Mary Schmidt writes in "marketing without blinders,"

Words are powerful. Words can change the world. But they have to have meaning (and commitment) behind them. Otherwise, they’re like the - ahem - “stuff” that comes out of the other end of that horse. A frequent blind spot with which I help clients is that marketing isn’t just something you “do” externally - it’s also critical for internal communications - up, down, and sideways.

She continues,

Which of the following would fire you up? “I have a dream!” or “Our strategic initiative is designed to produce innovative products for leading-edge Fortune 500 companies.”

Which sounds more like your distinctive competence?

In the next few days, we're going to reload my blog posts for the last year into our new blogging software... which means that you'll be getting a few hundred posts from me all at once in your reader. Skim them and delete them... there may be some that you missed. As NBC used to say, "If you haven't seen it, it's new to you."

The web team has been working for the last few months on a new look & feel for our web site and we’re now live. I’m really pleased with the new organization and I think you will be too.

We’ve added some new features including comments on articles and blog posts (your opinion is welcome!) and a new job board for companies to post open product management and marketing positions. We’re tagging all the content, so you will be able to find related content much more quickly, a work in progress. As is getting all of the old blog posts into the new system, but we are working on it!

All the information from the old site is still available although perhaps in a new location or with a different URL. The entire site is searchable—and the searching is fast!

The site isn’t perfect, I’m sure. If you find a problem or get a 404, please send me a note and we’ll get it fixed right away.

I've just returned from a trip overseas with limited internet access. Golly, it's amazing how attached one becomes to reading email and surfing the web. And in 2007, apparently not every hotel room has internet access! I didn't know how much I missed it until it was gone. So I'm back home again with an incredible backlog of posts in my favorite blogs.

Agile is a hot topic nowadays. The Cranky Product Manager writes So You Think "Agile" Methodologies Exempt You From Product Management. Scott Sehlhorst wonders Is Agile Bad For Software Development? (Scott has re-organized all of his articles on agile.) My take on the subject is here.

Bob at ack/nak adds to the agile converation, reminds us that nothing good comes of email, and offers a quick trick for doing a competitive assessment.

Those are the highlights of what I've been reading this morning in my RSS reader. Interesting stuff indeed.

On May 10th, Barbara Nelson speaks at the San Diego Software Industry Council. Barb will explore the strategic role of product management using the Pragmatic Marketing Framework. The session will also include action items for reviewing and assessing the product management role at your company.

from The Four Phases of Implementation by Jacques Murphy:

Through the four phases of an implementation, the morale of those participating in the project takes a predictable path. It is this morale that is necessary to the success of your project. The more morale can be increased, the more successful your implementation will be viewed. Understanding the four phases helps you manage and cultivate the high morale you are aiming for.

As my friends know, I have switched completely to the Mac. I just got tired of fixing Windows all the time. I love the Mac vs PC commercials-- they're the only ones I watch on TiVo. I even check them out online on Apple's web site (which is actually kinda sad, isn't it?) I find I enjoy the spoofs on YouTube almost as much as the originals.

But I have to say, my new favorites are the ones for Linux, especially this one and this one. I assume that Novell is behind the series. If not, they should be; if so, good job! It reminds the rest of us that Linux may actually be a plausible alternative and also that Novell didn't disappear with the demise of Netware. Hmm, maybe it's time to convert my old Dell to Linux!

I just got around to reading a few issues of Deliver - a magazine for marketers. Since I don't do much direct mail any more, I haven't been in too much of a hurry to read them. But the magazine offer some really good techniques and success stories of marketers using direct mail. And that's good for whom? Of course, the post office! And guess who sponsors the magazine. Good guess. The post office. I think the US Postal Service has done a fine job of thought leadership marketing without blatantly pushing a postal agenda.

It's like when Campbell's reminds us that "soup is good food." They don't need to mention the Campbell's brand because, with 80+% marketshare, they'll benefit the most when we all go buy some soup. And with a virtual monopoly on direct mail, who will we use when we decide to use some of the great techniques in Deliver?

What are your marketers doing to get your message in front of buyers? Your company's thought leadership vehicle could also be good exposure for product managers and product marketers.

Active listening is about more than gaining understanding. Active listening is about giving. Giving assurance that you understand someone's needs. Giving confidence that you will address those needs. Giving feedback and acknowledgement that someone's input is valuable. If you haven't tried active listening, you may think it is a passive, receptive activity. Here are ten active listening skills that will help you, your customers and your team from Tyner Blain.

WeaKnees Blog reports that TiVo and Earthlink Announce Partnership: "Here's one that seems to be a bit out of left field: Earthlink will bundle TiVo services with its DSL lines. If you opt for the package, you'll get access to Amazon Unbox."

Partnerships should extend our reach in technology, promotion, or sales channel. Both partners should benefit. And most important, the customer should get a better solution from the combined offering that can be achieved independently.

Is this a partnership of desperation between two companies fearful of the big tumble? Or does this make sense? TiVo needs to cement their relationships with the media providers, not internet providers. What's the benefit of this partnership to clients? None that I can see.

Don Tapscott writes, "In a restructured Internet-friendly music industry, consumers would no longer download songs at a fixed price per tune, but would instead pay a moderate amount each month to listen to an unlimited number of tunes streamed to them over the Internet. I'd happily pay a few dollars per month to get access anytime, on any device, anywhere, to any music ever recorded." Read more in It's time to treat music as a service rather than a good.

Should you rent or buy music? Hmmm, should you rent or buy software? For that matter, maybe we'd be happier renting hardware too. I plan to buy the new Apple phone but I bet I'd be happier if I could rent one for a year and then exchange it for (what you know will be) a better version the next year.

We've talked for years about "metered" software--you know, pay by the transaction. Except there's a natural affinity to owning rather than renting (or leasing), or perhaps it's a belief that the manufacturer can rack up your rates at any time, or maybe just the fear that you don't know how many transactions you'll use but it's probably a lot. Remember that first mobile phone payment? It surely wasn't the $65 I was expecting!!

If you're in hardware or software, before you offer a product with the typical up-front purchase price, maybe renting or leasing (or SaaS) is a better fit for the buyer and better cash flow for the vendor.

Well, I guess you know that you've arrived when people parody you. Now there's CrackBerry.com, the #1 site FOR CrackBerry Users and Abusers, built and operated BY CrackBerry Users and Abusers. Funny or sad? I'm not sure. Also check out the 13 Steps.

Seth writes, "If I ran JetBlue, I'd go to each of the people affected (and it's not that many) and give each person 40 free round trip tickets. Or maybe 50. More than any person could use for a long, long while. Let them fly with as many friends as they like until they've used up 50 seats."

Incredible point! JetBlue may never recover from the PR nighmare that they've created. Already Congress is roasting them and proposing a Traveler's Bill of Rights. Seth's suggestion may be the only chance for JetBlue... and for the entire industry. As much as I'd hate being on a plane for 8 hours, I'd hate the government deciding what 'reasonable' is. I've been on many a canceled flight because the crew is 1 minute past some government standard. So JetBlue can strike before the government does. And imagine the positive PR of 50 free tickets!

So when dealing with restrictions, go overboard! The Zune has a cool feature: beam a favorite song from one to another... but only for three days or three plays, whichever comes first. Why not 10, 25, 50, 100? The reason the record companies are so freaked out about piracy is the possibility of losing sales of a million copies... so they'd rather anger thousands than lose a dollar in sales. But the 'regular' iPod or Zune user isn't going to post to Limewire; they're just sharing with a few friends. Apple doesn't want that song or video downloaded to a thousand computers; neither do the studios. But isn't it reasonable to let customers download it to three computers? Or their dad's and son's? That's small potatoes as they say.

When setting maximums, take a normal normal and mulitply times ten to get a ridiculous value. What you're trying to do is stop theft, not stop reasonable use. Don't treat your customers like criminals.

Guy Kawasaki offers these 11 tips on giving speeches in How to Get a Standing Ovation. The point of course is not to get the standing ovation but to deliver excellent speeches. In particular his tip "Cut the sales pitch" is one that everyone needs to remember. Delivering your content is the reason for speeches. If it's a good speech and you actually have something interesting to say, people will flock to learn more about whatever you're selling.

Kathy Sierra explains the conundrum of Buying and Using criteria in The real secret to success: "The secret is simply this: you have a much better chance for success when your business model makes what's good for the users match what's good for the business, and vice-versa."

There are certain features in your product that must be present or no one will buy it; these features are buying criteria. Features like a camera in your phone. Sales-oriented companies tend to be really good at loading up their products with buying features. But what about the user? If the end-user customer doesn't use it--or doesn't like using it--you won't get renewals and referrals. Engineering-led companies tend to focus on using criteria to the detriment of buying criteria. As Kathy points out, we need to find the right intersection between both to get the product both bought and used.

Joel Spolsky pointed this out in a different context. Buyers requested the option of custom fields so they could tailor the product to their existing environment. He writes, Historically, I am opposed to custom fields in principle, because they get abused. People add so many fields to their bug databases to capture everything they think might be important that entering a bug is like applying to Harvard. End result: people don't enter bugs, which is much, much worse than not capturing all that information.

Joel knows that offering a bunch of custom fields will make the product more difficult to use and he’ll lose renewals and referrals. The solution is to recognize the source of the request: is the idea coming from buyers or from users? Will people buy without it? If not, can we implement it 'skinny' so that it won't mess up users?

If we listen only to the buyers, we end up with a Zune instead of an iPod. But if we listen only to the users, we'll never get the thing sold in the first place.

Which features in your product are buying criteria? Which are using criteria? It's the intersection between the two that results in a product that people love.

Here's an article to forward to your co-workers and family members on email etiquette. The Crabby Office Lady writes, "I've got a bee in my bonnet about the way some people are abusing their e-mail privileges. And from the sound of your letters, I'm not alone. Let's tackle some of the bigger issues and see if we can't make this a kinder, gentler cyberworld." Read more in Stand up straight and mind your e-mail manners.

Everybody has a flash drive or memory stick; in fact, most of my friends have many. Flash drives are frequent giveaways at trade shows and conferences. They're wonderfully cheap and come in many sizes. So why buy one brand over another? Pexagon offers flash drives in 14 colors (in 512M, 1G, 2G, and 4G sizes) and they will engrave the drives FREE--no minimums; no setup fee. I'm thinking I'll buy a few for my backback with my name and number on them.

Seth Godin shares another commodity story in when the copy doesn't match the story. He notes that the copy leads off with, "The Bissell Healthy Home Vacuum is built like no other vacuum." Well, not really; the Bissell is just a clone of the Dyson but cheaper.

When your product category becomes commoditized, you can go cheap or you can go custom. Which makes the most sense for your business and for your customer?

I tend to install new versions of software as soon as they're available. Sometimes I regret being an early-adopter, like when Microsoft's IE7 or Media Player 10 took control of my system but I can usually back out if I need to. Thanks go out to Norton Ghost for restoring my system more than once.

I bought and installed Office 2007 and I'm pretty much digging it. The new interaction is generally much easier. Most of my annoyance with Windows comes from spending more time figuring out how to do what I want than I spend actually doing what I want. In Office 07, there's a consistent way of doing things in each program; each toolbar or ribbon works the same way everywhere. More important, chart objects in PowerPoint use Excel instead of the horrific MS Chart program in Office 2003. Because everything I used to know I have to learn anew, I'm revising presentation graphs from fresh data instead of trying to manipulate them from the old Office 2003 documents.

But here's the rub: my headquarters has decided to NOT upgrade. The new features don't warrant the additional cost of licenses, installation, and training, not to mention the hassles of incompatibilities between the 2003 data and the 2007 data. You can save in 2007 format but you lose compatibility with 2003 or you can save in 2003 format but lose the ability to modify most charts again.

It's really a common product management problem, isn't it? How do you get your customer base to move to the new platform?

What if the incremental value of improved user interaction (and accumulated bug fixes) doesn't offset the cost of conversion? How do you convince customers to move to the new & improved platform?

There are two aspects to consider: 1) make it easy to move, and 2) make it affordable to move. To make it easy, you have to convert their data, either programmatically or with services, and you'll need to offer training in some form. To make it cheap, you can offer upgrade pricing incentives or explain why using the new version saves money in other ways. One company couldn't convince its customers to upgrade so they decided to give the new version away; the reduction in technical support costs offset the incremental revenue so the company was ahead.

It's best to do both--make it easy and make it affordable--and be able to explain in user and buyer language how to make the change and why the change is valuable.