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Somewhat Frank


Sep 11, 2018

Sometimes I feel like we are living in a Neal Stephenson novel with companies like Amazon making it’s so darn easy to flip through their app on your phone, ordering whatever you need and having it arrive almost instantly (or at least within a few hours). It’s amazing. Remember, it was not too long ago that you’d have to run from store to store searching for an item! Now your “wild goose chases” can happen right from your glowing 4 inch screen. That said, when I’m shopping and there are a bunch of similar products out there I find myself relying heavily on reviews as my guide to finding the best product. I’ve spent hours looking at reviews and deliberating.

After chatting one day with my friend Matt Hirschmann of Lucid Creative, a D.C. area based full-service design firm, about Amazon, we hit upon a really important topic; the legitimacy of reviews. There was a time that we felt pretty confident referencing the number of reviews with the strength of the review to make a quick decision. But spoiler: bad apples are ruining this for all of us. There are services out there that specifically help get your product positive reviews on Amazon – good for the products, bad for consumers. In this episode, Matt shares his latest insights with me as we try to save the Amazon review system by offering up a potential startup idea for anyone willing to take it on.

We recorded this episode from a pool in Key West, Florida while on brief summer holiday, so you may hear a pool waterfall or a bird chirping in the background. Please don’t try this at home, you’ll never sound as good as a bird and you could drop your recording gear. Not to mention, you’ll want to strive for better work life balance.