As a part-time product manager (and a true fan of products, marketing and advertising in general) - I have to mention the phenomenon that is the “New” Facebook.  Quite frankly, I could give a crap.  Like almost any UI or system - we will adapt and the new users that come after us will not know the difference.  I have gone from Mosaic to Netscape to IE to Firefox - it’s all about change.  So who cares. 

If you are product manager - you should.

There are two main factors which make this switch for Facebook so interesting:

1.) Facebook’s delivery model is similar to that of a SaaS

2.) Facebook presents an interesting collaboration model which allows customer’s voices to be heard (sort of)

Product Management in a SaaS model

Lets take the fist portion of this - SaaS (or Software as a Service).  The “Service” that Facebook provides here is simple - communication.  We can use this platform to communicate easily with people we know and to a certain extent - don’t know.  Applications are making it easy and fun to do things like track our movie and music tastes to posting photos and videos of our latest adventures - all on the same server. 

Which means that when Facebook wants to make a change it is instantaneous - they just post the change.  In traditional software - or non SaaS models (like ours) the change is more gradual and does not effect the entire customer base.  You post a patch or a hot fix - those people affected (or brave enough to try it) download it and the change is made.  Rarely, do you hit more than 20% of your users at a time.

The “New” Facebook was available to anyone by simply adding “new” into their URL like: http://www.NEW.facebook.com.  Although, most people didn’t know this - the changes were visible immediately.  All your friends, their updates, your updates, your applications - instantaneous.  Sweet.

As a product manager of a more traditional software environment I envy the SaaS model.  Deployment on a single platform has these added benefits:

• Simple delivery model with a known platform
• Coordinated testing with pre-defined groups (e.g. these users get the new Facebook while these other users get the old)
• Instant feedback
• Soft launch
• Controlled roll-out

There are some other advantages to this type of model but I want to focus on a more important benefit that Facebook has when it comes to Product Management.  User feedback.

Like or not - you CAN NOT please everyone.  I can not repeat that enough.  However, without upgrades designed specifically to address user feedback your product can and will alienate your customer base.

If you search for the term “New Facebook” using the Facebook Search and you click on Groups you will find over 500 groups with that term in its name or description.  Dig through those results and you will find groups like these:

• People against the New Facebook System (47,294 members)
• The New Facebook Layout SUCKS! (9,188 members)
• I HATE the New Facebook (3,683 members)
• The New Facebook Sucks (2,113 members)
• I hate the new facebook - change it back! (2,588 members)
• i HATE THE NEW FACEBOOK (obviously group names are case sensitive) - (2,320 members)
• The NEW Facebook SUCKKKKSS - Change it BACKKKK (2,233 members)

Managing Customer Feedback

When your customer base becomes contributors - the results are amazing.  These groups don’t mean that new Facebook sucks especially if you compare the size of these groups against the number of facebook users as a whole - more than 60 million active users as of the beginning of 2008 (source).

[As I write this - Facebook is down - hee hee]

However, what you do have is the best collection of user feedback that a Product Manager could ever ask for - without having to lift a finger.  They didn’t have to do anything. Nothing. Nada.

Just build the new software - put it out there so people could see/use it and wait.  Surely digging through the feedback is tough.  The “People against the New Facebook System” has over 1,700 wall posts and 55 Threaded discussions.  Mixed in this garbage of useless responses and posts like “Facebook sucks” and “Bring back the old Facebook” are some truly genuine criticisms like:

Jonathan M. Cajigas wroteon Aug 12, 2008 at 10:57 PM

Since I have no idea how to program anything but an alarm clock, I’m curious if anyone in this group with programming knowledge could comment on the feasibility of writing a Gresemonkey script or Firefox Add-On that would let Firefox users keep using the old Facebook, even after the eventual switch.

Robert Heller (Springfield, MA) replied to Jo’s post on Aug 6, 2008 at 11:16 AM

9) It seems to want a wider browser window. The old facebook fit on my 800 pixel wide browser window (yes, I have a 1024×768 pixel screen and no, I *DON’T* (and won’t) maximize my windows).
10) Seems to want flash player. I don’t have flash player installed and no I *DON’T* want to install flash player — I avoid sites that depend on flash player for navigation. Flash is seriously bad news as fas as I am concerned. If flash player becomes *required* for facebook, I am likely to quit facebook.

Jennifer Hale (Uni. Southampton) wrote on Aug 11, 2008 at 12:43 AM

Since the left hand navigation bar has gone, to get anywhere you have to go back to the home page and start again. I liked the fact that I could just jump from one page to another.
I will have to go back into the new Facebook (sighs and pulls face) just to find and list all the things that are now more awkward to use.
I liked the fact that the page was narrower before. It means you never had a problem viewing the page whatever resolution screen you had. The old Facebook just seemed cleaner and tidier to use. Yes some people’s profiles were so application filled that you couldn’t find the wall to send them a message, but that is their choice. I do have a few applications, but I always ensured that most of them were closed (minimised) or below my wall so people could access it easily.

My only criticism that I can see is that Facebook hasn’t made it public that it is listening to its customers.  I am sure that they have reasons but with all of this feedback (and some of it good) it would be interesting to see some interaction with Facebook Product Managers and/or developers.

Conclusion

The new application framework models (like SaaS) present some interesting benefits for Product Management and customer relations.  Additionally, the social media aspect of Product Management today is an improvement on old style customer relations.

Remember the spring of your senior year in high school?  When you had applied (and been accepted) to college already.  Remember your Guidance Counselor told you that you still needed to keep your grades up - that colleges looked at your final grades very seriously?  Remember that feeling you had towards High School - that “checked out” feeling?

That is kind of how I look at our president.  In his longest trip on foreign soil during his presidency (and the only visit to an Olympic Games by a president anywhere other than in the US) - George looks like he has “checked-out” (or at least the press secretary has…)

Take a look at these photos which can be found collectively here and here in the NBC.com Olympics photo galleries.  What?!?

Um… take a picture please I am an idiot

Do you think that Misty feels obligated?

Hopefully this display is for those seated behind him

And my favorite … no comment

I know that I don’t live in the time of the Minority Report or iRobot and I also know that I have a pretty big imagination but I kind of thought that computers were here to serve us.  While we are pretty far away from a central computer in our house asking us if they can turn our favorite music on or prepare some popcorn for the movie viewing time we have scheduled, I think we need to re-establish expectations.

Computer = No Help

Maybe I am being cynical but today my computer really only asks me to do things

• There are 150 e-mails waiting for your input in your Unread Box
• You have 24 meetings today you need to attend
• There are 12 tasks outlined as “High Priority” due yesterday
• AVG 7.5 needs to be upgraded (oh and by the way it is no longer free)

Rarely can I say to my computer: “Hey why don’t you get started on organizing those tasks in the project plan” or “When are you going to convert that Statement of Work to a PDF - the customer needs it tomorrow”.  Ok not even “rarely” - never.

I often wonder what it would be like to be totally connected to my computer.  I know that they are doing some cool things up the road at MIT and other Biotech companies related to integrated mind computers.  Mostly now these projects are isolated to paralysis victims or those hindered with MS - but I think I am ready.

Ok, so that won’t happen anytime soon.

Pattern matching

So there is one thing that I also think about a lot which I think could be quite possible (e.g. the technology is available - but it would require some work).  Ever get caught doing repetitive tasks? As an occasional programmer and administrative assistant to myself I find times where a pattern matching program might be nice - and totally possible.

Take the following situation:

I often miss a complete day of Twitter (remember the number of meetings/emails outlined above - only a slight exaggeration).  Unfortunately, today the interface for  twitter does not accommodate the occasional missed day - you see - the timeline display for Twitter runs descending and they only display a certain number of tweets on a page.  In order, to read the tweets you missed (while you were off doing oh you know work) you have to go backwards.  Which means if a conversation took place where someone asked a question - you would see the answer before you saw the question - dumb.

So, what I do to solve this problem is to add Firefox toolbar bookmarks to my Twitter pages backwards.  Starting with the URL: http://www.twitter.com/home?page=10 (um - yeah it only goes to 10 pages so if you wait to long you miss everything - which is another story) and working may way back to http://www.twitter.com/home.

The task for doing this is quite repetitive and would go something like this

1. Create Twitter Folder on Firefox browser toolbar
2. Navigate to ?page=10 and drag to Twitter Folder
3. Navigate to ?page=9 and drag to Twitter Folder
4. Navigate to ?page=8 and drag to Twitter Folder
5. (Could use the pattern matcher right now …)
6. etc…

Computer = Help

What I would like my computer to “say” is this:

Ron, I see you are entering into a boring pattern related data entry task (and i would hope that this starts right after step 2 from above).  Should I copy multiple bookmarks stopping at ?page=1?

Where I would reply

Why thank you that would be great.

And now my computer would be doing tasks for me.  After taking with our development teams about our Automated QA program - where servers check in with a central QA management server to pick up their next set of QA test cases - I know that this possible.

I have been testing out brightkite lately and I really only get to work with it if I am traveling (which I happen to be doing this week).  I was in Logan today when I saw an interesting site.  A woman traveling with me (someone I did not know) was also traveling with her dog.  She had on a very interesting “Baby Bjorn” style doggie carrier.  One that strapped around her back like a backpack.  I thought it needed to be posted so I took a picture of it and posted.

Immediately, I sent it to brightkite hoping I would get some discussion out of it.  I then received a notice back from brightkite stating that they could not post my picture.  Being that brightkite is a rather new startup (and probably small in size) I thought that it would not be unlikely that my photo was censored  because it was of a picture of someone I did not know (I am surel that the woman would not be happy knowing I took a picture of her and posted it for others to comment on).  I waited a bit and then posted it again - with a different comment which was less descriptive and didn’t lead to any conclusions about my relationship with this woman (or lack there of).  It took.  So clearly, it was a glitch (or was it).

GPS based privacy(automated)

So then I got to thinking about the iPhone (which I do quite a bit) and specifically about the GPS capabilities of the phone.  Many phones have GPS (my BlackJackII for instance does).  But when you put so many people on the same framework (millions of them) you can start to see paths towards mass acceptance and change.

I started thinking about how this situation with the dog lady could be governed better with technology and I came up with this idea:

Phone users taking pictures in public places would be required to register the  capture range for each of their photos/movies and privacy concerned individuals (with GPS enabled phones) could be notified when they may be appearing within a phone.  If the privacy concerned person would be notified when a picture they were in was posted to a public web site.  They would then get a link to that post, and have the ability to “flag” that photo as inappropriate and the original owner would be required to take it down.

Not saying we need to do this - but it might allow those individuals who are concerned about public exposure a means to handle that when they are either  intentionally or accidentally included in a photo posted to a public web site.

I hope you had a chance to read this article which I found on CNN Money this week about the new Honda FCX that is going to be released to the “public”.  Stew on that word “public” for a minute because I think that you will be surprised.

Honda expects to lease out a “few dozen” units this year and about 200 units over three years …

Move a bit further down the article and you see that some of the “public” people who are going to be receiving the “leases” (highly doubt Jamie Lee will be paying anything for this).

• Jamie Lee Curtis
• Christopher Guest (Jamie Lee’s husband)
• Laura Harris (actress from the show 24 on fox)
• Ron Yerxa (producer for Little Miss Sunshine - and others)

With only a “few dozen” which probably means 25 cars going out to the public I hope people like Jamie Lee and Laura Harris understand their responsibility as fuel cell car owner “community leaders”.  They are the community - I know - but their publicized success with these cars can lead to good things.

Just driving one of these around town to all of the Hollywood happening spots is not going to make these things sell.  True community leaders use tools on the Internet to connect with their peers and discuss their experience and help others understand things like benefit and value. I know these two ladies aren’t being casted in every upcoming movie - but I am sure they won’t be driving it as much as I would.

Now if only Honda would release some of their information on a social network site like YouTube - they may see that the audience they are trying to reach is completely obtainable today.  There is an amazing opportunity to solidify a brand and a product in the younger generation. Those who will tell their grandchildren that they actually drove a combustion engine once.

Interesting Facts

• Honda has operated an experimental Home Energy Station in Torrance, California, since 2003
• The Home Energy Station … [uses] … natural gas to produce hydrogen, and also generating heat for the home. It also produces electricity for the home

More Info:

• http://www.autobloggreen.com/search/?q=honda+fcx&searchsubmit=
• http://automobiles.honda.com/fcx-clarity/

No doubt things are changing - the question is really has it changed?  Did you spend the last 4 (or more) years of your life studying a field that just did a complete flip?  What types of companies are looking for marketing “geniuses” whose college pedigree reads “Graduated 1995″?

I posted this on Twitter a few hours ago and I could not get it out of my head:

“If you are in marketing and you don’t use FaceBook, Twitter, MySpace and/or you don’t blog - get out. The field  will be passing you by soon”

There is still time (I think). When I see companies like the Undercurrent popping up it makes you wonder what value traditional marketing brings now a days.  Undercurrent is hiring “mavens” to spread messages with a virtual interview through a blog post asking you questions like “How would you spread a viral video”.

When I think about this I get scared.  Not because I don’t think that these types of things are cool (because I do) - but because there are a millions of marketing professionals out there who are going to lose their  jobs.

Remember door to door Encyclopedia Salesman (great book about that by Herman Miller - Death of a Salesman). Yeah - if your dad was one of those back in the early 80’s you know what I am about to ask - “Where is he now?”.  Replaced that’s where.

Tree falls in the woods…

How about the “Million Dollar Homepage” - do you remember that?  Here is the significance of that “experiment”- if you did not hear about this before it was posted on CNN, Time Magazine or any other mainstream media - it probably meant that you were already out of the picture.  This is the funny thing about where we are right now - there really will be an “in” and “out” crowd.  The reason this will happen is because there are information flows on the Internet that travel virally and if you aren’t near anyone that catches it (understands it)- you won’t even know it happened. In this case - a tree will fall in the woods and those near it will hear it and unless you talk to them you won’t know.

So when you think about the people that heard about the Million Dollar Homepage through non-traditional networks you begin to see where things are.  Those people have been entrenched in networks where information like this travels and they are essentially 2 years (plus) ahead of you - seriously.  This is how people like Michael Arrington has made his recognition - he is in the know - in an unfathomable way - point in case.

There was a great post today by Jeremiah Owyang which addressed where most corporations are on Social Media.  If you have not come to terms with what Social Media means and you have not come up with a plan to work that into your marketing plans than you better get a move on.  That 20 year old 1st year marketing college grad is suddenly looking a bit more attractive than you.

So for those that don’t have your bearings - here are some terms that your competition are going to be very familiar with shortly:

• Viral Loop
• Viral Networks
• Double Viral Loops

There is still some time - if you hurry.  Good thing this is all documented and you understand the basics.  Good luck.

I got into a very interesting conversation with someone yesterday (I so wanted to write this last night but…) regarding the way WordPress and CommonSpot manage links.  I have been using WordPress for my blog for over a year now and I have to say that one of the most annoying things in WordPress is linking.  I am certainly not in the position of managing many pieces of content but I can say I much prefer the link management process in CommonSpot.

The Argument

(liberally paraphrased)

Content owners should not care that the link is managed - or to put this in context - if I need to link from one page in the CMS to another I should simply open the page I want to link to - copy the URL and paste it into my content.  The content management system should take the link and manage it automatically (e.g. perform normal link management duties).

Ignoring the technical difficulties of taking a web URL and mapping it back to a relational database link storage facility, lets dissect the process of finding a link:

1.) I need to know where I want to link to
2.) I need to find the link
3.) I need to insert that link

Since the web/usability and the like are interested in “clicks” here is how I would link to an existing post in WordPress vs. linking to an existing page in CommonSpot.

WordPress

1.) Open a new browser tab and go to the home page of my blog
2.) Enter text into the Search field and click “Search”
3.) Locate the post and click the post URL
4.) Copy the content of the URL into my clipboard
5.) Go back to my post
6.) Highlight the text I want and then click the “link” indicator
7.) Paste the content into the URL field - choose my options
8.) Click finish

CMS

1.) Highlight the content I want to link and click the “link” icon
2.) Choose “Link to existing page”
3.) Click Next
4.) Click Page Finder
5.) Choose my criteria and click Search
6.) Click the link that I want
7.) Click finish on the link dialog

(To be honest I had no idea which was going to have the most clicks before I started this)

My main argument is that the link finding process in WordPress seems less intuitive and more complicated then that tools provided by CommonSpot.  This assuming that WordPress had some of the same Link Management capabilities as CS then you would be left with this question:

Would users really like an interface similar to WordPress for locating links or is the abstract link finder in CommonSpot better?

I guess I am really looking for here is an answer to a question that a lot of people are asking these days.  One that had become all to real to me recently: Is it better to have automated services or people backed services.  I am not talking about Robots doing the work - but more about the real life situations that we get ourselves into where we rely more and more on dysfunctional technology to help us.

Even though, Google is an amazing search engine, it still has it’s faults.  Searches on “Locksmiths in Springfield Ma” returns great results on the front end - it is the intricate details that it cannot.  For instance, if you call all of those results from Google you will soon find out that you are in luck with almost every major car brand except Volkswagen (one of the prices you pay to drive the best car ever made =).

So, unless someone lists on their website (more than half of the Locksmiths in the Springfield, Ma area don’t even have websites) that you specialize in Volkswagens - Google can’t help you.  It is beyond the technology leap - you need some level of human intervention.

If you are tenacious enough however, to continue to search for locksmith’s and you start calling them - most of them will tell you the dealer is the only place (who intern tells you to wait until Tuesday - not good when you are stranded 120 miles from home on Friday before a long vacation weekend) that can make Volkswagen keys.

If you happened to call 24 Hour Locksmiths in West Springfield they would have told you to call A & J Locksmith and when you talked to Johnathon at A & J he would have told you to call and ask for Paul at “Scott’s Locks” in West Hartford - and he would have called Scott (Paul’s partner) who would have called you back 3 hours later to tell you he could do it.  But that only goes for the tenacious few that have nothing better to do than to stare at all of the people having fun at Six Flags while calling every locksmith in Western Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Flashback to earlier today: I was traveling to D.C. to work with a client and arrived early to my hotel in hopes I could get some work done before my 1:30 demo with a prospective client.  During my trip down from the airport (40 minute drive) I contemplated the possibility that the hotel would not have a room ready for me when I arrived at 10:30.  Quite possibly, I would have to find a place to do some work with a descent (cheap - if not free) Internet connection.

Ok - so here is my second scenario for “Connectimated” - I would have liked to have been able to connect with a few people in the area (more than likely people I have never met before) and ask them where a good place would be to get Internet access for a few hours in a quiet place (that was not Starbucks or Borders).  Preferably somewhere where I can get a Dew and sandwich.  My new “Connectimated” service application would essentially ping a bunch of people in the area asking them if they wanted to help an incoming traveler with a service request.

Sites like Mahalo and Spock have begun to challenge the “Automated” response system that is Google.  Each offering services which are either aided or centralized around Human interaction.  These systems are critical because I think that the automated services may never get to point where they can understand true human interaction.  Even Google is testing “User generated content”.  You can see it in search results using Google Maps.

What I see is a combination application like Twitter, Brightkite (or the like) and Mahalo.  A platform with which to communicate on rather than building a platform with all the answers.  A crowdsourcing style approach may be just what we need.

Maybe we are pushing too hard and maybe we need to use systems to be smarter at connecting people who can help each other and not providing the help beyond capabilities.  We live in a complex world and it is unlikely that we will ever teach systems to understand us - truly.  Why try?

I was once a member of the social networking site wis.dm - back before it changed it’s platform from a link sharing format to the current question/answer format.  I wrote about the site a few times and at the beginning was very interested in the content that I had amassed there - and the relationships that I had begun to build.

What I thought was great about the previous format of wis.dm was how easy it was for me to build my own community.  Instead of the masses of communities available in Facebook, you could create “groups” which were essentially “tagged” with topics. When people shared links (similar to what you do in del.icio.us) you could notify your “group” and engage them in conversations.  Since you could create your own groups I likened the experience to a “research group” - similar to those in college around a project or a specific class.

In these “groups” we could share links and add comments and weight responses - with the promise being that I could categorize my community:

- Who in the community knew the most about advertising

- Who had the inside track for latest fads

- Which group member had the best knack for interpreting analytics data

As a specialized group - each with our own goals - we could lean on each other and create a close nit community designed to educate us all - faster and better.

I have begun using FriendFeed and joined a room (group/community) called “Social Computing Strategist” (thanks Jeremiah).  It is filled with people who want to talk about everything that I want to talk about.  And the nice thing about this - is instead of sharing links we share everything:

• Messages - directly to the group
• Blog comments - from any blog that supports “Disqus“
• LinkedIn profiles/changes
• Posts to Digg
• Posts to StumbledUpon
• Heck - Link posts to every linking network known to man
• Twitter posts
• Flickr photos
• Posts to Blogs

With every post (whatever it is) you can add comments.  The information is endless and what you get out of it (in a very chaotic sort of way) is a new way to talk.  A new way to find information.  It is sort of like Mahalo meets Wikipedia with a twist of RSS.  Very interesting.

Happy am I that I know have filled the void left by wis.dm - to bad they did not have the wisdom to see the possibilities with their original platform.

I would like to add the following API to twitter or to have a service that would have made it easier for me today. I have to tell you a short story to set up the situation I was in today.

My wife (Shannon) and I decided to go to Six Flags Great Adventure today to get in some thrills and excitements before the beginning of the holiday weekend. It was to be my first real vacation day of the year (no computer, no cell phone, no work). We dropped the kids off to school and made our way to Springfield (actually Agawam but Six Flags is mostly referred to as being in Springfield).

We arrived at the park at 10:45 parked the car, took just what we needed (wallet, money, sunglasses, cell phone: wife’s only and the keys) and made our way into the park. We felt like we should have had on our “Hockomock YMCA Band Camp” t-shirts - wholly $hit was there a ton of kids there. Digressing a bit - sorry.

We got our season passes and were drawn inward. No real plan we just started walking as we passed the old wooden rollercoaster and the “free fall” we saw what we had both been anticipating since the day we decided to take this trip about 3 weeks ago: “Superman - The Ride of Steel”. 200+ foot initial drop 77 miles an hour and an amazing feeling of weightlessness at the top of every hill. Naturally I was stuck with everything in my pockets - including the sunglasses.

As we took the first deep everything felt good - wicked fast - wicked scary. We then approached the second hill - “way to fast” I am thinking - “dude we are going to launch off the top of this hill like a rocket” (note: this is where the feeling of weightlessness comes in) - as we were sucked down the backside of the hill I now knew that this ride, the one without the shoulder harness - just the bar and a sealtbelt, did not need any loops - just steep turns and many hills with which to launch off. After hitting all the major humps and feeling weightless about 5 times you head into the “slow-down” area for most coasters - accept this thing is still cranking.

The ride comes to the close after two small humps that still produce the feeling that your shooting out of a cannon - when it happend.

Shannon: “What was that” (sounded more like a yell than a statement)

Me: “I don’t know”

I didn’t. Just as we came over the apex of the last hill a little black thing flew in front and landed in the car in front of us. It was moving too fast to recognize.

Shannon “Your key”

Me: “No”

Clearly the key was nestled deep in my pocket along with every other valueable I collected from the car. My broken sun glasses (casualty of the Superman Ride) should have been proof enough that it couldn’t have been the key.

Alas, after I checked every deep pocket I had - it was no where to be found. The only key to my 2003 Volkswagen Passat - had been eaten by the Man of Steel. So - here we are (after visits to Guest Relations and hearing countless times that they would not be able to search for my key until the end of the day) at the need for my service.

After a call to the local dealership who stated the ONLY solution that I had was to tow the car to their dealership (I am 100 miles from my house mind you) and that they could get me a new key on Tuesday (the day I leave for Washington, D.C. - from boston at 7 AM). Uh… yeah right. In order to save my car and this weekends camping trip - I needed a locksmith.

This is how I would have liked to started my search:

Twitter: I am at Six Flags Great Adventure in Agawam, Ma. Lost my key on Superman ride - anyone in the park capable of helping me? @SixFlagsNE:help

The extra extension on the @SixFlagsNE would mean i needed help. There were thousands of people there that day. Why not connect us - all better. @SixFlagsNE:Line on Superman short, @SixFlagsNE:Batman closed, @SixFlagsNE:need locksmith.

I just signed up for Brightkite (still have 3 invites if anyone is interested) and I think that this is something that they may tack on to this - but for now this is for keeping in touch with your friends. I need it to help me when I lose my key on the Superman Ride. I can definitely say that we are headed to this communication level.

When I was at the park I could feel everyone in the park - and I am sure that there was probably someone that could have helped me.

Oh yeah and if you are curious - here is a link to the YouTube movie for the Superman Ride if you like roller coasters I highly recommend this and, If you look real hard at 1:31 of the film - I believe you can see my key - right below the track on the last hill. R.I.P switchblade VW key - I will miss you.