Top Posts (to date) for First Half 2010

You might think this is a lame attempt at a post, but I think it is worthwhile for those who are may new to have some insight into what people are reading. So here are the top 5 from 2010.

  1. What is Strategy? Not Operational Effectiveness — #1 all time
  2. Roadmap: Product Vision Statement
  3. Your Strategic Friend, Mrs. Win/Loss Analysis
  4. Authority vs. Influence — one of my favourites
  5. Win Loss Analysis Resources

Worth noting, these three are always in the top 10 but are not really posts.

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Value Add or Added Value

At what point do you charge for your add-ons (or plug-ins or add-ins or anything other term that might apply)?

If you follow the edict (yes, edict) that value determines prices that determines cost, then your add-ons have value (assuming the cost is greater than zero) and therefore have a price that is greater than zero. So why offer them for free?

One school of thought is that they are bundled within the price of another component. That is fair, but have you truly factored in the price of the add-ons to increase the price of the bundled product?

Another school of thought is that we offer them for free to encourage additional use, extend the reach or just general goodwill. I wonder though, if offered for free does this truly dictate less value for the customer and de-motivate them from using or is this my product management hat telling me free offers no value?

Any stories to share on the topic?

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Summer / Fall 2010 ProductCamp Annoucements

productcamp.org is your definitive source for all product camps.

There are seven ProductCamps in the near future (with many more in planning). While you are here, why not check out my events (or subscribe to the RSS feed) page for the most comprehensive list of product management events available.

ProductCamp

In the spirit of BarCamp, ProductCamp is a collaborative, user organized unconference, focused on Product Management and Marketing. At ProductCamp there are no “attendees”, since everyone is an active participant in some way: presenting, leading a roundtable discussion, sharing their experiences, helping with logistics, securing sponsorship, setting up wifi, or volunteering. ProductCamp is a great opportunity for you to learn, share, and network with professionals involved in the Product Management, Marketing, and Development.

Having attended six (!) ProductCamps, I can attest to the content and value you will receive from attending. I also encourage you to participate and volunteer.

ProductCamp Pune
Date: Sunday, August 1, 2010
Location: SICSR, Pune
URL: http://productcamppune.eventbrite.com/ ; http://sites.google.com/site/productcamppune/
Twitter: @PCPune

ProductCamp Austin Summer 2010 (Austin, TX)
Date: Saturday August 7, 2010
Location: AT&T Conference Center on the University of Texas campus
URL: http://barcamp.org/ProductCampAustinSummer2010
Twitter Hashtag: #pca10

ProductCamp Atlanta (Atlanta, GA)
Date: August 21, 2010
Location: TBD
URL: http://pcampatl.com/
Twitter Hashtag: #pcampatl

ProductCamp DC (Washington, DC)
Date: Satuday, August 28, 2010
Location: Network Solutions, Herndon, VA
URL: http://www.productcampdc.org/
Twitter: @pcampdc

ProductCamp NYC 2010 (New York, NY)
Date: September 25, 2010 (Saturday)
Location: TBD
URL: http://barcamp.org/ProductCampNYC
Twitter: @ProductCampNYC

ProductCamp RTP Fall 2010
Date: Saturday, October 9, 2010
Location: TBD
http://barcamp.org/ProductCampRTP
Twitter: @productcamprtp

ProductCamp Seattle 2010
Date: October 23, 2010
Location: TBD
http://twitter.com/prodcampsea
Twitter Hashtag: #pcs10

ProductCamp Montreal (Montreal, QC)
Date: TBD
Location: TBD
URL: http://www.productcampmontreal.com/
Twitter Hashtag: TBD

ProductCamp Dallas (Dallas, TX)
Date: TBD
Location: TBD
URL: TBD
Twitter Hashtag: TBD

ProductCamp London (London, England)
Date: Saturday, June 19th, 2010
Location: eBay/PayPal, Whittaker House, 2 Whittaker Avenue, Richmond, TW9 1EH
URL: http://www.productcamplondon.com/
Twitter: @PCampLDN

ProductCamp Chicago (Chicago, IL)
Date: June 19, 2010
Location: Illinois Technology Association
URL: http://productcampchicago.eventbrite.com/; http://www.pcampchicago.org
Twitter Hashtag: #pcampchi

ProductCamp Melbourne (Melbourne , Victoria, Australia)
Date: Saturday, July 03, 2010
Location: TBD
URL: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/633963201 ; http://pcampmelbourne.com/
Twitter Hashtag: #pcampmelb

See Winter / Spring 2010 ProductCamp Annoucements and Spring / Summer 2010 ProductCamp Annoucements for previous ProductCamp announcements.

Have a Marketing, Product Development, Product Management, Innovation or other related event you want to promote? Contact me and I’ll add it to the growing list for others to see. Also, why not subscribe to the events feed. Tell other people about these events.

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10 Must-Read Articles from Harvard Business Review

10 Must-Read Articles from HBR (PDF)
10 Must-Read Articles from HBR (Source)

Enjoy!

Anyone want to summarize one of the articles for the community?

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How NOT to roll out a pricing increase

Note: The title was lifted from the great Paul Young!
http://twitter.com/ptyoung/statuses/14237728653

We can never have too many pricing lessons. Please read this post from Zendesk – “Introducing New Features, New “Starter” Plan, and New Pricing” and let me know what you think. Where did they go wrong?

I am confused to whether they are raising the prices because the cost of development has gone up or whether they have added value (”we have added new functionality to the service for every week for the last two and a half years”). What I do like (assuming I understand it correctly) – they increase the price per agent as their customers add agents. This seems to lead me to believe they understand that more agents add to the realized value and therefore warrant a higher price point.

I do want to highlight a positive, their CEO responded directly to the thread. Regardless of the quality of his response and the response to his response it will a necessary response to the issue.

Hey guys,

First of all. Yes, we are raising our prices on two of our plans. We now have three plans at three different price points (starting at $9). This is the first time EVER that we have increased pricing. But we have added new functionality to the service for every week for the last two and a half years.

And today we’re launching a lot more functionality for knowledge base and community support. Zendesk has gone from a traditional ticket management system to a complete customer engagement platform, supporting 1-to-1, 1-to-many and many-to-many customer conversations and support interactions. Zendesk is investing heavily in new features and our customers will continue to experience great things with Zendesk.

We will deliver on our promise.

Are we the cheapest show in town? No. But we do think that we have an excellent offering for almost every budget starting at $9 per agent seat. And we do offer to grandfather our existing customers for one additional year at their current price point with all of their current functionality grandfathered indefinitely.

The price per agent has gone up with $10 and $20 on the Regular and Plus+ plans respectively. That’s a 50% increase. Some customers may experience disproportional price hikes due to earlier introductory discounts, and we will look into these accounts on a case-by-case basis.

Let me finally point out, that we have been completely open and transparent about the price changes. We don’t try to sneak it in.

Mikkel Svane, CEO


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For the Record

ACLIn case you’re just tuning in, I’ve recently changed jobs – “Starting a New Era“. I am now on the product management team at ACL Services Ltd. as a Senior Product Manager for their business assurance platform.

I’m making this post to let you know that the views expressed on this blog are my own, and do not necessarily reflect those of ACL Services Ltd.

Now that we’re clear on who is speaking for whom, back to the product management strategy discussions!



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Product Camp NYC – request for help

Most of the upcoming ProductCamps need help in someway. But here is a direct request from the NYC committee. See a complete list of upcoming events here. Get involved!

It’s time for another Product Camp NYC in September. Need a dedicated organizing committee.

We need about a half dozen COMMITTED PEOPLE to organize PCamp NYC. You need to be located in or around NYC to support this event. Please send email to me at sjhaines (at) sequentlearning.com if you are interested and able.

We need people to

1) GET MONEY from sponsors who are NOT training companies or consultants
2) GET A VENUE
3) GET PEOPLE (Volunteer Speakers) to SUBMIT TOPICS
4) STAY ORGANIZED

This will be a paid for event. People will pay approximately $40.00 for the day (to offset the cost of running the event) so it will offer a slightly different angle over past Pcamps.

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Release to Market Cycles

With so much discussion about lean startups, I am wondering what your release cycles look like. Feel free to add comments as to why you you voted one way or another. I am interested in your commentary with respect to the competitive advantage you feel you gain with your release cycle.


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