Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Tips for Effective Explanations

Last week before i was going to do a system presentation, my boss gave me a very useful link which contains tips for effective explanations. It helps me a lot and i'm sure to read it always before my next presentation.

Hence i would like to share it here on my blog as well... here we go, 7 tips of effective explanations :

1. Make Your Audience Feel Smart, Instead of Making Yourself Look Smart
We want others to think we're smart because in most cases that's rewarded. But when it comes to making an idea easy to understand, simple trumps clever. Fancy vocabulary and extensive background information might impress customers — but, more likely, will just confuse them. Stop trying to look smart and start making your audience feel smart by building their knowledge and confidence. Dazzle them with clarity; it's another kind of brilliance.
2. Explain the Forest, Not Just the Trees
Focus only on features and you'll miss an opportunity to invite your audience to see the big picture. Prioritizing the details of this year's coolest product features isn't an explanation. Customers won't care about the bells and whistles if they don't understand why your product exists and why it matters to them. By zooming out and focusing on context at the beginning of an explanation, you can build a world around your product that enables it to make more sense.
3. Add Details Sparingly
Has this happened to you? You're meeting with prospects about a new product and it's obvious that they just aren't getting it. They stare blankly and stop asking questions. No problem, you think, you can still bring them around with a few more points. It's a tempting move. After all, sometimes one small detail turns that light bulb on, right? It may seem counter intuitive, but more information won't help someone who's already confused. Imagine being lost and having someone give you directions that include every possible route and landmark to your destination when all you want to know is north or south, left or right. The antidote to confusion is often less information. Don't add detail; come back to one or two big ideas you know they'll understand. Once their heads are nodding again you can proceed, but with caution.
4. Write Less Copy, Use More Visuals
Prospect not getting it? Write more marketing copy, right? No. Jon English said it best: "words are not enough." We're communicating in the YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram era to audiences who are more visually literate than ever. Though often more difficult and expensive to produce, infographics, videos and diagrams can do the heavy lifting of making explanations work. For example, the popular crowdfunding platform Kickstarter encourages every new project to use a video to explain their idea. The company has established that projects with video have a better rate of success (30% vs. 50%). Videos offer potential funders a simple and compelling way to understand a new idea and why it matters.
5. Remember Your Audience is Human
If you think stories are for campfires, not your state-of-the-art product, then you're forgetting that your audience is human. Stories provide a way to see how a product works in the real world, with real people. And you don't have to be a storyteller to make stories work. In fact, the most effective stories simply illustrate a person in pain who found a solution and now feels relieved. These simple stories offer a way for the audience to empathize and imagine themselves solving similar problems.
6. Focus on Why
The best explanations answer one question: why? Why does this idea, product or service make sense? Why should I care about it? Why does this matter to me? By answering the "why" early in a meeting or presentation, you create a foundation for understanding on which to build more complex ideas. Think of an explanation like a recipe. Recipes are usually focused on "how" to create a dish. The list of ingredients and instructions work, but you may not know why. By understanding why yeast and baking powder are used, for instance, you can start to see the process from a new perspective and make the next dish your own.
7. Your Job is to Inform Smart People
No one likes to be talked down to, and if you approach explanation with the wrong attitude, it can be destructive. Science writer Steven Pinker once shared advice he got from an editor concerning condescension. She told him to treat his audience as if they are as smart as him, just not as informed. Use this important point to set the tone of your explanation. Your job is to inform smart people, not help the slowest people catch up. Remembering this will help you achieve an informative, not condescending, tone.

Source from HBR Blog Network

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Wrong Hole



Very creative, funny, cool, yet fun music clip video. Hope you enjoy this as i was.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

OpenERP Functional Training



1 week ago, i had a training on Jakarta for OpenERP functional training. It was my 1st training on Jakarta and my 2nd visit to Jakarta as well, my very 1st trip was around 1 year ago. I was staying at Fave Hotel, the hotel was very nice although the room is small but looks good and it was decorated very well. I love it, the service are good, its just the restaurant menu's price are quite expensive but as expected hotel's restaurant hehe. I ordered a "nasi goreng kampung" (fried rice) around Rp. 48.000.

1st day training was the worst day in my life. U know what? I forgot to bring my work pant!!! OMG!!! I was so panic, i called receptionist ask if there r any clothes rental service there, ask the hotel staffs there if they have spare pants to borrow and even intend to ask my sister in-law to send my pant from Batam to Jakarta lol... I really dont know what todo at that time. I was so reckless forgot to bring my working pants when packing my clothes. At the end, i wore a sport pant, collared shirt and slippers to my training location. So embarrassing everyone are looking me at that time, its the worst day ever! After the training, i went to Lippo Mall to buy a black color Levi's jeans, so i can match up with my working shirt, sigh.... Ladies and gentleman, please dont ever ever ever... reckless while u packing your clothes if u r on business trip, dont be like me so stupid!

On my training i got some friends, they are all very friendly. Mr. Henry, he was the owner of the plastic manufacture, vehicle oil supplier. He sat beside me, we talked a lot and share the training material together. And also Mr. Arden, it happened that we have common hobby which is game lol, so we shared game that we play. He also shared with me about pfSense, its quite powerful tools for MIS to keep control bandwidth, security, firewall and many more of a company. I also met a Chinese Teochew people which is Mr. Suhendri, he has a lot of business, one of them is toys manufacture industry. We had some chit chat, and i found out his brother is actually a consultant sop in Pontianak, his brother is looking for a software house partner also, well hope we can have a collaboration in future i said to him hahaha. He was quite interested with the purposed collaboration from me. And lastly special thanks to Ms.Monic, she guided me how to get to nearest mall so i can buy my pants (sad memory sigh) and many more i can't write them all hahaha. It's my pleasure to met you guys all ^^.

I also visited 3 malls during my training, which are :
  1. Lippo Mall, i went there for buy black Levi's jeans, this is a exclusive mall to me, the price are damn expensive. All are branded items inside this mall, it reminds me Twin Tower at Malaysia.
  2. Plaza Semanggi, i met our company representative sales here. Well its just a introduction, i went there for gather some info only. I saw a ninja store at 3rd floor, its quite unique, and others are basically hand phone and accessories store like Lucky Plaza at Batam.
  3. Pondok Indah Mall, i went here at my last night on Jakarta with Mr.Henry & Mr. Suhendri. Mr. Hendry needs to go somewhere around there so we decided to go together and Mr. Suhendri, he was very kind, he drove us there,  because it was a heavy rain at that night. It was a big shopping mall, and got two building connected by a bridge. I was kind lost my way when i was shopping inside the mall. My friend Linam told me that its a exclusive mall whereby i might meet some of the Indonesia famous artist there. But its no use since i dont know any of them either lol.

Well as for my training, i got a lot of useful info, thanks to the trainer Mr. Iman are keen to share a lot of things outside the material during the training. At the end of training we took a picture together with the certificate, hope Mr. Iman can send to us via email so that i can upload to this blog ^^

Thats it my 5 days OpenERP Functional Training @ Jakarta experience. See you on my next adventure

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Happy Mother Day

Happy Mother Day ^^

Wish all mother in this world happy, healthy, pretty and wealthy always hehe ;-P
This year mother's day is a happiest to me, the reason is we got to gather together all family members and we also took a lot of photos together, hohoho. My family seldom take photo together, thats why it makes me so happy.



We bought a necklace for mum and had lunch on Nature Restaurant, a vegetarian restaurant. Speaking of which, the restaurant service are bad! Me and my sister went ahead to restaurant this morning for book the table, but they told us its fully booked all the table from 12:00 to 16:00. We were quite sad and went back to home and reported this news. 1 hour after that my brother in-law told me that we got a table in that restaurant, i was like "WTH!!!, why?". The reason is very simple, you will get to reserve a table if you book via phone. I was kinda exploed, WTH is this restaurant? I went to the direct location couldn't reserve, but via phone can. But anyway so long its happy ending its all right, peace :-D



Well that's all my mother day story, disappointed, surprise, happy, bless thats what i felt, how about urs? Care to share urs to me? Please comment....

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

AWSome Day Event in SG


Today i attended "AWSome Day" event in Singapore, the first Amazon Web Service (AWS) Could Day in Asia.Very crowded, its free after all, and i just received the info that i got a seat the yesterday morning although i registered around 2 weeks ago, sigh... It was held on NTUC, same building with the Microsoft office. I went to Microsoft office before for a showcase on a seminar i took from SIM, and today i'm going there feels like yesterday i just went to Microsoft office.

It's a good event, i'm glad i got a seat, thanks Amazon giving me this chance to see your technology. The agenda is to let us know most of the AWS services such as :
  • AWS Cloud Compute
  • AWS Cloud Storage
  • AWS Cloud Networking
  • AWS Cloud Database
  • AWS Cloud Application Services
  • AWS Cloud Security, Deployment, Management & Myths
The product service that i have the biggest impression are the Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service), the simple storage which Dropbox also using this service!, Amazon Redshift for data warehouse which can be used for BI analysis and 1 more service i couldn't find it on AWS website, it's regarding the cloud function for deployment purposes.

Well at the end of event, we also got some lucky draw for Amazon Kindle and some Amazon $100 vouchers, but as usual i always got nothing from lucky draw hikz... So what i got is the attendance certificate, student guide, and a limited edition Amazon T-Shirt, lol the speaker keep emphasized this T-Shirt is the limited edition.


Sunday, April 14, 2013

Running Man 2nd experience @ BCS

Running Man, the very popular variety show on Korea, too funny that me and my girlfriend could spend 1 day full just watching this variety show. They have a lot of unique games inside for all member of running man to take as mission to complete and decide the winner. 1 of the famous game is hide and seek.

I played once in my company event, but i'm going to write my 2nd experience playing running man with my friends; Atek, Exwin, Sendi, Tony, Septi, Xiao Bai, Erlyn. We divided into 2 teams

Blue Team
vs
Red Team
Stone

Sendi
Atek
Tony
Erlyn
Septi
Xiao Bai


Exwin's role is the PD for our mission. Our mission location is at BCS Mall Batam, located at an area at Batam Island called "Nagoya" and well known as "Batam Chinese Town" area. We went to mall after all the store had closed and hide inside for play running man ^^ lets roll...

1st challenge is Blue Team as Mission Team and Red Team as Seeker. We got 2 missions from Exwin PD, whereby :
  1. We have to take 5 pictures of store's name where the name must have the same alphabet side by side as the condition.

  2. We have to find 8 out of 10 pieces of ripped carton among 2nd and 3rd floor

The funny thing is that either mission team or seeker need to avoid security check inside mall, because at the time whereby all store had closed we're not supposed to wondering inside the mall anymore lol. Well for 1st challenge we were lost, we had caught by seeker team, we only managed to finish mission no.1 and found 1 piece of ripped carton for mission no.2.

2nd challenge, we swap the position, now blue team as seeker and red team as mission team. The mission were same but we make it easier since it's too hard to find things inside mall while there'r a lot of securities, so we changed into 4 ripped cartons hidden at top floor @ car park.

This time, the security get alert and form a team with 3 securities to stop us wondering around the mall lol... Most of us are being caught by security but we just ignored them pretend nothing happened and just go away haha... End of the game were draw, they got caught by us as well.

I assume we won't go to the mall for time being for playing running man but find new location to play again. Remember don't try this at your region! Hahaha, we're just a running man fans wanna try it out for fun only.. peace ^^

I'm Back !


Yea i'm back.... Stone has back !
After leaving blogger for 2 years. Skip post so much of my adventure, but! now!
Stone has come back B-)

Stay tune, Stone Adventure...

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Jogjakarta

~~Newest Stone Adventure on 2010 - Jogjakarta~~

Sudah lama tidak adventure ne... Kali ini visit ke Jogjakarta untuk melihat Candi Borobudur, salah satu dari 7 keajaiban dunia hehe... Holiday 4D3N (15 February - 18 February 2010) bersama keluarga g and dear g. Kita terbang kesana dengan menggunakan Airasia (cost $126) so butuh lewat Singapore baru ke Jogjakarta.

Sebelum pergi kami berangkat 1 hari sebelum hari penerbangan ke Singapore tanggal 14 February, tepatnya hari Valentine. Haiz... terpaksa vday ke Singapore karena takut terlambat ke airport soalnya jadwal penerbangan kami pada pagi hari. Dan lebih sialnya sewaktu antri naik taxi di Singapore, saya ketemu satu orang gila (mungkin mabuk atau stress) dan bertengkar disana gara-gara antrian panjang dan taxi semuanya on-call. What a day! Well whatever d, habis tuh pagi-pagi kami bangun dan langsung berangkat ke Jogjakarta... Here i come !!!

Setelah nyampai di Jogjakarta, kami langsung menuju hotel Kristina yang sebelumnya sudah kami book di Batam. Disana kami book 1 family room dan 2 standard room. Mayan ok lar 1 malam untuk standard room adalah Rp. 210.000. Kalau teman-teman mau visit ke Jogjakarta, saya sarankan tinggal disana ok juga. Lokasinya di Jl.Dagen dekat kota dan ke airport sekitar 30 menit. And then kami mencari transport yang murah disekitarnya dan dapat Rp. 400.000 per 10 jam 1 hari. Itu adalah harga paling murah yang saya dapat disana.

After that kami jalan-jalan di Jl.Marioboro, disana banyak sekali orang jual-jualan makanan, baju, aksesoris dan banyak sekali. Jika teman-teman kesana jangan lupa 1 kata "bargain" ! Tawarlar harga serendah mungkin karena sebenarnya barangnya tidak mahal, tetapi orangnya menaikkan sampai tinggi karena kita tourist. Barang Rp. 50.000 harus tawarkan sampai Rp. 15.000 baru ok hehe...

Well tempat wisata yang kami visit pertama adalah Candi Borobudur. Sebenarnya Candi Borobudur tidak berada di wilayah Jogjakarta, melainkan di Jawa Tengah. Dari hotel ke sana membutuhkan waktu sekitar 1jam lebih. Disana banjir orang jual-jualan oleh-oleh, T-Shirt dan sebagainya. Pas kami sampai disana panas sekali !!! Hot man !!! Btw disana ada yang rental payung juga, so tidak usah khawatir kalau lupa membawa payung kesana hahaha.... Candi Borobudur sangat besar, sangat cantik dan unik. Jika sudah sampai sana, jangan lupa untuk mencoba untuk memegang patung yang berada dipaling atas candi. Soalnya disana ada mitos bahwa barang siapa yang dapat memegang patung yang berada didalam candi itu akan mendapat keberuntungan... hokkie gitu lor.

After Candi, kami singgah ke Gunung Merapi. Perjalanan sekitar 45 menit. Disana kami foto-foto dan mendengar sedikit cerita tentang gunung api tersebut. Sewaktu Gunung Merapi meletus, penduduk setempat sempat foto dan hasil foto tersebut terlihat bahwa laharnya mirip dengan gambar seorang cewek. Jadi mereka percaya bahwa ada rohnya didalam gunung api tersebut. Dan dekat sana juga ada sebuah underground tempat penduduk berdiam diri sewaktu gunung api meletus.



Next kami kembali ke Jl. Marioboro. Dan disana kami pergi ke Plaza terbesarnya jalan-jalan. Well ga jauh beda dengan mall di Batam. Oh ya note untuk teman-teman yang pengen ke Jogjakarta, di Jl. Marioboro kita bisa naik becak atau becak kuda untuk keliling di wilayah sekitarnya. Kita akan dibawanya keliling-keliling Kraton, beli T-Shirt, dan juga oleh-oleh khas Jogja, Bapia Pathok.



Hari berikutnya kami jalan-jalan ke Kraton, tempat peninggalan sultan (museum). After that kami langsung berangkat ke Candi Prambanan. Disana aga sepi dibanding Candi Borobudur. Menurut saya letak struktur Candi Prambanan lebih cantik dan rapi dibanding Candi Borobudur. Tapi sekarang tempat wisata ini mungkin aga menurut derajatnya karena Candi Prambanan dilanda gempa dulu dan kebanyakan arsiteknya hancur. Dan didalam Candi Prambanan terdapat 8 candi, dan candi terbesar sekarang di larang masuk. Saya dengar dari para turis yang kebetulan kesana itu bahwa ada patung didalam candi terbesar itu hilang karena diculik. Well wonder its true or not???

After that kami ke Pantai Parangtritis. Nah inilah yang paling saya recommend sebagai tempat wisata yang paling bagus di Jogjakarta. Pantai ini sangat cantik, but jangan coba-coba untuk berenang ya! Karena ombaknya sangat besar dan telah memakan banyak korban terutama anak kecil! Dipantai ini enaknya adalah kita dapat naik kuda keliling pantai. Ini juga pengalaman pertama saya naik kuda sendirian tanpa dipandu oleh petugasnya. Well its so exciting to ride horse along the beach hohoho... 1 keliling naik kuda harganya Rp. 25.000, its worth to try!!!

After that kembali lagi ke hotel dan itulah akhir dari perjalanan saya di Jogjakarta. Well selama di Jogjakarta menyenangkan juga. Tips saya untuk teman-teman adalah sewaktu belanja apapun ingat bargain! Karena kalau tidak bargain bakal rugi! Well sewaktu belanja oleh-oleh saya juga discover ada pelukis jalanan yang gambar wajah orang. Jadi iseng-iseng saja saya minta digambarin wajah saya dan dear saya. inilah hasilnya dibawah ini hahaha...


Yah lumayanlah buat fond memories di Jogjakarta. Gambar ini saya lagi santai duduk becak dan dear saya yang drive hahaha... Ini dibuat seperti ini karena saya request untuk digambar dalam bentuk kartun hehe... Lucu juga kadang melihat gambar ini hahaha...

Well sampai disini telah the end of my adventure on Jogjakarta... So sad, seperti biasanya holiday itu cepat lewatnya. Yah di Jogja ini memang menyenangkan tapi melelahkan karena cuacanya panas minta ampun. Menurut saya tempat ini datang 1x sudah ok. Tidak butuh lebih dari satu kali karena bisa bosan hehe... Total budget dari Batam-Singapore-Jogjakarta total baik dari penginapan, transport, makan, dan main dari holiday saya sekitar Rp. 2.000.000 untuk 4D3N sudah lebih dari cukup. Well can't wait until my next adventure on Bali, cause 2 weeks later i'll be on Bali for new adventure!!! C u there ;)

Valentine Day 2010

Valentine day on 2010 is a special day for me. Why? Cause on this day is me & my girlfriend's first Valentine and also 100th day anniversary. So its really special for me ^_^

Usually people will have a romantic candle light dinner on this day. But it didnt happen on me. Unfortunately this valentine day was near to our flight to Jogjakarta. Our flight was on 15th February 2010 and its at 10:00 AM early in the morning. So we decided to go to Singapore earlier on 14th February. Haiz..!

But its ok lar.. As long as we love each other, everyday is Valentine day :)







Well on this Valentine day, i bought a couple octopus dolls and i received a belt from her. What did you receive from your partner?? Comment here and share with us :)

Thursday, January 7, 2010

2nd Month Anniversary Gift

Is it weird? Usually most topic people will use is "1st Month Anniversary Gift", but mine is 2nd Month Anniversary Gift. Haiz...

Well it caused by my girlfriend has to go to Bali for few months accompany her mom holiday... She was so cruel leaving me behind after few days we were dating. But i was actually very happy that she came back sooner than schedule to surprised me at Xmas. I was very tired at that time, and she came by to my side, make my heart feel warms. Thanks my dear, love you so much.

To make the anniversary of my first date meaningful, i planned to surprise her as well. I learned how to fold origami roses on website and make a lot of them. And put them on a cork with love shape and warp them with plastic and some decoration on the border.


Yesterday, 6th January 2010 is our 2nd Month Anniversary. I gave her this special gift and she were very happy. So its victory to me after all this effort to do this. Fiuh... really tired, i'd spend many extra times on each night to do this.

After i gave her this gift, i received a gift from her as well. Wow its chocolate !!! And have many different shapes with letter on it. She specially made for me, so touch. Thanks dear love you ^_^



Well let's see... what trick should i use on this valentine day... Any suggestion from you? Comment here and share with us :D