Kittens, Puppies & Other Fluffy Stuff.

Collaboration typically means “the act of working together”. Nice. Simple. Easy. For product managers, this means things like “rational discussions with key stakeholders about product objectives, strategies and the like ”.

War, Blood and Miscellaneous Body Parts.

Now we turn to the alternate meaning of the word: “to betray one’s country by cooperating with an enemy”. Harsh. This is a pretty serious crime. We’re talking treachery. We’re talking accomplices. We’re talking reprimand. And heads will roll. For product managers, this means things like “heated arguments resulting in red faces and walkouts”.

Considering the dual meaning, is collaboration doomed from the outset? If collaboration is the cornerstone of product management, what does this mean for product managers? How do you balance “working together” with “acts of treason”?

As a product manager, chief negotiator and ally to all, it’s important to know some tactics to prevent an all out war.

Here’s my strategy for collaboration:

1. No secrets, no spies, no lies. Allow everyone to share their perspective and maintain clear communication paths to build trust and prevent betrayal.
2. Find some neutral territory. This not only refers to things like product features, approaches and techniques, but also to the location of the discussion.
3. Know what you’re aiming to achieve. Identify the end result and know what the collaboration is aiming to achieve before discussions start.
4. Have a process for conflict resolution. Be clear from the outset regarding issues like who has the final say when there’s a dead-lock?
5. Look out for bad apples. Not everyone is cut out for collaboration, so learn to recognise the signs of an apple going bad, and try to address any issues early on (I recommend lemon, salt or vodka for neutralising the bad apple).

So, how do you prevent an all out war?

Interested in catching up with other product managers? Join Product Maven’s on 2-June, from 8.30am at Cook & Archies in Surry Hills. RSVP here.

A friend asked me to put together a little website for his new short film. The obvious choice was to use Wordpress as the CMS so my friend could have total control over the site. I set it up within about 3 hours… then, decided to apply the same WP-theme to this blog, which took less than an hour!

Here’s all the details:

Thurs-17-Mar
From 8.30am (til about 10am)
Cook & Archies, 1a/4 Buckingham St Surry Hills NSW 2010
Topic:  Agile or Waterfall?

RSVP: http://twtvite.com/pmm-mar18

My preference? It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Agile, and here’s why:

• Greater transparency
• Manageable deliverables
• Ability to identify issues early on
• Improved morale (through constant communication)

Now you get to vote!

Looking forward to seeing y’all on Thursday!

@mishymash

Ps. There’s only a few days left til Product Camp – so if you haven’t registered yet, you can do so here… http://www.pcampsydney.com/

Details:

Cook & Archie’s
1a/4 Buckingham St, Surry Hills
Thursday, 25 Feb
From 8.30am onwards

Topic: Innovation – how (not) to kill it!

By now, most of you will be well settled into the new year, with new objectives, new recruits and new deadlines… but have you allowed time to really drive innovation? And if you are one of the lucky ones who have the time, where do you start?

Regardless of whether you are ‘naturally innovative’, it’s important to note that business innovation rarely happens in isolation. It requires teamwork. It requires key stakeholers to work together. And this is where it gets messy. Whilst you might be a natural innovator that doesn’t mean everyone on your team is. So how are you going to work together to innovate?

This is where your good friend PROCESS steps in!

I have to admit, at first, the idea of a ‘creative process’ seemed counterintuitive (perhaps because it sounded too much like an oxymoron).

But after delving deeper, I’m pleased to report to the naysayers that process can guide innovation – offering hidden pathways on an otherwise dead end road. For some, the creative process can be so dauntinging, it’s sometimes reassuring to know that at each step you have a little handy helper to set you on your way. It’s like your innovation GPS.

Here’s my tips for innovation (inspired by a recent Innovation workshop with Brainmates):

1. Know when you are in ‘innovation mode’ and when it’s time to knuckle down and focus on what can really be achieved.
2. Stay positive, listen and play nicely together.
3. Have an innovation plan so you know when you’re meeting your targets.
4. Get out of your meeting rooms, kick off your shoes & have some fun!
5. And… when it doubt – call in The Consultants (they really can be helpful sometimes!)

What works for you?

Looking forward to seeing you at #pmm

@mishymash

Ps. And for anyone looking for a great innovation workshop, keep an eye on Brainmates for more details.

PPs. For anyone interested, join me for Vindaloo against violence #VagainstVon Wed-24 Feb http://vagainstvsurryhills.eventbrite.com

Throughout 2009, I struggled to find the right tool set for the product development and roadmap planning. I was mostly working with external resources, with limited budgets and I also made the switch from PC to Mac, so there were a lot of adjustments.

I moved from Visio to OmniGraffle and from MS Project to Omni-Plan, but what I found for the most part, was that there are a lot of tools out there that achieve similar results, so it’s not the ‘technology’ that’s important, it’s how you use it.

My advice? Have a plan in place, not only for ‘project management’, but for yourself personally, as a Product Manager. Know that for internal concept work, you are only going to use quick and dirty tools like Skitch, and you’ll only consider wireframing tools once you know the concept is solid. Have a plan, and be brave.

Here’s some of my favourites from 2009 which I plan to continue using in 2010…

Planning tools
OmniPlan for roadmaps and Green-hopper/Jira for issues management and sprint planning

Wireframing tools
OmniGraffle for basic wireframes (recommend the Pro version only), Skitch for super quick mark-ups, Jing for video screen captures, and Photoshop for more detailed designs. I also find Formspring (and similar form creation tools) useful – it’s particularly helpful for demos, so you can actually show your colleagues/clients a working prototype of your forms (with conditions etc).

Document management
Confluence for ‘wiki’ style communication, GoogleDocs for document collaboration (not the most advanced tools, but they are reliable and easy for everyone to access) and drop-box for file sharing.

(I can see a pattern emerging in my personal usage with OmniGroup and Atlassian products, but I’m no loyalist, so if you have any other recommendations, I’m open to ideas!)

I’m also keen to try Google Wave as a collaboration tool for product planning. After all, it’s been designed as a collaboration tool, so it will be interesting to see the uptake in industry.

The other tool I’d like to use more in 2010 is my voice. In 2010, I’d like to have more phone calls, more skype talks, more face to face meetings, more voiceovers on my videos, more informal chats and overall, more vocal communication. Tone conveys so much, and without it, so much is lost. Emoticons just don’t cut it anymore.

In keeping with my voice-activation aspirations for 2010, I’ve arranged a F2F meetup for Product Mavens – our first meetup for 2010!

When: Thursday, 21 Jan, from 8.30am onwards (til about 10am)

Where: Cook & Archie’s 1a/4 Buckingham St, Surry Hills

Topic: What tools or frameworks will you be using to plan your product roadmap and related activities for 2010?

Hope to chat with you soon!

In keeping with all other social gatherings at this time of year, we’re moving from the cafe to the bar (tis the silly season after all!)

Here’s the details…

When: Wednesday 16th December, 12.30 for lunch (or just drop by).

Where: Trinity Bar, Corner Crown Street & Devonshire Street, Surry Hills (meals from $15)

What to bring: A $5 present (wrapped) for Kris Kringle (See Thieving Secret Santa for details).

RSVP: By 14th December (just add a comment here, or DM @mishymash or @schmediachick)

Hope you can make it!

Be kind to each other,

@mishymash + @schmediachick

It’s a casual coffee catchup – nothing planned… just an opportunity to chinwag with product peeps.

When?
Wed 18 Nov, 8.30-10am

Where?
Cook & Archies, 4 Buckingham Street, Surry Hills map

For more details, click here.

See you there?

@mishymash

#pmm

And worse still… selecting the ‘wrong’ name can make someone else’s life hell! (you’ll see why in a minute).

So, here’s a few things to think about when it comes to product names (especially products you plan to market online, which is pretty much every product):

• Don’t use the word ‘Free’ or ‘Cash’ or any derivatives! Why? Because the minute you try to do any direct marketing via email (eDM) you’ll discover that all your emails will get blocked and end up in SPAM/Junk folders. Similarly, don’t use the word ‘Cash’ or symbols like ‘$’. It might sound obvious, but in the past year, I’ve worked with two brands who had this exact issue (they shall remain nameless… for now). So, if you would ever like to deliver eDM’s to anyone using Outlook, check out the Microsoft junk email filter list for words to avoid. (Note, these words are also pretty terrible for SEO).
• Keep it short. No one likes a long domain name! Plus, unless you have an exceptionally talented designer, when you shrink it down to 50×50 pixels no one will be able to read it. If you’re stuck with a long name, try shortening it (use acronyms, initials etc) so you have something to put on your favicon!
• Make sure all alias’ are available. Don’t just grab the .com and run for the hills! Make sure you grab the twitter account and any other tools you think you’ll use for marketing in the future. Also, if your hunting for a domain, do it all in one sweep or else domain stalkers will get it before you dive in.
• Make sure people can say it and spell it. This is a somewhat important point, but there are exceptions to this rule (for instance, no one knew how to spell or pronounce ‘Kazaa‘, but that was part of the appeal). If you’re starting out, you want people to be able to find you. In the olden days, if you sent a letter to Mrs S. Fry in Newcastle, the letter would more than likely find it’s way to Mrs S. Fry. However, these days, it’s a little harder. One key stroke can be the difference between your potential customer finding you or landing in the abyss. Weird spelling of wordz for the most part should be left in the 90’s (unless you are particularly linguistically talented).
• Make sure the name can grow with the business. Made up words are great for growth. Google have proven that! With a made up word, your product ‘can’ be anything. But there is a word of warning here too… if you have a simple product and you’re pretty confident that your product is going to stay the same way for a while, then name it appropriately! OzWeather (an iPhone app that tells you the weather in Australia) is a good example. At first, when it was launched I thought “what a shame they didn’t give it a more generic name like ‘WeatherMate’ or something that could go global”. But then I realised that (for now) OzWeather is focused on the Australian market, so it’s a great name! If it grows to New Zealand or any other country, I assume the name can be tailored to the target market. Customising the name for the specific market can also have it’s advantages, and big brands do it all the time – especially when dealing with differing cultural or sporting terms (think Soccer v Football). That said, the majority of products out there are not instant global hits, and it’s important to keep that in mind when naming your product! But remember, names aren’t entirely static – performers change them all the time!

So, this post was really written in the hope that one day I’ll be naming a new product at which point I can refer back to this post and then thank myself for the timely reminder.

Thanks for reading and if you have any hints or tips I’d love to hear from you!

Mishy

ps. For the foodies out there, when it comes to understanding the importance of a name, think about a word like ‘Gelatin’. If they called it what it really is (collagen from animal skin & bones), would vegetarians take more care to exclude it from their diets? Or better yet, if ‘Rennet’ was called ‘Baby Cow Stomach’ would you still find cheese as appealing? Probably, cos it’s delicious, but it might put a few people off!

Sometimes, I find it easier to understand a process when I don’t apply it to my ‘area of expertise’. Whether my product is the next Twitter of Facebook, or if I’m simply planning to make a birthday cake, the process is essentially the same.

You’re probably wondering at this point how pesto fits into product planning? Well, wonder no more!

Pesto is a super simple product, so it serves as a great test case… but don’t be fooled! There are tonnes of user cases. There’s lots of flavour options (I often make coriander & almond pesto, carrot pesto etc). There are many competitors. And within pesto ‘the category’, there are a myriad of product lines. Each product line suited to a different market segment … a different vision.

Let’s start with a quick poll…

If you have a great product planning process, then you probably shouldn’t read this. But feel free to add your comments and tips below!

I think the key to a great product is great planning. And it’s hard to have a great plan without a great process. Today, instead of using dry ingredients like sign up screens and server loads, let’s look at the high level product process through pesto goggles.

Have you ever made pesto? No? Well, then let’s start with a basic recipe: Combine basil, garlic, pine nuts Parmesan or Pecorino cheese and olive oil.

It’s dead easy. Right?

WRONG! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve eaten horrid pesto (think: that jar of pesto that’s been sitting in the back of your friend’s fridge since 1986).

Revisiting focus!

In an earlier blog post, I spoke about (brutal) focus, broken into the following sections (thx @liubinskas)

• Vision
• Market Segment
• Core Feature
• Key Metric

As we learned earlier, pesto has 5 simple ingredients: basil, garlic, pine nuts, cheese and olive oil. But it’s dead easy to fuck up.

Let’s journey through this process to start up Mishy’s Multinational Pesto Corporation Pty Ltd, which will no doubt be cash flow positive by year end.

Vision:

For the pesto product plan, my vision couldn’t be clearer! I want to make the world’s #1 Best Pesto! It’s so simple… Let’s move on.

Market segment

Who am I making this pesto for? Who is my #1 ideal customer? Is it sold at a Saturday market? In the local corner shop? In a supermaket chain? Who is it best for? Am I really going global right away?

We encounter our first stumbling block. We need to refine the vision…

Vision 2.0:

I want my Pesto to be the #1 Pesto on sale at the Fox Studio Saturday Farmers Market (let’s start small, we don’t want to get carried away).

That’s better. The vision now helps me understand my market segment. I even know when and where I’m distributing, and the likely customer reach (mid-upper class foodies and families).

The more refined my vision is, the more likely I’ll get an early win. But is my vision too narrow? Maybe I should aim higher? #1 Pesto on sale in Australia? Too high! #1 Pesto on sale in Sydney’s Gourmet Markets & Stores?

Ask yourself ‘is my vision realistic?’ If your vision is too big, you’ll most likely feel deflated before you reach your end goal. Start small and build up from there.

I’m settling with “#1 Pesto on sale at Sydney’s Farmers Markets & Gourmet Grocery Stores”

This still covers a lot of ground. Sydney (whilst not as big as New York or Shanghai) does still have a lot of gourmet food outlets & farmers markets.

So, now we go back to market segment…

Market segment 2.0

I’m going to target middle aged affluent, educated women who live in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney.

Why? Because (based on personal experience & broad stereotypes) often these women either don’t want to cook, don’t have time to cook or don’t know how to cook. They also like to buy presents for dinner parties, for friends, for their children, for Christmas/Chanuka/Housewarmings, thus they can extend my reach.

Core feature

It’s always tough to pick one core feature. I think for this product, it’s a given that it needs to taste like great pesto, but does it need to be the best tasting pesto in the world? Probably not. Is freshness important? Yes. But is it the core feature? Not likely. I need my pesto to stand out. I need one single feature that will make it remarkable. That will make it stand apart from all the other pesto on sale at the market.

So, in this instance, I’m being brave and opting for stunning packaging as my core feature. I know that if it doesn’t stand out, it won’t sell. It needs make noise. It needs to look like a gift. Something you could take to your friends place for dinner in place of a good bottle of wine or box of Lindt chocolate.

I know, I know, of course, it has to taste great (ie. it has to work), but for my market segment it really needs to look impressive. Whether they gift the pesto or keep it for themselves, it needs to feel like a real treat. An indulgence. It should even have a gift tag so people know that it’s perfectly acceptable to give to a dinner party host. (In future I may even include an option for the pesto pamper hampers which can be delivered, like flowers, to your loved ones, but let’s keep it simple for now!)

So, in sum, my core feature is actually the bottle which showcases the pesto!

Key metric

This could simply be ‘number of sales/day’ to begin with.

In future, I’ll track number of hampers sent, number of repeat sales, or number of subscribers (in my ideal world, people subscribe to pesto) but like I said, I’m keeping it simple while I’m in start up mode.

What else have a learned about my product through this process?

I know it needs to be good quality. It needs to taste fantastic. It needs to look expensive. It needs to be fresh. I can’t cut corners because these people expect the best (no substituting pine nuts for walnuts to reduce the cost ok?). It needs to last for a while out of the fridge if I’m going to sell it at Farmers Markets.

I know my price point (a little less than a decent bottle of wine eg. $15-20). Maybe I need to bundle the pesto with free home made lavosh crackers so they feel like they are getting good value? That would also mean that it’s ‘ready to go’ straight from the Farmers Market to the lunch table.

I know my vision, my market segment, my key feature & my metric… Now what?

The next step is research! Confirm your assumptions. Go to the markets. Check out what else is on sale. Taste the competition. Speak with the stall holders. Find out how much foot traffic is likely each Saturday. Check out the Gourmet food outlets in the area. Get out there and ask some questions!!!

I’ve done some research… where to from here?

Now I know what I’m making, who I’m making it for, what my goal is and how I’m going to track my success, I just need to make a checklist of the next steps:

1. Budget – how much is it going to cost to produce and how much do I need to sell to make a return?
2. Time line – do I to have something ready this Saturday or is there a 6 month waiting period for a stall at the market?
3. Resourcing – am I making it at home, by myself? In my tiny mortar and pestle? Or should I outsource it? Will I run the stall or hire a more polished sales person?
4. Distribution – Where are you going to target first? Start with the Fox Studios Farmers Market, then tackle Ultimo, Glebe, Rozelle?
5. Marketing – How are you going to market your product? Are you going to advertise or is word of mouth sufficient? Are you offering a starter special (2 for 1) or will this cheapen the brand? Are you hosting a dinner party for gourmet foodies to up-sell your product? (I know most product plans don’t include marketing, but I think it’s important to have an idea of how the product is going to be marketed, so you can ensure you are creating something desirable for the customer you’re trying to reach. If you don’t know how you’re going to reach your market, how are you going to get your plan off the ground?). It’s a bit of chicken-and-egg, but if you don’t plan you plan to fail!

Of course, this is only a high level product plan. But it’s a step in the right direction toward global domination (or whatever it is that you’re trying to achieve). Remember, the more refined your plan is to begin with, the less headaches you’ll have down the track!

What’s your #1 product planning tip?

Tip: If you want your pesto to stay green add a handful of chopped flat leaf parsley to the mix.

It was interesting to watch the unbridled optimism shift toward defeat and mediocrity as small, tangible (and most importantly realistic) goals were set.

The session’s main aim was to focus on the…

• Vision
• Market Segment
• Core Feature
• Key Metric

Yet, it amazes me how much I gained from this experience.

Here’s my ‘take homes’…

1. Join in – If you aren’t part of the conversation then you’ll never get anywhere.
2. Be brave – Pick an idea and run with it. After all, there are no stupid ideas, just ideas that need to be refined.
3. Failure is fine – If you don’t try, you can’t fail, and if you’re not failing (somewhere) then you haven’t tried hard enough.
4. Love your team – If you’re working in a small team on a tight time-line and budget, there’s no room for ego. It’s important to actually want to work with your team (even if you don’t get your  way).
5. Focus! Focus! Focus! I know it’s obvious, but no matter how many times I hear it, it’s always good to hear it again!

Thanks & congratulations to Kim, Bart, Brian, Mick and all the participants & organisers at #bootupcamp!