Category: Business and Strategy

What is a Product Owner?

In the Agile Software Methodology there is a role called the Product Owner.  This is a new version of the traditional Product Manager.

My interest in team roles began after reading “I Sing the Body Electric: A Year with Microsoft on the Multimedia Frontier” by Fred Moody.  Moody spent a year with a team at Microsoft observing them building a children’s encyclopedia product code-named Sendak (Encarta Junior).  The team was a mess and the project was a stress filled 2 years of seemingly bad decisions and unhappiness.  I won’t ruin the ending but highly recommend this read.  This book highlights the Product Manager role and how they work with the team.

As I pondered the Product Owner role during my run this morning I came up with these flavors of the same thing:

Army of One

This is the person that calls themselves a Product Owner but is basically told what features to build, writes the code and is responsible for testing everything with no help.  This is typically seen when organizations “adopt Agile” but are still small without the cash to hire multiple developers and testers that round out the team.

Dev Team Project Manager

This is the person who works on a proper Scrum team, works with Stakeholders to define priority and is doing many things right to produce results.  They are really a Project Manager that is lucky to have a killer team, especially ones that have Designers on the team to elaborate the User Stories.  The team is humming along well under this person’s direction but they can probably be replaced without too much impact.  Companies usually pair this person with a Business Analyst or Product Marketing person.

The true Product Owner

This person possesses a deep technical knowledge of the Products they are working on, has a strategic mind with an understanding of their marketplace and can talk to Customers.  They are focused on one product or product family, come up with their own ideas as well as translate input from Stakeholders and are a thought leader in the space.

I was very inspired by this WWDC video featuring Werner Jainek of Cultured Code.  He speaks as a true Product Owner.  Listen to how he easily explains why Things for the iPhone is important by saying “tasks hit you while you’re walking in the city or in the store buying something”.  Then he discusses the iPhone SDK and it’s importance to the success of Things, and concludes with analysis of the marketplace for ToDo List software and the impact of the iTunes store as well as the price point they selected for the app.

Of course, each organization is in different phases of their life and has resource constraints, not everyone is the same.  What type of Product Owner are you?

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Read Part 2, What does a Product Owner do?

Read articles I’ve tagged about Product Owner and Product Management

The Fuel Team acquired by PR Newswire

We announced some huge news this morning for our company, The Fuel Team.

http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/prnewswire/39408/

In 2002, Micha Hanson and I received a phone call from Dee Rambeau asking for some coding help. Dee and his business partner Jason Keller had a PR and software background and understood the opportunity for building easy to use tools to help the overworked PR professional. Micha and I were impressed by the idea. Jason moved from San Francisco to Denver, we teamed up with Rob Gwin and the first products were born.

Today’s announcement of the PRN acquisition is a great example of how a small company can be laser focused on building great products and the right strategic partnerships will develop. I’m so proud of our crew.

What is Capitalization?

This email exchange between myself and a business partner explains Capitalization or Cap Structure:

To: John
From: KT
Subject: What is Capitalization?

You and Dave mentioned Capitalization today…..is this the right definition for what you were talking about?

Capitalization
Total amount of the various securities issued by a corporation. Capitalization may include bonds, debentures, preferred and common stock, and surplus. Bonds and debentures are usually carried on the books of the issuing company in terms of their par or face value. Preferred and common shares may be carried in terms of par or stated value. Stated value may be an arbitrary figure decided upon by the director or may represent the amount received by the company from the sale of the securities at the time of issuance.

KT

And the response:

To: KT
From: John
Subject: RE: What is Capitalization?

Yes, but a simple definition would be the finical makeup/ownership of the company in terms funding and value.  For example ACME’s current ownership structure is 50% ABC Holdings and 50% XYZ Corp (me).  In bringing Steve aboard we will ask him for additional capital in order to join the company in exchange for his acquired percentage of ownership.  We will determine a value of the company (lets say $1 million) and then exchange 10% of equity in ACME for $100,000.00.  A simple example but on point.  We could also go to a bank and get a loan and provide capital to the company.  This would alter our capitalization or cap structure adding debt in place of equity funding.  Let me know if you have other questions.

John

The future of Online Retail

I had the opportunity to ponder the state of online retail lately and came up with 5 topics relevant to the discussion.

Layaway
If an online retailer offered layaway I would use it.  The concept seems easy enough, enter your bank routing and account info along with the amount you would like to apply towards your purchase each month.  The retailer has a great interface for you to check on your progress and sends you email reminders each month, etc…for participating in the layaway you get a better deal from the retailer on the item.  (Layaway would make chipping away at the price of that new Mountain Bike a bit easier!)  By offering layaway the retailer would also be forging a relationship with the customer above and beyond a basic transaction.  The ease of paying bills online combined with chatter about being more responsible with personal credit creates a great environment for layaway to become reality.

Customer Service via Social Networks
@comcastcares is the twitter handle for Comcast’s customer service department.  Using twitter search tools they can monitor tweets about Comcast and respond immediately to customers.  This type of customer interaction is revolutionary.  The customer’s complaint and the Company’s response is out there for others to view.  This trend will no doubt continue as the idea of picking up a phone to call and complain about something fades.

Sustainability and Used Goods
As people care more about their impact on the environment related to consumerism they will look at 2 things: how the item is manufactured and should they buy new or used.  

Retailers like Apple and Patagonia are very transparent and offer information about their manufacturing processes which they use as a product differentiator.  Environmental impact will not be as important as product performance but it will carry weight with customers.

“Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” will continue as a trend causing consumers to look for used or second hand goods.  Retailers need to prepare a solution to customers not wanting to buy brand new items.  

Niche Advertising
Targeted niche advertising has, of course, been around forever.  Using Facebook ads, Lijit’s ad network and other highly targeted advertising channels is becoming mandatory.

Interactive Video
The best experience I’ve had with any sort of Interactive Video was watching Obama’s inauguration on Facebook.  A high quality video stream combined with my Friend’s activity displayed on the screen making for a unique, interesting viewing experience.  This concept can certainly apply to online retailing.  Imagine a ski gear website showing a live stream of the new, cool ski movie from Warren Miller on a Friday night.  Your friends from around the world are posting comments realtime as you watch the video and see product specs and information displaying inline with your Friend activity.   

RIP PowderFone

Last week I discontinued PowderFone, a wakeup call service for skiers and riders that I launched with my partners Micha Hanson and Doug Goodwin in 2002.  In our prime, our resort customers included Intrawest, Vail Resorts and many other popular ski areas.  

Using the open source platform Asterisk and PHP we built an application that assembled a custom snow report from data provided by Snocountry.  Users could define the resorts and day/times they wanted to receive a call. 

In retrospect, we overcame many technical hurdles in areas that we were not experts in such as VOIP.  As we grew, scaling became our primary issue as call quality began to suffer.  Our vendors were also a challenge as they went out of business or dropped support for volume calling that our application required.  I learned a ton about customer service as users moved or changed phone numbers and we placed calls to people that did not subscribe.  Calling people at 5am in Iowa about 6 inches of new snow at Vail is not a good way to make friends.

All in all it was a great run.  PowderFone was the first startup that I solicited investments from family and friends.  I was not prepared for the guilt I felt telling them we had to shut down the company.

Thanks to the Interns that helped us year after year and to Doug and Micha for working so hard on the application and search engine optimization of the website.

Consumer Buying Habits and Design

In a recent episode of the Podcast HBR IdeaCast titled “Authenticity”a comment was made relating consumer buying habits with authenticity:

“Consumers buy in their own self-image.”  

I feel a parallel can be drawn from the concept of Authenticity to Product Design.  I have been in the website business for years.  Over and over Management struggles with how to templatize a website offering to reduce design costs.  For certain companies such as Template Monster, taking advantage of this concept has worked well for them.  

Finding the balance between a generic low cost design and something a consumer feels great about buying is an ongoing challenge.  Because a website represents their Business or Organization, choosing a design from a Gallery doesn’t match the passion, pride and uniqueness they feel for that Business.  Even if the consumer does find something that suits their needs from a Gallery the urge to “customize” is present….a way to make it theirs and only theirs.

3 Reasons Why I Care about TechStars

After a fun day in Boulder attending the TechStars Investor Day, I thought I would share some thoughts on why I would sacrifice a vacation day to drive to Boulder and listen to a bunch of presentations by startups run by people I’ve never met.

Motivation

Your career can be 2 things: a job that you go to, make money, do some interesting things, and have a few laughs along the way OR it can be your Opus.

“The entire process — not just the finished product — was known as the “Opus.”  The word means “work,” and was often capitalized to distinguish it from the more ordinary sense of the word.  The “Work” was the long process of refining raw material, going through many phases identified by colors — blackening, whitening, reddening, yellowing — and reaching an end point described variously as a peacock’s tail, the philosopher’s stone, or the elixir of immortality.”

– taken from Thomas Moore’s A Life at Work

The more years I get under my belt working, the more I appreciate people’s ability to do great stuff.  This is my first reason for following TechStars, Motivation.  I am constantly referring to “the way TechStars did that” when I am talking with people at work.  The crew that runs the Project and the companies that are participating really do quality work…..being surrounded by this gives me energy to improve what I’m working on.

Legitimacy

I have always admired traditional careers like Doctor, Lawyer, etc and have never felt “Businessman” fit into that grouping even though you hear the term grouped with traditional career tracks a lot.  My admiration for these careers likely stems from a grass is greener viewpoint, but nevertheless I respect some of the formality that accompanies these careers.  Conferences, titles, certifications….all known and passed down from generation to generation.  

When I began as a Software Developer for SPSS after college I never quite felt like I had that legitimacy in my profession.  As I worked my way through small businesses, startups and contract gigs the stress over career validation continued.  I was this weird combination of “Businessman”, even though I wasn’t really….“Engineer”, even though I would never compare myself to a “real Engineer”…..and “Entrepreneur” even though I felt starting a little tiny business that wasn’t going anywhere didn’t count.  With that said, I didn’t feel like a failure rather I didn’t quite understand how the Opus I was building fit into the grown-up work world.

Projects like TechStars bring legitimacy to a career path that many people like myself are either on or are just starting.  Their Mentorship approach showcases examples of individuals that are deep into building their Opus and serve as excellent examples to follow.  The TechStars Demo Days and Events they put on bring Investors together with Entrepreneurs in an exciting atmosphere that is much much cooler than any other industry gathering that usually depress me (ie: Industry Award Banquets).

After observing a TechStars event you get a good sense that this is a Community in which you belong and legitimizes the professional career you’ve chosen.  

“Oh yeah, what I do is actually really cool, I’m surrounded by brilliant and successful people, and this is actually very fun.  I’m lucky to be a part of this.” 

– how I felt walking out of the Boulder Theater after the TechStars Investor Day 

People

During the Investor Demo Day the Ignighter presentation joked about how hard it is to meet people after college.  There is truth to this as well in the tech community.  I have been to a variety of conferences, tech meetups, etc but never quite click with the people I meet and talk with.  The Community around TechStars, both the people that are involved with the Project and the people that follow it for fun (like myself) are cool and fun to talk with.  I have learned a ton from simply following TechStars on Twitter and reading blog posts from the TechStars Community.  As lame as that may sound I consider the TechStars Community a valuable asset that is part of my career growth.

Operational Processes

Joel on Software writes a great article about Starbucks and how they have developed customer services “systems” and “procedures” that are failing.

“If you’re planning to expand your business to a certain scale, you must first establish procedures and build systems to get predictable outcomes so that your employees can produce decent results even when they’re not having a great day.”

This is extremely applicable to my current role.  The nature of working with Clients as your customers mixes different personalities and can create frustration somedays.  It is so important to have good work processes in place so you can turn off your email, let the frustrations go and continue to crank on the work that needs to be accomplished.  Getting Things Done is the easiest way to satisfy a Client as a customer.


Natural Breaks

Gen. Michael Hayden was interviewed on Meet the Press about the Iraq War.  He used the term “Natural Break” to describe circumstances that create change or opportunity. 

“So I knew if I got to mile 22, there was a natural break that would begin to turn things into my favor.”

We need to look for Natural Breaks in business.  Examples are holiday downtime, the period after a Product Launch or new Release, after a company meeting, etc.