Business related notes.
The previously announced cooperation shows first results. Particularly in form of Microsofts announcement of having integrated SAP Leonardo into their Azure IoT Hub.
Source: SAP and Microsoft bring IoT data to the core of the business applications | Blog | Microsoft Azure
So, with this announcement you’ll not be able to purchase a regular PC that doesn’t have some *nix on it. Somehow, it’s finally the year of Linux on the Desktop.
That cold air you feel, that’s hell freezing over.
Source: Windows 10 gets a legit Linux kernel and a souped-up terminal app
News Coverage and liveblogs on Google I/O over on TechCrunch, The Verge and Engadget.
Most noteworthy, Google released a new, more affordable Pixel 3a, updates to Google Assistant, put more emphasis on security upgrades. In other announcements, Nest Hub has been pronounced the new name for Google Home Hub, along with a bigger ‘Max’ edition of the device. There are also announcements on Android 10 Q, which The Verge covered previously
It’s the Tech perspective, but has the potential for a good debate. Under GDPR it’s not even compliant and still plenty of companies collect all data they can get hold of. Driven by Big Data vendors telling the narrative of Data Lakes, that only require you the data today, should you want to ask any question you don’t know yet in the future.
Only – have you ever come up with a question that you could not answer based on the data that is already available? Based on data that you collected in a Data Lake?
Big disclaimer: personally I don’t conclude with the assumptions made in the initial article, but the question is worth thinking about. In particular because most organizations I met until today are not metric driven in first place.
Source: Ask Slashdot: Why Do Companies Need All That Personal Data They’re Collecting? – Slashdot
With the release, a product ain’t done yet. Customers may like that product and go for with this product for a long while. At some point, a new release will bring them to make a decision. HBR has a perspective on the drivers for these decision points.
People splurge when they think they’ve grown.
Source: What Makes People Upgrade Products? Thinking About Self-Improvement
Crunchbase has a First Look At The Fastly IPO Filing
— news.crunchbase.com/news/first-look-at-the-fastly-ipo-filing/
First, I was excited to see a “Web Technologies for Managers” course exists.
Then, I reminded myself how often I rant on the internet that “tech is dead” and all industries get digitized. It’s not too long ago that successful companies required their managers to have an understanding of the business they are in. That is mechanical engineers managing car manufacturers, electrical engineers managing electronics businesses. Only the digital industry seems to have technical managers and business managers.
I periodically remind people how difficult the question “are you doing business or technology” is any tech driven. Even McDonalds has their managers flip burgers to start their engagement with the company, to give them an understanding of how the business looks like really.
Next time you hear this question, or worse, ask this question, ask yourself: “Am I in the right business”. Likely, you are better qualified doing something else. The reasoning for this harsh thought is simple. Assuming you see yourself in the high tech business and expect your counterpart to do business with you, you need to radiate confidence about what you are doing. Asking this question high tech managers clearly transports you only know half of the story.
Being an engineer and a business person, I haven’t taken the course itself, hence I cannot recommend it. But I can recommend any person in the business to flip burgers for a few weeks, or the digital equivalent, follow a few technical tutorials. Preferrably from the company you are working for but also, Google, AWS or Github offer plenty of free courses to get your hands dirty. And all of these are free of charge, there is no excuse not to understand technology to that extent that it adds value.
Nevertheless, here is the link: “Web Technology for Managers“. Go learn something.
Als “Product Hunt Product #4 of December 2017” ist das sicher keiner der heissen Tips. Product Manual ist aber trotzdem für jeden Produkt-Manager eine Erwähnung wert, weil sich zu allen relevanten Themen in der kuratierten Sammlung dort etwas findet. Angefangen von der Definition von Produkt-Management über Benutzer-Interaktion (Umfragen!) und Prototypen bis zur Strategie-Entwicklung.
Loaded with articles, videos, podcasts, and more, Product Manual is your essential guide to building remarkable products.
Source: Product Manual
One important aspect of the implementation of product management roles and organisation, is the engineering partnership. The other day I found Julia Austins article on the topic that also touched the realistic options. To re-cap, these are either market oriented or engineering oriented. Either of these have their Pros and Cons.
My few thoughts on these two approaches:
Product Management driven Product development – While this indeed seems to be the more traditional approach, in which a “Product Manager” collects customer requirements. Nevertheless, it’s not necessarily a setup that is favourable for Waterfall development, nor is waterfall something favourable as as such for software development. It allows an organisation to maintain the customer focus through a dedicated person, that is incentivised differently than engineering.
Engineering driven Product development – This is an approach you can read a lot about from big tech companies recently. It requires a team that is well into the field the product shall serve, which often enough is not the case. In particular large and diversified companies will struggle to give find the right people at the right time, whereas smaller, growing companies can hire for the sharply defined purpose.
An compromise approach is sure the PM<>Engineering partnership to overcome the shortcoming, and the responsibility to maintain a customer focus is on the PMs shoulders