tpma focus newsletter - issue 10 (3q2012)

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Issue #10: 3Q 2012 TPMA FOCUS Toronto Product Management Association THIS EDITION: Snapshot 2 ProductCamp Photos 3 Mobile Design 5 Crowd Wisdom 7 Wild Apricot Power 8 News: Macadamian 8 TPMA Social Photos 9 Inside Product Mgt 10 LinkedIn Stats 11 CoolTools 12 What is the TPMA? "Creating Insight through Shared Knowledge" Founded in March 2001, the Toronto Product Man- agement Association is a non-profit organization formed to create an en- vironment that facilitates learning, mentoring, & net- working opportunities. Visit: www.TPMA.ca KEY DATES: ProductCamp Toronto - Sat, Jul 28 th 9:00am - Rogers School of Mgt - 55 Dundas St. W. Manage Your PM Career - Tue, Sep 25 th 6:15pm - Metro Hall, 55 John St. Lean Startups in T.O. - Tue, Oct 30 th 6:15pm - Metro Hall, 55 John St. product camp TORONTO

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Page 1: TPMA Focus Newsletter - Issue 10 (3Q2012)

Issue #10: 3Q 2012

TPMA FOCUS

Toronto ProductManagement Association

THIS EDITION: Snapshot 2ProductCamp Photos 3Mobile Design 5Crowd Wisdom 7Wild Apricot Power 8News: Macadamian 8TPMA Social Photos 9Inside Product Mgt 10LinkedIn Stats 11CoolTools 12

What is the TPMA?

"Creating Insight through Shared Knowledge"

Founded in March 2001, the Toronto Product Man-agement Association is a non-profit organization formed to create an en-vironment that facilitates learning, mentoring, & net-working opportunities.

Visit: www.TPMA.ca

KEY DATES:

ProductCamp Toronto- Sat, Jul 28th 9:00am- Rogers School of Mgt- 55 Dundas St. W.

Manage Your PM Career- Tue, Sep 25th 6:15pm- Metro Hall, 55 John St.

Lean Startups in T.O.- Tue, Oct 30th 6:15pm- Metro Hall, 55 John St. pr

oductcamp

TORONTO

Page 2: TPMA Focus Newsletter - Issue 10 (3Q2012)

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President’s Awards for 2012

To introduce the TPMA “2012 Presi-dent’s Award,” it was a great honour

to present it to two enormously deserv-ing, and long standing executives of the association. Our two recipients being Al-lan Neil and Lee Garrison.

Allan Neil, stepped up to the plate this year to volunteer as an executive, after many years of dedicated service. Allan thought up, and took the action of re-cording TPMA meetings. This started as an audio recording, then grew to the oc-casional video recording, and has now become an audio / video podcast for the TPMA. More on TPMA podcasting in a future article.

Beyond the recordings, this year had us take on the challenge of updating our web hosting platform to provide some much needed functionality. Superficially, this may seem straight-forward. How-ever, the reality is that it takes an enor-mous amount of analysis, investigation, and labour - to migrate to a new platform seamlessly. With Eli Alston’s help, Al-lan took on this challenge, head-on. In little over two months, the TPMA was smoothly transitioned onto a new host-ing platform, designed for non-profit or-ganisations like ours.

Allan pulled this off, while continuing to

contribute his creativity, and energy to our regular monthly meeting schedule. Simply put, we could not have pulled off such a smooth migration without Allan’s skill, hard work and sheer determination.

Lee Garrison, also received the Presi-dent’s Award for his years of work with the TPMA in various functions, including having been our long standing president for several years. This year, Lee took a supporting role as Secretary of the TPMA. His passion for the TPMA and the good it does for the Product Manage-ment community - has been inspiring.

Behind the scene, Lee’s efforts this year have kept the team on schedule, consis-tent and driving in the right direction.

Beyond all his effort at the TPMA, Lee has been one of the initiators and the or-ganising force behind Toronto Product-Camp. This alone takes a huge amount of co-ordination, effort, dedication, and time. All of which Lee has contributed, year after year, without question.

Gentlemen, thank you for your help, self-less dedication and service in keeping our TPMA running smoothly.

Charles Dimov

SNAPSHOT

Charles DimovPresident

Thank you, my fellow members of the TPMA. This season has grown to be

memorable, from powerful new topics to a well deserved social-networking break.

Toronto ProductCamp is upon us again, and I look forward to learning from col-leagues across various industries. In this extended edition you will find photos from Toronto ProductCamps 2010 and 2011. It is particularly exciting to have Steve Johnson opening this year’s Pro-ductCamp, as the Keynote speaker.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome OneDesk, WildApricot and Macadamian - as our newest sponsors of both the TPMA and of Toronto ProductCamp.

In this edition of TPMA Focus, you will also find interesting tips on the 4 mind-sets of mobile design, a view inside Product Management at SpeechBobble, and photos from the Summer Social.

Most importantly - thanks to the vol-unteers and executive volunteers who have given freely of their time, to keep our programs and association humming. As always, your efforts are needed and dearly appreciated. Thank you!

I hope to meet you at ProductCamp. Be-yond learning in this grass-roots, FREE un-conference; remember to network, meet new friends, and most of all - enjoy the experience! See you there!

Allan Neil (right) receiving 2012 Presi-dent’s Award from Charles Dimov (left)

Lee Garrison (right) receives 2012 Presi-dent’s Award from Charles Dimov (left)

Page 3: TPMA Focus Newsletter - Issue 10 (3Q2012)

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Page 4: TPMA Focus Newsletter - Issue 10 (3Q2012)

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Toronto ProductCamp

All photographs are from Toronto ProductCamp 2011 and 2010.

Event Photographers: Michael Campbell Denise Charlesworth

Page 5: TPMA Focus Newsletter - Issue 10 (3Q2012)

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4 Mindsets of Mobile Product Design

(continued on page 6)

With the recent popularity of smart phones and tablets, software prod-

uct managers are under pressure to cre-ate mobile versions of their products for the iPhone, iPad, and Android devices.

Today’s mobile users bring high expec-tations to the table. In a 2010 study by eMarketer, 73% of users indicated a company’s mobile software should be easier to use than its desktop or web product. And 69% said their percep-tion of the company’s brand would be negatively affected if the mobile version wasn’t easy to use. In an increasingly crowded mobile market, an application that immediately captures the user’s attention, is easy to navigate, and of-fers real value is critical to market suc-cess. From our experience with helping product managers design and develop mobile apps, there are four important principles for successfully meeting and exceeding these criteria.

Mindset One: Don’t Port — CreateBrian Fling, author of the book Mobile Design & Development, advises: “Cre-ate a product, don’t reimagine one for small screens. Great mobile products are created, never ported.”

Focus on the most important tasks and user goalsIn general, a successful mobile prod-uct offers only a fraction of the features and capabilities offered by its equivalent desktop or web version. These capabili-ties could be a subset of existing desk-top features, a set of new features that better address a mobile user’s needs, or a combination of the two. Only the most relevant and important features should be included in a mobile version of an ex-isting product — all other features should either be discarded entirely, or moved to secondary screens.

To determine what’s important to users in a mobile context, you study their be-havior in order to discover their needs, goals, workflow, and workplace process-es. We recommend Product Managers and User Experience (UX) Designers

work together and follow these time-test-ed user research techniques:

• Contextual Interviews and Fo-cus Groups uncover actual needs and opinions and can be done either in person, on the phone or through surveys.

• Task Analyses break down all the steps a user takes to fulfill his or her goals.

• Field Research offers insight into the way users would inter-act with your mobile product in the real world.

• Usability testing follows a for-mal usability protocol, to iden-tify and correct any gaps be-tween users’ goals and the actual experience your product is delivering today.

These, and other user research meth-odologies described at macadamian.com provide product managers with the insight they need to envision, and create a mobile product, not simply port an ex-isting desktop or web service.

Mindset Two: Understand the User’s ContextBecause a mobile device can be used anywhere, your application’s design should be able to suit a variety of envi-ronmental, organizational, and personal contexts. For example, think of the dif-ference between a Travelocity user at home planning a vacation, and a Trav-elocity user running through an airport looking to confirm a connection time on a smart phone. Mobile users want to com-plete their tasks quickly, and can easily become frustrated if a mobile product doesn’t work as expected, or is slow to perform.

The value-for-effort equationWhen evaluating the efficiency of your mobile design, use the following formula:

VALUE = Ability to fulfill an immediate need /the time required to accomplish the task

A mobile version with extraneous func-tionality will force users to sift through unnecessary data. To help users get the most value in the least time, keep the denominator of the equation as small as possible by focusing on their context-specific, immediate needs.

Environment influences interactionUsers may interact differently with a mo-bile product than they do with a desktop or web version. In an office setting, for example, a user has the time and the ability to perform data entry. This same user would likely not want to do this on a small touchscreen while waiting in an airport lounge.

In the case of a mobile product for busi-ness use, there may also be regulatory or legal constraints to be taken into con-sideration. In a hospital setting, for ex-ample, it may be appropriate to store sensitive patient information on a secure desktop computer, but illegal to house it on a smartphone that could leave the hospital, and easily fall into the wrong hands.

Design for partial attention and inter-ruptionMobile device users are frequently inter-rupted mid-task, either by a device re-lated interruption (such as an incoming call or a lost network connection) or an environmental distraction. A good design will accommodate these interruptions by including shortcuts that allow for simple and efficient multitasking. iPhones for example, make it easy to switch between a phone call and an application.

When designing your product, be sure to identify the most common forms of interruption and include graphical dis-plays that simplify context switching and multitasking. Be sure to also help users understand where they are at all times, where they can go, and how they can ‘get back’.

Point to priority informationTo ensure hurried or interrupted users

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4 Mobile Design Mindsets (from pg 5)

(continued on page 7)

don’t become lost, it’s also important to provide easy access to the most fre-quently accessed features and infor-mation. Once you have identified what these are (through usability testing, de-scribed earlier), ensure they are easily accessible from any screen. This can be done via prominent buttons or icons.

Avoid or limit free-text entry when-ever possibleJust like mobile screens, mobile key-boards are small and not well suited to data entry. Research the most common tasks that will be performed by your us-ers, and then design pre-defined lists, auto-complete forms and/or suggested text to speed and simplify their interac-tions.

By understanding your user’s context and tailoring your UI to support it, you will reduce the risk that your applica-tion will confuse or frustrate customers. Users who can access critical informa-tion in seconds, and resume their tasks quickly, will be more likely to view your mobile product as a trusted resource at work, home, and on the move.

Mindset Three: ‘Surface’ Informa-tion QuicklyAs the saying goes, you only have one chance to make a first impression. This is especially true in the mobile world where users have an array of apps to choose from. In the competitive app market, value must be apparent imme-diately and easy to access, so users can accomplish their desired tasks.

With a limited screen size, it isn’t pos-sible for an application to display all areas of interest to users at once, and they won’t have the patience to search through dozens of screens for informa-tion. You need to design an interface that quickly brings relevant information to the surface.

Rule of thumb — one task per screenBecause it can be difficult or time con-suming to scroll, pinch, zoom-in, or click links on a small screen, it’s important to create individual, focused screens for each task you’ve identified through user research. While a screen can ex-pose multiple tasks, it should help the user complete only one task at a time.

The primary real estate of each screen should relate directly to the task in ques-tion.

Provide hints and clear feedback for every actionSome actions on a mobile device — such as downloading an update — take longer than others. Ensure your UI offers feedback and progress updates on ac-tions that take more than a few seconds. On Android, for example, you can quick-ly see the status of apps being updated.

One way to provide quick access to ad-ditional information is to use dashboards and ‘push’ notifications to reveal higher-level information.

Be predictableYou can also surface information quickly by leveraging the user’s familiarity with existing visual cues. For example, a mo-bile user won’t want to hunt for the Close or Next button, so it should be in a pre-dictable location.

As the mobile device market has ma-tured, many visual attributes have be-come standardized across platforms and operating systems. The battery indicator on smart phones, for example, is al-most always found at the very top of the screen. Soft keys that perform similar functions like Back and Forward should always appear in the same position from screen to screen.

Mindset Four: Recognize the Per-sonal Nature of a Mobile DeviceA mobile device clearly differs from a desktop or laptop in size, but it’s also viewed by users as a more ‘personal’ device.

• A smartphone is always on your person because it’s small enough to travel with you ev-erywhere.

• It’s always on in the sense that it’s always connected to the In-ternet/network and can notify you immediately of a new mes-sage, tweet, or status update.

Page 7: TPMA Focus Newsletter - Issue 10 (3Q2012)

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• It is the most social commodity we own, allowing us to commu-nicate with friends, colleagues, and strangers via voice, text, videos, and imagery.

If your application is one you foresee us-ers using multiple times a day, it’s a good idea to provide the ability to save pref-erences, and automatically “remember” recent entries.

Allow users to easily control notifica-tions and alertsUsers also expect the ability to personal-ize aspects of your application. A good design will allow them to:

• Modify the alert notification (whether it is a sound or a vi-bration)

• Easily turn off alerts

• Quickly respond to the alert di-rectly from the alert screen

Anticipate user intentToday’s mobile users expect their smart-phone or tablet to be ‘smart’. So you should design your product to recognize input already provided and focus the next set of choices accordingly. If, for example, your usability tests show us-ers almost always wish to perform task ‘B’ upon completion of task ;A’, ensure your design shepherds users directly to ‘B’ from ‘A’.

Windows Phone 7 does a good job of anticipating user intent by displaying the keyboard most appropriate for the form being completed. iPhone and Android are also good at accommodating activity. When the user is on a call, for example, the screen turns black. As soon as the phone is pulled away from the ear, the screen re-appears because it ‘knows’ the user will probably want to perform anoth-er activity. Because the device is close to the user at all times, applications can be used multiple times throughout the day. The most useful and efficient quickly be-come part of a user’s lifestyle, while the rest are discarded.

About the AuthorScott Plewes is an expert in user experi-ence design, user research, and incorpo-

rating the voice of the customer into prod-uct design. As Vice President of User Experience Design at Maca-d a m i a n , Scott has

20 years of experience design-ing across the spectrum - from desktop, web, and mobile ex-perience design through to command line and telepho-ny design. Contact Scott at [email protected] and view more detailed presenta-tions: www.macadamian.com.

An intuitive UI that acknowledges the personal nature of the mobile device and anticipates user intent can mean the difference between an app that collects dust, and one that becomes part of your customer’s daily routine.

Mobile UI design best practicesWhen designing a mobile product, there is almost never a need for a one-to-one relationship between its capabilities and the desktop product. User needs differ greatly from one platform to another be-cause a user’s goal on a tablet or smart-phone can be quite different from his or her goal at a desktop. For this reason, you must always create a mobile product — and not just ‘port’ it from an existing solution.

By understanding the context in which the device will be used, obtaining a deep and objective understanding of your us-ers’ needs, and tailoring your design to meet user goals, you can success-fully translate an existing product into a streamlined mobile application that is intuitive, quickly adopted by users and, in turn, successful in the crowded mobile marketplace.

4 Mobile Design Mindsets (from pg 6)

Question: What is your MOST im-portant lesson in Product Man-

agement?

"Always make sure you are in a situation to get lots of feedback quickly so you can learn. Works for your career and your products."

--- Charlie Trainor

"Dedicate an appropriate amount of time to providing the voice of the customer to product development teams."

--- Peter Cop

“Product Management is a difficult job, with many paradoxes to juggle, teams wanting your decision and bless-ing, and times of enormous pressure. Learn to meditate!”

--- Charles Dimov

“Start with Why.”--- Aldwin Neekon

"If it's not working - give up! Try some-thing else - don't feel like you have to continue because of prior investment."

--- Corina Stoddard

"The most important opinion comes from consumers, not product mgrs."

--- Leslie Nicholson

Wisdom from the Crowd Quotes directly from YOU

Page 8: TPMA Focus Newsletter - Issue 10 (3Q2012)

. TPMA Mentoring Program - Take II

Engage in your Profession as a Mentor / Mentee

Last year TPMA’s first mentoring season started. With a huge response we quickly ran out of mentors. Those who

were teamed-up, are still going strong.

In Nov 2012 we will be at it again. Mentors, share your wealth of experience, and sign

up today. Mentee’s, learn from those who have been there, and succeeded.

Title email: Mentoring Send to: [email protected]

NOTE: NOT a Job Referral Service!

TPMA

TPMA Welcomes Macadamian as a Corporate Sponsor!

TPMA welcomes Macadamian as our latest Corporate Sponsor, supporting

the product management community, professional development, and network-ing across the Greater Toronto Area.

Macadamian is a global leader in soft-ware product creation providing a com-plete range of product strategy, user experience design and software engi-neering services to clients around the world, including industry leaders like BitTorrent, Telus, Juniper, RIM and Mi-crosoft. For established and emerging technologies and platforms, Macadami-an has a track record of helping clients create successful products on a com-plete range of desktop, web and mobile platforms.

This partnership is a great opportunity to strengthen a relationship between two organisations which are both committed to helping product managers improve their effectiveness at bringing creative new products to market.

Not only will Macadamian sponsor the TPMA; they are also sponsoring To-ronto ProductCamp 2012 - taking place on Saturday July 28th, at the Rogers School of Management.

Visit: www.macadamian.com

Noticed anything different about www.tpma.ca lately? You may have ob-

served a slightly different look and layout to the site. Or maybe you didn’t notice anything at all - which is good.

In May we migrated www.tpma.ca to a new platform from one of the TPMA’s new sponsors, Wild Apricot. With many thanks and much appreciation to Vault Solutions, who hosted our site for most of the past 10 years, we decided that to better serve the fast-growing TPMA community we needed to transition to a product/platform designed to support the unique needs of volunteer associations like the TPMA.

What’s In It For Me (community)?

• Better Record Keeping - More robust contact/member frame-work which makes it easier for you to sign-up and easier for us to identify you for meeting regis-trations, etc.

• Improved Communication - Eas-ier for leaders and volunteers to send out targeted email commu-nication and easier for contacts/members to control their own subscriptions to updates like up-coming meetings, newsletters, blogs, etc.

• Additional Capabilities - The Wild Apricot platform also pro-vides us with additional capabili-

Wild Apricot Powers Web

ties which we will be rolling out in the future such as electronic payments (Visa, PayPal, etc) for meetings and memberships

Your Feedback and Ideas Please...

Do you have feedback regarding the new web site, ideas for how we can improve the tpma.ca web site and/or improve our on-line TPMA presence? Please provide us your feedback using our Feedback form at http://www.tpma.ca/feedback or sending an email to [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you. And stay tuned for more updates as we continue to evolve the web site to serve you better!

Page 9: TPMA Focus Newsletter - Issue 10 (3Q2012)

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TPMA Social 2012

TPMA Summer Social

Photographs are from TPMA Social or Milano Bar sur-roundings: 26Jun2012.

Event Photographers: Calum Tsang + Anonymous

Page 10: TPMA Focus Newsletter - Issue 10 (3Q2012)

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Inside Product Management is a new series, asking PMs in different firms and industries to describe their role, respon-sibilities, functions, and profession.

Everyone is familiar with the concept of social networks such as Face-

book, or Twitter. These names have become part of our daily interaction with friends and family, and they provide a dashboard of essential information.

Traditional electronic communication (like email, forums, or even instant mes-senger) packages content as stand-alone items. An email thread is orga-nized into a hierarchy of documents or files separate from other emails. Instant chat creates temporary conversations, perfect for immediate communication. Forums provide single streams of con-versation, with no relevance to the great-er community.

In reality, the above examples of com-munication are best used for delivering independent content. They’re not op-timized for delivering information with context because of its relationship with

Inside Product Management: SpeechBobbleother content. Few provide any further data than: a) what is being said, and b) the name of the individual saying it.

Social networks virtualize relationships and the discussions they generate. When I post to Facebook, I know every-thing about the person I’m posting to, and their connections. I know that oth-ers who read my post will also know the same about me, and can engage in the conversation based on that knowledge. Information is presented with context.

My product, Speechbobble, an Enter-prise Social Network, replicates the ben-efit of social networks in the context of the workplace. We support conversation and provide value to organizations with defined goals. One of our main chal-lenges lies in repurposing a style of com-munication designed for casual interac-tions into something productive.

To this end, we virtualize common busi-ness processes. Our delivery model re-lies on our platform’s success in meeting the needs of most businesses, without requiring further customization on our

end. The difficulty then becomes an issue of understanding the common requirements that exist between indus-tries. We avoid customization by provid-ing a series of interchangeable features that different clients can select, while still benefitting from the main platform func-tions common to all.

The result is that Speechbobble are busi-ness experts. We understand and pro-vide the tools that you need to manage projects, share documents, communi-cate strategically, and locate the subject matter experts within your organization.

As Head of Product Development, I identify these requirements, then design and prioritize the development of the features that address them. This may be my favorite aspect of the job. It gives me the opportunity to understand business processes unique to a variety of indus-tries. I am constantly refining my over-all understanding of business, providing solutions to problems consistent across industry verticals.

However, designing and implementing product features is only part of what I do. Other responsibilities that are equally important to my role are: platform inte-gration strategy; user experience de-sign; and analytical evaluation.

Again, we avoid customized feature de-velopment for individual deployments. Should a client request a unique feature, I must determine the value of building the custom feature versus finding and incorporating another product’s solution. Specific examples may include provi-sioning our platform with ecommerce ca-pabilities, or enabling single sign-on with other products.

Driving factors for making these deci-sions usually depend on the frequency of requests for a particular function, the value a new feature adds to our existing feature suite, and whether or not it fits into our current roadmap. If these fac-tors don’t dictate a need to develop the new feature internally, I must determine the value that another product may pro-

Page 11: TPMA Focus Newsletter - Issue 10 (3Q2012)

TPMA

About the AuthorLucan has been work-ing in IT Communica-tions and S/W for over 5 years.

Previous roles included Analyst positions with the City of Toronto’s

IT Portfolio Management group, and GuestLogix Inc, an airline payment solu-tions provider.

vide, and whether it can be integrated with ours. This aspect of my job expos-es me to other solution providers and expands my knowledge of other market spaces.

Speechbobble’s features aren’t all that determine the value of the platform. One of the most important reasons for a Speechbobble’s success is the experi-ence it provides to the end user. Like most software, our product needs to en-courage use through intuitive platform design and an attractive interface. De-signing the overall user experience can be a creative outlet, and is often the larg-est source of fun in my position.

Unfortunately, inflexible organizations view social networks as redundant fea-ture sets provided by existing tools. Without using the product, it’s difficult to understand its value unless you see the inherent weakness in those preexisting tools. To combat this obstacle, we also provide a tool that appeals to traditional views of what is valuable: analytics.

Having started out as an Analyst, ana-lytics remain very important to me. Speechbobble contains an analytics en-gine that converts the qualitative value that can be derived from using an En-terprise Social Network into quantifiable metrics. Stakeholders who champion the platform can then illustrate hard ROI through a variety of measurements. You can easily determine statistics on ac-cepted projects vs. proposed projects; time spent planning; response time to crises; and reduced meeting hours. This capability is a source of pride as Head of Product, as it sells Speechbobble as a legitimate business tool.

Join TPMA on LinkedIn?

Since inception the TPMA LinkedIn Group has grown steadily these

years, hitting 700 members as of this week (technically 699 as of this writing). It is refreshing to that so many partici-pants are finding value in being part of the community. Above is the chart from LinkedIn Group’s Statistics page show-ing the gradual and very consistent growth of our discussion forum.

Interestingly, the first chart below show-ing the seniority of our LinkedIn Group users, shows us that 46% of the mem-bership is in the Senior, or Director and above management ranks. What a super group of senior brainpower and experi-ence to be part of your network.

Below to the right, is the second chart describing the function of the members of the TPMA LinkedIn Group. Naturally

30% of the participants are in Product Management, which should come as no surprise. The other prominent groups are then distributed across various functions listed as consulting, marketing, busi-ness development and sales. Again the interesting point here is the wide range of functions and broad opinions one can harness from a group, like ours.

Join the conversation. If you are not on the TPMA Group, then please subscribe. If you are on, then do take a moment to add your thoughts, opinions, or ques-tions to the forum. The group is here to help support our community of Product and Marketing Managers. Posting con-cepts, ideas or questions can help you connect with like-minded, and some-times divergent thinkers - who might just benefit your business, career, or get you the answers you seek. See you online!

Page 12: TPMA Focus Newsletter - Issue 10 (3Q2012)

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COOLTOOLS: ZOOM H2

As Product Managers we are regular-ly required to capture, review, ana-

lyze, distill and share a lot of information from a wide range of sources. We attend industry conferences, analyst briefings, conduct win/loss interviews and a wide variety of other forms of research. A common challenge we all face is how to capture all of this data quickly and easily and store it for review/analysis later.

One technique I have been using for several years is to capture audio record-ings of events, interviews and key meet-ings so that I can focus on listening and participating in the session, without hav-ing to worry about taking copious notes. I make sure everyone involved knows I am recording and how I will be use the audio files.

My favorite portable audio recording tool is the H2 Handy Recorder from ZOOM. It is about the size of 2 iPhones stacked on top of each other, costs around $180, runs on 2 AA batteries or AC, records between 50 and 500 hours (depending on desired quality) on SD card (up to 32GB). In addition to being an excellent stand-alone recorder, the H2 can also be used as an external mic for your com-puter via USB.

Unlike other handheld recorders I have used in the past, the H2 is excellent at

recording both small room inter-views and meetings as well as large room presentations and conferences. This is due to its’ ex-cellent Front 90 degree and Rear 120 degree microphones which allow you to choose from multiple recording configurations such as Front-only, Rear-only, or both/360 degree.

There are separate inputs for the LINE IN and EXT MIC IN for re-cording other sources as well as a PHONES/LINE OUT for monitor-ing recording, playback, or send-ing output to another device.

I have used the H2 to record ev-erything from Win/Loss interviews to weekly team meetings to our monthly TPMA meeting presen-tations. Previously I had tried re-cording using other handheld re-corders and an add-on mic for my iPod. However, with these I often found the quality of the recording was poor and (especially to share/produce) I would have to spend much time with audio editing soft-ware such as Audacity to make it usable. With the H2, most times I do not have to run any post-processing at all.

If you are looking for a high quality, por-table recording solution to help you cap-ture the firehose of data that comes at you as a Product Manager, I recommend

Fees collected through sponsorship help to defer the costs of obtaining exceptional speakers, operating the web site, and building resources and tools for our members. These are activities which in turn attract more members, drive higher activity on the web pages, and increase the exposure for our sponsors.

© 2012 Toronto Product Management Association

See www.TPMA.ca/sponsors for details or contact us at [email protected] to find out about Commercial Sponsorship or Corporate Membership.

SPONSORS

you take a look at the H2 Handy Record-er from ZOOM Corporation.

ZOOM has since progressed the line to the H2n and now an H4 as well. You can still get H2 for $180 at Long-McQuade.

- Allan Neil

Charles Dimov President Lee Garrison Secretary Niki Coons Treasurer Allan Neil VP Operations Aldwin Neekon VP Member Deepika Mediratta VP Strat.Init. Elizabeth Hosein VP Mrkt Com Norman Sung VP Mentoring Saeed Khan Executive Published: Jul 28, 2012

LEADERSHIP TEAM