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Rising insurance costs are leading providers and condo associations to consider changes to policies that would make some loans ineligible for GSE sale. View the full article

Delaware is trying to protect its status as the corporate capital of the world amid fallout from a judge’s rejection of billionaire Elon Musk’s landmark Tesla compensation package, although critics say fast-tracked legislation will tilt the playing field against investors, including pensioners and middle-class savers. A Delaware House committee was expected to vote Wednesday on the bill, which is backed by Democratic Gov. Matt Meyer who says it’ll ensure the state remains the “premier home for U.S. and global businesses” to incorporate. Backers say it’ll modernize the law and maintain balance between corporate officers and shareholders in a state where the courts, for a century, have settled all sorts of business disputes as the legal home of more than two million corporate entities, including two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies. Critics—including institutional investors, pension funds and asset managers—say it’ll lower corporate governance standards, curb shareholder rights and, as a result, limit the ability to hold corporate officers accountable for decisions that violate their fiduciary duty. The bill passed the state Senate unanimously last week. What happened in Elon Musk’s case? A Delaware judge last year invalidated Musk’s compensation package from Tesla that was potentially worth more than $55 billion. Lawyers for shareholders had sued over the package that Tesla’s board of directors awarded Musk in 2018. Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick said it was developed by directors who weren’t independent of Musk and approved by shareholders who had been given misleading and incomplete disclosures in a proxy statement. The ruling bumped Musk out of the top spot on Forbes’s list of wealthiest people, although he has since climbed back up. Musk and Tesla are appealing in the state Supreme Court. But Musk unloaded on Delaware, saying “Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware” and instead recommended competitors Nevada or Texas as destinations. Now, lawmakers are being warned by corporate lawyers that their clients are considering heading to the exits—making a “Dexit,” as it’s been dubbed—and that startups are being advised to incorporate elsewhere. What did Musk and others do? Must took his own advice, moving Tesla’s corporate listing to Texas after a shareholder vote and his companies SpaceX to Texas and Neuralink to Nevada. Backers of the bill say corporate unrest had been simmering the past couple years over various Delaware Supreme Court decisions in corporate conflict-of-interest cases and that Musk inflamed the discontent. The fallout seemed to accelerate in recent weeks when the Wall Street Journal reported that Meta Platforms—the parent company of social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp—was considering moving its incorporation to Texas. Meta didn’t confirm the report. DropBox, the online file-sharing platform, moved its corporate listing to Nevada, and Bill Ackman, founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, a major hedge fund, said he’d leave Delaware, too. On Feb. 1, Musk took to his social media platform X to crow about it, saying, “Companies are flooding out of Delaware, because the activist chief judge of the Delaware court has no respect for shareholder rights.” That said, critics of the bill say there’s no evidence that corporations are fleeing Delaware in any numbers. What does the bill do? It changes several things. One, it gives corporations more protections in conflict-of-interest cases—such as a pay package for a CEO or intercompany agreements—in state courts when fighting shareholder lawsuits. Two, it limits the kind of documents that a company must produce in court cases and makes it harder for stockholders to get access to internal documents or communication that could prove time-consuming and expensive for a company to produce—not to mention, damaging to its case. Eric Talley, a Columbia University law professor, has compiled a running list of three dozen Delaware Supreme Court precedents that the legislation stands to change. Lawrence Hamermesh, a former professor at Widener University’s Delaware Law School, disagreed. Hamermesh, who helped draft the legislation after Meyer asked him last month, said perhaps only a couple doctrines would be wiped out. A legal challenge is widely expected should Meyer get the bill and sign it into law. Meanwhile, institutional investors say such a law may prompt them to push corporations that they own to incorporate elsewhere. Why is this a big deal for Delaware? Money. Approximately one-third of Delaware’s state government revenue—about $2.2 billion—comes from corporate license fees and associated tax revenues, according to the governor’s office. That helps the state to maintain a 0% sales tax and keep property taxes relatively low, a nice perk for the beach vacation home industry along its Atlantic coast. Beyond that, Wilmington is home to a cottage industry that caters to the corporate lawyers who live, stay, dine and shop around the state Supreme Court and the Chancery Court of Delaware buildings where they argue their cases. __ Follow Marc Levy on X at: https://x.com/timelywriter. —Marc Levy, Associated Press View the full article

Decision comes even as government joins other European countries in seeking to raise military spending View the full article

Nestlé USA is voluntarily recalling a limited quantity of Lean Cuisine and Stouffer’s frozen meals after reports of potential contamination with “foreign matter,” namely wood-like material. The Arlington, Virginia, company emphasizes that no other varieties of Lean Cuisine or Stouffer’s meals are involved in the recall and that there is no evidence of other products being contaminated. A notice was also posted on the website of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Here’s what you need to know: What products are affected? This recall is isolated to a limited quantity of batches of the following items, which were produced between August 2024 and March 2025 and distributed at major retailers in the United States between September 2024 and March 2025. Lean Cuisine Butternut Squash Ravioli Lean Cuisine Spinach Artichoke Ravioli Lean Cuisine Lemon Garlic Shrimp Stir Fry STOUFFER’S Party Size Chicken Lasagna What to do if you bought these products If you have purchased any of the affected products, you are encouraged to dispose of them or return them to the store for a full refund. “We are committed to the quality and safety of the food we provide our consumers,” Nestlé USA said in its recall notice. “We are taking proactive steps to remove affected products from stores and to ensure that no other products are impacted by this issue.” View the full article

Nestlé USA is voluntarily recalling a limited quantity of Lean Cuisine and Stouffer’s frozen meals after reports of potential contamination with “foreign matter,” namely wood-like material. The Arlington, Virginia, company emphasizes that no other varieties of Lean Cuisine or Stouffer’s meals are involved in the recall and that there is no evidence of other products being contaminated. A notice was also posted on the website of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Here’s what you need to know: What products are affected? This recall is isolated to a limited quantity of batches of the following items, which were produced between August 2024 and March 2025 and distributed at major retailers in the United States between September 2024 and March 2025. Lean Cuisine Butternut Squash Ravioli Lean Cuisine Spinach Artichoke Ravioli Lean Cuisine Lemon Garlic Shrimp Stir Fry STOUFFER’S Party Size Chicken Lasagna What to do if you bought these products If you have purchased any of the affected products, you are encouraged to dispose of them or return them to the store for a full refund. “We are committed to the quality and safety of the food we provide our consumers,” Nestlé USA said in its recall notice. “We are taking proactive steps to remove affected products from stores and to ensure that no other products are impacted by this issue.” View the full article

As professionals with targets, projects to manage and bills to pay, we must perform, whether it’s the beginning of the week or the exhausting end of a long, hard one. And it’s precisely when times get tough that a good motivational speech is most beneficial, inspiring us to clear any psychological and physical hurdles that are keeping us from our goals. What’s amazing about people is, that despite the external forces at play on our constitution, we can always be influenced by attitude. If your coworkers or managers can motivate you, suddenly that hidden resource is tapped, and you’re ready to get up and go again with renewed energy and focus. Leaders can motivate and inspire through communication. Great leaders are charismatic and articulate, and they use these attributes to rally the troops. You’ve probably heard or read some of those famous speeches that have helped people at their lowest reach for the highest aspirations. The following is a collection of some of the best motivational speeches, chock-full of inspirational words, sure to motivate you when you need it most. Allyson Felix, The Olympic Spirit — and How You Can Tap Into It, 2024 Allyson Felix is an 11-time Olympic medalist. In fact, she is the most decorated track and field Olympian in history. Beyond her inspiration as an athlete, she is also incredibly motivating outside of her sport. She understands firsthand how to navigate setbacks in all areas of life. Live from the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, Felix discusses how to thrive under pressure and find a purpose that extends beyond winning. In this motivational speech, she provides tangible tips that will resonate with everyone, regardless of where they are in life. Barack Obama, DNC Speech, 2004 Before Barack Obama became the first African-American President of the United States, when he was little known outside the grassroots activist community in Chicago, he was given a national platform as the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. He acknowledged what everyone was likely thinking and how surprising it was for him to be addressing the audience at the convention. But he started by stating his roots, which were not dissimilar from other Americans, who constitute, after all, a nation of immigrants. He infused the audience, nation and even the world with a sense of hope for the future. After this speech, he continued to connect with people and motivate them to elect him four years later to the highest office in the land. Related: How to Manage Better with Transformational Leadership Jim Carrey, Commencement Address, Maharishi University, 2014 From the sublime to the ridiculous, even comic actors like Jim Carrey can find inspirational words to motivate. At this point in his successful career, Carrey moved from celluloid buffoon to philosophic guru. That change was first on display at this speech for the graduates of Maharishi University in 2014. He told these future managers that they should never settle for less than what they want. He illustrated this by talking about his father, who could have been a comedian but chose the safe route of accounting—a job he eventually lost. That life lesson wasn’t lost on Carrey, who saved the world from one more accountant. Related: The 25 Most Inspiring Leadership Quotes Steve Jobs, Commencement Speech, Stanford, 2005 Commencements tend to bring out the motivational speeches, and who would expect any less than the best from Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The man who inspired a company to become one of the most successful in world history, and who motivated people to want his products with a zealousness almost unheard of, was the go-to guy for rich insights. At this speech at Stanford, he tells three stories: the first is about dropping out of Reed College, which he said was the best decision of his life. That led to the creation of a company he loved and built up, only to later get fired from. But that dismissal leads to Apple. Finally, he spoke of being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. These challenges, any of which could have sent another spiraling to the depths of despair, taught him to become more resilient and fight harder for what he wanted. Related: 10 Strategies to Motivate Your Team Ed Mylett, Your Imperfections Are Your Greatest Asset, 2023 Ed Mylett is a globally recognized speaker, coach, entrepreneur and best-selling author. He uses platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram to share what he has learned as a businessman, father, husband and philanthropist. In this motivational video, Ed delves into facing your imperfections head-on instead of hiding from them. He notes how humans can leverage these imperfections for the better to help them chase their dreams and achieve their goals. To further drive home his points, Mylett uses his personal anecdotes to inspire others. You only need 15 minutes to gain incredible insight from this motivational video. Al Pacino, Any Given Sunday Speeches are fiction of a sort, so it’s not surprising that some of the most inspirational speeches can be found in the arts. The football film, Any Given Sunday, is a perfect example. What’s more cliché than the coach inspiring the team to get back on the field and win after being humiliated? But not every coach is as motivating as Al Pacino. When he delivers what has become the “The Little Things You Do Daily Matter” speech on the importance of working together, the actor and script combine to create something bigger than both. Related: 10 Consistency Quotes to Help You Keep Going Bill Gates, Commencement Speech, Harvard, 2007 Surprisingly funny and insightful, Microsoft founder Bill Gates’ Harvard commencement address shows a side of the successful entrepreneur that might not have been visible through the glare of fame and fortune. He is probably Harvard’s most famous dropout, but he acknowledged that the university’s environment of energy and intelligence was inspiring. He noted that education is important but so is knowing the wider world. J.K. Rowling, Commencement Speech, Harvard, 2008 Harvard has the pull to get Bill Gates, sure, but J.K. Rowling, too? Yes! The Harry Potter author uses inspiring words to offer lessons she learned late and wished others had told her earlier. Rowling was a poor, single mother before her writing shot her into the financial stratosphere, but she doesn’t romanticize poverty. Beyond the humiliation and depression of being poor, she feared failure, and yet it was a failure that gave her the lessons she needed to succeed. That might be unexpected, but it’s also motivating. Who doesn’t have experience with failure? And we can all succeed. David Foster Wallace, Commencement Speech, Kenyon College, 2005 Regardless of whether you ever finished his famous tome Infinite Jest, the writer David Foster Wallace was smart, troubled and often densely convoluted. But he could be plainspoken and was at his best in this commencement speech, published as This Is Water. He opens young minds in this speech to the fact that as educated as they might be, they can still hold a closed mind. Such narrow thinking puts us out of perspective and falsely tells us we’re the center of the universe. We’re not, and worse, by thinking this way we lose sight to the interconnectedness of the world. We’re all in it together. How’s that for motivating you to do good? Brené Brown, the Power of Vulnerability, 2014 Brown is a researcher whose speech on the power of vulnerability is excerpted in this animated video. Vulnerability is not often a topic that inspires and motivates people. We’re all too familiar with being vulnerable. But Brown notes that it’s the fear of failure or of not being good enough that makes us put up walls. These boundaries make it hard to connect with others. But it is by connecting with a larger whole that we can achieve our greatest good and see our own worth reflected in the product of our collaborative process. Empathy is a choice. Make it. Related: Teamwork Quotes: The 25 Best Quotes About Working Together Sheryl Sandberg, Harvard Business School Class Day, 2012 In this famous speech that launched the Lean In movement, Facebook exec Sheryl Sandberg deconstructs the idea of the career ladder. She is more interested in opportunities that can make an impact rather than titles. The linear path as a plan might work for some, but it can become too rigid and leave people on the sidelines, missing the real exciting stuff that doesn’t follow a set plan. She also throws away the traditional wisdom that says successful people are not emotional. She’s all about passion and sometimes that emotion is going to come out strongly. You don’t want to become an automaton. Oprah Winfrey, Commencement Address, Stanford, 2008 Oprah motivates daily. If you’ve ever seen her TV show, then you’ve seen how she can whip up an audience. She does that and more with these inspiring words for the Stanford class of 2008. She knows that the personal touch is the most impactful and shares moving incidents from her life, including her feelings, failures and happiness. The bottom line is that even a success as massive as Oprah’s came with its share of heartaches. You must persevere. Turn Motivation Into Results with ProjectManager You’re motivated. Now what? It’s time to take the creative energy and put it to work. Get productive with ProjectManager. ProjectManager. is an online work management tool that can help you and your team accomplish your goals, no matter how lofty. You’re ready to work and ProjectManager is here to help. Start with your idea and break it down into small tasks that will get you there. Those tasks can be set up in the task list view, which has due dates, room for comments and attachments—everything you need to take control of your work. If you want to get really productive, then you’ll want to get others to help. ProjectManager has a collaborative platform that makes teams work better together. You can stay in contact with anyone on your team, and get valuable feedback from them. Two heads are better than one! /wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Manufacturing-overlay-CTA-TAsk.jpgProjectManager makes task management easy, collaborative and productive. Learn more! There’s even a kanban board view, which is a way to visualize your workflow and easily get organized. The board is broken down into columns and cards. The columns are stages and the cards are tasks. As you work on your tasks, you simply move the cards from column to column until it’s done. It’s so easy! Kanban boards help with transparency, too, so you know where everything is in terms of production. Because you’re working on one card or task at a time, it also helps to keep you focused on what you’re doing. ProjectManager helps you manage workflow to avoid bottlenecks and turn that motivation into results. /wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Kanban_Marketing_Wide_Zoom-150_Moving-task-to-different-status.jpgKanban in ProjectManager improves communication and eliminates roadblocks. Motivated? Now that you’re ready to take over the world, you’ll need the right tools to turn that inspiration into success. ProjectManager is a project management software that is cloud-based, so you get real-time data to make accurate decisions. Get motivated and try it out with this free 30-day trial. The post 12 Best Motivational Speeches That Will Change Your Life appeared first on ProjectManager. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. This will be an extremely pedantic post, and one that I am terribly sorry to have to write. I’ve been into weight lifting (two words) for a long time, but about six years ago I got into weightlifting (all one word). It turns out these are two very different things. Weightlifting, all one word, is the sport that is contested in the Olympics in which people—wearing what look like old-timey swimsuits—pick up barbells loaded with brightly colored weights. In one of the events, the snatch, the bar is lifted from the ground to overhead in one swift movement. In the other, the clean and jerk, the bar is lifted to the shoulders and the lifter pauses to breathe and question their life choices before using another sudden movement to shove it sky high. (You can lift more weight the second way, which is why they are separate events. Each lifter’s best snatch and best clean and jerk are added together to find out who wins.) Weight lifting, two words, refers to the action of lifting a weight—any weight. If you’ve never heard of this distinction or never thought of it when you said or heard the word “weightlifting,” bear with me here. Why "weightlifting" refers to the sport of the snatch and clean and jerkEarly weightlifting competitions, in the 1800s, evolved out of circuses and stage shows where a strongman would show off feats of strength to an audience. Sometimes these strongmen would challenge each other, and would bring in judges to verify the weights and ensure a fair competition. Gymnasts around this time trained with dumbbells and barbells as well, and would also set up their own friendly competitions. By the time the first (modern) Olympics rolled around in 1896, there was enough interest in weightlifting as a competitive sport that it was one of the sports contested. It took decades after that for competitive weightlifting to evolve into the form we can still see in the Olympics. The dumbbell lifts and one-hand lifts were dropped; by 1928 the sport had three barbell lifts, each of them done with both hands. In 1972, one of them (the clean and press) was dropped from competition. This leaves the two-lift sport we know and love today. (We all do love it, right? It's our favorite? Good.) Olympic Weightlifting: A Complete Guide for Athletes & Coaches $44.37 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg Shop Now Shop Now $44.37 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg The idea of lifting weights for fun and health didn't become popular until after the competitive sport became established. The name "weightlifting" was already taken, so when some weightlifters decided to challenge each other in other lifts, like the squat and bench press, they had to choose a different name. (Thus was born powerlifting.) Other offshoots chose names, too. The "World's Strongest Man" TV specials led to the sport of strongman, where people (not just men) lift a variety of implements like stones and kegs and log-shaped barbells, and no two competitions are the same. Probably the most famous strength sport is bodybuilding, where competitors don't actually lift anything in competitions; they just show off the body that they built through lifting weights. Much of gym culture as we know it today was born from the bodybuilding style of training, as bodybuilders and barbell manufacturers collaborated to write and publish magazine articles for the masses. If you think of your strength training in terms of "reps" or "muscle groups," this is why. You can also, of course, just lift weights. This isn’t weightlifting, because that's the name for the Olympic sport; it’s “lifting weights” or “lifting” or “strength training” or "resistance training." You can, if you must, call it “weight lifting.” I'm a weightlifter, and I agree that this makes no senseI hate that I have been forced to become so pedantic about this. Weightlifting is an awful, terrible, no-good, very-bad name for one of many sports in which people lift weights. Powerlifting, by the way, is almost as badly named; it's actually the Olympic lifts that showcase power, and the “power lifts” that showcase strength. So people like me are left protesting that we are weightlifters, not powerlifters or bodybuilders, and the average person curling a dumbbell in the gym has no clue why we care so much about whether or not there is a space between “weight” and “lifting.” The problem, ultimately, is that nobody ever came up with a better name for the sport they have in the Olympics. Some people will call it “Olympic lifting,” leading to confusion when you tell your friends that you do it but also that you are not going to the Olympics for it. Crossfitters have found a workaround by casually referring to “oly lifting,” which I support in theory, but weightlifters have not embraced the term. We compete in weightlifting, and clarify what we mean by saying “you know, weightlifting weightlifting,” while miming the motion of a snatch. I’m sorry. This is the best we have for now. View the full article

Chinese carmaker’s second shock announcement of the year could put others out of business, say analystsView the full article

Detailed and specialized content that lives deeper within your website may be key to winning citations and brand visibility in Google’s AI Overviews, according to enterprise SEO platform BrightEdge. By the numbers. Based on a new analysis of millions of URLs cited by Google’s AI Overviews, BrightEdge found that: 82.5% of citations linked to deep content pages (two or more clicks away from the homepage) 0.5% of citations linked to homepages. 86% of citations appeared for only one keyword. Why we care. The homepage historically has been considered the most important page on a website, with primary category, product, or service pages not far behind (those accounted for 17% of citations in AI Overviews, by the way). However, in this era of AI Overviews, every page becomes important and may be the first interaction someone has with your brand. So, to earn citations in AI Overviews, it seems it will be critical to make sure your content is crawled and indexed and that you refresh content to keep it up to date. What they’re saying. According to BrightEdge: “The median search volume for keywords triggering these citations exceeds 15,000 monthly searches – representing enormous visibility potential from a single optimized deep page that might otherwise only appear for long-tail queries. The median keyword triggering these citations has 15,300 monthly searches, with approximately 19% exceeding 100,000 volume! This means your deeper pages could drive more visibility in AI than they could with long-tail keywords they may typically rank for in organic results.” BrightEdge executive chair and founder Jim Yu added: “In the age of AI-driven search, success lies not in optimizing the latest development but in fortifying your entire site and content foundation. When algorithms and AI scans for truth, they don’t just peek through your front door—they explore every room in your digital home, seeking the hidden gems of expertise that make your content worthy of citation.” View the full article

Microsoft Advertising is ramping up enforcement of its user consent policies for advertisers targeting users in the EEA, UK, and Switzerland. Starting May 5, all advertisers using Universal Event Tracking (UET) must provide an explicit consent signal to avoid disruptions in ad performance. What’s changing: Microsoft requires advertisers to ensure user consent before dropping Microsoft device identifiers (e.g., cookies) on user devices. New enforcement measures will be phased in, culminating in full implementation by the May deadline. Advertisers must send explicit consent signals via one of Microsoft’s approved methods to maintain compliance. Why we care. If advertisers fail to comply, they risk losing access to crucial campaign data, including retargeting capabilities and conversion tracking, which could negatively impact ad effectiveness and ROI. What you need to do: Implement UET Consent Mode to dynamically adjust how Microsoft tags behave based on user consent. Ensure your consent management platform (CMP) is properly configured to send the required signals. First seen. This was first brought to our attention by PPC News Feed, which shared an email sent by Microsoft. Bottom line. If you’re advertising in the EEA, UK, or Switzerland, act now to align with Microsoft’s consent policies. Failure to comply could mean losing valuable campaign data and performance insights. View the full article

Individual amounts are up 5 percent. By Beth Bellor Go PRO for members-only access to more Beth Bellor. View the full article

Individual amounts are up 5 percent. By Beth Bellor Go PRO for members-only access to more Beth Bellor. View the full article

Retirement planning isn't just about saving - it's about strategy. Quick Tax Tip With Art Werner CPE Today Go PRO for members-only access to more Art Werner. View the full article

Retirement planning isn't just about saving - it's about strategy. Quick Tax Tip With Art Werner CPE Today Go PRO for members-only access to more Art Werner. View the full article

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...View the full article

Google’s next Pixel phone, the Pixel 9a, has finally been announced. And for the first time in a Pixel since 2020’s Pixel 5, it ditches the camera bar. It’s also, as expected, a little cheaper and comes with a few additional AI tricks not available on the Pixel 8a, but really, it’s the new look that’s the biggest surprise here. That’s because the 9a, unlike the 8a before it, really doesn’t look much like the Pixel 9 or 9 Pro. Dimensions are roughly equivalent to the standard Pixel 9 (although it is a little more lightweight at 6.6 oz vs. 7 oz) and the screen has almost pound-for-pound the same specs except for a halved contrast ratio, but people familiar with the past half-decade of Pixel phones might not realize it’s even part of the same family at first. Pixel 8a (left) vs. Pixel 9a (right) Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt Without the camera bar, the Pixel 9a instead looks much more like an iPhone than arguably even a Samsung Galaxy, with two rear lenses in the top-left corner inside a small ovular black bump next to a flash. This makes for a much thinner and flatter profile overall, even if the body itself hasn’t changed much, and I’m excited to both get my hands on it and see how the cases turn out. I’ve never loved the camera bar, but this has me considering the Pixel again. Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt As for the specs on those cameras, they’re part of a trend of internal specs that don’t really compare well to either the Pixel 9 or the Pixel 8a. The rear camera lenses are 48MP and 13MP, respectively, while the front is 13MP, although the various aperture details and field-of-view settings don’t cleanly map onto an existing Google phone. I’m also curious to see how shots turn out once I get my hands on this phone. Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt Similarly, another detail that doesn’t have an outright comparison with an existing Google phone is battery life, which Google promises is 30+ hours on the Pixel 9a, a little longer than on either the 8a or the Pixel 9. RAM and storage is equal to the 8a at 8GB and a starting value of 128GB, respectively, although the processor has been bumped up to the Google Tensor G4, the same as on the Pixel 9. All of that adds up to make for a unique release with what could have simply been a pared-down Pixel 9, perhaps giving you additional reasons to get it over its more expensive cousin than simply saving a few dollars. That said, even with the lower cost, which is $500 vs. the Pixel 9’s $800, Google is promising some extra software here than on the Pixel 8a. These include a Macro Focus mode and unique Pixel AI features like Add Me (which can put you into shots you weren’t present for, albeit with mixed results). Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt While you’ll get the usual options for black, white, and pink, there’s also a new purple color, which hearkens back to the Pixel 8's light blue color that I missed so much on the base Pixel 9. All in all, it’s shaping up to be a surprisingly exciting release for an A-series model, and I’m hoping it’s a hint at bigger things in store for the Pixel 10 when it inevitably comes out later this fall. An official release date is still TBA, so keep an eye on this space for more down the line. View the full article

In 2021, Netflix’s executive vice president of game development Mike Verdu made a big announcement: “Let the Games Begin.” Four years later, Verdu is out—and Netflix’s grand experiment in gaming still feels like a work in progress. Netflix bet big on gaming. They brought in Verdu from Facebook and EA, and then went on a buying spree, acquiring a handful of mobile gaming studios like Boss Fight and Night School. But, by the end of 2022, only about 1% of the Netflix subscribers were actually playing its games. At the time, co-CEO Ted Sarandos said that gaming had “a bunch of positives” even if growth was slow: “These are small numbers, we’re good with that.” (Netflix declined Fast Company‘s request for comment.) But, after years of stalled development and only a handful of successes, Netflix is pivoting. They’ve canned multiple games that were in development, and gutted entire departments like experimental video. Netflix is, once more, recalibrating its approach The stunted rise of Netflix gaming Gaming looked like Netflix’s next big frontier. The interactive Black Mirror: Bandersnatch was a hit—despite a prolonged legal battle Netflix eventually settled. At the time, The Verge called Netflix’s gaming push the company’s “secret sauce for continued domination.” They started to buy up major game developers, and even built an in-house studio for themselves. This initial voyage had its snags. Their rollout of games varied between different devices. The initial crop, which included two Stranger Things-themed games, was available on Android only. Netflix teased that iOS support was “on the way,” frustrating Apple users. And, since Apple bars third-party apps from operating as its own gaming market, Netflix’s iOS rollout demanded users download their games as stand-alone applications. It took two more years for Netflix to open up gaming availability on TVs. While Netflix started by releasing a variety of themed and original games, they quickly leaned hard into IP. In 2023, Sarandos pointed to a gaming adaptation of reality show Too Hot To Handle as a major success. That game has since been given two sequels. They’ve also released gaming spin-offs of shows like Love Is Blind and The Queen’s Gambit. To date, their most successful game is an adaptation of Squid Game. Then came the cuts. Netflix built an internal AAA studio (codenamed “Blue”)—but reportedly shut it down in 2024 before releasing a single title. The company then delisted almost all of their interactive titles. Bandersnatch, once a beacon of hope, is now one of the last of its type remaining. In January, Netflix shelved six upcoming games. Verdu, once the leader of this new department, took on a new title of “VP of GenAI for gaming,” before leaving the company entirely. Can Netflix pivot? Netflix’s gaming division isn’t dead—but it’s entering yet another reboot. In 2024, just before Verdu transitioned to his AI-focused role, Netflix announced a new hire. Alain Tascan of Epic Games joined as a new president of games. Tascan is now making changes to his team internally. They’ve also pivoted away from a mobile-first approach, now opening up the possibility of cloud gaming on smart TVs. Netflix has also had some recent successes that suggest possible longevity. Squid Game: Unleashed, which was released with season two of the hit drama show, racked up 42 million plays by the end of 2024. Netflix touts that Unleashed was the “#1 Free Action Game in 57 Countries.” The WWE mobile games will also be exclusively available through Netflix in fall 2025 with their content deal. After years of slow starts and sharp pivots, Netflix still hasn’t proven games belong in its subscription model. The next few years will test whether Tascan can turn things around. View the full article

You’ve probably played around with Demographics in your Google Ads campaigns, but have you experimented with Detailed Demographics? This audience targeting technique is a powerful tool for reaching your ideal customers – and excluding your not-ideal customers. This article will cover: Basic vs. Detailed Demographics: What’s the difference? What type of Detailed Demographics are available in Google Ads? How to use Detailed Demographics in your campaigns Sample use cases for Detailed Demographics Basic vs. Detailed Demographics: What’s the difference? Your basic demographic options in Google Ads are age, gender, parental status, and household income. In most campaign types, you can exclude certain demographics, or make bid adjustments with manual bid strategies. Detailed Demographics are a type of audience targeting that goes one layer deeper. For example, while demographics let you choose parents vs. not parents, detailed demographics let you zoom in on “parents of infants,” “parents of toddlers,” “parents of teens,” etc. What type of Detailed Demographics are available in Google Ads? Google Ads offers a range of detailed demographic options, including: Parental Status: for example, Parents of Infants or Parents of Teens Marital Status: Single, In a Relationship or Married Education: for example, Current College Student or Advanced Degree holder Homeownership Status: Homeowners or Renters Employment – Company Size, Industry: for example, Technology Industry It’s important to remember that most of this data is inferred by Google. If you’re curious about what Google thinks it knows about you, you can check “My Ad Center.” How to use Detailed Demographics in your campaigns You can add Detailed Demographics to your Search, Shopping, Display, Demand Gen, and Video campaigns by going to Audiences, keywords and content > Audiences > Edit audience segments. You can also add Detailed Demographics to your Performance Max audience signals. Finally, you can exclude Detailed Demographics from Search and Display campaigns, since they do not (yet) use the Audience Builder workflow. Sample use cases for Detailed Demographics While there are infinite scenarios where leveraging Detailed Demographics might help your campaign performance, here are a few examples from my coaching practice to inspire your strategizing. Targeting specific demographic segments: If you sell products or services that appeal to a specific demographic, such as homeowners or college students, Detailed Demographics can help you reach them more effectively. B2B targeting: If your target customers are other businesses, you can use company size and industry to reach the right decision-makers. Excluding irrelevant demographic segments: If your products or services aren’t suitable for certain demographics, you can exclude them to avoid wasting ad spend. For example, if you install inground pools, it probably makes sense to exclude renters. Complementing or substituting Life Events targeting: Detailed Demographics can sometimes serve as a substitute or complement to life events targeting. For example, instead of targeting people who recently got married, you could target people who are currently married. Instead of targeting people who are about to graduate college, you can target current college students. In my experience, Detailed Demographics are most effective when used in conjunction with Search or Shopping campaigns. Because they are quite broad, I rarely use them on their own for Display, Demand Gen, or Video campaigns. Similarly, I rarely add them to Performance Max audience signals. Think of Detailed Demographics as a helpful layer on top of your other content or audience targeting strategies in Google Ads. This article is part of our ongoing weekly Search Engine Land series, Everything you need to know about Google Ads in less than 3 minutes. Every Wednesday, Jyll highlights a different Google Ads feature, and what you need to know to get the best results from it – all in a quick 3-minute read. View the full article

Purdue Pharma asked a bankruptcy judge late Tuesday to consider the latest version of its plan to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of the powerful prescription painkiller OxyContin, a deal that would have members of the Sackler family who own the company pay up to $7 billion. The filing is a milestone in a tumultuous legal saga that has gone on for more than five years. Under the deal the family members — estimated in documents from 2020 and 2021 to be worth about $11 billion — would give up ownership of the company in addition to contributing money over 15 years with the biggest payment up front. Family members resigned from Purdue’s board, stopped receiving money from the company and ceased other involvement before it filed for bankruptcy protection in 2019 as it faced lawsuits from thousands of state and local governments, plus others. The new entity would be run by a board appointed by state governments, and its mission will be to abate the opioid crisis that has been linked to hundreds of thousands of deaths in the U.S. since OxyContin hit the market in 1996. The first wave of deadly overdoses were tied to OxyContin and other prescription drugs, and subsequent waves have involved first heroin and more recently illicit versions of fentanyl. This settlement plan was hammered out in months of mediation involving groups that sued Purdue, and nearly all of them are supporting it, according to mediator reports filed in court. Approval would take at least several more months. A previous version had bankruptcy court approval but was rejected last year by the U.S. Supreme Court because it protected members of the Sackler family from civil lawsuits even though none of them filed for bankruptcy protection themselves. Under the new version, plaintiffs will have to opt in to get full shares of the settlement. If they do not, they can still sue Sackler family members, who agreed to put in about $1 billion more than under earlier plans. The Sacklers’ cash contribution would depends in part on how many parties join the settlement and on the sale of foreign drug companies. Some of the money they put into the settlement is to be reserved to pay any judgments if they are sued and lose; but if that doesn’t happen, it’s to go into the main settlement. Members of the family have been cast as villains and have seen their name removed from art galleries and universities around the world because of their role in the privately held company. They continue to deny any wrongdoing. Other drugmakers, distribution companies, pharmacy chains and others have already reached opioid lawsuit settlements worth about $50 billion, according to an Associated Press tally. Purdue’s, which would also include about $900 million from company coffers, would be among the largest if finalized. The deals require most of the money be used to fight the opioid crisis. Purdue’s is the only major one that also provides direct money for victims — potentially more than $850 million total in pools for people who became addicted, their families and babies born in withdrawal. That figure is more than in the previous incarnation. The deadline to apply for a piece of those funds passed years ago. In earlier versions, individuals were expected to receive between about $3,500 and $48,000. Families were split over the deal. Purdue would also provide millions of documents to a repository that would make them public. The company has also been producing a low-cost version of naloxone, a drug that reverses overdoses. —Geoff Mulvihill, Associated Press View the full article

Since the term “design thinking” took off in 2000, the once boutique industry of design became a household term. Spurred on by the stratospheric growth of Apple after the iPhone launch in 2007, businesses invested untold sums purchasing design companies and building design proficiency in-house. The cherry on top arrived when McKinsey published a report in 2018 cementing the value of design in leading businesses cross-sector. And then? For the last several years, the design industry has quietly lost some of its luster. We’ve published multiple stories examining how the world of business broke up with design, while a generation of design leadership has grappled with the effects. Truth be told, the reality is more complex. Design is still vastly more present within companies than it was decades ago, but it’s certainly been deprioritized during a business cycle that’s championing technology and marketing. Things look so bad because, for a moment, they looked so good. At Chicago’s The Future Of… conference in early March, dozens of design leaders—chief design officers, VPs, and other high ranking designers at companies including P&G, 3M, Ford, J.M. Smucker, Verizon, Duracell, Whirlpool, and GE Healthcare—gathered to respond to the provocation: “Is Design Dead?” My favorite moment was when design teams from Coca-Cola and PepsiCo formed an impromptu circle mere feet from a careful assortment of each company’s products on ice. Consultant John Gleason—who organized the conference alongside David Butler (Coca-Cola’s first VP of design) and industry vet Fred Richards—kicked things off by sharing some disquieting data. In analyzing hundreds for Fortune 500 companies, he found that 39% had cut the top one to two levels of their design organization, downgrading the level or title of heads of design. Nine percent had eliminated half of their design team in the last year. And in 84% of all cases, design reported not to the CEO, but to a specific function (like marketing) or functional executive. And in 74% of those cases? The head of design was not even reporting to the head of their functional unit. [Photo: Andrew Boynton] I was invited as the only journalist to attend the conference, to both share my perspective on stage and listen in to private, frank debates about the state of design and its future. Given the sensitivity of corporate perspectives being shared, I agreed to Chatham House Rules reporting. In other words, I could publish themes and even quote what was said, but for the protection of everyone, nothing will be attributed to anyone. [Photo: Andrew Boynton] Here were my 10 takeaways from two days of talks, though I would offer a significant caveat: Most designers in attendance worked for CPG companies, meaning this information is heavily biased toward that industry, versus what we might hear from technology, UX, product, interior design, etc. For the tl;dr version, let me say: Design is a practice as old as humankind. It can never and never will die. But for the industry to re-achieve its peak relevance, the practice needs to evolve, think bigger, and maybe go get that MBA already. 1. Yes, design is hurting at a lot of companies Companies have slashed back and demoted their design practices. With definite exceptions in the room, the general consensus was that designers were struggling to be relevant, and even have jobs, at their companies. “It’s a shitshow out there,” one person put it, bluntly, while another offered that “design is not healthy.” 2. Designers blew their big moment Out of 2010, the investment big in design teams promised true business innovation. When one panelist challenged the room to cite a major breakthrough design generated in this era, they were met with crickets. “We were sexy,” one person put it, but the farther you ride, the farther you fall.” The solution to earning back credibility in the meantime is that designers need to “do less with less,” another suggested, taking a more “surgical approach” to projects that could meet needs in the business. 3. We’re in a down cycle One of the most commonly recurring themes from the panels were about cycles of investment. That for whatever reason, we’re in a down cycle of design. I agree with this argument, and presented a take of my own: We are in a technological cycle and a marketing cycle. Gen AI drove the need for immediate investment in core technological capabilities. Mature social media (TikTok in particular) rewarded rich investment in data driven marketing campaigns. And in the meantime, design was deprioritized as a less essential job during years of cost cutting layoffs. However, designers will ultimately be the ones that turn AI into functional products, and there are only so many marketing collabs Gen Z will buy before they, too, prioritize more meaningful consumption, and sustainability (hopefully) becomes a global priority again. But for now, companies are abandoning climate pledges to build AI data centers. 4. Designers sell their practice without solidifying their value One theme I noticed was that designers in the room that still boasted rich investment from their companies proselytized the quantifiable impact of their work—often that they saved their company money, or measurably added brand equity—whereas most admitted that designers were poor at articulating the ROI of their own practice. But you know who is great at talking ROI? CMOs. “Marketing leaders can outline their strategy. Design leaders can’t,” someone said. “No wonder design has trouble competing with marketing on solutions.” These days, many design teams are answering to a CMO, which is a failure of designers’ self-marketing inside the company. As one design leader pointed out, they see three paths forward: One, marketing takes over design. Two, marketing and design share responsibilities. Or the third, where marketing reports to design. To most designers, the third option is the most ideal—but it also might be the most sustainable for business. Design as a broad practice can contain marketing, while marketing does not naturally contain the umbrella of design. 5. Designers have failed to speak the language of business Why don’t designers keep the ear of the C-suite? “Enough designers don’t speak the language of business,” one person put it, flatly. And over two days, several people pointed out that designers simply do not know the proper lingo to be taken seriously inside companies. Designers tend to be spreadsheet adverse as they hang their hats on liberal arts. Especially at large organizations, most business units will be run by MBAs and traditional, business-minded people. This mismatch creates friction to sway a CEO, sure, but the issue compounds as designers really need buy-in from cross functional teams to make things happen. “Our gift is synthesis, which is why we need to bring in our own data,” said one leader. “I spend all my time building relationships [across the company] to get to that data.” 6. Design thinking has undercut the value of design Over two days of talks, I witnessed all variety of reaction to the term “design thinking.” But especially with the fall of Ideo—the mecca of design thinking—it’s clear that the term has often become shorthand for, what an IDEO partner once framed to me as enabling a “theater of innovation.” It’s a methodology to problem solving akin to the scientific method, and it’s every bit as intelligent as the person wielding it. Yet the design industry has spent two decades rallying behind the term, leveraging it to get buy-in from companies that used it to teach everyone “how to think like a designer.” But “Design thinking is not design, and there’s a huge disservice done when educating business on how to run a design thinking session,” said one panelist. Namely, it cheapens the practice of design, commoditizing a craft to something you learn over a box lunch. “If the height of the [design] curve was the Ideo shopping cart video, we may be in the pit of despair right now,” joked another. Not everyone at a company is a designer. Just like they aren’t all an accountant. Or an IT specialist. 7. Maybe design needs a new name There is no vagary what someone means when they tell you they are an “architect.” But what does a “designer” conjure? A million possible things. “The term ‘design’ is a problem,” says one expert, noting that we’ve tried being more specific with “CX” and “UX” but each permutation comes with its own costs. “The term ‘interior design’ is more limiting than effective,” they posit. The terms seem either too big, or too small, for designers to fit any definitional impact. 8. Design’s lack of diversity limits its reach We’ve reported on the lack of diversity within design for the last decade and, over that time, the numbers haven’t measurably improved. Noting the majority of whiteness in the room, one designer said, “We design for people who don’t look like most designers.” I’ll admit some disappointment by how shocked some in the room were at this statement. (Should we really be surprised to contemplate that design is too white in 2025?) But that doesn’t make it any less true. With the current administration’s attacks on DEI, diversifying design is only a greater uphill battle. However, design representation isn’t just a path toward equality; it’s a path toward understanding the needs and desires of more customers. 9. Corporate reorgs kill design strategy Whether it’s a new CEO or a completely new org chart, the increased instability of business drives an instability of the design practice. “I’ve had seven reorgs in four years,” one designer lamented—who was not the only one to share such a sentiment during the week. But why is this bad for design? As many echoed through the conference, designers think well in the medium- to long-term, strategizing for the future. When that lead time is disrupted through a change in leadership or a reorg—or even just the quarterly whims of Wall Street—any true long-term design strategy cannot take off. As a point of example, CEO Bracken Darrell was cited as turning around Logitech in four years alongside designer Alastair Curtis. And now, as the two have landed VF Corporation, they’ve charted a decade-long strategy. 10. Design is still better off than it was 25 years ago While design may be in something of a corporate slump, I continue to believe in its unequivocal value. And I do think it’s worth taking a little rewind through history. Design was not something most people knew about 25 years ago–especially in the U.S. The corporate world only got its first chief design officer in 2010, when Mauro Porcini (now of PepsiCo) took the position at 3M. “We don’t know the half life of a CDO yet,” one leader pointed out. “A CEO is about four years, a CMO is about two years.” The truth is that, while design is an impossibly old practice across culture, its serious role within business is still nascent. View the full article

Buying a house is a stressful, expensive project—something most people understand. That's why they do their diligence. The research the property and the area, they hire a home inspector, they pay a lot of money for title insurance, and they ask questions. Lots and lots of questions. Most of those questions are common sense, concerning the history of the house, the age and condition of the roof or the HVAC system, and the neighborhood. But there are some not-so-common questions that are also worth asking. These eight questions might seem a bit random, but they can alert you to big problems before you sign your life away. Was the home ever used as a business?A lot of people use their homes for their livelihood. If that means a home office for telecommuting, it’s nothing to worry about. But if the previous owner ran any kind of physical business out of the house, you need to know, because it could impact your enjoyment of the property in a few ways: Old customers might show up unannounced, unaware that the house has been sold, as happened to this unhappy new homeowner. This could potentially include folks who are upset with their experience with the business, or to whom the business owes money. Shipments, bills, and other deliveries or correspondence might continue to arrive, forcing you to deal with someone else’s business—especially if the previous owner demands that you forward materials and mail to them. Has the house ever been hit by a car?This might seem like a crazy question to ask, but if the house you’re considering buying is located at an intersection, at the bottom of a hill, or around a blind corner, it's worth asking if it’s been hit by cars—and if so, how often. Homes being hit by cars isn’t common, but if the house has been hit once, there’s a good chance the conditions that caused the accident still exist, and it could be hit again. For example, this house in San Jose has been hit 23 times in 50 years. This house in Ohio has been hit three times (plus one near-miss). And this house in North Carolina was hit by cars six times over the course of a decade. The worst time to find out that a nearby highway exit ramp or dangerous curve slings cars into your home on a regular basis is after you’ve bought it. What exactly will I own?Most of the time you can safely assume that what you see in and around the house will be yours once the checks clear and the deed is transferred. That usually includes the outdoor spaces, like a backyard, the appliances, and, say, the finished basement. But you should never assume, because sometimes what you see is not at all what you get. This couple in Washington and bought a house only to discover that the back yard—starting at their back steps—was actually a separate lot. They only learned this when the lot was put up for auction, and they found themselves desperately trying to buy their own backyard. And if you want the appliances in the kitchen or laundry room, you should make sure their inclusion is specified in the contract, or you might be in for a few extra expenses when you move in to find the fridge missing. There’s even a story about a seller who literally removed an entire finished basement from the house, leveraging the fact that below-grade areas are usually not considered part of the living space. You might not need to worry about the basement in your dream home, but it underscores the wisdom of making sure you know everything that is included in the sale. Do all the outlets work?Older homes often don’t have enough power outlets. They were often designed and constructed in a different era, when people didn’t have TVs in their bedrooms or a dozen gadgets charging at all times. One of the easiest upgrades people put into older homes is additional outlets, often as part of an overall upgrade to the electrical wiring. But an unscrupulous homeowner might add nonfunctional outlets to give the appearance of such an upgrade, leaving it to you to actually connect them. Or, maybe the house has old wiring that only looks like it was upgraded and modernized. Either way, asking if the outlets all actually work—or, better yet, testing them with a volt meter yourself—is a good idea. Is it considered historic?If you’re buying an older home, it’s often a good idea to ask if it’s located in a historic district or designated a historic building, and if there are any restrictions that come along with that designation. Homes that are considered historic in some way often come with limitations to the kind of renovations you can do without explicit approval, and may come with extra expenses or responsibilities. You’d assume something like that would be disclosed before the sale, and it usually is if it’s the house itself that has officially been deemed historic. But if you move into an area considered historic, you might be subject to rules regarding how you can alter or update a home that haven't been previously disclosed to you, just like this unlucky homeowner. If your new house has old charm, it’s worth asking, or checking directly with the local government. Why exactly was the basement renovated?If you’re touring a house that obviously hasn’t had a major renovation in a while, you might be okay as long as the bones are good and you have a vision (and a budget) for renovations. But if you head down to the basement and discover a brand-new, just-finished renovation it’s time to ask one question: Was there a flood? While many homeowners tackle their home renovations in stages, if only the below-grade areas of the house that have been updated, it’s time to worry about significant water damage that’s been erased or hidden. If the basement flooded once, it will likely flood again—so you need to know why it was singled out for a rehab. Is there a buried tank on the premises?Old houses sometimes have ancient oil tanks buried underground. If a house had oil heat in the past, burying the tank hid it from view—no one wants an ugly, rusting tank sitting in their backyard. And if the tank was properly decommissioned—drained, filled with foam, and capped—it’s nothing to worry (at least until you decide to dig up the yard). But if the tank wasn’t decommissioned, it could be a huge problem. If it leaks, your health could be impacted, and if the leak spreads and poisons your neighbors’ property, you’ll be liable. And removing a tank can be expensive—around $10,000 if you’ve got an environmental disaster on your hands. Best to ask about it before you assume that responsibility. How are those trees doing?Trees are terrific, and offer a lot of benefits to a property. But trees can become a real hazard if they’re not cared for properly—they can fall and damage the house, become a home for insects and rodents that infiltrate the house, and can cause conflict between you and your neighbors. Taking care of trees can be expensive, so many homeowners prefer to just enjoy the shade and assume that nature will take care of itself. It pays to ask about the trees on your potential property—how often were they pruned and trimmed? Has an arborist inspected the trees for diseases, infestations, or damage? If the trees are old and haven’t been properly cared for, you might be buying a lot of work and problems instead of a beautiful, shady yard. View the full article

Early in their leadership journey, many leaders believe they need to have all the answers and be experts in every aspect of their team’s work. They assume that credibility comes from knowing every detail, every strategy, and every technical nuance. However, the most effective leaders soon realize that leadership isn’t about having all the answers—it’s about knowing enough to ask the right questions, spot key trends, and guide their teams toward success. Rather than micromanaging or dictating processes, strong leaders focus on creating clarity through shared goals and measurable outcomes. By setting clear performance metrics, they establish a common language with their teams—one that ensures alignment, fosters trust, and allows experts to do what they do best. This approach empowers teams to take ownership of their expertise while enabling leaders to maintain strategic oversight without unnecessary interference. Ultimately, leadership isn’t about proving intelligence or control—it’s about fostering an environment where knowledge thrives, collaboration is seamless, and results speak for themselves. Establish Clear Metrics As a leader, I’ve learned that I don’t need to be the expert in every area my team works in, but I believe knowing enough to be dangerous is critical. This means understanding the core concepts, being able to ask sharp questions, and spotting potential red flags when performance or processes seem off. I see my role not as the person with all the answers, but as someone who can guide the team to ask the right questions and evaluate results critically. One specific strategy I actively follow to foster collaboration and mutual respect, especially when my team members have deeper expertise than I do, is establishing clear performance checklists and standardized metrics that we all align on upfront. These metrics have become our common language. This approach ensures that my team can apply their knowledge and creative ideas while I focus on ensuring we’re all steering toward the same outcomes. For example, I don’t try to dictate every ad copy or keyword with my PPC team. I know they have far more hands-on expertise than I do. What I focus on instead are the critical numbers: cost per lead, conversion rates, search query analysis, and quality scores. These metrics tell me whether campaigns are moving in the right direction or if we need to step back and reevaluate. This allows me to ask the right performance-based questions without interfering in their technical process, reinforcing their confidence and autonomy. This balance of freedom with accountability has helped me create a culture where my team members feel respected for their expertise and understand that outcomes matter. What I’ve also noticed is that this mutual respect encourages better communication. When I respect their deep technical knowledge, they’re more open to educating me about emerging trends or evolving challenges in their domain. At the same time, because I stay focused on the bigger picture, they appreciate my strategic insights that might otherwise get lost in day-to-day execution. Ultimately, I believe that a leader’s role is to create a framework where expertise thrives, not to compete with it. By respecting my team’s knowledge and adding value through clear direction and outcome monitoring, I’ve fostered collaboration, innovation, and a healthy sense of shared ownership across projects. Sangeeta Kumar, vice president, marketing, Healthcare DMS Facilitate Knowledge Sharing In my opinion, a good leader will be happy when their team members have more expertise in certain areas. It means they’ve hired well. The key is to create an environment where that expertise is shared and valued, not feared. One specific strategy I use is to regularly set up “knowledge-sharing sessions.” We make it clear that everyone, including myself, is there to learn. The goal is to encourage questions and create a space where everyone feels comfortable contributing. This approach does a few things: It shows the expert that their skills are appreciated, it spreads that knowledge throughout the team, and it builds respect because everyone sees the value that person brings. Shantanu Pandey, founder and CEO, Tenet Embrace Reverse Mentoring Leaders should embrace the expertise of their team members by shifting from a traditional top-down approach to a collaborative mentorship model, where learning flows both ways. One effective strategy is reverse mentoring, where experienced team members regularly share insights with leadership in structured sessions. Instead of positioning themselves as the ultimate authority, leaders can schedule monthly knowledge exchanges where subject-matter experts within the team lead discussions on industry trends, technical skills, or new strategies. This fosters a culture of shared learning and mutual respect, allowing leaders to stay informed while empowering their teams to take ownership of their expertise. By acknowledging and valuing specialized knowledge, leaders build trust and encourage open collaboration. This approach not only strengthens decision-making but also creates an environment where innovation thrives, as employees feel their insights are heard and acted upon. Chris Giannos, cofounder and CEO, Humaniz Practice Curiosity-Driven Leadership One of the most underrated yet powerful leadership strategies when managing a team with more expertise is Curiosity-Driven Leadership, a mindset that shifts a leader from “knowing” to “learning,” fostering an environment of psychological safety, collaboration, and mutual respect. Instead of feeling pressure to match their expertise, leaders should ask insightful questions, elevate the knowledge of their team, and integrate their expertise into strategic decisions. Here’s how: 1. Ask insightful questions Instead of pretending to know the answer, leaders can ask, “What would you do if you had full autonomy over this decision?” or “What are we not considering here?” This shifts the power dynamic from leader-to-expert to peer-to-peer, making the expert feel valued rather than managed. 2. Elevate expertise publicly A leader’s role is to shine a spotlight on expertise. A simple way to do this is by saying in meetings: “I defer to [Team Member] on this. It’s their area of mastery.” Giving credit and public recognition fosters mutual respect and trust. 3. Integrate expertise into strategic decisions The difference between a leader who listens and a leader who leverages expertise is action. Instead of collecting insights and making an isolated executive decision, involve the expert in shaping the outcome. This might look like saying, “Based on your recommendations, how do you think we should implement this?” Leaders who embrace curiosity over control gain the trust of their team, create an environment where expertise flourishes, and ultimately make better, more informed decisions. When leaders stop trying to be the smartest person in the room and instead become the most curious, they unlock the full potential of their team. Manuel Schlothauer, founder, HeyManuel.com Co-Create With Your Team Great leaders recognize that expertise isn’t a threat—it’s an asset. When managing a team with specialized knowledge, the key is to shift from “command and control” to “coach and empower.” One effective strategy is co-creation—involving experts on your team in decision-making rather than dictating solutions. By facilitating open discussions, asking insightful questions, and positioning themselves as a strategic guide rather than the smartest person in the room, leaders create an environment where innovation thrives. This approach not only fosters mutual respect but also ensures that the best ideas rise to the top, driving both team engagement and business success. A helpful mindset practice for leaders in this situation is intellectual humility—embracing the idea that you don’t need to have all the answers, but you do need to ask the right questions. Practicing this means shifting from feeling like you must prove your value to instead recognizing your value as a facilitator of expertise. A simple habit is to start meetings with curiosity-driven prompts, such as, “What’s a perspective I might not have considered?” or, “What are the potential risks or opportunities you see?” This keeps the focus on collective problem-solving rather than hierarchical decision-making, reinforcing trust and collaboration. Shannon Garcia-Lewis, chief people officer, Pella Windows & Doors, Rocky Mountain Encourage Your Team To Speak Up As a business leader, I don’t expect to be the expert across all areas of the business, and I embrace the situations when my ideas are challenged. Bringing in new ideas and approaches to solving problems is critical to our business growth. When interviewing candidates for open roles, we look for the personality types that will challenge the norm and don’t hesitate to speak their mind. We believe in this so much we layered it into the foundation of our team culture which we share on our careers page. Specifically, we ask our team to: “Mean it—share opinions honestly and respectfully. Don’t be afraid to pick a side and defend it.” Jared Brown, CEO, Hubstaff Lean Into Team Expertise In order to solve our most pressing and challenging business problems, sometimes we need someone with more expertise than us to carve a path forward. For some leaders, relying on someone with more expertise can lead to stress or worry that they’re losing control, unable to keep up with the latest industry trends, or worse yet, viewed by their colleagues and boss as out-of-their-league. But at the end of the day, we must always keep the big picture in view, and be willing to discover what we “know we don’t know” so we can take questions we have to our teams and lean into each person’s expertise to build trust across the team, and collectively drive our efforts forward to success. I lead an analytics department, and we recently migrated our HR organization’s data to a central hub from multiple SaaS vendors whose built-in reporting features weren’t cutting it. Pretty quickly, I realized I was in over my head. But by sharing with my team the bigger picture of what our collective success would look like when we finished this project, I was able to encourage an ongoing, open dialogue that allowed team members to volunteer new ideas and approaches, which in turn allowed me to ask better questions. By relying on everyone’s expertise and trusting them to drive their areas as they best saw fit, I had more time to clearly define my expectations of the team at each stage, and lean into their expertise to collaboratively craft an even better solution than any single one of us could have come up with alone. This also forced me to better learn the challenges each person faced through the project, and either remove obstacles in their path, or guide their efforts around roadblocks to keep progress moving forward. Knowing and acknowledging our limits as leaders is critical; we can better realize what we “know we don’t know,” and use those opportunities to build better solutions for our clients, while also building team trust along the way. Casey Meadows, head of talent acquisition analytics, Upstart View the full article

Maximizing return on ad spend (ROAS) in Google Ads is crucial for driving profitability. However, without revenue data, PPC advertisers often default to focusing on cost per purchase – a strategy that can limit long-term growth. While ROAS optimization enhances ad spend efficiency, it falls short if it doesn’t account for customer lifetime value (LTV). To stay competitive, you must move beyond short-term returns and embrace LTV-based ROAS optimization. This ensures you’re capturing the full value of your customers over time. This article will break down how to: Shift from short-term ROAS to LTV-based ROAS. Use static conversion values to improve bidding performance. Optimize ROAS by product type or customer segment. Ensure minimum campaign criteria are met for optimal performance. Implement advanced strategies like predictive analytics, incrementality testing, and competitive benchmarking. Why ROAS outperforms cost per purchase Focusing solely on cost per purchase can be misleading, as it emphasizes immediate expenses without considering the revenue generated. This narrow view might lead you to prioritize low-cost acquisitions, potentially sacrificing quality and long-term profitability. In contrast, ROAS provides a holistic perspective by evaluating the efficiency of your ad spend in generating revenue. For instance, spending $100 to generate $400 results in a ROAS of 4.0 (or 400%), indicating a strong return. This metric aligns your advertising efforts with profitability, ensuring that each dollar spent contributes effectively to revenue goals. Including taxes and shipping fees: A double-edged sword A critical consideration in ROAS calculation is whether to include taxes and shipping fees in your conversion values. This decision can significantly impact your perceived ad performance. Pros Accurate revenue representation: Including these fees accurately reflects the total revenue per purchase, aligning your ROAS calculations with actual financial outcomes. Enhanced budget allocation: A comprehensive revenue view enables more informed decisions regarding budget distribution and campaign scaling. Cons Inflated revenue figures: Incorporating these fees can artificially boost revenue numbers, potentially leading to overestimated ROAS and misguided strategy adjustments. Misalignment with profit margins: Taxes and shipping fees don’t contribute to profit margins, so their inclusion might distort the true profitability of your campaigns. The optimal approach varies by business model. Analyze both methods and choose the one that aligns best with your financial tracking and advertising objectives. Integrating LTV into ROAS optimization Optimizing for immediate ROAS without considering LTV can be short-sighted. Your customers often make multiple purchases over time, contributing far more to your revenue than their initial transaction alone. Integrating LTV into your ROAS optimization allows you to make more strategic, informed decisions about advertising investments. Understanding your customers’ long-term value allows you to allocate your budget more effectively, ensuring acquisition efforts focus on audiences who will generate the highest cumulative revenue – not just short-term returns. Leveraging LTV insights also gives you a competitive edge. When you bid based on LTV rather than short-term ROAS, you can afford higher acquisition costs, enabling you to outbid competitors who are fixated on immediate profitability. This approach helps attract high-value customers that others might overlook due to restrictive bidding strategies. Dig deeper: 5 KPIs to measure paid media success and 5 to measure business success Calculating and applying LTV-based ROAS To effectively incorporate LTV into your ROAS strategy, follow these steps. 1. Determine your two-year customer lifetime value To calculate LTV over two years, you should analyze historical data to determine the average revenue per customer, factoring in repeat purchases and retention rates. Identifying distinct customer segments allows you to tailor marketing efforts, prioritize high-value customers, and optimize ad spend efficiency. Since not all customers contribute equally to long-term revenue, focusing on the most valuable segments ensures smarter budget allocation and better overall returns. 2. Set a target ROAS based on LTV To optimize for LTV-based ROAS, you first need to define your acceptable acquisition costs by determining what percentage of LTV you’re willing to invest in acquiring a customer. For example, if your two-year LTV is $500 and you allocate 30% to acquisition, your target ROAS would be 3.33 (333%). Once you’ve set this target, align your campaign goals by adjusting bids and budgets accordingly. This ensures your ad spend is optimized for long-term profitability rather than just immediate returns. 3. Migrating to custom LTV-based conversion values A key shift in optimizing for LTV-based ROAS is moving away from dynamic conversion values and implementing custom LTV values for better accuracy and strategic alignment. By making this transition, you can fundamentally change how your Google Ads campaigns optimize bids. Rather than chasing short-term revenue, Google’s algorithm will prioritize customers who deliver sustained value over time – leading to more profitable customer acquisition, smarter budget allocation, and stronger long-term ROAS performance. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. Business email address Sign me up! Processing... See terms. Attributing LTV by custom factors Not all products and customers contribute equally to LTV. Some naturally lead to repeat purchases, while others are typically one-time buys. Understanding these differences is essential for optimizing your ad spend. High-LTV products often encourage repeat purchases or have complementary items that increase long-term value. Low-LTV products may not generate additional sales after the initial purchase. To maximize these insights, start by segmenting your product portfolio to identify which items drive higher LTV. From there, develop tailored marketing strategies focusing on customer retention and upselling for high-LTV products. Target ROAS: Meeting minimum Google Ads campaign criteria For ROAS optimization to be effective, it must meet Google’s minimum campaign requirements for the Target ROAS bidding strategy. Here are Google’s published requirements for Target ROAS bidding by campaign type: To use Target ROAS bidding, most campaign types need at least 15 conversions in the past 30 days. Search campaigns: if you recently started reporting conversion value or changed the way conversion value is reported, we recommend you include the new values in the “Conversions” column and wait for 4 weeks or 3 conversion cycles for your campaign to receive conversion values at a similar rate before adopting. Display campaigns: At least 15 conversions (with valid conversion values) in the past 30 days across all of your campaigns combined. New Display campaigns no longer require you to have a history of conversions to use Target ROAS bidding. App campaigns: At least 10 conversions every day (or 300 conversions in 30 days). Demand Gen campaigns: At least 50 conversions in the past 35 days (10 of these conversions must have occurred in the past 7 days) in the campaign, or 100 conversions in the past 35 days (across all Demand Gen campaigns in the customer account). Video Action Campaigns: At least 30 conversions in the past 30 days. Hotel campaigns: At least 50 conversions per week at a campaign level. Travel campaigns: At least 50 conversions in the past 7 days at a campaign level. Accurate conversion tracking is crucial. Without it, data inconsistencies can lead to misinformed optimizations and poor campaign performance. Budget flexibility is another key factor. If your budget is too constrained, Google’s machine learning algorithms won’t have the room to test, learn, and optimize bids effectively. Failing to meet these minimum criteria can lead to erratic ROAS performance, wasted ad spend, and inefficient bidding. When Google’s algorithm lacks the necessary data, it struggles to optimize for high-value conversions, making it harder to hit your ROAS targets. Dig deeper: How to evolve your PPC measurement strategy for a privacy-first future Advanced strategies for LTV-based ROAS in 2025 Stand out in 2025 with these powerful strategies to win high-LTV new customers – because repeat buyers need a whole different playbook. Predictive analytics with first-party data Leverage CRM insights and past purchase history to build predictive models – think Google’s Customer Match or a custom AI model – that score new prospects for LTV potential right from their first interaction. Bid aggressively on users flagged as high-value customers to maximize your ad spend efficiency and build a customer base that drives long-term revenue. Zero-party data for precision Why guess what your customers want when you can just ask them? Add quizzes, post-purchase surveys, and preference forms into your funnel to capture intent directly. Even a simple question like, “Which product category excites you most?” can power audience segmentation without invasive tracking. Use this data to build high-LTV lookalike audiences and scale smarter – no cookies required. Contextual targeting revival With privacy changes limiting broad targeting, context is king again. Rather than relying solely on audience signals, test ads on niche sites or YouTube channels that align with high-LTV interests (e.g., luxury travel blogs for premium buyers). Combine this with past conversion data to prioritize placements and minimize wasted spend. Measure marketing effectiveness holistically Relying on UTM tracking and last-click attribution alone will lead to flawed decisions and inefficiency. Shift to holistic measurement strategies and data-driven attribution (like Google Analytics 4) to account for all touchpoints – awareness ads, consideration clicks, and conversions. Every marketing effort impacts your bottom line, so focus on areas that deliver the biggest return, such as Add to Cart performance or email opt-in rates. Skip conversion value rules Google’s Conversion Value Rules feature can adjust bid strategies based on LTV signals, but manual adjustments are often better. Why? Because most LTV factors aren’t tied to geos, devices, or audience segments. This feature can also skew your conversion value reporting. Instead, set conversion values manually based on internal data analysis for a more accurate reflection of true customer value. Incrementality testing Don’t let inflated ROAS figures fool you. Some conversions would have happened organically. Run holdout tests like geo-split experiments to uncover your ads’ true impact. If a campaign targeting new customers isn’t driving incremental sales, shift your budget to top-funnel growth tactics that will. Dig deeper: Incrementality testing in advertising: Who are the winners and losers? Adjust for seasonality “Set it and forget it” won’t cut it in 2025. Seasonal demand changes can drastically affect ROAS performance. During peak shopping periods (e.g., Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the holidays), consumers often spend more, inflating ROAS figures. To stay efficient, adjust your LTV ROAS targets dynamically. Relax your targets slightly during peak seasons to capture more of the market, then tighten them in off-seasons to maintain efficiency and avoid overspending when demand is low. Use competitive benchmarking Staying ahead means knowing how your ROAS compares to competitors. If your rivals outbid you on high-LTV products, they may sacrifice short-term ROAS to win valuable customers. If your bidding strategy is too conservative, you risk losing long-term revenue opportunities. Regularly monitoring competitor activity allows you to adjust bids strategically – ensuring you stay competitive without overspending. Dig deeper: How to benchmark PPC competitors: The definitive guide The future of ROAS optimization is LTV-driven To scale profitably in 2025 and beyond, you must move beyond short-term ROAS and focus on long-term value. Prioritizing customers who deliver sustained revenue – not just immediate returns – is key to lasting success. Winning brands succeed by understanding customer lifetime value at a granular level and applying data-driven bidding strategies. This requires moving past last-click attribution, leveraging first- and zero-party data, and using predictive analytics to target high-value customers from the start. Success comes down to discipline, smart data use, and ongoing testing and refinement. Brands that commit to this approach won’t just improve ad performance. They’ll build a stronger, more scalable business with ad dollars that work harder and go further. Play the long game, and profitability will follow. View the full article

Growing seeds is a relatively simple process: Bury seeds in dirt, add water, heat, and light from the sun, and in most cases, something is going to sprout. The problem is, most of us conduct this process inside, because we’re trying to get a jump on the growing season. Inside, where there’s no sun, heat is hard to control, and the most your seedlings can stretch out their new little root legs is the size of the plastic cell they’re planted in. As such, it takes some practice to grow strong, resilient seedlings, and beginners make plenty of mistakes. The good news is, most of them are solvable. Not enough light This is how close lights should be to seedlings that haven't germinated yet or just have. Credit: Amanda Blum This is one of the easiest problems to diagnose, because it is also one of the most likely problems. Remember, when growing seeds inside, you have to try to replicate the sun. When people estimate how much light they need to reproduce the sun, they almost always underestimate. The tell is easy: Your seedlings will be “leggy" with long stems that aren’t strong enough to support the leaves of the plant. The stem is often curved, almost like the plant has scoliosis. The seedlings may bend towards the light, too. The solution is, of course, to add more light. I find too often people starting out seeding for the first time buy one growing lamp to arc over their entire shelf of seedlings, when each tray needs 2000-5000 lumens (that's a lot of lumens). It’s not just how strong the light is but also how long they’re on: Seedlings need 14-16 hours a day of sunlight. Those lights need to be much closer to your seedlings than you think, too. Six to eight inches above your seedlings is the right distance. If your seedlings are already too leggy, you can try a few things. First, if they’re tomatoes or peppers, you’ll be able to bury the stem deep into the soil when you pot up the seedling or plant it outside, and this will solve many problems. If it’s another kind of seedling, like cucumber, they don’t usually require the same strong stems, and will likely correct themself over time. It will help to run a fan in the room and run your hands over the seedlings a few times a day. Both will encourage the stems to strengthen. Too much light You can see how close the lights are to most seedlings, and how much light is applied. Credit: Amanda Blum With most plant diagnosis, it can be frustrating to hear, “it may be too much or too little.” This isn’t true with light. It’s really easy to tell if there’s not enough, as above, or too much. Like us, plants can get sunburned. They develop scorch marks with the leaves at the top bearing almost white or golden splotches. The splotches don’t have a pattern to them, either. Now, seedlings are susceptible to a lot of diseases, fungus, and virus, so you may find yourself concerned with knowing whether this is sunburn or something else. The good news is, it doesn’t matter because the solution is the same: Cut it off. The sunburned leaves can’t absorb light or nutrients and can’t recover, so cut them off entirely, and let the rest of the plant recover. Obviously, move the lights farther away, but don’t overcorrect. While seedlings can get closer to traditional lightbulbs, my experience is they burn easier with LEDs, so while traditional tube lights can be within inches of my seedlings with no issue, I keep LED lights six inches or more away. No germinationOf all the seeds you plant, some just aren’t going to germinate. There are a lot of reasons for that, but let's cover the most likely causes. First, you may have buried the seed too deep or not deep enough. On the back of each seed package are directions for how deep to plant seeds—and it’s not a loose recommendation. While the difference between a seed planted an inch deep or one and a half inches deep might not matter, there’s a huge difference between seeds that need to be lightly covered—like carrots and most flowers—and those that get buried, like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and sunflowers. Another tell is this: The bigger the seed, the deeper you bury it. Zinnia seeds barely get covered, but pea seeds need a depth of an inch or so, and large bean seeds need to be buried deep in the soil. This is, unfortunately, one of those problems you need to solve ahead of time. If a seed has been sitting in wet soil for too long, and it hasn’t germinated, it has likely gone rotten. You’d just need to start over; by the time you’ve figured out a seed isn’t germinating, it’s likely only a few weeks since you planted, so you haven’t lost too much time. Another reason might be that the seeds are simply expired. Every kind of seed has an expiration date. It can be very short, like alliums (onions), which are good for a year. Experienced gardeners will know that these are merely guidelines; you can always test your seeds by trying to germinate them to see if they’re still OK. The seed mat you’re using to heat up your seeds could also be too hot, cooking your seeds. You want the seeds and soil to remain between 70-80°F, but no more. Once your seeds are cooked, they’re goners, so start over with fresh seeds. Too much waterYou can over-love your plants. Too much water, even if your plant survives, discourages your seedlings from growing strong root systems. Under-watering is always the better solution, so long as the plants have enough to survive, since it causes the roots to reach out in search of more resources, forming stronger root systems. Watering methods for seedlings that allow them to only uptake as much water as they need are the most ideal, such as bottom watering, which leaves a little water in the tray for the soil to wick up. But even if you water from the top, you want soil that is lightly moist, but never soaking wet. Yellowing leaves or mushy plants are usually a sign of overwatering. If the plants start to smell bad, mold is likely developing in the water, which is another sign there’s too much water. In those cases, the solution is to go the other way and use less water. Your plants may or may not recover. If you trim away any root rot or squishy leaves and stems, it may recover. However, most seedlings will develop some green or white fungus on top of the soil, and that is not necessarily a bad sign. It just happens, and it won’t affect your seedling in any way. Not enough water If seedlings grow with the right amount of light, the stems will be strong enough to support a taller plant, even in a small pot. Strong root systems will develop with the right amount of water. Credit: Amanda Blum Droopy seedlings usually need water. Tomatoes, in particular, will start leaning over and will quite literally look sad. This can happen toward the end of the watering cycle, and if not left to fester, it's not a problem, but it's a sign that you should water them. You should see plants immediately perk up, within an hour or two of watering. If your soil block is really dry, that’s never a good sign. You want your soil to always be lightly moist, not dry. If you’re having trouble keeping your soil moist, you should consider bottom watering, as mentioned above, because it is a consistent method. The soil takes up what it needs. View the full article

Tech groups and financial institutions join forces in plans to build data centres and energy projects to underpin AI boom View the full article