Category: Tech

Hoping to try something new

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

I sent my first request out – let’s see how it goes.

I dig watching Pando Monthly Events and love the interview format.

In our region we have lots of people doing stuff – startups and other stuff.

I know many of this people and I talk to them from time to time but I don’t always know how they got here, why they do what they do and so on. I am curious – I want to get to know the people behind the products a bit more than I do. I think other people want to as well.

So I plan to interview these people via text and share it on my blog. It’s always about the people anyway – isn’t it?

Who knows where it will go but I am curious to try.

more soon…

The impossible user contract!

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

I am sure this subject is like opening a can of flaming hot worms – there really is no one answer to it.

I stumbled across this today:
http://steveblank.com/2013/11/21/when-product-features-disappear-amazon-apple-and-tesla-and-troubled-future-of-21st-century-consumers/

The downside is when companies unilaterally remove features from their products without asking their customers permission and/or remove consumers’ ability to use the previous versions. Products can just as easily be downgraded as upgraded.

Steve makes some fair points but as a PM myself I grapple with this concept all the time. Do we have some contract with the users that we must keep everything we have ever put in the product alive? Steve almost alludes to that but I know he is just trying to make the point – especially as compared to what has happened lately with products like the Apple iWork suite.

Huge backlash over the new completely rewritten stack losing some key features but with Apple slowly pouring them back in on a new code base. The premise is that Apple rewrote the iWork suite to make it function across iOS, web and OSX. Now that the rewrite happened they are adding some, but not all, of the features back in. Seems logical but as a user you might still hate it since you still lose the feature and running old version is hard to do these days.

Latest on the iWork shuffle:
http://www.macrumors.com/2013/11/21/iwork-for-for-ios-and-mac-updated-keynote-gains-with-new-transitions/

We experienced some of this at Spuul as we moved over to our new API stack, brought to you by the code magicians at Spuul, since we pretty much rewrote everything from the ground up to accommodate more clients and features. This also meant looking at our current feature usage and deciding what features might stay and which ones might hit the bit bucket. Did I ask users about this? No. Mostly cause the data largely answered the questions for us – we could see what was being used and what wasn’t. We could also look at our help queries and the customers emails that I save. All of these made up a nice view that for the most part gave us a clear indication of what to do. Then we added in some ideas of our own and logical guesses to decide what to throw out and what to save.

Some of the goals were the same as Apple really. Build from a new more agile base, simplify, and then work our way back up. We are just not as big so the impact isn’t the same. With Apple – they are so big that practically anything they do will affect someone in some way. I don’t know if Apple handled it right- most of the cuts haven’t affected me but I assume they affected someone. Could Apple have polled everyone? Maybe but the poll would have created a funnel for people to complain and then even more press about it. I am not sure anyone wins at this. Expectations are just so high that everyone expects to be pleased in their own way setting up an impossible user contract.

Steve Blank uses other examples like Tesla and Google to prove his point. The Tesla one is the most interesting cause it is a software update that changes the car – something very tangible. I think Tesla should have been upfront about it and stated that for the safety of the occupants in their vehicles they felt this is the best way to handle it until they come up with more data or options. Just doing it without telling folks seems sly – in a bad way even if the goal is for good.

Steve closes out with user contract idea of some sorts:

A 21st Century Bill of Consumer Product Rights

For books/texts/video/music:

  • No changes to content paid for (whether on a user’s device or accessed in the cloud)


    • For software/hardware:

  • Notify users if an update downgrades or removes a feature
  • Give users the option of not installing an update
  • Provide users an ability to rollback (go back to a previous release) of the software

    • This is interesting but in the world of App Stores this is tough to manage with all the auto-updating and no ability to roll back. So for any of this to happen the folks like Apple, Google and MSFT would have to allow the developers to manage stuff like this. Today it is not really clear how one would do that.

    Great topic to think about but a tough one to really have a definitive answer for.

    Open-Source Angel Investment Templates

    ~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

    Still catching up on my inbox but wanted to get this out there to help spread the word.

    Open-Source Angel Investment Templates – brought to you by Dr Bernard Leong and Huifen Zheng. This is great stuff and continues to solidify Singapore as a leading base for startups – globally and within the region.

    I won’t try to explain it all since it is all explained here:

    http://www.bernardleong.com/2013/11/05/open-source-angel-investment-legal-templates-convertible-loan-shares/

    As we continue to see some exits and successes in Singapore there will hopefully be an uptick in local angel activity.

    carry on!

    iOS or Android first?

    ~ michael_msft ~ 1 Comment

    Update: Bernard did a nice piece, much longer than mine, about this as well. Check it out:

    http://www.bernardleong.com/2013/11/19/android-or-ios-first-definitive-guide-startups-corporations/

    ————-

    I am a slacker when it comes to blogging cause I just don’t put enough focus on it. Love writing and I have so much I want to say but I don’t have enough time to always put together a quality post. For a while now I have been meaning to discuss the whole Android iOS debate a bit further. This was mostly due to this article :: http://stevecheney.com/why-android-first-is-a-myth/

    With Spuul we went iOS first – for good reason. We were going after the Indians who live overseas and since we are in the streaming video space there is still not a great secure standard for doing proper streaming video on Android. Apple has eHLS built in so it was a no brainer. In general I think it really depends on the markets you are going after and what your product is that will decide which platform to tackle first. The idea that there is a blanket rule for one or the other seems to be for developed markets but if say for example you are going after India, Pakistan or the Middle East – it would be hard to think that going after iOS first would make much sense. Android is just much bigger in the undeveloped markets. That’s a fact and Apple for the time being is not concerned with this.

    I love iOS. I won’t lie. As a USER it is the best thing ever. As a coder, which I am not, coders tell they like iOS better but of course my Android guys loves coding Java. He loves making our Android app but guess what he carries as his primary phone? An iPhone cause as a USER it provides him what he wants in his day to day experience. So from different angles one platform may appear to be better than the other.

    As the product guy I must admit that as of late – I would rather manage an Android app than an iOS one. This is another field I want to talk about but for another post – the whole product manager thing. Lately Google is making big strides in the Android world when it comes to what they offer the folks managing an app to success both in usage and monetization.

    Yes – at the core Apple users tend to buy more and tend to pay for things that people on Android tend to think should be free. Our stats show this over and over again but the growth in Android is eye popping and shows no signs of abating. Plus, as noticed on my recent trip to India, you see way more Android than iOS. Still even with this stats – we get more people paying in India on iOS than on Android. I am sure this is a global phenomenon.

    All that being said I think most companies going for the jugular will need to support iOS, Android and Windows Phone. It might be easy to say go iOS first but once again it depends on the market, the product and the monetization strategies. If you are not going where iOS is the core leader than chances are hitting Android first might make more sense.

    The issue for me lately is around app management and monetization. This is what is causing me to favor Android recently. What I mean by favor Android is that sometimes it is making more sense to lead or test features with Android first and then if they make sense bring the same features over to iOS. Why? Simple. I don’t have to wait for approvals when pushing a new app, Google has a built in beta program for apps, and I can pretty much sell anything I want via in app purchase. On top of that Google is hooking up with carriers around the globe to offer carrier billing for in app purchase. This is huge stuff and slowly it is turning the tide some in the ecosystem wars.

    Further to this is the ability for us to see our comments and ratings on our Android app while also being able to reply to the commenters. At Spuul we experienced first hand how a lot of comment/rating is mostly drivel and even some weird form of trolling but yet once you start responding to everyone the trolling stops and the reviewers tend to take a more logical approach. Bottom line is we managed our app up from 3.x to 4.x by responding to the users and using this channel as a form of communication and support. This is something Apple is sorely missing out on in my opinion. This is where you can see Google knowing how to build for the internet extending a slight light due to their technical prowess.

    On monetization Apple leads but increasingly Google is offering more ways to get it done – the carrier billing movement for example is very real and brings paying for things to the masses without credit cards. Yes Apple has a lot of users with cards but this is concentrated in the developed markets thus making it useless in the undeveloped markets where people want to pay with phone credits or post paid billing cycles. The second area of differentiation is where Google, although they sell movies and music, allows a developer to use in app purchase for anything – meaning I can use their stack to also sell my own movies and music. Apple on the other hand prevents developers from using in app purchase where the developer is selling something similar to iTunes. For example – Spuul cannot sell an individual movie via our iOS app. Only Apple can. It’s silly but yet is a sign of the difference. Apple makes money on the transaction anyway so not clear why they don’t allow us to use it apart from the only reason I can think of which is to protect iTunes. If Apple wants to win in the living room with something like Apple TV then they need to let developers charges for things – single movie or subscriptions.

    For the moment I only see Android and iOS winning. Will this last – tough to say but slowly I think Google is chipping away,ever so slightly, at Apple’s lead by making this fit the way the world is moving. Apple could easily reverse this by also providing some of the same capabilities in their platform.

    Time will tell.

    Isn’t every startup like a platform?

    ~ michael_msft ~ 1 Comment

    Great article, looks to be a series I think, about platforms. This is from Ryan – ex twitter exec.

    http://sarver.org/2013/09/26/what-is-a-platform/

    I guess my angle here is I tend to think of any startup as a platform. It may not be that it fits the exact description for how the tech industry defines a platform but I like to think of the problems I work on as a platform play. It helps me in taking the long view since I think unless you are incredible lucky, like 3 year old instagram, most startups will be at it a while.

    As I like to tell people – it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

    Most platforms take the view of apps or software stacks that are available for developers to build on and the effect of this creates a network effect to further drive the platform. So iOS, facebook, twitter, microsoft, android and others are listed by Ryan as examples of platforms under the common agreement for how platforms are defined. All good – I won’t argue with that premise.

    But when it comes to building your startup, no matter what it is – I think this platform methodology can help you define things to work on and focus on. I like this line:

    This created a very powerful network effect that drove growth of both sides of the business (developers and users) where growth of one side directly benefited the other.

    I think about how the growth on one side directly benefits some other side of your startup. So if you think of all the sides or facets of your startup – you can think about how work on one side can directly benefit another side – find ways to see if the network effect is at all applicable to your startup.

    So when I think of spuul – I think of it as a platform for India video consumption and all the sides of the business are broken down in ways to allow me to see the overall product as a platform and to then focus my efforts on figuring how the sides of the platform can feed off each other.

    Product management means many things to many different people – I will talk about my theory on it all later – it more closely resembles chaos theory than anything super organized. I realize that breaks a lot of know product management constructs right out of the gate but the craft, yes it is a craft, of making a digital product is an evolving field with many different ways to skin the cat. If I look at all the ways to skin a problem – looking at my product as a platform helps me to focus my efforts.

    Looking forward to more from Ryan on this subject and seeing where I can apply it at work.

    Also going to read this :: http://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/titles/content/9780262050852_Download_the_full_text.pdf

    back to work…

    A startup’s secret weapon – customer service!

    ~ michael_msft ~ 2 Comments

    I have always been preaching, even if it is not easy, that with how much work a startup does to get customers you might as well make them feel loved with your customer service so that they stay with you.

    We had a slight glitch with our android app yesterday – being in the streaming business with video makes for some complex apps that must always work and are used 24/7. So when we have an issue the email and app store comments come in fast and furious. We figured out the issue and pushed a new app. Thank god for my team being available on a sunday to make it so.

    So what do we discover after fixing the app – a nice google play comment like this:

    ★★★★★
    App version 1.2.6
    Oct 6, 2013 at 11:10 PM
    Amazing Amazing app and even better service. Fixed bug within a day!!

    Stuff like this is awesome since we all know that startups will have issues but being able to fix them and get feedback is priceless.

    I also must add that this is where Google Play is ahead of Apple App Store since they allow us to see the comments and respond to them directly – which I think makes a huge difference in getting to user issues, keeps the trolls out and allows a company to manage their ratings up. All not possible on the App Store. Huge bummer.

    Anyway. Customer service. Get on it.

    Learning to scale

    ~ michael_msft ~ 4 Comments

    No – not talking about code here since I am far from an expert in scaling systems – that’s why I hire people smarter than me.

    Talking about myself actually. I like to think I am fairly organized but I will admit that generally I feel as through I am hurtling through space and time grabbing things as I go and completing them but always feeling like I am on to the next thing quicker than I want to be. So if you can picture that then you will realize that the only logical choice I have is to focus on less things since time is not going to expand and excelling at my craft requires focus. I do believe strongly that running a product team is a craft and I can only get better at with experience and focus.

    That being said I think it is important to try and give back where I can. I used to think this meant going to events or trying to stay plugged into the community but the effort to stay plugged in is time consuming and I am not sure there is much gained from it except for specific situations where I have met someone that I later became friends with or worked with. So this is important but I think one can see events as the be all end all when they are not. So choose your events wisely and attend them with the goal of getting the most out of them.

    Apart from spuul, my current location for perfecting my craft, I obviously still want to stay in the community but this year I decided I would channel that focus a bit. I am finding that being involved in the jfdi mentor program has been just the ticket. I don’t know how best to do it other than jump in and make myself available. I am not always in town but when I am in town I plan on spending a morning at jfdi and get as many meetings as I can in the calendar with any of the startups that want to meet. Yesterday there were six busy, but largely productive meetings.

    I like the one to many method in which I can spend my time but truth be told I am learning as much as I am giving. I think anytime one has to channel their energies into helping others one will get as much from it as they give. This model is allowing me to scale my time in the community better and hopefully keep myself plugged in.

    If you are unaware of the latest batch of startups you can check them out here: http://jfdi.asia/portfolio/

    I won’t discuss them here but check them out – some of them have even launched their services to the public so try it and support the products. I will admit I am partial to a few – especially the ones that give me shirts. #mentorspoils

    October is a special month. Lots going on in the region, spuul will be launching some kick ass stuff and I am taking a holiday to Japan!

    Carry on…

    Google will have to deal with android

    ~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

    //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Saw this today on the wire and had to think about it some.

    We know RIM is dead. Over. They can open up BBM and hire lots of celebs to flog it. It’s over. It is NOT coming back. Someone may buy it but I don’t think RIM is even worth buying at this point.

    MSFT just bought Nokia and we will have the integrated software and hardware stack that is Windows Phone.

    I have written about dealing with android before from the perspective of Spuul – http://www.nokpis.com/2013/08/13/android-is-a-bigger-ecosystem-but-takes-more-work/ .

    When I look at the android device charts for our Spuul app it is totally dominated by Samsung – but we also see MicroMax in the top 10 as well for India. Somehow I just think this won’t last since the world is getting that the vertically integrated stack that starts with the hardware/software combo is the way forward.

    MSFT now gets this.
    Apple invented it.

    Samsung gets it but they don’t have the apps or the software – they use Google for that. What would a Samsung phone be without android and Play Store – it would look like the old shitty pre android Samsung phones. No one buys those anymore.

    Google has to do something. Is it going to abandon android for a Chrome ecosystem? I guess it is possible but they don’t seem to be moving very fast on that. Chromebook sucks and I can easily live without my Chrome browser – I know others can’t. When I look at the development work for android for what we do – there is NO path to Chrome for dealing with secure audio video well with the UX performance we desire. If this is the path why are they not showing it yet?

    Samsung to me either had to fork their own stuff or come up with something new – otherwise they are just too dependent on Google. Google is too big and powerful at this point with the full stack that they will let one vendor be the face of their ecosystem. I know they have Motorola now and maybe it eventually is just going to be Google Phone but even that is moving pretty slow.

    I can’t predict the future but I just don’t see Google not wanting to change the consumer perception that the Mobile World is Apple, Microsoft and Samsung in the eyes of people buying phones.

    Crazy week in my World!

    ~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

    First up we have Rakuten buying Viki. http://blog.viki.com/2013/09/letter-from-vikis-ceo.html . This was probably be the biggest tech news for me personally. One I almost went to work there so I follow Viki very closely. I guess you can also say I am in the same space as them but much farther behind in our maturity but what happened to Viki is great for a startup like Spuul in Singapore. It shows the video space is hot, you can build something global from Singapore, exits can happen and that the dream is alive.

    I am very curious to see what happens next to the company, who stays around and what Rakuten does with all these disparate pieces that are supposedly tied back into e-commerce. People say it is like Amazon or Netflix – not sure I see that yet. I can imagine the Amazon comparison but where is the cloud stuff? Either way Rakuten is a force and now Viki has some serious backing and is supposedly somewhat independent. All debating aside – congratulations to the Viki team for an amazing exit.

    Next we have MSFT buying Nokia. This one can and will be debated till the cows come home. It essentially always needed to happen – why now? Is it about Ballmer stepping down and Elop coming home. I don’t know but I think MSFT has a huge uphill battle to make Windows Phone competitive but apart from them – it is all android and iOS, so I do hope MSFT can shake it up a bit cause it will be good for the ecosystem.

    Stoked to be mentoring over at http://jfdi.asia this year. Should be fun and great learning experience for me.

    On the Spuul front – we just launched our biggest TV deal yet :: http://blog.spuul.com/2013/09/star-plus-serials-now-available-on-spuul/ . Lots more coming as well.

    All in all an exciting week locally and globally – now over to Apple for next week!