# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending September 18, 2020

Published: 18 September 2020
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-september-18-2020

## 1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK

Customer success has many metrics to track (in 2020) - [here is a comprehensive list of the top 15](https://www.parlor.io/blog/top-saas-customer-success-metrics). NPS making the top of the list. From [Asknicely](https://www.asknicely.com/), [This White Paper](https://www.asknicely.com/blog/customer-experience-metrics-understanding-csat-ces-nps-5-star) reviews NPS and some other common user experience metrics.

Link: https://www.parlor.io/blog/top-saas-customer-success-metrics

## 2. SHAPE UP

A refresher for your tech dictionaries. Software product development requires innovative strategies based on today's cadence expectations of continuous integration, micro-services, feature delivery, and scale. The team at [Basecamp](https://basecamp.com/) (I’m an old school fan) have developed [ShapeUp, their publications and toolbox of techniques designed to eliminate chaos when it comes to designing, prioritizing and shipping product/features](https://basecamp.com/shapeup).

Link: https://basecamp.com/

## 3. DIFFERENTIATION

Standing out in a saturated sea of SaaS is a tricky problem to solve - pro-tip - never do it on price alone. So ask yourself - why should someone buy from you? It requires balancing familiarity and differentiation - [read this article to get you thinking on the topic more](https://cxl.com/blog/differentiation-strategy/).

Link: https://cxl.com/blog/differentiation-strategy/

## 4. CUSTOMER PROFILE

Here is a great tool for anyone. Sales can be a real uphill battle when sales teams don't truly understand their ideal customer, building out customer profiles is an incredibly useful way to identify your best customers. So download [this Profiler kit pdf](https://www.dropbox.com/s/0q7aiwkc3ug78jf/icp-checklist.pdf?dl=0%20)and use these [questions and survey generator](https://close.com/resources/ideal-customer-profile-generator/) to quickly generate the ideal questions and template for your customer profiles. The rest is all on you.

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0q7aiwkc3ug78jf/icp-checklist.pdf?dl=0%20

## 5. DEADLINES

Author Douglas Adams once wrote *“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.”.* It’s funny because it's true. So when it comes to software development, how do you make peace with that whoosh? Check [this article from Free Code Camp that discusses the art of managing the deadline](https://medium.com/free-code-camp/how-to-make-peace-with-deadlines-in-software-development-6cfe3e993f51) - part of it is complimentary to a reference to the [sub-art of saying NO](https://medium.com/free-code-camp/the-most-important-skill-a-programmer-can-learn-9d410c786baf) from a couple of weeks back.

Link: https://medium.com/free-code-camp/how-to-make-peace-with-deadlines-in-software-development-6cfe3e993f51

## 6. OUTREACH

Things like “*Let's catch up for Coffee*” is sooooo 2019. Given our less-social lives that are mainly digital, [check these fantastic tips and tricks for creating outreach that matters](https://sparktoro.com/blog/outreach-tips-that-are-better-than-anything-youll-find-searching-google/). We can all do better.

Link: https://sparktoro.com/blog/outreach-tips-that-are-better-than-anything-youll-find-searching-google/

## 7. COOKIES

(not the chocolate chip kind). Love them or hate them, the reality is that browser cookies are headed the way of the Dodo, which creates a new attribution problem to solve. Conversion modeling is a way forward, so if attribution is a necessary part of your business or your channel/partners Business, take a read of [this article from Google on why conversion modeling will be crucial in a world without cookies](https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-strategies/data-and-measurement/conversion-measurement-in-a-cookieless-world).

Link: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-strategies/data-and-measurement/conversion-measurement-in-a-cookieless-world

## 8. EMAIL

A few weeks back I referenced [a power point deck](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1s3PJdZpkZSSFT9MqHcHIQly7z9X3IMIb0fOvDy3bi9E/edit#slide=id.g8d379308d7_0_193) from Predictable Revenue on the four pillars they think constitutes a quality sales based email campaign. Quality resource for anyone with email marketing as part of their businesses. From Better Marketing this week is a [complimentary deep dive into a single cold email and why the author actually opened it](https://medium.com/better-marketing/the-best-cold-e-mail-ive-ever-received-bfa224677b64) (TL;DR - yes it’s all about everything in the emails design, but more about how targeted the message is).

Link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1s3PJdZpkZSSFT9MqHcHIQly7z9X3IMIb0fOvDy3bi9E/edit#slide=id.g8d379308d7_0_193

## 9. NOTE TAKING APPS

Yup - this is a random headline. But with all things 2020, this sector is pretty hot right now. [Roam](https://roamresearch.com/) is a new competitor that has achieved a whopping [$200 million valuation at SEED STAGE](https://www.theinformation.com/articles/a-200-million-seed-valuation-for-roam-shows-investor-frenzy-for-note-taking-apps) thanks to the shift to remote work (and some interesting pricing models). The other new competitor, Notion, is valued even higher - currently about $2 Billion. How???? Well, I got you covered with that question. Check [this incredible deep dive from Foundation](https://foundationinc.co/lab/notion-strategy) on how Notion used community and templates to scale.

Link: https://roamresearch.com/

## 10. VIDEO

Nailing introductory and Demo videos is a bit of an art form. Don’t know where to start or have video-block? Get inspiration from [this curated collection of some of the best](https://www.alexanderjarvis.com/intro-and-demo-videos-from-famous-startups) and [here is a list of 6 videos every SaaS Company needs](https://blog.goldenspiralmarketing.com/6-videos-every-saas-company-needs). (TL;DR Explainers, Company, Testimonials, landing, page, FAQ and Personalized Sales)

Link: https://www.alexanderjarvis.com/intro-and-demo-videos-from-famous-startups

## POD OF THE WEEK

Trade shows/travel are so not 2020. So listen to predictable revenue talk about [how to build a content strategy to replace trade shows and travel](https://open.spotify.com/episode/6lBRS1ZoIEyj495eY17E4a?si=YWWnCqmuQj2oc7UdIMu5lg).

Link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6lBRS1ZoIEyj495eY17E4a?si=YWWnCqmuQj2oc7UdIMu5lg