Recently, I attended a webinar. The slides were full of text and the presenter read word by word – you very well know what I said – Text on a Powerpoint slide is your greatest competition. When I gave feedback about this to the presenter via email, the response from him indicated to me that [...]
Filed under: business, leadership, marketing, powerpoint, product management | 2 Comments »
Couple of weeks back I attended the Web Innovator’s group event. The group has come a long way since last year – much larger room, more than 500 people (some very talkative ones who will not shut up in spite of pleas from the audience). Three main stage demos from all very early startups.
Times have [...]
Filed under: business, marketing, product management, webinno | 1 Comment »
I have been asked the question – “Why do I blog?” twice recently – once by a reader of this blog from as far away as New Zealand.
Great question and one that I had to ask myself before I wrote this post. So here are my reasons (Listed in the order by which I got [...]
Filed under: blogging, business, marketing, product management | 11 Comments »
Kristin Zhivago has an awesome post on her blog titled Gone! The reason customers leave. I would strongly recommend that anyone who touches a customer (sales, tech support, product management, professional services, executives) read it.
I had written last year about how customers are lot more tolerant of a vendor’s mistakes or shortcomings if the vendor [...]
Filed under: business, customer experience, customer needs, marketing, product management | 3 Comments »
Good managers mostly hire good people and sometimes hire the wrong people whereas bad managers always hire the wrong people. This is the conclusion I have come to in my 15 year career. What do I define as a bad hiring manager? – one who does not have good managerial skills, feels insecure and hence [...]
Filed under: business, career development, job hunting, leadership, marketing, product management, recruiting | 3 Comments »
My presentation at BPMA was well received last night. I asked the audience to walk away remembering three things from my presentation. Here they are:
1) You are the presentation: The audience has showed up to listen to you. You have the message and hence you are the presentation. If the audience can figure out your [...]
Filed under: business, marketing, powerpoint, product management | 3 Comments »
I am looking to hire a UI interaction designer who will work with me in creating user interfaces for new product concepts. This is a highly visible position in the company given the strategic nature of the products this person will work on.
Here is the job description. If you know someone who may be interested [...]
Filed under: business | Leave a Comment »
The sky rocketing gas prices seems to have had an impact on marketing messages and offers.
Here are some that I have come across recently
1) Across town – message on a restaurant’s billboard – “Come in and have a juicy burger for less than a gallon of gas”
2) Goodyear enters you into a sweepstakes to win [...]
Filed under: business, marketing, product management | 1 Comment »
I just happened to see this quote from Bill Cosby.
“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody”
How appropriate for product managers?
All product managers should have this quote stuck next to their desks so that it is in your face as a reminder. We cannot build a [...]
Filed under: business, customer needs, marketing, product management | Leave a Comment »
The media (social and real) is abuzz with how Apple botched the launch of the 3G iPhone last Friday. Yes, they could have done it a whole lot better but I don’t think it is going to make much of a dent on the how many of these phones Apple will sell.
Seth Godin in his [...]
Filed under: business, customer experience, marketing, product management, word of mouth | 2 Comments »
As I mentioned in my previous post, I am giving a talk at the BPMA this coming Thursday on how to effectively do presentations using Powerpoint. If any of you are attending, could you please let me know what you would like me to talk about.
If you are not from the Boston area, can you [...]
Filed under: business | 1 Comment »
The next web innovator’s meeting is scheduled for this coming Monday July 15th. If you live in the Boston area or will be in Boston on Monday, you want to check this out.
Where: Grand Ballroom, Cambridge Royal Sonesta, Cambridge, MA
When: Tuesday July 15th, 6:30pm
Attendance is free.
Why do I attend?
1) Get to see products from new [...]
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Couple of weeks back, I came across this company called InfusionSoft. I signed up to download something that looked interesting to me called “9 proven techniques to double sales”. To do this, I had to fill out the following form.
When you do this, they send you a link via an email to download the white [...]
Filed under: business, customer experience, customer service, marketing, product management, word of mouth | 16 Comments »
I am going to be presenting at the BPMA’s (Boston Product Management Association) event on July 17th. The topic is titled “What’s in it for the audience?” and will discuss how to do presentations effectively. I have sat through many awful powerpoint heavy presentations, have taken presentation training myself and have done a lot of [...]
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I have come a long way since I landed in this country with two suitcases on August 17, 1990. I had no idea where I was going except that I was going to do my Master’s program at Colorado State University. Did not even know where Colorado was.
On July 3, 2008, I finally became a [...]
Filed under: business | 11 Comments »
The green movement is going mainstream – corporations are throwing their weight behind it – from Google leading the effort in installing solar panels, GE designing more energy efficient locomotives or light bulbs to every company encouraging consumers to get electronic bills/statements instead of the old fashioned paper ones in the mail. I have been [...]
Filed under: business, marketing, product management | Leave a Comment »
Everything that one tries to sell, in my opinion, starts or ends in one of three buckets.
A need sell
A category sell
A product sell
Let me explain in more detail on what I mean.
1) A need sell is the worst place for a product long term. If your product is here, you are essentially trying to convince [...]
Filed under: business, customer needs, marketing, product management | 4 Comments »
