How not to give a boring presentation...

There were a few comments lately about my approach. Seems like being told what "not to do" is not as useful as being told what to do. I apologize, but it was easier to just start this way. It is true that for some, to be told what not to do, is not helpful, because they simply do not do it. Also, some people catch quickly and when they see someone who is doing something "wrong" they learn not to do it. But, I don't think that ignoring the "bad" and just focusing on the "good" is the solution either. So let's aim for a balance of positive and negative lessons.

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Apple's Steve Jobs, arguable the best tech presenter today
One of the best way to learn from "the good" is to look at great presenters. Arguably, Apple's Steve Jobs is one of the best presenters in the technology world. There are plenty of people who follow and analyze Steve Jobs' presentations, not just for his ability to excite people, but also to learn from his style and skills. Let's look at an article from Business Week: How to Wow 'Em Like Steve Jobs(APRIL 6, 2006). It is one of many that talks about what Steve Jobs does in his presentations. They make five points:

• Sell the Benefit - Steve Jobs does not sell bits of metal; he sells an experience.
• Practice, Practice, and Practice Some More - Jobs takes nothing for granted during product launches.
• Keep It Visual - Speaking of slides, there are very few bullet points in a Jobs presentation.
• Exude Passion, Energy, and Enthusiasm - Jobs has an infectious enthusiasm.
• "And One More Thing..." - At the end of each presentation Jobs adds to the drama by saying, "and one more thing."

Well, these are a few top level tips, but the article makes a good point in terms of comparing Jobs to most technology presenters. This is crucial for us technology (geeks) to understand. Not many of our   C U S T O M E R S   want to know that inside the box is a chip with software and
wires with display and buttons with insulation... you get the point. The same applies to the very technical of presentations. Even (or I should say ESPECIALLY) technical audience want to know the benefit to them. While it's nice that a new version of the software made the work for the developers easier, customers really do not care about that. But if the product's quality and reliability has been enhanced by 150% due to better software development processes, and there are 80% less bugs on the initial release, and the incremental releases are going to be faster and more predictable (the next one in in 8 weeks) -- that makes sense to customers. This speaks about Jobs' selling the "benefit" not the "bits of metal".
Now for the "bad" list. After all, we still have to watch out what NOT to do and I still see lots of bad presenters. These are my top list of not to do:

• Do NOT put them to sleep: if you can't be enthusiastic, learn how to modulate your voice, move your body and hands, illustrate and point to the presentation, give short demos, etc.
• Do NOT assume that they know: Explain basic terms, diagram processes, illustrate construction (circuits, flow charts)
• Do NOT talk in generalities: Show demos, mock-ups, screen shots, output displays,
• Don't talk about "strategy" to operational techies, don't show screen shots to strategic managers: tailor presentations or parts of them
• Don't try to fake your way: don't be "a friend" if that is not you, don't be "the expert" if you are not: be yourself, be honest

Well, I think this is a start. Remember, there are many places today to find help on how to present, blogs with presentation articles, lots of books -- but the most important part if how you present yourself and how well you prepared the presentation. This is what was said about Steve Jobs as well. This includes the actual material but also your own ability to speak and feel confident in the material and your knowledge. The one thing that the Steve Jobs situation shows the result of lots of work and preparation. Steve Jobs goes on stage after Apple has done the work and has made a magnificent product. You may think that this puts you at a disadvantage. Maybe you don't see all the work that goes into your company's product. I would suggest that you do your homework and learn about how your product was designed, developed, tested, and packaged. Maybe even how it is supported and how customers are trained. Everything you do should prepare you to give a good presentation. And don't forget, test yourself in front of internal people or a few willing customers. This is the best way to really practice. Nothing is like the real thing, but standing up in front of people and giving the presentation over and over again is a good way to test yourself. OK, as they say... NOW IT'S YOUR TURN!     G O O D     L U C K !

Practical tips for creating a presentation: keep in mind

Editor's note: Why is a Web2.0 blogger writes about old fashion presentations? Because developing a message, a flow to present it, and strategy to convince, and a good presentation is crucial to any manager. If you can't do it with Power-Point slided you are not going to be very good with a blog, a wiki, a newsletter, or a site.

In the last article I described technical presentations made by field engineers. It is often seen that technical people give not so good presentations while less technical people, usually in marketing and business area give good ones. Why is that? After all the technical people know the "product", the "technology" and it's use (application). They can usually "run the machine"! But the emphases on good presentation: creation and delivery; is not there. It should be any technical presenter goal to give an   E X C E L L E N T   presentation. No ifs, ors, or buts. If you are finally going to get someone in a chair, and he is going to listen to you, you better leave an impression on him. Otherwise, you better go back to writing, debugging, and running programs. Just like learning to program you can learn to create a good presentation. Just like learning to run a program you can learn to deliver a good presentation. Just like learning how to support a user in trouble you can learn how to ask a question in a crowd and get a good answer. But all of this takes preparation and practice. Just like writing a program and debugging, it takes lots of preparation and trials to get this right.

Here are a few examples in recent presentations which could be improved. When we look at someone else failing it helps us learn to do better ourselves. With presentation this is one of the best way to learn. Don't worry about hurting someone else's feelings, they will do the same to you some day.

Slides:

• Slide that does not make sense from one to the other. Links to the previous slides are confusing.


• Slide that does not support the main subject or even distracts the audience from the key subject.


• Slide that is not unique and duplicate the content from the previous or another slide.


• A slide which is not clear or is confusing and the presenter does not explain.


• Slide that explains something obvious or very simple. Fundamental knowledge should be assumed.

The complete presentation:

• Topic is not relevant to the audience or not clearly defined. (subject)


• Flow is interrupted, the presentation is made up of many segments without smooth progression. (flow)


• No main point is made, the presentation is made up of many parts with not one being a key point. (subject)


• Not enough supporting points for the “problem” or the “issue”. (detail)


• No clear “solution” or “proposal” - the presentation is not strong in the “convincing argument”. (convince)

The way a presentation is given:

• Speaker is boring and seem uninterested. (well, I will not go into this...)


• Speaker is not interested in the audience. (you guys have never seen this before?)


• Speaker is not knowledgeable and can not give clear explanations.


• Speaker is not credible, it seems like he can not “talk the talk, and walk the walk”.


• Presentation does not keep the audience's attention – no flow, no excitement, and no POINT!

A list which to “keep in mind” while creating the presentation:

• Make a list of the following items:
  
  1. Key topic of the presentation (ex. Computer security is a problem in the Internet age).
  
  
  2. Key issue you are making (ex. Most IT managers do not know the severity of the problem).
  
  
  3. Key point you are making (ex. We have a product that can help you with this).
  
  
  4. Progression or flow (ex. Start with a problem/s, show how to detect, show how to fix).
  
  
  5. Specific points and issues (ex. New clever attacks, complex networks, fast spread, etc.)
  
  
  6. How I can help (ex. I am an expert with this technology, listen to me and I can help).
  
  
  7. What you can do (before you believe me, go to these web sites, read this, etc.)
  
  
• When creating the slide content:
  1. a)How is the slide supporting the key issue, solution, or examples?
  
  
  2. Make each slide cover a point, do not overwhelm the reader: F O C U S !
  
  
  3. Keep the flow, look back one, two, even three slides – set up for the next one.
  
  
  4. Make one of few points: state an issue, show a solution, make a point – but just O N E !
  
  
  5. Get the audience involved: build in a question, ask for a comment, show a real example.
  
  
  6. Go through your own list (the ones at the top) and review possible “failures”.
  
  

Checklists and tip pages are very helpful to keep you on track. Making a presentation powerful and useful to the audience is just the first step. In the world of Web2.0 you don't have a physical audience, so these basic techniques are even more important. If you can't get you message across effectively in a Power-Point presentation, than it is going to be even more difficult in a blog. While blogs, wikis, newsletters, and single web pages have many advantages, the content quality and how it fits with the rest of the information is crucial. For these who have not developed a wiki content, starting out with a good presentation is one simple technique. Taking a big presentation and cutting it up to a few blog articles with more explanations is one way to start.

Next time: how to improve, recycle, learn from others, and just keep on going when the road is rough and bumpy.

Next-Next: how to give a presentation that is not boring - what NOT to say!

Next-Next-Next time: how to convert a presentation to a few articles. (or maybe, how to structure a series of articles in a blog, newsletter, or a site section... or...)

Planning and designing a production Web2.0 operation

One of the most important ingredient of starting a new Web2.0 marketing project is planning and research. I can't stress this enough when speaking with people who have not written steadily for a living. This is specially true with generalist marketers. Product managers and product marketers who write or edit casually, mostly for internal consumption. While writing a steady stream of articles is not for everyone, I believe that many managers can write and gain a real advantage with blogging, newsletters, wikis, social networking, and other Web2.0 applications. Not only because they are going to be popular in the future, but also as simple tools which can evolve into a good systems of communication. I have some ideas which will help you in planning and justifying resources and effort to start a production Web2.0 operation.

Gather Existing Information, Data, Ideas...

First of all, make an effort to gather all the information available. The available resources, stories, content, individuals with writing and editing abilities, industry and user contact people, etc. Gather all material which has been published in an attempt to create a stream of messages. NOT press releases, but real business and technical information. Even parts of customer presentations, data sheets, and success stories. If you have seen a good blog, even one that is not exactly on topic (to yours), store and print some of the stories and explain how they could be used on your blog. If you receive industry and competitor newsletters, feeds from portals or publications, use these as well. It is a common technique to add industry news to original stories in a newsletter. If you can put this in a nice package, print and bind it, and distribute to a few people, you can start getting an idea who will help and how to deliver the message(s). People do much better when they see something resembling the final product. Seeing a package of related stories, is easy to get them going. Remember that seeing a final product and working on it are different. You will need both aspects to show people if they are going to be convinced.

Justify: Resources, Attention, Tools, Skills...

Next, you better have a very strong justification for the project. Anything well justified will get attention and resources. If you are totally new to this, you will definitely need the resources (not just budget and people). This includes the driving need for a blogging or newsletter program IN YOUR SPECIFIC OPERATION! While it is easy to see a blog that has been running for a while, some managers and VPS of marketing may not appreciate a part time writer added to their headcount. If you clearly show what the company will say, who will be involved, where the information will come from, this will help in the justification. In most cases this would be the need to keep current and potential customers informed. There are qualities of message streams which are totally new and unique. Newspaper writers and editors know this well, but the rest of us are not as familiar and experienced to them. I will eventually dedicate a few full articles to the justification, budgeting, start-up, and other aspects of operating a Web2.0 application.

Define A Real Strategy and Tactics

This step will help both you and the people who are connected with your work. Strategy in this case can be simply to use a tool or a format to communicate certain information. It could also be a way of managing information which already exists. It could be the introduction of tools to the organization (acquisition, training, operation). The clarification and delineation of tactics is very important. This goes for the clear plan on software tools and hosting as well as management of the story writing and researching or buying information. Strategies and tactics need to guide writers and editors. It also helps readers and managers who use the blog as a communication channel. The marketing managers who comment and suggest how the blog develops need to understand what are the goals and the means of getting there. Don't skimp here, if you do not have a strategy in the early stage you will need one later. In the mean time, you will duplicate ad-hock strategy sessions over and over again.

A Story About A Blog

Five months ago I started working on a blog / newsletter project. It started out as an experiment for a small Internet security company. The company wanted to target a small number of potential readers (approx. 1,000). The target reader attributes were well defined, at least that is what we thought. The idea was to write a blog or a newsletter and keep the posting frequency to once a week. The marketing manager did not think she can do it. But there was pressure from both the CEO and the sales organization for "a blog". At first we started planning the design, overall GUI (Graphical User Interface), and graphics (mostly free images). Different people in the organization wanted different looks based on what they have seen. This is not hard when looking at a blog, you just need to find examples and search for a similar template. Prototyping a design and layout is a great way to start. When it came to planning the writing and the topics things got a little strange. One camp wanted to have fresh relevant topics. In security market that means scanning the news feeds and writing about what is exciting NOW. This is sometimes a big virus or spam attack, what Microsoft is doing with the new Windows Vista release for security, what Mcaffee or Symantec are doing technically or marketing wise, or even a story about the politics of security. But there is another camp which says that the writing should be timeless and more marketing and technical in nature. This way the 'content' can be used and referenced as regular web site content (some people call this Web1.0 redone). All these voices from the corporate world are nice to know, but an editor, designer, writer is going to approach the task the way she sees most appropriate. Which for the these new Web2.0 'consumers' was difficult to accept. One thing to remember is that doing things differently will be hard to impossible for some. But that is the nature of this change.

This brought me to a discussion on how to coach product managers and general executives about what to do with regard to taking the first step in running or developing a blog. This is quite different from an individual or a group who simply want to start blogging. Most blogs out there seem to be a stream of articles which are not necessarily related to and one specific topic. But products which need to be explained also need to have the steady stream of information, examples, explanations, and other type of writing a blog or a newsletter can support.

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solostream.com offers WordPress teams, there are many helpful technical services out there for blogging and newsletters
So I thought that it would be helpful to start searching for sources about writing for effective product marketing. There are good "old school" resources. There are mostly writing, editing, and publishing based. Without good writing, most readers are going to be turned off. But once a blog or newsletter writer has the formula for writing, the sources of information, either internal or external, and the flow of articles start to move, you have an operation.

My next step if to have some work books. I think that strategy, tactics, operation, planning, and other practical tasks can be put into a few pages of forms and examples. There are also great articles and resources for this work on the web, so send me your favorite and I will start posting it here.

Mozilla SeaMonkey, comparing to Nvu and MS Web Authoring

        On the last post I looked at Nvu main product page. The idea was to look at a simple page for a simple product. The exercise was a little disappointing, mostly due to lack of continuity in the product's development. As I mentioned, by hunting a little on the web, it was clear how Nvu essentially was an independent development of Netscape's Composer. As Netscape products ended their high point, mostly due to competition from Microsoft, Macromedia and Adobe, the "code" was placed into an Open Source 'status'. Then, a group of independent developers started to take over and evolved the original product into the 'Mozilla' project you see today*.
        The Mozilla project seem to be turning out nice products. As a matter of fact, these products are useful specially today if you are going to use them for editing simple documents or you have a need for bare-bone application. They are on par with the Sun's Open Office tools, I would call them rev 2.0 equivalent to a product from a commercial software supplier (i.e. Adobe, Intuit, Symantec, etc). Last post I wrote a footnote about why these products are used for research and analysis. I keep on coming to the conclusion, mostly by gut feeling, that many commercial products have holes in their marketing. Not just missing part of the main message, or confusion in the positioning, targeting and audience focus. But, truly missing pieces of a product description which to most users would be considered a basic information. The simple open source applications do an excellent job in describing the basic product. They also simplify the message, mostly assuming that users will not have a problem with the decision leading to try the product. For some commercial products this is a crucial lesson to learn. Simply having the user download, install and take a look at the product would be an excellent start and a useful expanding the user base.

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SeaMonkey project main page, simple and complete for a open source product
        The SeaMonkey project page is simple in design and content. It has only 9 entries on the right hand side menu (News, Downloads, Community, Documentation, etc.) The main section starts out with a download box. This is understandable since SeaMonkey is a very basic suite of Internet tools (Browser, e-Mail, chat and HTML editor). I presume the assumption is of a very familiar users who mostly come for the download function. The box has links for "features" and "release notes". Below the download section are sections for "project news" and "SeaMonkey suite". Unlike the Nvu page there are no specific features on the first page. Essentially the introduction to new users is on a higher level and less specific. This enable the design to be more simple and if a user is interested in more detail, there are links to a more verbose page. I think that in terms of a familiar user and a new user the content is sufficient. It seems to me that commercial applications tent to err on "more is better" and therefore highlight more "salesy" (some would call it "sexy") items as was seen in the Adobe Dreamweaver and Microsoft products pages. The categories they picked as main sub sections (on the menu) are self explanatory. The sub-sections also cover a broad range of user topics with only one section "Development" not related to end users. This is a good indication to a user that he is in the "right place". Since technology and products on the web cover a very broad range of abilities, some products while covering a broad range of user abilities tent to push for the "high-end" user. This is not a place to look at which user is targeted, but the analysis of what user is targeted and the intended message is a good place for a marketer to use in evaluating similar and competing products.

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* I do not claim to be a 'technology historian' by any means. The descriptions here are strictly a shortcut to explaining how these products evolve and get to a certain point in time. I would appreciate any explanations on some of the events, specially details on the product features and overall operation. Technology issues and organizations (i.e. corporate activities in how the products were run) are less important at this point in time. BUT, more information on a product, better off the marketer's knowledge and faster she/he can take appropriate actions. The study of recent product history and the technology market is sadly neglected in the race to get products out and win market share. This is another topic worth a little research and a few articles on the blog.

Nvu page, very basic marketing content

In my review of the Microsoft FrontPage descendants' packages, I was going to review Nvu and Mozilla Composer (or Netscape equivalent). So finally, it's time to continue on that line of writing*. The Nvu page is quite old, and the program used a version of Mozilla Composer as a base. At the same time, it does show an attempt to market the product by listing "Features" at the center of the page. The first section of the page also gives a description of the Nvu as: "A complete web authoring system for Linux..." and a comparison statement: "... rival programs like FrontPage and Dreamweaver." These two sections constitute the very basic marketing content seen with small or simple programs.

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Nvu main page, introduction, features and other info...

      From the point of view of a developer, description and features seem to be the "starting point" of a marketing effort. Actually, it seems natural to tell a potential user these two basic facts.

    In the case of Nvu, the developer seem to use the earlier Netscape / Mozilla product as a basis of user familiarization. He seem to assume that simple allusion to the other web authoring tools and the operating system is a good introduction. Basically they say: if you know what FrontPage and Dreamweaver is all about, we have it for Linux, Windows and Mac. On first look this seems like a simple way to get someone started. But in reality, this is a missed opportunity to differentiate or describe other features or capabilities. OS support is a very trivial user concern, but features for usage, tips, techniques, tools and final product output are much more productive and forceful. Features are also interesting as an introduction, but benefits and uses of a tool are also more productive. To the credit of the Nvu page, developing a forceful message and capturing the mind of a user quickly is not easy. Also, the formulation of strong benefit and application points takes time and thought. But I believe that specially for small products with little or no marketing resources, making the first impression strong is crucial. A first page of a small products is the one place where potential users can get information and download the program. As an exercise it would be interesting to see how small programs, utilities and programs given as demos describes themselves in a 'first look'. If you are a developer, technologist or a marketer of a small program or a utility, this kind of research and benchmarking is crucial to developing a meaningful message. This is specially true if you want attention and some type of user feedback or support. Open source and freeware / shareware programs have potential to become a useful piece of the ever growing technology puzzle. So take the time to develop an attractive and strong message. next, I will try to do a few more site evaluations and analysis, then go deeper into the content... so stay tuned and come back...

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* Background and explanation on the use of these products as examples for my analysis: Web authoring tools are well understood. There are many ways to get a web page built. Web authoring tools are like text editors and drawing programs which are used to create pages (to be printed). So extending the analysis from a Microsoft Word to Microsoft FrontPage is not a huge jump in thinking. The big difference between a web editor and a text editor is the output. One is designed to create pages for the printer, the other goes t a web 'server'. A web server essentially translate formatting instructions and maybe some embedded programs. Also, there are enough users who understand the web authoring task, even if they don't understand all the details of different technologies and web standards. Finally, these programs have a very small user base, so they don't seem to attract the big marketing effort. BUT, they have enough complexity to illustrate marketing points which could apply to many technology products.

Is blogging good for business? or is it too hard, expensive, time consuming...?

I just visited a potential client / employer for a short interview. This is a security company that supposedly has a great product. They also claim to have great technology which is very unique. The story is one you and I have heard a few dozen times, maybe even hundreds of times. Small to medium size company, moving along at a decent pace, hit a "bump on the road", fell "off the tracks" and slowed down, coming back from "a setback" but sure to "make it to the big times again" ... OK, OK, OK I am getting a little wordy, but this is a story that we all know. So getting back to the title of this story... this marketing VP was telling me that "we have been thinking about a blog for a year now. We started writing stories and finally realized that we can do it. Now we are not exactly sure if this is something we can "keep up on"..." or something like that. McDonalds sells Hamburgers and Fries and they have a blog. The Democratic Party sells ideas that we are not sure about, and changes it's mind, they have a blog. But this Internet security company ends up spending more money, time and effort on paper brochures to put in their lobby and mail out to customers than inform customers or potential buyers on their updates and new discoveries.

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A static web site for Internet security
So this is a ridiculous example? Not really! Actually, it's a very typical example. It takes a long -> long -> long -> time for technology AND the implication of it's use to BUSINESS (read make money) to be seen. This we all know, not just from Internet applications, but from steam shovels and hydraulic ones of 50+ years ago. But there is also something that may be bigger. Like the 'slower' evolution that is actually a bigger trend, there is something that the 'general business' writers and teachers don't talk about much. Is the communication among new technology community members. Tim O'Reilly has been blogging for a long time. Actually, his blog has turned into a newspaper column more than anything else. I say that because it is no longer a 'off the cuff' personal writing source as much as a well written and well PRESENTED site. But you still see "old school" marketers and business manages make excuses. So what to do? Well, it's a little like the 'who moved my cheese' story (book on Amazon). But it's also a little like moving a little faster to get thing done better.

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I use to make fun of the slow movers when I thought I was the 'early adopter'. Than I realize that just being an early adopter for the sake of trying things out and boxes full of gadgets and software boxes in the basement was not all it's cut out to be. Now I am back to pushing more adoption. Because in some fields we don't have any choice. In Internet technology field and in many business fields that depend on fast information transfer, the blogs, wikis and quick authoring pages are not necessary but they do SELL more. They also change the way customers work with us and the way we work inside the company. For some, new technology is like what was described almost 20 years ago by a co-worker: running down a hill, losing your breath, and the hill keep on getting steeper! Why? I think it's because lots of us all over the world are running on our own little hills, and when we see others having fun before they crash down at the bottom, they start running too. But also, it's the unleashing of a bunch of technologies all at once. Some of them trivial like faster communication and better transport. If computers hardware was not being made so economically in Asia, we would probably not be able to do even a fraction of the software we can do. Well... I can go on and on, but basically the message is: get moving with what you think is "new" sooner than later. Even if it seem hard to 'keep up' right now, it usually turns out that it is not. And if you are not sure, just start small and don't tell the whole world about it... quite yet... which in the end, will make you laugh and seem foolish... but that is the nature of running down a hill that won't stop... there is good news here too... so come back to the next post... good news from the leading edge...

Rating sites for experience, knowledge and gaining competitive advantage

After writing the Microsoft FrontPage and Adobe Dreamweaver product page analysis, I wanted to criticize negatively some marketing aspects of these sites. Than I realized that this is not going to be as helpful and explaining what I was disturbed about. So I stopped the negative thoughts and tried to see what was really behind the "not so good marketing" seen here. Like other realms of the business, marketing people think that they 'control' the web media. Well, not really control as much as 'need' it more than others. Well, this is not exactly what you see out there. Marketing has its place, and good marketing helps sales, engineering and even customer support. But the web is a media that is needed by all business aspects. Once that proposition is understood and accepted by all parties, things start getting useful to analyze and discuss.

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So the question of what a good page should be, is restated: What would a good marketing page should be? Ahaa, here we go...

First of all, we could probably simplify things by breaking them into categories. This is helpful because there are many resources out there analyzing, testing and advising you how to 'market' on the Internet. Also, there are non-marketing web and page design experts and more books than you can read in a lifetime. Essentially, we can start working on worksheets and guides to go through the design, creation and integration of a single page. Then move on to the phase of putting together a section or a full product section. Finally, worksheets on specific areas which are general and not necessarily marketing related would be nice to have. This is something I have been looking for in ages. Basically, something to organize our thoughts about how to 'look' and 'read' other people's work. This is specially useful in marketing organizations that continue to improve, innovate and grow their message, content and reach.

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MS Expression page
One of the first "dividing into categories" step seem to be defining some general page categories. In the software product space, I would categorize pages as:

• Information: product packaging, availability, version, license. etc.


• Sales: product price, order information, channel availability, packaging, etc.


• Technical: product operation, features, capability, use model / demos, etc.


• Support: user support, installation, workarounds, tutorial, specific feature operation, etc.


• Marketing: benefits, success stories, solution-packaging, capability, overview, etc.

These categories apply to what I would call "core content". There are other ways of evaluating product information based on organization, content quality, usability and other general web related subjects. At this point I would point you to the many resources available which address general web information subjects.
      In future posts I will go into the sub-categories of each of these, maybe even update or expand the categories. Eventually, product related information could be

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Lets start looking at what I reviewed previously and see if the categorization helps simplify analysis and yields better results. Later on we can look at the way others analyze sites and see how categories we use help in designing, writing content and assembling pages for product marketing. So next time... on deck:

• Adobe Dreamweaver


• Microsoft FrontPage


•  - Microsoft Sharepoint Designer


•  - Microsoft Expression Web


• NVu (Open source)


• Netscape Composer (also Mozilla)

Thinking about writing - what's worth writing about?

        When I first started writing blogs, it seemed merely as a way to get my story out. Looking around at blogs and sites, we quickly realize that there is a potential to use this as a real professional communication tool. Some like Eckel and Greenspun put up full books with all the knowledge and professional experience. Actually, in a blog its much easier than taking on a full book project. Once I started thinking seriously about writing professionally related articles, I had to think of what to write. My experience is in semiconductor marketing and engineering. I also held field positions in storage networking (Fibre Channel) and EDA. As they advise you in creative writing: "write what you know". So this advice I am going to follow. I plan to research and write about the world of technology marketing. Starting from what to say (outbound marketing and product marketing) to what to actually do (product definition). I also have an opinion about work and business of technology. Which sadly not many people take as seriously as the "core" or "raw" technology itself. While these areas cover a great deal of territory, I will focus on a few specific fields.

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Phil Greenspun's - "Alex" book; first published 'on the Internet' as a revolutionary move!

The ideas I have for writing here span a few areas:


• Marketing in technology: product, strategy, experience, knowledge, etc.


• Opinions and analysis of current events in the technology business.


• Resources in marketing, product management and technology sector


• Personal stories on technology career and work.

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Eckel's - Thinking in Java; author says that the book was much better because of release on the web
Well, like all ambitious or trivial projects, "the proof is in the pudding", so let's get started. Eventually, the work will speak for itself. So enough with that.
      The next area of articles will deal with looking at product web sites. The last articles on Adobe Dreamweaver and Microsoft FrontPage are a good start. They are general enough for most people to get the basic concepts. My experience is in Storage, EDA and semiconductor, which tend to be more complex marketing area. The world of technical marketing (i.e. for highly technical markets) tend to focus less on 'simple messages' and much more on competitive technology. I am not sure if this is a correct approach. That's is what is worth looking at. Do marketers and technologies "think seriously about what they say and how they say it?" Do companies put full emphasis on strategies and actual deliverable messages which potential users can use and act upon? Finally, it is interesting how companies and individuals position, direct and eventually deliver their marketing message.
        In general, I believe that marketing is taken seriously by technologists, but I believe that the resources to do match other areas in the mix (engineering, research, operation, manufacturing, etc.) This concept is not new. Others have written and advise on more resources and more professionalism in technology marketing. One of the people who makes this his 'raison d’être' is Ralph Grabowski. His basic tenant: invest in marketing, otherwise you are dead. Others tend to say it with their basic spin: do what I have done: P/R, product definition, positioning, sales strength, etc. Well, all these ideas and resources will come up as we get into the writing.

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Grabowski's diagram of marketing investment vs. product success (actually company success)
       My experience is that in most technology based companies marketing is indeed under appreciated and under funded. Also, it's been my experience that technologies in general do not know what to ask from marketers. Technologies know to ask for customers to "see" or "demonstrate" (try out) their product. But they do not know about the core marketing tasks and what to make of them in their context. This is an area that is also well worth writing and researching here.
        Well, this is a start in explaining the aim and interest of this blog. Hopefully you will find it useful and interesting. Reading other blogs and seeing how people write on the web, its obvious that subject, points of view and strong opinions shift as people comment and get involved. PLEASE leave a comment or e-Mail me. I do not to be controversial to the point of eliciting a comment, but in all these discussions its useful to see what other know and have experienced. Also, when it comes to resources, nobody is a 'master of the Internet' ~ there are always things to know and to find out. So please lend me a hand with resources, comments and information. T H A N K       Y O U !

Clarity, Focus and Relevance for Product Manager (and Marketers)

When we develop a message, trying to make sure clarity, focus and relevance are there is not hard. Usually I start out by prioritizing the message components. Let's take the Adobe Dreamweaver's example, first we separate the whole message into 'chunks' or 'elements'.

Dreamweaver's page has sections for:

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• What's new: Develop Websites and applications; Reasons to Upgrade


• Product Overview: Whats Dreamweaver CS3?; Get the details


• Feature Tour: Spry framework for AJAX & details; Photoshop CS3 integration; Compatibility Check; CSS Advisor; CSS layouts; Manage CSS; Device Central CS3; Bridge CS3


• Product Selector: Design; Web; Photography; Video


• News: What's new in Dreamweaver CS3; What's new in Device Central CS3; Best Practices of CSS; Dreamweaver Developer Toolbox

Notice that the category (tab) divisions are fairly standard software terms. These are useful in the message of each tab's content. Using well understood and accepted terms is one trick of clarity in a message. 'What's New?' is a clear term and will not confuse most readers. Using tab sections also helps in focusing the message. When a writer wants to divide a message into sections, standard divisions, similarity in context and relevance help in making the message clear. Readers don't need to figure anything out, they know and understand the divisions, all they need to see in the content in each division.

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Once a reader is inside each 'tab' section, there are further sub-sections. This techniques of hierarchical division of text is standard in web content. In the "What's New?" section, we see: "Develop Websites and Applications" and "Reasons to Upgrade". Again these headings are simple and can also be considered industry standard. They are standard terms for software application communication, but not all users are completely familiar with them. But their simplicity helps in making the terms clear. The first section has one short paragraph explaining: '...components for building dynamic user interfaces, and intelligent integration...' with the terms of each feature clearly deliniated. In the next section we simply see a list of features. These are less clear without a full sentence, but are still clear because they highlight a few things. Notice also that each topic is by itself. This helps in not packing too many idead into one sentence, bullet or paragraph. When writing content for the web, people expect ideas in small increments of text. Since there is so much information, we don't want to have it slow... - this is clearly different than writing for a book or a printed brochure.

OK, let's recap a few points for clarity of a message:

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• Divide the message into sections.


• Use standard terms and concepts.


• Make the sections relevant to each other.


• Focus on one or two messages in each section.


• Give more information if needed further on, don't overstuff the sections.


• Use simple sturctures, paragraphs, lists, diagrams, images to quickly say something.

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Well, that's all for the Adobe Dreamweaver page for now. A good exercise will be to do the same analysis with other similar product. Dreamweaver is a product targeted at professional designers and web authors. Microsoft, Oracle, Intuit, Symantec, Borland and other companies have products which sell into this or similar space. It would be interesting to compare how each company gets their product message across. This could be in the case of an upgrade version (like this example) or in other situations.

Defining Calrity, Focus, Context, Relevance...

Last post I looked at Adobe's Dreamweaver page. I look at pages all the time, basically it's like a lab, tutor and critic all at once. The one nice thing about the web, information is always there, we just need to look and think. It also helps to learn from people who observe the we on a regular basis and maybe even these that actually make it a profession. Jakob Nielsen at wwww.useit.com has been an observer of web sites for a long time. He has focused on 'usability' which for most part turns out to be more concerned with style, architecture (navigation) and overall structure. The usability issue was a big problem when the web started. The new media format needed people to define how we use information in a new channel.
I found out over the last three years that for most people content is just as big of a problem. Message, focus, context, relevance, balance... the things we learn in college English classes. What makes a good novel, play or article in a newspaper is just as relevant to web authoring as it is on print. Actually, we all know that content which doesn't flow, keep our interest, informs, helps... does not make it to the eyes of anyone. The web has so much information, that poorly written and organize information, no matter how relevant, does not make it at all.
In writing about Adobe's Dreamweaver, I was wondering on how to review and 'rate' the content of sites. Actually, not only the content, but the 'feel', 'fit', 'flow' and the 'usability' but in terms of real useful and actionable information. So I set out to find a check list, guidelines or even a tutorial. I am still in the midst of gathering the information. But like learning to write English in college, I think that the whole idea of a simple check list is not a real solution. If writing a good article or a short story was so easy, life would be very easy for us marketers and product managers. We would sit down, write an entry every day and in two to three weeks have a small site to describe a product. Than we would spend a couple of weeks in marketing the information we developed and soon people would come, read and buy our products. As a good Hollywood western, and we would ride happily into the sunset.

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Bechtel Corporate Page: Simple message in a complex business
I think that each and every product manager and marketer need to figure out what she/he needs and go ahead and develop a plan and the content. Some of use do not write well, but we all need to plan, define and organize our ideas and goals toward the clarity and relevance of the message. But all this work is not very useful if you need an army of writers, editors and Nielsen caliber experts helping you design and deploy a site. Most of the writing and editing is done by small groups (up to 20) who need to get their products explained and used by a small number of users (hundreds). So anything like the US Health and Human Services: Researched-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines (292 pages in PDF) or Nielsen's Designing Web Usability and Homepage Usability: 50 Websites deconstructed plus a few other ones. Anyway, with all this talk, let's get to the core of the issue. How do we simply and quickly give "non-writers" / "non-editors" help in designing and implementing a clear message? I think the answers lies in the article about 'what is new media?' -- Like teaching every student to write English in college, so is the path to designing and writing a message that is clear and conveys what a product should do for a customer. A little different, but very much related in terms of process and results.

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Well, something to think about, if you are interested in this process or any of the ideas here, send a message. Hopefully I will have time to get started with guidelines, check lists and reference material for content clarity, focus, context and relevance. After all, what good is a nice site with all the latest technology, content management and graphics if the message does not make it to the reader? This is truly a question that has been asked before...
REQUEST: if anyone has a writing manual in PDF please let me know.
The Bechtel Corporate page is an nice introduction to a very large message. Notice that this $25B corporation can define and explain its core message on one page. It comes down to what you want to say.

Basics: if there is "new media" / wikis / blogs...

than, what can we learn from "old media"? Printed brochures, advertising, trade shows, collateral for sales support, the work of many, still going on in most places. What about the other fields of marketing, market research, branding, positioning...? Should we emulate or improve on formats, lingo, style, approach, 'content', core & periphery subjects? Or should we go into this with a new approach? Well, this question is a lead-in for how to start transitioning traditional marketing to the "new media". There is a trend in new technology to develop new techniques and organization, and ignore the past. But there are still the core ideas, knowledge and uses that are simply fundamental communication of ideas. These are relevant to the 'new media' of the web.
I started looking at what there is of "old School" marketing and see what can be done, what makes sense to do, and finally, what people are already doing in terms of examples, success and just simple attempts (who seem to fall short). If you have any ideas or examples, please send them to me and I will incorporate them into the writing.

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In an article about product marketing in the Yet Another Software Blog Blog, Charles Zedlewski writes on enterprise software product marketing. He writes on the lack of organization, or better put "agreement" of what product marketers need to do for sales. This is not a new concern. The line between sales and marketing is continuously tested and moved. The roles are changing, you can see the changes by titles, some organizations have 'sales and marketing' departments and VPS. Some have only 'marketing', some only 'sales' and some both. Well, this does not help us, but it shows that there is confusion.
The issues that Zedlewski brings up are not at all new or unique. Deciding what marketing and sales will do is only the first step. Then an organization as a whole or in part (i.e. marketing) have to decide on the message and how to deliver it. That includes at least branding, positioning and training / delivery. In a whole, technical organizations seem to have an additional problem. For the most part, they do not hire professional or trained marketing staff. Because of the nature of the products, the marketing is usually done by technical people who have chosen to move from engineering disciplines into the business side. This makes the marketing weaker in terms of the fundamentals. Also, the management is usually very technologically or product driven, which means that the marketing side suffers. Well, enough with the gripes, lets look at each of these issues in turn and see if we can find examples of good results and attempts.

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To hunt, analyze and review marketing work from the software is not an easy task. I will start with setting a set of criteria based on what information is available. Then I will look at a few vendors and see what we have in terms of material. Then we will start the analysis. Until next time... /AmiV