Notes from 5/27/09 Panel on Health Care Reform

Today I attended a panel on health care reform moderated by Austin Mayor-elect Lee Leffingwell. The panel included John Troutner (Psychiatrist), Laura Stramberg (National Federation of Independent Business), Chuck Durant (VP, Seton NW Hospital), Anne Dunkelberg (Director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities), and Gaye Kopax (Health Care For All Texas).

The panelists were asked 3 questions:
1) Does the US need health reform?
2) How can we have a comprehensive system that pays for itself?
3) Citing the horror stories about other countries, what should we expect with adoption of a single payer system?

All panel members felt that health care reform is needed. Over 46 million people in the US are uninsured; more than half of these are small business owners and self-employed. The cost of health care for Texans has grown 10X faster than their incomes. Soaring health care costs are the #1 cause for bankrupcy in the US. "We don't have a health care system", stated Durant, "we have fragments". Less than 5% of medical students are planning to go into private practice; we are seeing medical errors due to lack of coordination of treatments; we are seeing incomplete care; we are not putting enough emphasis on preventitive care. We need to reward doctors for prevention. Troutner said "59% of doctors and 83% of psychiatrists support a single payer healthcare system. We need to fix the adversarial relationship that has formed between doctors, insurance and patients.

Concerning a comprehensive system, we need to have national health policy first. We are currently paying more for health care than other countries. Medicare is having difficulties because it is underfunded, but we need to realize that Medicare and Medicaid covers the population in poorest health...we should expect it to be less expensive to cover the generally more healthy population. The system needs to be non-profit. It is critically important to understand access and efficiencies as separate issues to be addressed.

Concerning horror stories from other countries, Durant said "the AMA attacked 'socialized medicine' in the 60's in an effort to galvinize the US against it". Durant has studied the system in Germany which is a hybrid system offering choices; he believes we could learn a lot from studying Germany's system. Canada pays 60% less than US citizens for drugs; their waiting times for emergency and elective care are comparable to the US. Other statistics indicate that other countries are likely telling horror stories about US care versus their own.

In conclusion, we should be aware of the many reform bills that are and will be discussed in Congress including The SHOP Act and proposals introduced through Obama's neighborhood outreach on 6/6/09.

Join us June 6th for Health Care Reform Kickoff

On Saturday, June 6th, people across the country will be meeting to talk about the actions we'll all take in the coming weeks and months to make health care reform a reality. Sign up to host or attend a meeting at http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hckickoff. We will kick off our community's push to reform health care by learning more about the President's three core principles, sharing personal stories, and planning a health care Day of Service activity for June 27th. This is our opportunity to be informed and participate in decisions that will personally effect all of us, our children and grandchildren. Hope you will join us!

Health Care Reform

Last Friday, I had the pleasure of attending a talk by Dr. Alfred Knight, CEO of Scott & White, at a Leadership Austin breakfast. Scott & White is a Central Texas based medical institution that includes a network of hospitals, providers and health plan professionals. In the interest of full disclosure, I worked on the redesign and recent release of Scott & White Health Plan's website at www.swhp.org, but am not a direct employee of Scott & White. I have been inspired by Scott & White employees and Dr. Knight's talk, “The Reluctant Leader” to get more involved in helping our country move toward a health care system that better serves us all.

In last Friday's talk, Dr. Knight conveyed a powerful message about our health care challenges and what it will take to address them. Below are excerpts from my notes:

Today's challenges:

• 50% of US hospitals are currently operating in the red.
• 30% of medical costs are due to lifestyle choices.
• Physician & health care staff shortages are getting worse as boomers leave the industry. We import 1-in-4 doctors in the US from other countries. The shortage is most acute among General Practitioners.
• Our system of compensation is broken – we pay doctors to DO things [like take out an appendix], NOT to provide preventative medicine and counseling.
• Risk is counter to physician training but necessary for successful reform.

Dr. Knight’s Views:

• If health care reform is to succeed, change will need to be radical…will need to include preventative health care focus, efficiencies, tough decisions on how to handle costs from poor lifestyle choices….reform will anger everyone!

Actions Scott & White is taking to address challenges:

• Focusing on wellness and healthy lifestyle choices - “Largest part of our business is NOT hospitals; it is wellness”.
• Making greater use of nurse practicioners, pharmacists and counselors to allow physicians to manage more patients.
• 250 people from Scott & White have been trained on Toyota’s Production System and are working to apply this training to their health care practices. Dr Knight added that "this was the first system that got doctors engaged and working as a team".
  

I found it interesting that Dr. Knight began his education studying engineering at MIT before switching to medicine. He is, perhaps, uniquely skilled in envisioning the marriage of humanity and technology. Complacency, greed, and our different factions have led us down a path where we need something near to a miracle to pull ourselves out. But the miracle isn't manpower or technical know-how...folks, we have already solved every technical problem that needs to be employed to make our systems the envy of the world! The miracle involves waking up the disengaged people of this country (myself included), working together (set your partisanship and niche interests aside), and keeping the selfish entities at bay.

How to Create a Website - 1

When I was 11 years old, I was amazed to learn my Dad had helped build airplanes for 20 years but never flown in one. Today I can relate: I have designed and led teams to construct applications and websites for the entire history of the internet...but it has always been someone else's site.

The new Scott & White Health Plan website my team built has now been launched. Between projects, I have an opportunity to turn the single page post at www.thedetailperson.com into a website that demonstrates the tools of my craft...my own little laboratory for all the accumulated ideas in information architecture, conversion science, social media and SEO.

Would you like to accompany me on this journey? Subscribe to this blog or follow me on twitter.com/pscherer.

Everything I currently have in place has been free:

• a one page website at www.thedetailperson.com setup last summer using a Google Startpage template
• a prototype home page created on Google sites
  
• this blog at patscherer.blogspot.com

Next steps:

1. Setup Google Analytics for visibility in who is visiting my website and what pages are being viewed.
   
2. Determine the pages that will go on the site and how they will be organized (called the "wireframe" or "storyboard").
   
3. Check on what spam controls have been added since I switched comments off a couple of years ago...so your ideas and comments can be posted without references to free meds and Viagra.
   

Low-budget techniques for organizing content into wireframes range from "no tech" to "moderate":

• Index cards or Post-its: write one piece of content per card, then arrange the cards into categories, the categories become a heirarchy that can then be mapped to pages and menus (voila...a "no tech" path to a wireframe for a small website).
• Graphics tools, mind maps, spreadsheets and hierarchical lists can all be employed similarly (ability to cut, paste, drag and drop is only requirement)
  
• Create empty pages on the website, then use the sitemap and navigation menus to organize. (I've done this with Google sites and Drupal but found this "shortcut" method can be unwieldy for larger sites)
  

These techniques create simple tree hierarchies, but websites can no longer be viewed as hierarchical. Search engines have transformed websites into collections of landing pages. Therefore, the next steps in completing the wireframe will be determining these top landing pages, the keywords that will direct readers to their content, and the logical paths (cross-links and navigation) that will be necessary to fulfill the purpose of the site.

Questions that should be addressed after these first steps:

1. Does the purpose and planned implementation of my site warrant moving off Google Sites to another hosting solution?
   
2. Should I build my site over a content management system like Drupal?
   

ProductCamp, 1/24/08 in Austin, TX

Product Managers will once again have an opportunity to meet and compare notes at the upcoming ProductCamp on Saturday, 1/24/2009 at the UT campus in Austin, Texas.

What is ProductCamp?

ProductCamp is an unconference where participants in the conference lead sessions on any topic relevant to product management or marketing. Last June's ProductCamp attracted a broad and diverse crowd of seasoned managers and other professionals. I found the networking and discussions very rewarding, so this year I plan to lead two interactive sessions:

• Product personas: concepts, application, rewards and pitfalls.
  

• Develop a 12 month strategy to drive awareness in the marketplace (workshop)

I hope to see you there!

ProductCamp Austin

On June 14th, I will be presenting at ProductCamp Austin. It is being held at the St. Edwards University Professional Education Center (Google Map). As with the Open Space conference, participants propose, volunteer and vote on the sessions they want to hear. I am greatly looking forward to rolling out some work that I have never shared before and the opportunity to exchange ideas with my peer Product Managers. Sessions listed in the most recent announcement include:

• Priorities and Roadmaps: Guiding the Successful Business (Pat Scherer)


• Navigating the political minefields of product management (Charlie Ray)


• What does a Product Manager need to know about intellectual property - BEFORE spending $500/hr with a patent attorney (Don Jarrell)


• Public Relations 101: What It Will Do, What It Won't Do, and How to Use It to Develop Key Messaging and Build Your Brand (Deborah Maggart/Phil West)


• Career management for product managers - transitioning into and out of product management (Colleen Heubaum)

Open Space Agile Conference

The weekend of May 30th, I will be participating in the Open Space conference hosted by Agile Austin for the purpose of discussing any and all aspects of Agile software development and project management. The open space conference is unlike traditional conferences. There are no schedules set ahead of time; the first session forms the schedule for the rest of the conference. Attendees suggest sessions and volunteer to facilitate them. My friend, Steven List, will be one of the facilitators helping us organize our sessions. We have some interesting people attending:

• Rich Mironov of Enthiosys


• Robin Dymond and David Douglas of innovel.net


• Paul Culling of VersionOne


• Israel Gat, VP of Distributed Systems Management, BMC


• Peter Morowski, Sr. VP of R&D and Technical Operations, Borland


• Dustin Wells, CEO of Headspring Systems


• David Douglas, President of Innovel


• Beth Weeks, VP of Engineering, Zilliant


• Michael Hayes – President / CEO HayesSoft


• David Thomas – VP of Products, Mirage Networks


• Jeremy Miller


• John Heintz


• Jeffrey Palermo


• Scott Bellware


• Kevin Hurwitz


• Blake Caraway


• Eric Hexter


• Dale Schumacher
  

Freelance Business Relaunch

Lot's happening right now! In April, I left my day job to relaunch a freelance practice assembling and leading virtual teams to take on interesting web and software development projects. My associates are pioneers in applying social networks and open source technologies to create websites and collaboration tools that are more effective, easier to use and cheaper to maintain than 90's spawned enterprise applications. My contributions to my clients, teams and associates include:

• Business strategy (competitive analysis, positioning, roadmaps, business and marketing plans)


• Business analysis (use cases, stories, persuasion architectures, process automation and web flow design)


• Management of the project, customer relationship and outsourced teams

How to Kill Failing Projects

A colleague posed this topic:

It is estimated that only one-third of projects are fully successful, even with dramatic improvements in project management methodologies over the past several years. Most of us have been involved in projects that are not meeting the objectives and are consuming valuable resources (people, infrastructure, dollars). And yet, even when indicators suggest that a project is headed for failure, it is difficult to kill the project and reallocate resources to other, more fruitful efforts. I would appreciate any thoughts anyone has on this subject. I would be particularly interested in hearing from those who may have been faced with this situation and successfully dealt with it.

My response:

In my view, the operative phrase is proactive honesty. Ideally, a leader (project manager, product manager, CxO or other) will have established and be tracking to performance points necessary for success. The earlier a problem is detected and surfaced, the greater the chance that necessary corrections can be put in place. Projects that are beginning to move over budget or schedule may benefit from brainstorming among the project teams. This may surface ideas to reduce time and costs and aligns team members behind the project.

As an example, I was once faced with having to cut staffing in half for an already bare bones project. I fully expected to kill the project and reassign team members when I took the problem to my team that afternoon. To my surprise, they came up with ideas and signed up for the extra hours necessary to make the project successful. As a contrasting point, half of this same team had come from a doomed project that had been scuttled just AFTER the development phase completed. They had put tremendous time and effort into the earlier project and suspected that much of their efforts could have been better deployed. I found that trust in management goes a long way toward insuring timely corrective action and a higher rate of success. DO NOT KILL THE MESSENGER AND DO NOT BE AFRAID TO ADMIT YOUR MISTAKES!

A tougher problem occurs when outside competitive forces or a serious “gotcha” shifts the ROI into a losing proposition. Proactively coming to terms with the new reality and moving quickly to redeploy resources to healthier projects is the best course to preserve both money and morale. Even when the change involves layoffs, I found that the morale and confidence of my staff remained high so long as I dealt with the situation proactively, honestly and with compassion.

Designing Better Websites

Great ideas and technologically superior products are not enough to succeed long-term in business. Ultimately, we need to turn our attention to how we communicate. True communication goes beyond "marketing" which includes the concepts of research, personas and demographics but is biased toward outbound broadcasting of our "messages". One duty of a good Product Manager is to promote and effectively channel inbound communication to improve the product and business. Accepting inbound communication adds eyes and ears to the organization. We can now respond to the needs and opportunities we allow ourselves to hear.

But guess what? Truly great companies take communication much further! They figure out how to employ two-way communication effectively to become more responsive, stay on top of changing conditions and build long-term business relationships.

So what does all this have to do with web design? The best designed websites make it easy for prospective customers to find what they want. In Waiting for Your Cat to Bark, the Eisenbergs used the cat analogy to stress that customers have short attention spans and are often looking for something specific when they visit a website. The well-designed site is "friction-less". The customer sees a path leading to their goal on the homepage. The path answers his questions. leads him to his desired goal and compels him to take action (like hit the Buy button).

The best websites are designed around the needs of prospective customers and employ personas to better understand their motivations. The Eisenbergs and others have drawn upon the literary art of fictional character development to get inside the minds of their customers. An example of a website which was developed around these concepts is Leo Diamond. Admittedly, the wording on the site is a bit schmaltzy for some, but notice how the Home Page provides easy access to answers for the "value buyer" looking for information on the 4Cs, the "fashionable buyer", the "looking for the perfect diamond buyer", the "I want to impress her buyer", ....

The ideas taken from Waiting for Your Cat to Bark WILL create a more effective website. For those with little time to invest in reading, here is my quick synopsis of employing personas to web design:

1. Make a list of who would be looking at your site and why
2. Make each persona a real person in your mind. Your persona may take life as you follow him around in your imagination. If so, write down what you learn.
3. Find people who represent the customer you are trying to reach, interview and observe them one at a time navigating your site. Ask them to tell you what they want to know and what they are thinking as they navigate. (See papers by Jakob Nielsen on how to conduct lightweight usability testing.)
4. Create an easy path on your site for each persona to follow. Address each persona on the Home Page with easy access to each question you have identified through your research. Think of this path as marking a trail in deep woods. Each answer you provide should lead him closer to the destination which is...
5. Your call to action! Whether it's hit the Buy button, call you or download information, know what you want your prospect to do and make it easy for him to follow through.
6. And finally...think of long-term value and relationship-building by providing a site that encourages customers to return.

Real People or Demographics?

Today, I am thinking about a book called The Cluetrain Manifesto, client experiences, and the catalyst that originally took me into Product Management...Yes, I promise you, ALL these things tie together!

There are many paths into Product Management. As discussed in previous posts, many of us gravitate to the field because we have a passion for digging into the details of how things work, understanding why we are doing whatever we are doing, and working with people to transform intangible ideas into valued products. These three words (how, why and people) are like three legs of a stool called "success". Take away any one of these things. and the stool tips over.

Technologists and techno-centric companies are often very attuned to how things work. We are fascinated by the details. We think everyone else will be too. We create products with lots of features (more than our competition!!!). When the product is complete, we tout the technology and saavy that went into building it.

Then sadly, the eyes of the Market glaze over, and the lack of wallet-vote tell us we missed something.

And for the first time, we begin to look into why: maybe the Market just doesn't "get it". We go talk to "the Marketing Guy". "Hmmm, Marketing Guy says I need to provide 'sizzle'...what the hell does he mean by that? Obviously, he doesn't get it either...." Five marketing teams later, we either come to the conclusion that all Marketing people are morons, or we move one step closer to success: we ask the people we hoped would buy our product why they did not.

Asking a prospective customer seems like a logical and direct thing to do. Why is it such a huge leap for so many companies? I think it is because many of us invest a good deal of personal energy into our "babies". We want the Market to see them from our perspective. We want to persuade rather than listen. We do not want to hear that others find our baby cholicky, or worse yet... average! Sometimes it takes repeated failures to recognise the value of honest and constructive criticism.

Cluetrain Manifesto points out the tendency for companies to create barriers between employees and customers. It seems that the larger the company, the less contact we (the Creators of new products) have with the people who would be buying them. So we create in a void or try to substitute statistics, demographics, and averages for the opinions and feedback of real people. We kid ourselves into believing that the statistics will provide broader, more objective, and more useful information. The only problem is that real people are inherently not objective when it comes to personal choices. We forget that people have motivations and emotions that may not fit our models or be accommodated by our products. Their true feelings were not listed within "A" through "D" of the survey we sent them. Besides, they do not waste their time on fruitless exercises sent by strangers.

A number of years ago, I was a lowly Developer leading a software product team within a large corporation. My team could not find the answers to the why questions we asked anywhere within the company, so I overcame an aversion to public speaking to volunteer for opportunities to meet real customers who would be using our product. I found gold in every discussion! I brought it back, shared it with my teams. and our products began to win awards and gain a strong customer following.

In a time of unprecedented choices for communications and data gathering, understanding the difference between statistics and real people is critical. Statistics can tell you whether or not your product is selling, and provide valuable feedback. But for all the why questions that go to make-up great products and services, nothing beats 1-on-1 conversations with real people willing to share their views for transforming your ugly baby into something beautiful.

Is Customer Loyalty Really Dead?

...Or are we just focusing on the wrong customers?

Last week, I was again off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Ads (Aka. Roy H. Williams). This was the second time I had the pleasure of spending the day at his beautiful Academy in the Texas Hill Country south of Austin. A very interesting part of his presentation contrasts relational versus transactional buyers.

A relational buyer is a person who doesn't have the time or inclination to comparison shop. When a relational buyer needs something, he simply goes to a likely source and buys it. In the end, a relational buyer's only worry is that a product may not do what he needs it to do. If he is happy with the product and buying experience, a relational buyer will typically return to the same source over-and-over to make similar purchases. He will also recommend a business he likes to others.

In contrast, a transactional buyer is a comparison shopper who prides himself in getting the best deal. He will research the product, then call or visit numerous locations in search of the lowest price. The transactional buyer's only concern is that he may find the product for less somewhere else after making his purchase. Sometime later, if he needs a similar product, he will start the process of comparison shopping all over again.

Can you guess which one is more likely to be a loyal long-term customer? Beyond the advantages of loyalty and repeat business, relational buyers are more likely to provide higher profit margins, higher purchase rates per visit and lower overall transaction costs compared to their transactional counterparts.

Many businesses attempt to increase traffic to their stores through pricing strategies that appeal more to transactional buyers than to relational buyers. The additional traffic that is generated may be very misleading because only a small percentage may actually make purchases during a given visit. The low conversion rate means that actual sales may not offset the price discount used to attract the additional business.

While low prices attract transactional buyers, relational buyers are more likely to choose a source that someone else recommends, is convenient, or simply comes to mind as a source. According to Roy H. Williams, winning the mindshare of relational buyers must be a long-term commitment of providing a consistent and salient message that emphasizes unique value, quality and service.

There is nothing wrong with targeting transactional buyers or both types, but businesses will be most effective if they understand the differences and align messages and pricing strategies with the particular group they wish to target. For more on this and similar topics, you may want to checkout the many classes, books and articles on the Wizard's website at www.wizardofads.com.

The Schools of Quality

Today, I received this question from a friend: "Tell me, in your opinion where is ISO 9000 on the continum from waste-of-time to essential? Is TQM really dead leaving 6Sigma to reign?"

I think this was a pretty relevant question for Managers overseeing product development and manufacturing, so here is my response:

"Six Sigma has definitely become the quality model of choice within
manufacturing (led by the automotive and electronics industries). ISO9000 and TQM provide some meaningful guidelines, but in my experience, too much emphasis was put on passing the audits versus focusing on the right actions to actually improve quality. ISO9000 emphasizes documentation and specifies a format that seems more in line with legal contracts than with internal working documents. TQM has strong emphasis on process definition, but is best known for its Malcolm Baldridge award. When a methodology causes businesses to spend MORE money than can be gained through quality efficiencies, it has been taken too far."

"I believe it is this reaction that led to the popularity of Six Sigma which is more a collection of tools and methods employed through different phases of production. I have spent quite a bit of time learning a very small piece of Six Sigma called VOC (Voice of the Customer) and portions of QFD (Quality Functional Deployment). The tools and methods include excellent ways to capture and prioritize product requirements, and to measure results against the original requirements. The mother of all tools in QFD is something known as "the House of Quality". Good and useful stuff!"

A note to readers: Some years ago, I helped head-up an effort to make a 450 person software development organization "audit ready". We achieved ISO9000 certification and won the Malcolm Baldridge award as a result of our efforts. Early this year, I studied Six Sigma QFD with a friend who was completing his Black Belt certification. I found the tools useful and went on to apply them to my product management and design work. I therefore consider myself a quality practician, not an expert. I welcome other informed contributions on this topic.

The Art of Market Research

When can listening to your customers be hazardous to your company's future? This is a question I have been contemplating for a couple of months. It began with a reference by Roy H. Williams (see Wizard of Ads post) to the taste tests that led to the New Coke introduction.

On the surface, Coca Cola appeared to have conducted a textbook study to pick a soft drink formula that would help them gain market over Pepsi. Instead, the New Coke introduction was one of the most costly errors of the decade.

There are many lessons we can learn from experiences such as these. The first lesson is that it may be inappropriate to apply a scientific study (such as a blind taste test) to a product with Coke's nostalgic connections. Malcolm Gladwell, in his excellent book, Blink, pointed out other flaws in the study inherent to taste tests: the order and amount of beverage consumed can alter one's preference. The idea that a less sweet beverage can taste "sour" after drinking a sweeter beverage is something we have all experienced. A lesser known factor in "taste" tests is that most people prefer sweeter tastes in small quantities and less sweet tastes when drinking larger servings. So lesson #2 is to plan your experiments carefully: be as realistic as possible.

Yet another difficulty in collecting and interpretting data lies in the communications and thought processes of most customers. Kathy Sierra noted recently in her blog Creating Passionate Users that "people don't necessarily know how to ask for something they've never conceived of! Most people make suggestions based entirely around incremental improvements, looking at what exists and thinking about how it could be better. But that's quite different from having a vision for something profoundly new. True innovation will rarely come from what users say directly. This doesn't mean that you don't listen to users--because the truth is embedded in what they say...but you have to look for the deeper meaning behind what they ask for, rather than always taking them at their word."

The conclusions I have reached echo those stated above. As a Product Manager, I have found great value in conversations with customers and in opportunities to observe people working with products I am trying to improve. Theses activities can provide the creative spark for new ideas and perspectives that those of us too close to a specific product may have overlooked. We get into trouble, however, when we try to treat people's opinions and preferences as a scientifically controlled experiment. It is amazingly easy to create bias in experiments when dealing with personal preference - a bias that then becomes magnified through our own biased interpretation of the results. The more we delude ourselves into believing our experiment is scientific and our results conclusive, the more we set ourselves up for errors on the magnitude of New Coke. By recognizing the inherent flaws in approaching human preference as science, we can still reap the benefits of new perspectives while avoiding the pitfalls of over-confidence.

The Wizard of Ads

"We're off to see the wizard...the wonderful wizard of ads...." A couple of weeks ago, I attended a free seminar by Roy H. Willams (Aka, the Wizard of Ads) at his beautiful retreat in the Texas Hill Country West of Buda. I heard about the seminar through members of Bootstrap-Austin. Scanning the reviews of Roy's books on Amazon.com, I figured it would be an interesting day. What an understatement!

A short time after I arrived at the Wizard Academy, Roy materialized on the stage, and like a modern day Merlin, demonstrated the craft of artful persuasion. What followed was a fascinating multimedia presentation on how the brain processes information, the challenges businesses face to be heard and remembered, the pitfalls of blindly following tried-and-true approaches to market research and advertising, and the effect of 40 year cultural cycles (shifting emphasis between "me" and "we") that influence whether messages are embraced or rejected.

Those of you who know me, or have read other articles of my blog, know that I take a long-term view toward building successful businesses and products: I believe that customers and markets can be won, but never held, unless you are committed to building the relationship (and the product line)...unless you commit the same loyalty to your market that you ask in return. One of the things I appreciated in Roy's presentation, and his writing, is a clear distinction between "quick fixes" that become less effective over time, and building longer-term brand recognition. Some critics feel he is a little "preachy" about his emphasis on responsible advertising. Some people should not be running companies.

On a more personal note: last week, Product Principles (my consulting group) decided to not pursue forming an LLC. Two of the members are so engaged in individual projects that they do not have the time to help build the business. It was an amicable decision for us to each focus on individual projects. I hope to have other opportunities to work with Chris, John, Lisa and Jeff again.

The last few days, I have been thinking about keys to move my business forward: lead qualification, face time, clarifying my value proposition, and Roy's concept of a "gravity well". One of the "Wizard" messages I have taken to heart is that I cannot persuade people to do anything they have not already imagined themselves doing. The people who could benefit most from my services are the ones whose products and businesses are just being formed. Unfortunately, the probability of my involvement at this stage is less than being called in to perform triage on companies in crisis. Unless a leader has experienced the pain of developing a product which misses the target so badly that the finest advertising campaign cannot resuscitate it, or conversely, has experienced the rewards of recruiting passionate customers who honed, tested and evangelized his products making them successful in the market, I have a difficult sell. That is where lead qualification, face time, and a clear value proposition needs to come forward. A friend and successful salesman put it this way: "always look for the MAN (Money, Authority, Need)". Good advice.

My ultimate goal is to partner with a visionary leader/business who wants to build long-term value by repeatedly delivering on the unarticulated desires of a growing market. I have accomplished this vision multiple times and can tell you that success in this area is like no other! I want to help more clients and businesses experience it! Are you the visionary MAN I seek (or do you know one I should meet)? If so, let me know you are there!

Best to you in all your endeavors!

Tracking Down the Illusive Product Manager

I am convinced that the people who are best suited to Product Management instinctively recognize one another as any two members of the same species would in the wild. For those of you who find this idea bizarre, here is one person's view on identifying the illusive Product Manager in the wild world we refer to as the job market....

The best Product Managers I know describe themselves as "chameleons" and "jack-of-all-trades", but when you talk to one at length, you discover they are NOT "generalists" or "master's of none" (as the popular saying goes). Rather, they are people who love to learn, love to share ideas, and love to turn ideas into something physical and tangible...these people can get intellectually stimulated by almost any topic enough to dive in and master it... THEN either teach it or employ it in some new way. Strong Product Managers may have many degrees but they are just as likely to have none; they tend to be avid readers and self-starters. They have a knack for understanding and blending in with people throughout different organizations and levels. They are rarely strong introverts or extroverts; they are more likely near the middle...working well with both people and tasks.

When you look at a Product Manager's resume, the career path will not likely be linear (unless the resume was carefully architected to appear linear). To find that illusive Product Manager in a sea of applicants, look for business accumen and evidence of high level mastery/leadership within multiple specialized fields. Look for details sprinkled throughout the resume indicating interest and pride that goes beyond a standard list of industry jargon. Choose a topic in the resume and ask the applicant a detailed "how did you..." question. The true Product Manager will become energized while sharing his/her experiences and insights. This same interest and enthusiasm will carry over to any area of the resume you probe. Share a little about your company's challenges and you will see a Product Manager's interest and energy will carry over to your business as well.

Oh, yeah, and Product Managers tend to feel a need to share their visions of business utopia on the web! There are some great sites and great people scattered around out there; some of which you will find through my links.

Business Blogging on the Rise

Business Blogging on the Rise: "Currently, only a few Fortune 500 companies have launched blogs, such as Boeing, Sun Microsystems, and GM; however, smaller businesses seem to be adopting them more quickly.
'Blogs are tailor-made for small businesses, and they are a better tool for them,' said Anita Campbell, editor of the blog Small Business Trends. 'Large businesses have to worry about what they can say in their blogs. They have to worry about SEC regulations and their different constituents, so small businesses have a better chance of making blogs work for them.'
That's not to say smaller businesses will not have issues when leveraging blogs for marketing purposes. They can be dangerous tools if they are not used cautiously. Businesses need to watch out for the type of information employees post, ensuring proprietary information is not shared. Employees also must evaluate the consequences of writing for blogs, which could inadvertently cause corporate scrutiny if questionable material is posted.
Despite the risks, blogs are gaining ground as credible sources of information with Internet users. According to a recent survey by Hostway, a Web-hosting and managed services provider, 45% of 2,500 respondents feel blogs are as or more credible than television commercials, and 45% feel that blogs are more credible than Internet advertising. Forty-one percent feel blogs are as or more credible that radio advertising.
Business blogging consultants agree that it is yet to be proven that blogs are a good direct-response marketing tool, but they can be an excellent tool to build relationships and create brand equity as more Internet users see them as viable sources of information.
'Blogs can help in networking and creating industry contacts and business partners. They can also be excellent selling tools, particularly with affiliate"

USATODAY.com - CEOs refuse to get tangled up in messy blogs

Curious about which top executives are embracing the "blog phenomena" and the risks and rewards for doing so?

"Some large companies, including Boeing, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems, are letting senior executives blog, but not a single blogger is known to be a Fortune 1000 chairman and/or CEO. In part, that seems surprising. Blogs, short for weblogs, are personal Web sites for posting thoughts, rants and opinions in chronological order. One written by a CEO would slice through traditional media gatekeepers and bring him or her unedited to the desktop of customers, employees, Wall Street analysts and competitors. A blog by a prominent CEO would attract instant traffic, could influence public opinion, perhaps steer legislation and maybe sell a few widgets. But despite all of the power and sway that awaits an early adopter, it's going to take a brave CEO with thick skin to enter the blogosphere...."

The Product Management Triad

Another excellent article from Pragmatic Marketing...this one from Steve Johnson (click the title bar to view the full article with one of the most complete descriptions I've ever seen for the key Product Management roles):

"How many product managers do you need? What are their roles in the company? Is product management a support role for sales or marketing communications or development? I'm often asked to contrast product management, product marketing, program management and other titles in a high-tech company. All are poorly understood and are defined differently everywhere I go. An ideal solution for many companies is the 'product management triad'."

"Some product managers have a natural affinity for working with development, others for sales and marketing communications, and others prefer to work on business issues. Finding these three orientations in one person is an almost impossible task. Instead, perhaps we should find three different people with these skills and have them work as a team."

"Start with a business-oriented senior product manager for product strategy. Make this person a Product Line Manager (PLM) or director. Now add a development-oriented Technical Product Manager (TPM) and a sales-oriented Product Marketing Manager (PMM)...."

Thanks to my friend Brian Massey for sending this link to me (and Steve Johnson for teaching me about the "Blog this" tool).

Who Needs Product Management?

Here is an excerpt from an excellent article by Barbara Nelson of Pragmatic Marketing (click the title link to view the complete article on their website):

"You need product management if you want low-risk, repeatable, market-driven products and services. It is vastly easier to identify market problems and solve them with technology than it is to find buyers for your existing technology."

"Product Management identifies a market problem, quantifies the opportunity to make sure it's big enough to generate profit, and then articulates the problem to the rest of the company. We communicate the market opportunity to the executive team with business rationale for pursuing the opportunity including financial forecasts and risk assessment. We communicate the problem to Development in the form of market requirements; we communicate to Marketing Communications using positioning documents, one for each type of buyer; we support the sales effort by defining a sales process supported by the requisite sales tools so that the customer can choose the right products and options."

"If you don't want to be market-driven, you don't need product management. Some companies will continue to believe that customers don't know their problems. Some companies believe that they have a role in furthering the science and building the next great thing. These companies don't need product management; they only need project management, someone to manage the budgets and schedules. But these companies also need to reexamine their objectives. Science projects cannot be made into products in the short-term. Don't expect revenues if your company is focused on the "R" in Research and Development. Product management can guide you in the "D" in R&D, the development of technology into problem-solving products. "

An Evening with Keith Ferrazzi

Last night, I had the pleasure of meeting Keith Ferrazzi prior to a presentation he gave in Austin. I told him about my review of his book on this blog and he readily suggested we "link up". He is a very energetic and friendly man who clearly feels passionate about his topic of connecting people.

The original working title and theme of his book was You Can't Get There Alone and during the evening he took us through his process for setting goals and a few exercises to demonstrate the value of sharing on a deeper level with people we meet. The exercise was simple and can be practiced by anyone on any day: instead of talking about the weather when you meet a stranger, share something about a topic you are passionate about and invite the other person to do the same. It was interesting to note how the volume and energy picked up in the room when everyone was sharing at this level. A lady sitting next to me and I shared many common interests and concerns about family, home and career...and she just happened to have a promising contact for me in my current job search.

A second major point last night was to focus on giving: "how can I help the people I meet? How can I contribute to their success?" I never thought of it in this way, but it is so much easier to approach people when you are genuinely interested in assisting them than when you are "trying to" (fill in yor favorite phrase). Just the word "trying" should tell you that you are not on the right path.

Mind Gym: An Athlete's Guide to Inner Excellence

Mind Gym: An Athlete’s Guide to Inner Excellence by Gary Mack with David Casstevens is one of my favorite books to pickup whenever I need a little inspiration and encouragement. While the many stories and quotes are derived from the world of professional athletics, the book is really about creating excellence in one’s life with applicability to any pursuit and any profession. The main theme is that once one reaches a certain level of competency, the level he achieves in performance will be determined by how well he learns to utilize his mind. With this, the author takes us on a fascinating tour of the minds of some of the world’s greatest coaches and athletes; their successes, their challenges, and the mental tools they employed to succeed. To borrow a line from the book, “it takes years of hard work to become an overnight success”, Mind Gym is an excellent coach along the way.

Notes and quotes:

• Focus on the task – do not let negative thoughts intrude.
• State goals in positive terms – “don’t look where you don’t want to go”.
• Create your own mind gym visualizing yourself overcoming mistakes and doing things well.
• Mental toughness = competitiveness, confidence, control, commitment, composure, courage and consistency.
• It’s not the situation but how you respond to it that makes the difference; it is within your control.
• “I may win and I may lose, but I will never be defeated” – Emmitt Smith
• “Gremlins” get in the way of success: fear, anger, anxiety, self-consciousness, perfectionism, stubbornness, lack of motivation, distraction, and lack of persistence.
• “Your mind is like a parachute – it only works when it’s open. What did you learn today and how will it make you better tomorrow?
• “Each of us has a fire in our hearts for something. It’s our goal in life to find it and keep it lit.” – Mary Lou Retton
• ACT:
  - Accept the present state
  - Create your desired state
  - Take action to get there
• “It’s all about the journey, not the outcome.” – Carl Lewis
• Seek progress rather than perfection.
• SMART Goal Setting:
  - Specific
  - Measurable
  - Achievable
  - Realistic
  - Time-bound
• Fear of failure makes failure more likely: “you can’t steal second with your foot on first”.
• “Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off your goal” – Jim Lefebvre.
• You have to learn how to get comfortable with being uncomfortable” – Lou Piniella
• Changing pessimism to optimism, the 3 P’s:
  - Permanence – optimists believe setbacks are temporary, not permanent.
  - Pervasiveness – optimists do not let troubles affect other areas of their lives.
  - Personalization – optimists internalize victories and externalize defeats.
• “Just as you learn not to swing at bad pitches, you must learn not to chase bad thoughts. Learn to turn your negative critic into a positive coach.”
• “Pace instead of race” – learn to slow down and focus when you feel rushed.
• “Try easier….The less tension and effort, the faster and more powerful you will be” – Bruce Lee
• “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail” – Wayne Gretzky
• “The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence” – Vince Lombardi

The Power of Simplicity

Coming from a software and engineering background, I have been well-indoctrinated into a world where precise wording means the difference between something working or something broken. Unfortunately, preciseness often takes the form of all inclusive lists and long explanations. In many ways, it is this tendency that separates those of us with infinite curiosity and patience to figure things out (less than 13% of the population according to something I recently read) from the vast majority of the population. Every "technogeek" has observed the glazed eye phenomenon when trying to answer the simple question "what do you do for a living?" When we find ourselves in the situation of looking for work, selling our ideas to others, or simply relating to the rest of the world, one of our greatest challenges is learning to boil things down to their essence and let go of all the details, exceptions and other extraneous matter.

Marketing teaches the power of branding, repetition, and a clear message. When your career and success depends on a memorable impression, less is more. To operate effectively in the world of Product Management requires the ability to adjust your style of communication to the audience and need. To deliver a clear and simple outbound marketing message, then to gather, understand, conceptualize and communicate product and business requirements into the organization at a level necessary to implement.

Over the next few weeks, I will be refocusing on simplifying the message I communicate with my resume, my business introductions, and my answers to the simple questions of "who I am" and "what do I Do?" It is a great exercise I'd recommend for anyone: you learn a lot about yourself and your priorities when you limit introductions to 30 seconds and can concentrate your best points to a powerful three.

Products Versus Projects

Last night, I attended a wonderful discussion on the future of computing at a local (Austin) Chapter of IEEE. The main point I pulled out of this is that knowledge (versus "manpower") has become the most valuable asset going into the 21st century and is something that needs to be nurtured or lost. To quote the Speaker, Steve Teleki, "Knowledge workers are currently considered costs when they should be considered capital assets." The speaker went on to suggest that it is in the best interest of all knowledge workers to assume responsibility for staying technically viable and manage their productivity and careers.

As a Product Manager, I was thinking about the implications that our economy and tactical business focus is having on our longer term prospects for success. The business climate of the last few years has created an environment where many technology businesses are run like a series of discrete projects: where teams of engineers, for example, are hired or contracted, then "released" along with the product. There is great emphasis on project management skills these days and I would argue that project management is not the best approach for product or business management. It's all about the event (product launch) and not about growing skills, businesses, and relationships.

Every sales person can vouch for the wisdom that it is a lot easier to keep a customer than it is to acquire a new one. When we plan one release at a time, we limit the ability of the people who sell our products to build the trust and relationship necessary to expand their sales. Our customers mirror the same commitment we provide to them; can you blame them?

When we plan one release at a time, we fail to advance our product capabilities and core competencies through making optimal use of the experience gained from the prior release. Often we do not put in place the measures to improve because without a follow-on, we have no justification for the effort. In the most dysfunctional organizations, poor quality and schedule overruns are introduced because the people creating the product know they will not be the ones who will have to maintain it.

From a business perspective, we know there are many reasons to not take a longer term view and commit beyond the current release, but I believe the potential rewards for doing so are great.

I want to invite those of you who read this to share your thoughts on this topic.

Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi

I began skimming this book at a local bookstore hoping to pick up suggestions to help me network with people more effectively. A few months ago, I decided to leave a solitary life of working from home to reestablish a career in Product Management/Marketing. Sorry to say, I had allowed my business contacts to wither and now face the task of rebuilding my relationships and my reputation within the high tech community I wish to rejoin. In this endeavor, I found the book both useful and inspiring.

Throughout his book, Keith Ferrazzi emphasizes integrity, building strong lasting relationships, and creating abundance through learning to give and receive freely. These elements are evident in the organization of the book into four sections:

• The Mind-set
• The Skill Set
• Turning Connections into Compatriots
• Trading up and Giving Back

This book has clarified my thoughts about networking which has helped me to become more focused and more confident in my interactions. It has provided me with many ideas to better maintain and deepen my contacts. And, it has provided me with food for thought as I consider how I want to put the lessons I’ve learned from this book into practice. The book is a great read (including the “Connectors Hall of Fame Profiles”) and has lots to offer to those of us who build our careers around networking as well as to those just looking for some advice in expanding beyond current boundaries.

The following are key lessons from Never Eat Alone:

• “Real networking [is] about finding ways to make other people more successful…give more than you get.” Build your network before you need it and make networking, at whatever level you want to take it, a part of your life.
• “Don’t keep score.” By giving and receiving (offering and asking for help) freely, our relationships deepen; our lives become more dynamic and more abundant; we all benefit.
• “What’s your mission?”’ Identify your “Blue Flame” where passion and ability intersect. (Hint: it’s the work you would willingly do for free.)
• Create a Networking Action Plan
  1. Goals for fulfilling mission in 3 years, filling in 1 year and quarterly timeframes sub-goals; two (A & B) priorities for each timeframe; all goals measurable and realistic.
  2. Connect goals to people, places and things that will help you get the job done
  3. List best way to reach out to people who can help accomplish goals
• Create a personal “Board of Advisors” to hold you accountable and offer support to help you achieve your goals. Establish a regular time to meet and check in.
• Think creatively in connecting and expanding your network: friends of parents or siblings, school, church, gym, your doctor, dentist, realtor,…we all know many people outside our primary contacts.
• Get past your fear…it never hurts to ask for what you want.
• Don’t be a “networking jerk”…” this breed of hyper-Rolodex-builder and card-counter fails to grasp the nuances of authentic connecting. Their schtick doesn’t work because they don’t know the first thing about creating meaningful relationships”. At a on-hour get-together, better to “have one or two meaningful dialogues, than engage in the wandering-eye routine and lose the respect of most of the people you meet.”
• Research the people you want to meet. Finding common ground and understanding their concerns helps break the ice. Online tools for researching and networking include Google, Linkedin, Spoke, Capital IQ, Friendster, Ryze and ZeroDegrees.
• Warming a cold call:
  1. Convey credibility by mentioning a familiar person or institution
  2. State your value proposition
  3. Impart urgency and convenience by suggesting a specific follow-on but offering to accommodate the other person’s schedule
  4. Be prepared to offer a compromise that will secure a definite follow-on at a minimum.
• Share your passion. Food, fine wines, sports, …all provide opportunities for building relationships. KF describes how he uses dinner parties to bring interesting people together and suggests making greater use of meal times to get to know people better: never eat alone.
• Make follow-up a habit. When you do, the days of struggling to remember people’s names - and of other people struggling to remember yours – will be a thing of the past.”
• Be a Conference Commando. Come with a plan to use the conference to connect to specific people. Some ideas:
  1. Set objectives for what you want to accomplish, specific people with whom you want to connect, and a plan for doing so
  2. Get an inside track by organizing or assisting the organizer of the conference
  3. Become a Speaker, or at the least, state your name, company, what you do and ask a really informed, insightful question that will create a buzz
  4. Create your own event (dinner or outing) during the conference
  5. Talk to speakers before they present for better access
  6. Become a hub of useful information
  7. Know as much as you can about the people you want to meet, arrange to be where they will be, and master the “deep bump” (let them know your common interest)
  8. Use the breaks to network and promptly follow up on all contacts.
• Connect with other Connectors: restaurateurs, headhunters, lobbyists, fundraisers, PR people, politicians, journalists.
• KF takes the position that the best way to differentiate yourself (to make yourself memorable) is to BE yourself. He also introduced the concept of “Johari Window”: the degree to which people open up to reveal themselves. Communication can be aided by aligning our johari windows to match those with whom we interact.
• Contact rules of thumb:
  1. New contacts need to see or hear your name in at least 3 modes of communication (such as email, phone call, and a face-to-face encounter ) before there is substantive recognition
  2. Once there is recognition, you need to nurture a developing relationship with a phone call or email at least once a month.
  3. If you want to transform a contact into a friend, you need a minimum of two face-to-face meetings out of the office.
  4. Maintaining a secondary relationship requires two to three pings a year.
• Plaxo used to keep contact info up to date sending out an update request every 6 months. PDAs, cellphone and laptop to make use of travel time and short windows to stay in touch.
• Build your brand: what is it that you do that adds value? Develop a Personal Branding Message. “Your message is always an offshoot of your mission and your content…it should include a list of words that you want people to use when referring to you.” Dress the part; live the part.
• Broadcast your brand: Consider creating a personal website. The ins and outs of working with media, mastering the sound bite, and creating a buzz.
• Membership in organizations, writing, learning from and mentoring others, participation in community…networking is a lifestyle that need not be compartmentalized between work and home.