In the context of software development, a product is the website, application or online service that users interact with. Depending on the size of the company and its products, a product manager could be responsible for an entire system or part of a system. This is confusing because, in most contexts, a product is a thing you sell to people. Product managers often get confused with category managers, which are the team that sources and merchandises the products sold on an e-commerce website. So, yes, “product” isn’t the best word for it, but it’s what we’ve got, But do companies really need product managers? And, if we can agree on that, what are the characteristics of a good one? Also, where does this role fit in an organization’s structure? Let’s explore these questions.
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Shocking user interfaces costs companies in productivity, training and even the customer experience. People are fed up with inadequate internal systems. Many of those interviewed had given up on the official software. Instead, they use tools like Dropbox, Google Docs and Evernote. Frustration will only increase as millennials enter the workforce. These people are digital natives, and they expect a certain standard of software. They expect software to adapt to them, not the other way around. In this article, Paul Boag will show you how to fix this.
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To fully realize that creativity, successful developers need to continually improve their skills. The web industry has grown from this desire to learn. You only need to look at the unwavering demand for conferences, workshops and training days for evidence of this, but the cost of continually sending your team to workshops and training days can quickly become unsustainable. Within your team lies a wealth of skills, knowledge and experience that can be shared and developed further. With a little effort and using resources freely available on the web, you can increase the technical competence of the team organically, with much lighter demands on time and cost.
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Why should you care about who’s using a mobile device and who’s not? Because people often behave differently when browsing on a phone versus a desktop. Costs can vary widely by device and visits from mobile might provide more or less value to a particular advertiser. Also, you might want to drive mobile users to different pages than desktop users. So, how do you build a campaign that targets only mobile devices via AdWords? The short answer is you can’t. However, a number of workarounds are available. First, let’s look at a couple of AdWords features that focus spending on mobile: bid modifiers and mobile-preferred ads.
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Over the last century, many incidents have provided examples that innovation and creativity can play an essential role for an organization in the midst of crisis. They can be applied to redesign a company’s structure and devise a more innovative process that leads to products that meet both creativity and business needs. In this article, Rafiq Elmansy will talk about one interesting example of this: LEGO, the world-famous toy manufacturer. By studying its crisis, lasting from 1993 to 2004, we’ll answer two main questions: Can creativity and innovation help an organization in its time of crisis? And can studying cases such as LEGO’s reveal a model for the broader role of creativity in an organization for other enterprises to follow?
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One of the most important things Trevan Hetzel has learned is how to sell the value of the web. Many of his clients needed to be convinced that a website would actually be good for their business. He started from a blank canvas after having moved to this town and building a clientele that now includes over 80 small businesses, mostly in southwest Iowa. He has gotten to the point that most new businesses around here are referred to his company, on the strength of my successful track record and portfolio. In this article, He’ll share with you, his experience with selling to small-town clients.
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This article concludes the series on how to sell and profit from digital products. In this piece, Nathan Barry will be discussing more of the tactics required for a successful digital product business, and he hopes you’ll learn some valuable techniques to make selling digital products more profitable! Let’s jump in.
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Instead of having a 10 to 20% profit margin like many businesses, Nathan Barry had an 85% profit margin in 2012. That actually could have been much higher, except that he spent some money on equipment and hiring freelancers. After creating each product, he has only 5% in hard costs for each sale. And the product can be sold an unlimited number of times. In this article, Nathan Barry will show how to profit from selling digital products.
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Communicating effectively can be quite difficult, especially when a project involves many people with different responsibilities and levels of authority. The problem compounds when the people involved belong to different organizations with different working guidelines. Effective communication happens when a message is delivered whose content has the same meaning for the recipient as it does for the sender. In this article, Krzysztof Rakowski will show us the rules he follows for a better communication. He hopes you find these insights useful to your work.
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The reason why app store reviews aren’t as effective as they could be is that they’re a one-way conversation, asking the user to say something positive to everyone else. There should be something better, something more conversational. In this article, Joshua Mauldin will investigate the various tactics of prompting for app reviews and ratings and how to make them better. He’ll also talk about how to ask users for feedback in a way that benefits everyone. Getting feedback on your app is important. How else can people tell you that your app is doing well or poorly?
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