belstaff: colonial canvas news UPDATED

To make it easier for you to access all of my articles featuring the Belstaff Colonial Canvas line, here is a quick index:

requirements: A good bag for your essentials (December 2005)

review: belstaff colonial canvas spring/summer 07 collection (March 2007)

review: belstaff colonial canvas spring/summer 08 update (January 2008)

reader review: belstaff colonial canvas line (May 2008)

Current News:

June 2008 - My Belstaff Colonial Canvas Shoulder Bag (circa December 2005) is showing some unusual wear. I went back to the people who sold it to me (L'Uomo in NYC) who let me know the following:

The word from Italy is that Belstaff stopped producing the colonial bags for the season.

As far as repair (for your bags), Belstaff does not offer this option. (See UPDATE2 below for an update on the "official" policy relating to this issue.)

I've sent a note off to Belstaff's New York showroom, and I'll report what I hear from them. I didn't get a reply back from L'Uomo in response to my original inquiry, by the way.

UPDATE1 - I spoke with a very nice lady in the NY Belstaff showroom this morning - she even noted that she had seen my email, and apologized for not getting to it. The protocol for dealing with this sort of problem is to get the bag to the factory in Italy, where they will look at it and figure out what to do: repair or replace.

The lady I spoke with noted that Belstaff "constantly works to upgrade their product lines", and mentioned that they may have swapped the canvas out from earlier versions of the bag to the newer version.

UPDATE2 - I sent my bag off to the Belstaff USA showroom yesterday afternoon. It will go from there to the customer service team in Italy, where I've been informed they will be taking the entire month of August off. Must be nice. I'll get it back either at the end of July or around the middle of September - I'm hoping for the end of July.

In any event, it will be a 2-3 month adventure. I'll post the bag this weekend, and will keep you posted on the progress.

UPDATE3 - The nice folks at Belstaff, especially Karin at their New York showroom, have addressed my issues and I've got something inbound from them that I'll share with you when it arrives.

wordle: kerosene-filled eyeball toys

Wordle is deadly fun and must be avoided at all costs. And whatever you do, don't start plugging old blog posts into it.

[unenthusiastically] Stop. Don't. Come back.

wordle: more information than you require

Using your scary-good powers of inductive reasoning on this image will allow you, dear reader, to reverse-engineer and subsequently enjoy an exclusive excerpt from John Hodgman's new (and still unpublished) book, More Information Than You Require.

To get you started, the Wordle word cloud suggests that "Mr." should appear quite a number of times in your reverse-engineered text of the aforementioned exclusive excerpt.

OK. . . . go.

meditation: a leadership aphorism

If you're like me (and thank everything you hold dear that you are not) then you're surrounded by people who like to give you advice.

"Don't run with scissors, Bobby. Stop. . BOBBY. . .DON'T RUN WITH THE G_______D SCISSORS!"

"You shouldn't swim for thirty minutes after you eat or you'll sink like a rock."

"Stop making that face or your eyes will stick like that."

"Do you have to use such big ____ing words all the time? Sweet Jesus, I have no ____ing idea what you're saying."

Because turnabout is fair play, here's a little aphorism for you to noodle on. It's a good one for members of the product management tribe who are struggling with how to lead without authority:

Leadership requires the giving and taking of control in equal measure.

(Corollary: Especially when one wishes to lead leaders)
(Variation: Replace "Leadership" with "Teaching" if you're having a hard time wrapping your head around the concept)

Enjoy.

link: the evil muse

I have earned, for better or worse, a bit of a reputation as someone acquainted with the world of blogging.

Yes, I know, quelle surprise.

I've even been known to set up blogs for friends on occasion. Nothing too difficult, mind you, just your garden-variety Blogger freebies.

One such request came through recently, and I'm happy to report that this new blogger has posted his very first post.

Such an occasion warrants some link-love, so without further ado, may I present The Evil Muse.

Enjoy. Leave him some comments of encouragement, because if all goes well and he continues to post, I promise you some good reading will come of it.

It will also be interesting to see just how many widgets and gadgets he chooses to use on his blog, because as we all know, one of the great joys (and perils) of blogging is an over-weening fondness of novelty.

names: for your utah burlesque troupe

Cajun Rayne
Celestial Starr
Chinchilla Zest
Christmas Holiday
Confederate America
Cresta Lee
DaLinda LaDale
DeFonda Virtue
Elsha Cachet
Faun-Dew
Heaven Lee
Honey Dawn
Jeopardee
Justa Cowgirl
Liberty LuLu
Paradise Sunrise
Sage Honey
Southern Justice
Stormy Shepard
Tiki Lou

Thanks go to Laughing at the Horror of Being Alive, a fine blog in the Maakies tradition.  

wwrd: what would russert do

There's an ache that you get when life goes on without someone. That's certainly true of the staff who publish MSNBC's First Read who must figure out a way to get on with their jobs without their mentor, friend and boss Tim Russert.

The grain of genius in the latter of the two links cited above is WWRD - What Would Russert Do. No man is perfect, but the ideals embodied by Tim Russert in his public and private lives are certainly worthy of everyone in his profession, and I would argue sorely needed in this election cycle more than ever.

In his absence, it's up to the profession to raise the bar for itself, to settle for nothing less than constant, honest vigilance on behalf of a public that's counting on them to be both honest and vigilant.

So I'll challenge every talking head, every pundit, every beat reporter and bureau chief to write those four letters down on the back of their hands, so that every time they're tempted to spew forth another stream of ill-advised, unprepared hateful pablum they'll pause to ask themselves what the great man would have done.

He'd probably laugh, then get back to work.

wondering: exception or rule?

Answer - rule.

bbc america: charmingly disorienting

In a moment of inspiration and penury my wife switched us from Wide Open West (WOW) to AT&T last week.

While there have been a few odd moments associated with this transition ("You're putting what on my roof?" "Why the &$^@ is there static every time I make a phone call?" "How the &$^#^ does this remote work?") one thing I've enjoyed is access to a few new channels, most notably BBC America.

Any of you who got your first taste of geekdom in the early 70s with Monty Python will appreciate having near constant access to Python on TV.  You'll also appreciate Mitchell and Webb.  And odd game shows.  And lots of Dr. Who and Torchwood.

I'm hopeful that they'll show televised cricket and snooker matches, which are the functional equivalent of rolling down a hill with your head in a canvas sack.

I wonder what our friends in Britain think of American TV.  Wait, they get it already and they know it's crap.  Or to the mildly dyslexic, carp.  

If you'd like another bit of charming disorientation and you are one of the enlightened who use a Mac, download the BBC Radio widget now.

tim: good night

Timothy John Russert, Jr. 

May 7, 1950 – June 13, 2008

Oh all the comrades that e'er I've had,

they are sorry for my going away

And all the sweethearts that e'er I've had, 

they would wish me one more day to stay

But since it falls unto my lot 

that I should rise and you should not

I'll gently rise and I'll softly call 

good night and joy be with you all

-- The Parting Glass (trad.)

observed: ovid on marketing

Barbarus hic ego num, quia non intelligor ulli.

(I am the barbarian here, because no one understands me)

Ovid was being banished into Pontus at the time, but he just as easily could have been drinking coffee at a campaign post-mortem, staring at the numbers, scratching his head in mute bewilderment.


We're bewildered because we believe - we know - that we crafted messaging that was concise, clear and compelling. We tested the bejeebus out of it. We sat in on meetings until we developed deep vein thrombosis.

But nothing prepares you for being misunderstood. The cricket sounds. The slack-jawed "so what" look.

It is an insult to the ego to be misunderstood. Unless you come to the exercise without the burden of ego to start with - it's where the balancing act comes into play, like everything else. And so, to my point.

The real reason I wrote this was to highlight the odd places that insights can come from. If the best marketing seems to be non-marketing - invisble, natural, honest - then that suggests that the best marketing learning comes from non-marketing sources. Like Ovid.

bullied: on changing product direction

Adam Bullied of Write That Down has posted a very heart-felt bit of thinking on the topic of changing product direction.

For those of us in the product management blogging community, there's an unspoken realization that our blog posts are occasionally indicators of what we're up to at any given moment. It's at times like this that we pull together, lending each other help and support.

And comments to their posts:

This is a very challenging topic, Adam, but you capture the secret key to it when you say "the other thing you can do is communicate early and often".

Changes in product direction that are required by shifts in strategy are best accomplished when (pardon my analogy):

You call attention to the fact that the wind has changed. . .

THEN you tell your passengers that you need to turn the wheel. . .

THEN you tell them what things will be like when you're on the new heading. . .

THEN you give them fair warning about when you're going to turn it so they can hold on to their drinks. . .

THEN turn the wheel. . .

THEN tell them that you've turned the wheel. . .

THEN report on your progress now that you've turned the wheel compared to earlier.

No one likes surprises, and no one likes to be confused. Changes in product direction that anticipate both of these feelings in your target audiences (internal and external) are better received. Even if the product changes don't get the job done, you are more likely to get permission to tweak them again if folks know you'll be transparent about it.

So if you're a product manager with some insights into this topic, go to Adam's blog and comment on his post. Because that's what we do, just like Donkey says at the end of Shrek. Well, kind of like that.

discussion: adoption, utilization and integration

How many of you create products that are completely transparent?

By transparent I mean do you really know:

• How many installs are there of your product?
  
• How many total users and active users are there of your product?
  
• How are each of your products rated by your users?
  
• How far does each user get through the user experience?
  
• How many users take advantage of click-through links?
  
• How many users complete surveys?
  
• How many users are "repeat" users?
• How many users loop in "friends and family"?

You get the idea.   

When you pile up all of this data and look at it from a great height, you see some patterns emerge.  There are essentially only three key concepts at play here: adoption, utilization and integration.  

Adoption speaks to how many of your target users have made the choice to use your product in lieu of other alternatives.  

Utilization speaks to how often (discrete usages), long (length of usage) and well (scope of usage across all feature sets) your product is used. 

Integration speaks to how well your product receives and delivers hand-offs to other elements of your user's workflow.  This includes stuff like API support but also UI integration, but goes on to cover things like datatype  and metadata consistency, and support for consolidated utilization reporting across multiple products.

Think of the metrics associated with these concepts as evidence of whether or not your customers are getting "full value" from your offering.  They're also sources of leading indicators of where your products need to be "tweaked" to maximize this value.  

When you look at the interplay between these three metrics, you can have some very interesting conversations.  I also like to use these concepts when I evaluate new products or propose enhancements to existing ones, because they are customer-centric metrics that matter and can be used to fuel ROI discussions.

If you've not built your product to throw off data, you're guessing at this stuff.  So next time you sit down with your feature backlog or sharpen your pencil for a new PRD, consider features needed to instrument your product so you can report on these measures.  Sales will thank you, and your line product managers will curse you (but privately thank you too).

select-o-vend: chiclet mini boxes too big

As part of my "ack/nak/art" project I'm sizing boxes that will fit in the 1940s era first generation Select-o-Vend and Mills Automatic gum machines.

Here's a tip - if you've got one of these machines and you're considering filling them with candy, do not load them up with Adams Mini Chiclet boxes.

The dimensions of these boxes are 1 1/2 inches by 13/16 inches by 5/16 inches.

Which is exactly 1/16 inch too tall.  The boxes slide beautifully into the wider columns, but when you put a penny in and pull the plunger to vend the item, they stick.

By comparison, a small stick of Bazooka bubble gum vends perfectly.  It is exactly 1/4 inch tall.

And for those of you who are curious what distinguishes a first generation Select-o-Vend from the second, it is the way the labels are attached.  First generation machines have the labels painted directly on to the machine.  Second generation machines have the labels printed on metal panels which are then screwed on to the machine.  

The machine shown above is a first generation one.

Nail polish remover works very well for removing the painted-on labels, by the way.

ah-ha: product managers lead by following

I recently came across an article titled Aligning Departments with your Strategy. It's sitting behind a registration wall, but everything I needed to know about this article I learned from the abstract:

Product managers are responsible for the creation of product strategy, marketing strategy, and product plans. Securing the buy-in from cross-functional team members in support of the product strategy (or overall corporate strategy) is critical. This article describes some ways to achieve this buy-in.

Oh my. When I read this abstract, I realized I agreed with sentence #2 but strongly disagreed with sentence #1 and its suggestion of product management "ownership" of strategy.

Strategy - put simply - is a statement of shared direction, with a focus on shared. Everyone involved in the pursuit of this strategy needs to see themselves in it, or it is not shared. The only way you can execute dictatorially is if you plan consensually, through the collective exchange of information and attitudes. You either are all rowing in the same direction, or you are not.

In short, strategy is co-owned by everyone you work with. It is not yours. In fact, I believe that if it is perceived as yours, it will fail. A product strategy that reflects the personal "vision" of an individual product manager is not only suspect, but counter-productive.

This is because I as a member of the team can't trust (or believe in) what is stored in your head alone. To buy in to a product strategy, there need to be self-evident proof. The process of exposing these proofs - these discrete inputs - and bringing them forward for shared consideration is at the heart of the product manager's craft.

All of these inputs that product managers rely on serve to highlight the shared ownership of the product strategy. Done correctly, a product strategy comes into being ex nihilo, it seems, as a logical (even if it is daring) conclusion drawn from all of these inputs. Note that the product manager is not the creator of these inputs, just the person who observes them, synthesizes them, and socializes them in pursuit of an outcome.

A product strategy and its tactical embodiments (forward-looking product roadmaps, story backlogs, release schedules and launch plans) will then naturally and consensually serve the corporate strategy. The product manager's job then is simply to execute on the product strategy by keeping all of those forward-looking tactical elements aligned, making sure that the individual departments whose work contributes to the product understand how, where and why their work fits in.

The product manager leads by following, by listening, and by facilitating the creation of a shared product strategy that can be owned by everyone.

We're all guilty of saying "trust me". I'm realizing that it hurts us more than it helps.

And I'm also realizing that in the absence of a corporate strategy that your team can believe in, sacrifice and fight for, many thoughtful product managers step into the gap with a product strategy that they argue is worth believing in, sacrificing and fighting for. This is the source of much of our suffering - we lead when we should be following.