The future of Cloud-Based Services

What are the advantages of cloud-based services, especially in the global business?
What are the coming innovative scenarios and key issues?


© 2013 proaxia consulting 

Increased efficiency through the Service Cloud

At first the existing Service-Cloud-Solution has been analyzed with the focus on the practical implementation. Especially the companies with the complex service business can increase the efficiency and quality in the customer service by use of cloud-based services.

Small and medium-sized enterprises in particular can realize innovations quickly and cost-effective, by use of new technologies, such as mobile apps and social media.

Requirements for Service Cloud in the Future

Especially for SMEs could represent the Service Cloud an alternative, to support the information-intensive business processes of global service networks. Many companies use IT solutions that do not meet the current demands in the service business anymore.

Research project continues

The goal should be to lay the cornerstone for the Service Cloud future. I will keep the study in sight…

More information see here Netzwoche.ch.

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Hiring a product manager

Source: cooper.com via Lumir on Pinterest

Without product management the organization would get along fine, at least for a while. On the other hand without engineers, sales people or designers nothing would get built, sold and the product would look like crap.

BUT in the long run a great product management usually makes the difference between winning and losing products and companies. Product management is a sort of mixture of engineering, design, marketing, sales, business development and much more.



Now the time has come to hire a product manager? But how to find the right one? What are the most important skills?

There is a basket of attributes, what is important for the company to evaluate any candidate:

1. Business skills


2. Domain expertise


3. Communication skills


4. Technical upbringing


5. Hustle

Of course the assigned weight to the attributes can vary from company to company.

In reference to the listed attributes above the interview should contain these key sections, together with a few example questions:

Customer Leadership & Communication Skills: 15-20 minutes

Imagine you get this job and I am a prospective customer for the product you are now responsible for.
I know nothing about your product or your company.
Let’s role play how you would interview me about my “must have” problems and whether or not your product solves them for me.

Team (Engineering and Design) Leadership Skills: 15-20 minutes

How do you earn respect from the engineering team?
How do you get a team to commit to a schedule?

Cross-Functional Leadership and Management Skills: 15-20 minutes

Can you talk to me about the sales model of a product you have managed?
How did you find prospects for the product?
What did you do that made it easier for the sales team to sell the product?
Can you talk about a situation where you were instrumental in closing a sale? What did you do?

Sources:
http://iterativepath.wordpress.com/2013/02/15/how-do-you-hire-a-product-manager/

https://www.kennethnorton.com/essays/productmanager.html

http://www.venturegrit.com/dont-hire-a-product-manager-without-these-key-leadership-skills/

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Feedback Cycles important for Product Development

Actually already at new born babies we can see the passion for feedback cycles. The baby get bored very fast, if there is no feedback on its action. With an action it causes an effect and if there is no feedback loop then it is not interesting anymore…

The same behavior we can see also at our customers when they evaluate a product. The feedback loops play a critical role in the decision phase and distinguish between successful and unsuccessful products (services).



If we are aware that then it has to be take into consideration already in the analysis and design phases of the product development.

Feedback loops consist of a few simple steps:

A person cases an action and this cases one or more effects. These effects are presented (communicated) back to the person. This cycle is repeated continuously.

In my opinion there are a few most critical aspects like

Effect
- in case of decision in the project, the expected outcome should be shown immediately to the client. This feedback increases the client’s confidence by making that decision.

Quantifying
- taking decision is difficult if the client does not have any possibility of comparison. Only if the client has quantified comparison an informed decision can be made.

Environment
- presentation of the data without the underlying information cannot be used effectively for the decision finding. Current environmental conditions have to be provided for example in form of the historical data.

Acceptance
- the providing of the understandable data to the client supports the self-confidence of the client by the handling with the product. The concern is it to make comprehensible decisions and to encourage to the responsibility willingness.

Product manager, designer and developer should not underestimate the above-mentioned aspects of the fundamental human behavior and expectations.

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