Author Archives: Freeman Ding

[Thinking] 10,000 iPhone/iPod Touch Applications

148Apps.com reported “in just 142 days, the iPhone OS app store has added over 10,000 apps! “.

Really amazing fact. And for sure this is a huge challenge for traditional telecommunication operators, and telecom equipment vendors as well.

Obviously in the Apple App Store market place, the application/content providers directly deliver values to end users, and Apple gets revenue from each single transaction. Please note that during the whole process, telecom operators such as AT&T, do not get even a cent. The operators are only “bit pipes” and only get money from Internet access or EDGE/3G access.

We have to see what will happen next year in the mobile application market place (on iPhone OS, and on Google Android OS).

[Sharing] Stitcher: My favorite iPhone/iPod Touch Application

Traditionally you need your computer to get PodCast: You use iTunes software on your computer to subscribe the PodCast, then iTunes downloads the PodCast periodically, and you use iTunes to synchronize with your iPhone or iPod, then you can take the PodCast on the go.

The innovation of Stitcher is that it leverages any available network connection (WiFi, Edge, 3G…) to directly push the PodCast to your iPhone/iPod Touch. So you do not need a computer and iTunes software to get the latest PodCast. You only need an network connection and the device.

I like this kind of innovation, considering WiFi access is becoming more and more popular and omnipresent.

Links:

[Reading] Websites and Blogs about Product Management

I am a regular reader of quite several websites or blogs related to Product Management. I would like to share the top 10 websites/blogs from them.

Website title: Silicon Valley Product Group (SVPG)
Intro: A website with lots of very good blog posts and articles about Product Management.
Website: http://www.svpg.com/
SVPG Blog: http://www.svpg.com/blog/blog.html
SVPG Articles: http://www.svpg.com/articles/articles.html
RSS Feed: (It seems that their feed has problems. It is better to subscribe their free newsletter via email on the website.)

Blog title: How To Be A Good Product Manager
Intro: Written by Jeff Lash, this sites provides regular tips on good product management practices. Every post is always structured as “If you want to be a bad product manager…” and “If you want to be a good product manager…”.
Website: http://www.goodproductmanager.com
RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GoodProductManager

Blog title: Ask A Good Product Manager
Intro: Put together by Jeff Lash, this sites provides real answers to your real product management questions. This site is an offshoot of How To Be A Good Product Manager.
Website: http://ask.goodproductmanager.com
RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/AskAGoodProductManager

Blog title: PragmaticMarketing.com
Intro: Pragmatic Marketing provides training, consulting services and an online community for technology product management and marketing.
Website: http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com/blogs/productmarketing
RSS Feed: http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com/blogs/productmarketing/rss.xml

Blog title: Michael on High-Tech Product Management & Marketing
Intro: Although this website is not updated for a long time (most recent post was on December 17, 2006), Michael Shrivathsan published quite several excellent posts of Product Management and Product Marketing in the high-tech industry.
Website: http://michael.hightechproductmanagement.com
RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/MichaelHighTechPM

Blog title: The Productologist
Intro: A blog by Ivan Chalif, who is Senior Product Manager at StrongMail Systems in Redwood City, CA. He has over 10 years experience in technology marketing, building web-based products and services at companies like ValueClick, The Gale Group and Acxiom Digital. Ivan is also a founding member of the Silicon Valley Product Management Association (SVPMA).
Website: http://www.theproductologist.com
RSS Feed: http://www.theproductologist.com/index.php/feed/

Blog title: All about Product Management
Intro: By Derek Morrison, this blog is designed to give tips on various aspects of the Product Manager’s and Product Development Manager’s role including interview and career suggestions.
Website: http://allaboutproductmanagement.blogspot.com/
RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/AllAboutProductManagementByDerekMorrison

Blog title: On Product Management
Intro: Three professionals (Alan Armstrong, Ethan Henry, and Saeed Khan) co-author this blog.
Website: http://onproductmanagement.wordpress.com
RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/OnProductManagement

Blog title: Product Beautiful
Intro: A blog about Product Management and Marketing created by Paul Young, who had worked in various Product Management and Marketing roles for Cisco’s Security and WAN managed services for several years.
Website: http://www.productbeautiful.com
RSS Feed: http://www.productbeautiful.com/feed/

Blog title: Product Management Tips
Intro: Gopal Shenoy is currently the Director of Product Management, Small Business at salary.com in Waltham, MA. Prior to salary.com, Gopal Shenoy has worked at RSA and also spend 11 years at SolidWorks Corporation, the leading manufacturer of 3D mechanical CAD software used by over 635,000 users in 80,000 companies.
Website: http://productmanagementtips.com
RSS Feed: http://productmanagementtips.com/feed/

Of course there are many other websites/blogs about Product Management and Marketing, such as 280 Group Blog, Forrester Product Management Blog, The Cranky Product Manager and many others. But generally speaking, the above ten websites/blogs are updated regularly and the article’s quality are generally very good.

[Thinking] Connecting the dots

After I posted my reply “How I became a Product Manager“, I got more questions from the reader:

Hello Freeman,

I did read the 2 blog posts and they are really a big HELP. Thank you.

There is one more thing I am curious about… As your roles changed all the way from R&D engineer to product engineer, are you staying in the same company, or, being focused on the same product? If not, I guess either of them can be a big change, right? Because that usually means you will have to start over – rebuild your professional network, and learn new technologies from the scratch. I am not saying this change is not good; it just feels like the years spent working as an R&D engineer is a waste of time and does not worth it. How did you deal with such a change back then?

Thanks again.

I did stayed in different companies and worked for different products. But the point is not being changing job or product.

Let me try to answer the questions. I do NOT think they are “big change”. I do NOT think I have to start it over. I do NOT think it means to “rebuild”, actually, I view it to “extend” my professional network. I do NOT think it is “learn… from scratch”. Instead I believe that most time my past experiences did help me now. I do not think “waste of time and not worth it” for your current R&D work.

The point is not the jobs themselves. The point is how you look at them, and whether you have got most from them.

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