Learning through 'Game'ing

Learning especially has been seeing several changes from typical classroom on the board to presentation to the Virtual Class Room training. There are researchers who are talking on training / learning especially for the employees with enterprise may get disrupted through Game-fication.

Games are a good way for keeping the employees or the learners interested in the topic. I am not referring the gamification aspect of training(leader boards etc) but learning of a concept will be through a game. Simulating a business environment through the game and providing a platform for learners to come and play the game, learn the hard way. Recent times, there is interest some companies in multiple verticals of using such a gaming platform towards this paradigm of learning.

Education sector in particular, professional learning is going through a disruption right now with several virtual class room, own paced learning through internet, content delivery multiple channels and devices etc. Will gaming as a means for educating professionals change this sector significantly to look at a different way of teaching the business? 

Startups to look for in 2016

It has been tremendous year 2015 especially for the Indian Startups. Lot of success in raising large funds, successful startups capitalizing on their early presence, new technology startups with great valuation etc.

Consumer centric seems still the play and lot of happening in that space. Digital India initiatives and Prime Minister Modi coming again and again on support the startup eco system is helping to spread the word on the possible new generation of the digital startups. In 2015, there were a simple ideas that touch daily life of citizens and they made big into the arena. HouseJoy is a classic example and the way he have positioned themselves and big stride forward will be interesting to watch in 2016. Especially how they will keep up with the competition and earn more revenue / profit ratio and expand into new cities. Oyo is another excellent simple idea converted to a great potential and investors behind them will be good one to watch for 2016.

In my view, below technology / business ideas will be the key to watch for in 2016.

IoT Startups - My top selection especially around the buzz and possibilities this gives. Healthcare, Insurance, Connect Car quiet good opportunities and potential exists in this space.

Local commerce - Potential of this still to be proven but there are good ideas that are coming up with good technology based adoption in this area. Local communities / Neighborhood facilitating the commerce has huge potential.

Micro Payments - There is lot PaytM and similar companies are doing and been successful.  Still the adoption beyond certain use cases needs to be evolved. Local Banks could catch on this wave to get digital with Micro Payments platform. This could be classified as FinTech as well.

Digital for common man - Universal mobile apps or internet applications like Housejoy, Justdial, Bookmybai etc will also evolve into their new avatars and its going to interesting watch for innovation there in 2016.

Security as a Service - Cloud Security especially around so many mobile applications getting published every day now and its not easy to build security by every startup or mobile app developer. There is opportunity exists and as cloud computing and adoption is increasing, this area is good to watch out in 2016.

E-Health / Virtual Health - There are quiet few of the startups which are progressing well. Still there are enough opportunities and will be good watch out for in 2016.

Media and Entertainment - With 3G / 4G becoming realistic, on demand rich content on mobile will a good area to watch out. Ad tech companies are also striving for success with new patterns for advertisement channels and mobile content could be a good area to watch out for in 2016.

Have a great and prosperous New Year 2016.

Time to market on New Products

Creativity and speed on building new products have become so important for time to market and stay ahead with the competition. Important aspects of creating products from my perspective has been outlined below.

Continuous delivery - Delivering the products continuously from development to operations. Adding functionality / features in regular intervals.

Multiple Channel delivery - Different channel of delivery including Mobile, Web, tablets etc. Omni Channel delivery has become important strategy for most of the new products.

Automating product delivery process - Automating the delivery process reduces the time development and operations have to spend together. This means that when dev and ops must interact, they can focus on the issues that really matter.

Development and Operations working together - Development and operations often play cats and dogs during deployment. To stop the fighting, we must bring them closer together so they will start collaborating again.

Faster technology adoption - Adopting to new technology adoption that will enable multiple channel delivery, Operational efficiency, etc

User Experience key to Product

Being an architect for several years I have seen people (including me) to concentrate more on System design, Object Oriented, Extensability, SOA etc. Most of the time User Experience (UX) takes a back seat not intentionally but more of the way we approach to solve a problem.

UX engineering is very key for success for the product. It is the first basic element that needs to driven from the inception phase of the product. UX is not just color combination, User Interface (UI) layout etc. There is big portion of the usability element for a specific product that you are developing for a marketplace. For example, in the banking world there are applications that are used with in the bank by employees example of this is a Teller application. There are few applications are used by customers of the bank, example internet banking. The UX of both the applications will not be same.

Requirements for each of this will be different in terms of response time, accuracy of point in time data etc. Usability of the application based on the requirements is a very big element of User experience design. User Interface design which includes color combination, look and feel is one portion of the User Experience engineering. The early you start in the product development process of the User Experience design the better the success of the product.

Its about your efforts

As an entrepreneur, Success is only related to your efforts and your involvement in making the business possible. In last few months, as a entrepreneur leaving my cosy corporate job, I feel its only  you who can drive your destiny.
Efforts and attitude that drive success. Always believe in what you are doing and energize the efforts towards the belief. There are obstacles and people come at you on several things like Market trends, Recession etc etc. But end of the day, you need to adjust well to these natural ‘Phenomena’ (if you want to call it) and work towards the believed goal.

Interests of a common Indian

Couple of days, I read a interesting article about what Indians like the most in the media and entertainment side. The supplementary page of an well known newspaper said it as “ABCD”. Interestingly, :)
A for Astrology
B for Bollywood
C for Cricket
D for Devotion / Religious
I agree totally with this article as it kind of describes interests of most of the age groups with in India. Infact, I would like to add “E” to the list.
E for Entertainment through Games  / Gambling:). What do you guys think ?