“Missionary” Technology Really Requires a Technology Evangelist

February 20, 2011

A technology evangelist “promotes the use of a particular product or technology through talks, articles, blogging, demonstrations, [etc.]…The word ‘evangelism’ is taken from the context of religious evangelism because of the similar recruitment of converts and the spreading of the product information…”  (Source: Wikipedia)

I recently came across a blog post by technical writing and communications professional Dr. Ugur Akinci, who wondered aloud whether there was a better term to describe the title of Technology Evangelist. Ugur Akinci noted the dictionary definitions of evangelism in its original religious context; those definitions suggest communication that is, among other things, decidedly one-way. Point well taken, but none of the other alternative titles suggested – technology communicator, ambassador, champion, advocate, enthusiator (the latter one intended to provide a chuckle!) – comes close to conveying the role as vividly as Guy Kawasaki’s original term of technology evangelist: the active persuasion of people to buy into the superiority of his/her particular technology product and help spread the word about it.

Actually, the term technology evangelist becomes even more appropriate if we use more secularized religious terminology to describe the product offering itself. I have in mind an article product management professional Jacques Murphy wrote a few years ago, asking a still-timely question: Is Your Product a Missionary or a Savior?

(W)hile every (software) company wants their product to be brand spanking new, there are two very distinct strains of newness: the Missionary and the Savior. And one of those two types is a much harder sell…The Missionary product…represents a new idea or a whole new take on an old idea. Nobody has heard of it and your company is in the position of telling others about it and convincing them of how important it is…

With a Savior product, the market comes running out into the streets to greet it, cheering it along all the way. The Missionary product has to go exploring into lands unknown to make converts through its boundless zeal.

Of course, Jacques Murphy’s “market running and cheering to greet a Savior product” hyperbole has since become literally true many times over by Apple’s amazing run of true Savior products. As for software, particularly in the B2B space, every product will have some missionary, or educational, aspect to it. You will always need to effectively convey your understanding of your customers’ problems and how and why your product solves these problems in ways far superior to your competitors. Every software solution requires effective product marketing, and benefits greatly from technology evangelism.

But a ”true” Missionary product will also offer a very different solution to fulfilling a need; a solution that might even be openly contrarian to current conventional wisdom; a solution that is proven to yield unique and compelling benefits for your customers, but in very new ways. Having a technology evangelist, a name and face for the product, actively advocating your unique, even contrarian solution to the market, becomes absolutely crucial, absolutely vital.

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Posted by Mike Urbonas

“Everything I Really Need to Know About Product Marketing I Learned in Elementary School”

February 2, 2011

Dr. Stuart Payne is Principal of Northwood Elementary School, a National Blue-Ribbon School and California Distinguished School in Irvine, California. I am also quite proud to call Stuart Payne my brother-in-law.

I was already impressed with the work of Stu – I mean Dr. Stuart Payne – and his staff, and yet was even more so after reading his Principal’s Message in the latest issue of Northwood Elementary’s impressive parents newsletter, which summarized the goals he and his teaching staff set for 2011:

At the beginning of this year, our dedicated staff set…three goals for ourselves: (1) Rigor, (2) Differentiation, and (3) Progress Monitoring.

These succinct goals no doubt rang true for Northwood Elementary parents.   In fact, they rang quite true for me in my world of product marketing.  Let’s look at each one more closely:

Photo by courosa (Flickr CC)

Rigor.  Stuart Payne writes: “Through rigor, we endeavor to make sure that every child is challenged in a developmentally appropriate manner.”  This vital educational goal can be easily adapted to product marketing/product management terms: We must challenge ourselves to really understand our products and our markets, and convey our value in a compelling manner that our target markets will understand and be motivated to learn more.  I am reminded of a blog post by Dave Kellogg (MarkLogic CEO for six years) on applying (rigorous) critical thinking for effective product positioning (I elaborate on Dave Kellogg’s fine post here, BTW).

One sidenote: Stuart Payne also wrote: “(R)esearch indicates…that when the work is too difficult, (students) become frustrated.”  This reminded me of a classic blog post by Kathy Sierra: Do your customers feel a similar sense of frustration trying to understand and/or use our products?  Why?  How can this be corrected (and fast)?

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Posted by Mike Urbonas

Animal Metaphor Farm: Don’t be a Gorilla or Eagle…Be a Crow

September 28, 2010

The good old “800 pound gorilla” metaphor came up in a conversation this week, reminding me of a clever article I read a few years ago on the subject of animal metaphors, which are all too common in business-speak.

This company or that company is the “800 pound gorilla.” Another company might say it “strives to be an eagle in its industry.” Infamous ex-Sunbeam CEO “Chainsaw” Al Dunlap, fitting his penchant for firing scores of people with impunity, adorned an entire office wall with an image of a mighty lion, honoring its predatory, eat-or-be-eaten, zero-sum game carnivorousness. And of course, one wants to be a “dog” company.

Source: jpmckenna (Flickr-CC)

Actually, companies should strive to be the crow of their industry.

Putting aside the ominous symbolism of crows in mythology and popular culture, business columnist Dale Dauten made a pretty good case for businesses to act like the crow. Given the particularly difficult economy today, calling for business to have the same kind of hardscrabble resourcefulness and adaptiveness of the crow is more on target now than when he wrote this a few years ago:

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Posted by Mike Urbonas

Channeling 37Signals (and Kathy Sierra): Beating the Competition by Underdoing the Competition

May 10, 2010

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler. – Albert Einstein

I’ve been reading Rework by 37Signals founders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. The book is loaded with wise, relentlessly succinct and deliberately sharply-written advice to succeed in business in a web-enabled world. 

There are plenty of insights in Rework worthy of several blog entries, but one that especially jumped out at me was Jason Fried’s and David Heinemeier Hansson’s advice to “underdo the competition.” This is also one of the blunt implorements on the back cover, including: Emulate drug dealers(!) Pick a fight(!) Happily, each is elaborated upon in the book to successfully deliver a salient point.

As for underdoing the competition:

Instead of entering into a “one-upping, Cold War mentality” with competitors, “do less than your competitors to beat them. Solve the simple problem and leave the hairy, difficult, nasty problems to the competition.”  (Rework, p. 144) …

In the end, it’s not worth paying much attention to the competition anyway…Focus on competitors too much and…(y)ou wind up offering your competitor’s products with a different coat of paint. (p.148)

Simplicity is clearly a strong product differentiator.

As product examples proving their point, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson point to the increasing popularity of plain-vanilla fixed-gear bicycles that are cheap, easy to ride, and require less maintenance, as well as the Flip, a best-selling compact camcorder with no bells or whistles - except that the market has decided ”ultra simplicity” is the one bell/whistle they really need.

Actually, I found an example of my own while looking for a web-based to-do application. There are plenty of fine (and free) online organizers out there, but the one I settled upon was perhaps the simplest one available: TeuxDeux by “studio-mates swissmiss and Fictive Kin.”

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3 Comments | Books, Positioning, Product Marketing | Permalink
Posted by Mike Urbonas

Marketing Business Intelligence Software Like…a 1980s Real Estate Seminar?

January 16, 2010

It’s no earth-shattering statement, nor is it a flattering commentary on our society: ads featuring attractive, provocative women have a proven track record selling everything from cars to beer to men’s fragrances to hokey get rich quick real estate plans, advertised on hilarious late night TV ads in the 80′s.

But can it sell Business Intelligence software?

Should it?

There is a video ad that seems to think so, which I stumbled upon via a fellow WordPress blogsite “Integrate the Clouds.”

The ad in question is here (SFW):

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Posted by Mike Urbonas

The Power of Critical Thinking (or: Devil’s Advocate, Get Thee Behind Me!)

June 12, 2009

I just read a great blog entry entitled Critical Thinkers vs. Critics by Mark Logic CEO Dave Kellogg. (Quick aside: Any blog by a CEO/Chairman/Founder that is regularly updated and features plenty of wisdom, wit and insight is evidence that company has a competitive advantage in leadership. Good on you, Dave.)

Dave Kellogg raises the important difference between a “critic,” a person who criticizes everything, generally without proposed solutions” and a ”critical thinker,” a person who attacks ideas in the spirit of making them better, and who can hold both sides of an argument in their head at once.”

Point very well taken. I’d additionally define a critical thinker as someone who will also not allow herself/himself or others to fall victim to “paralysis by analysis.” Even more importantly, by virtue of being unafraid of taking a hard, unbiased look at issues and listening to others’ opinions, concerns and doubts, and in fact welcoming such open discussion, a critical thinker is also an optimist by nature.

I like how Dave assesses the level of critical thinking applied in the crafting of successful marketing positioning (emphasis added):

Critics “attack” other people’s ideas but not their own. Critical thinkers “attack” everyone’s ideas, especially their own. For certain disciplines (e.g., marketing positioning) one of my primary tests is not to examine the substance of a proposal, but instead to examine the critical thinking in the process that led to it [for example, reviewing a marketing proposal recommending a new company tag-line]:

  • How many other tag-lines did you think of?
  • Why didn’t you pick tag-line 3?
  • Did you consider tag-lines based on the higher-level notion of satisfaction?
  • What’s the argument against the tag-line you’re proposing?
  • What are the direct and indirect competitors tag-lines and their relative strengths and weaknesses?

As David Ogilvy once said: “good writing is slavery” (see page 33 of Ogilvy on Advertising). So is good positioning. And it comes from critical thinking and plenty of it.

I think delving into the multiple meanings of Dave’s word “attack” is important here, too.  A critical thinker will indeed “attack” an idea much differently than a critic. There is a world of difference between “attack,” as in how a critical thinker will “earnestly initiate” a rigorous debate of an idea, in such a comment as, “The European sales team will have concerns about the time they will need to devote to the new product. Let’s work out how we can address that concern and ensure they will have time to complete their deals in the pipeline,” versus how a critic might truly “attack,” as in, “beat down,” an idea with a discussion-dampering remark:  ”Oh, the European sales team always marches to their own drummer. Mark my words, they will ignore the new product. I’ve seen it before.”

Dwight Schrute-A good example of an office criticHow to effectively deal with the “critic” is addressed in author Bruna Martinuzzi’s article on optimism, which she kindly allowed me to republish on this blog. Bruna accurately identifies the behavior of the ”critic,” aka “devil’s advocate,” as symptomatic of general pessimism, which can discourage critical thinking:

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Posted by Mike Urbonas

Branding by Bentley: The 5th Annual Leadership Forum

May 12, 2009

Continuing the discussion on branding: As a Bentley University MBA alum, I am happy to compliment Bentley for its fine job branding itself as an institution that understands and deeply values the importance of business ethics, leadership and social responsibility in helping to solve global challenges, as evidenced by its outstanding 5th Annual Leadership Forum, co-produced once again with TIME magazine.

5th Annual Bentley Leadership Forum - The Business of Healing Our WorldThe Annual Leadership Forum brings together innovative business professionals, NGO executives, thought leaders and more to discuss and share successes on the positive impact enlightened business can have and is having on our society, our environment, our global quality of life. The Forum is capped off by a luncheon honoring student winners of the Tomorrow 25, an international competition honoring 25 outstanding high school juniors with a series of special events on the Bentley campus.

Speaking to the concept of personal branding, the Bentley brand, consisting of its longtime business pragmatism melded with a very strong sense of business ethics, integrity and responsibility is one I am pleased to claim as part of my personal brand.

And I am hardly the only alum who feels that way: Fellow Bentley alum and social entreprenuer Nancy Gallant recently wrote a fine post about this year’s Leadership Forum on the Bentley University Alumni LinkedIn Group, which she has allowed me to share here. I share Nancy’s “gushy” feelings (aka pride!) in Bentley University for conveying its inspiring values by hosting such important events:

As a social entrepreneur, I found the speakers, their stories and their message inspiring and empowering. And, the Tomorrow 25 “kids” that were introduced, don’t even get me started!

The Leadership Summit is the perfect illustration of Bentley’s dedication to “doing well by doing good.” Given the recent (and, I believe, inevitable) upheaval in the economy, I am hopeful that, in addition to Bentley’s current student population, Bentley alums will help lead the way toward conscious capitalism, a concept with considerable merit and in need of passionate support. Given their leadership role in business ethics, among other things, it only makes sense that Bentley would be a major part of the conversation to promote positive change, socially and environmentally, while embracing and espousing the benefits of a capitalistic economy in which ethics, morality, transparency and stewardship to our future generations, those less fortunate, and our environment are all part of the equation…

I could go on (and on). If you are interested in digging deeper, your time would be well spent checking out a couple of related links:

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Posted by Mike Urbonas

Got $1 Billion? “Differentiate and Thrive” – Part 2

May 9, 2009

Product Positioning MessageLast post I mentioned how helpful Jack Trout’s book Differentiate or Die has been for me in developing unique product positioning. Now on to the actual construction of a positioning message. For excellent advice I have utilized many times over, I am indebted to past guests from the Boston Product Management Association (BPMA), a Greater Boston professional association of product managers and marketers I was privileged to have served as President and board member for three years.

Product management author Alyssa Dver who has spoken at a number of BPMA events over the years offered this advice during a guest presentation on effective communication for product managers:

Alyssa Dver presented the following sample template to build your own short but sweet product message:

“(Your Company) develops (describe product) that (describe benefit of using). Unlike other solutions, our product (compare to the competition, your unique selling proposition).”

Alyssa Dver went further, offering excellent advice on the actual verbal communication of the positioning message / unique selling proposition. I have found Alyssa’s attention-commanding “flag and flank” strategy very useful during live presentations with large audiences:

Product Managers should also be ready to interject ‘quotables’ – statistics, reference stories, etc. – designed to validate the product message. One especially effective speaking tactic Alyssa Dver recommended to command attention to such quotables is that of “flag and flank.” First, “flag” to your audience that you are about to say something very important (“What I’m about to say is the most important fact about XYZ product”). Follow this by the message you want noticed, and “flank” that message with a concluding comment (“I hope you understand; that is really an important fact”).

You can read my BPMA e-newsletter article on Alyssa Dver’s presentation here .

Billion Dollar Business PlansAnd one of the best-attended BPMA meetings in recent years featured SolidWorks founder Jon Hirschtick and his presentation entitled Billion Dollar Business Plans…

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1 Comment | Positioning, Product Marketing | Permalink
Posted by Mike Urbonas

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