mktg@msft

Robotic Rubik

Joi points to an article by archaeological conservator, programmer, and Lego aficionado JP Brown. JP has built a lego model with a computer interface that will solve a Rubik's Cube.

I remember Rubik's Cubes were popular back in the late 70's. As a high-school kid, I bought a book to learn the patterns required to solve the puzzle, and spent hours mastering the craft. I was a geek even back then.

The whole idea of robotics doing the work of humans isn't anything new. I grew up reading Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clark. My grandfather worked for an engineering company that built some of the first manufacturing robots.

Tom Peters brings up something interesting in Re-Imagine! He argues that just like manufacturing jobs have been replaced by robots, Information Work will be replaced by Artificial Intelligence over the next decades. With better systems to measure, analyze, and report business processes, it's not a wonder that many "middle manager" jobs will be unnecessary in the future.

Seeing this Lego robot doing both physical and intellectual tasks really brings home that point to me.

Marketing After Crossing The Chasm

Okay, this is one of those posts where I have to remind everyone that this is MY PERSONAL OPINION, and I don't speak for Microsoft officially here. I don't work in the Windows group. I'm not all that technical. And of course I make no warrantees, expressed or implied (whatever that means).

One of my favorite bloggers, Halley Suitt, just posted a rant on Halley's Comment called "Upgrade = Downgrade Per Usual." She outlines her frustration with upgrading her Windows system, and it really struck a chord with me. She writes:

"I decided to risk it. I ran the upgrade thing and it told me there were 6 applications that needed updates. It also told me some COMPLETELY INDECIPHERABLE TECHNICAL-MARKETING-BLAH-BLAH thing about needing the "Exclusive Service Package" and of course that this must be done first.

I had no idea (NOR WANTED TO KNOW) what the hell their Exclusive Service Package (or whatever the obscure language was) did or why I needed it. Also the word "exclusive" was confusing to me -- what's exclusive about it -- do I have to pay for it? Is it exclusive to only certain customers? What the hell is "exclusive service" -- an 800 number with a non-Bangalorean person on the other end?

It also had that anti-customer tone of "you know you have to do this before you do that, of course" except I had no idea WHAT applications were being upgraded (there was a spagetti pile of words I couldn't make heads nor tails of) and why I might have to do one first or not. Shouldn't the software guys who are so keen on these being done in some order, SIMPLY DO THEM IN ORDER, ALL ON THEIR OWN. Why are they asking me to do that? Oh, yeah, I forgot, because I'm a PhD in Computer Science with nothing to do for the next 5 hours -- NOT!!!!!"

The ironic thing is, the whole "Windows Update" thing is supposed to make it easier to keep things updated, not harder.

I'm hopeful that future versions of Windows (including the periodic Service Packs like SP2) will make the whole user experience more intuitive, for both advanced and beginning users. The newest SP2 (now in beta) does make some progress in making Windows Update easier--though there's always room for improvement when it comes to making things elegant.

Something I've found interesting (culturally speaking) about marketing is that I'm finding some people in this industry struggling with the fact that we're marketing to a different audience now. When a lot of our most senior marketers were hired, Operating Systems (and PC's) were sold to early adopters, technically-savvy "end users", systems admins, corporate IT groups, people who wanted us to talk in bits and bytes and speeds and feeds. Now that 80% of households have PCs, and nearly everyone has a PC on their desk at work, our customers are very, very different than they were just a few years ago.

From Geoffrey Moore's "Crossing the Chasm" model, PC's (and operating systems and applications) have moved past the top of the adoption curve, and even to the tail, where a significant (thank goodness not a majority) of users are pragmatics and reluctants. They want to see things work in a very different way than early adopters, even the early majority. (I joke with Halley and put her at the end of the tail--she writes about it in Worthwhile).

Music is a great example for me. Don't make me fill out preferences and click boxes and save files and choose bit rates. I want a freaking jukebox that plays a CD when I pop it in.

Media Player 9 is very, very cool. And a lot better than version 8. If you haven't downloaded it, I highly recommend it. It should do what Halley was asking. But how can we make the whole experience better for those who aren't enthusiasts or geeks? In case you haven't noticed, Windows XP is a whole lot easier to use than Windows 95 is. And I hope Longhorn will take us even further.

In the meantime, I want to say THANKS for the rant. I hope it furthers the cause of those of us reminding people to remember we have a lot of different customers, not just geeks.

FWIW, I don't know what COMPLETELY INDECIPHERABLE TECHNICAL-MARKETING-BLAH-BLAH means most of the time either.

Oh, ya. When you get stuck, ask your kids. Chances are, they'll know what to do...

Instant Messaging at Work

One of the things my team is responsible for is collaboration between employees in our division. As part of our rollout of SharePoint 2.0, we’re encouraging employees to use Windows Messenger. Those already using Instant Messaging get why it’s a good thing. Increasingly, I’m able to get things done using Messenger at my desk or in meetings, rather than using email. In fact, I’m monitoring incoming email less and less, and relying on IM more and more.

Those that have been using IM for a while know there’s a separate set of rules for instant messaging. And it’s pretty easy to spot those that are new to it by the way they use it. So how should IM be used in businesses?

David S. Marshak, Sr. VP and Sr. Consultant, Patricia Seybold Group recently addressed this exact topic, in an article called Instant Messaging at Work: Key Policies and Practices for Leveraging IM in Business.

“More and more businesses are beginning to see the use of instant messaging (IM) as an interesting—if not compelling—way to make their organizations more responsive and effective. By using IM, particularly its presence-awareness features, companies can significantly reduce the time it takes to deal with customer issues, sometimes resolving them in real time. Effective use of IM can also eliminate much of the internal churning (emails, voice mails, walks past someone’s office) it takes for one employee to get information and assistance from another. And for many companies, IM provides a direct mode of communications with their customers—a mode that enables far closer relationships than we’ve seen since electronic communications became the norm.”

David recommends that companies establish policies in several areas: Expectations of privacy and responsiveness; Logging in; Availability; and Courtesy and Respect. I’ll summarize many of his thoughts (I’ve starred those), and add a few of my own.

1. Load the client when you’re online and working. Collaborative software doesn’t work if everyone doesn’t use it.*
2. Use the Status features of your client: Available, Busy, In a Meeting, On the Phone, etc.* David’s got some great tips on this topic.
3. If “available,” reply promptly (David recommends 2-10 minutes, depending on your business). *
4. It’s okay to say “I’ll reply later” or “Sorry, not now.” *
5. If you leave a message, and someone becomes “busy” without responding, and you get your question answered, reply “never mind”*
6. If you have more than a simple request (“is the document you sent final?”), “knock” by saying “got a minute?” or something similar.*
7. Don’t use IM to replace email. If you need to include more than a line of text, use email.
8. Don’t use email to replace IM. If it’s a quick question (“ready for lunch?”), don’t clog up their Inbox.
9. Don’t be too chatty. If a conversation is taking more than a few responses back and forth, pick up the phone.
10. Don’t be afraid to end the conversation if you got your answer. “Instant” messaging should be quick in and quick out.
11. It’s good to end the conversation with “bye” or “cya” or whatever you choose.*
12. If someone’s typing (you can usually see they are with a status indicator), wait for their response before changing the conversation.*
13. You might choose to turn off “notify when someone comes online” unless there’s a need. As the technology gets widely adopted, you may get a bunch of these, and if everyone’s online, you won’t need to see their status until you need to IM them.
14. I have separate clients for work (Windows Messenger) and personal (MSN Messenger). I have both running at work (though when really busy I’ll only have work client running), but on weekends, I only load my personal client.

I’m sure there’s a lot more to this, and if you have tips, let me know!

In the meantime, you can IM me at johnporcaro@hotmail.com (or my work email if you’re using Windows Messenger behind the Microsoft firewall).

Getting Things Done!

Thanks largely in part to fellow blogger Robert Scoble, David Allen (along with his associates Eric Mack and Jason Womak) has a blog! I'm looking forward to supplanting one of the only newsletters I actually read with a daily RSS dose of GTD goodness.

I'll start this post by crying HELP! I've managed to (once again) dig myself into a 544-email deep Inbox hole, but I'm determined to process everything by the end of the day!

In the David Allen Productivity Principles newsletter I just got, I read with fascination an article written by Julie Daniel, called "Keeping Your Inbox Real". She outlines six common types of email she sees in her client's Inboxes:

"First of all there is the e-mail that they’ve read and there’s no action associated with it and they don’t need to keep it for reference. It shouldn’t really be in there any more because it’s finished with and it should have been deleted. But… they haven’t got round to deleting it yet. So, for now, it’s just sitting there…

Second is the e-mail that they’ve read and there’s no action associated with it but they think they may need to refer back to it at some later date. That one really shouldn’t be in there any more either because it should be filed away somewhere. But…they haven’t got around to filing it away yet. So, for now, just sitting there…

Third is the e-mail that they’ve read and they’ve decided there is an action on it but they haven’t quite decided what that action is yet. The e-mail is parked there as a reminder that they need to do something about it… once they figure out just exactly what it is that they want to do. So, for now, it’s just sitting there…

Fourth is the e-mail that they’ve read and they’ve decided that there is an action on it and they have actually decided what it is that they want to do but they just haven’t quite got round to doing that action yet. The e-mail is parked there as a reminder that, when they get some time in between all those meetings that they have to go to, they really need to do that action that they’ve decided to do. So, for now, it’s just sitting there…

Fifth is the e-mail that they’ve read and they’ve figured out what it was that they needed to do about it AND they’ve actually done that action. But now someone owes them a reply and so the e-mail is parked there as a reminder that they have done something but the game isn’t over yet because somebody owes them something back and they might need to chase it. And if they lose sight of the e-mail they might forget that the thing isn’t finished yet. So, for now, it’s just sitting there…

Sixth – and this is the only type of e-mail that really belongs in an in-box – is the one they haven’t read yet.

WOW! No wonder most people’s brains hurt when they look at their in-box."

Microsoft Insider Live

I just caught the latest Microsoft Insider Live on Tech TV. Excuse me while I crank the amp up to 11, but this show just keeps getting better and better.

My team managed the predecessor to this show, Microsoft Extreme. We'd rent out movie theaters across the US, and do a two-hour simulcast on a Saturday morning. A few years ago, we were challenged to increase attendance while cutting costs, and we came up with the idea to do a pilot on Tech TV. I miss having all those customers in one place, but we are able to reach a lot more people with the TV show.

The creator/producer of the Insider website and Newsletter and the creator/producer of Extreme and the Insider Live TV show moved to different groups about a year ago, but continue to improve their programs.

The latest 30-minute show is on cable TV, and can be seen online. It shows off some of the coolest features of Office 2003, including Outlook and One Note. I like the new show format, and even though this is flat-out "marketing" for Office, I learned a lot by watching. Check it out!

It's Good to Play Together

We now return to our regularly scheduled program:

Our Xbox mates down under are running a video clip to celebrate 200 games for the Xbox. Great video!

More Personal Email

One of the things I like about the tablet is inking (of course, it's one of the main features). I like it because it's often quicker to ink something when the convertable tablet is in slate mode. But there's an additional feature. More than a few times, I've sent email using ink, and gotten back responses that it felt a lot more personal. Interesting, since the stuff I type and the stuff I write still contains the same words (and the same thought process). But ink seems more genuine (if not, in my case, more messy).

I wrote an email a while back to Steven Vore, answering a question I get every now and then (what books are a good place to start to learn about marketing). He wrote in his blog about how personal the inked mail felt. Just today, I scrawled out an email to a co-worker, and she wrote back with a similar email.

I wonder what the psychology behind that response is? Are we programmed to think typewritten text is impersonal? Why doesn't it feel the same?

Great PowerPoint Tips

Paul Brown, CEO and founder of FiveSight writes about the Tufte article on PowerPoint, and blogs his response in PowerPoint, the Misunderstood Dictator. He leaves some very good advice for delivering good presentations:

- Speaker's notes belong in front of the speaker, not in front of the audience.
- Slides or other visual displays should be used exclusively for dense information or for thesis-level text.
- Narrative should be interactive and audience-driven in terms of the depth and pace of delivery.
- Detailed, take-away information should be provided to the audience in the form of notes.

Worth More Than 1000 Words

Almost a little creepy! Check out these images from Greg's Digital Archive. Greg is a freelance photo designer, who can make magic out of ordinary photos. I especially like the digital tablet photos, before and after. And the touchups of people are amazing! Next time, don't believe everything you see!

Is PowerPoint Evil?

Edward Tufte writes in Wired that PowerPoint is Evil: Power Corrupts. PowerPoint Corrupts Absolutely. (Thanks for the heads-up, Sam!)

In my job, I see a lot (and I mean a lot) of PowerPoint presentations. I've created a lot of PowerPoint presentations in my 13 years at Microsoft. So it may not be much of a surprise when I completely agree with Tufte.

As a tool, PowerPoint is great. Good features. Good, solid program. But there's no substitute for learning how to create and deliver a compelling presentation. And there's no excuse for abusing PowerPoint (or your audience for that matter) by being lazy, or for that matter showing off your chart-building skills.

Presentations largely stand or fall on the quality, relevance, and integrity of the content. If your numbers are boring, then you've got the wrong numbers. If your words or images are not on point, making them dance in color won't make them relevant. Audience boredom is usually a content failure, not a decoration failure.

PowerPoint should allow you to, uh, powerfully make your point. That's it. If it doesn't support what you're saying, make it more memorable, illustrate it to make it easier to understand, then don't use it.

Great article! Now, for my own pet peeves (I wish I had my data projector handy... >click!<

JOHN PORCARO'S POWERPOINT PEEVES
1) Using your slides as your speaking notes
2) Using your slides as your handouts
3) Putting up your entire spreadsheet, rather than illustrating the point your trying to make with the data
4) Reading every word on your slides, all at once (the audience can read)
5) Not addressing every point on your slides ("we can skip over this stuff..." -- if it's on the slide, it should be there for a reason!)
6) Not using illustrations when they would make the point more, uh, powerfully
7) Using bullets instead of jumping to a demo or website or picture or movie. Don't tell me the features of your website or product, show it!
8) Using those innane included templates. Worst one, Dad's Tie.
9) Not posting your slides in a public place after the presentation
10) Using too few slides (I prefer a slide every minute or two).

I'm sure I have a hundred more... :)