| Vaidehi Bhashyam Mehta | — @mehta_vaidehi

In the course of your career, you will have written, read and replied scores of emails. So, it is essential that we understand the fundamentals of business email writing.

 We write business emails to:

• ask for information
• share information
• exchange views and opinions
• fix meetings

Every email is different from the next in many ways, but here are some common points to bear in mind when you are writing one:

 1. Start with a good subject line

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, if you want your email or message to be read, your subject line should draw the reader’s attention.

Pitch Meeting - (name of client) - 10 a.m., (date) makes better sense than Meeting or Pitch.

 2. Keep it simple

You want the recipient of your email to understand your message, and understand it fast. You don’t want to confuse the reader, so keep your writing simple...

| Daniel Anandaraj Garnipudi | - @dodosamuel

The past couple of weeks have been a somewhat stressful with incredible deals having to be delivered at work. Of course, there have been stress-related outbursts. Every outburst turned out to be related to some other factor and the reason for the outburst was just a culmination of, perhaps, many small things which added to my stress.

Stress, if not managed correctly, can lead to unwanted pressures. And such pressures, like slowly growing pimples, will get bigger and bigger till they explode.

I am not talking about “chronic” stress that could lead to depressions, but rather what is termed as “acute” stress – stress related to pressures of the recent past or near future and — importantly — the present. A review that perhaps didn’t go as well as you would have liked, a big event coming up in your life, or even being late to work due to...

| Vaidehi Bhashyam Mehta | @mehta_vaidehi

With the internet allowing for instant communication, letter-writing is becoming rarer by the day. Text messaging seems to be the preferred way of communicating. And with it has evolved a whole new language — txt msg english.

We write and read emails every day. While your personal emails to friends and family are casual and intimate, business or work-related emails are formal, or at best semi-formal. Despite being tech-savvy, most managers today still struggle to use the email efficiently as a means of communication, whilst others are blissfully unaware of where they are going wrong.

But, there’s no denying that email-writing is important and has become an essential means of daily communication and a record of dealings and transactions.

Here are the essential elements of an email and once you follow this structure, writing a good email...

Jose Joseph

It is pretty hard for teams and individuals to change an approach or the way they do things are being done. With change, invariably, comes resistance. For example, if I am used to doing things in a certain way and someone wants me to do them differently, I may find it very difficult to change or even accept that change is possible or necessary.

In the same way, when we move our existing delivery process to a new one, we are bound to face our own challenges in coming to terms with the new process.

Here are a few pointers that I believe we can follow as a team to deliver the projects in the Agile way.

 It’s all in the attitude

Agile begins with attitude. If the team emphasises “doing agile” rather than “being agile”, you’re on the wrong foot right from the start. Agile is a paradigm, a mental shift in how you approach development. The specific techniques and ceremonies...

| Amit Mehta | - @AmitKO84

“PVR buys Sathyam Cinemas!”

Multiple Whatsapp groups are buzzing with messages about the big acquisition. Only people associated with Chennai (like me) will understand that these messages are not from sharing news from a business standpoint but due to an emotional quotient.

“What will happen to Sathyam Popcorn?!” — a question asked by everyone from my mother to a close friend. This message clearly echoes the sentiment created by Chennai’s most beloved cinema chain.

Where else will you find these sentiments?

Let’s break the topic down and see why it all adds up.

 Setting the scene

PVR Cinemas, India’s largest multiplex chain (with 638 screens) will be acquiring close to 72% of SPI Cinemas, south India’s largest cinema chain (with 76 screens) in a deal valued at INR 850 cr (over USD 122 m). SPI Cinemas owns the iconic Sathyam Cinemas in Chennai.

| Sulil Madhok | - @sulil

Have you lost out on closing the deal because it was hard for you to justify the cost of your website or app development or other digital marketing services?

Do you think it is difficult to convince a client to pay the asking price for the expertise and value you offer rather than for just your labour?

If you have faced these issues, let me make it clear that you are not alone. Many people find themselves in these situations and are trying to find solutions to ensure the deal is closed. One of the most effective ways in which we try to avoid this is by showing our potential clients the Value Proposition.

 Make clients come to you through Brand Positioning

We study and understand what competitors do when they offer services similar to what Influx is offering. This may be complicated to find out for a specific competitor but it is possible to get an overview...

| Misbah Fathima | @mizuuuuuu12

“Being a mother is learning about strengths you didn’t know you had and dealing with fears you didn’t know existed” — Linda Wooten, author

How often do you feel guilty for working late? For not being there with your kid all the time? For buying cookies outside instead of baking them yourself? For meeting the standards set by your own mother and mother-in-law? The list just goes on and I have faced all of this and more in my day-to-day life. I am here to share some of the tips on how to get things straight based on my personal experiences.

To begin with, the answer to all our problems is, Get Over It!. Whether you are a working mother or not, you are going to be criticised for how you bring up your kid. This blog is not about what you should be doing for your little one; it’s about how you do it.

 Communication is the key

Just as it does in any other...

| Vaidehi Bhashyam Mehta | @mehta_vaidehi

V: “Hi! How are you!?”

V’s friend: “Just a sec….”.

V: “Haven’t seen you…”

V’s friend: “Sorrryyyyy! One second….”

V: “… in a while…..”

V’s friend: “Sorry, sorrry! Just had to reply this message from work! So, how are you?”

V: “I’m well! How have you been?”

V’s friend: “Fine, fine…. Dash! Another message!”

V: “Sure, no problem…. (I think…)”

V’s friend: “Gosh! Kate Spade and now Anthony Bourdain!”

V: “Huh?”

Ok, Am I being phubbed?

 Oh yes, I most definitely was.

This was just a few weeks ago and it’s not the first time that I’ve been interrupted with “just a second”, or “I just have to take this call” and “Sorry, can I just answer this message?”.

These are the really “polite” phubbers. The others will ignore you in favour of their phones, not so much because they want to be mean to but because what they are doing/seeing on their...

| Arun Raj M. | @iamarun_raj

 A brief history of Agile

The term Agile was first coined in the year 2001 by a group of seventeen people known as “The Agile Alliance”. Agile is a development process which is flexible and collaborative. Different teams focus on creating working software through continuous customer-validation rather than focusing solely on technical requirements.

With Agile having made a major impact on the design world, it might be the best time to reflect on the realistic demands of current UX projects. Let’s dig into the four stages of every Agile product development lifecycle and explain the UX implications at each stage.

1. Research and Investigate
2. Brainstorm and Sketch
3. Design and Development
4. Test and Evaluate

 Research and Investigate

This is the most critical phase where you must focus on information-gathering and collecting answers to questions such as:

• Who...