1. TPMA Toronto Product
Management Association
FOCUS Issue #10: 3Q 2012
What is the TPMA?
"Creating Insight through
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Shared Knowledge"
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Founded in March 2001,
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the Toronto Product Man-
agement Association is
am TO
a non-profit organization
formed to create an en-
vironment that facilitates
learning, mentoring, & net-
working opportunities.
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Visit: www.TPMA.ca
KEY DATES:
ProductCamp Toronto
uc
- Sat, Jul 28th 9:00am
- Rogers School of Mgt
od
- 55 Dundas St. W.
Manage Your PM Career
- Tue, Sep 25th 6:15pm
- Metro Hall, 55 John St.
pr
Lean Startups in T.O.
- Tue, Oct 30th 6:15pm
- Metro Hall, 55 John St.
THIS EDITION:
Snapshot 2
ProductCamp Photos 3
Mobile Design 5
Crowd Wisdom 7
Wild Apricot Power 8
News: Macadamian 8
TPMA Social Photos 9
Inside Product Mgt 10
LinkedIn Stats 11
CoolTools 12
2. SNAPSHOT President’s Awards for 2012
T o introduce the TPMA “2012 Presi-
dent’s Award,” it was a great honour
to present it to two enormously deserv-
ing, and long standing executives of the
association. Our two recipients being Al-
T hank you, my fellow members of the
TPMA. This season has grown to be
memorable, from powerful new topics to
lan Neil and Lee Garrison.
Allan Neil, stepped up to the plate this
a well deserved social-networking break. year to volunteer as an executive, after
many years of dedicated service. Allan
Toronto ProductCamp is upon us again, thought up, and took the action of re-
and I look forward to learning from col- cording TPMA meetings. This started as
leagues across various industries. In an audio recording, then grew to the oc- Lee Garrison (right) receives 2012 Presi-
this extended edition you will find photos casional video recording, and has now dent’s Award from Charles Dimov (left)
from Toronto ProductCamps 2010 and become an audio / video podcast for the
2011. It is particularly exciting to have TPMA. More on TPMA podcasting in a contribute his creativity, and energy to
Steve Johnson opening this year’s Pro- future article. our regular monthly meeting schedule.
ductCamp, as the Keynote speaker. Simply put, we could not have pulled off
Beyond the recordings, this year had us such a smooth migration without Allan’s
It gives me great pleasure to welcome take on the challenge of updating our skill, hard work and sheer determination.
OneDesk, WildApricot and Macadamian web hosting platform to provide some
- as our newest sponsors of both the much needed functionality. Superficially, Lee Garrison, also received the Presi-
TPMA and of Toronto ProductCamp. this may seem straight-forward. How- dent’s Award for his years of work with
ever, the reality is that it takes an enor- the TPMA in various functions, including
In this edition of TPMA Focus, you will mous amount of analysis, investigation, having been our long standing president
also find interesting tips on the 4 mind- and labour - to migrate to a new platform for several years. This year, Lee took
sets of mobile design, a view inside seamlessly. With Eli Alston’s help, Al- a supporting role as Secretary of the
Product Management at SpeechBobble, lan took on this challenge, head-on. In TPMA. His passion for the TPMA and
and photos from the Summer Social. little over two months, the TPMA was the good it does for the Product Manage-
smoothly transitioned onto a new host- ment community - has been inspiring.
Most importantly - thanks to the vol- ing platform, designed for non-profit or-
unteers and executive volunteers who ganisations like ours. Behind the scene, Lee’s efforts this year
have given freely of their time, to keep have kept the team on schedule, consis-
our programs and association humming. Allan pulled this off, while continuing to tent and driving in the right direction.
As always, your efforts are needed and
dearly appreciated. Thank you! Beyond all his effort at the TPMA, Lee
has been one of the initiators and the or-
I hope to meet you at ProductCamp. Be- ganising force behind Toronto Product-
yond learning in this grass-roots, FREE Camp. This alone takes a huge amount
un-conference; remember to network, of co-ordination, effort, dedication, and
meet new friends, and most of all - enjoy time. All of which Lee has contributed,
the experience! year after year, without question.
See you there! Gentlemen, thank you for your help, self-
less dedication and service in keeping
our TPMA running smoothly.
Charles Dimov Allan Neil (right) receiving 2012 Presi-
Charles Dimov
TPMA
President dent’s Award from Charles Dimov (left)
4. Toronto ProductCamp
All photographs are from
Toronto ProductCamp 2011
and 2010.
Event Photographers:
Michael Campbell
Denise Charlesworth
TPMA
5. 4 Mindsets of Mobile Product Design
W ith the recent popularity of smart
phones and tablets, software prod-
uct managers are under pressure to cre-
work together and follow these time-test-
ed user research techniques:
A mobile version with extraneous func-
tionality will force users to sift through
unnecessary data. To help users get the
ate mobile versions of their products for most value in the least time, keep the
• Contextual Interviews and Fo-
the iPhone, iPad, and Android devices. denominator of the equation as small
cus Groups uncover actual
as possible by focusing on their context-
needs and opinions and can be
Today’s mobile users bring high expec- specific, immediate needs.
done either in person, on the
tations to the table. In a 2010 study by phone or through surveys.
eMarketer, 73% of users indicated a Environment influences interaction
company’s mobile software should be • Task Analyses break down all
Users may interact differently with a mo-
easier to use than its desktop or web the steps a user takes to fulfill
bile product than they do with a desktop
product. And 69% said their percep- his or her goals.
or web version. In an office setting, for
tion of the company’s brand would be • Field Research offers insight example, a user has the time and the
negatively affected if the mobile version into the way users would inter- ability to perform data entry. This same
wasn’t easy to use. In an increasingly act with your mobile product in user would likely not want to do this on
crowded mobile market, an application the real world. a small touchscreen while waiting in an
that immediately captures the user’s airport lounge.
attention, is easy to navigate, and of- • Usability testing follows a for-
fers real value is critical to market suc- mal usability protocol, to iden-
tify and correct any gaps be- In the case of a mobile product for busi-
cess. From our experience with helping ness use, there may also be regulatory
product managers design and develop tween users’ goals and the
actual experience your product or legal constraints to be taken into con-
mobile apps, there are four important sideration. In a hospital setting, for ex-
principles for successfully meeting and is delivering today.
ample, it may be appropriate to store
exceeding these criteria. sensitive patient information on a secure
These, and other user research meth-
odologies described at macadamian. desktop computer, but illegal to house
Mindset One: Don’t Port — Create it on a smartphone that could leave the
com provide product managers with the
Brian Fling, author of the book Mobile insight they need to envision, and create hospital, and easily fall into the wrong
Design & Development, advises: “Cre- a mobile product, not simply port an ex- hands.
ate a product, don’t reimagine one for isting desktop or web service.
small screens. Great mobile products Design for partial attention and inter-
are created, never ported.” ruption
Mindset Two: Understand the
User’s Context Mobile device users are frequently inter-
Focus on the most important tasks and rupted mid-task, either by a device re-
user goals Because a mobile device can be used lated interruption (such as an incoming
In general, a successful mobile prod- anywhere, your application’s design call or a lost network connection) or an
uct offers only a fraction of the features should be able to suit a variety of envi- environmental distraction. A good design
and capabilities offered by its equivalent ronmental, organizational, and personal will accommodate these interruptions by
desktop or web version. These capabili- contexts. For example, think of the dif- including shortcuts that allow for simple
ties could be a subset of existing desk- ference between a Travelocity user at and efficient multitasking. iPhones for
top features, a set of new features that home planning a vacation, and a Trav- example, make it easy to switch between
better address a mobile user’s needs, or elocity user running through an airport a phone call and an application.
a combination of the two. Only the most looking to confirm a connection time on a
relevant and important features should smart phone. Mobile users want to com- When designing your product, be sure
be included in a mobile version of an ex- plete their tasks quickly, and can easily to identify the most common forms of
isting product — all other features should become frustrated if a mobile product interruption and include graphical dis-
either be discarded entirely, or moved to doesn’t work as expected, or is slow to plays that simplify context switching and
secondary screens. perform. multitasking. Be sure to also help users
understand where they are at all times,
To determine what’s important to users The value-for-effort equation where they can go, and how they can
in a mobile context, you study their be- When evaluating the efficiency of your ‘get back’.
havior in order to discover their needs, mobile design, use the following formula:
goals, workflow, and workplace process- Point to priority information
es. We recommend Product Managers VALUE = Ability to fulfill an immediate To ensure hurried or interrupted users
and User Experience (UX) Designers need /the time required to accomplish
TPMA
the task (continued on page 6)
6. 4 Mobile Design Mindsets (from pg 5)
The primary real estate of each screen
should relate directly to the task in ques-
don’t become lost, it’s also important Mindset Three: ‘Surface’ Informa- tion.
to provide easy access to the most fre- tion Quickly
quently accessed features and infor- Provide hints and clear feedback for
As the saying goes, you only have one every action
mation. Once you have identified what
chance to make a first impression. This
these are (through usability testing, de- Some actions on a mobile device —
is especially true in the mobile world
scribed earlier), ensure they are easily such as downloading an update — take
where users have an array of apps to
accessible from any screen. This can be longer than others. Ensure your UI offers
choose from. In the competitive app
done via prominent buttons or icons. feedback and progress updates on ac-
market, value must be apparent imme-
tions that take more than a few seconds.
diately and easy to access, so users can
Avoid or limit free-text entry when- On Android, for example, you can quick-
accomplish their desired tasks.
ever possible ly see the status of apps being updated.
Just like mobile screens, mobile key- With a limited screen size, it isn’t pos-
boards are small and not well suited to One way to provide quick access to ad-
sible for an application to display all
data entry. Research the most common ditional information is to use dashboards
areas of interest to users at once, and
tasks that will be performed by your us- and ‘push’ notifications to reveal higher-
they won’t have the patience to search
ers, and then design pre-defined lists, level information.
through dozens of screens for informa-
auto-complete forms and/or suggested tion. You need to design an interface that
text to speed and simplify their interac- Be predictable
quickly brings relevant information to the
tions. surface. You can also surface information quickly
by leveraging the user’s familiarity with
By understanding your user’s context Rule of thumb — one task per screen existing visual cues. For example, a mo-
and tailoring your UI to support it, you bile user won’t want to hunt for the Close
Because it can be difficult or time con-
will reduce the risk that your applica- or Next button, so it should be in a pre-
suming to scroll, pinch, zoom-in, or click
tion will confuse or frustrate customers. dictable location.
links on a small screen, it’s important
Users who can access critical informa-
to create individual, focused screens
tion in seconds, and resume their tasks As the mobile device market has ma-
for each task you’ve identified through
quickly, will be more likely to view your tured, many visual attributes have be-
user research. While a screen can ex-
mobile product as a trusted resource at come standardized across platforms and
pose multiple tasks, it should help the
work, home, and on the move. operating systems. The battery indicator
user complete only one task at a time.
on smart phones, for example, is al-
most always found at the very top of the
screen. Soft keys that perform similar
functions like Back and Forward should
always appear in the same position from
screen to screen.
Mindset Four: Recognize the Per-
sonal Nature of a Mobile Device
A mobile device clearly differs from a
desktop or laptop in size, but it’s also
viewed by users as a more ‘personal’
device.
• A smartphone is always on
your person because it’s small
enough to travel with you ev-
erywhere.
• It’s always on in the sense that
it’s always connected to the In-
ternet/network and can notify
you immediately of a new mes-
sage, tweet, or status update.
TPMA
(continued on page 7)
7. 4 Mobile Design Mindsets (from pg 6) Wisdom from the Crowd
• It is the most social commodity An intuitive UI that acknowledges the Quotes directly from YOU
we own, allowing us to commu- personal nature of the mobile device
nicate with friends, colleagues,
and strangers via voice, text,
and anticipates user intent can mean the
difference between an app that collects Q uestion: What is your MOST im-
portant lesson in Product Man-
agement?
videos, and imagery. dust, and one that becomes part of your
customer’s daily routine.
If your application is one you foresee us-
ers using multiple times a day, it’s a good Mobile UI design best practices "Always make sure you are in a situation
idea to provide the ability to save pref- to get lots of feedback quickly so you can
When designing a mobile product, there
erences, and automatically “remember” learn. Works for your career and your
is almost never a need for a one-to-one
recent entries. products."
relationship between its capabilities and
--- Charlie Trainor
the desktop product. User needs differ
Allow users to easily control notifica- greatly from one platform to another be-
tions and alerts cause a user’s goal on a tablet or smart-
"Dedicate an appropriate amount of time
Users also expect the ability to personal- phone can be quite different from his or
to providing the voice of the customer to
ize aspects of your application. A good her goal at a desktop. For this reason,
product development teams."
design will allow them to: you must always create a mobile product
--- Peter Cop
— and not just ‘port’ it from an existing
• Modify the alert notification
solution.
(whether it is a sound or a vi-
bration) “Product Management is a difficult
By understanding the context in which
• Easily turn off alerts job, with many paradoxes to juggle,
the device will be used, obtaining a deep
teams wanting your decision and bless-
• Quickly respond to the alert di- and objective understanding of your us-
ing, and times of enormous pressure.
rectly from the alert screen ers’ needs, and tailoring your design
Learn to meditate!”
to meet user goals, you can success-
--- Charles Dimov
Anticipate user intent fully translate an existing product into
a streamlined mobile application that is
Today’s mobile users expect their smart- intuitive, quickly adopted by users and,
phone or tablet to be ‘smart’. So you “Start with Why.”
in turn, successful in the crowded mobile
should design your product to recognize --- Aldwin Neekon
marketplace.
input already provided and focus the
next set of choices accordingly. If, for
example, your usability tests show us- "If it's not working - give up! Try some-
ers almost always wish to perform task thing else - don't feel like you have to
‘B’ upon completion of task ;A’, ensure About the Author continue because of prior investment."
your design shepherds users directly to Scott Plewes is an expert in user experi- --- Corina Stoddard
‘B’ from ‘A’. ence design, user research, and incorpo-
rating the voice of the
Windows Phone 7 does a good job of customer into prod- "The most important opinion comes from
anticipating user intent by displaying the uct design. As Vice consumers, not product mgrs."
keyboard most appropriate for the form President of User --- Leslie Nicholson
being completed. iPhone and Android Experience Design
are also good at accommodating activity. at Maca-
When the user is on a call, for example, damian,
the screen turns black. As soon as the Scott has
phone is pulled away from the ear, the 20 years of experience design-
screen re-appears because it ‘knows’ the ing across the spectrum - from
user will probably want to perform anoth- desktop, web, and mobile ex-
er activity. Because the device is close to perience design through to
the user at all times, applications can be command line and telepho-
used multiple times throughout the day. ny design. Contact Scott at
The most useful and efficient quickly be- scott@macadamian.com and
come part of a user’s lifestyle, while the view more detailed presenta-
rest are discarded. tions: www.macadamian.com.
TPMA
8. Wild Apricot Powers Web TPMA Welcomes Macadamian
as a Corporate Sponsor!
T PMA welcomes Macadamian as our
latest Corporate Sponsor, supporting
the product management community,
professional development, and network-
ing across the Greater Toronto Area.
Macadamian is a global leader in soft-
ware product creation providing a com-
plete range of product strategy, user
experience design and software engi-
neering services to clients around the
world, including industry leaders like
BitTorrent, Telus, Juniper, RIM and Mi-
crosoft. For established and emerging
technologies and platforms, Macadami-
an has a track record of helping clients
N oticed anything different about www.
tpma.ca lately? You may have ob-
served a slightly different look and layout
ties which we will be rolling out
in the future such as electronic
payments (Visa, PayPal, etc) for
create successful products on a com-
plete range of desktop, web and mobile
platforms.
to the site. Or maybe you didn’t notice meetings and memberships
anything at all - which is good. This partnership is a great opportunity to
Your Feedback and Ideas Please... strengthen a relationship between two
In May we migrated www.tpma.ca to a organisations which are both committed
new platform from one of the TPMA’s Do you have feedback regarding the new to helping product managers improve
new sponsors, Wild Apricot. With many web site, ideas for how we can improve their effectiveness at bringing creative
thanks and much appreciation to Vault the tpma.ca web site and/or improve our new products to market.
Solutions, who hosted our site for most on-line TPMA presence? Please provide
of the past 10 years, we decided that us your feedback using our Feedback Not only will Macadamian sponsor the
to better serve the fast-growing TPMA form at http://www.tpma.ca/feedback or TPMA; they are also sponsoring To-
community we needed to transition to a sending an email to webmaster@tpma. ronto ProductCamp 2012 - taking place
product/platform designed to support the ca. We look forward to hearing from you. on Saturday July 28th, at the Rogers
unique needs of volunteer associations And stay tuned for more updates as we School of Management.
like the TPMA. continue to evolve the web site to serve
you better! Visit: www.macadamian.com
What’s In It For Me (community)?
• Better Record Keeping - More
robust contact/member frame-
. TPMA Mentoring
work which makes it easier for Program - Take II
you to sign-up and easier for us
Engage in your Profession as a Mentor / Mentee
to identify you for meeting regis-
trations, etc. Last year TPMA’s first mentoring season started. With a huge
response we quickly ran out of mentors. Those who
• Improved Communication - Eas-
were teamed-up, are still going strong.
ier for leaders and volunteers to
send out targeted email commu-
In Nov 2012 we will be at it again. Mentors,
nication and easier for contacts/
share your wealth of experience, and sign
members to control their own
up today. Mentee’s, learn from those who
subscriptions to updates like up-
have been there, and succeeded.
coming meetings, newsletters,
blogs, etc.
Title email: Mentoring
• Additional Capabilities - The Send to: mentorship@tpma.ca
Wild Apricot platform also pro-
NOTE: NOT a Job Referral Service!
TPMA
vides us with additional capabili-
9. TPMA Social 2012
TPMA Summer Social
Photographs are from TPMA
Social or Milano Bar sur-
roundings: 26Jun2012.
Event Photographers:
Calum Tsang
+ Anonymous
TPMA
10. Inside Product Management: SpeechBobble
Inside Product Management is a new other content. Few provide any further end. The difficulty then becomes an
series, asking PMs in different firms and data than: a) what is being said, and b) issue of understanding the common
industries to describe their role, respon- the name of the individual saying it. requirements that exist between indus-
sibilities, functions, and profession. tries. We avoid customization by provid-
Social networks virtualize relationships ing a series of interchangeable features
E veryone is familiar with the concept
of social networks such as Face-
book, or Twitter. These names have
and the discussions they generate.
When I post to Facebook, I know every-
thing about the person I’m posting to,
that different clients can select, while still
benefitting from the main platform func-
tions common to all.
become part of our daily interaction with and their connections. I know that oth-
friends and family, and they provide a ers who read my post will also know the The result is that Speechbobble are busi-
dashboard of essential information. same about me, and can engage in the ness experts. We understand and pro-
conversation based on that knowledge. vide the tools that you need to manage
Traditional electronic communication Information is presented with context. projects, share documents, communi-
(like email, forums, or even instant mes- cate strategically, and locate the subject
senger) packages content as stand- My product, Speechbobble, an Enter- matter experts within your organization.
alone items. An email thread is orga- prise Social Network, replicates the ben-
nized into a hierarchy of documents or efit of social networks in the context of As Head of Product Development, I
files separate from other emails. Instant the workplace. We support conversation identify these requirements, then design
chat creates temporary conversations, and provide value to organizations with and prioritize the development of the
perfect for immediate communication. defined goals. One of our main chal- features that address them. This may be
Forums provide single streams of con- lenges lies in repurposing a style of com- my favorite aspect of the job. It gives me
versation, with no relevance to the great- munication designed for casual interac- the opportunity to understand business
er community. tions into something productive. processes unique to a variety of indus-
tries. I am constantly refining my over-
In reality, the above examples of com- To this end, we virtualize common busi- all understanding of business, providing
munication are best used for delivering ness processes. Our delivery model re- solutions to problems consistent across
independent content. They’re not op- lies on our platform’s success in meeting industry verticals.
timized for delivering information with the needs of most businesses, without
context because of its relationship with requiring further customization on our However, designing and implementing
product features is only part of what I do.
Other responsibilities that are equally
important to my role are: platform inte-
gration strategy; user experience de-
sign; and analytical evaluation.
Again, we avoid customized feature de-
velopment for individual deployments.
Should a client request a unique feature,
I must determine the value of building
the custom feature versus finding and
incorporating another product’s solution.
Specific examples may include provi-
sioning our platform with ecommerce ca-
pabilities, or enabling single sign-on with
other products.
Driving factors for making these deci-
sions usually depend on the frequency
of requests for a particular function, the
value a new feature adds to our existing
feature suite, and whether or not it fits
into our current roadmap. If these fac-
tors don’t dictate a need to develop the
new feature internally, I must determine
the value that another product may pro-
TPMA
11. vide, and whether it can be integrated
with ours. This aspect of my job expos- Join TPMA on LinkedIn?
es me to other solution providers and
expands my knowledge of other market
spaces.
Speechbobble’s features aren’t all that
determine the value of the platform.
One of the most important reasons for
a Speechbobble’s success is the experi-
ence it provides to the end user. Like
most software, our product needs to en-
courage use through intuitive platform
design and an attractive interface. De-
signing the overall user experience can
be a creative outlet, and is often the larg-
est source of fun in my position.
Unfortunately, inflexible organizations
S
view social networks as redundant fea- ince inception the TPMA LinkedIn 30% of the participants are in Product
ture sets provided by existing tools. Group has grown steadily these Management, which should come as no
Without using the product, it’s difficult to years, hitting 700 members as of this surprise. The other prominent groups are
understand its value unless you see the week (technically 699 as of this writing). then distributed across various functions
inherent weakness in those preexisting It is refreshing to that so many partici- listed as consulting, marketing, busi-
tools. To combat this obstacle, we also pants are finding value in being part of ness development and sales. Again the
provide a tool that appeals to traditional the community. Above is the chart from interesting point here is the wide range
views of what is valuable: analytics. LinkedIn Group’s Statistics page show- of functions and broad opinions one can
ing the gradual and very consistent harness from a group, like ours.
Having started out as an Analyst, ana- growth of our discussion forum.
lytics remain very important to me. Join the conversation. If you are not on
Speechbobble contains an analytics en- Interestingly, the first chart below show- the TPMA Group, then please subscribe.
gine that converts the qualitative value ing the seniority of our LinkedIn Group If you are on, then do take a moment to
that can be derived from using an En- users, shows us that 46% of the mem- add your thoughts, opinions, or ques-
terprise Social Network into quantifiable bership is in the Senior, or Director and tions to the forum. The group is here to
metrics. Stakeholders who champion above management ranks. What a super help support our community of Product
the platform can then illustrate hard ROI group of senior brainpower and experi- and Marketing Managers. Posting con-
through a variety of measurements. You ence to be part of your network. cepts, ideas or questions can help you
can easily determine statistics on ac- connect with like-minded, and some-
cepted projects vs. proposed projects; Below to the right, is the second chart times divergent thinkers - who might just
time spent planning; response time to describing the function of the members benefit your business, career, or get you
crises; and reduced meeting hours. This of the TPMA LinkedIn Group. Naturally the answers you seek. See you online!
capability is a source of pride as Head of
Product, as it sells Speechbobble as a
legitimate business tool.
About the Author
Lucan has been work-
ing in IT Communica-
tions and S/W for over
5 years.
Previous roles included
Analyst positions with
the City of Toronto’s
IT Portfolio Management group, and
GuestLogix Inc, an airline payment solu-
TPMA
tions provider.