2006 recap: all's well that ends well

I've had crappy years, I've had feh years. But looking back on 2006, it was a good year.

This December marks the 1 year anniversary of ack/nak. Looking back on my first post, I'm reminded of how different this blog has turned out compared to what I envisioned it's mission to be at that time. Life is funny that way. So here are some highlights/lowlights as memorialized here:

1. I'm both amazed and appalled at how interesting I thought Gmail's addition of a "delete" button was.

2. At the turning of the calendar, the importance of "writing the MRD first" and "avoiding the red-eye" remain as important as ever. These are two of my most-read posts, curiously.

3. One of the most valuable lessons of 2006 was that nothing good comes of email. Nothing. Better to go talk to someone than blast off an email. Especially at mid-sized software companies that are spread-out geographically.

4. I'm still a fan of stinky cheese.

5. Most prescient title: gnosticism kills marketing, news at 11.

6. Favorite startup: Boxxet. I'm proud to have distributed lots of invites to this exciting new service - here's to their launch in 2007.

7. I realized I was not cool, part of the type-mismatch that was Bob in Marketing.

8. I learned that ack/nak readers are poetry fans. Starting with Richard Brautigan in March, I found poetry to be an apt way to express the unexpressable. Some of my favorites were Alice Howell's The Cardinal in Venice, Poe's Alone and W.B. Yeats' The Choice.

9. Postmodern Marketing failed to take off. Which was perfectly OK with me. Overall, the kung fu of marketing turned out to be more powerful than I thought, which is why I'm so gosh darned happy to be back in PM full-time.

10. I rediscovered how much I enjoyed Manhattans. And cider. And cricket. And Intertype Vogue. Among other things.

11. I was nearly killed by a fast-moving Russian post-teenager. Good-bye Beetle.

12. And after a terrific trip overseas, I ended my long gig at InstallShield/Macrovision and started my new job at Emmi Solutions LLC.

Looking forward to 2007, I've elected to avoid making any "resolutions", resolving instead to "keep doing what's working".

I'm looking forward to watching the Greg the Bunny DVD that Santa brought me.

I'm looking forward to figuring out how to play Battlelore.

I'm looking forward to reading my way through the huge queue of books - including John Scalzi's Old Man's War and Sanjay Patel's The Little Book of Hindu Deities.

And I'm looking forward to accomplishing - as Mr. Ollivander put it - great things.

To all of my faithful readers, I compliment you on your discriminating good taste and overall penchant for quality discourse. I wish you great joy in the new year, and pray that you may meet with good fortune, good health, good humor, and most of all, good stories.

tag: martin amis

-Grab the closest book to you
-Open Page 123
-Scroll down to the 5th sentence
-Post the next 3 sentences on your blog
-Name the book and author
-Tag 3 people


Book: The Information by Martin Amis (Flamingo Books, 1995)

Text: Using a kilometre of string and about four rolls of sellotape, Richard bandaged his package together. It was ready to go. Over a cognac he began to contemplate the fateful, the exalted challenge of delivery.

Impossible Tags: You Mon Tsang, Robert Dickau, The Cranky Product Manager

tea: subtropical forest baozhong

The first eight days of The New Gig have kept me away from the blog - best for me to focus the entirety of my energies on Actually Getting Settled In, I thought, rather than Reflecting on Getting Settled In.

But more on that later.

Today a special package arrived from China care of Stéphane Erler of Tea Masters. Stéphane operates a small tea business from his home in Taipei, Taiwan, and his blog is a remarkable study of tea culture as seen from the inside.

Tea, you ask? What the *$&#^ are you doing drinking tea? After all, weren't you a "software guy", a sub species of homo sapiens known for its irrational love of coffee?

Truth is, I'd had enough of swilling gallons of so-called "industrial work coffee" each day, the product of which was a pronounced stammer and a penchant for heartburn. "Time to switch to tea," advised all of my (now former) Indian and Chinese colleagues, each of whom regarded my fish-like fascination with bad coffee with equal measures of pity and disgust.

While I was overseas, I managed to cut back my coffee to perhaps two cups of genuinely delicious "cafe creme" a day. This sudden change produced two near-immediate results - it crushed my daily intake of caffeine (coffee detox tremors, anyone) and reminded me what really good coffee actually tasted like. Nasty hot water burbled through an irregular pile of sawdust-dry, blade-cut "coffee" bits would no longer do.

I was familiar with Tea Masters from some research I had done into gong fu cha. I perked up when I read his entry on the arrival of the new wenshan bauzhong teas. Kind of like the arrival of the Beaujolais Nouveau. "Le Baozhong Nouveau est arrivé" indeed. A quick paypal transaction later and the wait began. . .a wait which ended this evening.

The tea is remarkable - unlike any tea I've ever had. The leaves themselves are a vibrant green hue, whole leaves and very few fragments or "odd bits". A three-minute brew with near-boiling water revealed a tea with a rich mouth-feel, floral and complex, without the astringency that always seems to come with "green tea".

I'm hooked. Now I need to figure out how to make tea at work in "reasonable quantities". I might be in the market for an electric teapot, I fear.

When I try them I'll post reviews of the two other teas I purchased. . .

• A 'lily baozhong' tea harvested at the end of September 2006
• A 'Monkey Hair' Oriental Beauty oolong fromt he Summer 2005

. . .as well as a few of the little "surprises" I found in the box. Thanks Stéphane.

beginnings: . . .and other job starts up

I've been wanting to "make meaning" with my work for a very long time. By this I mean I've wanted to contribute to an endeavor that has a material impact on the quality of life of individuals. Look at it this way - my wife's career is raising our children, a job with true "meaning". The work that teachers do has "meaning", the same with lifeguards, crisis counselors, even crossing guards.

(Please don't write me angry notes that I'm dissing your way of life by suggesting that it doesn't have meaning to you - this is an entirely personal observation on my part around what matters to me, so don't take offense.)

A few months back I got a note from an individual with a most unusual title: "Chief Creative Officer". She was looking for someone with a very unusual background - product management plus medical plus "voice over" plus "something extra". She had a hunch I had all four.

We had a few conversations, agreed to meet in person, had a lovely chat, and I left feeling like I'd met a very creative, bright person whose company "made meaning". By the products they create and the markets they serve, they make a real difference in people's lives every day.

Well, apparently I'd made a sufficiently strong impression that further conversations ensued, and ultimately, this organization elected to extend me an invitation to join them, which I accepted gladly.

Because I'll get to "make meaning" every day.

I've left the friendly confines of traditional "software" manufacturing for a much larger overall space - one I've worked in before, but one that's changing dramatically, and one that has a real need for what I'll be making. I've weathered a change, but this time I've made a conscious decision to "make meaning" - which at the end of the day is a lot more important to me than "making software". YMMV.

More soon. One job winds down, another job starts up.

endings: one job winds down. . .

My 2+ year run at my current employer wound down today, leaving me in a contemplative mood. I've got all of the weekend to linger over the past before I jump right in and get started with my new gig, so here are the things I'm thankful for:

I'm thankful for the opportunity to have been the PM for one of the best-known software brands on the planet - InstallShield. It was a rock-star job. If you have a chance to get your hands on a big brand, do it - there's a very "special" sensation you get when your decisions have an impact on tens of thousands of users and millions of consumers that's hard to describe. So I won't.

I'm thankful for the privilege of working with a team of A-grade professionals, especially in sales and development.

I'm thankful for having been given the chance to get out in front and serve as a spokesman with the press, analysts and customers.

And I'm thankful for the various and sundry "pressures" I experienced under my five managers - I'm still alive, so I must be stronger.

So that's the ending. Stay tuned for the beginning. And to all of my colleagues discovering this blog for the first time - so long and thanks for all the fish.

curious: storytelling at work

Back in late 1998, Bill Johnson wrote the following about the "craft of storytelling":

Part of the craft of being a storyteller means learning to create images with words. That requires a willingness to learn the craft of language, how to use words to create metaphors, evocative descriptions of scenery, strong dialogue, just as being a qualified carpenter or mechanic means a mastery in the use of the tools of that trade. The storyteller must have a mastery of words, or be willing to study and master that craft.

As a software marketing person, you're probably familiar with "stories" as a way to capture requirements, to describe a user persona, a market segment or as a way to wargame objection handling.

I'm asking you to put that aside.

Next time you find yourself in front of an audience, imagine that they are there to hear a story and you, my friend, are the designated storyteller.

Consider that your story has to have characters, it has to have a narrative thread, it needs conflict, it needs a conclusion. It needs to be memorable, unique and whole.

But what the story needs most is you.

If the story is going to be remembered, it needs you to choose words that are evocative, words that stimulate the imagination. You must consider how to use your voice, your arms. Consider how you'll look at different people around the room to draw them into the story.

You'll stay on topic - because no one likes a story that wanders.

You'll stay on time - because no one likes a story that lingers too long.

You'll care deeply about your audience - because no one likes a story that's dull.

You'll make your point clear as rain - because everyone loves a clean ending.

Ages ago when we all sat under the stars together, afraid of the dark, we looked to storytellers to make sense of the unknown. The traditional craft of storytelling was essential to the transmission of knowledge across geographies and generations.

But as it has become easier to preserve facts, we've lost the art of putting those facts into a living context. And as the speed with which we can transmit knowledge has increased, we don't have the time to assimilate knowledge in the way our brains are built to do it - through heuristic imagery and associative language.

So take the time to tell your stories the way stories used to be told, with passion and craft. Put yourself at the center of the circle next to the fire and wrap your listeners in pictures.

You will be more effective. And you'll develop an innate ability to call bullshit on elements of the story that others want you to tell, but which you know in your bones to be wrong.

The universe is made of stories, not of atoms. -- Muriel Rukeyser