Lace, Listening and Learning

Bobbin lace from the 1600's

My wife and I were in St Paul in early August attending the International Old Lacers' annual convention hosted by the Minnesota Lace Society.  Do some research if you want to learn more about bobbin lace, tatting, needle lace and wire lace.  It's a wonderful and fascinating hobby that makes a great change of pace from our always-connected, in the cloud lives.  The results are astonishing.  Interesting geek note: some of the first computer programs were written to run the early automated lace making machines in the late 1800's.

Bruce Bennet
Market Research Guru

While staffing our vending table, I was reminded (yet again) of the importance of listening, observing and soliciting feedback from your customers by the vendor at the next table.  Bruce Bennet, like me, is married to a lace maker.  Since lace makers can never have too many bobbins, Bruce started turning them for his wife's use.  He got proficient enough to start selling his creations - but with a twist: Bruce asks for feedback directly from his customers, especially with new designs, with each and every sale.  He wants to ensure his customers are happy and the bobbins are useful.  What better way than to ask them directly?  Brilliant.  And dead easy.

Bobbin lace underway.

A lace maker can't have
too many bobbins!

My own route to bobbin turning was slightly different - I learned to make lace myself.  While no expert, I know enough about it firsthand to know what makes a useful bobbin and what doesn't.  I don't sell any of the bobbins I make but I still want to make sure they are useful first and pretty second.  To keep myself learning, I spent a few minutes during classes wandering around and watching how people were making lace, how bobbins rested on the pillow, the type of tools they used and how they organized them in their work areas, etc.  I got some ideas for new designs and how to improve some other things I do.

Wood turners can get carried away with embellishments, fancy designs and exotic decorations.  The results can be visually stunning but if it doesn't work well, sit right on the lace pillow or doesn't feel right to the lace maker, then you've wasted your time making it and wasted the time and money of whoever bought it.

Remind you of any engineers or product managers you know?

How are you listening and learning?

Key Take-Aways:

• You can't make a decent bobbin if you don't know how it's used.  The same applies to ALL products.
• Never stop asking your customers for feedback.
• Reminders can come at any time from any place - be watching for them.

Some of my creations

Breaking into the product professions - Self as Product

 

This is the fourth and final entry on getting into product marketing and product managment (herein after referred to as 'the product professions').

Part 1 is here
Part 2 is here
Part 3 is here
And here is the SlideShare link for my session at Silicon Valley Product Camp back in March.
DISCLAIMER: This NOT a guarantee of success nor is it an easy checklist leading to a quick job offer. Your results may vary and others (I hope) will chime in on their best practices and techniques. It is a general guideline of how to move yourself through the process with some metrics and check points along the way. It does not replace your inherent desire, skill or suitability for any particular product professional job.

For this installment, I've asked Karol McCloskey, @prdmkgblackbelt, to sit in and give her perspective on getting into the product prfessions.  Her bio is below.

Self as Product

Are you making a dent in the universe where you work? You’re not! So you’re thinking about making a change to product management or product marketing…great idea.

No one, except maybe Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, grows up wanting to be a product manager or product marketing manager. (See Tim’s great video on this topic.) It’s a fact that current product professionals got to our roles by different routes. Yet each path has a similarity. I discovered many found ourselves thinking like product people: extremely interested in the “new” thing, in breaking ground and thinking like an entrepreneur. We are passionate about solving problems. We all work hard and we’re just plain curious. If that’s you, read on for next steps.

–

I find it awesome that you will use product marketing and product management skills in order to get a job as a product professional. Market yourself as a product. Positioning is the key element. Uncover and communicate the unique values your background brings to your new career.

You will be asked by potential hiring managers why you want to change careers and you’ll need to think through those answers to be convincing (there’s real truth to a good elevator speech) and to write a product-oriented resume. If you blog, or have a web site, show evidence that you are making a change. “Evidence” includes conversing/tweeting with bloggers you follow, professional groups you’ve joined (local and global), volunteer activities (ProductCamps, B2BCamps) and certifications you have or are working on (Agile, NPDP, PMP). Demonstrate that you are executing a product plan.

OK – now that you’ve set the stage, what’s next?

The best advice shared with me is to look internally. Self-honesty is a must. Some of us are extroverted, others not so much. Important to know which one describes “you.”

Your action plan will depend on your strengths. Knowing what you do best and what you love will help you plan what you want to do. Do you have programming or development skills, can you work magic with a PowerPoint deck; are you able to communicate ideas and persuade others, can you think strategically and operate tactically?  Each of these skills is more or less useful in the many product roles today. Do what you love to do.

Next, look at the different roles in product creation (management, marketing, launch, ideation, etc.) and many different industries vis a vis your uniqueness.  Do you work best in teams, in large companies or start-ups? Review the industries you have experience in – define what you bring to the game of product management. Understand and articulate the skills which make you a good candidate for a product role.  Hint: This is a first pass, you’ll get to refine this many times.

Now that you’ve tallied up [again] your unique benefits/offerings, let’s move on to tactics. How do you get your first position in product?

Understand the market/learn to speak the language. Become focused and engaged with the product community. Join LinkedIn product or marketing focused groups. Become active in the conversations; ask to link-in with professionals in your targeted role, ask questions. If you Tweet, follow thought leaders (and converse with other like-minded product managers and marketers you admire (for example: @cagan @sehlhorst @SmartSoftMarket @diego_lomanto @crankypm @PMDude @aprildunford). Meet people. Have coffee, share insights, network.

Craft/communicate your unique selling proposition. Find a trusted guide and or mentor and work on positioning. Take marketing classes or watch video. Write your product-focused resume and get it critiqued. Practice your “pitch” – make sure you offer solutions to a hiring manager’s dilemmas. Remember YOU are the PRODUCT which offers BENEFITS to the BUYER (aka hiring mgr).

Demonstrate your skills. Volunteer for ProductCamp events. Join with product managers in professional organizations. Get known, be seen and be available. Keep working the plan and network towards your goal of launching Self as Product.

Pay-it-forward. Make time to chat with another “explorer” – give to get isn’t just a slogan, it’s a passion.

–

Would like to hear about your successes and ideas on how to promote Self as Product. Drop me a line!

BIO:

Karol M McCloskey, NPDP
Product professional and explorer

Longtime techno-catalyst and marketer - passionate about product and innovation, I am happy exploring
product marketing best practices. It was the blend of seeing the innovation at Xerox Parc firsthand
while working with the PC that made me believe technology doesn’t have to be so hard to use. What’s
not to like about that? I welcome your feedback and support while I continue this journey.

Cheers!

@prdMkgBlackbelt

http://www.linkedin.com/in/karolmccloskey

Breaking Into Product Marketing or Product Management, Part 3

Part 1 Here - How others got in
Part 2 Here - Some core skills needed

This is Part 3 - Big Company or Small Company?

I will publish a few more parts shortly.

On Saturday, 24-March, 2012, I had the privilege of moderating a panel discussion at the Silicon Valley Product Camp on how to break into product marketing and product management.  Jennifer Doctor and Faisal Nisar were my co-panelists and I can <hand over my heart> say that it was a successful session.  The room was set for 60 and about 80 or more people crowded into the room or watched from the hallway.  It was supposed to end at noon and I finally shook hands with the last attendee at about 12:30.

Here are the slides I presented on SlidesShare. 

Here's some market research I did - oh if only it were true...

Before you think there is a magic path or simple, clearly defined way to get into the product professions, let me just state this disclaimer: ACTUAL RESULTS MAY VARY.  If it were that easy, then there wouldn't be so many discussions on how to get into the profession.  Some people fall into it, others diligently work their way into it. 

So on to the main topic this week: Is it easier to get into the product professions at big companies or small companies?

Well, that depends.

Big Companies

Big companies tend to have more entry-level or assistant-X positions available as they have more things to do or lower-level corners of the their product portfolios where the PM or PMM requirements aren't as stringent.  The pay rate for these roles is going to be lower than full-fledged positions so be aware before you leap.  Also, there are more opportunities to transfer into the role within a big company as there tend to be more 'adjacent' roles where you interact with PM or PMM regularly and can help out directly on relevant projects.  Jumping departments can be a matter of an internal recommendation and away you go. 

However, there are several caveats to transferring from another department in big companies.  First, will you be burning any bridges by moving?  Simply asking your boss for a transfer may be a career limiting move in and of itself.  Be clear on this one.  The seond concern is the danger of only being known for what you currently do - the dreaded pidgeonholing.  "Bob's a great guy but he's just a tech support wonk or <fill in the blank>."  You are so good at what you do that they can't imagine you in any other role.  If either of these situations is real, then you'll have to look outside your current company.

Small Companies

Small companies are great for creating PM and PMM opportunities just be being there.  Oftentimes you can just work your way into the slot simply by picking up an oar and rowing.  The smaller the company, the less likely core product activities get done and anyone who just does them because they need doing will be well suited to creating the role for themselves.  If you can stand the pace and volatility and have the extra time to do a proper job on product activities.

The downside is that you may not have enough time to do extra jobs or do them properly.  You might also get asked, "Do you really have the time to do this when we've hired you to do X?" Also a potentially career limiting move.

Both options are viable ways to work yourself into the professions - and they both have their drawbacks, too. 

Key Take-Aways:

• There's always options to move your product career forward, some better than others.
• Jen and Faisal are great folks to be with on a panel.

Next Up: Getting experience at the professions without having experience.

Why VC's Need Marketing

I heard about a marketing position at a venture capital firm and it got me thinking about why any venture capital firm would need marketing.  Doesn't everybody know who they are and why they would want to do business with them?  I put on my product marketing hat and took a look at some of the better known ones around and it became fairly apparent why they could use some marketing help.

 
By and large, most firms have very nice, clean websites with well-executed and dynamic photos of their partners and founders at many of their portfolio firms.  Great.  At least they don't scrimp on image. 

There's also clear and easy to find examples of their portfolio companies so you know who they are funding.  Fine.

They also list the sectors where they choose to invest.  If they don't invest in my sector, I know to move on.

But it falls off after that. 

I have a friend who's at the stage where he is seeking either angel funding or venture funding, so I started looking at these firms from his standpoint - I started thinking like a buyer to analyze these firms. 

1. Why should he buy from any of the firms?
   Hmm.  Don't see anything on any of their web sites that tells me why he'd want to choose any of them over another.  They talk a lot about themselves and other features like amount of capital under management, etc. but little about why they are different.  Not much to differentiate there.
2. How does he buy from any of them?
   Good question.  They all have a Contact page but very few go beyond that.  Does he ring them up and hope?  Is email a better way to start? 
   
   One says, "Please contact us if you think that we could be the right partner for you."  Do I use my Ouija Board or choose them based on the quality of their profile photos or amount of capital undermanagement or number of winners vs losers?  Maybe it's whether or not they answer the phone.  Any guesses?
   
   Here's another. "All business plan submissions must include a clear description of your operations and current progress."
   
   To be fair, Kleiner Perkins does a great job here.  They spell out exactly what they are looking for from people and how to structure it.  On the down side, they have a withering array of partners in numerous sectors so it's still not clear who my friend should approach nor exactly what the first step is.
   
   Fred Wilson blogged about Office Hours a while ago but I'll be jiggered if I can find where they are listed on the Union Square web site.  If I hadn't read his blog, I wouldn't know he was accessible and my friend could just ring him up.
3. How does he engage with them to learn more and help his buying decision?
   As the general perception is you only have one shot with any particular VC, I see this as a key item to figure out.  Several VCs have blogs where you can read what they are thinking or find important and Fred Wilson is pretty diligent about responding to comments in his blog.  But he seems to be the exception.
   
   All the partners at one of the major firms blog regularly on their web site.  There's only one problem: they are one-way blogs.  There's no facility for comments or further dialog.  You might be able to have a conversation in the Twitterverse but that has its limitations.  Strange.

Based on my highly unscientific analysis, I CAN see why a VC firm would want to have marketing help.  They all could use help in making it easier for founders to engage with them, buy their investment services and get to know them.  It could increase deal flow, help both sides get to 'No' a whole lot faster and deepen the understanding of how this component of our economy really works.

Next Up: Results from my Silicon Valley Product Camp session on how to break into product marketing and product management.

Essential Skills

Wow!  Thanks to everyone who posted (or lurked) last week on how they got into product marketing or product management.  There were some great stories.

I especially liked TimthePM's blogs on his story and his own survey about getting into product management.

This week I'd like to discuss the essential skills for these careers.  Every job posting has a bunch of things listed for the skills desired.  This excerpt is quite indicative of what I've seen in job postings:

"...a deep understanding of both the technology space and the business context, a highly intelligent and strategic mindset, a creative marketing instinct, combined with “six-sigma” execution ability."

I'm not exactly sure how anyone measures these attributes, let alone discovers them in a job interview, but this is an ideal view of either role. 

Here is my short list of essential skills anyone in either product management or product marketing needs to have.

1. The ability to Write
   If you can't put coherent thoughts into readable sentences, then this isn't a career space for you. 
2. The ability to Present
   You have to be comfortable, effective and engaging presenting either in front of small groups - as in a sales setting - or to executives or to analysts or to large groups.  Period.
3. The ability to Analyze
   This can be either quantitatively or qualitatively, but you have to be able look at all the data you have and make supportable conclusions from it all.  Whether it's where leads are falling out of your pipeline (and why) or hearing the third customer say the same thing (just using different words), you have to be able to figure out what it means and take action.
4. The ability to Question
   Asking questions - and going beyond the obvious answer to the "So what?" or "Why would anyone care?" questions is another core skill.  This gets you beyond the popularity contests to the things that really matter to your buyers or market.
5. The ability to Listen
   We were engineered with two ears and one mouth for a reason.  Both Product Marketing and Product Management disciplines need to be able to closely listen to what people are saying to hear the truth, what's really bothering them or what's truly important to them.

Those are my essential skills for Product Marketing and Product Management.  I believe they are applied differently or for different reasons in each discipline but they remain core to being successful.

That's my considered opinion.  I'd like to hear your views on the subject.

And please vote for my session at Silicon Valley Product Camp. Many Thanks!
Next Up: The paths into Product Marketing and Product Management

How did YOU get into Product Marketing?

I'm hosting a session at the Silicon Valley Product Camp on 24-March, entitled "How to Break Into Product Management and Product Marketing" and I'd like your input (and some voting help, too!).  Neither Product Marketing nor Product Management are degreed or certificated disciplines which begs the question: How do you become one? 

This became an obvious question to me during last year's Product Camp when I was approached by an attendee looking for advice on how to get a product management job.  I mentored him over a period of weeks, helping him update his resume to better reflect his PM skills and experience, how to work with recruiters, etc.  He eventually landed a PM gig a few months later and is happy in his new role.  This got me thinking about all the other attendees looking to get into the profession, my own circuitous path and those of some others I know.

My Own (Brief) Story

Not to bore anyone too much, but here's my own story.  For years I thought that I was a sales guy, though I hated cold calling and sucked at hard-core negotiation.  What I found, though, was I was good at channel sales - where you get people who don't work for you to work for you - and creating the marketing and sales materials my channel partners needed to be successful.  I knew that's what they needed because I often created my own materials when I was selling.

My last year carrying a quota was eventful.  They raised my quota 3 (!) times during the year and I was still 180% of the final number.  After the third quarter in a row coming home from Urgent Care with bronchitis, my wife said very clearly, "Don't get me wrong.  I love the money but I'd much rather have you around to spend it with me."  Quite fortuitously, the company shut down the channel role I had and moved me into a role they called Solutions Architect.  I wound up doing all sorts of Product Marketing stuff for a very technical team and discovered that was really my calling.  I've been doing it ever since.

Another Story

Another very effective product marketer whom I had the pleasure to work with had a different route to the profession.  When I first met her she was in the training group of a software company I joined.  She spent most of her time writing sales training materials, working closely with the PMM group and eventually creating new materials on her own.  She was an elementary school teacher by trade who moved into training when her job got cut.  She also found her calling in product marketing and is now doing well at a large media company in their interactive division.

Your Stories, Please

So now it's your turn.  Please tell me how you got into product marketing or product management and what skills or experience helped you make the jump.  I plan to use this as background information and advice for my session attendees. (If it gets enough votes. Hint, hint!)

Thanks!

I'm Bad at Marketing

Civil War-era Secret Code Quilt

I had the pleasure of chatting at length with a new-ish family friend a few weeks ago.  She co-owns the local fabric/quilting shop where we live and my wife teaches a bobbin lace making class there on Tuesdays.  She and her business partner bought it just over a year ago and have worked hard at making it a going concern. 

Never one to miss the opportunity to learn about a new business and how other folks do marketing, I started asking her about buyers, merchandizing and the like.  She told me about some recent experiences with a sliding discount sale where you got a deeper discount the later in the day.  One frequent customer (who only bought things on sale) came in when the discount hit 35% saying she couldn't stay away any longer.  She was also surprised to find that they had the most traffic and sales when the discount was at 25% and sales all but died after 35%.  They decided to skip the sliding discount scheme and stick with a flat 25% discount for future sales and not worry about their cheap - but vocal - one-off customers.

She also told me about how the people who don't want a thing to do with sewing, needles and fabric but still need to fix something won't buy or look at anything else no matter where the 'easy seam & hem repair' kits are located.  She tried having this display in the depths of the store to encourage them to look around but it didn't make any difference so they moved it near the door and cash stand for convenience.  They are also planning a series of how to do emergency clothing repair classes for those people who need to fix something but lack the skills, desire or equipment for serious sewing or quilting.

Another thing they've done is to have local artists display their fabric creations in a gallery area of the store.  They've sold one high-end quilt to a passerby and are developing a clientele who look forward to each new opening.

They also have a theme fabric each month where customers make a lap quilt, placemat, etc. incorporating that fabric, display the results in the store and have customers vote on them.  They now regularly have more than 20 people making items for the contest.

When I asked her about other marketing she had done all she could talk about were the ads and emails they run and how poor or untrackable the results were.  She shrugged and said, "I'm bad at marketing." Hmm.  She's spot on in analyzing buying patterns, is tuned into buyer personas and has adjusted her inventory, discounting and display strategies accordingly, she's targeted non-quilting people with the artist gallery and trying new things to attract and retain different personas.  Sounds pretty marketing-attuned to me.  I then asked what she thought marketing was.  Her answer surprised me.

"Marketing is all the things you say and do to get someone to buy."

In a way she is right but not by only thinking of marketing in the Kottler, interrupt, shouting billboards and obnoxious emails way of doing things.  She was completely unaware that the personas she described, analyzing the data, testing and adjusting new things is all marketing - and that she's very good at it. 

I suggested she and her business partner write down everything they know about different types of customers to see if there are any they aren't serving well, what types of things they respond to, where they go for information to solve problems, etc.  She now keeps a small notebook near each cash register where they jot down notes on how new customers heard about them, what other things customers may be looking for, what projects or events they have coming up, etc. so they can keep refining their marketing spend.  It's too early to see any results yet but she is a lot more confident in herself and their marketing acumen.

Key Take-Aways:

• Marketing is more than the things you say and do to get someone to buy - it's all the stuff you know about what to say, who to say it to, when to say it and where to say it.
• You may be developing personas and don't know it.  Step back and write down what you know about your customers or their buying patterns. Continually ask them questions.

Grey-Haired Product Management

Or more correctly: Product Management for Grey-Haired Users

I've twice recently been reminded how precious the gift of sight is.  Thanks to laser spot welding I can still see but it is now more challenging spending long periods in front of a computer. <gory details over a beer if you like>

My desk at work has a nifty 22 inch flat monitor for when my laptop is docked.  Even though this monitor is big, I have lowered the resolution a notch to make everything larger, despite the reading correction I have in my glasses. <insert joke about old guys here, if you dare> 

The laptop has a 13 inch screen.  I set the resolution to a larger display when I am undocked but it apparently doesn't believe I really mean it.  Every time I open the lid to start using it, up pops a little reminder telling me that the resolution I have chosen is not optimal.  I don't care about optimal for IT, I care about optimal for ME.  Every once in a while it takes matters into its own hands and changes it to what it (or some young whippersnapper PM) thinks it should be, despite my protestations.

A User-based Product Management View

This is not going to be another rant about Microsoft or Lenovo, however.  Instead, let's look at this from the user persona standpoint to see how the user experience (UX) might be different and differentiated.

In its current iteration, the UX is unpleasant and a nuisance, especially after it changes the settings I want.  The settings were created with the display in mind, not the user.  Who doesn't want the highest resolution, sharpest detail, etc.?  Well, me and anyone else with glasses and a reading correction who does not want tension headaches from squinting all day long, that's who.

My reading correction is +1.75. My wife's is +2.25.  I know other people whose corrections range from +1.00 to +3.00.  All the screen resolution settings are based on pixel count.  As a result, us non-prefectly-sighted folks have to use trial and error guessing which resolution will be the easiest to read.  And we have to remember what it was when the computer overrides the choice and sets it back to "optimal."

The recommended distance from the monitor or laptop screen is a fairly constant 3 feet (1 metre).  Wouldn't it make more sense to have the screen resolution setting recommendations "optimized" for whatever correction the user may have?

Sample set up process:

1. Do you wear glasses?
2. If yes, do you have a reading correction?
3. If yes, what is it? (present a slider with different corrections)
4. Click Okay

The UX takes into account a large and growing user base and presents the solution on their terms and in their language.  A laptop vendor who did it this way would have a nice differentiator and a supportable reason to claim they understand their customers.

What other marketing and positioning opportunities are you missing because you are thinking of the hardware and not the users?

Key Take-Aways:

• If you allow 'customization' to your products, at least have the courtesy of allowing your users to mean it.  Don't override those settings even if they aren't optimal to you.
• Have you considered ALL the use cases and ALL the users in your product design?  Who are you missing?
• Old folks will happily give their money to a vendor who treats them with respect.

Up Next: Crossing the Departmental Chasm: Thinking it Through

The Value of Knowing Who Cares: A Quick Case Study

Hello again!  It's been a while since I last posted <insert litany of lame excuses/valid reasons here> but I'm back.  For now.  Really.

"If you don't know where you're going, you will wind up someplace else."

My friend Larry McKeogh wrote a blog in response to my August 25 Product Management Talk on eliminating MABUSHI from your marketing. Larry's point is that knowing who the most important customer is and what is driving them goes beyond the product launch phase.  He's right.  In fact, knowing who cares and why that's important to them is the core premise of your product feature set, your messaging, your go to market, your collateral strategy, etc.  That information should live with all stakeholders for the entire product lifecycle so that anybody can use it when they need it.  If you don't have it, then someone may have to resort to MABUSHI to make a dealine.

A Short Case Study

I had started a new position at a company that had seen a lot of changes just before I joined.  A new ancillary product was launching within a week and I was asked to put together a datasheet for it.  I asked Product Management for insight and background and got the use cases right away.  They were easy enough to understand but I wanted to know the business drivers for the customers.  That's when I discovered that previous PMs either didn't document that information or never gathered it in the first place.  Like I said, there had been a lot of changes.  It was shipping that Friday so there was no time to talk to customers to develop persona information.  The field and our customers needed something quickly.  This was the first time I had to write something about a product I didn't know and before I had a chance to talk to any customers or prospects.

Rather than write up some cool-sounding gobbledygook that no one would read or understand I pidgeonholed the interim PM for an hour.  He finally decided on five points that "resonated with customers" when he spoke to them about it.  At least there was SOME market validation in what he said.  The datasheet went out on time but I did go back and update it later - after I had validated it with real customers. 

Key Take-Aways:

• If everyone knows Why We Are Doing This and For Whom, then anybody can easily step in and create something relevant.
• Write it down and keep it where everyone can find it.

Next Up: Grey-Haired Product Management

Cough, Cough - MABUSHI in the Consumer Package Goods Space

WARNING: This is a Grumpy-gram.  This kind of MABUSHI is yet another example of how marketers get lumped into the slimeball, low-life, scourge of the earth category.

Two weeks ago my son brought home a nasty summer cold and couldn't sleep at night.  Off to the medicine chest to see what we had.  He was in Cub Scout camp all day long so he needed to sleep at night.  The selection at right is what we had.  I settled on the Children's Tylenol in the end because it was multi-symptom and he got the rest he needed.

What got my blood boiling was the deception in the packaging.  The contents of over the counter cold remedies are all the same (read the labels) so the CPG companies spend a lot of time and money on brand awareness and perceived value - and I'm okay with that.

What I'm not okay is with this garbage, especially from Delsym:

 Big package.  "New Family Size" All implying that I'm going to get more for my money.  What I got was a box that takes up twice the cupboard space and a single fluid ounce more than the Tylenol.  One OUNCE!

Anyone with kids knows that one more ounce is not going to provide much more value as you can blow through a bottle in a few days.  I wonder what the Product Manager and Product Marketing Manager were thinking when they proposed new tooling to build the bigger box, rejiggering the production line to handle the bigger bottle and then requiring their channel to fundamentally change their shelving to accommodate this deception.  I don't know but it leaves me with a bad impression of Delsym.  I'll just stick with the house brand generic stuff from here on.

As marketers, we need to call "Hogwash!" (or your other favorite invective) when we see things like this proposed and kill them off before they see the light of day.

Do you have any examples like this you'd like to share?  As the CPG space is too easy of a target, I'm most interested in FISERV, hi-tech and other areas.

Key Take Away:

• Ensure the value delivered matches the value promised.

Please join me Monday, 8-August at 4PM PDT on the Global Product Management Talk tweetup.  I'll be going through these questions and looking for your input.  Let's elminate MABUSHI.

• What are the two must-ask questions in your PMM toolkit?
• What techniques do you use to understand the value chain?
• When is your sales team a customer/persona and when are they a partner?
• What makes your sales tools REALLY effective and how do you measure that? 
• What self-checks do you use to eliminate MABUSHI?
• What are your favorite examples of bad product marketing?

Time to Change the Channel?

I saw a message today from one of my LinkedIn groups pointing to a McKinsey report by Richard Rumelt talking about how bad strategy is starting to run rampant in business. It's a great read for anybody developing product, company or go to market strategy.  I especially liked the example of International Harvester not identifying it's own strengths and weaknesses in its strategic plan.  The report even comes with a diagnostic kit to help determine if your strategy is on the right track. Yes, you do have to register with McKinsey to get it but the free reports make it well worth it. 

It got me thinking about a conversation I had last with the Sales Engineering director at an accounting software company regarding their plans for growth and competing in a fragmented market.  A big part of their growth strategy is dependent upon leveraging channel partners/resellers.  He was lamenting the fact that his biggest hindrance to channel growth was the cost of enabling resellers. 

Accounting software is a complex beastie and you typically have to have debits and credits in your DNA to be able to sell and support it effectively.  State of the Art Software (now Sage) brilliantly pioneered the use of CPAs as resellers back in the early 1980's and the model is still in use today.  Any number of accounting vendors compete for the attention and love of CPA firms and private practioners.  Some firms are big enough to have practices around several different vendors, many are lifestyle businesses where the owner looks to employ no more than 30 people or so and complains when anything interferes with his regular Thursday golf game.

It's those lifestyle firms my acquaintance was complaining about because he claimed they cost the same to enable as the larger firms but are only going to produce 10% to 20% of revenue as the big firms in a year.  I pointed out that more and more we are known by the networks/communities we belong to rather than the business we work for and perhaps there were communities out there they could turn into profitable and cheaper partner networks.  He seemed to be stuck in thinking the current model was the only model, both in the channel itself and how they enabled their partners because he wasn't receptive to that thought. 

We didn't have time to discuss it further but I came away with a bunch of questions for him that may help him find ways to change his channel:

• Who else other than CPAs or CPA firms have the expertise, contacts and interest in selling accounting software?  Where do they congregate?  What are their needs (what would they want to get out a partnership)?  What would they need to be successful?
• In your market segments, where else do your buyer personas go for advice?  Who do they trust and why?  What kind of advice do they need?
• When was the last time you took a microscope and scalpel to your partner plan and enablement systems?  Do your tiers or segments still make sense?  Which segments are you missing?  What tools are useful?  What do you need?  What do partners REALLY need from your program in terms or resources, materials, etc.?
• What assumptions about partnering have you validated recently?  How many do you really need?  Do you have the right tiers?  Do need more or fewer?  How can you automate the acquisition and enablement of your partners?  Which existing partners are paying their way?  How many are resource-drains and why haven't you dumped them?  Do you have a plan or procedure for dumping them?  Why not?

A lot of these questions are really for your channel folks but are also core to what us product marketers should be doing.  Our responsibility is to ensure we have the right channels and tools to reach the customers we want.   If you're not thinking this way, your strategy may be flawed.  If you're not regularly asking these questions your channels are not running optimally.

Key Take-aways:

• Always question the value and efficiency of your systems.
• Regularly review the assumptions that went into your plans and validate them 
• Be open to accepting that your assumptions may be wrong or things may have changed to make them no longer valid.
• If your channel isn't right, change it.

Next Up: Another Grumpy-gram for our Consumer Packaged Goods brethren

Product Marketing Is For the Birds

Completely coincidentally, Josh Duncan wrote a blog yesterday about Product Launches over on his A Random Jog blog.  No, we didn't plan it but he did ask my opinion before he posted it.

My 9 year old son is a budding birdwatcher and last Christmas we got him a squirrel-proof feeder and 30 pounds of bird feed (Ace Hardware was having a sale).   The feed was general purpose but appropriate for the birds in our area.  The feeder has this clever mechanism on it so that birds of most size can feed on it but the weight of a heavier squirrel closes off the feeding ports.  This was a major item in the MRD because the squirrels in the neighborhood make a good living off acorns and other people's bird feeders so we weren't keen to contribute to their weight problems.

With such a deep and broad target market waking us up every morning, the TAM was vast and attracting buyers was going to be easy.  Afterall, the other players in the market (our neighbors) had plenty of buyers so it wasn't going to take much for us to establish a presence and attract our share.

Product launch went smoothly.  We hung the feeder on our nice, sunny and protected-from-the-neighborhood-cats patio and waited for the birds to arrive.  My son had visions of cardinals, tanagers and all manner of exotic or rarely seen birds flocking to our patio.  Nothing.

We waited some more, trying to socialize the concept of patience to our son.  And waited.  Maybe there was something wrong with the launch plan.

We checked the MRD and read the documentation on the bag of seeds again.  Yup, good for jays, finches, chickadees, wrens and all manner of local songbirds.

No birds.

Thinking it was a QA issue, we checked the feed itself.  With the rain we've had this year (twice the normal rate) the seeds may have gone moldy.  Nope, seeds were dry and fine.  QA recertified.

No birds.

Maybe the feeder was too close to the house making the birds shy.  Nope.  Feeder package said our positioning was right.

Still no birds.  More patience discussions.

A little Internet research gave up a tidbit that it sometimes takes birds up to a year to find a feeder and get used to it.  Whew!  The launch plan was sound and the product requirements were right for the buyer persona - just the timing assumptions were off.

Finally, after nearly four months a pair of Western Scrub Jays built a nest in the pear tree next to the porch and started helping themselves.  First to visit was Mr. Jay.  Two or three times a day he would flit in, grab some seed and take off.  Mrs. Jay would show once a day.  Then they started showing up more frequently as evidenced by the spillage all over the patio.

Then something interesting happened: they changed their buying patterns.  Mr Jay shows up frequently, grabs beakfulls of seed, dumps them on the patio then takes off.  Mrs. Jay delicately takes a few seeds at a time and leaves for a while.  When they come back they go down to the patio and eat the spilled seeds, flitting here and there taking one seed at a time.

I got tired of having seed all over my patio so to improve my customers' UX I swept the spilled seed into a pile right below the feeder.  If it was in a pile, they wouldn't have to hop all over the place to eat.  That was the assumption.

Mrs. Jay, as you can see, is content to sit in the pile of seeds and eat her fill in one spot.  Mr. Jay, however, still prefers to chase all over the patio picking up individual seeds he dumped on the ground during a previous visit.

The other buyers in the neighborhood?  Haven't seen a one yet.  Maybe I'll start a social media campaign and encourage Mr & Mrs Jay to start tweeting about it...




Key Take-Aways:

• Sometimes it does take a while to get results, even though everything else was done right.  And even when there's lots of buyers around.
• Even though they receive the same value, sometimes your customer's buy differently and sometimes they don't respond to an improved UX
• Not all your personas are going to buy at the same time
• Some buyers are tidy buyers, some are messy.  To get one sometimes you have to allow both.

Next up: Is it time to change the channel?

What Did You Bring Me, Daddy?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tchotchke_image.jpg

A few weeks ago, Joshua Duncan, Scott Selhorst and I talked  on the Start With the Customer prodcast about getting value from trade shows.  We discussed goals, capturing value from shows and choosing the right ones in the first place.

What we didn't talk about was tchotchkes. (cue ominous music)

You can't plan an event, trade show or conference without asking, "What are we going to give away?"  My sons are now well-trained to expect a toy or a pen or a thingamy every time I go to a conference or trade show.  I always manage to come home with several doohickeys for them and for myself.  Some I've been using for years like the Leatherman Wave multitool I got from HP at a channel conference.  Most others, sadly, get tossed after a few days - just like datasheets.  The most interesting item I've seen recently came from the sharp folks at Ksplice when I was at Red Hat Summit in May.  More on that in a moment.

There are two reasons to give something away at an event: drive traffic to the booth with the intention of engaging prospects or build awareness over time through sustained impressions.  If you want to drive traffic, have a giveaway that is unique or truly novel - something that makes people stop you and say, "That's cool.  Where do I get one?"  To get sustained impressions, make sure you choose something that is of real quality so it will stand the tests of time - just like your products.  Keep the quantities down, too.  You don't need to break the bank and not every booth attendee deserves to get one.

With grocery stores paying 5 cents each time you bring your own bag, sturdy canvas totes, while a touch mundane, give lasting utility, reduce plastic waste and return a small financial reward.  I keep my Leatherman on my dresser and use it at least once a week for some quick repair around the house.  There's a nifty book light in my backpack I use to read on planes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Floppy_disk_2009_G1.jpg

 Ksplice, went for booth traffic and engagement by going cool retro and gave out diskettes with their web site and tag line on the label.  When was the last time you saw a 5 1/4"  diskette, let alone used one?  Seeing one on their counter drew me to the booth like a moth to a flame.  I had a good conversation with them, took one and continued my tour of the booths.  About 10 minutes later, someone saw it in my hand and stopped me with, "A floppy disk?  What are you doing with that?"  We reminisced a few moments and I told him where he could get one of his own.  Mission accomplished.  And since Ksplice bought them on eBay for about $0.20 each (they were previously used), mission accomplished inexpensively.

Brilliant.

Key Take-Aways:

• Quality and truly useful items WILL get used repeatedly.
• Cheap giveaways (pens, pins, toys) cheapen your brand and don't differentiate.  Avoid them.
• It's okay not to give something to everyone who shows up.  Spend a little more per item and give away fewer to get more perceived value.
• Novel items related to your industry or product line will get you traffic.
• If your offering and messaging are on target, why bother giving anything away in the first place?

What are some of your favorite or most memorable (good or bad) things you've brought home from a trade show?

Next up:  Product Marketing is for the birds

A Company That Did It Right at Red Hat Summit

Last time I took Accenture to task for a horrible presentation at Red Hat Summit.  This time, I'd like to compliment a company who did it right with very tight, clear messaging:  KSplice.

In a world of "leading providers of next generation technology" it is refreshing - and encouraging - to see simple, clear messaging.

Ksplice has a tool for Linux admins that lets them install kernel updates without having to reboot.  Wonder of wonders - they're sign says EXACTLY that.

As I walked around the show, trying to figure out what the other vendors did, these guys stood out.  It's blatantly clear that this is for Linux admins and says exactly what it does.  The first question people ask when they walk up is, "How does it do that?"  And you have a conversation.  Non-admins or people who don't use Linux don't need to waste their time trying to figure out if it's for them.  KSplice doesn't need to waste time filtering out people who aren't potential customers because they don't use Linux.

So that's what they said on their booth graphic.  No muss, no fuss, just for people in their target market.

Simple. Brilliant.  Efficient.

Key Take-Aways:

• Know who you want to speak to at a show - and who you don't
• Know what you want to say to those people
• Say it
• Simply.

Next Up: More praise for Ksplice.

Accenture's Unheard $125,000 Commercial

Thanks for coming back.  I've been busy recently and time for writing the blog has suffered, but now it's time to get back to ridding the world of MABUSHI.

A while ago, I wrote about MABUSHI and the metrics you can use to spot it: the Huh?, Spouse, Who Cares? and Crickets tests.  These tests were done from the context of a presentation to a small audience, usually in a conference room or trade show booth.  I was at the Red Hat Summit in early May and saw a brutally illustrated example of another engagement metric - crowd noise - courtesy of Accenture.

photo copyright www.photos8.com

Accenture paid $125,000 to be a Visionary Sponsor of the show and got the privilege of delivering one of the three opening night keynote speeches.  General Hugh Shelton, Red Hat's Chairman of the Board, went first.  Osama bin Laden had just been killed the day before and everyone wanted to listen to what he had to say.  He kept it short, lively and with the right amount of humor and substance.  The 3000+ attendees kept quiet and listened attentively. Next up was CEO Jim Whitehurst, who introduced Red Hat's cloud strategy and key technologies.  It wasn't bad as CEO product presentatons go, but it was a bit longish.  Still, the audience paid attention.

Then came the chief architect of Accenture to show why they were a "visionary" sponsor for the conference.  The audience gave him the chance to begin but it went downhill with the first slide.  The room noise went up and kept going until you could barely hear the presenter.  It was so painful to watch and listen to that I finally left in search of the buffet tables.

$125,000 so no one could hear what you had to say!  Yikes.  I'm glad it wasn't my budget.

There's been a lot written lately about PowerPoint presentations recently, including right here.  I especially like this one from Gizmodo.  Not only was About Accenture his first slide, it rivaled some of the worst I've ever seen.  Yech!

To make matters worse, he said his Marketing Department told him he had to show this slide.  As if the audience needed to know who Accenture is!  And you're the Chief Architect, where does some schmoe in the Marketing Group get off telling you what you have to say?

Not satisfied by coming off as a weenie, he then went into excruciating detail on every bullet point in eye chart that was the About Accenture slide.  Cue audience noise.

Talk about blown opportunities.  Here were 3000 people waiting to hear what Accenture knew about their problems and how Accenture could help and all they got was 15 minutes of yet another clueless talking head telling everyone how great he was. Ugly.

All I can say is that I'm glad it wasn't my money paying for that slot.  What a waste.

Key Take-Aways:

• If the audience is making more noise than you, they're not listening.
• If you're going to follow a decorated war hero on stage, you better have something interesting and relevant to say.
• Even if the "marketing department" says you have to show that slide, show some backbone, put it at the end of the presentation and talk about something interesting.

Next Up:  Two companies that did it right at Red Hat Summit

Don't Forget to Enjoy the Product

Last Saturday five youth choruses from the area came together for a first-ever festival at the local community college. <Insert another rant about the sorry state of educational funding in California>  They spent the morning performing and getting coaching by a choir master of extraordinary skill.  Through small adjustments expertly delivered, each choir fundamentally changed their sound and skills.  Amazing.

I could go into a comparison of how the choir master was like a good product manager, getting the most and best out of the different groups and skill sets, yada yada yada.  Too easy.  I'm not a product manager and it's probably already been done on other blogs.

I want to remind everyone to savor your work.  Winemaker's get this.  Tech people not so much.

Like any product launch, festival or event, there's a lot of behind the scenes work, hand-wringing, last-minute changes and late nights to pull it off.  The choir festival was no exception.  However, too often, IMHO, we put our efforts into the launch but forget to stop and enjoy the results - kind of like baking a pie and not eating it.  We release a product, go have a beer or a solid night's sleep and forget to enjoy what we just released.  Many people even start work on the next version that day.

"But we make network switches.  How can I enjoy that?"  Well maybe YOU can't but your customers can.  That's why you made the silly thing isn't it?  Hand deliver a first article to a key customer and be there as they put it in a rack and light it up.  For software folks, go hang with your best user as they run it for the first time.  Share that time with them and take the time to enjoy your work - you've earned it.

Key Take-Away:

• You are missing out if you don't take the time to enjoy what you've worked hard to complete.

So what does the finished product of five choirs, over a 100 kids, a choir master, 5 choir directors, 15 teaching assistants, months of planning and dozens of volunteers look like?

This
Cabrillo Youth and Children's Choir Festival

(BTW: those are my two boys over on the right hand side)

Next Up: Lessons Learned from Writing a Strategic Marketing Plan

Product Marketing Managers Can Learn A Lot From Columbo

Switching back to an upbeat, non-grumpy, hopefully-helpful posting tone this week...

For those of us old enough to remember the Columbo detective series (which I'm not, but if I were...) Columbo had a knack for teasing out the information he needed through a low key, unassuming style.  He'd scratch his head, seem confused, act like he missed an important detail, etc. then he'd thank the suspect and start walking towards the door.  The suspect would think he got away with hoodwinking the detective.  Then Columbo would pause at the door, say, "Hate to bother you again but there's just one more thing..." and ask a seemingly unrelated question.  The suspect, already convinced they'd gotten away with it would get caught off guard and supply the key bit of data Columbo needed to nab them.

I was reminded of this recently when I was interviewing a customer for a case study we want to build.  I started off asking the usual questions about what the world was like before my company saved the day, what they went through and all the usual questions, including how our magic changed their lives.  As these were technical/operations people, all I got was stock answers and an unsupportable "90% improvement in efficiency."

Nice, but hard to substantiate and people don't believe big numbers anymore, even if they are true.

I needed something really crunchy - that money quote.  So I asked about how the team was compensated and how their bonuses were affected before and after.  Nothing much there, just more limited view of their world stuff.

My colleague jumped in and got more information on the technical considerations and challenges and that took about another 10 minutes but I still didn't have what I wanted.  I asked about my company's role in the project and got a nice quote about how they couldn't have done it without us, we provided the expertise and experience to not only do the job but sell the project internally.  Better, but not there yet.  We were running out of time so we collected our things, thanked them for their time and began moving towards the door.  I gave it one last shot, a la Columbo.

"Just one more thing.  What has the project meant for the organization as a whole?"

And out it came.  "This was a huge strategic initiative."  Not only were their Dev & Test teams all working from the same platform, support costs down, IT manager life was wonderful, blah, blah, blah, they had been able to integrate a key technology into production they acquired almost two years ago.  This important acquisition had to be run as a separate division for over a year until the project completed.  Not only that, the company could now roll out new products months to years faster and adapt instantly to market changes and competitors. 

Bingo!

They had been pressed for time so were only going through the motions during the interview.  Once it had ended and were mentally switching to their next meeting, their guard went down and they were able to share the really juicy stuff.  There's nothing sneaky about this, it's just that you often get better, more useful information when the person is focused on the next task.

If you don't get the money quote during your interview, try a 'Columbo' at the end.  You don't need the cigar and disheveled overcoat and you'll be surprised what you can get.

Key Take-Aways:

• Sometimes Techies really don't have a clear view of how they impact the business as a whole.
• Sometimes they do.
• You can do a Columbo as you're going to the door or in the hallway as you're being escorted to the lobby.  Don't be afraid to try it.

Next Up: Don't forget about the product