8 ms·

List of Productized Consulting Services

184 points by tacon 11y ago

codeulike 11y ago
Does he not know that Here Comes The Airplane is satire? (or do I just not know that it's for real?)
- TheLogothete 11y ago
  He outsources his blog management to a "productized consulting" firm from his clearly very exclusive and top-tier list.
  - itengelhardt 11y ago
    LOL. Thanks, you made me lol :-)
desireco42 11y ago
devEngine is on hiatus, but it would fit this list nicely
rtpg 11y ago
This guy also does awesome notetaking on MicroConf that are very interesting to read (for example: http://www.christophengelhardt.com/microconf-europe-2015-notes-and-noteworthy/ http://www.christophengelhardt.com/microconf-europe-2015-not...). As a side note, microconf has some exceptionally high-quality speakers if you're thinking of bootstrapping. Healthy dose of realism from a lot of the speakers. Some vids are up on Vimeo for MicroConf talks (https://vimeo.com/user12790628/videos https://vimeo.com/user12790628/videos)
munin 11y ago
> Think a drunk UX expert is the worst challenge you can put your website through? You’re wrong. There’s one thing worse than that: Your mom. Here you can hire someone else’s Mom to torture your website. ugh, vom. can we kill this already? my friends mom has forgotten more about antenna design than I will ever know. my grandmother was doing computer based typesetting since it was possible and remembers when LaTeX was new.
- tectonic 11y ago
  Thank you!
- themodelplumber 11y ago
  OP's sample size is just low. My kids' mom happens to be incredibly great at noticing minute details that went wrong in websites. Sometimes a competitor of mine, like a big agency to which I lost a bid, will launch a new site here locally and I'll ask her to let me know what she thinks just so I can gloat. I have worked with other moms who suck at details but do incredible brand strategy, etc. Seriously, if you're not running a study and you need to typologize to _any_ degree, you should at least pick up e.g. MBTI because it is so much further down the road than "moms".
- Chris2048 11y ago
  n = 1 then?
- daveguy 11y ago
  Came here to point this out. My mom has a math undergrad and physics masters and was programming path following algorithms for industrial robotics before I was born. This whole "explain it like it's your mom" or "make it so easy your mom could use it" thing is so backwards it's nauseating. Surely we can get past this. If your mom is a UX expert, great. I would like her input and will pay for it. If you are using someone's mom as a sexist gimmick -- go back to the 50's.
- pc86 11y ago
  Neat. The stereotypical mother has never done antenna design, and I'm willing to bet quite a bit of money most folks' grandparents are not exactly well versed in computer based typesetting.
  - wpietri 11y ago
    Yes, and the point is that the stereotype is stupid and demeaning to a lot of people.
CiPHPerCoder 11y ago
Unless I'm wrong and this person is relevant to the community, this looks like SEO/copywriter blog spam to me. The old "Here's a list of products/things with a 'catchy' headline to incentivize linkbacks and boost my search engine ranking for the words in said 'catchy' headline" trick. But the contents of the article are kind of empty. And as codeulike said, at least one of the entries is satire. The quality is questionable at best. Or maybe I haven't had my morning coffee yet and I'm overlooking a crucial detail. Please fill me in if that's what's happening.
- TheLogothete 11y ago
  Buzzfeed and QZ make regular appearances on HN. I saw Seth Godin once. I saw the daily mail on several occasions. Do not put HN on a piedestal.
  - jethro_tell 11y ago
    Sure, but HN isn't facebook (yet), that's why I come here. I think we can also probably point it out here as relevant discussion to the linked content. That's what might give HN a stay of execution on being ALL buzzfeed.
- davidw 11y ago
  He's a regular MicroConf attendee who posts his detailed notes about the event, so.... he's real and legit, and seems like a good guy.
- itengelhardt 11y ago
  Yeah. Total SEO spam. Highly optimized for the keyword "list" and it has attracted "links" from such illustrious domains like waybackhn.com :-) In all seriousness: The title was stolen from (IIRC) Michael Buckbee of ExpeditedSSL (great guy) and I consider it a bit tongue-in-cheek - but hey, that doesn't work on the internet apparently.
jo909 11y ago
This is very focused on website and marketing (and has some services I would not count as "consulting"). I would be pleased to hear about some productized consulting services in the development and operations sector. I mean something more novel than "traditional" I/P/SaaS ala AWS or any old API.
- aaroncohn 11y ago
  Would like to think that our little concept qualifies as novel -- it's an AI-powered workplace culture consultant (http://worknice.co http://worknice.co) His name is Charlie, you interact with him like you would any other consultant via email or Slack, and he's focused on executing culture initiatives that make people happier @ work.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
aaroncohn 11y ago
Ex-consultant turned founder here. Think productized consulting services are really interesting as a business for three reasons: 1) consultants are traditionally really expensive (as a 23-year-old, non-technical little shit, my firm would bill the client at $200+/hr), so as a result we could only be there for a few months. We'd come in, make things better, and then were gone. So within a few months afterwards, things went back to the way they were (aka a disaster). Productized consulting services, on the other hand, are generally cheap enough to be perpetual. 2) Businesses generally suck at executing the consultant's recommendations. We'd provide really rich data and detailed action plans to clients -- and this powerpoint printout they paid a ton for would just sit on the desk or on the shelf. It was frustrating. But other client priorities would get in the way. At best, someone would half-ass our plan. 3) Consulting is a machine; 80% of what you do is the same for all clients. We're taught to search internal databases for past work and frameworks before doing anything from scratch. For that reason, it actually lends itself really well to automation.
- davemel37 11y ago
  > 80% of what you do is the same for all clients. This is a crucial insight because information asymmetry forces you to pay a premium for that 80% that can be systematized or worse, pay a low price for that 80% and end up getting the lowest quality work on the 20% that needs deep expertise. This leads to adverse selection or overpaying... I read somewhere about travel agencies and how the low end work like booking hotels and cars was replaced by websites, but the more complicated travel services like planning a vacation are still sourced to travel agents. Hopefully every industry would move towards an environment where you can pay a premium for the part that needs expertise and pay fair market value for the part that can be systematized or reliably sourced for less.
  - aaroncohn 11y ago
    > Hopefully every industry would move towards an environment where you can pay a premium for the part that needs expertise and pay fair market value for the part that can be systematized or reliably sourced for less. That's a great insight. I hope that's where things are moving!
ap22213 11y ago
Anyone know of a productized 'Advanced Math' consulting service?
- MakeUsersWant 11y ago
  Reply because I can't find your mail in the profile. Advanced Math consulting sounds like a job I'd like to work. I'm a pure maths postdoc turned data scientist, more info on request. Can you hook me up?
  - kaitai 11y ago
    Me too!
bdcravens 11y ago
There's a lot of productized services out there. This list looks like it's the circle of people and services that you hear about if you listen to popular internet marketing / bootstrapper podcasts. (not a criticism of those services; I'm a fan of many of those podcasters/frequent guests, but I'd look at this list thinking if I want to start a productized service it's supposed to be in the Wordpress or marketing space)
wodenokoto 11y ago
Why do so many publisher insist that share buttons are more important than content? http://imgur.com/7sNqo28 http://imgur.com/7sNqo28 A lot of pages have the share buttons on top of text almost in the middle of the page.
- TheLogothete 11y ago
  Because people share content before reading it. Oftentimes they would just glance over the first couple of paragraphs and hit a share button.
fudged71 11y ago
Correction: One-day landing page is no longer accepting requests
- itengelhardt 11y ago
  Thanks! I'll fix that

184 points by tacon 11y ago

codeulike 11y ago

Does he not know that Here Comes The Airplane is satire? (or do I just not know that it's for real?)

TheLogothete 11y ago
He outsources his blog management to a "productized consulting" firm from his clearly very exclusive and top-tier list.
- itengelhardt 11y ago
  LOL. Thanks, you made me lol :-)

desireco42 11y ago

devEngine is on hiatus, but it would fit this list nicely

rtpg 11y ago

This guy also does awesome notetaking on MicroConf that are very interesting to read (for example: http://www.christophengelhardt.com/microconf-europe-2015-notes-and-noteworthy/ http://www.christophengelhardt.com/microconf-europe-2015-not...). As a side note, microconf has some exceptionally high-quality speakers if you're thinking of bootstrapping. Healthy dose of realism from a lot of the speakers. Some vids are up on Vimeo for MicroConf talks (https://vimeo.com/user12790628/videos https://vimeo.com/user12790628/videos)

munin 11y ago

> Think a drunk UX expert is the worst challenge you can put your website through? You’re wrong. There’s one thing worse than that: Your mom. Here you can hire someone else’s Mom to torture your website. ugh, vom. can we kill this already? my friends mom has forgotten more about antenna design than I will ever know. my grandmother was doing computer based typesetting since it was possible and remembers when LaTeX was new.

tectonic 11y ago
Thank you!
themodelplumber 11y ago
OP's sample size is just low. My kids' mom happens to be incredibly great at noticing minute details that went wrong in websites. Sometimes a competitor of mine, like a big agency to which I lost a bid, will launch a new site here locally and I'll ask her to let me know what she thinks just so I can gloat. I have worked with other moms who suck at details but do incredible brand strategy, etc. Seriously, if you're not running a study and you need to typologize to _any_ degree, you should at least pick up e.g. MBTI because it is so much further down the road than "moms".
Chris2048 11y ago
n = 1 then?
daveguy 11y ago
Came here to point this out. My mom has a math undergrad and physics masters and was programming path following algorithms for industrial robotics before I was born. This whole "explain it like it's your mom" or "make it so easy your mom could use it" thing is so backwards it's nauseating. Surely we can get past this. If your mom is a UX expert, great. I would like her input and will pay for it. If you are using someone's mom as a sexist gimmick -- go back to the 50's.
pc86 11y ago
Neat. The stereotypical mother has never done antenna design, and I'm willing to bet quite a bit of money most folks' grandparents are not exactly well versed in computer based typesetting.
- wpietri 11y ago
  Yes, and the point is that the stereotype is stupid and demeaning to a lot of people.

CiPHPerCoder 11y ago

Unless I'm wrong and this person is relevant to the community, this looks like SEO/copywriter blog spam to me. The old "Here's a list of products/things with a 'catchy' headline to incentivize linkbacks and boost my search engine ranking for the words in said 'catchy' headline" trick. But the contents of the article are kind of empty. And as codeulike said, at least one of the entries is satire. The quality is questionable at best. Or maybe I haven't had my morning coffee yet and I'm overlooking a crucial detail. Please fill me in if that's what's happening.

TheLogothete 11y ago
Buzzfeed and QZ make regular appearances on HN. I saw Seth Godin once. I saw the daily mail on several occasions. Do not put HN on a piedestal.
- jethro_tell 11y ago
  Sure, but HN isn't facebook (yet), that's why I come here. I think we can also probably point it out here as relevant discussion to the linked content. That's what might give HN a stay of execution on being ALL buzzfeed.
davidw 11y ago
He's a regular MicroConf attendee who posts his detailed notes about the event, so.... he's real and legit, and seems like a good guy.
itengelhardt 11y ago
Yeah. Total SEO spam. Highly optimized for the keyword "list" and it has attracted "links" from such illustrious domains like waybackhn.com :-) In all seriousness: The title was stolen from (IIRC) Michael Buckbee of ExpeditedSSL (great guy) and I consider it a bit tongue-in-cheek - but hey, that doesn't work on the internet apparently.

jo909 11y ago

This is very focused on website and marketing (and has some services I would not count as "consulting"). I would be pleased to hear about some productized consulting services in the development and operations sector. I mean something more novel than "traditional" I/P/SaaS ala AWS or any old API.

aaroncohn 11y ago
Would like to think that our little concept qualifies as novel -- it's an AI-powered workplace culture consultant (http://worknice.co http://worknice.co) His name is Charlie, you interact with him like you would any other consultant via email or Slack, and he's focused on executing culture initiatives that make people happier @ work.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

aaroncohn 11y ago

Ex-consultant turned founder here. Think productized consulting services are really interesting as a business for three reasons: 1) consultants are traditionally really expensive (as a 23-year-old, non-technical little shit, my firm would bill the client at $200+/hr), so as a result we could only be there for a few months. We'd come in, make things better, and then were gone. So within a few months afterwards, things went back to the way they were (aka a disaster). Productized consulting services, on the other hand, are generally cheap enough to be perpetual. 2) Businesses generally suck at executing the consultant's recommendations. We'd provide really rich data and detailed action plans to clients -- and this powerpoint printout they paid a ton for would just sit on the desk or on the shelf. It was frustrating. But other client priorities would get in the way. At best, someone would half-ass our plan. 3) Consulting is a machine; 80% of what you do is the same for all clients. We're taught to search internal databases for past work and frameworks before doing anything from scratch. For that reason, it actually lends itself really well to automation.

davemel37 11y ago
> 80% of what you do is the same for all clients. This is a crucial insight because information asymmetry forces you to pay a premium for that 80% that can be systematized or worse, pay a low price for that 80% and end up getting the lowest quality work on the 20% that needs deep expertise. This leads to adverse selection or overpaying... I read somewhere about travel agencies and how the low end work like booking hotels and cars was replaced by websites, but the more complicated travel services like planning a vacation are still sourced to travel agents. Hopefully every industry would move towards an environment where you can pay a premium for the part that needs expertise and pay fair market value for the part that can be systematized or reliably sourced for less.
- aaroncohn 11y ago
  > Hopefully every industry would move towards an environment where you can pay a premium for the part that needs expertise and pay fair market value for the part that can be systematized or reliably sourced for less. That's a great insight. I hope that's where things are moving!

ap22213 11y ago

Anyone know of a productized 'Advanced Math' consulting service?

MakeUsersWant 11y ago
Reply because I can't find your mail in the profile. Advanced Math consulting sounds like a job I'd like to work. I'm a pure maths postdoc turned data scientist, more info on request. Can you hook me up?
- kaitai 11y ago
  Me too!

bdcravens 11y ago

There's a lot of productized services out there. This list looks like it's the circle of people and services that you hear about if you listen to popular internet marketing / bootstrapper podcasts. (not a criticism of those services; I'm a fan of many of those podcasters/frequent guests, but I'd look at this list thinking if I want to start a productized service it's supposed to be in the Wordpress or marketing space)

wodenokoto 11y ago

Why do so many publisher insist that share buttons are more important than content? http://imgur.com/7sNqo28 http://imgur.com/7sNqo28 A lot of pages have the share buttons on top of text almost in the middle of the page.

TheLogothete 11y ago
Because people share content before reading it. Oftentimes they would just glance over the first couple of paragraphs and hit a share button.

fudged71 11y ago

Correction: One-day landing page is no longer accepting requests

itengelhardt 11y ago
Thanks! I'll fix that