Archive of Reviews Articles

We’ve all heard the saying, the customer is always right.  For most product managers, however, the non-customer is the person you should be listening to.  When you hear the phrase understand your market, the goal isn’t to understand those people who’ve already purchased your product.  The goal is to understand the people who haven’t purchased your product yet.

Michael Port’s new book just came out. If you’re trying to redefine or improve how you focus professionally, it would be a good read. If you run your own company, or want to, it is a great read. Michael has good advice, good reasoning for his advice, and he writes well - a very easy to read style. Not dumbed down, not full of jargon. As someone who exactly matches his target audience, I highly recommend Beyond Booked Solid.

A first look at Outside-in Software Development, available tomorrow (or pre-order tonight on Amazon.com). At the time of this writing, the book is #29 on the Hot New Releases list - and you can get it for just over a third off the price if you pre-order now. Take a look at an overview of the book and our first impressions - then give the book a bump and let the wisdom of crowds take over.

www.mycatalyze.org. From the FAQ:

What is the Catalyze community?
Catalyze is a new member-driven community for all professionals involved in the defining and designing software applications or websites. Catalyze is a place to share experiences, find resources, ask questions, offer opinions, get involved and network with other professionals engaged in defining and designing software applications and websites.

What is the goal of the Catalyze community?
The goal of the Catalyze community is to be the number one destination for software application definition and design professionals. Peer-based content is the most powerful force for change and learning in the world today. For the first time, that power is now in the hands of the professionals that define and design the world’s software.

Who are the target members of the Catalyze community?
If you are a Business Analyst, UI Designer, Information Architect, Interaction Designer, Usability or UX Professional, Product Manager, Project Manager or anyone else involved in the definition process of a software application, then you will find value in joining the Catalyze Community.

From looking at the site, it looks like some great opportunities for all of us

Seriously.

There’s a crazy deal being offered by Axosoft. Buy a 5-user version of their $500 software suite for $5, but the offer expires February 24th. The link to buy the software is here - and only available on blogs. Axosoft is trying a social marketing experiment to see if they can promote their products and brand via the blog universe. It isn’t clear at what hour the offer expires, so you might want to get it on the 23rd.

OK, you have to go download Watson, which provides contextual search (of the web, from your desktop).
The context that it uses is whatever application is open on your desktop - specifically MS Word, Powerpoint, Outlook, IE and Firefox.
This morning I was working on a “How to design unit tests” document for my client, and I [...]