In the software industry you often hear about sales and marketing being compared to machines or factories. Executives like this analogy because it suggests that sales and marketing is able to consistently produce outputs in a predictable, repeatable way – like a machine or factory would. Executives and investors want to remove the uncertainty that often accompanies sales and marketing.
Tag: SaaS
Windows 8 and Software Release Naming Strategies
Last Friday was the long-anticipated release of Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system. With a redesigned user interface, touchscreen capabilities and a new app store the Redmond crowd is hoping this will help the company regain its position amongst the cool kids in the IT industry. Lately Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter and Salesforce.com are getting all the attention and credit for…
How Cloud Computing is Changing Product Management
Everyone is talking about cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) these days. Almost every technology vendor has announced a cloud strategy – even the traditional software zealots. But what do cloud computing and SaaS mean for product managers? The impacts are more significant than you may think. From pricing and profitability measurement to sales and marketing, cloud is having a noteworthy influence on the…
Cloud Product Managers need to Take More Responsibility for Operational Aspects of their Services
In my last post, I began a discussion on how the role of product managers is changing with the emergence of SaaS and cloud computing. One of the most significant differences product managers need to embrace surrounds the pricing model. Another significant challenge is in the area of requirements gathering. Product managers need to not only define the features and…
Pricing Cloud Services
Everyone is talking about cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) these days. Almost every technology vendor has announced a cloud strategy – even the traditional software zealots. But what do cloud computing and SaaS mean for product managers? In a recent report, Forrester Research stated that “No member of the development effort faces greater change in moving into the SaaS world…
Designing Products for the Cloud
This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the first ever Product Camp DC. Over 60 marketing professionals attended the event, which was hosted at the Network Solutions office in Herndon, VA. I presented on the topic of Designing Products for the Cloud – Considerations for Product Managers building on SaaS and Cloud Computing platforms. There was a healthy…
Sajak’s Law of Technology Marketing
If you are in the technology sector you are probably familiar with Moore’s law, which describes the exponential advances in computing hardware that have occurred over the past 50 years. Specifically, Gordon Moore, who was one of the co-founders of Intel, observed that the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit doubled every two years. There have been several adaptations of Moore’s law in other computing sectors. For example, Butter’s Law describes how the amount of data coming out of an optical fiber doubles every nine months. In this post, I will introduce a new principle in technology marketing which I refer to as Sajak’s law, named after the host of the popular game show Wheel of Fortune.
Wheel of Fortune and Technology Marketing
If you have ever watched Wheel of Fortune, the letters RSTLNE probably have special significance to you. These popular letters are pre-selected for contestants in the bonus round of the game. I think we should adopt a similar practice in the technology sector, in which a certain group of buzzwords are automatically assumed for any vendor.
