ProductMarketing.com

Creating Product Management at a Startup

A startup faces many daunting challenges as it moves along the path from an idea on paper to a full-fledged company that can stand on its own. It has to be built out piece by piece, function by function, and there is probably no function where I've seen companies, both brand new and established, struggle more than Product Management. Read Jacques Murphy's Creating Product Management at a Startup.

did you know...

Did you know that hitting [shift][del] in an Outlook mailbox will permanently delete the selected email? Delete your spam without cluttering up your Deleted Items.

Possible but Stupid?

Seth Godin writes,

"It's entirely possible that adding caffeine to beer will be remembered as a great idea. Possible, but unlikely. Just because you can doesn't mean you should." Go to Seth's Blog: Something Extra for a picture of the billboard.

ChangeThis :: DANGER: QUICKSAND (Have a Nice Day!)

A little insanity may be a good thing, but constant chaos will drive you crazy.

DANGER: QUICKSAND is a survival guide about the dignity of work, written for those of you who are trying to support your families and keep your sanity in a troubling and uncertain working environment. (ie. An unconventional guide to surviving corporate life.)

David St Lawrence writes:

A good work place makes you feel a sense of purpose when you enter it. You see busy people who still take the time to smile and make you feel welcome.

You can accurately judge the worth of a person or an organization by how well these three things are done:

1. promising only what you can deliver
2. keeping your word once given
3. following through so as to meet expectations.

This is a long read... 149 pages... but worth reading.

Google Maps!

Have you checked out Google Maps?? I thought I was perfectly happy with Mapquest and Yahoo until I saw Google's version. Amazing what easy search strings (like pizza near dulles airport) plus a little 3D sizzle can do for you!

IE 7: so much for Firefox

"Microsoft seemed to ignore Firefox, treating it like a harmless upstart not worthy of comment or attack. But now that the sleeping giant has awakened, I think the buzzing gnat of the browser wars is about to be squashed flat." Read The Buzz Report: IE 7: so much for Firefox.

The persistence of really bad ideas

In The persistence of really bad ideas, Seth Godin laments the use of drop-downs:

"There are fifty states. This is a problem. If there were 5 states or 500 states, programmers would never have been tempted into forcing consumers to scroll through a pull down menu to enter their state when shopping online."

Seth focuses his rant against the common belief that "doing it is okay because we've always done it."

I want to focus on the common belief that it's okay to impose data integrity checking on the user. "Someone might type a incorrect state abbreviation and blow up my program." Instead of checking the data, the programmer believes that a drop-down will prevent mistakes before they happen. This is perhaps the most arduous mistake in the industry; the belief that it's easier to impose on the user than to impose on the programmer. That's why dialog boxes are so annoying; it's the programmers way of saying "I give up. I'll dump the problem in the users lap."

Perhaps Google caught on so quickly only because it does fast searches. But perhaps Google caught on because it took the burden off the user and put it in the program. There are no parameters; you don't have to indicate what fields to look in. Type a phrase. Hit enter. That's it. Google does all the work behind the scenes so you don't have to.

The reason Google (and TiVo and and Macintosh and iPod) fans are manic, loony, crazy evangelists is because they have seen elegance. The program does the work, so you don't have to. These program designers put the needs of the many ahead of the special interests of the few.

(Did you learn nothing from Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan?)

Qui propono?

One of the most complicated and often vexed relationships in the tech business is the one between product managers and engineers. If you ask a product manager what they do, they'll often say something along the lines of 'I [lead, guide, direct, oversee] product development' or 'I come up with ideas for products'. A really good one will often put it more like, 'I'm a hub for input into the product from all the functional areas, including marketing, sales, and customer service -- then I interface with engineers to make sure the right product gets built'. Tension occurs between PM and eng when engineers push back on a product spec or (even worse) an idea that never makes it to a written spec.

Read more in Qui propono?.

Setting the Product Direction

In Setting the Product Direction, Jacques Murphy writes:

"Setting the product direction may sound like a highly strategic and conceptual activity, with no clear standards in the industry, similar to the Product Road Map, whose definition is 'all over the map.' If you want it to bear results, however, you need to turn it into a tactical and somewhat mechanical effort. Read on for more discussion of how to construct the mechanism for setting the product direction at your company."

February newsletter

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Overwhelmed by Email?

John Porcaro shares these tips from Marilyn Paul, author of 'It's Hard to Make a Difference When You Can't Find Your Keys.'

• Meet as a team to review e-mail use. Identify what works, what doesn't, and why. Create a trial period for improvement: Meet to discuss after a week.
• Use subject-line protocols to speed communication: a.) No reply needed - NRN; b.) Thank you - TY; c.) Need response by date and time - NRB 10/30 3:00 pm; d.) Use subject line for whole message: Meet 10:00 10/30 Okay?
• Determine who needs to be copied on what, what needs to be read, and what needs to be filed.
• Keep e-mails short. Most should be no more than 1-10 sentences. Communicate your main point in the first sentence or two. Don't make readers work because you don't have time to focus.
• Don't deliver bad news in an e-mail message. If it's urgent, pick up the phone. Use tone of voice to indicate concern, but not anger.
• After two rounds of problem-solving on e-mail, pick up the phone.
• Don't hide behind e-mail. Any sensitive communications should be done in person.
  If you can't answer a request immediately, let the other party know when you can respond, or if you can't.
• NO EMOTIONAL E-MAILS: To resolve a conflict, schedule a meeting or use the phone. E-mail arguments tend to be huge time-wasters. Never send a hasty, irritated response to an annoying e-mail -- jobs have been lost that way.

Read his full post.

Book review: Behind the Scenes

Behind The Scenes: Managing A Trade Show Without Losing Your Mind
by Pamela Rocke

Successful trade show exhibits hinge on how well organized the event planner is. Behind the Scenes is a very practical guide to planning for and exhibiting at a show with lots of not-so-obvious tips as well as reminders for all those things you already knew. The book is particularly helpful for event planners who are just starting out, giving expert advice to avoid both common and uncommon show problems. Those who have run shows will find themselves nodding in agreement, particularly when the author relates this or that disaster and how to deal with it. Stolen equipment? Missing booth? Untrained staff? That's happened to all of us. The book has a great troubleshooting section plus planning checklists and schedules.

How to Manage Smart People

After spending nine years at Microsoft managing some of the smartest people in the world, Scott Berkun has a few tips to share on the art of managing the best. Read How to Manage Smart People.

What can United do?

In my idle time waiting at the airport, I wonder how United (and other national airlines) can become profitable again. They haven't figured out how to run a business without the protection of the government. Here are some thoughts.

Operational Excellence = low price

Operational excellence is the basis for all low-cost offerings. Southwest has perfected their operations, focusing on a single type of aircraft and offering flights only into airports that have adequate ground operations. With only one type of aircraft, they require a much smaller inventory of replacement parts and personnel need be certified only in one type of equipment. If a plane is out of commission, they can quickly put the passengers on an identical aircraft.

Any fool can slash prices but only Southwest can afford to. Operational excellence goes hand-in-hand with price. With lower costs, Southwest can pass those savings along to its customers. Other companies with operational excellence, such as Wal-Mart and Dell, leverage their operations not only to offer the lowest prices but also to quickly change their product offerings when a new opportunity occurs.

Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema, authors of Disciplines of Market Leaders, would argue that the operational excellence position is already filled, thus United must search for another way.

Buying Personas

United claims that the majority of its business comes from business travelers. But to suggest they focus on the "business traveler" is not enough. There are different types of business travelers. Consider those who work for a larger corporation versus those who own their own businesses.

In a small business, the traveler is also the buyer but in a big company, the traveler must usually get flights through an in-house travel department, following corporate travel guidelines. So in the jargon of development, the travel department is the buyer persona while the traveler is the user persona.

I've never been the buyer persona in a large company so I can't imagine what programs United could deploy to be more attractive to this persona. Perhaps consolidated reporting by department code with flags for apparent deviation from corporate guidelines or unnecessarily expensive segments due to late booking.

Assuming fares can be kept within a reasonable range vis a vis the discount carriers, United could court the user persona with specific programs, such as:

• Make Hawaii a loss-leader. If everyone wants to use their award travel for Hawaii, then let 'em. Don't think of "traveling on awards" as "free." The airlines have the tiger by the tail with their frequent flyer programs; they can get loads of personal information from registrations and travel history. But they don't seem to want to live up to their end of the bargain. Booking award travel six months in advance is impossible: they haven't sold enough revenue seats to cover the "cost" of "free" travel. Every seat on every flight should be available for award travel.
• Flight attendants. I know they're in a union, but couldn't we do something about the flight attendants? Can we teach them to be friendly? A mandated retirement age of 60 (or better yet 50) would be a start. Come on! It's impossible to deal with the public for 30 years and stay friendly. I'm not asking for funny but I'd like more smiles than I'm getting.
• "No Babies" flights. I know it's politically incorrect but why should I have to suffer a screaming child on virtually every flight. My first flight in February was at least 20% children, all crying at various times. On a flight last year, the pilot joked that they couldn't find any squalling babies but they were going to push away from the gate anyway. I read an article recently that suggested that all businesses should "fire" 10% of their customers: the difficult ones, the expensive ones. Let the other airlines take children.
• Get serious on the leg room. I boarded a flight recently that was configured for all first-class seating and everyone was concerned that we were on the wrong plane! United Extra is a start but why not make a third of the plane only for frequent flyers with business class seating. And since I'm wishing, perhaps those seats could have power like the international configurations.
• TSA Security. What truly is the complaint of most frequent flyers? The professional flyers must wait while the amateurs take off half their clothing but leave their car keys in their pockets. Some airports offer a frequent flyer line which is very helpful. But here's a better idea: how about off-airport valet parking with remote check-in and TSA security screening? No bag checking, just boarding passes, a TSA line, and a bus to the terminal. And since I'm dreaming, could you wash the car on the day I plan to return?
• Free business travelers club for "best" flyers. I canceled my Red Carpet club membership: the clubs are crowded; the service reluctant and surly. United could offer access to a top-notch club for the top 10% of flyers in their home city.

But now I'm just depressing myself....

Despite those suggestions, maybe the business traveler will fly United no matter what. Courting this persona may make no difference. Maybe we have gotten so used to bad service that we'll suffer it to save a buck. How depressing.

The price game cannot be won by the major carriers???at least in the short-term. They must stop thinking like a regulated monopoly and start thinking of ways to offer a better product instead of only a cheap product.

Okay, my rant on United is over. But how much of this could be said about your company?

Note: check out what Seth has to say on a similar subject in Seth's Blog: So, what will it take to succeed?

Is Your Logo That Important?

Naseem Javed asks, Is Your Logo That Important?

"Corporations, which have heavily relied on graphic design, logos and too many colorful themes while ignoring the real names, are facing some new challenges. As the logos have lost their power, the companies now have to reinforce their ignored name as a solo warrior. Previously, names were basically seen in print; today they are mainly typed in cyberspace

FBI Unable to Launch New Computer Program

Yahoo! News reports the FBI has failed to set up a computer program designed to help agents share information instantly, and though the bureau may have to scrap the $170 million project it has no realistic timetable for a workable system, a Justice Department audit showed on Thursday.

What makes a successful project? Clear requirements, continuing executive support, and automated tools. My guess is that this project, like many large technology projects, lacks clear requirements. The best requirements are wrapped in context with user personas, goals, and use scenarios. Were these present?

Average, Minimums, Maximums, and Counts

The Pragmatic Marketing 2004 Salary Survey information now includes Average, Minimums, Maximums, and Counts.