Gopal Shenoy's blog

For the last 7 months, I maintained a blog here on Vox and now I am leaving Vox to start my blog on Wordpress. The main reasons for me to decide Vox were:

1) Anyone who has to leave comments on my blog have to create a new account with Vox. That is not going to work for me. I cannot advertise my blog to others and have them comment on my articles with such a barrier to entry. Sorry, Vox does not get it.

2) There is no way to embed a video say from Youtube or GoogleVideo into the blog like I have done below. It has to be a hyperlink. Old style. OK, this is lesser of the two reasons.

So here, I have just started my third blog on Wordpress. The blog is called "Temple of the Customer - Where Customer Interests are Worshipped). I did my research this time, and everyone I asked (so called experts on blogging) unanimously recommended Wordpress (listen marketers - there is Word of Mouth for you).

As a marketer, you are often asked to make presentations to many executives on topics ranging from product strategy, state of the business, new pricing models etc. When I have been asked to make such presentations especially to a large number of people, what I have found very effective is what I call "Meetings before the meeting". This is a great concept that my present boss has taught me over the years.

The concept is very simple - before the "big meeting", you have many "small meetings" one-on-one with the stakeholders that will be at the "big meeting" to get their point of view and concerns on the topic you are to present. You ask them specifically what they expect to get out of the upcoming meeting - "is there anything you specifically want me to address in my presentation?" If you have created your slides, run it by them and see if they agree with you or raise some concerns or offer a different perspective that you had not considered.

The advantage of doing this is that you are building consensus among them before the actual meeting, instead of risking yourself getting ambushed in front of an important audience. The fact that you reached out before the meeting to hear each individual's concerns/perspectives/ideas goes a long way in making them believe that you value their input (Yes, they are executives and sometimes even their points of view are not heard) and also helps you build relationships.

If you do this right, the actual meeting where you present should represent a nodding of heads agreeing with your presentation - there should be no surprises. Even if you do get an odd ball question from someone who you had met with, it is likely going to be a soft landing for you, than being thrown a complete curve ball.

Credibility is important especially in front of an executive audience and if someone throws you an unexpected curve ball that takes you completely by surprise, everything else you have researched on would probably be called into question. The trick is to minimize the chances of such curve balls.

Meetings before the meeting is the way to go !!

Found this really interesting video on how smart executives in established companies do not see the winds of change and see their companies lose their market leadership. It is one hour long, but one every product manager should watch. Even when the product is doing well, don't rest on your laurels or get complacent - always keep looking out for the winds of change.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8562160660287197858&q=jet+airways+colors&subtitle=off&pr=goog-sl&hl=en

It had been a while since I had traveled on United Airlines. I am a frequent flyer on American, primarily because of the good connections they offered from Boston to Japan (plus once I was a Gold member, I had to keep flying them just to keep my status). So here I was flying back from the Community 2.0 conference from Vegas on Ted via Washington. I was very happy when the flight attendants reminded us about Channel 9 - the channel on IFE where we could listen to the communication between ATC and the pilots. I was suddenly like a kid in the candy store, putting my iPod away and putting my headsets on and tuning onto channel 9. It made my day. The 3+ hour flight to Washington and then the short hop from Washington back to Boston was so much more enjoyable (forget the crammed up seats or the food they serve - I really did not care). 

It felt so good to know what was going on - requests for higher altitudes because of light chop, transfers from one ATC  tower to another as we headed east, clearance to land and take offs, turns to make etc.

I really wonder why other airlines have not followed suit (hey, product managers are you listening?) and made this available on all flights for flyers like me. United has been doing this at least for the last 15 years that I know of. Interestingly, on the plane I was reading the book Citizen Marketers by Ben McConnell and he mentioned that Microsoft named one of their online communities Channel 9 after the very channel on United flights. Cool !!

I am already looking forward to my next flight - I may consider United just for this perk if I can, even though rest of their service has a lot to be desired. I don't care about DirectTV, give me Channel 9 and I am a happy camper (oh, but keep those flights on time though :-))

As a product manager, you are the product's CEO. You have the responsibility and accountability for everything related to the product. In your role, you have to work with and depend on multiple internal or external groups (none of whom report to you). Hence you essentially are the team's cheerleader - you have to make sure your team's morale is high and that their contributions are recognized and appreciated.

In my decade long experience working with development teams, here are some things that I have done that keeps things moving in the right direction

1. Encourage all team members to come up with ideas to improve the product
2. Invite your team members to join you at each customer touchpoint - this could be a conference call to discuss a product issue that the customer is faced with, a conference call to interview the customer or when you are planning to visit a customer for understanding their pain points. More your team members are in tune with your customers, easier it is for the entire team to come up with an effective solution to solve the customer's problem. You will no longer have arguments about what is important, what will appeal to the customer etc. However, it is important that you as the product manager own the customer engagement. Involving your team does not absolve you of this duty - you cannot delegate this to anyone else.
3. Ask your team members to review customer communications, customer surveys etc. before you send it out. Your team starts to feel that their opinion matters - "pride of product ownership" is what you want to cultivate in your team.
4. Have a weekly one hour team meeting where the team gets to discuss the important aspects of your product - major issues, progress made, any slips in schedule etc. This puts everyone on the team on the same page and you will avoid any last minute surprises.
   
5. Keep your team abreast of conferences you may come across that may be helpful for your team - maybe a conference for developers on the latest technology, a conference for product testers on latest best practices of test automation or your marketing team on search engine marketing. It is important that your team keeps abreast of new industry trends so that your product keeps pace with new trends or industry best practices.
6. Take your team out for lunch or dinner from time to time - not just at the end. It is important you do this during the product development cycle and not wait for the product to ship - take them out when the alpha milestone is met, after Beta is launched, after the product is shipped etc.
7. Share the goodies (T-shirts, coffee mugs, laptop bags etc.) that you pick up during customer visits, conferences etc. with your team. Trust me, these go a long way especially with developers who do not get as many chances as you do to get out of the offices.
8. Forward good and bad things customers tell you about your product to your team. When you reply to a customer who may have send you great feedback about a feature in your product, copy the developer who worked on the feature in the reply. In the reply, do mention to the customer that you are copying the developer whose hard effort made the feature a reality. You want to share the successes with your entire team. In a separate email, forward the email to the entire team and again recognize the developer/tester/whoever made this a reality.
   

One word of a caution on the above - you have to do this consistently. The worst thing you could do is take your team on one customer visit or make them participate on one conference call and they think what this customer told you is what everyone wants.

Again, none of this absolves you of your important role as a product manager - owning the customer engagement process.

Found this very interesting blog on what makes a good product manager. Very interesting read. Enjoy!!
http://www.goodproductmanager.com/

I attended my first Web Innovator's group meeting held at the Royal Sonesta hotel in Cambridge on Wednesday. It was a packed audience of about 200-300 people ranging from startup companies seeking funding to networkers to VC's looking for the next best thing. The meeting is organized by David Beisel of Masthead Venture Partners.

There were three presentations (six minutes each with only two questions per presenter) by

1. Virtual Ubiquity which claims to make the real web based word processor. The demo by Rick Treitman was very impressive, but it will be interesting to see if the world needs another word processor in an already crowded marketplace. Their claim for product differentiation is the great text fidelity, ease of use (and what I saw did make this very clear) and ability to collaborate with anyone since all you need is an Internet Browser. The application is built upon Adobe's Flex 2.0. When I talked to Rick later, he said that their objective to give it away for free, build a strong customer base. If they do succeed, in my opinion, Adobe will probably get to buy what looked like a really cool word processor and then compete against the powers of Microsoft and Google.
2. MyDesignIn showed an online application that allows users remodel their rooms. Seemed very easy to use. I know the Founder Ramsay Hoguet since he used to work at SolidWorks. Once you sketch the 2d layout of your room with some very easy to use sketching tools, you could drag and drop any image that you find for items such as appliances, faucets, kitchen sinks etc. into the 2d layout and a 2d block of the inserted image of right dimensions would be automatically inserted into the layout sketch. This would allow you to move things around and ensure that the remodeling project fits your exact needs and desires. This is again a startup at this time looking for funding. This application has a lot of promise and if the plan is well executed, this could represent the next generation of remodeling design tools used in the mainstream.
3. Cardvio showed a web application (another one built on Flex 2.0) that allows you to select existing greeting cards for various occasions or to design your own card, insert your own pictures and then have it mailed (yes, postal mail) to the right person in three easy steps. This was the only company that had a business model among the three. They mentioned that they are also hooking up with charitable organizations. It is definitely worth a look because it saves you the hassle of having to go get a card, write your words, sign it and then remember to mail it after affixing the postage stamps.  I would use them this Holiday season. I have never felt that the eCards have the same personal touch as a mailing a card the old way. So I think Cardvio is going to fill a very good need in the marketplace.

After the eighteen minutes of demo, the rest of the time was for networking. During this time, I noticed so many badges from so many dot com companies - mypunchbowl.com, 3000k.com, younameit.com (kidding). I was left to wonder if the dot com craze that crashed and burnt in 2001 was back again for Part 2. I hope this time people are wiser and think about viable business models rather than just building companies based on the new buzz in town - Web 2.0.

Goals, Needs and Behavior Analysis - this is a new technique that I have added to my repertoire of market research tools. People buy products because they have an underlying need. The need is usually associated with an end goal. While trying to satisfy their needs or when looking for solutions that would satisfy the need, people exhibit behaviors. The danger in designing products is reacting to behaviors without understanding the real need or goals.

To understand this better, here is an example.

Goal: Maintain good health and live long

Needs:
1) I need to exercise at least three times a day
2) I need to get a physical checkup done once a year with a doctor
3) I need to avoid unhealthy food.

Behaviors:
1) I research local gyms and try to get information on their membership. I use the Internet.
2) I visit two or three that I have selected to check out the equipment. I want to make sure they have the equipment I use since I typically tend to use only about 5 equipments.
3) I want to make sure that they are open during early morning and late nights since I typically leave work late. Best time for me to work out might be before I get to the office
4) Want to understand their membership policies because I do not want to get tied into long term contracts and penalties for early cancellations.
5) I call up my doctor and see if I can get physicals scheduled. I typically try to do a month in advance. It would be good if the doctor's office can also draw blood when I am there for the physical since that will save me a lot of time and prevent me from procrastinating in terms of getting the blood test done.
6) I tend to read the nutrition chart whenever I am buying any packaged goods to make sure I understand the fat, sodium and carbohydrate content. I tend to avoid anything with high saturated fat, trans fat, sodium and carbs. I also tend to eat 100% whole grain foods as opposed to enriched foods.

As you can see the needs list can go on. The above example is a pretty generic example, but it illustrates how a single need can usually be derived from many behaviors and how different needs have an underlying goal. It is extremely important that the needs and goals are identified during market research when talking to customers, so that you are very clear on the problems or pain points you are trying to solve.

Once you have identified the behaviors-needs-goals, you derive the requirements for the solution. Each requirement can be evaluated to make sure it satisfies an underlying need which in turn satisfies an underlying behavior. Such an analysis ensures that you are indeed coming with a solution that satisfies an existing problem which is well understood, as opposed to a solution looking for a problem (which technology companies especially are well known for).

Once you solve the problem, the behaviors-needs-goals statements can help you communicate the solution to your customers or prospects in the customer-speak. In fact, this communication becomes a whole lot easier because you can talk directly to the emotions of the customer. They would respect you because of the knowledge you have on what they do and their pain points, as opposed to someone who is merely trying to speak to them in marketing-speak.

I am back attending the first Community 2.0 conference in Las Vegas. I was immensely surprised to see how many people (200) were in attendance and the names and the variety of companies in attendance (Microsoft, Intuit, SAP, Boston Celtics, Seattle Seahawks, Lenovo). Heard from some very good speakers (John Hagel and Ben McConnell).

Here are the top 5 things I learnt at the conference:

1. It is all about them and not us - If communities are to succeed, first find out why the members would want to be in a community. Take an outside in look first before you figure out how you can benefit from such a community. What value would your members derive from the community your create for them to be active participants in your community? What community service will you be providing?
2. Be authentic - If you are running a corporate community, make sure your participation is authentic. Any attempts or suggestions to promote your brand or to feed the community your marketing material is going to be sniffed out very quickly.
3. Let go of the steering wheel - Get the community started with some ideas and then let the community members take control and take the community where they want to. Again, it is all about them and not us.
4. Be responsive to the community needs - Given that the community will take it wherever they want to, make sure you are responsive to their needs and continue to provide the service they need.
5. Allow members to reach their goals - It is not all about your product, but make the community revolve around what makes your members successful. For example, your community members may be using your product to achieve a higher goal. Help them get to that goal via the community, celebrate their successes and watch your community succeed in return.

I have faced this question a lot of times when designing software for product designers? It is very easy to say "let us automate this and that?". Given the state of software development and the number of bugs every software has (just read the report on Boston Globe about US Airways flights being delayed the last couple of days because of glitches in the new upgrade of check-in software), you wonder how far you can take "automation" before it gives a negative ROI?

Don't get me wrong - I love automation. I am a mechanical engineer - I have some idea how my automatic transmission works - but when I am driving my car that is something I just want to work. What about doing charts or calculating trend lines or the myriad of functions in Excel or doing my tax return using Turbotax - I love the fact that this is automated and it just works.

But there is a place for automation as well. It better work all the time, otherwise there is nothing that kills the productivity more because the user will have to first undo what automation "did" and then figure out how to do what he wanted to do in the first place.

Some cases of automation gone wrong is MS Office
1) "paper clip man" - because he tries to get in my way by offering to automate things when I don't need it.
2) When Word offers me to merge reviews together. Given that I have been bitten in the past, I always say No. Because when I am getting multiple reviews from others and if it does anything wrong (and it has), I will have a helluva time undoing what it did and then doing it the way I wanted to do it in the first place.

In CAD (which is digital clay because what you can create is limited only by the user's imagination) I have always felt that automation should always keep the user involved in what it is doing, so that if the computer did something wrong, the user could always correct it and still get the desired results. The latter becomes a lot more harder if the user had got accustomed to the automated way of doing things without having a clue of how automation did what it did. But at the same time, we always talk about removing the CAD overhead for our users and letting them concentrate on their product design. This can be done by making CAD more easier to use and this would require more automation of tedious and "Cadeze" tasks, but we still have lot of work to do here.

I read an interesting blog post by Kathy Sierra on Creating Passionate Users titled "Are our tools making us dumber?". Very interesting read indeed and the 77 comments that it has attracted is worth reading as well to get different perspectives.