Strategic heading by G. Oliver Young » Sports

Do I Sense Some Personal Jealously?

Oliver — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:02:45 +0000

Well this has nothing to do with social media whatsoever, but I got a good laugh this morning when I checked in on the Detroit Tigers. I know newspapers aren’t doing well these days, but this is getting a bit personal (see below).

Here is the article in case you want to check in on the original.

When Bad Design Happens To Good Companies: StubHub Edition

Oliver — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:09:06 +0000

Now that hockey and basketball have officially closed up shop I’m starting to tune back into baseball and have been pleased to find my Tigers in first place — in the worst division in baseball, but hey, I’ll take it. Its been quite a few years since I have lived in Detroit, so when the Tigers are in town I try to get to as many games as I can. When they aren’t I spend my time going to Giants and A’s games mostly when the weather is nice, a couple of top shelf pitchers are going, or I just need a baseball fix.

Tonight I’m going to see Randy Johnson. I’ve never had the opportunity to see The Big Unit in person and I am looking forward to catching one of the games best pitchers before he retires — even if he’s not quite as intimidating as he used to be. So, as per usual I went over to StubHub to find tickets. Now, in my view, StubHub is the best place to find tickets for the simple fact that it has an interactive map of what tickets are available (why Ticketmaster can’t seem to figure out this technology is beyond me). So, in just a few minutes I found tickets and was ready to roll.

So I clicked “purchase” and logged in. What did I find next in my purchase process, why the screen shot below (you may need to click in to see exactly what has gone wrong).

Now, I am a big fan of site analytics. Anything you can do to get a better understanding of how your website is working or how satisfied your users are is worth the effort. But I have to question placing the popup one-third of the way through my purchase! Now I know, the ForeSee popup is random, but come on guys, how hard is it to hold the survey until after I’ve completed what I actually came to the site to do. My guess is if you can hold on just a few more clicks you’ll get a considerably more response.

What 0-16 Will Mean To Me

Oliver — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 15:46:24 +0000

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you some breaking news: the Detroit Lions suck.

All joking aside I would like to take a brief moment to reflect on my sorry excuse for a football team, the Detroit Lions, who stand on the brink of the first winless season in the NFL since the league expanded to a 16 game schedule in 1978. Yes, I am a Lions fan. No, I am not willing to switch allegiances to the Raiders or the Niners. Yes, I am rooting for an 0-16 season.

It took me a long time to fully embrace 0-16. All the way up to 0-14 I was rooting for a win each week. But the last two weeks something clicked. We are guaranteed to be one of the top 5 worst teams in NFL history regardless of what happens today so we might as well go all in and grab an undisputed #1. I don’t expect to ever get into arguments with Steelers fans, Patriots fans, or Giants fans over the best teams and franchises in NFL history, but I do expect to get into plenty of arguments with Raiders fans, Cardinals fans, and Seahawks fans over the worst.

So here is to the trump card. Here is to embracing the misery. And here is to the Red Wings and the Pistons; thank god for small miracles — I could have grown up in Cleveland.