The document discusses how to leverage social media to boost a product launch. It provides 6 tips: 1) Identify your natural community and influencers; 2) Define your social media strategy and focus platforms; 3) Engage your community long before launch to build anticipation; 4) Promote exclusive pre-launch content and perks; 5) Broadcast your launch widely across social networks; and 6) Continue engaging post-launch through responsive customer support and feedback. An example is given of a company that successfully used these tactics to generate significant social media attention for their new product line prior to official launch.

1. TPMA Toronto Product
Management Association
FOCUS Issue #11: 1Q 2013
What is the TPMA?
"Creating Insight through
Games
Shared Knowledge"
Founded in March 2001,
the Toronto Product Man-
agement Association is
a non-profit organization
Games
formed to create an en-
vironment that facilitates
learning, mentoring, & net-
working opportunities.
Visit: www.TPMA.ca
KEY DATES:
Gamification
Behavioural Sci. or BS?
- Tue, Jan 29th 6:30pm
...
- Metro Hall, 55 John St.
Product StoryLining
- Tue, Feb 26th 6:30pm
- Metro Hall, 55 John St.
Gamification
M-Commerce Trends
- Tue, Mar 19th 6:30pm
- Metro Hall, 55 John St.
THIS EDITION:
Snapshot 2
Mentoring 2013 2
Gamification 3
Social Media to boost
Your Product Launch 5
Checklist Manifesto 7
CoolTools 8

2. SNAPSHOT Mentoring Program 2013
D ecember 4th was a great start to the
TPMA’s second mentoring program.
With over 56 participants enrolled, orien-
mon theme among mentors when asked
about why they were participating - was
that they wish they had a mentor when
tation night gave everyone an opportu- they had started. Participants also men-
nity to learn about the process, and why tioned that they wanted to give of their
O ur season opener started off with a
solid look at your career in product
management, and the tips, tools and
it is both good for your career and for the
professional community in general. Men-
learnings to someone in their early
career, and that this also gave them a
tors and mentees both received pack- chance to develop, mature and network
suggestions for enhancing your own ages to help them review key aspects a little more deeply. Whatever the rea-
abilities and technique to drive success. of mentoring. Best of all this in person son, thank you again, as this program
Aptly, we ended December with the kick- event, gave the mentors and mentees cannot be run without a strong group of
off of our second major mentoring pro- their first opportunity to meet each other mentors.
gram for product and marketing manag- in person to start the relationship.
ers. January, included the first conference
Since the kickoff, most mentor pairs calls for both mentor groups, and men-
Many heartfelt thanks to all the mentors have had one or more in-person or tele- tee groups - to check in that everyone
who have volunteered some of their time, phone meetings to start the professional is on track. At both groups requests, we
to help someone more junior in their ca- development discussions. Pairs were will be doing follow up conference call
reer, to get their bearings, and have a instructed to find a goal of particular in- for both groups, in two months.
sounding board with whom to discuss terest to the mentee, and to focus on
challenging topics. Our mentoring pro- means to achieve that goal - to start the If you are interested in mentoring or be-
gram now includes over 56 participants discussions. ing a mentee - reach out to us at mentor-
making those connections, and deepen- ship@tpma.ca. The second mentoring
ing those networks. A heartfelt “Thank You” goes out to the program is now running. We are plan-
many mentors who have volunteered ning to run another wave of the program
Congratulations to our colleagues in Ot- their time to give back to their profes- starting September - and will start col-
tawa. The OPMA - Ottawa Product Man- sional community. Interestingly, a com- lecting early participant interest.
agement Association had their inaugural
meeting in December. This is a happy
rebirth for the OPMA. Tremendous effort
goes into creating an association that
drives engagement. Congratulations to
the executive-startup team, Mark Lind-
say, Peter Hanschke, Andrew Stevens,
Charles Funk, Solon Angel, and Andrew
Faulkner. Should you find yourself in Ot-
tawa, drop in on an OPMA meeting - and
tell us all about it!
Welcome back for the second half of
the season. Looking forward to learning,
networking and growing. I trust you will
join us.
See you there!
Charles Dimov
TPMA
President Elizabeth Hosein and Lee Garrison discussing the 2010 TPMA Mentoring Program

3. Gamification: A Winning Strategy
for an increasingly Gamified World
W hy gamification is good? What is itself such as leadership and teamwork. well as non-monetary rewards such as
the potential downside? And, most When applied successfully, businesses boarding the plane in priority sequence
importantly, how can you apply gamifica- are training and eliciting desired behav- or having first access to seating choices,
tion to win in business? iours in their customers. etc. The value that the frequent traveller
puts on such perks is large. Many fre-
Airline loyalty programs and points for quent fliers cite them as a primary moti-
• Gamification vendors are project-
purchase are classic examples of gami- vator for airline loyalty, even though the
ing 197% growth in 2012, up from
fication; concepts packaged as loyalty/ hard cost to Air Canada is minimal.
155% in 2011 (M2Research)
reward programs incorporating their
• 70% of Global 2000 organizations own type of “leaderboards” to drive user As much as gamification is a bit of a buzz-
will have at least one gamified ap- engagement and desire for progression word right now, it is not an easy solution
plication by 2014 (Gartner) within the system. The main attraction to implement properly. The programs in-
• The size of the gamification mar- for most travellers who belong to airline stituted to drive behaviour need to make
ket will have grown from $100 mil- loyalty programs is free flights, but not sense, provide true benefit to users and
lion today to over $2.8 billion by far behind are the “status” tiers within be crafted to tap into proper motivators
2016 (M2) it. For points systems the driver is for that will drive desired behavioural results
purchases and the build up to cashing in users. While the research analyst firm,
Gamification is the use of design tech- out for discounts or “free” products. As Gartner, sees a huge uptake in gamifica-
niques, thinking and mechanics for an example, Air Canada has three sta- tion applications as noted above, it also
games in non-traditional gaming sce- tus tiers: Prestige, Elite and Super Elite. ultimately predicts that 80% of them will
narios. The intention is to elicit desired Each of these status tiers has their own be failures. Therefore, gamification is
behaviour in people and engage with special perks that reward the most fre- not something you should take lightly
target audiences in a meaningful way. quent of fliers, and they do not necessar- like setting up a facebook page or start-
The concept of Gamification can be ap- ily cost Air Canada more money. As you ing a twitter feed. These predicted fail-
plied in various forms such as to influ- gain miles by flying, you advance in sta- ures are primarily due to the imperfect
ence employee performance, help with tus tiers and receive additional benefit design and implementation of the pro-
innovation management and improve as you move up from tier to tier. T h e s e grams. Just slapping a points card onto
training processes. A beneficial tactic to status tiers are a form a transaction does not drive behaviour
gamification is the creation of adaptive of a gaming “lead- for the majority of consumers. If it did,
marketing applications to build customer erboard” and businesses would just continue dis-
engagement. belonging counting products and servic-
to a es for their cus-
In essence, the process of gamification tomers and
turns the target audience (i.e. users, hope it
prospects, customers, brand keeps
loyalist, etc.) into “gamers.” them
Gamification trans- around.
forms not-so-ex-
citing real-world
activities into ex-
periences that are
game-like to drive
beneficial behaviour
and repeat engagement.
Though the term may seem
all the rage lately, the concepts
have been around for a long time. It is For a successful gamification
the technique of learning and modelling result, businesses need to under-
behaviour through play. Education and stand some of the deeper principles
training programs frequently use games higher of loyalty, motivation and game mechan-
to teach and promote higher concepts tier brings ics. It is not a matter of adding badges,
that are beyond the rules of the game status as
TPMA
(continued on page 4)

4. Gamification: Strategy (from pg 3)
loyalty points, check-in or leaderboards. cial media that the user is at the top of desired behaviour and deepen their
Proper implementation of a Gamification the leaderboard and implementing it in loyalty. Like anything with business, it’s
system or the gamification of a product a neighbourhood (home vs. home), or not supposed to be trivial or easy-- the
requires very insightful analysis of all of with like-minded businesses (or school key to success is to be more thoughtful,
the factors associated to your specific vs. school), or expand it to have sister smarter and better than the other guy.
desired result such as target audience, cities compete (town vs. town) for brag-
psychological/physiological motivation, ging rights is a very compelling concept
environmental factors, etc. The end goal to build into an application. Tapping into
is to engage the user and entice them to socially-conscious behaviour results in References and Suggested readings:
want to use a product or service more status and prestige and is a real driver • Forbes: Gamification Grows Up
regularly beyond simple day-to-day cost for consumers. The fact that this comes to Become a CEO’s Best Friend,
savings. If not achieved, users will just with a reduction in an energy bill makes May 2012
move from business to business based it even more concrete. • Gartner: Gartner Predicts Over
on price alone. 70 Percent of Global 2000 Or-
The key to successful gamification (as it ganisations Will Have at Least
A good example for a successful gami- is with any application or program) is to One Gamified Application by
fication opportunity is in energy con- understand the customer and how they 2014, November, 2011
servation. Saving energy is ingrained act (and can act) in the system. It’s not • Gartner: Gartner Says by 2014,
in virtually every consumer as being a all about leaderboards and rewards— 80 Percent of Current Gamified
good thing all around (good for them, users/players need to feel immersed Applications Will Fail to Meet
good for the environment, good for the and to feel rewarded. Business Objectives Primarily
pocketbook), but billboards and radio Due to Poor Design, November,
ads telling you to save power are lost in The gamification opportunity is large with 2012
the noise. Instituting a simple gamifica- many proven success cases. It is a great • M2 Research: Gamified Engage-
tion program to challenge consumers way to look at your product and service ment, September, 2011
to be the “best on the block” for saving offerings in a whole new light. The suc- • TechCrunch: Everything You’ll
power and then allowing users to track cess challenge of proper implementation Ever Need To Know About Gami-
their progress, particularly against peer is to not rely on the obvious, but to take fication, November, 2012
groups or neighbours is both a challenge the time and effort to design something
and rewarding. Allowing for brags on so- that the user really needs, that will drive
About the Author
Scott Simpson is CEO
of bitHeads, an Ottawa
based application and
game development
company. With a 17
year track record of
building enterprise,
cloud, console, and
mobile applications and games, bit-
Heads introduced a cloud based gamifi-
cation service called brainCloud in 2012.
For more information, visit www.bit-
heads.com , email info@bitheads.com
or give us a call toll free at 1-877-bithead.
TPMA

5. How to Leverage Social Media to
Boost Your Product Launch
I ’m a fan of the show Dragon’s Den. It
is always interesting to hear about new
innovation and even more interesting to
This is proof that social media can be a Tip No. 2: Define Your Strategy and
great launch pad for one’s product even Platforms to Focus On
if you are not a multinational with large By understanding where your natural
hear how some entrepreneurs manage budgets. So, how can you leverage so- community is on the social net is the
to accomplish their level of success with cial media to boost your product launch? first step in helping you formulate the
little resources at hand. Of late, I noticed
Here are six handy tips: right social strategy and determine the
an increasing number of entrepreneurs right platforms to focus on. Often times,
on the show are attributing part of their While your product may not be ready Delvinia worked with clients who are
success to social media. Beardo Wear for the world just yet, there is a natural overwhelmed with the number of social
was one of them (and no, this is not a community and advocates out there for platforms they are engaged with and do
paid sponsorship). like products or around the problem your not see the return on investment. This is
product will solve. Identify your commu- a symptom of not having an established
Beardo Wear is a relatively new com- nity and influencers. strategy and focus.
pany selling playful, innovative head-
wear targeting the ski slopes. In less In the age of social networks, you can Think through why you are using social
than 4 months, they rallied more fans identify your influencers down to the in- media. Which platforms are your target
on Facebook than Arlene Dickinson, dividual level by using social listening audience using? Which platform makes
the reputable dragonette on Dragon’s tools. There are many tools, even some sense for the type of content you are pro-
Den. Beardo Wear currently has over decent free tools for light social listening. ducing? What are the KPIs that are go-
38,000 ‘likes’ and 1,700+ ‘talking about For example, Twitter’s advance search ing to help you measure your progress
this’, comparable to the well-established can help you identify those vocal on spe- and success? Social media is deceptive-
cific topics on Twitter; Google Alerts ly simple – just create a Facebook page
can help you identify conversations or Twitter profile and the world will come
in a variety of platforms (e.g. discus- to you. Nothing could be further from the
sion groups, blogs, video). If you are truth. You need a plan to create audi-
looking for a free tool that gives you ence scale, publish relevant interesting
a bit more depth and a dashboard content and have a response plan to
view on the topic (e.g. sentiment, deal with questions and feedback (both
reach, strength, related keywords, positive and negative)
top users) you can try Social Men-
tion (www.socialmention.com). An Tip No. 3: Engage Your Community
organization that is serious about Long Before Launch
its social media efforts should invest Engaging this community early would
in listening and measurement tools build anticipation and ensure you have
that can search and organize brand, an audience to broadcast to when your
competitor or industry mentions for product is ready for the world.
for analysis and followup. Leading
social listening and measurement Pre-launch engagement could include
tools in the market include Sysomos,
Radian6, etc. Personally, I prefer the (continued on page 6)
Sysomos interface due to
its ease of use.
The mentioned approach
is exactly how Delvinia
approached the Microsoft
Office365 product launch
snowboard gear company – K2 (42,000+ in the social media space, a
‘likes’, 1,300 ‘talking about this’). Not too project Delvinia was engaged
shabby for a two-SKU start-up. in by client Microsoft.
TPMA

6. Social Media to Boost Product Launches (from pg 5)
collaborating with them to vet product morning food options and reusable cold source compared to the advertisers. A
ideas or gain insights on their attitudes cups. study by Cision and George Washington
and needs. For example, “My Starbucks University found that an overwhelming
Idea” is a crowdsourced platform that al- Tip No. 4: Develop Authentic, Share- majority of reporters and editors depend
lows consumers to share product-relat- able Conversations on social media sources when research-
ed ideas with each other and the compa- Canada is a fertile ground for online ing their stories. 89% of the journalists in
ny. Since the program launched in 2008, engagement. Canadians are spending the study turn to blogs for story research
more than 315 of the ideas submitted more time online than people in any while 65% use social networks and 52%
have been implemented, like healthier other country. The average Canadian use Twitter.
spends about 45 hours a month Journalists are using social media to find
browsing the Internet (source: Com- ideas for stories and the people to inter-
Score Inc.) and has 225 Facebook view about them. Encouraging advocacy
friends. Furthermore, young Canadi- in social media can create a groundswell
ans between the ages of 13-24 have that journalists can see and feel.
330 Facebook friends and tell 1.6
billion stories on Facebook (source: Tip No. 6: Measure and Refine
Facebook, June 2011). If you already tested the water with so-
cial media for your product launch, con-
By making your product-related gratulations! That’s the first step. Be-
stories and engagements share- yond that, it is important to measure and
able, you increase the visibility of refine your engagement approach and
your product multifold. For example, messaging. For example, Crystal Light
Beard Wear identified snowboard- realized through measurement that one
ers as their core community and was of the most engaging topics related to
able to develop engaging conversa- their brand was around flavour. There-
tions with them. The engaging con- fore, they adjusted their content and
versations then propagate through added more conversations around fla-
this community’s network of friends vour to further engage their community.
and helped increase Beardo’s prod-
uct visibility and fanfare. Finally, future consumers are a lot more
social-savvy than the mainstream con-
It is important to note that the secret sumers today. Learning how to engage
sauce to a successful community is them in social media will only become in-
having a voice and personality that creasingly important. Just recall the im-
truly shares the passion and values portance of having a product site 10-15
of the community. I believe part of years ago and today. Ten, fifteen years
Beardo Wear’s success in the so- ago, having product information on the
cial media space was due to the fact Internet was optional but not today. That
that the people behind the Beardo will be the case with social media en-
Wear brand are passionate about gagement as well in the very near future.
the ski slopes. Therefore, they were
able to create conversations and About the Author
engagements that are relatable and Rosalina Lin Allen is the
authentic to their community. If you Director, Client Strategy
don’t share the values and passion at Delvinia. Delvinia helps
of the community that would use organizations innovate
your brand, then consider recruiting and improve their digi-
a community manager that does to tal experiences through
ensure successful engagement in the use of data-driven in-
the social media space. sights, a customer centric process, sto-
rytelling and emerging digital platforms.
Tip No. 5: Connect with Bloggers
Bloggers have extraordinary amount Contact Rosalina at rlinallen@delvinia.
of influence in the social sphere. com for inquiries or find out more about
They are seen as the more objective Delvinia at: www.delvinia.com.
TPMA

7. PM’s Book Review Corner on deploying checklists, particularly in
team settings where communication
for routine procedures reduced hospital- steps are set within the checklist. He
acquired infections. Checklists resulted also notes challenges of implementing
in 1500 lives saved in the first 18 months checklists such as staff resisting the use
with $175 million in savings. of a tool viewed as time consuming or
even humbling to some professionals.
In product management, the checklist To address these issues, Gawande pro-
concept has two key applications. First vides lessons learned, including insights
is implementing checklists into key prod- from other industries such as aviation
uct management tasks such as a launch and construction, which he uses in the
plan checklist. My team has started to implementation of his surgical checklists.
establish re-usable checklists to assist
preparation for other activities, such as The book is very readable and a quick
solution demos, tradeshow events, and read at 225 pages. It includes examples
customer advisory group meetings. from multiple industries, in which Gawa-
Readability:  nde demonstrates the tangible benefits
The second application, particularly for of using a checklists. Gawande makes
Content: 
software product managers, is the po- the case that a checklist is a swift and
Applicability:  tential of implementing the checklist simple tool aimed to support the skills
Overall:  concept into a product. My firm develops of professionals. It gets the easy, even
software solutions for users in the health simple steps out of the way – allowing
A simple concept of the checklist has
facilitated the operations of various
industries from aviation, manufacturing,
care, community care and social servic- the user to focus on higher level issues.
es sectors. One module in our solution is For product management, this book can
construction, and health care. In his 2009 used to generate a personalized patient may provide useful insight and ideas in
book, A Checklist Manifesto: How to Get care plan template based on responses terms of both product management and
Things Right, Atul Gawande, articulates from a patient assessment. Patient care development processes.
the benefits of using this simple tool to plans are themselves checklists, with a
achieve significant benefits. Gawande list of goals to address a patient’s set
notes that for many professions a vast of issues, and a list of tasks to achieve About the Reviewer
body of knowledge exists, and a chal- each goal. A quality Care Plan checklist Mario Fernandopulle is a Solutions
lenge exists in the ability to access this not only promotes standardization and Manager at B Sharp Technologies. B
information. For example, in medicine, implementation of best practices of care, Sharp develops specialty documenta-
there are over 68,000 diagnoses with but also reduces a clinician’s time spent tion and complex case management
thousands of medications and surgeries. developing plans and increases time solutions across the healthcare, social
spent on clinical judgment and care. services, and community care sectors.
In delivering patient care, the challenge Contact Mario at mario.fernandopulle@
is to draw upon and implement this
knowledge in a timely manner. Human Gawande presents interesting principles
memory would be challenged to ensure
key steps are consistently followed in a . TPMA Mentoring
high volume of procedures. Gawande
advocates implementing a simple tool Program - Take II
– checklists - in healthcare delivery and
other professions to organize and direct This season’s mentoring program is already underway.
the complexity, which can lead to more Thanks to all those who attended the orientation session in early
consistent outcomes with fewer errors. December. The program is off to a great start with over 56
participants. This season’s program will run to
As a surgeon and public health re- June, with plans for the next program to
searcher, Gawande provides many ex- start in September 2013.
amples from the health care field. In one
Thanks to participants, and Mentors who
example, he notes the implementation
are volunteering their time and experience.
of a WHO surgery checklist in 8 hospi-
Without you this would not be possible.
tals throughout the world demonstrat-
ed a 36% drop in major complications
Comments to: mentorship@tpma.ca
following surgery and a 47% drop in
deaths. In another example, check- NOTE: NOT a Job Referral Service!
TPMA
lists implemented at Michigan hospitals

8. COOLTOOLS: Balsamiq development,
others like
W hen you’re proposing a new or re-
vised part of a software product
and want feedback, a mockup is worth a
Facebook
have gone
further and
thousand words. Balsamiq Mockups lets eliminated
you create and modify mockups of app iterations en-
screens or Web pages very easily. If you tirely, devel-
want a button, a text label, a scroll bar, a oping each
map, an iPhone keyboard, or something change indi-
created by you or another user, find it vidually and
in the collection at the top of the screen deploying it
and drag it down onto your working area. as soon as
Drag in more things; double-click to edit it’s ready.
them for size, labelling, or other proper- This follows
ties; drag things around; add annotations the Kanban
that look like sticky notes. You won’t approach
even need the documentation to use it. w h e r e
Balsamiq mockups intentionally look a Example Screen Shot of a mockup project in Balsamiq Mockups
people and
bit rough so people you show them to teams “pull” an item from one column “hey, I can use this for my own lists!” so
are less likely to think they’re wireframes to another, the simplest example being you’ll face less of the resistance you’re
and that the new functionality is final- To Do, In Progress, Done. In software used to getting when you make people
ized and will be ready soon! Balsamiq development, an actual column might deal with something new. Trello is free
Mockups is available as a desktop app be “Finished Development and Ready (and no ads), and has just hit a million
for Windows, Mac, or Linux, via Adobe for Testing”, with items placed on it by signups.
AIR (US$79, one user), or as an online developers and pulled out of it by tes-
web app ($12/month and up, unlimited ters. A good tool for this is Trello – and About the Author
users), or as a plugin for Google Drive, if you do a Web search for Trello De- Rohan Jayasekera is a
Atlassian Confluence, Atlassian JIRA, velopment Board you’ll see Trello’s own product management
FogBugz, or XWiki (pricing varies). All board (yes, it’s public, and in the Ideas & development con-
versions have a free trial. column you can vote for what you’d like sultant. Rohan is also
them to work on). Visually it’s much like currently advising Inter-
Pivotal Tracker, but doesn’t include itera- axon on the very excit-
Trello tions, velocity, etc. and is more flexible ing, and growing field of
thought-controlled com-
E ven while some organizations are because it’s actually a general-purpose
“list of lists” tool. Which gives you this ad- puting. Rohan has also
still moving to Scrum and other short-
vantage when you introduce it to people been a long standing member, contribu-
iteration-based approaches to software
in your organization: they’re likely to say tor and supporter of the TPMA.
SPONSORS
LEADERSHIP TEAM
Fees collected through sponsorship help to defer the costs of obtaining exceptional Charles Dimov President
speakers, operating the web site, and building resources and tools for our members. Lee Garrison Secretary
These are activities which in turn attract more members, drive higher activity on the Niki Coons Treasurer
web pages, and increase the exposure for our sponsors. Allan Neil VP Operations
Aldwin Neekon VP Comm.
See www.TPMA.ca/sponsors for details or contact us at info@TPMA.ca to Deepika Mediratta VP Strat.Init.
find out about Commercial Sponsorship or Corporate Membership.
TPMA
Published: Jan 28, 2013
© 2013 Toronto Product Management Association