Not writing enough

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

I need to write more – both for myself and for myself.

November looks to be another good month even though I have not written about the last week or so. I have been in transit to America with two small kids. Takes days to recover. I am now in the secluded mountains of Alta, CA – enjoying the cold, the scenery and the slow internet. Stuns me how bad internet connectivity is – my parents pay the same as I do in Singapore for 2.5mbps line but I get 300mbps – soon upgraded to 600mbps. Shows you what happens when big telco controls the Internet.

Anyways. I just the new Desk blogging app for the Mac since I still write more on my laptop than I do on iOS – hoping this helps me to write more.

We shall see.

Back to my box of Twinkies for now…

Android first

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

Marco is obviously a very successful guy but I think this is where he and a lot of people from the states and Europe miss the boat sometimes – they clearly don’t understand the emerging markets and the freedom developers have around Android when it comes to telcos and bizdev. Given this – for some apps going Android first may make a ton of sense.

http://www.marco.org/2014/11/07/business-insider-maintains-usual-level-of-quality

Evolution of the Product Manager

~ michael_msft ~ 1 Comment

I am late to posting this but the article about the full stack developer got me thinking about the subject again.

From time to time I get questions and even have coffee with folks wanting to be a PM and asking how.

This article has some good info about the thesis behind it, the education some folks acquire and the experience that helps in becoming a PM :: http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2683579 .

There are so many angles to the role of the PM and of course the startup PM differs highly from the established company PM. Take Spuul for example – we don’t have an eng manager nor do we have a proper PM. We are just too small for this kind of headcount. Other places will have a head of PM to manage other mini PM’s – given this the definition of the PM is quite fluid in my opinion.

That being said, picture in your mind – the PM role in startup land to be a simple Venn diagram – the startup PM is that small spot in the intersection of customers, management and engineers. That is usually where I find myself on most days given the day to day duties I normally encounter.

I am sure there are many other ways to portray this but this is the one that keeps me focused on delighting users, trying to make money and keep a team of product people moving forward.

It’s a delicate but useful dance.

More on the full stack conversations later.

Lost the plot, off the rails – extraction needed!

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

From time to time I write about something other than tech because for a period in my life, possibly a very early mid life crisis, I decided to abandon tech to just exist. I had no real plan but to travel some, hang out and learn a language. I sold my house, moved from Hong Kong and ended up in the pub business in Bangkok. I have regrets and will always question my choices but I also have some solid real life experiences that I always call upon and a very healthy appreciation for the tech life, friends and of course family. I know I am spoiled.

That being said, standing on the other side of the bar in places like Bangkok would afford me a view of humanity that not a lot of people talk about openly. We would see it a mile away – some normal dude living the high life in Asia seemingly unaware that they were getting sucked in too deep. The alcohol, the drugs, the corruption, and yes the girls.

These people would miss work, miss meetings and some would even start a double life without their families knowing about it. I know of very successful people who have two families and have even imported their second family to their home country. Just nutty stuff. Situations that before my time in Asia I didn’t even know existed. I was too naive to be honest.

Sometimes the right people in that someone’s life, who had gone off the rails, would step in forcibly try to extract their friend or family from the lifestyle in hopes of getting them back home.

I would hear stories like this all over Asia – believe me it wasn’t just Bangkok. Many times it was in places where someone was making a lot of money and just didn’t realize what was happening to them. Funny enough I recall that more than a few of these folks were in finance and some were also in tech. Usually males of course.

Given the circumstances an extraction was needed and many times it worked but other times the lost soul didn’t want saving. They continued on with their new life.

Other times you would hear of a suicide or someone getting killed. Or even just dying from something strange.

I won’t wager an opinion on any of this except to say that this story coming out about Rurik Jutting sounds very believable. An extraction was needed – too bad there was no one around him to pull it off.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/hongkong/11218391/Rurik-Jutting-A-lonely-world-of-sex-drugs-and-money.html

Donuts

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

I like donuts. In Asia I never really find any I like apart from the basic glazed, old fashioned and Boston creme ones at Krispy Kreme. I grew up on normal American donuts and every time I go home I have more than a few. I plan on having a few this trip.

Which is why I loved this article – https://stories.californiasunday.com/2014-11-02/ted-ngoy-california-doughnut-king/

I remember eating Winchell’s donuts but I mostly remember the normal mom and pop donuts – made fresh throughout the day. I would always eat then with a cold milk.

I lived in the some of the areas mentioned in the article and now I remember them being run by Asians but didn’t realize they were Cambodians. I think near one of my brother’s house is a donut shop run by Cambodians – going to check when I am in town.

The rest of the story is odd as well with the tinges of other Asian issues like the gambling, the young mistresses and all of Cambodia’s political issues intertwined around donuts.

Great read.

One last donut tidbit. When I was young my dad used to trade his mechanical services for whatever his customers could offer on barter – he happened to do a major engine overhaul for a German living in a small town near us with a bakery. A bakery with seriously awesome donuts. I probably had 2 per day for many months. I remember my mother sending us over for bread and we had to explain the credit had run out but she could never figure out we practically went and ate a box of donuts per day.

Donuts rule.

Amazing to see the depth at Google

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

https://www.techinasia.com/googles-lead-apac-product-manager-andrew-mcglinchey-speaks-on-how-the-company-picks-its-battles-in-asia/

Google prints money so it is not surprising they can afford to have resources for a product manager that helps to represent Asia. This is similar to what I was doing at Yahoo but of course we didn’t have this expansive of a charter.

I have to admit that Google is pretty serious about Asia. We are working with them at Spuul on some stuff and they devote ample resources, are very organized and run some strict deadlines.

As I hear about all the dismantling of Yahoo in Asia, I tend to think about what could have been but obviously wasn’t.

Google is not my favorite but I am impressed with how much money and effort they put into Asia.

Will write up another post about an interesting project they are doing with PWC in the region.

The taxi nuttiness in Singapore

~ michael_msft ~ 2 Comments

Adding some of the tweetstorms that roll in:

https://storify.com/dreampipe/conversation-with-bleongcw-and-dreampipe

In reading this article yesterday I was thinking a bit about the whole taxi situation in Singapore. First off in general I have always been impressed with the taxi ecosystem here – apart from the price but that just goes with Singapore. Let’s not get into that but when it comes to the system generally working I mostly don’t have complaints. I tend to use the comfort SMS system and it has been working fine since the moment I got to town. I find it funny that all the “app” people talk up how apps are better and SMS is old skool. Really? If you are carrying an iPhone you probably have your SMS app open all the time. It’s called iMessage. I can simply text one line – book 528686. That is the zip for my condo and in seconds I get a reply saying it is booked and on the way or sometimes you wait to get a all taxis are busy message. Other times it is busy and you wait a while to get a response. I think it would help the system if you got a reply right away to say it is working on it or something. Sure if taxis are all busy which is during rain or peak times or the dreaded shift change then chances are you won’t get a taxi. Usually during those times you never get a taxi though. No matter what system or app you are using.

But back to the SMS system – there is no simpler method. Every app, all of them, takes more steps to book a cab. Many of them want your destination, have a shitty search function and only work when you have a good connection. At the base of my building I have problems with 4g but SMS always works. Also when I plug in an address versus a zip or a taxi station code, the system usually figures it out anyway or replies telling me it is not exact enough but normally I can edit it to make it work. Still faster than an app.

Which leads me to ask why don’t the other taxi apps add this feature? Even if it only works in Singapore it would offer them another leg up on the apps that don’t. Would be awesome if Uber or Grab implemented this so I simply say – book home. Book work. Dead simple. Faster than fussing with an app. Might also force them to implement the zip code stuff which many are not doing well. For those outside of Singapore – every address in Singapore has its own unique zip code which means no matter where you are the zip code is all that is needed but try plugging in the zip code into Uber or Grab and it normally can’t figure it out but yet the Singapore government offers this data so not sure why they can’t solve it.

For all the haters – make an app that works better than Comfort SMS booking if you want to make some waves in the taxi app race.

Moving on from that the other issue is payments. On this subject, as with the SMS, we can discuss this from a regional angle or from a Singapore angle. To be fair the zip code thing is all about Singapore but SMS can work anywhere if implemented right. On the payments subject we know that credit cards are fine in Singapore. The main reason I stick with Uber today is I don’t have to fuss with money. Sounds silly but I don’t know how many times I take a normal taxi in Singapore and when going to pay I get the dreaded look from the uncle. I don’t have change, my machine isn’t working – shit like that. Well uncle – that is your problem. Not mine. The ATM gave me a 50 – what the hell do you want me to do? Whip out my swiss army knife and cut it in half for you? Carry some freaking change. As to the machine not working – why don’t you tell me when I get in the taxi so I can choose to not take it knowing I have no cash on me. Silly shit. Uber wins cause I never have to give a crap about money. I take the ride and I get out. I know some of the other apps offer it but normally when I cannot book a normal taxi I can get an UberX.

Let’s talk about that later though since we are still on payments. So in Singapore the credit card is fine but regionally it will be a problem. Given that, one of these guys needs to work on some payment systems that will work without cards. Maybe some top up card with loyalty points or hooks to telcos. This is where the telcos don’t get a clue at all. I already get billed via the telco – work out something to allow me to use my phone, which I am using to book the taxi, to pay for my taxi. Throw in some loyalty points for it and lock me in. So the taxi app race is going to be somewhat fought on payments and Singapore will look different than say – Thailand.

Back to the UberX comment, the bigger issue I see in Singapore is that the taxi app race in some sense has exasperated the taxi situation a bit in that if utilization is higher but there are not net new taxis coming into the scene than it makes getting a taxi scarcer. I can see how some folks who are not using the apps might feel left out cause they can’t seem to get a taxi when they want one because the taxis are booked via the apps already. I don’t have the stats on this but it feels credible and hence the call for legislation might be needed. This is one reason why Grab and Uber who are brining other cars into the system are helping but to me only the UberX pricing is affordable to be used daily. The rest of the cars are too expensive. I am not sure where this all goes but it feels like we need more capacity while keeping utilization high which benefits the drivers. It is a delicate dance but the apps, and the startups, are key to making this all work. The competition is great but there will be growing pains.

Not sure if everyone noticed but around the time Grab and Uber entered the scene the comfort SMS booking reply started to share the taxi’s phone number. They never did this before. This allowed me to SMS them with location or other info as needed. Funny thing was talking to the taxi drivers who were asking me how I got their phone number – seems Comfort didn’t tell them they were doing this. For sure this is Comfort trying to compete a bit. I would tell them that I could Google them to find their number. 😉

The other issue I notice is that since all these systems are not integrated I think there is some availability inflation at times. Simple example. Many times you will see when you open the Uber or Grab app that it shows you there are a ton of taxis around you. However when you try and get a booking you get nothing – even though Grab will say there are 45 drivers around you and on the Uber app I see 7 yellow cars driving around. What is happening? My guess is that they are already on a ride with their Comfort system, remember all Comfort drivers are obligated to take a certain amount of Comfort bookings per day, but the Comfort system is not connected to the Grab or Uber app which is just running on their phones. So the Uber and Grab app will show taxis but of course those drivers will not take your booking cause they are already on a ride. I have stood on the street and watched the taxis on the map to see their red lights are on. Even looked inside one at a stop light. So the availability the apps are showing is largely inaccurate.

Lastly – let us get to the “rain” issue which we all know in Singapore can happen at any moment. Most people think the taxis are busy cause everyone who might normally walk, ride or motorcycle are suddenly wanting a taxi. However that is not what is happening. The taxis are actually sitting still due to the insurance issues. There is not a lot of information on this subject but I had confirmed with a few drivers before the deposit issue. The nice thing for this situation is services like UberX tend to help get around this since there is no “company” involved.

All that being said. I am no expert but I use taxis a bit and I am a product guy. So I think about this too much but the app guys could do a lot more to lock me in. Right now only payments are the thing locking me in but I still find the SMS booking to be the easiest to use. The apps guys should think about that more when designing their apps. God knows investors are throwing money at this space but so far I don’t see a lot if innovation – just marketing.

carry on…

What is happening with Yahoo?

~ michael_msft ~ 2 Comments

Had a few people pinging me and looks like some serious retrenching in EMEA and Asia.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/03/more-yahoo-restructuring-as-offices-sales-teams-get-cut-across-europe-and-asia/

It makes sense – outside of the USA the biz keeps falling. What is scary though, is in places like Asia, other companies are growing like a weed. Is Yahoo quickly becoming a USA focused company or is this just more centralization around running the biz from the states? But these are sales folks though so not sure how one can grow the number by losing more sales people?

I am sure there is more info to come. What is stunning though is at one point Vietnam was one of the bigger offices in Asia – pricey real estate too. Gone are the days where Yahoo 360 and messenger ruled the roost. I think in places like Vietnam where Yahoo used to be powerful, Yahoo is suddenly looking irrelevant.

I argue the biggest issue in Yahoo Asia is that the team has not brought in new blood similar to what has happened in EMEA and USA.

The numbers are telling – the revenue keeps slipping in Asia and the Alibaba pressure is greater than ever.

Quite the shakeup.

I am sure more news to come.