Requirements

Not Everyone Wants to Play Games

(Cross posted on onproductmanagement.net)

outsideinview.comAll over the web and in all the product management communities, there are articles and discussions about gamification. If you’ve been offline for a while, gamification is about applying design and development efforts to software in a way to make it more engaging, more “fun.”

Not only have whole applications been born under the premise (i.e. Foursquare), but gamification has also had great impact in some of the more traditional business software, (ie. Salesforce.com) allowing for more interaction and amusement when performing daily tasks.

I’m all about having more fun in my interactions with technology, and can truly appreciate making the more mundane less so; but, I believe sometimes we have taken the concept of gamification too far. (more…)

By |January 20th, 2012|Personal Development, Product Management|1 Comment
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Make it Simple

(This article is cross-posted at onproductmanagement.net)

outsideinview.comThis is a simple post about being simple.

I was thrilled and honored to have a visit by my good friend, Jim Holland, for the recent Product Camp in Minnesota. While he was here, he scanned my business book shelf and borrowed a book, my copy of Seth Godin’s “Poke the Box.” Jim enjoyed the short read and wrote a nice blog post based on his learning from it; in exchange, he brought me a small token gift, a simple non-descript cube that has somehow changed my life.

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By |December 9th, 2011|Development|3 Comments
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Face it … Your Product is Old.

(This article is cross-posted at onproductmanagement.net)

outsideinview.comI don’t know when it happened but it officially became fall in the Northern Hemisphere. Typically I would moan at this thought, which makes me think about how many bags of leaves I need to rake this season (typically 100 around my house,) or worse yet, that winter and the freezing temperatures are approaching. But this year I’m hoping the new season brings a breath of fresh air. This summer, I realized my parents are getting old. Three out of the four had a significant health problem. And while, thankfully, all are doing better now, it made me face the reality that needs, plans and provisions need to change.

It happens to our products too.

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By |October 7th, 2011|Management, Product Management|0 Comments
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Change Your Words

(This article is cross-posted at onproductmanagement.net)

outsideinview.comTry this exercise.

Go to your marketing collateral closet and pull a sales packet of information out. These are the same data/sell sheets, white papers and pretty pictures that you would pull if you are preparing to speak with a potential buyer. (You can leave the pretty folder in the closet – they cost extra money to produce.) If you don’t have a marketing closet, go to your Web site and print out the packet of material.

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By |August 26th, 2011|Communication, Marketing, Personas, Product Marketing|2 Comments
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Measurement, Validation and Numbers, Oh My!

(This article is cross-posted at onproductmanagement.net)

In my recent post on product marketing roadmaps, we discussed how to get started creating your road map and how it serves nicely as a bridge between other department plans and efforts such as marketing, sales and product management. Once you’ve created your product marketing roadmap, you have to actually use it as a guide to strategic activities. And, if you are going to use it, you need to know that the efforts are moving toward success. You have to look at measurements which gauge the progress of the movement.

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By |July 22nd, 2011|Communication, Management, Marketing, Product Management, Product Marketing, Sales|0 Comments
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