C. Minard's Depiction of Napoleon's Invasion of Moscow and Russia in 1812 and 1813

I recently finished reading Dan Roam’s “The Back of the Napkin,” which is a great introductory and reference book on communicating with pictures.  I also spotted Seth Godin’s blog post commenting on this NYTimes post and its validity.  And last but not least, one of my favorite examples of multiple dimensions of data plotted on a single illustration is explained by Edward Tufte.  I mention all of these examples because it’s easy to make a bad picture, but not too hard to make a really good one.

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ProductCampNYC was a fantastic event where I met likeminded individuals and enjoyed a day that’s dedicated to the amorphous blob of a role/function that is the Product Manager.  I highly recommend going if it’s offered in the future!

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Slight departure from my typical project/product management entries: I hope you’ve seen this film!  If not, you’re missing out on a quirky, wonderful, real, and touching exploration into the little-known subculture of college a cappella.  I went to see the film a little over three weeks ago, but it still sticks with me now.  I think it just speaks to how creative college students can be, and how, when left to their own devices, freedom of expressing ideas and personality can end up with something wonderful like this.

Recommendation: Go ‘C’ the film!

The Philips Pronto series of universal remotes was on my short list for handling my little home “theater” setup.  After seeing some interesting reviews (here and here) I decided to take the plunge.

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A recent WSJ article (may require registration) brings more attention to a lesser-known capability of cellphones: connecting your phone to a computer as a USB modem to gain access to the Internet, a.k.a. tethering.  This feature was critical to me in a fairly common setting in the consulting life: having spotty or no Internet access on the road or at the client’s office.  And I’m arguing now that wireless carriers should include this value-add service in all of their wireless data plans for free, not to charge a monthly fee for it separately.

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The minivan. The sport-utility vehicle. The modern take on American “muscle” cars. These are all areas that Chrysler has innovated in and marketed well over the past 4 decades. However, being the smallest of the Detroit “Big Three,” Chrysler has also had a troubled history of keeping up from a business perspective. It’s been through 2 bankruptcies, 3 mergers/acquisitions, and a variety of economic conditions that have ranged from great to grinding. So why does Chrysler matter, particularly from a product development perspective?

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The other day, I was preparing a quickie assessment of the biggest office suppliers in the US, and I thought “Instead of trying Google or Wikipedia, I’ll use this newfangled Wolfram Alpha thingy that’s out now.” And after approaching that query, along with some other spur-of-the-moment questions, I’ve finally realized what Wolfram Alpha is.

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When it comes to the classic “iron triangle” project management model of time, scope, and cost, the three key stakeholder groups which directly influence and work on a typical interactive project are in constant conflict based on their perspectives. I’ve been asked many times in the past: “What’s your approach to handling this kind of situation? How do you resolve the differences between the creative, business, and technical teams?”

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One of the key elements (perhaps arguably the key element) of effective project management is proactive and compendious (my little word of the day) communication with all stakeholders involved.  I have been in many situations where I was in charge of multiple streams of work for multiple clients and initiatives.  Keeping things straight in a high intensity environment with multiple klaxons going off makes it difficult to keep issues and stakeholders lined up to be resolved or simply informed.  I came across the following article recently about a project management tool that was supposed to emphasize usability, but there was no mention of integration with diagrammatic (eg. Visio, MindManager) or communication (eg. Outlook, Lotus Notes, Gmail) tools.  Why hasn’t someone come up with this?

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In many organizations that I’ve worked with in the past, product and marketing development have had a business process to guide the development of marketing copy and product claims to ensure that a legally compliant but flexible approach is taken to communicate with the consumer. That’s why this recent article at WSJ.com (may require registration) caught my attention. I’m nearly certain that General Mills and their marketing agencies have negotiated the language time and again with all manner of experts to ensure accuracy. Instead, my focus is on the group that’s supposed to protect us: the FDA!

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