ProductMarketing.com

Should you rent or own music?

Don Tapscott writes, "In a restructured Internet-friendly music industry, consumers would no longer download songs at a fixed price per tune, but would instead pay a moderate amount each month to listen to an unlimited number of tunes streamed to them over the Internet. I'd happily pay a few dollars per month to get access anytime, on any device, anywhere, to any music ever recorded." Read more in It's time to treat music as a service rather than a good.

Should you rent or buy music? Hmmm, should you rent or buy software? For that matter, maybe we'd be happier renting hardware too. I plan to buy the new Apple phone but I bet I'd be happier if I could rent one for a year and then exchange it for (what you know will be) a better version the next year.

We've talked for years about "metered" software--you know, pay by the transaction. Except there's a natural affinity to owning rather than renting (or leasing), or perhaps it's a belief that the manufacturer can rack up your rates at any time, or maybe just the fear that you don't know how many transactions you'll use but it's probably a lot. Remember that first mobile phone payment? It surely wasn't the $65 I was expecting!!

If you're in hardware or software, before you offer a product with the typical up-front purchase price, maybe renting or leasing (or SaaS) is a better fit for the buyer and better cash flow for the vendor.

Did Apple's dot just slip?

What happens when we pre-announce and then miss the date? Your stock loses value... as does your credibility. And how often is this a result of internal decisions rather than external market forces?

A spokesperson for Apple announced that their new Apple TV set top box is delayed. "Wrapping up Apple TV is taking a few weeks longer than we projected, and we now expect to begin shipments mid-March," spokeswoman Lynn Fox said. And Apple shares fell in after-hours trading.

When will we learn?

Many marketing departments like to announce at big shows or conferences but did Apple need to announce at MacWorld? Was anyone clamoring for an Apple TV device? But now that the cat's out of the bag, reporters and analysts will measure Apple by their ability to deliver.

The (in)famous Gartner "magic quadrant" rates companies on their vision and their ability to execute. Did Apple's dot just slip? What about your company? We hear frequently that sales and marketing and executives love to preannounce for many reasons but what if the product managers and developers cannot deliver?

Communicating your roadmap externally only makes sense when the internal team has confidence in the dates. Do yours?

CrackBerry.com Goes Live!

Well, I guess you know that you've arrived when people parody you. Now there's CrackBerry.com, the #1 site FOR CrackBerry Users and Abusers, built and operated BY CrackBerry Users and Abusers. Funny or sad? I'm not sure. Also check out the 13 Steps.

10 company (and product) name types

Naming seems to be a really emotional issue for some product marketers. We have to suffer the naming contest and the call to enlist a naming service. There's the ongoing argument of whether a name should be meaningful versus nonsensical. The Name Inspector offers these 10 company name types with examples and pros and cons for each.

Webinar: Building Effective Product Roadmaps with John Milburn

When there is more to do than can be done, how do you direct where resources should be expended? How do you get alignment of strategy, dollars, people, and programs that will result in an effective plan and product roadmap? How do you communicate your plans in a consistent and meaningful way? Learn techniques to align and focus the organization around the market, not just your products. Hear more in Building Effective Product Roadmaps with John Milburn.

User Centered Design and Bridging The Canyon of Pain - Tyner Blain

In User Centered Design and Bridging The Canyon of Pain, Scott Sehlhorst comments,

There is such a thing as too much choice. For new users, too much choice (or control) is too much. For experienced users, too little choice is a problem. Ease of use usually comes from reduced control - but users don't stay "new" for long. There's a "canyon of pain" to quote Kathy Sierra in that transition from "new" to "experienced." We call them "competent" users and we have to help them cross the canyon of pain.

Windows greatest strength is that almost everything can be modified, adjusted, customized. That gives it great appeal to power users and those who BUY technology. But in that strength lives a great weakness: because it has so many power features, Windows interferes with new users, those who USE technology.

When defining personas, be sure to define those who are novice, proficient, and expert. What different choices you will make!

Customer Service & JetBlue

Seth writes, "If I ran JetBlue, I'd go to each of the people affected (and it's not that many) and give each person 40 free round trip tickets. Or maybe 50. More than any person could use for a long, long while. Let them fly with as many friends as they like until they've used up 50 seats."

Incredible point! JetBlue may never recover from the PR nighmare that they've created. Already Congress is roasting them and proposing a Traveler's Bill of Rights. Seth's suggestion may be the only chance for JetBlue... and for the entire industry. As much as I'd hate being on a plane for 8 hours, I'd hate the government deciding what 'reasonable' is. I've been on many a canceled flight because the crew is 1 minute past some government standard. So JetBlue can strike before the government does. And imagine the positive PR of 50 free tickets!

So when dealing with restrictions, go overboard! The Zune has a cool feature: beam a favorite song from one to another... but only for three days or three plays, whichever comes first. Why not 10, 25, 50, 100? The reason the record companies are so freaked out about piracy is the possibility of losing sales of a million copies... so they'd rather anger thousands than lose a dollar in sales. But the 'regular' iPod or Zune user isn't going to post to Limewire; they're just sharing with a few friends. Apple doesn't want that song or video downloaded to a thousand computers; neither do the studios. But isn't it reasonable to let customers download it to three computers? Or their dad's and son's? That's small potatoes as they say.

When setting maximums, take a normal normal and mulitply times ten to get a ridiculous value. What you're trying to do is stop theft, not stop reasonable use. Don't treat your customers like criminals.

11 tips for great speeches

Guy Kawasaki offers these 11 tips on giving speeches in How to Get a Standing Ovation. The point of course is not to get the standing ovation but to deliver excellent speeches. In particular his tip "Cut the sales pitch" is one that everyone needs to remember. Delivering your content is the reason for speeches. If it's a good speech and you actually have something interesting to say, people will flock to learn more about whatever you're selling.

The real secret to success: a loveocracy

Kathy Sierra explains the conundrum of Buying and Using criteria in The real secret to success: "The secret is simply this: you have a much better chance for success when your business model makes what's good for the users match what's good for the business, and vice-versa."

There are certain features in your product that must be present or no one will buy it; these features are buying criteria. Features like a camera in your phone. Sales-oriented companies tend to be really good at loading up their products with buying features. But what about the user? If the end-user customer doesn't use it--or doesn't like using it--you won't get renewals and referrals. Engineering-led companies tend to focus on using criteria to the detriment of buying criteria. As Kathy points out, we need to find the right intersection between both to get the product both bought and used.

Joel Spolsky pointed this out in a different context. Buyers requested the option of custom fields so they could tailor the product to their existing environment. He writes, Historically, I am opposed to custom fields in principle, because they get abused. People add so many fields to their bug databases to capture everything they think might be important that entering a bug is like applying to Harvard. End result: people don't enter bugs, which is much, much worse than not capturing all that information.

Joel knows that offering a bunch of custom fields will make the product more difficult to use and he’ll lose renewals and referrals. The solution is to recognize the source of the request: is the idea coming from buyers or from users? Will people buy without it? If not, can we implement it 'skinny' so that it won't mess up users?

If we listen only to the buyers, we end up with a Zune instead of an iPod. But if we listen only to the users, we'll never get the thing sold in the first place.

Which features in your product are buying criteria? Which are using criteria? It's the intersection between the two that results in a product that people love.

Setting priorities

When everything is a priority, nothing has priority. But, according to Sage Software product manager Dave Jones, a modified version of a technique developed more than 20 years ago by Japanese engineer Noriaki Kano can quickly and easily help you sort through long lists of customer requirements and prospective enhancements to help you decide which features really need to be first in line. Read more in Setting priorities at the Product Strategy Network.

Stand up straight and mind your e-mail manners

Here's an article to forward to your co-workers and family members on email etiquette. The Crabby Office Lady writes, "I've got a bee in my bonnet about the way some people are abusing their e-mail privileges. And from the sound of your letters, I'm not alone. Let's tackle some of the bigger issues and see if we can't make this a kinder, gentler cyberworld." Read more in Stand up straight and mind your e-mail manners.

Differentiating a commodity

Everybody has a flash drive or memory stick; in fact, most of my friends have many. Flash drives are frequent giveaways at trade shows and conferences. They're wonderfully cheap and come in many sizes. So why buy one brand over another? Pexagon offers flash drives in 14 colors (in 512M, 1G, 2G, and 4G sizes) and they will engrave the drives FREE--no minimums; no setup fee. I'm thinking I'll buy a few for my backback with my name and number on them.

Seth Godin shares another commodity story in when the copy doesn't match the story. He notes that the copy leads off with, "The Bissell Healthy Home Vacuum is built like no other vacuum." Well, not really; the Bissell is just a clone of the Dyson but cheaper.

When your product category becomes commoditized, you can go cheap or you can go custom. Which makes the most sense for your business and for your customer?

using ROI for prioritizing requirements

Return on investment calculation is critical to using ROI for prioritizing requirements. Tyner Blain offers five tips to help you when calculating return on investment. Also check out the links to how to forecast return on investment by estimating costs and predicting benefits.

how activities vary by title

The Pragmatic Marketing annual compensation survey involved questions breaking down the allocation of time to different activities. Tyner Blain looked at 440 results from the 2006 Product Manager Survey to uncover the trends in how different product manager roles are defined. In this article see how those activities varied for product managers, product marketing managers, segment/market managers, and technical product managers.

new webcast

Just added: a webcast of Pragmatic Marketing's Product Management Compensation Survey 2006 Results, courtesy of Ryma Technologies. This and other webinars are online.

Is your copy getting in the way?

In Is your copy getting in the way?, Kristin Zhivago reminds us to "Retire those old useless phrases. No one's reading them. They are a complete waste of your writing time and the buyer's reading/buying time." Phrases like "scalable" and "user-friendly" mean nothing to the buyer. Instead use phrases like "able to handle 1,000,000 elements" and "performs operations in obvious ways"--you know, phrases real people use in describing their problem. As I posted previously, I don't want my insurance claim paid; I want my car fixed.

moving to the "new & improved" platform

I tend to install new versions of software as soon as they're available. Sometimes I regret being an early-adopter, like when Microsoft's IE7 or Media Player 10 took control of my system but I can usually back out if I need to. Thanks go out to Norton Ghost for restoring my system more than once.

I bought and installed Office 2007 and I'm pretty much digging it. The new interaction is generally much easier. Most of my annoyance with Windows comes from spending more time figuring out how to do what I want than I spend actually doing what I want. In Office 07, there's a consistent way of doing things in each program; each toolbar or ribbon works the same way everywhere. More important, chart objects in PowerPoint use Excel instead of the horrific MS Chart program in Office 2003. Because everything I used to know I have to learn anew, I'm revising presentation graphs from fresh data instead of trying to manipulate them from the old Office 2003 documents.

But here's the rub: my headquarters has decided to NOT upgrade. The new features don't warrant the additional cost of licenses, installation, and training, not to mention the hassles of incompatibilities between the 2003 data and the 2007 data. You can save in 2007 format but you lose compatibility with 2003 or you can save in 2003 format but lose the ability to modify most charts again.

It's really a common product management problem, isn't it? How do you get your customer base to move to the new platform?

What if the incremental value of improved user interaction (and accumulated bug fixes) doesn't offset the cost of conversion? How do you convince customers to move to the new & improved platform?

There are two aspects to consider: 1) make it easy to move, and 2) make it affordable to move. To make it easy, you have to convert their data, either programmatically or with services, and you'll need to offer training in some form. To make it cheap, you can offer upgrade pricing incentives or explain why using the new version saves money in other ways. One company couldn't convince its customers to upgrade so they decided to give the new version away; the reduction in technical support costs offset the incremental revenue so the company was ahead.

It's best to do both--make it easy and make it affordable--and be able to explain in user and buyer language how to make the change and why the change is valuable.

More on naming

Are you bored with the UPS "brown" campaign? It's basically terrible. It doesn't communicate UPS's strengths or value. What it's really about is that UPS is one company with one logo and color while FedEx is five companies with five colors in their respective logos. So "what can brown do for you?" really means "FedEx has many different services and we think you're too stupid to know which service to use."

Well, I wasn't confused... until I saw this Superbowl ad for FedEx. It's moderately funny but it troubles me: it seems to me that FedEx is responding to the UPS brown campaign by admitting that its division names and colors are indeed confusing to the consumer.

Instead of an ad campaign attempting to explain the products, FedEx should fix the product names so there's no confusion. Or better yet, ignore the technology entirely. Does the consumer care if the package goes by ground or by air? Should we care which service is used? Don't we basically want a package delivered in a certain timeframe regardless of method? I understand if FedEx wants to create some internal affinity for the separate business units employees but the external consumer shouldn't have to care.

By the way, did you ever notice the arrow in the white space between the 'e' and the 'x'? Once you've seen it, you can't not see it.

Naming (and renaming) products

ComputerWorld reports: CA Inc. has unveiled plans to simplify the naming of its entire software range over the next 12 to 18 months to better brand its products and more clearly indicate their function. The software vendor will do away with the names currently denoting its various software families, like its Unicenter systems management offerings and its BrightStor storage products, according to a company spokesman. CA will also drop specific product brand names such as PestPatrol and FileSurf in favor of the company's name and a descriptive term for the particular piece of software. For instance, Unicenter Service Desk will become CA Service Desk, while eTrust Access Control will be called CA Access Control.

A few years ago, one of my collegues at CA told me that they estimated the cost of renaming a product at $1,000,000. As those of us who have worked closely with code know, as much as we might plan to put the product name in a constant so it can be easily changed, the product name is usually hard-coded in plenty of places. A name change isn't as trivial as it appears to marketing and management. Nothing seems difficult to those who don't actually have to do it.

So, if it's so hard and so expensive, why do it?

For companies with limited promotional dollars, we need to make every dollar count. The company focuses all of its promotion at a single entity rather than spreading small amounts here and there with little impact. Even Microsoft, with all of their marketing money, tends to invest in promotion for the suites rather than the products. That is, MS Office tends to get the lion's share of promotional spending rather than individual products like Word or Visio.

There are two strategies for naming: descriptive or unique. Names that are unique like iPod, Nuvi, and RAZR work best for B2C products. For B2B products, the descriptive approach, such as that CA is following, is best. Certainly when you have hundreds of products, the name has to carry the positioning message along with it so that customers (and sales people) know what the product does just by reading the name.

Most companies can afford to brand only one thing: the company, the product suites, or the individual products. How about you? Is your product message lost in your naming schema?