The Baydin Blog | Email, Startups, and Search

We’ve been seeing an increasing number of corporate customers look into SharePoint. The New York Times has a nice summary on the growth of Microsoft SharePoint that echoes our observation. One of the challenges that users run into is that they expect SharePoint to be the end-all collaboration solution. In reality it’s a bunch of pieces that let you build a collaborative solution.  In this blog post, I’m going to show you how you can find documents in SharePoint quickly without having to launch your browser and manually hunt for the file.

Back in our previous jobs, we had begun to put all of our team files on SharePoint. As the site filled up with project schedules, business plans and customer reports, it became difficult to find the correct file. We used it as a collaborative dumping ground. Team members were alerted with an email describing the new file and its location. This created a problem: we filled each other’s inbox with “junk mail” so that we could keep track of our team documents. The second problem was that it was still hard to find the right file if we ignored the notification and did not know the title of the document or its location.

Microsoft is solving this problem with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. They have incorporated fast, effective search. The problem is that many companies have not yet upgraded to MOSS 2007. So we figured we could show you a way to still find documents while using an older version of SharePoint, which is what most of corporate users have. To do this you will need Outlook 2007 and Microsoft Desktop Search installed. You may know it as Instant Search in Outlook. This is the search bar that let’s you find emails and calendar items as you type.

What we are going to do is synchronize SharePoint with Outlook 2007. The files that are in your SharePoint site will be searchable through the “Instant Search” bar. This will save you a lot of time if you want to search for files using key words instead of having to navigate through the SharePoint site to locate a file.

Instructions to Search SharePoint without MOSS 2007 in 3 Easy Steps

Pre-requisite: We assume you have Outlook 2007 and Windows Desktop Search running.

Step 1: Go to your SharePoint Site and go to the location where all the files are kept. In this example, we have it in “Shared Documents.” So we go to that location.

Step 2: Click the “Action” button and select the menu option that says “Connect to Outlook.”

Step 3: You will see a listing of the files from SharePoint in your Outlook panel. These are synchronized with Outlook and can be searched through the Instant Search bar.

Great! You’re done. Now you can search files in SharePoint from your desktop without having to launch a web browser, find the bookmark and navigate through SharePoint.

If you want to be even more productive, you can run Baydin. It works within Outlook 2007 and will display relevant files from SharePoint, shared network drives, your local computer and inbox by analyzing the context of your email. Think of it like a really intelligent recommendation engine that shows you related documents in a side panel. Our early users have found files they didn’t know they had. Others have sped up product development because they discovered someone else in their company with relevant experience had published documents related to their project. Knowing is half the battle and Baydin shows you what you don’t know.

Technical SharePoint

Shaving is not something I usually think about. Every so often, I would end up clogging the razor and eventually cutting my face. After running into my friend Holly who is a brand manager at Gillette, I learned how to improve my shaving experience with minimal effort. Here’s how it works:

• Run water over the back of the blades. That’s it.

I used to rinse the blade from the front (blades facing me) but it would eventually get clogged. For some reason, the Mach 3 rinses out much better from the back. I haven’t cut my face since — knock on wood.

This got me thinking about the little things that make our lives easier. Microsoft has a way to index shared drives on a network. This is useful because desktop search can now find files on shared drives. We surveyed several companies involved in everything from medical devices to architecture. We discovered close to 100% of the companies used shared network drives to store information. Being able to find documents that your team mates share would be a boon so we posted some directions for Windows XP and Windows Vista on our FAQ. Note that this only works if you have Microsoft Desktop search, which comes with Office 2007 or Microsoft Vista.

Small Talk desktop search, market research

Selling into the Enterprise is still a big business. I attended the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston this week. Besides the excellent booze and hors devours (I consider all free booze excellent) I came away with three lessons.

Customers or the C level executives that ultimately foot the bill for a product/service need to see their return on investment quickly. Amy Vickers, VP of Global Enterprise Solutions at Razorfish says that they expect to see signs of progress within 6 months. The better the product/service can provide them that information, the easier it is for the implementers to justify the project.

The key to success is in integrating a variety of technologies to meet business objectives according to Laurie Buczek, Social Computing Program manager at Intel. The days of closed, all encompassing solutions, are limited. There are many, many enterprise software solutions out in the market. Companies have adopted a variety of them. It takes a significant amount of work to put information into those systems and to get employees to use them. A better product is not going to displace something that works. This point was re-affirmed by talking to some other attendees at the show. Companies want interoperability between software packages. It’s a strong message to enterprise vendors that is best surmised by one of the panelists, “co-exist or fail.”

Stand out. A lot of the demos looked the same. They have what looked like a CSS styled dashboard with news feeds, social media and wikis. One company, caught my eye: Artus Labs. They focus on life science. Yeah, they have collaboration features like everyone else but what the others don’t have is the ability to search through molecular chain drawings. Very cool. Everyone else’s demo has static text next to some sort of instant messenger. Artus Labs in contrast has beautiful molecular compounds drifing across their screens. I had a chance to talk to their Founder and CEO Robin Smith. He’s been around the block and knows what he’s doing. Enterprise 2.0. Good stuff.

Small Talk business, market research

Before Baydin, Alex and I started another venture. Without going into too much detail it was a mobile, social game with an end goal of making users feel camaraderie with their fellow guys and gals. Who doesn’t want to make friends and feel the exhilaration of potentially meeting a significant other? We were on a mission to do great things for society, and by society, I mean the 18-30 year old singles who feel alienated after graduating from college and moving into a new city. You know who you are.

At first we were a bit reticent to talk about it. This was the hot segment at the time. What we discovered was that there are very few people who will steal your idea and do something with it. The important part of that last statement is “do something with it.” Turning a concept into reality is hard. Ideas have their own value but it’s worth exchanging that idea for feedback.

We discussed the product concept with our single friends. What we found was that they supported us because they are our friends. However, the concept did not resonate with them because it did not meet their needs. They would have had to change their behavior to use our product. Techno-geeks would have done this but the majority would not. We wanted a large, vibrant, diverse community. The problem was that many of our single friends had limited leisure time and wanted to spend that time actually talking to their date over dinner instead of playing a video game with him or her. Finding a significant other is haphazard enough so they wanted to get to the essence of it immediately.

Our mobile, social, game was retired and we re-directed our effort into a new direction. We’re still talking to people but this time we’ve made it a little further. Our alpha, Baydin ForONE was released on Thursday. It is open to limited users. If you want to be involved in something great, sign-up and we’ll put you on our alpha testers list.

Small Talk experience, ideas, Small Talk

I was at a talk, recently, where the speaker mentioned “a lot of data driven people fall into the trap of wanting more information to make a decision. The problem is that the world does not always give you complete information.”

I thought about my own experience. I remember at times presenting a new product idea and getting the feedback, “we need more *fill in the blank* information.” Usually, they asked for more market information. The product concepts we were proposing were in a burgeoning field. We could only show the customers we visited or contacted who demonstrated interest, the competitive solutions out there, how much customers currently pay and the total available market.

Now that I think back, I think I would have had much better luck if I took the decision-makers on strategic customer visits. I remember traveling to several medical accounts with one marketing manager. He was exposed to our customers’ challenges. Enthusiasm would have been an understatement for his reaction. He understood the problems that our customers faced because he stood in their shoes, albeit briefly. When we got back to our headquarters, I didn’t even have to pitch the concept anymore. He was telling everybody that we should build products for that application.

Now that we are pitching products at Baydin, these little experiences bubble back up to consciousness. If I can’t show market numbers because it is nascent, I can at least help investors stand in our customers’ shoes.

So getting back to that talk. Baydin can’t help someone who is not ready make a decision. But we are thinking about and working on the problem of giving you more complete information.

Small Talk baydin, experience, market research

Alex and I spent some portion of our time phone interviewing potential interns for the summer. Unfortunately, the resume is often an inaccurate indicator of one’s programming ability. In a previous existence, we could throw money at that problem – we’d review a resume and then FLY a candidate in to interview. The candidate would go through nine interviews with various engineers, designers and marketers on-site. At Baydin, we subscribe to Joel Spolsky’s philosophy on hiring creative, capable developers because they can make the difference between success and failure. However, we can’t afford to fly any candidates out for an on-site interview. Here’s how we find the gems.

While a bad resume can knock a candidate out from even getting an interview, a good resume does not guarantee that said candidate is a master programmer. Since we are on a limited budget, Alex came up with a nifty way to see if a potential intern has the right stuff.

On the phone we delve into the details of the candidate’s experience. This is important because it gives us background information. It can tell us if the candidate has experience working with a team, leading a team and how he or she contributes in a project.  It also tells us whether or not the candidate can communicate complex technical information.

We then ask some basic programming questions to see how he or she approaches the problem. Thus far, we’ve had a great experience using EtherPad. The candidate and we can write on a “virtual whiteboard” simultaneously. This allows us to see in real-time how a candidate frames the problem and solves it. We’re looking to see if he or she understands fundamental concepts. In short, it was an effective way to give a technical interview without flying a candidate to our site.

We’ve only posted openings for a week and we’re psyched at the turnout we’ve received thus far. There are some great candidates applying. If you are interested in interning on the ground floor of an exciting startup, then drop us a line.

Small Talk baydin, experience, hiring, interns

Our friends have asked us if we were nervous about going out on our own, especially with the economy as it is. Alex and I have wanted to do our own thing for a while. We call this yearning “not wanting to work for The Man.” We, to a large degree, control our own destiny. That means we need to simultaneously market our company, raise capital, develop the product and run an office. It’s only been two weeks and we’ve learned that when you are The Man, you have to wear many hats.

For most people who work in established companies, these tasks are divided and parceled out amongst numerous specialists. One of the chief complaints I heard from the younger engineers at our old company is that they don’t have a good view of the overall business. What I think they mean to say is that they don’t see the interaction of all the components that make a company run. I was an applications engineer, where I would meet customers, help solve their problems, sometimes at their location, define products and characterize them in end-applications. I thought I had a good view of how the business ran. Boy was I wrong.

There’s a lot of “small” organizational tasks that I took for granted. For example, we had a closet full of pencils and notebooks. We had an amazing field engineering team. We had a healthcare plan. I learned that when you are The Man, you need to know when to take advantage of the sale for a 24 port 10/100Mbps switch. You need to implement a successful distribution system and understand how to deal with healthcare for you and your employees. By the way, Microcenter, has a great deal on a 24 port D-Link switch.

I see PR in a whole new light. At our previous large company, I authored a fair number of webinars and articles. I contributed to ad campaigns for product releases. But at a startup, there is this visceral sense of the direct linkage with the bottom line. It’s where the rubber meets the road. Our web page ranking and the press we get will clearly affect how Baydin takes off. We’re working on a kick-ass product but people need to know about it to buy it.

To our friends who have been writing in to ask us how things are going. The protective cocoon has come off and we’re experiencing the internal clockwork of business. We’re beginning to see things as they are.

Small Talk baydin, experience

Whenever I ask friends what superpower they would most want, one person would say “I want to read minds.” This can be a double-edged sword. Baydin will get you more than half-way there. We can’t tell you how just yet but I’m curious to know what people think about being so empowered. There’s also a Baydin page on Facebook if you want to join in on the discussion there.

Small Talk Small Talk

As we start Baydin, we wrap up work at our old jobs. I’ve spent the last three weeks trying to “transfer” everything I’ve learned in the greater part of a decade to my colleagues. It’s tough. 

Knowledge that’s instilled or discovered over time is conveyed quickly without context. I copied my entire hard disk and passed the external drive around so that everyone could store the information. I gave a few presentations and some explanations of typical problems and what to look out for. 

Although I work with some of the smartest, most talented people around, they do not have the full context of each of these projects. I mean, how could they? I worked on it for years. They have had three weeks to ramp up before I leave.  

What we’re working on at Baydin will have huge ramifications on getting up to speed and transferring knowledge. Our software will give people the necessary context to most effectively understand and learn. In addition, it will show only what is relevant. No more. No less. 

I see examples of the need for Baydin everyday. It’s going to be exciting. Stay tuned!

Small Talk baydin, experience, work place