Some of the best lessons learned from Google

Marissa Mayer (VP of Search Products and User Experience) shared her top 9 list with a bunch of Stanford students. I recently managed to catch the podcast because I wasnt able to attend the talk when I was there. Here are some of my personal favorites

1. Macs and Madonna Theory

Look at both of them… They’ve been in the limelight for more that 20 years and they’re still going strong. What about them made them stay while others faded away? They were able to constantly reinvent themselves to change with the times…

2. Innovation comes from constraints

Though it sounds counter intuitive, real creativity is born when there are constraints.. Thats when you challenge people to think outside the box to come up with new and innovative solutions

3. Share all you can

Its important to create a knowledge eco system so that everyone can learn from everyone else… Its only when you tap on other people’s expertise will ideas grow and blossom.

4. If you build it they will come

This is the heart of Google’s strategy, of course it does help that they have a huge ass group of users. But the real intention of this statement is that they dont focus on making money, they focus on the users. And if there are users, there will somehow be a way to monetize it.

5. Do things you’re not comfortable with to find your boundaries

Its important to get out of your comfort zone from time to time so that you can push your limits and gradually improve… If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always got.

6. When you’re stuck when trying to make a decision, look at the best decisions you’ve made and try to find what they have in common.