Reactions to story from BarCamp wiki / RadioCamp

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  Using New Media for Product Marketing

  http://www.productbeautiful.com/2008/05/09/using-new-media-f...
  7 days ago in Product Beautiful: Building Product Management · Authority: 38

  Last week, I had the opportunity to participate in a Marketing roundtable hosted by Austin Ventures.  Marketing leaders from several AV portfolio companies came together to talk about prescient topics. The topic was “What’s Working in New Media” (paraphrased). It was almost like a mini-ProductCamp, because everyone brought a single slide to talk about their online strategies and what was or was not working well. Sam Decker, CMO of Bazaarvoice gave an interesting talk about how they are using their blog Bazaarblog to as both a new form of communications, and relationship marketing. It was refreshing to see a company actually have a blog strategy more defined than “let’s give the CEO a TypePad account.” Bazaarvoice targets specific bloggers in their space and treats them like royalty, and does smart things like proactively linking to them and farming their sites for content to create multi-blog conversations. They get it. Online, everyone looks equal. I can go out and buy a URL and put up a WordPress blog, and in less than an hour have a turnkey site that looks just as good if not better than yours. At first glance, how is a potential customer ever going to know a credible from a non-credible source? You can’t control the blogs (so don’t try). As a Product Marketer, you can increase positive coverage through good relationships and demonstrating that you’re responsive to complaints over time.  See The New Rules of Marketing and PR for a good book about this general topic. One of the initiatives I’ve spearheaded at NetStreams is building a community site for our dealers, who are notoriously fickle. Sometimes they complain publicly on our forums and get other dealers riled up, which then spreads to our sales team, the VP of Sales, and the CEO. When we started the forums, I had all of the above people come to me the first time we had a negative thread demanding that we “take down that negative feedback.” That’s one of the worst actions you can take! Marcomm looks at negative feedback from customers as they would a poor review in a magazine. It’s meant to be depositioned, explained away, and spun. Look at it from the customer’s perspective: they are telling you that you aren’t solving their problem, and worse, you’re not listening to them. Marcomm and PR speak…but don’t listen (unless they’re paying an analyst and then they have to pretend to listen). I love negative feedback, because those are the best opportunities to both get great product feedback and to demonstrate your responsiveness as a company. When a negative thread or blog post shows up, acknowledge it. Reply to the post stating that: They’re right; this is a problem, and we recognize that We’re sorry that they had this problem and that we caused it (even if you didn’t cause it) That we’re going to do everything we can to make it right Doing just those 3 things will turn around 99% of problem customers. In my case, just the basic acknowledgment of their problem was like finding as oasis in the desert to these customers, because we had done a poor job of responding to issues in the past. Is your company doing anything new and interesting with blogs or other new media to influence your product plans or change your marketing strategies?  Reply in comments.
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  ProductCamp - from the minds of BarCamp

  http://home.actlab.utexas.edu/blog/?p=16
  9 days ago in ACTLab Blog · No authority yet

  ProductCamp - from the minds of BarCamp May 7th, 2008 Making something awesome is only half the battle - then you have to do something with it.  Whether you are looking for money or good ol’ fashioned internet fame, you need some type of marketing strategy, right?  Right?  This coming June us Austinites are going to have a great opportunity to sit down and bask in the knowledge of product managers and other assorted marketing types at the first ever Product Camp.  In the spirit of Bar Camp, this is an “un-conference” put together and run by the participants.  More info is available at http://barcamp.org/ProductCampAustin.  The ACTLab gang will have a contingent in attendance - hope to see more of you there! Filed under: Business | Comment (0)
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  Why ProductCamp Will Help Push Austin Over the Tipping Point

  http://www.productbeautiful.com/2008/05/07/why-productcamp-w...
  9 days ago in Product Beautiful: Building Product Management · Authority: 38

  I have been asked a lot over the last two weeks about where the idea for ProductCamp Austin came from and why we are putting this event on. I wish I could say I came up with the idea - but that credit goes to EDIT: Luke Hohmann and Rick Mirinov at Enthiosys Brian Lawley from the 280 Group in California, who coordinated P-Camp Silicon Valley in March. But it goes deeper, because I believe Austin is at a tipping point, both for startups and for Product Management and Product Marketing. GeekAustin got wind of ProductCamp and interviewed me about why Austin, why now, and why ProductCamp. Here is a sample: Lynn Bender: You’re a local guy. Where did you get the idea to host a ProductCamp Austin. Have you previously attended one in another city? Have you attended a BarCamp? Paul Young: I’ve been in Austin for 10 years, and had several opportunities to move out to the Valley, but always turned them down because we love Austin. One aspect of the Bay Area that I’ve always had a jealous eye towards is that their critical mass of technical and marketing people really lends itself to organization of great events. Aside from the various BarCamps, the first ProductCamp (called P-Camp) was held in the Valley back in March. I looked at what they did and thought “we need that in Austin.” I sent out some feelers to people I’ve met through my Product Management blog (Product Beautiful) and away we went. Austin just feels right at this point in time: the economic downturn hasn’t hit us as hard as the rest of the U.S., our housing never got mega overinflated like everywhere else, Californians still move here in droves because it’s so cheap, and we have lots of creative, technical, and marketing talent doing really cool things. I had the opportunity to attend a marketing roundtable hosted by Austin Ventures last week where they showed off a new job site (site name and link redacted) they are working on. The really interesting tidbit was that they mentioned that the #1 reason that talent hesitates to relo to Austin is fear that if their startup fails, that there won’t be enough going on in Austin to keep a vibrant market for their skills. ProductCamp is another cog in that machine; the fact that in a few short weeks we have a bunch of great sponsors, some exciting sessions, and dozens of participants already signed up validates that there is both an audience and an appetite for knowledge exchange about Product Management in Austin. East of the Sierra Nevada, you can make a very strong argument that Austin is the center of the tech world. You don’t have to look hard for new about Austin startups. The time to step up is now Product Managers - are you ready to shape the future of Product Management?
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  Paul Young on ProductCamp Austin

  http://geekaustin.org/2008/05/06/paul-young-productcamp-aust...
  10 days ago in GeekAustin.org · Authority: 29

  Paul Young on ProductCamp Austin Posted by LinearB Tuesday, May 6, 2008 Posted in: Events, Interviews Over the last few weeks, there has been an increasing amount of talk about the upcoming ProductCamp Austin. I asked Paul Young, one of the organizers, if he could give us the background on the event. Lynn Bender: You’re a local guy. Where did you get the idea to host a ProductCamp Austin. Have you previously attended one in another city? Have you attended a BarCamp? Paul Young: I’ve been in Austin for 10 years, and had several opportunities to move out to the Valley, but always turned them down because we love Austin. One aspect of the Bay Area that I’ve always had a jealous eye towards is that their critical mass of technical and marketing people really lends itself to organization of great events. Aside from the various BarCamps, the first ProductCamp (called P-Camp) was held in the Valley back in March. I looked at what they did and thought “we need that in Austin.” I sent out some feelers to people I’ve met through my Product Management blog (Product Beautiful) and away we went. I’ve never done a BarCamp before, so this is a new experience for me as an organizer as well. We’ve set some ambitious goals for sessions and attendance, and I know this is going to be a great event because whenever you put smart, capable people together in a room, good stuff happens. Bender: GeekAustin recently interviewed Jason Cohen of SmartBear
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  ProductCampAustin

  http://cauvin.blogspot.com/2008/05/productcampaustin.html
  15 days ago in Cauvin · Authority: 13

  You may have heard of BarCamp, informal conferences in which developers meet to share ideas about technologies, tools, and practices. Spurred by Paul Young (of Product Beautiful fame), a group of product managers in Austin is organizing ProductCampAustin, which is a similar event for product managers. WHAT: ProductCampAustin WHEN: June 14, 2008 WHERE: St. Edwards University's Professional Education Center (PEC) 9420 Research Blvd Echelon III Building Austin, Texas 78759 Sponsors include Pragmatic Marketing, NetStreams, AIPMM, and AustinPMM Forum. There are two ways you can get more info or get involved: Go to the wiki (collaborative web site) and sign up as a participant.Join the planning group on Google.Everyone interested in product management, marketing, and development processes is invited, but we encourage attendees to participate (volunteer for setup/teardown, speak, lead a roundtable, set up wifi, etc.) in some fashion.
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  links for 2008-05-03

  http://mathamlin.com/speak/links-for-2008-05-03/
  13 days ago in MatHamlin.com · Authority: 1

  MonkeyGTD - MonkeyGTD (tags: gtd wiki) How To Be A Good Product Manager: Product Management Tips (tags: productmanagement) Architecture astronauts take over - Joel on Software (tags: productmanagement joelonsoftware) Kohsuke Kawaguchi’s Blog: GlassFish v3 just got embeddable (tags: glassfish) 2008: The Rise of Linked Data (tags: social themine) Sibson: Articulating a Sales Compensation Philosophy (tags: sales reference) Useful WordPress Plugins (tags: wordpress plugins) WordPress Theme Hacks (tags: wordpress theme) The Fortune 500’s biggest winners - Exxon Mobil (1) - FORTUNE (tags: businessnews) Decker Marketing: 9 Guerrilla Marketing Answers (tags: marketing guerillamarketing) A peek at In/Out, an internal app at 37signals - (37signals) (tags: productivity) How others see Product Managers « On Product Management (tags: productmanagement) BarCamp wiki / ProductCampAustin (tags: productmanagement austin) Sun and SAP: Solutions - SAP Solutions on GRC (tags: sun grc sap) the Web Service, SOA and SOAP Testing Tool - soapUI (tags: webservices tools) Oracle Endorses Role-Based Access Management (tags: READNOW oracle rolemanager) Business Software offers role-based access control., Oracle Corp. (tags: oracle rolemanager readnow) Why Product Management is Open Source’s Fatal Flaw | Product Beautiful (tags: opensource productmanagement) Why Product Management Is Easy : Write That Down So, is product management hard? No. The trick is not being the best marketer, accountant, UI designer, developer, Sales person all rolled in to one. The trick is to make sure that features get built, marketing communicates them, support can answer questio (tags: productmanagement)
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  ProductCamp Austin Announces Location and Austin Ventures as a Sponsor!

  http://www.productbeautiful.com/2008/05/02/productcamp-austi...
  14 days ago in Product Beautiful: Building Product Management · Authority: 38

  I’m happy to announce that we’ve secured a venue for ProductCamp Austin! ProductCamp will be held at St. Edward’s University Professional Education Center (PEC) on June 14, 2008 from 8AM - 6PM. Follow the link to add yourself as a participant, and to sign up as a speaker or volunteer. Everyone is welcome, and cost is FREE. I’m also delighted to announce that Austin Ventures will be sponsoring ProductCamp! We’re looking forward to working with the premiere venture group in Austin to get the word out. If you’re unfamiliar with what ProductCamp is, first read the primer on BarCamp, which the model on which ProductCamp is based. Then go to the official ProductCamp Austin wiki and add yourself to the participant page, and take on a topic as a speaker!
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  ProductCamp Austin 2008

  http://tynerblain.com/blog/2008/05/01/productcamp-austin-200...
  14 days ago in Business Analysis | Product Management | Software Requirements | Tyner Blain · Authority: 76

  No, not that kind of camp. Product Camp Austin is having our first product camp - an unconference. The agile development world has been running very successful bar-camps for a while now, a way to have a conference without having a conference. The product managers in silicon valley successfully held their own product camp (called p-camp) on March 15th of this year. Not to be outdone, Austin is hosting our very own productcamp! Paul Young, of Product Beautiful, is the instigator of this wonderful madness. With the help of Pragmatic Marketing’s John Milburn, Cauvin Inc.’s Roger Cauvin, Rob Grady, he is making things happen! From Paul’s announcement: I’m happy to announce that we are going to be running Austin’s first ProductCamp. Much like BarCamp, ProductCamp is a collaborative, user run event, except where BarCamp is often focused around topics interesting to Developers, ProductCamp will be focused Product Management and Marketing topics. Announcing ProductCamp Austin Here are the event details from the official ProductCamp wiki: When Saturday June 14th, 2008, 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Where St. Edward’s University Professional Education Center (PEC) 9420 Research Blvd Echelon III Building Austin, Texas 78759 (512) 346-8110 ProductCamp Austin wiki Roger put the call to arms best: There are two ways you can get more info or get involved: Go to the wiki (collaborative web site) and sign up as a participant. Join the planning group on Google. Everyone interested in product management, marketing, and developments processes is invited, but we encourage attendees to participate (volunteer for setup/teardown, speak, lead a roundtable, set up wifi, etc.) in some fashion. ProductCampAustin So sign up, participate in the planning, make travel plans if you’re unlucky and live somewhere other than Austin, and COME TO PRODUCTCAMP.  Make sure and check out the ProductCamp Austin wiki to see (or add) topics of interest - or to offer to present or participate! [psst: hey business analysts - you do a lot of this stuff too.  you don't have to print up business cards that say "Product Manager" in order to deal with prioritization, requirements, politics, off-shoring, competitive analysis, market research, time management, roi, etc.  so don't feel excluded - participate!]

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