The value of agile development has been espoused by many during the past decade, but for those not in the software industry(and for many that are), it’s sometimes hard to understand why quick iteration is a good idea, so I’ve come up with a few concrete, common sense examples to help anyone understand why several fast turnarounds are preferable to a single large deadline. Ready, think hard about this – would you rather:

• have three two-hour work sessions or one six-hour work session?
• eat one three-pound hamburger in a single sitting or three one-pound hamburgers in three sittings?
• watch three two-hour movies or one six-hour movie?

For those having trouble deciding, I’ve put my suggestions in italics. If you disagree with my suggestions, you are likely an outlier or out lying to yourself about your capability.

If you do any serious thinking about startup companies, you’ll quickly recognize that they don’t consist of very much. In the beginning, there is only a group of people who may or may not have an idea they are looking to make a reality. So it’s the lucky group that’s got people, an idea, and maybe a nice pot of freshly brewed coffee and some day-old pizza.

Many first-time entrepreneurs make the mistake of thinking their idea is their asset, but the reality is that the team of people working on the idea better be more valuable than the idea, or they’re in trouble. The world is built on people, and ideas, although important, are secondary.

So how do you know you’ve got the right people and that they make a good team? Skillsets, intra-team communications, personal networks, personal desires, and many other factors play into the effectiveness of a team. Only time working together can tell you, and the right team in the beginning isn’t necessarily the right team later in a venture’s life.

Investing time in your team is the only way to make your venture successful and keep it that way. Don’t ignore your greatest asset.

If you are looking for a new neighborhood in your existing area or are moving to an area with which you are unfamiliar, look no further for the perfect tool to help you in your search for that perfect place to live. Neighborhood Scout a service by Woonsocket, RI, based Location Inc. just launched a complete revamp of their already popular neighborhood search service.

The new launch includes a much-improved user interface, some very unique nationally-comparable school district ratings, and crime statistics at the neighborhood level. Worth checking out.

Rentometer has just launched a free flash widget for folks who would like to add a Rentometer to their own website. In addition to the standard user search, the Rentometer widget also includes the ability to present local rent data for several locales. Colors are also configurable to match your site’s color scheme. It took me about 2 minutes to configure, including sign up time.

I’m typically a big fan of Google – the company does and enables amazing things, but I’ve always been a bit hesitant to fully trust all of my infrastructure to them because centralizing my entire life around a single platform or company always feels a bit dangerous to me.

I’ve recently had this fear confirmed by a recent experience of one of my ventures. Said venture uses Google Analytics(great product) and Google AdSense. Google Analytics is used to provide some very nice business metrics and Google AdSense has always been a side thing, not critical to the company, but we’ve got it on a few pages, and it generates coffee money. We’ve had it on various pages for around two years with no problems.

One day recently, the company receives an email from Google stating that our AdSense use has been turned off because it has been determined to “pose a significant risk” to Google advertisers – which by the way, the venture is one of. The email was very mysterious and pointed the company to form where it could file an appeal. A legitimate appeal was filed and quickly turned down without any further information. The venture continues to pursue recourse to clear it’s good name with Google.

I understand that Google has to protect it’s business aggressively, and luckily, the venture doesn’t depend on the revenue for it’s cashflow, but I did learn a few things from this experience:

1. Don’t use Google AdSense and Google Analytics at the same time. Not only did Google turn off AdSense completely(no access to previous revenue info, etc.), they also disabled our data collection/visibility for Google Analytics, so we have no way easy to get our business metrics for the four days they blanked out.
2. Using Google AdSense can lead to a big conflict of interest with Google that can cause them to shut off other services they provide. I understand why, Google must protect its revenue stream, but innocents get caught in the crossfire.
3. Know where conflicts of interest can arise. The venture had never even considered that using AdSense could eliminate access to key business data on Analytics.

Although I’m using a true story about Google as an example, this could happen with any large platform. The essence of this story is that centralizing one’s life around a powerful platform that is controlled by a single entity puts one’s life in the hands of that entity. Not a new revelation, but perhaps something people are forgetting as they upload their personalities and life onto Facebook. How many twentysomethings would find themselves cut off from their reality if Facebook suddenly cut off access to their account because of a mysterious conflict of interest?