At the beginning of the year, I set myself a New Years Resolution: Be Brave, Be Bold, Do Something Different. You may have seen it n the Marketing Magazine interview I did earlier this year.

As a result, the first half of 2009 was for me, a time to reflect and self-analyse: what had I achieved so far in my career; what had I failed in; what got me excited; what frustrated/bored me; and, what did I want to do next.

Being the geek that I am, I created an excel spreadsheet to note down everything that was important to me, and gave each a weighted score (I know, how sad am I!). The next step was to identify the gaps between my current lifestyle and what was truly important to me (and later, I would use this to evaluate potential companies to work for).

The result of this process was like the human version of Inbox-Zero - my mind felt de-cluttered: I was able to 'delete' concerns that really weren't as important as I'd made them out to be; which gave me space to focus on pushing ahead with the things that were.

Whilst it had been in my mind for a few years, one of the changes I knew I needed to make, was to get myself out of my 'comfort zone' and face fresh challenges. The type of challenges that get the blood rushing with adrenaline, make you feel nervous - even anxious at times - but ultimately enable you to get a sense of achievement that is beyond anything you could ever get from inside your comfort zone.

My comfort zone was Telco. I had been in Telco - on the digital side - for 9 years. It never really felt that long until recently though as, thanks to Vodafone's global footprint and culture of developing its people, I changed digital teams/roles almost every 18 months.

In my time of reflection, I noticed a common theme to all the roles I took: they were all within young or newly created parts of the business that had to prove their purpose. I came to realise the importance of this in my happiness at work. And the bigger the challenge the better. But I also learned that there are certain criteria that have to be met, to ensure the challenge has a fighting chance of success (and if that criteria can't be met, it's best to walk away from the challenge on the outset).

As time passed in Telco, I found myself having to dig deeper and deeper to find fresh challenges that excited me because the environment was now so familiar. I also found the amount of new learning I was able to extract, was wearing thin and instead, I was increasingly becoming the educator, with little inspiration other than from my external networks {thanks Twitter!}. This was another self-realisation: the importance of having a source of inspiration - for me, that comes from others who were equally as passionate about the digital environment.

And so I decided that it was time to move on from Telco; time to take my 13+ years of digital experience and exchange it for fresh challenges and learning from another industry.

At this point, I would like to recognise Vodafone for the opportunity, experiences and education it has given me over time. Even since leaving, they have been nothing but supportive of me in every aspect, and I truly wish them every success for the future.

So what's happening now? I've got to say, without having gone through the self-anaylsis, I might not have been so picky with my next place of work. But I did, and I am. I don't just want to work anywhere. I want to work somewhere that provides inspiration, has a big hairy audacious goal that has a fighting chance of success, and with a company who shares the same values as my own. Needless to say, there were only a handful of companies that I had shortlisted as my target companies, and I'm in talks with each of these guys right now.... so watch this space!

Regardless of the outcome, I'm feeling clearer than ever about the path I need to take to get to my 'perfect world' vision, and am wearing my positive pants to help me deal with the obstacles along the way.

Now to see where that lands me... ;)

LinkedIn's Internet Product Management Group posted the following question - I couldn't resist a response....

What is the source of inspiration for a product manager? Please post your response or write to me directly (sjhaines@sequentlearning.com)

I'm 100% on the same page as Trevor: I'm addicted to problem solving - the bigger the problem / complexity, the bigger the buzz I get. Love it.

My inspiration stems from seeing/finding points of pain/failure that makes the product less useful / usable / desirable than it need be.

From there, I try to establish the 'whys' - why is it less useful / usable / desirable to the target consumer; not from just what they tell you, but from what you can interpret from their behaviour when using the product.

Once the insights have been gathered, the potential treatment to the causes come flooding through [along with the rush of excitement] and you start to bounce the ideas off of others, trying [in a positive way] to pick them to pieces; questioning how they address each of the cause checklist items, to help identify the best way forward.

And then, you go through the pitching of the ideas into the business, to people that haven't been on the same journey as you. You have to unravel, simplify and rationalise your journey to help them see [very clearly] the size of the opportunity you have identified.

Finally it's into development and - the piece de resistance - in the consumers hands. And the inspiration to improve it some more starts all over again.

The whole process is, for me (and no doubt other product managers), INCREDIBLY addictive. Probably too addictive.

Of course, if I had never once seen an improvement [through sales / usage / satisfaction] as a result of my efforts in the above, it's more likely I'd find a problem just that: a problem - not an inspiration that feeds my addiction. LOL!

Jen              

Original post: http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=63459&discussionID=6999384&sik=&split_page=1&goback=.anh_63459&report.success=PdmtybENV2mnc3t3p8JpWuFiB1ZhaD9OnKUphCsu7LRNRYTOK1wrHHO_rcDN0rVBb1wuxUyPL-SZ            

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Just had to share this clip of my son's first experience on ice skates. Hilarious!

Thanks to my wonderous Twitterverse - specifically @eunmac - I just came face-to-screen with what has got to be THE best computer EVER. What else can I say, but 'WOW!' and 'Where/when can I have a play?'. Sorry Mr Pitt, but you've just been pipped to the post on the Lust List #1.

The chart above states ’social media… will be the hottest’ area of growth for ‘online advertising’. Whilst I agree with the first half of the statement, I’ve two concerns with the ‘for online advertising’ part:
 
CONCERN #1) some marketeers may interpret this as a new place for them to heavy-handedly paint their marketing messages
 
–> For me, the increased investment should be in (a) analytics engines, not advertising engines; (b) human-led interaction, not machine-led interaction.
 
CONCERN #2) whilst the SoMed advocates talk about ‘major growth’, Traditionalists see the investment/return as a small fish in a big ocean and therefore put a lower priority on it
 
–> To change this we need to change the way we look at ROI. Many companies attribute marketing success based on its conversion to purchase (revenue). My belief is that success needs to be looked at from the more granular level of conversion to following life-cycle stage. Let me explain…
 
EVERY consumer goes through the customer lifecycle (Awareness > Consideration > Inquiry > Purchase, etc, etc); though each at varying speeds, each using different tools & touch-points [physical & digital] and each having varying levels of influence for each of these.
 
The top-level view compares activities based on their financial benefit to the business; regardless of whether that activity is an Awareness generating activity, a Consideration generating activity or a Purchase generating activity. Of course, when comparing these, the latter will always appear the most effective as the customer’s decision is 90% there already. Take the earlier activities away though, and watch its conversion rate plummet.
 
The granular level ROI then, measures success based on the objective of that activity. Awareness:Consideration conversion, Consideration:Inquiry conversion, Inquiry:Purchase conversion. This way you can compare conversion rates fairly, at an objective level; pick the success and the failures; and refine your marketing activity more effectively.
 
What’s this got to do with Social Media? In general, my view is that Social Media’s core objectives lie in the pre-Inquiry stages*. So whilst commercial gain at the top-level may not appear life-changing, it’s the impact from its growing influence at the earlier stages that will affect conversion rates (online AND offline) later down the track.
 
*I say ‘in general’ because, to my earlier point, it’s important that you understand it’s role & influence level in the life-cycle stages of YOUR target personas.
 
Right, I’ll jump off the soap-box now {passionate? Moi?}
 
:)
 
ORIGINAL ARTICLE: http://is.gd/ui4L