Old Dogs…New Tricks

I remember when I had the pleasure of first meeting Jeremiah Owyang. We had a conversation which went something like me saying that the social media revolution wasn’t new, only the tools that were now available and how they were used was new. That turned into a conversation that has lasted for more than two years. (And, a great friendship though we do still disagree on things.)

I remember first hearing about David Meerman Scott. And, the thoughts were something like his ideas are good and offer a different way of looking at things, but the core concepts aren’t new. Just the tools for how we approach the situations have changed.

And, with a former employer, how the whole company was excited when the Web redesign was complete since it enabled targeting to specific roles when the visitors self-identified. I remember thinking, this isn’t a new concept, only a change in the tools.

Why do we get so excited and shout from the rooftops that we are doing “great new stuff” when we are not? Our tools have evolved. How we use the tools to help us achieve our goals is different, but our goals are not different. It’s not new.

We need to remember in product management/product marketing, that the rules have not changed. The rule is “the market has the problem, the market has the answer; the market pays for the answer they want.” The tools to reach the market may have changed, but not the foundation rules.

Looking in from the outside, if you let the new tricks promise you the answer, you’re barking up the wrong tree.