Lovability: How to Build a Business That People Love and Be Happy Doing It

261 Pages·2017·2.67 MB·English

by  Brian de Haaff

Published by Greenleaf Book Group Press Austin, Texas
www.gbgpress.com
Copyright ©2017 Aha! Labs Inc.
All rights reserved.
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Design by Aha! Labs Inc., Greenleaf Book Group, and Sheila Parr
Publisher’s Cataloging-In-Publication Data
(Prepared by The Donohue Group, Inc.)
de Haaff, Brian.
Lovability : How to build a business that people love and be happy doing it / Brian de Haaff,founder and
CEO of AHA!
Austin, Texas : Greenleaf Book Group Press, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
LCCN 2016955016 | ISBN 978-1-62634-403-7 (print) | ISBN 978-1-62634-404-4 (ebook) LCSH:
Consumer satisfaction. | Customer loyalty. | Product design--Psychological aspects. | Technological
innovations. | Success in business. | Love.
LCC HF5415.335 .D44 2016 (print) | LCC HF5415.335 (ebook) | DDC 658.8/343--dc23
®
Part of the Tree Neutral program, which offsets the number of trees consumed in the production and
printing of this book by taking proactive steps, such as planting trees in direct proportion to the number of
trees used: www.treeneutral.com
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 17 18 19 20 21 22 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
For my love, Michelle, and our industrious builders Zachary, Jason, and
Noah
CONTENTS
PART I: GRANDPA-INSPIRED
INTRODUCTION
PART II: WHY BUILD LOVABLE PRODUCTS?
CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS A PRODUCT?
CHAPTER 2: PURSUING LOVE
CHAPTER 3: THE TEN BUILDING BLOCKS OF LOVABILITY
CHAPTER 4: THE BENEFITS OF BEING LOVED
CHAPTER 5: CHASE VALUE, NOT VALUATION
PART III: CREATING LOVABILITY
CHAPTER 6: THE OLD WAYS ARE NEW AGAIN
CHAPTER 7: THE RESPONSIVE METHOD
CHAPTER 8: HOW TO BUILD LOVABLE PRODUCTS
CHAPTER 9: BEING A LOVABLE COMPANY
CHAPTER 10: THE LOVABILITY TOOLKIT
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
NOTES
INDEX
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

INTRODUCTION
I ride my bike a few times a week through the campus of Stanford University.
It’s about a mile from my house, and it sits more or less at the epicenter of
Silicon Valley both physically and psychologically. Even as a proud graduate of
The University of California at Berkeley, I acknowledge that it is one of the
most prestigious universities in the world. It also hosted one of the more
important speeches on innovation in recent memory.
On March 31, 2016, Securities and Exchange Commission chair Mary Jo
White said this to the students of Stanford Law School:
Nearly all venture valuations are highly subjective. But, one must
wonder whether the publicity and pressure to achieve the unicorn
benchmark is analogous to that felt by public companies to meet
projections they make to the market with the attendant risk of
financial reporting problems. And, yes that remains a problem. We
continue to see instances of public companies and their senior
executives manipulating their accounting to meet various
expectations and projections.1
We have reached a point in the world of technology startups where the fervor
for building a company with a billion-dollar valuation — the elusive startup
unicorn — is overshadowing the creation of real value. It is not the first time we
have been here; the world of startups and venture capital has always run in
cycles, from optimistic zeal to caution to post-catastrophe introspection and back
again. But perhaps it is time that entrepreneurs and investors alike begin waking
up to the fact that the “valuation-at-all-costs” model, with its relentless pressure,
remote odds of success, and human cost, is not only unsustainable but bad
business.