Archive of Slightly off-topic Articles

The Laudi Group and Red Canary organized and shared a great set of questions for product managers and answers from a panel of product management leaders.  Steve Johnson, another leader in our space shared his answers to the same questions, and in this article, I share mine.

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We spend a lot of time (rightly) on the capabilities of our products – identifying valuable problems and compelling solutions.  This focus is ideal for addressing the needs of our users.  But what if people abandon our products before trying them?  First impressions matter – both for buyers and users.

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It’s fitting that I’m writing this from the exit row of an MD-80 this evening on the way home from a customer visit.  I almost didn’t get the exit row, but I did.  I tried for an upgrade to first class, but I was 15th in line – it was a busy flight with a lot of high-status frequent fliers ahead of me.  But I’m thrilled to be in the exit row, with the lap-room available to type up these tips that will help you travel.

We all have seen the commentary from economists, speculators, and journalists.  The messages vary from gloom-and-doom to best-opportunity-ever.  Warren Buffet talks about being afraid when everyone is buying, and buying when everyone panics.  Jason Calacanis talks about tightening our belts (but also talks about opportunity).  The general message from venture capitalists seems to be “stop being silly, and start making rational business decisions.”  So what are you seeing in your neck of the woods?

Is SaaS a broken model, with integral flaws, doomed to failure in the next two years?  Lawson Software’s CEO, Harry Debes, thinks it is.  Perhaps the structural elements of the SaaS reality just break Debes’ business models.

There are a bunch of new* ways of selling software these days.  SaaS (Software as a Service) has been in the consumer space for a while, and is making significant inroads into the enterprise software space today.    If you’re considering purchasing or using software, you should understand what SaaS means and how it is different from the software products of the past.*

Adam Bullied wrote a really good article about not losing motivation in the face of challenges. His closing quote spun us off on a philosophical tangent about being “good enough.”

Found a potentially extremely cool plugin for Outlook called Xobni, that would make Outlook a much more powerful tool.

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.

Michael Arrington has 2400+ unread emails in his inbox. And he needs someone to fix it.

If you are the person with the idea to save us all, send me an email and tell me all about it. Actually, strike that. Drop by my house and tell me all about it. I don’t want your message to get lost in my inbox.

Michael Arrington

Michael is looking for the email equivalent of a magic diet pill. He can’t change his behavior, so he needs a dietary supplement. The dieting-market is huge, and products succeed playing on that emotion for dieters. Is email management the same?