Tralfaz

Author: geoffand

  • Some of the best urban hooligan riding of all time – Skyfall Intro

    As someone who appreciates the art and practice of urban hooligan riding (riding a dual purpose motorcycle in a dense city, taking advantage of its size to go places never intended for vehicular travel). I used to scare the dickens out of people with some of the shit I used to do with my XL500, and (much later) XR650. Stairs, parks, alleys, and causeways between buildings were all acceptable shortcuts, and fair game.

    SkyfallThe early scenes in Skyfall show a chase that starts in cars, switches to motorcycles, and to a train. Set in Istanbul, Turkey, it is well choreographed, and the riding is top notch. Bond (Daniel Craig, or actually a stunt double) is chasing the bad guy through alleys, on roofs, and in bazars. Masterful.

    (I know, it is a bit late to finally be seeing the movie, but I typically wait for it to hit Netflix)

  • Product Marketing/Management Partition

    I have started this blog posting several times, and have been diverted each time. It is a complex topic, and it almost seems like heresy, but I believe it needs to be said.

    There has been much said on the roles of Product Management, and Product Marketing. There are firms who have well developed frameworks, and extensive training to help you get to a “good” state. In particular, I am familiar with the Pragmatic Marketing work, and the Blackblot BOK*. Both have similarities, and both are profoundly helpful. But…

    The first But…

    Perhaps for me, it goes back to when I started in product management. There really wasn’t a BOK to draw upon. There was literature, but the vast majority in the pre-Google days was centered on packaged consumer goods, and product managers were much more like General Managers of a business, or business unit (today, they would be better described as “Brand Managers”). Enter the tech world. I was a new product manager, climbing a steep curve. I had to know my markets. Cold. I had to know the dynamics of my business. Cold. I had to know my product inside and out. I had to know enough of the technology to talk to the engineers (hint: It was electron microscopy. I.e. lots of physics, quantum mechanics, E&M etc). I had to be the point of sales enablement. There was no segmentation of the role. No partitioning. No delegation of the responsibility. It was just me. Sure, I had peers, but they all had businesses to run. We all learned together, and we all eeked out path forward.

    So, when I see a framework where the role is partitioned, I am immediately skeptical. Not that it is a bad idea. Lord knows that the all in one product manager is a tough place to be. But there is comfort with having all the bits and pieces within grasp. When I see a recommendation to split the role into two, I worry about how each half will work together to make the whole picture.

    The second But…

    Can you be successful at only half of the role? This is a question that really bends my mind. To me, the Technical Product Manager (or product manager), whose role is mostly limited to the bottom-left portion of the Pragmatic Framework (below the descriptive bar, to the left of Programs) is really not a product manager. Sure there are some meaty tasks, knowing the competitive landscape, assessing the technology, managing the roadmap, but it is commonly held that this role delivers and hands off a product to the product marketing manager (or product marketer), who then owns and drives the business aspects (GTM, positioning, pricing, promotion, sales enablement etc.)

    The theory is that the product marketer will hand down to the product manager the input from the market, direct VoC feedback, a semi-prioritized set of features. In return the product manager then cranks out the detailed product development plan and cycle. A pretty thankless job, if you ask me.

    The product marketing manager then is responsible for all the interesting parts of the job. The marketing component, including win/loss, Go to Market strategy, distribution, pricing, business case building, the market problems, and much more.

    Blackblot breaks this down a little differently, essentially calling the product marketer as handling all the inbound data flows, processing and passing them to the product manager, who creates requirements, and drives the development process.

    Either model leaves me thinking that the parties are not whole.

    If the product marketer is completely disconnected from the nuts and bolts of the development process, their understanding of core competencies is incomplete, as well as their understanding of the team’s capacity, capabilities, and past performance. This leads to some pretty wild miscommunications and mis-set expectations of deliverables. I have often seen this manifest itself in promising more than can be achieved, and then being stunned/angry/indignant when plans go awry.

    On the other side of the fence, if the product manager is insulated from the business and marketing aspects of the organization and product, then they are like the boy in the bubble. This leads to a disconnect, disenchantment, and disfranchisement.

    Compounding this, is the fact that the two roles will often report into two different organizations (marketing, and engineering are common), with different comp plans, and most importantly incompatible objectives set. Thus while their success is often so intertwined, they are paid on such orthogonal metrics, that neither will be inclined to help the other be successful

    The way forward:

    It is my belief that there is plenty of work to justify two different people for these roles. But to manage towards success, it is critical that they are not insular. Your product manager needs to have some skin in the game on the inbound marketing-like activities. Likewise, the product marketer needs to have some shared experiences in the trenches. This helps them understand why their preferred prioritization may not make it into the product plan. Also, it helps them understand the dynamics of the development team, the process, and gives them a fuller view.

    Lastly, and this is for a mature organization, I believe that both roles should report to a single leader. Splitting their allegiances to two departments will dilute their mutual goals, and purpose. They both need to have visibility into the other’s objectives, and ideally have some skin in the game. If you have product management and product marketing at odds, you have a truly dysfunctional team.

    Summary

    To steal a page from Hewlett Packard, “Product Marketing is too important to leave to Marketing” rings true. Yes, it is marketing, but it is really a component of product management, and the goal is to build kick-ass products, that delight customers, are easy to sell, and are widely applicable. The Pragmatic framework offers a great guide, and having the three chief roles they talk to, marketing, product marketing, and product management is important, more crucial is to have all parties on the same page, rowing in the same direction.

    To me, that is what defines a great product management organization. Do you have it? What are you doing to get there if not?

    The future will bring a post that describes how to develop each role to peak efficiency

    —

    • BOK = Body of Knowledge

  • Awesome Customer Support – Bose

    A lot of people have complained that Bose is over priced for what you get, and that their quality isn’t that high. But I beg to differ.

    Back in 2004 or so, I got a set of Bose QC-2 headphones for my birthday. I was doing a lot of international traveling, and the headset was a godsend. No, it didn’t eliminate all noise, but it really reduced the jet engine noise, and make listening to music on 12 or 13 hour flights bearable. Of course, I took them everywhere. Probably 500K miles total.

    Lately, I have been using them in the office, to give me some uninterrupted peace and quiet while working. They are great (if a little battery thirsty).

    My well used Bose QC-2's finally bite the dust.
    My well used Bose QC-2’s finally bite the dust.

    Yesterday afternoon, the left ear cup parted ways with the frame. Boo. Geoff very sad. I was majorly depressed, and went back to listening to my earbuds, a much less satisfying experience.

    This afternoon, I figured, what the hell, call Bose support. So I call their support line, get a person almost immediately, and explain the issue. He was super friendly and helpful, and after identifying my model, and the serial number (I was in their system, because a couple years ago, the foam ear cup pads were falling apart, so I ordered a new pair).

    They can’t fix them, but they gave me a 60% discount on a new pair of the QuietComfort 15, two steps up from my current set. I said, let’s go for it. I am expecting a UPS label to ship the current ones back to them on their dime, and once they get confirmation that they are in transit, they will ship my new ones to me.

    So, I wasn’t looking to spend that much money, but I am glad to get a new set.

    Thumbs up to Bose support.

  • What I learned to ride on.

    Probably in 1977 or so, I began my experience with motorcycles. I was too young to have my permit for the street, so naturally, we did the off road thing. Recently I have been reliving my youth, and sharing some experiences, so I thought I would go back even further to the first bikes I rode.

    Hard to imagine a better learning point.
    Hard to imagine a better learning point.

    We had a pair of Honda XL125’s, 1976. Red tank, black plastic, mild steel rims, and the street legal trials tires. The lights were removed, and we did replace the rear tire with a true knobby, but otherwise, the bikes were stock.  Probably had 3″ of suspension travel, and since they were “road/trail” bikes, they had soft-ish suspension for that good in showroom feel.

    They were both bought used. These were pretty common, if you recall the gas crises of the ’70s, that drove a lot of people to riding motorcycles, this class of mild, beginner friendly bike was a good learning platform. But you quickly outgrew the bike, so you bought something bigger, and sold your “starter bike”.

    I do remember my first trip. We went to Metcalf, a riding place south of San Jose, and learned the basics in the big, open parking area. Clutch, shifting, braking, how to steer/turn/stop. Later in the day we tried some of the easier trails in the park, and I was hooked.

    Yes, I fell a lot, got a bunch of scrapes, but there was a thrill factor that was impossible to ignore.

    We rode the hell out of those bikes. I learned all the trails at Metcalf, then we moved on to Hollister Hills (another ORV park), and spent pretty much every weekend riding. During the week I fixed broken levers, did maintenance, lubed chains, checked the valves, etc.

    I wonder whatever happened to those bikes. We rode them hard for probably 7-8 years, most weekends, and with just a modicum of maintenance, they all ran perfectly.

    Next, I will talk about the first bike I actually bought myself.

  • Blast from the Past: Kawasaki Bighorn 350

    On my way home every day, at a trailer park there is facing the road a motorcycle trailer with something that is from the deep past. A Kawasaki Bighorn 350cc “enduro” bike. A friend in high school rode one, and we gave him a ton of shit for it.

    Starting in the early 1970’s Japanese off road motorcycles started redefining the dirt bike experience in the US. Prior to that, you had a lot of heavy, ill tempered, and unreliable European bikes. Jawa’s, Greeves, CZ’s, Maico’s, and Bultaco’s were the bee’s knees. But they were heavy, mostly poorly handling monstrosities.

    350cc's, disc valved, two stroke
    350cc’s, disc valved, two stroke

    Then came the Japanese. Starting with Suzuki, but soon Honda, Yamaha, and Kawasaki all had credible offerings. Motocross was never the same after.

    Then the Japanese tried to increase the market by building a series of “dual purpose” or on/off road bikes. These were really bad, by and large. The Yamaha DT400, the Honda XL350, and the Kawasaki Bighorn 350 were all touted as “commute all week, race on the weekend”, but the reality was that they were lousy on road bikes, and truly abysmal off road. The street legal “trials tires” coupled with too soft suspension, and motors that buzzed like a banshee made them skittish at highway speeds. Off road?  Well, I hope you had good health insurance.

    I got a chance to ride the Kawasaki Bighorn. It was modified (it had better shocks and stiffer fork springs), and had real knobbies, but it was still an evil handling, handful of a motorcycle. Fortunately I lived through that experience.

    I think about stopping and asking if they want to sell the bike, but then my brain starts working again, and I realize if I am going to restore a classic, it isn’t going to be a “Pighorn”

     

  • Geek Warning: Mathematics being spoken

    I work with atomic force microscopes (AFM’s). At their heart is a PID control system that keeps the probe doing the right thing, and giving us ultra high resolution images of a variety of things (topography, elasticity, etc). But I realized that I knew little about actual control systems. I was not an engineering student in university, so I wasn’t exposed to the concepts.

    Now I am diving in. Fortunately, there is a ton of great information on the web about the theory and practice of control systems, so that is cool. However, it is clear that my physics degree, while heavily laden with mathematics, was deficient in discrete mathematics. In physics, in general, you look for closed form solutions. Thus you are integrating and differentiating continuous functions to get to a solution. Mostly, you don’t care about numbers and numerical values. That is something that a calculator can give you with the equation you generate.

    However, engineers deal with concrete things. Forces, lever ratios, stasis, and most importantly actual real world values for their problems. As such, they use a lot of mathematical modeling, and computers to simulate results. Hence, the use of discrete mathematics instead of continuum mathematics.

    Of course, I took numerical analysis, and numerical methods for physics, and have hacked around enough in Matlab to know some of the basics, but I got that information empirically, not from first principals.

    Now I am filling in that gap.

  • This is harder than it should be

    In in effort to save money, I was investigating options to reduce the cost of my monthly cell phone bill. I had actually considered cancelling it, but thought better of that, since I use it for several 2-factor authentication sites.

    So I head over to AT&T’s site, log in, and start the “upgrade” process. I figure I will just get a cheap feature phone, and be done with it.

    There are only 4 choices, 3 of which are web only (and sold out), so my only choice is a $200.00 Samsung flip phone. Merde.

    (For all those that say cancel AT&T and go with a PAYGO carrier, I can’t as I do a fair amount of traveling, and I need a phone that will work in Europe and Asia.)

    So, for now I keep my iPhone, and my data plan and suck it up.

  • A classic – 1983 Honda V65 Magna

    On the way home today, I saw a truck hauling a piece of motorcycling history. A Honda V65 Magna, circa 1983, was strapped to the trailer. One of the first Honda V4’s, the v65 was the boss bike that year. It was the fastest off the line, and held the production quarter mile title. Shaft drive, 65 cubic inches displacement, and a laid back cruiser styling.

    The Honda Magna V65, king of the hill in 1983.
    The Honda Magna V65, king of the hill in 1983.

    It was pretty rough, but I strongly suspect that they were going to restore it. For a 30 year old bike, it seemed to have a lot of promise. I hope I see it on the road sometime.

    I remember wanting one of them bad. I recall that the early versions of the V4 had some reliability issues, but that wouldn’t have deterred me. Of course, the last thing an 18 year old male with hormones raging was a bike capable of sub 11 second quarter mile times.

    Good times.

  • Enough with the April Fools day jokes

    It used to be cute, but really, it is no longer even a little amusing.

    Google Nose?

    Ask Google for Suggestions (chrome spell check lameness)

    Slashdot’s ROT13 encryption?

    This idiocy must end.

  • Foreclosed Houses

    About 7 months ago, we moved to one of the foreclosure hot spots in the country, Phoenix. When I was first looking for houses, I was thought I would be able to pick up one of the many short sales, or foreclosed properties. Clearly, there was a large inventory, and finding a lot of listings in the $150K price range was easy.

    However, it wasn’t as simple as that. First, it is pretty clear that you are coming to a bank owned property when you arrive. To say that there is no maintenance on the yard, or the outside of the home is an understatement. You could tell from half a block away. Next, the insides were often rough. If there wasn’t a family living there (about 50/50 chance) the appliances would be gone and you would see damage to a lot of fixtures. Clearly you could tell that the prior owners had given up, and decided to take their misfortune out on the house.

    After looking at a couple dozen of these choice units, I was losing enthusiasm for finding a deal.

    Then I learned the truth. As someone who was looking for a home, there was virtually no chance that I would be able to buy one of these distressed properties. Whether it was foreclosed and up for auction, or whether it was one of the properties where the bank had acquiesced and allowed a short sale, the people who would be buying the home as a primary residence are pretty much out of luck.

    First, the bank is usually not in a hurry to sell the property. They have already recognized that the value they are sitting on is worth much less than they have it on the books for. They are willing to wait for months to close and write the property off. So people who are interested in buying much write a bid, prove access to funds, and wait. And wait some more.

    The process is rigged. Only investors are successful in buying these distressed properties. The hope that a family might be able to snatch up one of these is pretty much nil.

    We ended up spending $100K more, got a nice house in a nice neighborhood that was bought by an investor, cleaned up, and res0ld.

    The good news is that the inventory of bank owned properties, short sales, and foreclosures is shrinking.  The good news is that means the prices are rebounding, and we got in at a good time.