David Lee Todd, Unknown Product Manager

We've been going through a time-honored SeeBeyond ritual this week: Apostles Training. We bring in fifty or so of our top field engineers, and train them on a beta version of our next release. This all takes place at the local Embassy Suites, and it's sort of like a fun boot camp. We combine formal presentations from product managers, like me, with hands-on exercises.

But the benefit isn't just for the field guys. They are a vociferous bunch. A couple of them (no names, but they know who they are) give rather pointed comments about every 60 seconds, on average, and the rest at somewhat longer intervals. For us, the product managers, this feedback is invaluable. We get good feedback from customers, but it's always colored by their particular business problems. With field engineers, you get people who really put the product through its paces, and who aren't shy about saying what they like and don't like. I have been astonished, on occasion, when a really smart engineer makes an obvious (to me) mistake on one of my own products. The fault isn't his: it's mine. When you live with a product, you get in the habit of pushing the right buttons in the right order. When something that's obvious to me isn't obvious to an intelligent new user, the reason is usually a design flaw.

Comments:

The scenario you describe is exactly why, I believe, Sun's product nomenclature is so easily misunderstood outside of Sun. For example, the "Solaris", "Solaris Express", and "OpenSolaris" product offerings confuse so many new to the product offering selection. I won't even get started on all the Java stuff!

Humans typically use shorthand names for things and I’ve noticed the plain ole’ “Solaris” name has many emerging users scratching their heads trying to keep it all straight. Again, I think the entire Java stack is even less clear.

So what’s in a name?

Go ask the fashion industry…and the answer could very well be: “Everything”!

I am still hopeful that someday the Sun site will have a master software product comparison page, where a flow diagram, ladder chart, and list [perhaps more] formats are readily available for anyone to pickup and quickly ascertain what product(s) they should investigate further. This page would also ideally serve as a software site map of the Sun.com site as well.

The chart at http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/popup.jsp?info=55 is a very welcomed recent addition, but may be hard to find so new visitors to the site. Ideally, a master page containing charts of all software offerings could be developed. It’s hard to develop or sell software & support for products customers don’t understand or haven’t ever heard of.

Anyway, just my outsider 2¢.

Posted by Wes Williams on March 15, 2006 at 09:18 AM PST #

Yes, we could do a better job of explicating the whole stack and how it fits together. There is a legendary diagram floating around the company that is regularly shown to investor forums and that ties things together neatly at a high level, but I don't think it's posted anywhere. If I find it in a public spot, I'll post the URL.

Posted by davidleetodd on March 15, 2006 at 09:58 AM PST #

I think it must be a job requirement for field engineers to lack any inhibitions about chiming in with pointed comments on our products. I know on the former StorageTek side we were always able to get strong opinions and feedback from the field -- it does keep you on your toes!

P.S. From one newbie acquisition (STK) to another - welcome to Sun!

Posted by Jennifer on March 24, 2006 at 02:27 PM PST #



	David Lee Todd, Unknown Product Manager People who love sausages and software should never watch either being made