Author: animeshjmathur

Technology Adaption – the next challenge

Habits, Human Brain, mindset, Product Management, Technology

For product management in a technology company, the big challenge after identifying a single niche then targeting it, is the adaption of the technology.

Most technology based products are integration of existing resources. Very rarely are they designed from scratch for every component.

If by chance your product is designed from scratch then this problem is even more acute for you.

If the end user of your technology is not able to adapt your product easily as in 2-3 steps then even the most technologically superior product will be sent the grave. The human brain does not like change and therefore people resist any kind of new products. This is the biggest blockage for new technologies.

Look at Instagram or WhatsApp, such easy to use apps, therefore the adoption is in millions. It does not mean that the product is simple. I am sure the complexity is enormous, but they have kept it hidden from the customer. The user experience is very elegant and easy to use

Similarly the Iridium satellite phones, with the best pedigree and the ability to connect you from wherever you are in the world, bombed.

When doing product management of technology based products, you need to keep in mind if the existing infrastructure willsupport your technology. How much will the user have to unlearn to use your technology. What can be the simple things you can do to increase adoption.

This is a very complex subject so we will cover over multiple posts.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Peaks and Valleys Part 2

arrogance, ego, Karma, mindset, Turn around

Continuing on what I was talking about yesterday, my belief is that circumstances are never going to be perfect all the time.  Tides change all the time,  so does every person’s luck.

I do believe that luck does play a very important role in every one’s life. Which also means that you can’t be lucky all the time.

However I also believe in Karma. So if you have a positive balance in your karmic account then even during your not so lucky days, you can get quite a positive outcome.

The other thing which I mentioned yesterday also is the ego of the person. Generally ego is all about me and mine. Everyone will give you that explanation.  My belief is that ego is when we acquire a fixed mindset or as Carol Dweck talks in her book Mindset, its not a mindset which is willing to learn.

Learning and ego generally can’t go together in my opinion.  To be able to learn, you have to be willing to have humility to accept that someone else knows more than you. You also need to have your mind open, if you want to learn anything.  Generally people with a large ego don’t have an open mind.

By its very nature your next peak will happen when you cross the valley and start your climb towards the peak. The moment you start your climb, if you are not going to be adapting for the unknowns, you won’t be able to reach the peak.

Effectively while luck will play a role in your progress, if you prepare while the tide is turning and keep your ego aside, then your chances of reaching the next peak faster are very high.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Ego, learning mindset

Peaks and Valleys

Affirmative action, Karma, Turn around

As I have got older,  I have become increasingly circumspect that nothing is permanent.

Today you identify a winning campaign and tomorrow your very next campaign fails. This is life. When something is going very good suddenly you get hit by a curve ball.

I have realized there’s no point in fighting and thinking “why does this happen to me”.

When you put your ego aside and think how you can utilize that time to improve …..I have seen maximum success after I took the downtime to improve myself . There was a time when I came to a new city and for various reasons my career got into a jam. I took the time to learn IT networking and suddenly within a few months my career took a new trajectory.

Whenever I have seen a valley, its always an indication that I had something to learn which I was missing. The other thing that I have noticed is if I have not learnt something new from that valley then I keep falling back into it.

Some people blame their stars, some people on external things. I also used to feel like that when I was younger.

Today with age I have started feeling a little differently. Today I believe differently, I have started thinking more like what Tony Robbins says”…. its happening for me not to me”. So if its happening for me then there must be something which I need to find and till I find that I won’t be able to climb the next peak.

But its a fact that Peaks don’t last, because we have to learn to go to the next stage. If we put our ego in between and don’t learn the lessons, then we stay in the valley.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Testing….more testing…even more testing

Marketing, messaging, Positioning, Product Management, segmentation, Testing

A lot of times people ask me what is the headline that I write so I will get a response. My answer generally is I don’t know. And they look at me and…..but you have been doing marketing for 25 plus years.

I have a checklist which kind of acts like a framework but inspie of that I still make different versions of my emails and ask my team to test. Once something succeeds, then we use that as a control, to tweak the content or the subject line…only one variable at a time.

The reason for this is the market has a mind of its own. I cannot claim to have better wisdom than the consolidated wisdom of the market.

I was not born with this modesty. I actually have a massive ego.

But the market has taught me , after so many failures, that I cannot think I know everything, that I cannot predict success of a product or a message. That I should only follow one rule and that is to test and keep testing to improve.

Incidentally this is also true of stock markets. Most of the successful veterans will tell you, that they have frameworks on how they invest, but they cannot predict how a stock will move .

Especially if you are in the technology product management field, you have two variables to handle.

  • The underlying technology and the product you have built on it…..Cloud as the technology and your service management product as an example
  • The market’s perception

As I have mentioned many times earlier, in marketing perception is reality. So if someone thinks that Cloud is not a secure technology then they won’t use your product even though you have a great product.

Make testing as the bedrock of all that you do so that you fail fast , learn, adapt and become successful.

Till next time.

Carpe Diem!!!