Presentation This Morning
I had a presentation this over via conference call; from my point of view, it went great. I’m going to get some survey results later in the week that could either prove me to be somewhat right or completely off the mark.
Jeff Lash was kind enough to contact me about taking part in an ongoing session he organizes for the product management teams at Elsevier. We decided that I would discuss working with development; a subject I am quite familiar with from my time in start-ups to this point in my career, and having started out as a developer myself.
One of the interesting things I noted was that even though I’m a start-up guy and Elsevier is a much larger organization than what I’m used to, the concepts all held water. Some language was different or org structures were different, but 99% of what I wanted to say was still true. Very cool stuff.
In the same style as my talk with the Product Management View, I kept my deck very, very minimal. I figure, unless I’m face-to-face, I don’t want to have distracting pictures and other “hilarious” bits in there. Just the facts. 3-4 points or less per slide. When I get going, I’ll only use the slide headers as guidance. Sometimes I’ll reference points on the slide itself, but usually, I just keep it pretty loose.
You can download the deck if you are interested in checking it out.
Anyway, enough about what I like to do during presentations. The group that joined in on the call was amazing - they had some fantastic questions and really seemed to get something out of it. To the best of my knowledge, no one fell asleep, which is a metric I like to use when gauging my success of speaking to a group.
I know there are some PMs reading this out there. I encourage you, a lot, to contact Jeff Lash to discuss taking part in his sessions. It’s a great experience, Jeff is a super smart and nice guy, and plus you get to talk about something you (hopefully) really love - product management.
Thanks again for the great opportunity, Jeff!
New Mahalo Page
I know I haven’t been doing very much posting around here as of late - for that, I do apologize. I’ve been super busy at the new gig building out some key deliverables with the team and working on some getting some big initiatives under way for 2008.
Also, I’m writing up a new answer to a question from the Jeff Lash site Ask a Good Product Manager, as well as a presentation (How to Work With Development) that I’ll be doing for some of Jeff’s co-workers next week. I’m really excited about it, to be sure.
I just wanted to point out that I’ve contributed some links to a new Mahalo page for product management and wanted to encourage all the readers out there to add their own. I really believe in Mahalo and what Jason Calacanis and his team is building; I think it’s great and I’ve had it set as my home page for some time now.
Add whatever links you find valuable to you so we can have another great resources for the PMs out there looking for information and knowledge.
UPDATE: I received an e-mail from a Mahalo guide that the page has been recognized internally and they are buiding it out / adding it to their “official” set of pages. Keep recommending those links, everyone!
Product Management Surveys
I wanted to send up a quick post (I’m working through some longer, more thought-out ones at the moment) regarding the great work Tom Grant over at Forrester is doing with their Product Management division.
I’ve stepped through both of the surveys they have up currently - they are well thought out and will surely produce some great data points for us all to use. I encourage everyone to swing by and answer the questions. The two that are currently up are:
I’ll post links to more of them as they become available…
Ask a Good Product Manager
I wanted to draw some more attention to a new blog that Jeff Lash has launched called Ask a Good Product Manager. Jeff is doing some great things for the community (and is a great PM) and made me realize I need to get my blogging butt back in gear here.
Also, as an aside, I will be at the PM seminar in Toronto tonight for the TPMA. If you are available to come / are in the area, look for me — I’ll be there eating a lot of pizza.
Some Thoughts on CES
So, CES 2008 is all wrapped up. Did we get a lot out of it? I think so. The booth was great, albeit very tiring, and I know our management team had fantastic success taking a huge number of meetings in a suite at the Venetian hotel.
So, how do I feel about the show? It’s always an experience. I’m not the biggest fan of Las Vegas and all that it has to offer, but I do enjoy looking down at the lights and constant motion from the comfort of a hotel room at the end of each long day.
And the days are very long. My legs have been ready to give out for quite some time, as has everyone else’s that joined me on booth duty throughout the stretch of the show. It’s very interesting - being the Sands, you sometimes feel like you are coming in second to the main convention center. But, that being said, the traffic is a lot of times much more qualified (lead-wise) that just every person stopping by to see what kinda of SWAG they can lay their hands on.
Rachel ran a very successful show. She not only managed to re-brand the company, but also put together an outstanding set of marketing materials, co-ordinated updating our booth with the new brand and really kept everyone in line.
It was amazing and inspiring to see. I really do feel like I know more about how to successfully go to a trade show with a business after seeing her in action. I could never do what she did, mind you…
Of course, the proof is always in the follow-up and the results. They all need to be measured to ensure success of the show is defined well and appropriately.
I did chat with several folks out on the show floor that mentioned they either a) did not like going to CES or b) were thinking of not coming back next year. It was certainly evident that attendance and interest was down, even from only one year ago. I could definitely see having more success by just setting up a ton of meetings in a suite somewhere.
But, the booth is fun. And, it gives you that chance to experience something with your team that isn’t something everyone goes through. It certainly lets you develop a unique bond that carries forward to the next year - being able to trade war stories and memories.
Me? I’m happy we’re headed out tomorrow and will get to sleep in my own bed next week. That is going to be amazing, for sure. I do wish I got to record more Seesmic videos, but alas, no wireless connectivity from our booth made that job extremely difficult.
