I was interviewed on Friday, July 6, by the Harvard Business School about my experience and opinions on the Threadless business model and internet experience. It was really fun throwing my two cents into the pool of voices that hopefully will inspire other business entrepreneurs and managers to truly trust the voices of the customers -- not a consultant that tells them what the faceless masses want.

Some of the questions I was asked included:

1. How did I learn about Threadless and what prompted me to join?

2. What keeps me coming back to participate at Threadless?

3. Would a distribution partnership with a chain store retailer change the nature of Threadless experience or my opinion of Threadless? (theoretical question, guys...)

4. What differentiates my experience at Threadless from other internet chat groups/forums that I participate in?

Zahra and Brian ("the HBS film crew") also tailored questions around my personal experiences, which was really cool (having worked in a lot of nonprofit programs, they were interested in my opinion on political design at Threadless, for example).

The whole interview experience was designed in such a way that made it very hard for me to look like a complete and utter babbling idiot (which is my normal state) -- so if you are in the metropolitan Boston area and have some time, send an e-mail to the team at threadless@hbs.edu.

PS: The HBS crew do need to return to Chicago for one more interview with the Threadless folks, so people from Chicago might want to mention an interest in participating in the case study as well -- it never hurts to ask!