ITXtreme with Paul Ryan » July 2006

July 12, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Where Have All The Good Product Managers Gone?

TAGS: Confusion

Sometimes I feel as if I am in the song. "Where Have All the Good Times Gone" from Van Halen's classic album Diver Down.

Where have all the good times gone?

Once we had an easy ride an' always felt the same
Time was on our side, we had everything to gain

Let it be like yesterday
Is that me or Happy Days?

Except, I'm usually changing the chorus to "Where Have All The Good Product Managers Gone?" Every week, I get calls from frantic recruiters, friends in startups, VCs, that are looking for 'good' product managers. I generally reply by asking a basic question:

What do you mean by 'product manager'?

Do you really want:

A) An Engineering Manager, or

B) A Brand Manager, or

C) A Design Visionary, or

D) A Project Manager

Since in this obfuscated, overheated, hype-laden mushuggeneh Internet bubble 2.0, a 'product manager' can refer to any of the above.

Wikipedia has a thoughtful summary of the various concepts embodied in product management. Such thoughtful approaches are doomed to failure, however. Because, when people are desperate for 'product managers', what they really are desperate for is a clue -- a clue about what product to sell and build.

What ever happened to the marketing discipline of assessing consumer needs, identifying gaps, and designing a product to meet the gap? This has all been turned around (and I know this is heresy for a technology guy) by the latest buzzword ('user generated content', 'community', 'social networking', blah blah blah) or technology ('peer-to-peer', 'Ajax') or combinations of the above ('a peer-tp-peer community collaboration with Ajax based web delivery'). Sound familiar? It should - it describes part/all of the past year's 'breakout successes' on the Internet.

Here's a case in point -- the success of the Apple iPod vs. any other mp3 player. Apple did not invent the mp3 player, did not invent downloading music (even legally), and did not invent cool clients to organize and manage your music (remmber WinAmp?). What did the product people at Apple do? The analyzed where all of the current product offering were weak, and came up with a relatively short list of things that the new product had to do:

1) It had to be easy enough to use so that your mother could rip CD's, buy music, and listen to music.
2) It had to provide an end-to-end solution to the whole musical experience (really, part of objective #1), and
3) It had to be cool.

Yes -- there were some really impressive human-interaction design approaches (the click wheel), cool color choices (you can chose any color as long as it's white), and neat ads showing people actually USING THE PRODUCT (wow -- what an idea). But he core insight was the system (the player, software, online store) that was required to make the music experience better. That was based on a consumer needs analysis -- nothing more, nothing less.

I think all of the 'good' product managers haven't disappeared (or haven't all been hired by Google) -- they never really existed. There really should be Engineering Managers, Brand Managers, Design Visionaries and Project Manager in every company. And maybe a Jobs-like person to insist on excellence at the top. That's what we should focus on -- satisfying consumer needs, regardless of how old-school that sounds.

Posted by Paul T. Ryan on July 12, 2006 10:53 AM

July 12, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Same As It Ever Was

TAGS: Sadness

By now, you've all heard of AOL's plans to stop charging for services when the customer brings their own access (i.e. have broadband connections and are using AOL email, etc.). This is pretty sad. This means that it took AOL 5 years to figure out that the subscription revenue model for services typically offered for free by everyone else (Google, Yahoo!, MSN) is a bad idea.

This seems to me to be an example of the original corporate strategy legacy (subscription based revenue) driving the corporate beast into the ground. In the modern, always-on, always connected world, there might be a place for dial-up (and the cost should actually be higher than broadband), but there is no place for subscription based services to provide basic Internet functions, especially when these servies are heavily/totally subsidized by advertising.

What's sad here is that despite the fact that everyone intellectually understands the concept of the innovator's dilemma (now available in a complete collector's edition!), but nobody has the stones to stop it from happening in a company. That's the tragedy.

How often do you settle for mediocity in your company's product to 'keep the peace' -- or engage in silly quid-pro-quo, tit-for-tat favors (you stay away fom my stuff and I'll stay away from yours). Take a hard look at AOL -- this the the end state of not really caring about your business (and eventually your job).

Posted by Paul T. Ryan on July 12, 2006 10:12 AM

July 04, 2006 | Comments: (0)

10 Really Bad Ideas

TAGS: Things That Piss Me Off

It's the 4th of July (Happy 4th!), and as I was pondering all of the great gifts that have been passed down to us here in the U.S.A., my thoughts drifted to lots of other things that we shouldn't be thankful for -- a sort of hit list for really bad ideas that seem to keep re-appearing periodically. So here's a list of 10 bad ideas that piss me off this glorious 4th of July:

1. Format Wars. Am I the only person that believes that format wars are counterproductive and basically futile? The poster-child of a lost effort in this type of war is Sony (remember Betamax). And as we all know, they are in the midst of another one (which they will lose also) with Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD. Everyone knows the outcome -- the more capable and technically sophisticated format (Blu-ray) will lose out to the cheaper (and faster to market) alternative (HD-DVD).

2. If You Build It, They Will Come. We all know about the blazing success of web sites like YouTube, My Space, digg. Everyone gets excited when phenomena emerge that have $0 consumer acquisition costs (i.e. buzz does the work). Then comes that hard part -- "Is this a business?" Remember Friendster? $0 consumer acquisition costs are meaningless of the revenue per consumer is $0, and the variable cost of a consumer is even infinitesimally greater than $0. Who thinks You Tube will be around in 12 months? Any takers?

3. Planning for Upgrading to Vista. When/if it ever launches, all of the cool stuff either has been taken out (WinFS), or will require too much horsepower to be worth it (interface). Is anyone planning to launch Vista in the enterprise?

4. Google FUD. Have you heard this -- "Hey -- we can't do that because Google is going to do it!" Google is the FUD machine (the approach to technology innovation quashing perfected by IBM in the 70's). Who really believes that a single player can dominate all aspects of the Internet, computing, life in general. Go ahead -- launch your business and/or product. Google can't do everything (although they can scare everyone). Google Checkout will not destroy eBay (but it might destroy Yahoo! Search Marketing).

5. Paying for Infrastructure Software. Pay for applications, not infrastructure. Why use Oracle 10g when MySQL is just fine for most applications. Why buy an application server when JBoss will do? Get over your need to play golf at Pebble Beach with your Oracle rep -- spend you money on applications, application development, not infrastructure.

6. Believing That 'IT Doesn't Matter'. Nicholas Carr did the IT world a disservice not because of his research, or potentially his conclusions, but for the tagline that is inanely parroted through the halls of corporate America. Yes -- people have over-invested in potentially irrelevant technology, sold features to the business rather than the business benefits of technology. Mea culpa. That doesn't men that technology will become exactly like the power utilities, or irrelevant to corporate strategy. If you believe (and implement this), your more nimble and tech-savvy competitors will focus on using technology to create advantage, and will eat your lunch.

7. Believing What You Read. Whenever you hear 'I read on a blog..", just ignore the rest of the statement (except if it is ITXtreme :-). Unless you like creative fiction, most of the stuff that you read is lies, damm lies, and outright fabrications.

8. Blaming Technology for Human Issues. Take the favorite whipping boy today -- myspace.com. Any product that allows user contribution and communication can be used by bad people to hurt people. It's not the technology's fault -- it's human nature's fault.

9. Cool Ideas Matter Most. Execution matters -- I'm tired of the resurgence of the irrational exuberance of fun new things on the web. But we all know that if any of these new businesses will succeed, it will be based mostly on their ability to execute.

10. Making Your Customers Criminals is a Good Idea. There are too many examples of this -- the RIAA suing teenagers rather than creating a business model/product that works for them, and Microsoft's impending 'Windows Genuine Advantage' meltdown this fall are two examples that come to mind. When did prosecuting your customers become a good idea? what ever happened to meeting the customer's needs with an appropriate product? The laziness of the telcos in the entire net neutrality debate smacks of this also (i.e. calling out 'free-loaders' on the web, as if paying $50 a month for unguaranteed bandwidth is not a telco scam).

I'm sure the list could continue, but enough for now.

Posted by Paul T. Ryan on July 4, 2006 11:50 AM