The Software Maven

Rolling the Dice

2011-09-30T19:42:00.001-06:00

I like GitHub. They make a really great product that is loved by almost every developer I've talked to who has used it. That is a worthy achievement.

But...

Well, I read this post by Zach Holman about how GitHub has scaled their development process. It is well written by a guy who obviously loves his job, which means he's an performing as a real artisan.

Unfortunately, I think it would be highly unfortunate for any startup to take this as advice on how to do things at their company.

Building a startup is a fight against the odds. You are rolling the dice when you start. You are trying to get a saving throw, not bury your dice (OK, enough with the D&D!).

People work on what they want to work on. Product development is driven by whoever wants to drive product.

No. No, no, no, no. No.

That is the surest way to stack the dice against your startup. In this case, it may also become a prototypical case study in survivor bias (see my previous article discussing other types of logical fallacies in product development)).

GitHub is lucky that they are building a product that is tailored for developers. It means they get a saving throw. It is only a saving throw, though, because their developers, who are choosing what to work on, are only vaguely similar to their customers.

Think about this: GitHub is lucky their developers are similar to their customer (or at least their customer's influencer). The further these two points are from each other, the worse this advice becomes.

A startup needs somebody who understands how to find a market and drive a product that fits into that market. Whether this is the CEO or a product manager hired off the street doesn't matter, but they need somebody doing it who has the real authority to turn those learnings into a product for a market.

For what it's worth, I've lived the flip side of this coin: building a tool for developers driven by what we thought would be cool to build instead of having a product guy hitting the street to understand the real customer. After burning through a huge sum of money, the lights got turned off.

Building more barriers to product development is not the answer.

Neither is building features that confuse your market, cost you money to maintain, and, in general, don't advance your company's objectives.

I take my relationships with my developers very seriously. Developers who are treated as artisans create better products. I always strive to have relationships such that I am providing the why we are building it; the developers are I are going back and forth on the what to build; and the developers own the how to build it. That back and forth is crucial to building great products and is one of the best parts of my job.

But the answer to keeping the development pipeline open is not to just let developers build whatever tickles their fancy. The answer is to make sure you have enough bandwidth in product management to keep your developers stocked with features that are providing value to your customers and advancing your standing in your market.

If you want to do it right and get a +10 to all your die rolls, hire product management first.

OK, now I'm really done with the D&D stuff...

Photo credit: TomGazpacho

Fallacious Product Management

2011-09-22T17:00:00.000-06:00

One of the things I love about being a product manager is that it is much like being a scientist. Customer Development and Lean Startups are all about iterative experimentation, using data to understand your customers and to shape your product. While customer development and lean methodology are discussed a lot in the startup scene, the basic tenets involving hypotheses and experimenting apply just as well to product management at a company of any size.

If you think back to your elementary (primary) school science class, you'll remember that science is about finding truth, not about proving oneself correct. While easy to say, in practice, it can be very difficult and many scientists have been embarrassed as a result of not adhering to it.

Scientists and philosophers have spent countless years understanding how to make rational decisions. Knowing some of the common traps that lead us to make irrational conclusions is the first step.

Confirmation Bias

We sure do like to be right (in my house, it is called "being a Jensen" and my wife accuses me of it regularly!). We like being right so much, we unconsciously structure our lines of reasoning around the assumption we are right. In other words, we don't ask questions to prove ourselves wrong; instead, we ask questions to prove ourselves right.

In your product, this shows up as features nobody actually cares about that have data apparently showing how valuable they are. Unfortunately, the data didn't come from asking the right questions.

Are you asking questions to find the truth or to prove yourself right?

Appeals to Authority

Paul Graham said it was so. Or maybe it was Steve Jobs. No, it was Bill Gates. Wait, it was...well, it doesn't matter. When people are experts, it is worth listening to what they have to say about their field of expertise. The danger comes in listening to what they have to say about things they are not experts on and using that as a basis of your decision making (Yes, it's a fine line!).

In your product, this shows up as features added because an analyst or an investor or a VP thinks are cool.

Are you listing to experts instead of to your customers?

Misaligned Motivations

Whenever financial numbers are released in the news, it is fascinating to watch both political parties take the same information and claim how it proves their viewpoint is correct. Of course, reality is far more nuanced than that, but it illustrates an important point: we see what we are emotionally invested in seeing. The more emotionally tied we are to an idea, the more "evidence" we manage to dig up to support it.

In your product, this shows up as features that are added to support a set of customers that do not provide value to your product (the customers you should fire!).

Do you have an emotional connection that is clouding your vision?

Overconfidence

If I asked who who was more likely to know whether a brain injury was caused by trauma, a neurosurgeon or her administrative assistant, you would probably say the surgeon. Certainly, the surgeons would. Turns out the administrative assistants were just as good as the surgeons at determining the cause of brain damage. Who do you think would be more likely to do research to find out the real cause?

In your product, this shows up as features being added based on your "deep" knowledge of the market with no quantitative or qualitative data to back them up.

Are you the neurosurgeon, completely sure you know the answers?

Familiarity

Which are you more likely to die from: an auto accident or a plane crash? We all know the answer is the four-wheeled death-mobiles called cars (using similarly fallacious logic, I tie risk to the number of wheels, so I ride a motorcycle: less wheels, less risk!). Yet how many people still make travel decisions based on the last catastrophe they heard about on the news? Plane crashes are rare, so they get news coverage; auto accidents are common, so they are ignored. People make decisions based on how familiar the data is, not on how valid the data is.

This is a particularly insidious trap, because you have to distinguish between things you are hearing a lot because they are important and things you are hearing a lot because people are talking about them!

In your product, this shows up as features being prioritized because "everybody talked about it at the last trade show" without any further market validation.

Are you digging to find the real needs that you wouldn't hear about otherwise?

Summing Up

As you can see, our brains are wired well for thinking poorly. It takes effort to overcome those ingrained thought processes, but the benefits of the effort are huge.

If you really want to dig in beyond these five and work on becoming a rationalist, you can dive into How the Mind Works or spend some time studying this fairly extensive list of fallacies.

What are fallacies you've found that negatively impact your product, your company, or yourself? What tools do you use to keep from making irrational decisions?

PMs and Startups: My PCamp Utah Presentation

2011-09-14T15:02:00.002-06:00

I presented at ProductCamp Utah over the weekend. Maybe you will get some benefit out of it. If not, you should come to the next PCamp Utah where you'll get to learn from people smarter than me.

Product Managers and Startups

View more presentations from SoftwareMaven.

The Ultimate Product Manager

2011-09-06T09:30:00.000-06:00

Steve Jobs stepped down as CEO of Apple. Nobody was surprised, yet everybody was still shocked. There has been and will continue to be a lot of commentary about his reign at Apple and his business savvy. Personally, I look at Jobs as the ultimate product manager, who came into his own long before the profession itself did.

As my tribute to him, I'd like to take a few of his quotes and discuss them from the product perspective. Afterwards, I'll sum up with a few thoughts of my own.

A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets.

As all great product managers know, you lead a company through great products. Once you start nickel and dining the product, while your accountants might love you next quarter, you have started down a path to mediocrity. Customers don't come in droves to a mediocre product. Steve practiced investing to gain returns, not quibbling about returns on investment.

We made the buttons on the screen look so good you’ll want to lick them.

Given all the demands Jobs has on his time, he still manages to focus on the details. Not just focused, but he sweats the details like no other person I've known of. And that, in turn, leads to lick-worthy buttons.

Apple's market share is bigger than BMW's or Mercedes's or Porsche's in the automotive market. What's wrong with being BMW or Mercedes?

You don't need to own the market. You don't even need a large percentage. If you are the best, you can command larger margins and thrive on a smaller piece of the pie while others race to the bottom..

For something this complicated, it’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.

When truly innovating, your customer can explain their pains and desires, but they won't be able to tell you the right solution. Instead, they will tell you to build a faster buggy. All product managers should have Jobs' empathy for his customers and the courage to fight to bring innovation to their customer. This applies to all products, not just highly complex ones.

[The iTunes music store] will go down in history as a turning point for the music industry. This is landmark stuff. I can’t overestimate it!

Jobs isn't afraid to go orthogonal to his products to add value. I'm sure he heard time and again, "Apple isn't a content company". Apple is still a software company that adds value through its hardware and the revenue content through iTunes brings is a very small percentage of Apple's revenue, yet the value it brings to Apple's product line is immeasurable. Maybe you need to become a content company to succeed.

I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.

Doing it once isn't enough. Nor is resting on your laurels. Product managers need to one-up themselves as much as any competitor.

And now for my thoughts:

First, a major component of any success is luck. Jobs could have had an ordinary life. His fate was not pre-ordained. Instead, he just kept trying, giving himself more chances to succeed. Keep giving yourself chances and your ticket could come up, too. Stop trying to excel, and your future is certain! Edison, 10,000 ways not to make a light bulb and all that.

Second, he was not alone. He surrounded himself with other brilliant people, trained them in what he expected and let them do their jobs. Notwithstanding that, he owned the products. He gave the final approvals, he made sure everything was just right, he didn't let anything out the door until it was right.

Finally, Steve appreciated simplicity. So many products try to be all things to all people and wind up being nothing to anybody. The first iPhone was released without copy and paste functionality, a move pundits said would doom it. In fact, looking back, the first iPhone didn't do much of anything, yet what it did, it did very well.

And although I know he will never read this, I want to say thanks. Thanks for the great products (boy, did I want a NeXTcube!) but, moreover, thanks for showing us how to make great products. Good luck in your fight! I can't wait to see your next product.

A Muggle, A Wizard, or a Product Manager?

2011-08-27T16:10:00.000-06:00

Minister Fudge looks across the table at Professor Dumbledore. Even though the man has always made Fudge uncomfortable, he is still the most brilliant wizard Fudge knows.

"My days at the Ministry are numbered," Fudge says. "Given how messed up things are in the wizarding world, I'm thinking about going into business in the muggle world."

Dumbledore's eyes twinkle brightly as a smile plays across his lips. "Business in the muggle world is tough. How will you know you are selling what a muggle wants to buy?"

Fudge smirks. "I'm not the fool you think I am. I'm going to hire a muggle to tell me what muggles like."

Dumbledore nods sagely, eyes twinkling even more brightly behind his half-moon spectacles. "You are wise. But how will a muggle know what a wizard is capable of making? Seven years at Hogwarts gives a witch quit a range of skills that your muggle won't know about."

A look of panic crosses Fudge's face. "I hadn't thought of that! I guess I do need wizards telling me what I can make."

Dumbledore raises his bushy eyebrows. "I remember Harry Potter telling me about the first time his friend, Ron Weasely, called him on the muggle talking device called a telephone. While it was humorous to hear Harry tell the story of Ron generally making a fool of himself, his muggle uncle was far from pleased. I could tell you dozens of stories about our Muggle Studies class that would show you wizards really don't understand muggles."

Sweat breaks out on Fudge's brow, trickling into his eyes. "So I do need a muggle! I'll hire him immediately." Fudge looks at Dumbledore. Those damn twinkling eyes. I know he's laughing at me!

Dumbledore chuckles at Minister Fudges discomfort. "Minister, if you hire a muggle, you will have to bring him into our world to teach him what can be done. What happens after your muggle has been in the wizarding world for a while helping your wizards and witches? They won't really be muggles anymore and certainly won't know about the muggle world anymore."

"So it's hopeless, isn't it?"

"No, Minister, it is not. What you need is a Product Manager!"

When you hire a professional product manager, you are hiring somebody who understands how to systematically bridge the gap between the market and the producers.

I've experienced many companies who have hired customers as product managers and found themselves with a person who understands the market today but doesn't understand how to keep up as the market changes over time. Invariably, these become dated, me-too products instead of market leaders as the "product managers" lead the product based on their out-of-date knowledge and what their competitors are doing.

I've also experienced companies who just throw an engineer into the roll because the product is "too technical" for a business guy. Neither the company nor the engineer are particularly interested in making sure she can accomplish the job (after all, it must be easier than the engineering work). These products tend to become technological monstrosities: Amazing features but no clear understanding of nor solution to the customers' pains. Features get added based on what gets voted for most with no clear product direction.

The key point here is that product management is a learned skill. People can move into the career, but they will need to be trained. If you are planning on hiring a junior member of a product management team to train, both of the above paths are completely valid.

On the other hand, if you are looking for somebody to come in, understand your market, and direct your product to bigger and better things, you would be much better foregoing the muggles and wizards and choosing a product manager instead.

ProductCamp Utah

2011-07-18T22:14:00.000-06:00

Well, it took us a little longer than we had hoped, but the Utah Product Management Association is putting on the first ProductCamp Utah on September 10th. Registration is now open.

All the details are here. Hope to see you there!

Problem Solvers

2011-07-09T17:04:00.001-06:00

How many times have you heard seem a product management job posting asking for years of experience in a particular field or, while talking to somebody about the position, been given the impression that only a certain type of person can succeed in the job.

I call BS!

Product management is not about any particular knowledge, though it can certainly help. Product management is really about solving problems, and when you are hiring product managers, you want a history of solving problems. Nothing will be more valuable to you because anything else can be learned. I've not had much success teaching problem solving; that seems much more innate.

Personally, I'm fascinated by failures. The way people recover from errors truly shows their problem solving abilities. When you are interviewing, follow trails of what went wrong and how they dealt with it. You'll get a much better perspective on their true personality and how much hand-holding you are going to have to do.

What about you? What tricks do you have for hiring great product managers?

The Value of the Startup Product Manager

2010-09-03T10:00:00.041-06:00

I'm a big fan of Steve Blank. I think he is spot on about the Customer Development model in startups. I regularly read his blog and have read his book, The Four Steps to the Epiphany.

That said, he posted recently about speaking at the Silicon Valley Product Management Association, and, from what I can tell, he's missing the point about product management in a startup environment.

He is correct that in many ways, product management in a startup is drastically different than product management in a larger organization. However, those differences are surface-level details, more the deliverables of product management than the actual purpose of product management.

Product managers are experts at collating all the information sources that come into an organization about a product, filtering out the meaningless information, and ensuring good decisions get made based on objective facts and not subjective feelings.

Many (if not most) startup founders are emotional, passionate people. They make decisions based on what feels right, and those instincts serve them well to get a company started. As Blank knows, though, listening to those instincts over a long period of time instead of getting objective will cause problems. That is, after all, the whole point of "getting out there" in Customer Development.

So here is my list of what a startup product manager does:

Ensures decisions being made by the founders are consistent and in-line with the current goals of the company and not because the founders saw something shiny.
Extrapolates and defines the actual market from the individuals being talked to because, no matter how much the founders may believe it, everybody is not a market.
Ensures a product is being produced instead of a bunch of closely related code by monitoring user experience, evaluating final fit-and-finish, and driving organizational release readiness among others.
Balances the passion of the founders with the rationality of getting a product ready for a market.
Maintains the development backlog, keeping things out of development that don't belong there and making sure the things that do belong there get done (see #3).

And that is what your startup's product manager does. He is not a secretary setting up customer appointments for the founders; he brings discernment to a murky environment and order to chaos. And that is why you should hire product management first.

To be fair, I did not see the presentation at the SVPA and am going off what I'm inferring from his blog post. I also know I am overstating the comment on being a secretary, but this is the blogosphere, so it's OK, right?

"Night at the Museum" at a Toy Factory - Quickly Framing Your Product

2010-08-20T11:00:00.047-06:00

I just published an article for the day-job blog about Paramount losing an email message that discusses films they have in development.

I love the way movies initially get pitched, and I think there is a lot for product people (whether product managers or entrepreneurs) to learn from it. Today's topic is the high concept, which originated with a need to pack as much punch as possible into two lines of text in TV Guide back when it was a dead tree and space mattered. [1]

Robert Kosberg wrote,

The essence of high concept is that it is both brief and provocative. It piques the imagination and promises that big things are going to happen out of an ordinary situation.

And we even see a few high concepts in Paramount's email:

"Night at the Museum" at a Toy Factory
Fugitive meets Taken
Oceans 11 Years Old [2]

If you are familiar with movies, you now have a good idea what these movies are about.

If you are trying to bring a new product into the market, comparing yourself to a known entity will give the listener a lot of context that you can begin altering to describe your product. You leverage the marketing the 800 pound gorilla has done to your advantage.

See how much information one sentence can give you?

It's like Siebel hosted for you in the cloud.
It's like Powerpoint with one big slide.

But we can do better. Neither of these are very provocative. The cloud doesn't really say anything. One slide doesn't even sound appealing. In either case, we aren't really piqued.

Let's try again:

It's like Siebel, but we have to deal with the bearded guys in the data center.
It's like Powerpoint from a helicopter instead of a 70's slide projector.

Well, I think they are more compelling, anyway.

I'd love to hear your product's high concept. Put it in the comments or tweet them using #prodmgmt #concept tags.

[1] There are a lot of conflicting opinions on what High Concept really means. I'm going with the definition from the provided link based off its etymology.

[2] Oceans 11 Years Old - a heist movie featuring middle school kids.

A Product Management Elevator Pitch

2010-07-26T14:35:00.000-06:00

Tondin Banks asked this recently:

Every product manager I've met has problems answering this question, and the answers tend to vary depending on who you are talking to. How many times have you answered cynically:

What do I do? Well, I'm a janitor, mopping up messes created by people in order to get a polished tur...umm...product out the door. Sometimes I babysit, sometimes I whine, sometimes I threaten, sometimes I cry myself to sleep. If I'm really lucky, I find enough time to talk to customers and figure out what color polish they want.

Doesn't really portray product management (and, therefore, you) in the best light, does it? I thinking Tondin was right in asking about the elevator pitch. Remember, an elevator pitch is a 30-60 second spiel (the amount of time it takes an elevator to get from one floor to another) meant to get somebody to invest or buy. In this case, you are trying to get them to invest in you and in product management.

While that may work for a tweet, it isn't really an elevator pitch. Remember, you are trying to sell your personal value and the value of product management here.

What do you do?

I am a product manager, but what that really means is that I produce software. Just like a producer in the entertainment business, my job is to understand what the consumer is going to buy, make sure that it gets built, and ensure it is done for a profit. I am the hub of the software development process, making sure the right people are given the right information to do their jobs, whether that is listening to customers and potential customers, teaching sales about who the buyers are, providing requirements to development and QA, or collating feedback from support. I know that I've succeeded, not by my software being successfully delivered (after all, that could be done by a project manager), but rather by customers buying, using and loving that software.

How do you describe what you do?

Changing the World

2010-07-19T17:08:00.000-06:00

Will your product change the world?

Every product manager should be asking this question. I don't mean will everybody in the world use your product. Instead, will the people who use your product have their world changed (in a positive way!!) as a result of using your product?

But my product is a boring, enterprise product with no possibility of being exciting.

Well, with an attitude like that...

But more importantly, even if that is the case, you can still change the world for your customers. You can put in the extra effort involved in understanding their key pains and find solutions for them. I can guarantee you are changing their world for the negative if you aren't trying for the positive!

Who knows, changing your customer's world may free up enough time for them to get out there and really change the world!

From the Intrawebs - June 28

2010-06-28T19:31:00.000-06:00

I haven't had much time this month for reading or writing as I've settled into the new responsibilities. That should change as I get some of the critical things-that-must-be-done-yesterday finished.

You can subscribe to the live feed of this list in your choice of feed readers. You can also follow @FromTheIntraWeb to get instant gratification.

If you find something that you think belongs on this list, send it to me via @SoftwareMaven on Twitter.

What's New

The Social Internet Survey Software & Online Survey Tool - Inexpensive target market research with built-in respondants. Looks interesting, but I'm curious about the respondants.
IORAD, The Instructional Appliance - From screen capture to SWF. An interesting way to approach building reference material (user guides and such) for you web application.

Worth Reading

A Bias for Scamminess - It is sad when a company uses deceptive practices to "earn" money instead of ensuring the product provides more value than the customer thinks she's paying for. Even worse when it is tied to a government entity.
Rules and Laws Product Managers Should Understand (part 1) - Nicely relevant.
Why We Haven't Taken Venture Capital - It is always good to know what drives you individually when you get into the world of entrepreneurship. If you don't know what is driving you, you are bound to end up unhappy.
10 Simple Strategies for Business Blog Content - As a blogger, I always appreciate good information on how to be a better blogger. This list, while targeted at business blogging, is valuable even outside that space.

Disclaimer: Unless otherwise noted, I have no affiliation with linked properties other than being an interested reader, a happy user, or a potential customer: Nobody pays to receive a link. Any opinions of linked properties are theirs, not mine. I may or may not agree, but to be on this list I think their opinion is at least interesting.

Bringing Out Your Inner Extrovert - How to Make the Most of Conferences

2010-06-26T12:31:00.000-06:00

Conferences have been a favorite of marketing for a long time, with good reason. There are few places where you can find such a concentrated grouping of potential customers ready to talk about your products. The more closely aligned your business is to the conference, the higher the concentration. What a great way to get targeted leads!

Many of the product managers I speak with look at conferences differently. Instead of being lead generation factories, they are opportunities to connect with real people. They recognize the majority of the value of the conference isn't in what is being presented (though there may be value there) nor is it in the leads that are being captured (though there may also be value there), it is in the knowledge gained through informal conversations.

Like a good number of product managers with a software engineering background, I am an introvert. Having spontaneous conversations with strangers puts me way outside of my comfort zone, so I have to work to overcome my natural desire to sit back and listen.

Here is how I approach conferences to ensure I get value out of those informal conversations:

Prepare Before the Conference

I don't just try to "wing it" at the conference. I'm not very good at striking up small talk and have a harder time directing the conversation if I'm not prepared. Before the conference, I will:

Determine what the significant open questions I want answered are. I look at conferences to give me specific feedback to specific questions, so I need to know what the questions are.
Determine what types of people can answer those questions. Do I need to be speaking to a particular level of person (CxO, manager, etc) or do I need to be speaking to somebody in a particular vertical?
Visualize the conversations. In particular, for me, it is about getting the conversations started, so I spend time thinking about the various times I will be able to direct the conversation and how I can do that.

Find the Best Times for Chatting

Some times at a conference are better for chatting about your product than others. Some of best times for striking up a conversation are conference meals, receptions, and while waiting for a session to start. You may not have time to have a full conversation, but you can try to get permission to contact the person later.

Starting the Conversation

I find it easiest if I initiate the conversation. This allows me to direct the conversation where I want it to go from the outset, rather than trying to reshape an existing conversation. This is the most difficult part for me, but after a little experience, it becomes almost second nature.

People like to talk about themselves, so I almost always start the conversation by looking at their name badge, finding the company and asking something like "What does Company X do?" or "What is your role at Company X?" I never ask about titles because they are meaningless for the most part.

Guiding the Conversation

As I find out a little more about the person or people, I determine whether they fit any of the types of people who can answer the questions I previously identified. If I think they can, I introduce myself, my company, my role, and my product (using my elevator pitch). I then ask for permission to ask questions, making it clear that I'm not a sales person or in any way looking to make a sale.

As I mentioned, people like to talk about themselves, but now you've upped the ante. You've asked somebody to talk about what they consider themselves experts at. I have never been turned down.

Thanks to my prep work, I know what information I'm trying to get. I may not ask the specific questions I identified above, but those will guide the questions that I do ask.

Finally, I always ask for permission to contact them later and swap contact information. Business cards are still the most common way to do that, so I write contextual information on the card (when and where we met, etc).

Following Up

After the conference, I follow up with everybody I talked to. Depending on the conversation, the follow up ranges from a "Thank You" email to a telephone call with more questions.

There seems to be a large push on-line that conferences have little marketing value anymore. Perhaps that is true (I'm not totally convinced, but that's another article), but that doesn't mean they don't have product value. The real value of a conference for a product manager is not what the presenters are talking about, but rather what the attendees are talking about. Make sure you are ready to listen!

From the Intrawebs - June 1

2010-06-01T14:30:00.002-06:00

As mentioned in my previous post, my focus for the forseeable future is going to be builing a new product at a new company. For an entreprenurial product manager, this is heaven! You can probably expect this blog and From The IntraWebs to reflect that, as this is my method of syntesizing the things I learn.

You can subscribe to the live feed of this list in your choice of feed readers. You can also follow @FromTheIntraWeb to get instant gratification.

If you find something that you think belongs on this list, send it to me via @SoftwareMaven on Twitter.

What's New

The Startup Toolkit - A fascinating little tool for working through assumptions/goals/what-have-you for a start-up. It is based on Steve Blank's customer development model.

Worth Reading

Pre-Launch Marketing for Stealthy Startups - What do you do with your website before you are ready to launch? Hint: you should be doing something!
Conjoint Analysis 101 - A great introduction to conjoint analysis, which is a methodology for determining the value of individual features to your product. I will definitely be digging deeper.
The plural of anecdote IS data. - The plural of anecdote is not data. Except when it is. This post will help you how to turn those anecdotes into data (and that really is your job as a product manager).

ClickLock Hired Product Management First

2010-06-01T11:24:00.000-06:00

A while ago, I posted my belief that product management should be hired first (and found others who agreed with me).

I'm very excited to announce that ClickLock.com took those words seriously. Today, I am joining ClickLock as its first full time employee! You won't find much information about ClickLock yet, but that will change. We know we have a good idea and some very interesting technology, now it is my job to find out the product for that technology.

As a company, ClickLock will be following the Lean Startup philosophy. What that means is that our primary focus is not hiding behind closed doors and building some uber-cool thing. Instead, our focus will be to spend a lot of effort figuring out exactly what the market wants through communication and pivoting, then rapidly scaling to provide that.

As the product manager, I will be following the Customer Development model as the method of determining what the ideal product is. As a small company, we have very limited resources; Customer Development allows us to ensure our precious development resources are being use optimally by knowing who our customers are and what they want to buy before we spend a small fortune building something.

I have always had a passion for small companies and am extremely excited about ClickLock. I believe the product is really going to make a positive impact in the ways we communicate most frequently on the Internet. After seeing small companies struggle so much after building a leviathan that nobody wanted, I'm also thrilled to be utilizing a development model that will maximize our chances of achieving those goals.

Stay tuned for the grisly details!

From the Intrawebs - May 24

2010-05-24T10:55:00.000-06:00

The winds are a changing for the Software Maven. Next week I will be making an announcement about what's coming and how it will affect this blog. In the meantime, this is going to be a long week!

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What's New

Standing Cloud - This service lets you test and deploy open source application in the cloud with the click of a button. Really cool!

Worth Reading

Five championship strategies - I'm a big fan of the movie Forever Strong primarily because it focuses on winning on the field by first winning in the heart. Make sure to follow through and listen to the podcast!
TEDxPugetSound - Simon Sinek - 9/17/09 - (YouTube video) Great presentation on thinking about Why instead of How or What, which is critical for great #prodmgmt.

Brainmates, the iPad, and...Is that Limburger?

2010-05-20T15:13:00.000-06:00

A few days ago, Adrienne Tan of brainmates and I had a conversation about the iPad. She took the time to put the thoughts together into a coherent blog post.

The conversation really revolved around who is the iPad valuable for, or, in more "product managery" terms, "What problem does the iPad solve?" Generally, I think you are in trouble if you cannot clearly articulate the answer to that, and, as you can see if our conversation, neither of us could.

However, every once in a while, a product gets introduced that, by itself, may not solve a problem, but it allows people to think about solving problems in a completely different way. I think the iPad falls into this category: people are going to approach the types of applications that they build, and how they build them, differently as a result of this innovation. Future computing hardware will also be changed as a result of the iPad and how people expect to interact with their computers.

However, being a category changer is dangerous ground to be on. The cliché most often used is "The early bird gets the worm," but I think, in these cases, "It's the second mouse that gets the cheese" is often more appropriate.

This is not the first time Apple has tried to build a category changing device. Most recently, the iPhone received many of the same comments I'm hearing about the iPad. People obviously figured that one out. Nobody asks what the point of an iPhone is anymore.

But don't forget that Apple also had another experience trying to be a category changer: the ill-fated Newton. It did succeed in changing mobile computing, but it was Palm that came in as the second mouse and reaped the rewards.

From the Intrawebs - May 3

2010-05-03T22:11:00.000-06:00

April was an insanely busy month. With it out of the way (especially the Utah Innovation Awards), I can get back on track with the blog.

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What's New

Tynt Insight - Tynt provides information I would have never thought I could get. If you are providing any kind of valuable content on your site/blog (and you really should be), Tynt can provide valuable analytics that you probably don't have now.

Worth Reading

The coming melt-down in higher education (as seen by a marketer) - This echos many thoughts I've been having about higher education. My kids are getting to the college age, and, honestly, I'm concerned about what college means for them.
Sorry TechCrunch – FaceBook is NOT the Biggest Driver of Social Sharing on the Web! (Its e-mail at 70%) - How important is email to the "social web"? This sums it up pretty well!
Rands In Repose: The Twinge - This article is why I think engineers can make the best product managers...if you can get them out of the "build" mentality. Those "twinges" can make phenomenal difference to a product.
Turning on your Reality Distortion Field - I've been thinking a lot about elevator pitches recently as we start talking more about the nascent company I'm working with, so this is particularly timely for me.
Why Apple Changed Section 3.3.1 - Best reason I've seen for Apple's policies around 3rd party application platforms like Flash. I think Apple's decision here is absolutely the right decision for them and for end users. Of course, as is often the case, many developers forget that it isn't about the "tools", it's about the product.
The Startup's Rules of Speed - Finally somebody stepping up and saying company growth does not mandate an inclusion of process. In every company I've worked at, process has become a binding yoke that prevented innovation rather than ensuring a better product was created. But (and this is scary for most companies!) it requires creative effort to find solutions to problems instead of wallpapering over them.
The new startup arms race - Another plug for the Startup Visa. Just as engineering and tech support has been globalized, so, too, is entrepreneurship being globalized. We need to do everything we can to bring those entrepreneurs to the United States or we will find our economy suffering in far worse ways than it is now.
Clive Thompson on the New Literacy - You may never think of texting and tweating the same after reading this. Who would have thought that you and/or your kids are learning kairos (what rhetoricians call kairos—assessing their audience and adapting their tone and technique to best get their point across) while sending all those little messages all over the place?

How does this affect your product and its marketing?

2010 Utah Innovation Awards Finalist

2010-04-30T19:04:00.000-06:00

OK, I've just got to brag a little. I am managing a product for a start-up called ClickLock. We are very early in the product's life, but, notwithstanding the fact that we don't have a product released yet, we've still managed to be a finalist for the Utah Innovation Awards!

You can read the whole press release here, but it requires you to register, so I'm quoting the relevant information here:

30 April 2010—

Utah Technology Council and Stoel Rives recognized some of Utah’s top inventions at the Utah Innovation Awards luncheon, held Thursday, April 29. Honorable mentions, finalists and winners were chose from 120 applications—the most applicants in the program’s eight-year history.

More innovation during times of economic trouble isn’t a new trend, but it’s a trend that Jason Perry, Gov. Gary L. Herbert’s chief of staff said will help Utah recover from the recession quicker than any other state in the country.

Keynote speaker at the event, KSL radio announcer and author Amanda Dickson commended the award recipients for being thoughtful, persistent, courageous and stubborn. "I know that’s what it takes sometimes to make an idea happen," she said.

Dickson also encouraged the luncheon attendees to prompt ideas by changing small details in their lives. "We are afraid of change because we think the worst thing is going to happen if we change," Dickson said. "One of the biggest mistakes we make is we assume we won’t like the worst thing…but the worst thing sometimes leads to the best thing."

Innovators know bringing ideas to the table, no matter how mediocre they may seem at first, are important to bringing change to the world around them, she said.

This year’s innovations are applicable to several industries, from a device that protects patients from catheter-related, life-threatening bloodstream infections to a technology that allows consumers to access Facebook from their television.

The winners announced at the event are Computational Molecular Phenotyping by MetaboView, Subsurface Metabolic Enhancement by Pure Enviro Management , Gypsy by Cricut by Provo Craft, 4 Store by Control4, SmileReminder Patient Communication Software Suite by Smile Reminder, Nanostrands by Conductive Composites , DualCap by Catheter Connections, Inc.  and LiteStik by Fertile Earth Corporation .

See a complete list of award recipients below (winners indicated by *) and for in-depth coverage see May’s issue of Utah Business magazine.

Enterprise Software and Web-Enabled B-2-B Solutions 
Finalists

ClickLock by Kiwi Labs, LLC 

SmileReminder Patient Communication Software Suite by Smile Reminder *

Honorable Mentions 

Marketing View by TreeHouse Interactive 

uGenius Personal Teller System by uGenius Technology, Inc.

(Note: I've only listed the category we were in. See the original article for all categories, nominees, and winners.)

Congratulations to SmileReminder for taking the trophy. We'll get it next year!

From the Intrawebs - April 13

2010-04-13T13:38:00.000-06:00

I won't apologize for being late this time. Instead, I will simply say enjoy the new reads from the past couple of weeks.

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What's New

LinkUp Job Search Engine: This looks like a very interesting job search engine. It is trying to go deeper into the many jobs that never make it to the standard job boards.

Worth Reading

Harvard Business Review Article Advocated Opt-Out Email Marketing: It is surprising that an article on HBR could get things so wrong and an author who is a marketing teacher and consultant could so fail to understand the importance of building relationships in today's world of marketing. IT didn't win the battle, the people who were tired of being inundated with unasked for email did.

It will be interesting to see if Cisco does reverse their policy and if they get blacklisted. Somehow, I doubt it.

I'm pointing to this reply (instead of the original HBR article) because I don't think the HBR article should get my link juice.
Why The ‘Fail Fast’ Mantra Needs to Fail: I like the core value of "fail fast", but I completely understand what Mark is saying about it being misinterpreted by the intellectually lazy. Perhaps it's a good way for investors to weed out bad investments: what does "fail fast" mean to you?
Microsoft: Still Breathtakingly Evil (a rant): It is always great to watch a company make product decisions whose only value is to the company itself. Did ANYBODY raise their hand and say, "Sure, I'm interested in a crippled operating system"?
Finding your brand essence: If you don't have a product or brand that a few people hate, you don't have one that anybody loves either.
The Power of Differentiation: "Differentiation is your friend." Says it all, really.
Is Agility Making You Less Innovative?: I think this captures a major complaint from product managers about agile processes. The short of it is that product managers need to stay market focused and not get bogged down in the day-to-day running of the sprints.
Natural Born Cyborgs: I liked this article because I think it does a good job explaining the difference between people who adapt to technology and those who don't. For software product managers and entrepreneurs, it is important to understand the difference between these groups because they are part of the reason the product chasm exists. If you don't understand that, you will have a difficult time crossing the chasm.

Demanding Kisses Before You've Been Introduced

2010-04-05T09:45:00.003-06:00

We've all had the experience: going to a web site and immediately being accosted for information.

Just in case you haven't, let me share the experience that prompted this post. I was reading a forum. Somebody posted a link to a recipe that looked interesting. I clicked on it and was presented with the atrocity below. This is not the first time this has happened (Checker Auto Parts, I'm looking at you!), and I'm sure it won't be the last.

I have two words for the marketers and product managers who are doing this:

STOP IT

Maybe I'm not talking to the right crowd here. Maybe it is just engineers who aren't being empathetic with their users that are complaining about not knowing how to query the database without a zip code.

But I doubt it.

Anybody involved with marketing knows the value of information about users. The more information we have, the better we can focus the conversations we have with the user. And it is just so easy to add another field to a form (or to drop a form in there at all).

I'm sure you've heard that marketing is like dating, and I think that is a good analogy. The best relationships start slowly, giving a little, taking a little, building trust over time.

As a corporate entity, we are already at a disadvantage and are starting the relationship with little trust. We need to do everything we can to build that trust, and the surest way not to do that is to start demanding information before you've gotten through the introductions.

So, next time you are designing something, instead of thinking "How much information can I get from the user here?", try thinking "What is the absolute minimum information I need to create a compelling experience here?"

And maybe you'll get a goodnight kiss after all.

Photo Credit: JD Lasica.

From the Intrawebs - March 29

2010-03-29T14:54:00.003-06:00

After punching in 70+ hours last week, I had little time to actually look around so this week's list is short. That said, the video posted on Spatially Relevant is worth its weight in electrons. I highly encourage you to watch it.

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What's New

Augmented Reality Browser: Layar: This is a great idea and a great implementation. Layar has an opportunity to own the augmented reality space, which is going to be huge.

Worth Reading

Most users don’t even know what your product is: This is enlightening and a great example of why you need to get out of your building and talk to users. If you don't understand their world, you will never be able to communicate in a way that makes sense to them.

As an aside, this is exactly why I think the iPad is going to be a success: it is targeted directly these people.

Preventing Process Goo (or How to Keep Process in Check)

2010-03-26T22:52:00.001-06:00

Everybody loves process. Approval forms, multi-level sign-offs, tools that make everything "easier", and people who find satisfaction is getting the process done, regardless of whether work gets done or not (you know, the process police).

If you've only ever worked in large companies, you may have never experienced a life without process. There is a place where, as a trusted employee, you make a decision and just do it. That flexibility is a small companies greatest strength, but it can also be its biggest weakness.

Different types of companies require different amounts of process. Life sciences, with the heavy regulation, needs a significant amount of process. The average consumer web company doesn't need much. Every company needs some process, though.

Good process ensures that good decisions are being made. It provides information and direction on how to do things better than you did last time. A good process will make sure you are gathering and taking into account all of the information you need to.

The problem with process is, left unchecked, it will self-replicate into grey goo. And, just like in nanotechnology, the way to keep prevent process goo is by adding "process limiting code."

How do you implement processes limiting code? You specify up front things that you want to get out of your process and what you are not willing to give up. What are you currently doing that is working really well? If you don't identify it what you want to keep, you can be sure that your process changes will eventually destroy it.

And that, in a nutshell, is what most people fail to realize when they go into process mode. In all of the ferver to find new and better ways to do things, they keep track of what they don't want changed.

So next time, you are changing your process, keep the following in mind:

You should have specific, measurable goals of what you are trying to accomplish with your process. If you can't measure it, it didn't happen.
You must include the set of anti-requirements: what you want to ensure you process is not changing. Again, try to make it measurable, but that can be hard for things like company culture.
Make small changes over time to better identify cause/effect relationships
Evaluate if you process changes are meeting your goals and not breaking your invariants.
If you are not seeing the results you want or your invariants have varied (bad thing for an invariant to do!), roll back those changes and try again a different way.

Here are some ideas:

Goals	Invariants
Management should be able to predict the output of the team for the following two weeks within a 20% margin of error.	A task should never take more time in process than in actually completing the process.

Photo Credit: Amit Patel

From the Intrawebs - March 22

2010-03-22T21:56:00.001-06:00

Happy spring! March 21st is one of my favorite days of the year. It was a beautfiul day here in northern Utah yesterday as well.

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What's New

Crowdspring: This is the first of two options I recently found for getting design work done. You post your project description, receive designs from multiple sources, and buy one or more of them.
99 Designs: And the second option for getting design work done is 99 Designs. It works pretty much the same way: define a project (including the budget), get submissions, choose and buy. These services are great when you need some design work done quickly.

Worth Reading

User-Centered Innovation Is Not Sustainable: Many of the biggest product hits have eschewed User-centric design. The model is not "build it and they will come", rather, it is to understand your users well enough that you can predict their future wants and needs. A not-trivial task, to be sure, but critical if you want to move beyond incremental improvement.
BoomStartup Gives Utah Its Own Startup Incubator: This is exciting news for the Utah start up community. Utah has long had a strong start-up ecosystem, but it is nice to see it growing up.

From the Intrawebs - March 15

2010-03-15T12:28:00.001-06:00

Beware the Ides of March! Actually, I'm going to celebrate it. It is a beautiful day outside after a pretty gross weekend. The sunny morning almost made up for the lost sleep due to daylight savings. Almost.

I'm adding a new section to From the Intrawebs that points out any interesting new services or applications I find that may be of interest. If you have an interesting service or application, feel free to ping me to take a look.

You can subscribe to the live feed of this list in your choice of feed readers. You can also follow @FromTheIntraWeb to get instant gratification.

If you find something that you think belongs on this list, send it to me via @SoftwareMaven on Twitter.

What's New

Simler: A very intriguing site that attempts to address what is missing in many of the popular social networks: how do you make new contacts. Facebook and LinkedIn are very good at keeping track of who you already know; Simler attempts to help you meet new people.

Disclosure: I have business dealings with a potential investor in Simler.

Worth Reading

My experiments in lean pricing: A great article on SaaS pricing, one of the best I've read.
Choices: an exercise: Are you trying to be McDonald's (around everywhere with an underwhelming experience), 21 Club (solid, consistent, a strong reputation, and expensive), or the noodle place on the corner (cheap and eclectic). Always a good idea to know what you are striving for.
Six Delusions of Google's Arrogant Leaders: Always dangerous to drink your own Kool Aid for too long. Regardless of whether these things are true or not, believing you are above caring about them is dangerous for any company.
The Origins of Product Management (part 2): This is looking to be an interesting series of articles on where product management came from. You probably want to read part one first (there is a link in the article).
Pricing: A look at how not to price your products with some humor thrown in for good measure.
Attaching your Startup Brand to a Movement: This is part of the effort to not blend into average. To succeed, you have to have customers who are as passionate about your company and your mission as your are. Aligning to a movement your customers can get behind helps with that.