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.
Communication / Presentation / Writing
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Get an Edge With Visual Communication
Having trouble working through complex concepts? Struggling to get a “simple” message across? As human beings, we are all pre-wired to absorb visual communication. You should take advantage of that to give yourself an edge when it comes to communicating.
Communication / Presentation / Slightly off-topic
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Brilliant Presentation on Identity 2.0
The material in the presentation is off-topic, but the presentation is so good that you just have to watch it. I found this when researching about openID (mine is http://tynerblain.com/scott.sehlhorst/ – check out myOpenID to set up yours). Consider the open ID thing to be a tangent you might be […]
Business Analysis / Communication / Consulting / Presentation / Requirements / Writing
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Effective Communication of Requirements
Effective communication of requirements requires more than documentation and broadcasting. Effective communication requires interaction and collaboration. Alistair Cockburn addresses this in his analysis of project successes and modes of communication.
Communication / Consulting / Presentation / Project Management
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Project Dashboard Icons
We create project dashboards all the time to show status, or to give upper management an update. Dashboards and scorecards are great for giving us a “quick view” into the health of a project – they give us a way to drill down. Many of us use the colors red / yellow / green, with a stoplight metaphor. The problem is that some of us are colorblind. Johanna Rothman gives us a GREAT tip.
Consulting / Presentation / Requirements management software
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Building the Case for Requirements Management Tools
Marcus Ting-A-Kee has assembled a great presentation on the value to his company of requirements management tools. In addition to creating the presentation and sharing it with all of us, he shares the process of creating the presentation in several articles.
Presentation / Product Management
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Extra Features Cause $245,000 Loss
Robin Lowry has posted a story of a demo gone horribly wrong at The Product Management View. In the story, users end up confused by the myriad of features of the software – resulting in a $5,000 sale instead of a $250,000 sale.
Austin TX / Presentation / Product Management / Requirements / Requirements gathering
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Intro to Requirements Gathering – St. Edward’s University
Welcome Dr. Franke’s students in Analysis, Modeling and Design MCIS6310! Thanks again for inviting me to present to your class on requirements gathering and requirements management. The presentation is available for download. You can get both the slides and the notes pages. The notes pages include additional content and links […]
Communication / Lists / Presentation / Writing
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Targeted Communication – Three Tips
Most guides to writing an executive summary miss the key point: The job of the executive summary is to sell, not to describe.
This from Guy Kawasaki’s recent post, The Art of the Executive Summary. Guy’s article is structured towards pitching an idea to a potential investor. We’re going to apply the same rationale to the communication that is key to successful product development – communication from the team, to stakeholders and sponsors.We also communicate with people outside of our team. We communicate to set expectations with customers, users, and clients.We communicate with sponsors, customers, and others who fund our software development. Without these channels of strategic communication, we won’t have a project, or worse, won’t have a customer when we’re done. External communication is strategic communication.