gdp's Comments

Digital Product Strategy Blog : The Case for Digital Product Management in Non-Software Companies

Tue, 21 Jan 2014 16:56:47 +0000

Thought this recent post http://www.imore.com/rdio-weight-watchers-apps-up... was relevant to this blog topic as well.

Digital Product Strategy Blog : Try Google Hangouts for your Daily Scrums (and other team meetings)

Wed, 15 Jan 2014 18:15:44 +0000

Hi Lasse, We also have Lync and yes, it's unstable as well. The group video chatting capability of Google Hangouts is perfect for a team collaboration meeting. It's not a one-to-many video conference setup, it's a many-to-many setup which is what's important. In realtime, anybody can start talking and the focus of the audio/video goes to them and their screen (if they're sharing a screen), so you don't have to do any "passing of presenting rights" to someone else (like you do with Webex services). Hipchat is coming out with video chat, but it's only starting with 1-on-1 video chats. When I attended the Atlassian Summit in 2013, I asked about "Google Hangouts-like functionality" and they said that it was on the list, but first order of priority was just getting 1-on-1 video chats to work. -Eric

Digital Product Strategy Blog : Custom Product Configurator API

Thu, 18 Jul 2013 23:31:14 +0000

Actually, this original post is FIVE years old as of 7/21/2013! Wow, time flies. -Eric

Digital Product Strategy Blog : Custom Product Configurator API

Thu, 18 Jul 2013 23:30:27 +0000

Hi Dave, Thanks for your reply. So the article you found is about 4 years old -- since then, we've done several other integrations based on this methodology and I can tell you that each time it's been different. So, from the perspective of information regarding the API development process, we benefited from having done the work before, but each retailer system has their own capabilities and limitations with their e-commerce platform, how they handle custom product SKUs and pricing, and how they handle sessions/cookies between the two systems. What you need to first determine is the retailer's ability to accept product data to be added to their shopping cart by a 3rd party source. If they can support this, then you need to map product data to SKUs in their system. Some retailer systems will literally require 1 SKU for every unique combination of your configurable product in order to display pricing correctly...which can create a bit of a nightmare based on the complexity of the products. Other retailer systems may have no issue setting up a "dummy SKU" through which they can accept any price point that overrides the default price set on the dummy SKU. Without knowing much of the details of your current configurator, the capabilities of your software development team, or the retailer's capabilities, the best I can do is talk in these generalities. If you'd like, you can contact me via this page http://www.digitalproductstrategy.com/about/conta... and we can get into a little more detail outside of the blog post so that I could potentially help steer you in the right direction for figuring out what the next steps need to be. Good luck, -Eric

Digital Product Strategy Blog : Market Segment Personas vs. User Personas

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:00:59 +0000

I came across a helpful set of "micro personas" that would be beneficial when building out interaction designs that focus on a user persona: http://www.linowski.ca/micropersonas

Digital Product Strategy Blog : Market Segment Personas vs. User Personas

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 05:26:47 +0000

Thanks John - the variants of a single user or user personas is really a recent realization within our team. In our business, we have a nice segmentation of the market with personas that sit at the market level. It's just not enough detail for our digital products though (we'll classify digital products as entire web/mobile/kiosk experiences). It was really helpful for us to start mapping out the user personas -- because these also differ from the very specific details of a use case. This really plays out in an omni-channel strategy and/or in shopping journeys that are over a longer duration of time.

Digital Product Strategy Blog : Are multi-vendor e-commerce platform strategies in the cards for organizations?

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 04:59:58 +0000

A real-world example where the consumer-facing platforms will need to be evaluated in an acquisition where a smaller player (Zipcar) is joining a much larger conglomerate (Avis): http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/01/the_zipcar_acquis... As the HBR article points out, the technology platform is a significant consideration -- technology has been the enabler for Zipcar to be able to differentiate itself in the market.

Digital Product Strategy Blog : OpinionLab's real-time feedback/rating tool (and why I love it)

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 21:28:00 +0000

Pricing depends on numbers of sites and traffic volume - best bet is to talk to them. It's designed for Enterprise-level businesses. -Eric

Digital Product Strategy Blog : The Conundrum With Product Configurators: The Blank Canvas

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 23:06:26 +0000

See this post by Dave Gardner (via Fast Company) on additional challenges (and benefits) of product configurators: http://www.fastcompany.com/1794099/configurator-2...

Digital Product Strategy Blog : Configurator Usability Challenge: Building your pizza online

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:17:18 +0000

Hi Jimmy, I don't know if they purchased something off-the-shelf or not. For our configurator where I work (http://www.ebusinessblog.org/tag/levolor-com/), we build it all in-house. I have yet to find a solution where an off-the-shelf configurator is extendable enough for functionality and usability. My experience thus far is product configurators are extremely difficult to build generic enough to work for multiple industries. The best ones are typically done in-house by product managers, marketers, and software developers who are close to the business. -Eric

Digital Product Strategy Blog : When you have a product or service complaint, where do you go?

Thu, 3 Feb 2011 04:10:12 +0000

Lindsay - just saw your comment going through the "waiting for moderation" folder for blog comments (sorry, it thought you were spam!). I'm relaying this concept with data, of course! The support/problem-related search keywords that drive in-bound traffic to the site, internal site search keywords, number of customer service contacts via the website contact form, and the feedback forms on the site all make for staggering numbers that provide a very rich dataset. In our business too, we have a large salesforce team that has their finger on the pulse of issues at the store-level (store associates & consumers providing the reps feedback). It's becoming more apparent that not everyone calls in because the sentiment in-store doesn't always align with our call center data (good or bad). We are looking at other ways of gathering store-level feedback.

Digital Product Strategy Blog : Apple Retail Store Purchase Process

Thu, 3 Feb 2011 04:02:02 +0000

I have the Apple Store app as well and the only options I see are related to scheduling an appointment for a 1-on-1 training session or the Genius Bar...

Digital Product Strategy Blog : Configurator Usability Challenge: Building your pizza online with PizzaHut.com

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 21:31:07 +0000

Thanks for the post - I think we'll see restaurants improve their online ordering experiences in the upcoming years. Right now, many folks are just happy to have the ability to order online and despite these issues you and I experienced, the majority will be able to place an order without concern. This changes when someone enters the market with a superior ordering experience. Competition and time will drive companies to improve the ordering process. Retailers understand this and the checkout process is as important as the pricing and products purchased. For restaurants venturing into online, right now it's still the food that's priority #1.

Digital Product Strategy Blog : When manufacturers sell direct and "compete" with retailers

Sat, 25 Sep 2010 21:31:48 +0000

Mark, If this is happening, then the manufacturer doesn't understand the concept of proper channel management (which informs a pricing strategy). Typically, manufacturers selling direct will either implement a MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) policy which establishes advertised pricing parity in the market or they will choose to sell at a premium price on their site (and potentially offer other value-added services to account for the increased retail price the consumer pays). In your example, I do not understand why a manufacturer would do this unless they started their business this way and recently entered into selling through retailers. If the manufacturer is not a traditional retailer, then they probably don't excel at direct marketing or fully understanding the needs of the consumer in the shopping process -- in which case, you probably can excel at search marketing when someone does a Google search for the product. The only ammunition you really have is leveraging their competitors' pricing practices over theirs. At least, hopefully their competition (if any) has implemented a more intelligent pricing strategy. -Eric

Digital Product Strategy Blog : How to log into Yahoo! IM with iChat on Mac OS X via a Jabber account

Sat, 27 Mar 2010 15:00:29 +0000

I wish iChat natively supported Yahoo! as well. I've been using meebo.com for an IM client that supports several IM services (Yahoo! is included). The video support is not very high quality, but I switch to iChat when I need to do any web chats. I am a big fan of the web-based Meebo service - they also have an iPhone/iPod Touch app which makes it very easy to use one source for all of my IM logins. -Eric

Digital Product Strategy Blog : Configurator Usability Challenge: Ordering online from Outback Steakhouse

Fri, 9 Oct 2009 03:27:37 +0000

Terry - funny you mentioned ordering Pizza online. I had already begun a 3-part series on pizza configurators for PapaJohns.com, PizzaHut.com, and Dominos.com. Just posted the first intallment: http://www.ebusinessblog.org/531/configurator-usa...

Digital Product Strategy Blog : Follow-up marketing when consumers abandon the purchase funnel

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 12:11:18 +0000

David - it all comes down to knowing your communications preferences. In my opinion, if I left my contact information at a car dealership and the salesman calls me back after a couple days, it's a pretty standard follow-up. I knew what I was getting into when I left my contact info. In this case of Apple's site, I wasn't fully aware that I'd receive a follow-up email, but given my past purchase history with Apple, I wasn't irate that they had automatically followed up with me. In an ideal world, they'd follow up automatically with anyone and everyone who abandons the purchase funnel but to your point, there probably needs to be a bit of "pre-qualification" (through means of evaluating past purchase history, how long they spent on the site through the purchase decision process, etc.) so as to not alienate potential buyers from the product.

Digital Product Strategy Blog : More Comparison Shopping Woes

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:18:24 +0000

Mike - The point behind the blog post was to illustrate the confusion their website created for me as a potential buyer. Based on what you wrote, it sounds like you found information on the differences between their products not from the Tempur-pedic website or from the marketing materials they emailed to you, but from other sites as a result of your Google search. A manufacturer website should be able to provide all of the comparison information I need in order to understand the difference between their own manufactured products. Not just a feature listing, but a benefit of those features. For example, on the Tempur-pedic product comparison page above, I can't see what the benefits of a "T-Flex Support System" base layer are compared to a "Dual AirFlow System" base layer or why I'd choose one over the other.

Digital Product Strategy Blog : Wireless Internet with BlackBerry 8830 or 9630 as Bluetooth Modem for Mac OS X

Fri, 2 Jan 2009 03:42:51 +0000

Mike - Is your Mac connecting to your Blackberry via bluetooth and that's where you're having the disconnect problem? Or is your Blackberry not establishing a data connection? The instructions posted in this blog post are literally all I did to get my Mac working with my Blackberry -- the critical component is downloading the modem script for your Blackberry and putting it into the folder indicated in my original post.

-Eric

Digital Product Strategy Blog : When manufacturers sell direct and "compete" with retailers

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:48:25 +0000

Jim - Nothing was published to indicate that this was a "new" venture for P&G but it was recently highlighted on the Financial Times website -- probably more to do with the Wal-Mart executive hired to specifically investigate the potential impact of manufacturer-driven initiatives like this. Like I mentioned above, it'll probably lead to several unpleasant discussions between the retailer and manufacturer, but at the end of the day, the consumer ultimately benefits from the competition this will breed.