Archive for November, 2009

In the first part of this series, I discussed listening
to your market and understanding, ‘what keeps your customers up at night.’ The second part, discussed understanding who your customers are, as well as who they are not. For this last part of a high-level discussion, let’s look at why a plan is important.

Build a Plan

Do only a little digging, and you will find oceans of content (books, articles, courses, webinars, etc.) on why you need to develop a plan. The topic itself may make you want to simply hit the Back button in your browser.

To keep it simple, there are two real values to creating a plan. Understanding and keeping on track. Here’s what I mean…

The plan underlying your product should seek to answer some basic questions Read the rest of this entry »

Know Who Your Customers Are…Not

(see pt 1 here.)

For some reason, it always seems easier, working for Big Corp, to understand who your customers are. Product management, or product marketing depending on your organization, might describe your target customers like this: Product X’s typical customer makes $250M/yr in gross revenue, has 1,200 employees, and at least 5 different facilities, in one of these ‘three’ industries.

Seems simple. And, by default, since you know who your customers are it stands to reason that you know who your customers are not. We’ll come back to this.

As a small business or entrepreneur things do not seem quite so clear. You don’t have access to the latest market segmentation data; today’s primary focus is paying today’s bills so tomorrow the lights turn on; and, anything walking in the door (and can fog a mirror) is a target. Read the rest of this entry »

In a recent presentation I felt it important to emphasize that market = customers. Sophisticated analysis firms (e.g. Daratech, Gartner, Forester, etc.) like to release studies in which ‘markets’ are described as under-served in certain areas; where a market is going;, or, how a market is segmented. The firms might have spoken to a thousand individuals (company or person) in order to produce statistically valid aggregated results. In the end, people become abstracted, reduced to something a smidgeon less generic than ‘they.’

In contrast, I have seen very smart business people read a market study and then meet with a number of customers. Later, back at the office, they debate, ‘…the ‘market’ is doing X. But I met with three customers this week that are doing Y. It’s as though market does not equal customer. The Market and Customer are one in the same. However the customers you may have just met with (you know, the ones that just spent time with you) are the ones that might write a check someday.

It is important as you nurture an idea into a viable product that you assign a proper perspective your input sources. Neither should necessarily trump one or the other though how you weight them may vary occasionally.

This past week I had the pleasure speaking with a group of (mostly) new entrepreneurs at an Ann Arbor SPARK event. The focus was to discuss, at a high level, those key things important when creating a new product. My comments apply whether the product in question is a tangible widget or an intangible service. In this post, I want to talk about the first segment of the discussion: Listening.

If I had but one over-arching suggestion to make, it would be to listen to your market. Odds are, listening to people describe their problems is how your first came up with your ‘idea.’ Listening cannot stop there though.

Only through listening can you uncover your customers’ problems. You should be asking yourself which ones you can help with. Can you do it well? Who else is doing what you might want to do? Read the rest of this entry »

Now that Windows 7 is available to the general public I decided it was time to introduce it to my environment. In years past, I was typically eager to live on the bleeding edge. Now, I’m a little more relaxed, willing to learn from other’s teething pains, and avoid adopting features that might significantly change or be dropped by the time the final version popped out. Even so, adopting Windows 7 the week it came out might still cause others to feel I’m on the bleeding edge. Let’s just say I’ve allowed the edge to dull…a tad.

If you want an in-depth review of every Windows component, along with myriad opinions, I’d encourage you to check out someplace like TechRepublic. My following observations are directed toward those of you with a more casual affair with your PC. Read the rest of this entry »

Periodically I am going to start highlighting the people I know or have met that I believe are doing it right! With so many items in our lives challenging us negatively, it is important to be reminded there are actually a lot of positives surrounding us. All we need to do is look.

Rob Pasick

Dr. Pasick organized CEO Connect as a means of bringing together area business and government leaders. The focus is on positive leadership. His latest book, “Balanced Leadership in Unbalanced Times,” underscores his efforts. You can learn more about Rob’s activities here.

Jeannine MacDonald

Ms. MacDonald is the proprietor of Lady Rebecca’s Choice, located in downtown Howell, Michigan. Jeannine is a strong supporter of local business, actively leading efforts to educate both the public as well as fellow merchants. Hat’s off to Jeannine!

Scott Lorenz

Scott owns Westwind Communications, a Michigan public relations and marketing firm. He is also a licensed balloonist regularly seen flying over southern Michigan. Mr. Lorenz is one of the most supportive, creative, imaginative friends a person could have.

Sometimes we hide from it. Sometimes we do ‘other’ activities, instead. Sometimes we can put it off…for years. But eventually there comes a time where it’s necessary to face the cold, hard, brutal reality of a situation.

Normally it comes after reaching some kind of tipping point. For instance, the past couple months I’ve been dealing with a nagging problem on my laptop. When using some particular combination of applications, it ends up getting incredibly bogged down. Normally a reboot, or two, will alleviate the problem. Along the way, I’ve spent fifteen minutes here, thirty there, and so on, as I’ve tried to diagnose the problem.

And this is what so many do either personally, professionally, or both. Nursing things along, applying yet another band-aid to the current issue so it can live to get yet another band-aid tomorrow. The challenge is in being able to raise one’s head up, looking beyond the issues of the moment, and see a bigger picture. Read the rest of this entry »

Ok, so you have just read the title. You know what the article is about. Your expectations have been set. And, it has been pretty straight-forward thus far hasn’t it?

Over the past few months there have been a number of different articles debating whether we (in the US) are getting better or worse in our writing. The debate is often pretty black and white. One side cites examples of how Twittering (with its 140 character limits), SMS (phone texting with its 160 character limits), Instant Messaging, and the like are all promoting poor writing. The other side cites examples where people (particularly our younger generations) are incredibly effective at adjusting their messaging to suit the medium, and, how with all these new mediums—we are writing more than we ever have.

Regardless of Read the rest of this entry »

Simple, short post today.  I’ve spent a modest amount of time with Google Wave in recent days, since finally receiving my very own personal invitation granting access to the service.  You see, if you weren’t aware, you can only use ‘Wave if Google grants you access.

Unfortunately, as they take care not to unwittingly overwhelm their new system, it means very few people actually have been let in the front door.  Some of the early developers, such as O’Reilly have already released the first books on this new platform.

But, for most, the experience is like mine.  Of 2,900 contacts, only -4- have access to the ‘Wave.  Hard to test collaboration, explore, experiment, or take it for a spin quite yet.

It shows potential.  For the moment, simply need to be patient.