft. Get some tomorrow. The great gilded sleeve heard that his nephew Leroy was going to play quarterback in the community chess football game. He was the happiest man in summer period. But then when Leroy suddenly changed his mind and decided not to play, the great man's spirits crumbled. Now it's evening, the water commissioner is heading for the meeting at the Jolly Boys Club. To salute Leroy to my when he runs on the field. How will I explain it to him? I can't tell him Leroy backed out. Well, I can just tell him he decided not to be an athlete. He's going to be a scholar. Believe that. Come on in. Hello, Floyd. Hi, fellows. Come on, Gildy. We're all warmed up. Here's your trombone. Just a minute, fellows. Before we waste our time... Hey, since the chief ain't here, why don't I just concentrate on the drums tonight? But Floyd, what about the piano? Since I ain't dragging no piano out to the field tomorrow. Fellows, perhaps we shouldn't take any of the instruments. Well, I'm taking my flute. What's the matter, Commis? Don't you think you're professional enough? I carry a union card. Barber's Union. Gildy, why shouldn't we take our instruments? Well, you don't have to do this for Leroy. We want to do it, Commis. Well, we're happy to do it. We're proud of the kid. And you must be too, Commis. Yes. Gentlemen, shall we show our old friend what we've got for little Leroy? Of course, Judge. Well, we were going to save it and present it official after the game, you know. But what the heck? Hold it out, Peeve. Yeah. Look at this, Mr. Gildy's thing. Oh, a loving cup. With a football player. Goldfield, that's what makes it yellow. I know, Peeve. Fellows, you shouldn't have done it. Believe me. Read the engraving, Gildy. Well, let me see. Ah, the commission's choking up. Let me read it. To Leroy Forester for quarterback in the community chess football game. Nice, Floyd. We had said something about you being chess chairman, but the engraving was getting pretty expensive. Well, gentlemen, let's practice our number for Leroy. What can I say to them? Come on, Commis, we picked on Wisconsin because that's the dairy state and Leroy's the big cheese. I'm ready with my flute. My violin's rising up. You want to test the trombone, Commis? I can't even get a lip. You never played better. Here we go, gang. Just pretend Leroy's taking the field. One, two. Sounded like Leroy ran through all the instruments. I suggest that the drum and trombone take the opening passage, then Peeve and I will come in with violin and flute. Fellows, let's call the whole thing off. We'll get better. Pick up where we left off. Where'd we leave off? One, two. Well, now that wouldn't say that. What, you mean the Jolly Boys bought Leroy a trophy? Yeah, an engraved loving cup. Gold-filled. After that, how could I tell them Leroy had backed out? Oh, poor Anki.  Well, I'm through talking to the boy. He wants to let that skinny little Clyde Cooper take his place at quarterback. That's up to him. Bronco and I tried to talk to him, but he just shrugged and walked away. Oh? Where'd he go? I know where he went. What's this, Bernie?  He did?  Oh, for what's he doing up in his tree house? He's just sitting. He won't talk to nobody.  Now, Bernie, don't feel sorry for Leroy. I'm not. He brought this on himself. I don't care whether he plays or not. He ain't even paying no attention to little Brenda. Brenda, where's she? She just stand across the street flooding in my eyes, but he's just sitting up in his tree house.  Well, I guess Brenda'll be as disappointed in Leroy as the rest of us. Say, there's an idea. If there's anybody who can make a man play ball, it's a woman. Why didn't I think of this before? Up in his tree house, Brenda. You have to get him to play in that game this afternoon. Oh, I'll just die if he doesn't play. After all, what's there to live for? I guess you better call him. The Commiss now. Well, hello, Mr. Gilligan. Hello, fellas. You're late. Not as late as I'd like to be. Congratulations, Mr. Chairman. Huge crowd. You should be very happy. Yeah, very happy. Hey, Commiss, I checked the starting line up and Leroy's name ain't there. It isn't. Well, Floyd. Well, if Leroy doesn't appear, I refuse to play. Me too. It's hard to hear violin in the stadium anyway. Hey, he thinks he's starting games with him. Gilligan, what happened? Well, excuse me, fellas. I think somebody's waving from my attention down below. I'm Chairman, you know. I don't see anybody waving. See you later, fellas. Well, get Leroy in the game. We blew two bucks a piece on that cup. Sorry, Floyd. I had to get away from the Jolly Boys. Somehow I can't believe little Leroy's afraid to play. Never been afraid of anything before. He's always wanted to play football. I think I'll sit down here and hide. Pardon me. Is this seat taken? Well, no, no, sit down. You're just in time for the kickoff. Yeah, I know. You... Say, aren't you Mr. Giller-Sleeve, Chairman of the Community Chest Drive? Yeah, that's me. Oh, great outfit, the Community Chest. Yeah? You want somebody to tell people what the chest does. Ask me, I'll tell them. Well, good. See that boy running out on the field, number 22? That's my son. Oh? Two years ago, he couldn't walk. Look at him now. Community Chest did that. He looks fine. Playing in this game is the biggest moment in my boy's life. This is his chance to show everybody that he's well again, that he's come back. Yeah, that's wonderful. I wish I had a boy like that. Brave little fella. He almost didn't get to play today. Well, that would have been terrible. The coach told me about it. Another boy was ahead of him, and it looked like Clyde wasn't going to get in the game. Clyde? Then the other boy found out how important it was to Clyde to play today, so he stepped out to give Clyde the chance. The boy's name was Leroy Forrester. Oh, he did a great thing. Leroy? You know him? Yeah, I know him. Little Leroy. Hey, there's the kickoff. Clyde's taking the ball, Gilda-Sleeve. He is? Come on, Clyde! The great Gilda-Sleeve will be right back. When you buy margarine, get the margarine that tastes so good because it's fresh, really fresh, always fresh. Get parquet margarine, made by Kraft. In states where the law permits, get yellow parquet in its new aluminum foil flavor saver wrap. Elsewhere, get parquet in the handy color quick bag or regular package. In any state, in any package, it's the margarine that tastes so good because it's always fresh. Get parquet margarine, parquet margarine, made by Kraft. Lady, watch that umbrella. Leroy. The fine game, my boy. We took in $2,300 for the community test. It was a big success. Yeah.  Me? I wasn't even in the game. Clyde. Here's Leroy. Oh, Gilda. We've been talking to Clyde Cooper's father. Yeah, if you ask me, Leroy deserves more than our loving cup. You ought to have a medal. I agree, Floyd. The hero of a football game should always be carried from the stadium on somebody's shoulders. I'm going to carry Leroy on mine. The heck you are. I'm carrying Leroy on my shoulders. No, just a minute, fellas. Just a minute. This is up to Leroy. Whose shoulders do you want to ride on, my boy? Yours, Aunt. Bless that boy. One side, fellas. We're coming through. Sleeve is played by Willard Waterman. The show is written by Paul West, John Elliott and Andy White with music by Robert Armbrister. Included in the cast are Walter Tetley, Mary Lee Robb, Lillian Randolph, Arthur Q. Bryan, Barbara Whiting, Earl Ross and Richard Legrand. This is John Easton saying good night for the Craft Foods Company, makers of the famous line of craft quality food products. Be sure to listen in next Wednesday and every Wednesday for the further adventures of The Great Gilder Sleeve. Here's a quick, pleasant way to make leftovers more delicious. Just add a little craft-prepared mustard and you'll add a lot of tang. Hidden flavors in boiled ham, sausage, most any meat pop right out. Every bite tastes better. Now you can get two kinds of craft mustard. Salad mustard delicately spiced for those who prefer a milder flavor and craft mustard with snappy horseradish added. Have both kinds in your pantry. Then with every meat dish hot or cold, just add a little mustard and you'll add a lot of tang. Craft prepared mustard. For a half hour of spine-tingling excitement, listen next Sunday afternoon to the Falcon over this station. Check your newspaper for time of broadcast and tune in when the Falcon solves the case of the unnecessary knife. Next, brought your marks. Next, brought your marks.


All right So let's get started welcome My name is Aaron on the co Founder of bit genics a technical startup If you've been to any of my previous talks or have seen some of them align This is not going to be like any of them This is a this is a an impromptu talk The rash asked me to do But this is going to be a whole bunch of stories around a piece of work that I did I think it was sort of 2012 And it's it's basically some of the sort of biggest career highs and Definitely some of the sort of career lows around a product that I build I helped build in a in a big telco and All of the amazing things that we've done And how ultimately we completely failed At delivering anything of value And and there's probably some sort of lessons in there to learn So to start things off I Have bought a very technical background and a very edgel background That was one of the reasons why I was asked by by a big telco to join What we call that what they call their strategic strategic innovation team and We were working on it was a telco and Basically our job the small team that we have we had a team of about sort of But when we started there was about six seven people grew to about sort of ten But our team our job was to reimagine the way media is consumed Period that was it Reimagine how media is going to be consumed and we were talking about TV but also about movies about series about video on demand and Then sort of that sort of took a life on the zone and and we built An insanely amazing product With that small group of people so Having bought that technical background lean startup had just come out a couple months before And I was sort of really excited to start sort of putting these These practices into sort of practice Do do rean startup for late for real in a in a massive Massive telco with millions of customers So this was extremely exciting Stuff for me. The other thing is I was going to be responsible for the sort of the all of the Technical aspects of of this amazing new thing that was basically going to be built from from scratch so Extremely excited when I got started on this and together the the team that we had was an interesting one we had the the guy who rend strategic innovation was a Someone who had years and years of telco experience Absolutely years and telco experience knew the domain very well We had a project manager who had been in the in the business for a long time that I knew very well very capable very Personal project manager, I there's there's very few good project managers in my book He's definitely one of those people Allows you to get to get some motivates teams to actually get stuff done But then sort of takes away a lot of that sort of bureaucracy really good p.m. and Some other people were product managers product designers UX researchers That were that were some of the best I've worked with So the first thing that we did when we had a thorny problem like Reimagined the way media is consumed Was user interviews We've been out to stores we met with customers our current customers and we talked not about what they would want That's not how we can start like don't ask your customers what they want But we started asking questions around sort of how they can currently consume media How when did they watch TV when did they buy? Video on demand did they have any subscriptions to sort of Netflix and sort of other? services out there What did they download sort of net sort of so? Don't don't sort of start out if you're starting this out with these sort of unknown massively unknown problem The trick wasn't to sort of start out asking what people want Because people never know what they want People people the only thing people can tell you Is that they don't they don't want that after you showed them something?  You start to see patterns This and that sort of how does that work? and That's where we sort of identified potential pain points Identified potential pain points And started forming some of these hypothesis around that And then we then we went back and talked to more people Talked to more people Does that's just sort of look familiar to you? One of the one of the things that's too doubtful for us was there's so much stuff to watch Like what am I what am I gonna watch? Turns out people make them home from work whether the kids are in bed and I have an hour People people ended up watching some shitty stuff Whatever was on right now because they couldn't be bothered trying to figure out what to watch so they watch whatever Like the first thing that wasn't sort of terrible was the thing that ended up watching So we didn't ask people what their problem was we observed how they were doing this asked what they were doing And then we identified a particular pain point and that resonated a lot with our customers But yeah, they they never really watched anything really really good. I just watched whatever whatever was on on the TV So that got us to that first stage sort of finding finding that problem And we're they were more but that was sort of the big problem that we sort of latched on to The next and then sort of we took that up to that next level, right? So if If if this is a problem, what are some of the solutions to that? What's the solution to this particular problem where we and we always end up watching something something crappy Because we can't be bothered looking up something and and that's when we had a lot of brainstorming and sort of talking and sort of within our group to sort of have a So have that have that sort of conversations around how are we going to fix that? What are what are we what do we think we can do? Yeah, and one of the bigger bigger things that we sort of realized is On wasn't wasn't a feature. I wasn't we're gonna build this thing But again, it was this really big high level But if we need to split We need to split the the looking up and Defining out about things and the actual watching By the way, if there's any questions pop up, right? This is about as free formats is gonna get is that a question because you're standing right in front of a lamp This was like I think was 2012. I had to go back, but it was it was sort of late 2012 Well late 2011 like early 2012. I think this was yeah a couple years ago So yeah, that's sort of where we were at right? It's the we we we're still not talking features We're still talking sort of very high level. What can we do? So so the first thing we realized is the behavior that we want to see that the change in behavior that we wanted to see Was that people that we were going to split those two things we're going to split out to the Looking up the knowing about things to watch and the so we need to make it really easy for people to sort of Save and keep track of things are interested in you would you would be at work and someone would say have you have you seen that? That new Syria that was just released and like no no, I haven't heard of it And you could easily go I'll I'll sort of save this and if a new episode would come around it would automatically be added We can do a bunch of recommendations. So so without going into very highly very very high level features This is the behavior change you wanted to see and then only then did we start to think about features Only then did we start to think about well what what features? With this thing need to have So first we spend a whole lot of time talking about the different Features that the different problems finding out about the problems once we found out about the problem. It was very much Confirming that problem after that that sort of that high level What's the behavior you want to see and only then did we get into that? So more feature-based Feature-based thinking And the first thing to do there after we after we had done all of that was around Prototyping guys he's trying to get your attention So we were after we that when we got the features right we were making paper prototypes Paper prototypes One of that sort of UX researchers were doing quick sort of prototypes on paper show them to customers This is what the screen would look like What what would a be if what would you do instead of? And if they sort of pressed a button and pressing a button was sort of pushing on the paper, right? We would show them the new Piece of paper. Well, this is what the next screen would look like very very low fidelity Because they were just Pieces of a for wheat we lines and scribbles on them But they were enough to get some really good feedback From those sort of customers It's got some feedback the flow was confusing and it didn't make any sense and we could reduce steps and Sort of changed the way things were called and sort of labeled so With that really low fidelity Literally minutes and this was sort of we were talking minutes worth of work like not just of hours or days a lot of these mock-ups were done in Minutes worth of work and That's sort of and we progressed in that fashion So after that Paper prototype we started doing HTML mock-ups So people could actually sort of click through it Still didn't do anything still very much And this was like a good question like we're talking sort of certainly tools-wise this was sort of back in 2012 To do that sort of stuff now There's there's a whole series of tools up there that makes this very easy for you The one I've seen you sins is a tool called pop But there's many more of it where you can sort of you can very quickly Take photos of a wireframe of something you drew and then say if they click on that They sort of click on this particular area off the screen go to that That one right now and so there's there's a lot of tools that will make this easier for you that we didn't back that We didn't have back then But but yeah get get that certainly if you're building these very user-centric applications go out with the lowest fidelity thing And start having conversations with your with your potential customers Fine potential customers have it to have a chat walk through what you what you're suggesting So you went from paper prototypes HTML prototypes And this is where things got interesting We had great feedback along the way People absolutely loved loved the product. They love the things that we were doing with it and Everyone was very enthusiastic about And that's where we made a relatively big investment Just remember right now. We're talking so the investment of days and then we spend a couple of weeks building a prototype and This was a set-up box that had to fit under people's TV for Literally like ten tens of tens of dollars, but we sort of took off the shelf components. We sort of started out with the Mac mini And we had some some a bunch of software and we cobbled together a working prototype like wasn't wasn't a toy It wasn't anymore that the This is sort of if you click here you get another static page, but this was actually working stuff Yeah, it wasn't ready to go into production right because it was the hardware was too expensive The the server would collapse if we if sort of more than ten people would use the thing at the same time So it definitely wasn't production ready, but it gave us again It's tremendous amount of feedback because now we could observe people using the system Using our product has anyone ever been in in a user Session where you have seen people use your stuff Like it is the most humiliating thing you can do Who's talking about it? I think it was suggest to talk about it on Monday I'm not here, but but your your list really sort of shouting at your users like it hopefully inside your head There submit buttons right there Red pick it pick it or or or yeah, like you'd ask people to go Could she go into the configuration? And change this setting like ask them to accomplish things Don't tell them what to do go so we would go Watch watch this particular movie Change this setting and and people would especially that one. I remember that As it was yesterday, so I'm sitting there with it with a user they go so Change this they change this particular setting And they spent two minutes looking at the screen And I'm like that two minutes is a long time right if you're if you're observing people for two minutes. That's an eternity and And you ask them to sort of vocalize sort of what they what what they're thinking and My god, I can't find where would the where would the settings be?  There's a gear I could write there Can find it so one of the most humbling and humiliating things at the same time is observing actual users using your Beautifully designed carfully crafted stuff and and just failing miserably out And again, that's that's extremely valuable feedback Extremely valuable feedback To use because apparently a gear icon only works for Mac people Which is what all all of us sort of designers and IT people were using and didn't work for People that were using windows because that wasn't the icon for settings And it's that those little things that make a tremendous difference in how people perceive the quality of your product tiny tiny things But even more fun When we have this working prototype well that we could now observe people using it in real time We could get this into sort of living rooms Install it in a couple living rooms and sort of see what people would do with it and get some actual data And there's some hilarious stuff that came out of that Because the other thing is we could now test new ideas We could test new ideas So one of these ideas one of the execs When we need We had on that with an iPhone app But the execs went we need To be able to control the TV not with a remote, but with your phone your smartphone and we went Doesn't sound like a great idea and and but we went Well, let's give it a shot We've got this prototype we can add stuff to it. We can remove stuff to it So we spend a couple days and we built The remote but we had a problem one of the one of the problems was is we if you had multiple screens in the house You you couldn't figure out which TV you were controlling So what we did is we built a before you got into remote control What we did is we showed pictures of What was on the different screens in your house and then you could select the right TV to then control And so we built that functionality And we released that and we we to the people that were using it and to our user focus groups and No one liked it No one liked it except for one demographic One demographic loved this particular feature of using the remote control but Here's the interesting thing. They never got past the selection screen. So they were using the remote but not actually the remote control So you started talking to these people. I'm like, what's going on? What this new feature? What do you think of it? I'm like, it's amazing. It's fantastic It's fantastic These were the people that had teenage kids and They could now on their phone see what they were watching in their room So he very very quick quickly killed the remote control Because that was useless. No one wanted the remote control. That was that was pointless What people but what we did was had a parental parental control You can you can see what the different screens in the house are showing and And through through many of those iterations We we build literally an amazing product, right? It's it's five years on And there's still nothing really on the market That sort of does what we were trying to do like able to be the new able to be is great but even then I certainly certainly think that We had some amazing things that sort of aren't aren't properly done in there yet Certainly to the sort of the breath of media that you could sort of have So it's an amazing product Everyone loved it everyone loved it the customers loved it the Sort of employees of the company loved it the board loved it and And so everyone thought this was an amazing things thing and we should build it But as you can sort of guess with this being a post-mortem There's there's none of these things None of them were ever manufactured none of them were ever built Certainly none were ever sold and this is sort of where another whole bunch of learnings came from because The biggest mistake That we that we made Was that we at no point in time? Had a go-to market strategy It wasn't our job and to be to be sort of be very defensive for a bit It was not a job our job was just to Figure out what the product should look like not to actually build And that's what I've seen a lot of these sort of labs Like banks are they're very popular now They have sort of labs type situations where we try to figure out what to build And we weren't exactly that situation Our job was to figure out what to build and then we would hand it over to it And they would do the actual building of the thing and That model does not work at all Has absolutely no chance of success For a bunch of reasons The first one is that Real IT The IT people over there have very very different KPIs These were the people that had to supply TV to millions of customers To do the kind of stuff that we were suggesting would be like enormously disruptive To what they were doing So they didn't want any change They didn't they don't want any change because that would only increase the risk of Of their service is going down and that would be Hard the other thing is this was a massive piece of work So even though we had like board level Approval for this The other thing is they had millions of requests coming in They had feature enhancement for their current stuff They had feature enhancement for their next bits and then they had this really vague built this massively different thing And all of them were high priority of course all of them had to be done yesterday So yeah, what we they built quite rightly so they built the things that were predictable and understandable Not the things that were actually disruptive So that was one of the sort of the a major problem that we encountered very relatively early That we're trying to overcome Then the next bit Was that even if we could have overcome that The financials didn't add up our financials didn't end up In that the proposal that we were having would require a whole bunch of capital investment The boxes that we would send out to our car we have to have to sort of recall all of the set of boxes and send them new expensive ones Now our research more than more than suggested that people would be able would want to pay for this People would be more than happy to pay for a new box but The way the financial structure was though the the finances were structured made it almost impossible for the company to make capital a big capital investments Even if they could recoup that money but and and and sort of lastly that that There's this sort of big brand reputation that people were afraid of It's we're we're a big serious sort of telco where the biggest in In the country so what we are gonna we can't risk Having an outage Just can't risk it we can't risk Delivering something that people would not want and this is where where a lot of that sort of what I mentioned is we are our go-to-market We had no Go-to-market strategy a because we weren't asked to give one But even if even if we did it would have been very very hard I talk a lot about how Organizations can't make small decisions big organizations can't make small decisions So for them it was almost impossible to do this in the small They couldn't go well. We'll just sort of build 100 of these things or a thousand of these things and then we'll we'll Give them out sell them Because that would a be Brent weird for their brand because some people get some people don't and It will be too expensive They would be too expensive And that's sort of where where things started falling apart very very quickly and So the most important thing we tried to do there and even felt there is Get so get we the thing we're trying to do sort of get around this is is launch in wall of their one of their smaller brands Because they had they had numerous brands They have their big big important one and they had that a couple of smaller ones And unfortunately that that almost succeeded that that filled as well So looking back To that particular project that particular gig We did some of the some of some things extremely well Like extremely well the product that we built was of immense quality people were interested and we knew people were willing to pay for it Well, we didn't we very very certain people were willing to pay a massive premium on it But We had no go-to-market strategy And I think that's most important if you're if you're in these sort of big Big organizations in these market hubs and I've seen this over and over with other other clients and people I know who are in these hubs is that Just figuring out to build is only a tiny part of the problem There's no chance of you succeeding if you do not have a strategy to go to market One of the first things we should have done and we didn't is Figure out how we are going to take this to the market Where are we going to do that? And the other thing is that handover Just can't work. You can't just hand over a massively new product to IT for them to rebuild whatever they're doing right now So if you're in these situations You have to be able to build out to your capability to do this for real and Have a market to go to market strategy that allows you to test in the market You have to figure out you have to figure out what the world of their financials that are associated with can we actually afford this? The other thing you need to be careful is how are we going to mitigate brand reputation? damage, how are we going to mitigate the risk to Brand damage and how are we going to Do that who's going to build it? How are we going to do it? IT's not going to build it Your main brand is probably not going to risk it So yeah, find find a small brand start working with them secure enough funding to Go out to your market And and continue testing there. Yeah Any questions we've got plenty of time I think Yeah, good ten minutes of questions left Are there any any questions around sort of how how we did some of the the user research or Some of the problems we were having With our go-to-market. Ah, so the question was how are we Protecting our ID from our competitors. We weren't the thing is ideas are useless ideas are pointless As as we figured out, right? We had the idea. We had all the knowledge about the idea and we still couldn't execute Ideas are cheap I Can there's a there's a really cool example that drove this home to me Where on a conference was on a conference and I can't remember who it was But it was it was a massively sort of big important investor, right? Someone who invests in In in sort of tens of companies make made millions In the process and to sort of reiterate that point he sort of had of an envelope he held up an envelope And he goes here's a billion dollar idea Yeah, if you if you do this You can you can build a billion dollar Company with it And he was trying to sell it for twenty thousand dollars Would you? Would you have bought a billion dollar ID for twenty thousand dollars? How much do you think he sold it for in the end? twenty bucks So the for twenty bucks Because someone wanted to Was fun. I'll just look that was almost curious. Well, that he was like we all know he didn't execute on the idea So having having these ideas It's great, but it's useless and if you don't have the the capacity to back that up and actually do something with it We hear a lot about these startups and they're in stealth mode and there's What was it? there was a Company Transmetta The company of the company that Linux torvils Alina's torvils the creator of Linux Sort of was working with and they were they were building a new revolutionary chip and they were in stealth mode for years Everyone knew he was working on something exciting and Because this was this was limits and then years later millions and millions and millions of dollars later they Launched massive launch party and absolutely nothing happened Nothing No one was even remotely interested in this stuff So ideas are cheap Don't worry about protecting your ideas from everyone else Sure, there's a little leak legal made a sign NDAs with these people, but really How are we ever going to enforce any of that stuff you weren't If someone on the leaks wants to leak this to their to a competitor they are and you're never gonna find out So we make them sign NDAs Because that was a legal apartment did we could have but even we didn't Right we talked about it and here's the funny thing we because the funny thing was After after that thing was camped all all people that worked on that thing left the company Basically one of the most demoralizing things I've done in my career Spent a year and a half building something absolutely amazing and then just go someone's going yeah So we all left I was an external consultant even the even the employees all quit And there was talk of shall we shall we shall we just take this to market we had all the knowledge and even we went It's a bit risky do we really want to do we really want to do that? So having all that information is extremely valuable if you're in if your intent is to go to market with it, but We we could and actually there's there's one guy that actually tried to sell it There was there was a bit of interest, but even that didn't go anywhere, so it's completely invaluable That information, but it's not it's not easy to sell or or monetize Yep, so if I understand you correctly It's sort of even if you've done all these prototype things unless you actually go to market You don't know for sure what's gonna happen. Is that is that sort of your question? Yeah, and that's exactly true That's exactly true Does anyone remember new coke in the sort of early 90s? Steve does good new coke was a So here's what I'm like Pepsi came along And and sort of coke's market share coca-cola's market share started to sort of erode Not drop dramatically, but it's sort of it was sort of constantly eroding and they figured we need to do something So they spent an inordinate amount of money on user research to to perfect their their coca-cola recipe Millions and millions of dollars on on the user research and Then they spent like tens of millions I'm sure on marketing and campaigns and and everything there's a new like this was the first time they were going to change the tried and tested Sort of coke recipe massive worldwide launch and everybody hated because it turns out it was just too sweet Which is really nice if you take one sip in a user Control setting where you go like can you which of these six do you like when you got a tip sip from there? No sip from there and and that one is the best one because but if you had to drink a can of the stuff Oh No So until you actually go to markets, you don't know anything for sure So there's there's definitely a lot of that But that doesn't mean you can't get any information from your user research All right, you can get very valid information from it But yeah, you don't know for sure until you actually go it's on the shelves or whatever the equivalent is for your product And and people can actually spend their hard earned cash on it They can say they want to buy this stuff Until you actually say well, that's fine. Can I can I please have your credit card? That's where where it's it's The the rubber meets the road that's where it gets gets interesting someone said MVP So there there is there so how much time do I have six minutes let's do a quick a six-minute MVP rent The first thing I want to get out of people's mind is there's no such thing as the MVP The MVP is What I always call the crappiest thing we can get away with Is that right? Does that bring a bell with people? Yeah Don't do what we what MVPs are are our ways that we can learn things that we can experiment with So what we had was like we had 2030 MVPs. Yeah, our first paper prototype Was an MVP? Now here's here's a quick mole. I want to draw Who here knows of the Kano model? So you know about the Kano model? There's a couple of PSTs there to do that's good to know So So Kano was a Japanese researcher And What he was trying to do he was trying to group Product features in different categories And what he did he plotted them on an on an axis on the set of a quadrant where The left here is we've got none of those Yeah, we've got none of this feature and Here is if we have all of them everything This is how sort of unhappy your users are and this is how happy your users are And what he found out is that there's three types of categories the first one he called basic needs and Basic needs if we don't have basic needs I'm very unhappy if I don't have basic needs. I'm very unhappy if I have the best basic needs.  That's good enough. It's fine The next one is performance needs About performance features and what they are is the more of these I have the happier I am The more I've got none of them. I'm unhappy if I've got lots of them. I'm very happy horsepower More horsepower in my car the happier. I am I've got none. I'm good. I've got lots of horsepower. I'm happy and the other one is what we Call the lighters Now what the lighters are is are things that people don't know they want Like if I've got none of them. I'm not unhappy item So for example years ago, that would have been cruise control on a car Especially so North America or Australia where I'm from where we drive lots of big distances and can actually move Like cruise control is this sort of but I didn't didn't know I wanted it But when someone said would you like like we've got cruise control and we don't know what this is amazing But there you can also see the other thing Is these the lighters quickly become basic needs or performance? Arturia, right? Would I buy a car without cruise control these days? No, I wouldn't no one no one ships a car like cruise control And it works. It's just part of those sort of basic needs So now we have auto park the other or or line Sister or so now we have different features now if you What happens if you do the the MVP thing that I see in lots of organizations right now If you do that MVP thing that you go. Well, what do we have to do? well, what we have to do is Make sure that we have the basic needs up to up to a reasonable level. So our basic needs are here And we need enough sort of of the performance thing that users will actually sort of go like this is okay So the performance needs in difference is what you get People do not care about your product They don't care because it has all the basic stuff It's got some of these performance things, but it's got none of these lighters because the lighters are hard We don't know whether they're where we're actually going to happen. We don't know The feature I was talking about the parental parental control feature. We didn't even know they wanted it We accidentally stumbled on a feature that was a delighter to a lot of these people We weren't even trying To figure out whether that was a lighter or not. So these are tough. These are these are hard. These are uncertain But if you want to use MVP's what MVP's are really meant to be is finding the lighters This is where you should Use your MVP's and the thing is Even if you have crappy MVP is of even if you do MVP's you cannot have crappy MVP's If you built a crappy MVP You will never know whether your users aren't buying it because it's crappy or Because they're not interested in that the lighter. So you cannot ship crappy MVP's You what so the thing to do is how do we ship less? How do we ship less and that's an interesting question but What we ship has to be good it has to be high quality Otherwise, we have no information on Sort of what it is and isn't you cannot ship And expect people to buy crappy products Even if it might or might not have some of these the lighter Thank you very much Greatly appreciate it. I'll be around if we want to have some more chats


It's my pleasure to now introduce Mr. Akam Steiner. Akam has since June this year been serving as the head of the United Nations Development Program and he's also the chair of the United Nations Development Group which brings together the 32 UN agencies delivering together the sustainable development goals. As the administrator of the UNDP he oversees deployment of five billion per year. The UNDG which includes the biggest UN agencies UNICEF, World Food Program, UNHCR and World Health Organization, overall delivers 25 billion per year. Akam has argued that the future of development will be defined through the relationship between people and economy and the transition of a green economy is an imperative. As a former head of the United Nations Environment, Akam has had considerable success in adopting for the realignment of finance to environmental sustainability. Now his and our collective challenge is to support the realignment of finance towards the sustainable development goals. Please welcome Mr. Akam Steiner to the stage. Good morning ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for the warm welcome and for the introduction that John just made. I want to begin by thanking him and SoCAP and many others who have sought to develop a conversation between that world that we often call public policy, the United Nations, that sphere of globalization in which I happen to be working right now and your world, the world of opportunity, of entrepreneurship, of having the means to put your money where your mouth is to put it simply.  My parents were farmers and over the course of my life I found myself now leading the largest UN agency within the United Nations system, an organization that John just described in terms of financial turnover, but actually it's most powerful foundation on which it can influence what happens next in our world is that we are present almost everywhere in over 170 countries with people working on the front lines of the challenges of development, of understanding the risks locally but also collectively. And I happen to now be in New York heading this agency in three months and as part of our Secretary General's initiative also extremely interested in trying to address the future of finance and development. But before I do so let me also emphasize that the focus of the presentation this morning was meant to be on these sustainable development goals. Many or most of you will have heard of them. You may know of its genesis and the link to finance and impact investing. Let me also say and some of you will be familiar with Douglas Adams hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy and the answer to the question about life the universe and everything was so simple 42. I want to emphasize the SDGs are not attempting to be the answer. The sustainable development goals as they have evolved and were then agreed by every nation on this planet was first of all a common framework with which to recognize the challenges that lie before us. Secondly they are also a declaration of interdependence. First of all of issues we know from our 20th century history that economic development that ignores social dimensions inequality alienation marginalization sooner or later runs into crisis just like ignoring our planet the environment sustainability can ultimately destroy economies and societies so that linkage between the economic the social and the environmental is central to an integrated approach and it is a declaration of interdependence amongst us as peoples at the beginning of the 21st century with seven billion people on this planet soon eight nine and ten billion people decisions taken in the city like San Francisco can influence the lives of people literally thousands of miles away and vice versa so this group of goals is not the answer but it provides us with a framework with which to look first of all at a simple fact life is complex at the beginning of the 21st century let's not pretend otherwise but to argue that everything is connected to everything else and therefore nothing can be done is also very paralyzing features so the power I believe of the sustainable development goals that we now see unfolding across the world is that it tries to accept complexity but not let us be paralyzed but it provides us with a common framework with a common language it also gives us a way in which to understand how we can achieve win-win outcomes rather than trade-offs and win-lose outcomes whether across the social the economic the environmental or indeed between poorer nations or richer nations the opportunity it speaks to and why I am here with you this morning is that financing is critical it is central and it is also recognition that governments and we in the United Nations system have had to come to terms with that public finance governments as investors are just a small share of our economies to try to address the great challenges of the 21st century that we need to address together collectively requires us to bring the three quarters of four fifths of economic activity in alignment with these objectives the sustainable development goals are an expression of a common and shared strategy and remarkably it is not only resonating with governments across the world and whether they are developing or develop countries industrialized or poor island nations but what I have been most astonished about is how people in the private sector world in the investment world are beginning to look at these sustainable development goals as a real opportunity we have extraordinary human ingenuity at our disposal never in the history of humanity have we lived in such extraordinarily powerful times in terms of possibility science technology knowledge education just to mention a few are at our disposal as never before wealth and money has reached unprecedented levels in terms of the wealth that is at our disposal but the extraordinary thing is that we live in a world where many people are looking to invest their money and can't find the right place to do it and yet much of the world is actually looking for money to invest in solving problems problems for ourselves but also for the common good of humanity I know that this is part of the reason why you are here together and therefore let me speak for a moment to this idea of why a united nations family and the family of impact investors should be talking to one another we work at the front line of understanding the risks to the future of humanity we intervene unfortunately very often as a crisis response as you very often can watch on television sets when health crisis breakout conflicts natural disasters civil wars but under the leadership of our new secretary general prevention has taken a far greater place in the work of the UN and in terms of how we would like to work the SDGs are our opportunity to start investing together in different futures and that requires us to come together what we need however for that to happen is to have good public policy this is one of the core tasks of the United Nations family whether across health international aviation the universal postal system whether it is in the international labor organization or indeed in the world trade organization the extraordinary thing about the United Nations family of specialized agencies is that they cover virtually every aspect of what allows us to trade with one another communicate with one another invest in one another and that is part of the proposition of these sustainable development goals how can we invest in one another's common future you represent a part of the world that has the means and the resources to actually bring the finance to the kinds of agendas that we know we cannot address in isolation from one another let me just give you a couple of examples to illustrate that this is not just abstract thinking it is not just pros and rhetoric it is in fact a very real investment proposition public policy often is viewed as big government and more government but let us also be frank that discussion of the 80s and 90s that the less government the better the more market the better is too simplistic an answer public policy is in the first instance an expression of our common interest it is how we would like to have our economies and societies function and we make different choices in different communities and nations but without public policy without a regulatory environment we know that there would be too many failures in the United Nations what we try to do is to bring the best of science and of political analysis and economic analysis and point out to leaders across the world where the greatest risks for the future lie health crisis you have seen just in the last few years how close we came to sometimes almost having to shut down our global economy because of the outbreak of infectious diseases we spent the last 25 years trying to bring to the attention of the world the threat of carbon dioxide something that most of us would have learned about in school and then forgotten about it it is transforming everything on this planet and we have helped by bringing nations together every year in these painfully slow processes of agreeing on what to do to act collectively because climate change is another illustration that shows why one country acting to solve a problem has no chance of succeeding if others do not join on the back of that and this is part of the DNA of the STG's extraordinary markets and opportunities have opened up the renewable energy revolution that you know in the state of California has one of its homes is however a part of this effort of bringing the global community of nations together to say we have to transition to a low carbon economy many of you are already investors in the sectors of energy of transport of cities and urban infrastructure or indeed of agriculture and on the back of this common agenda that unites us and will hopefully allow us to look at global market spaces and places as acting in unison unbelievable opportunities for investment are opening up but our financial system is not aligned with addressing these in fact much of our money is invested in maintaining a 20th century economy rather than facing the challenges of the 21st century take for example an issue such as food waste we know that we have to increase agriculture production or at least food production in the coming years significantly if you are going to feed another two to three billion people on this planet and yet our agriculture production system today is already producing food in such a way that we are destroying land on which we grow food we have a net loss of arable land added that the fact that more than 35 percent of all food produced every year on this planet is never consumed because it is lost between farm and market or it is just thrown away sell by dates the luxury of buying cheap food it rots in the fridges it gets thrown away cafeterias restaurants the waste of food is unbelievable our opportunity is to work with you to look at ways in which we can address this turn problems into opportunities and address the space for solutions in a way that we can scale up in our work every day in the United Nations we can try to bring pilot projects to demonstrate possible solutions we cannot and we are not in a position to take them to scale countries are not in a position to take them to scale they need you particularly as impact investors to be the pioneers the entrepreneurial leaders the catalyst that can create confidence and trust in an economy that rather than adding to our problems begins to make investment a part of the solution my hope is that the sustainable development goals as you can use them in your everyday decision-making and thinking will increasingly become a concept and a language that unites us much of the economic paradigm of the last 50 to 100 years was premised that somehow our individual well-being is premised on out competing the other now competition is good many of you in this room wouldn't be sitting here if you hadn't been a very good competitor in what you do but as a human family at the beginning of the 21st century let us be honest we cannot simply premise our common future on out competing one another in a world with 10 billion people where pollution where the risk of disease of economic collapse or of social upheaval because of inequality and poverty threatens the very fabric of our global economy that we so often invoke is a real challenge my plea my invitation to you is to engage with us in the United Nations we are part of that ecosystem in which you operate we have a particular role that we can bring to this as we recognize increasingly that you have a unique role to help us awaken a financial system a financial market a universe of investors that accepts that you can as you have so often discussed in so-called meetings bring meaning to money and bring money to meaningful solutions ladies and gentlemen the 21st century could be the greatest century in human history it could also be the worst those were the words of Jim Martin whose school I had the privilege to lead at the University of Oxford for the past year a school focused on the great challenges of the 21st century now one of the most manageable challenges that we have is to actually bring all that money all that wealth all that capital that is looking for good and valuable and also profitable things to do in alignment with humanity must find new ways of doing business I invite you to join us on that journey I thank you for the time that you have given me here this morning and above all I thank you for the interest that you have already shown by being here by doing what you do to be part of that community and that voice across the world thank you very much