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Cranky Tweets for the Week Ending 2010-02-16

by The Cranky Product Manager on February 16, 2010

Travaeling again… Every Embassy Suites has that same mildewy smell in the lobby/atrium. Gak. #
Stop whining, shut up & reg for P-Camp Silicon Valley, already! & vote for sessions too! http://tinyurl.com/ykxaok3 #prodmgmt #
Jr. PM, where do you think you are, at P&G? Do your own market research! With no budget! And no time! No excuses! #
SalesDroids, wtf? 3 poduct managers supported you on 90 sales calls last year, and u still whine that product mgmt doesn't support u? #
Sign #1 DysfunctoSoft is effed: focused on adding license enforcement code instead of what's needed to solve market problems. #prodmgmt #
Sign #3 DysfunctoSoft is effed: Legal Department has become a revenue center — suing LOTS of customers for license non-compliance. #
Sign #2 DysfunctoSoft is effed: So worried abt cannabilizing 15-yo client/server product, won't consider the web version market demands. #
Sign #3 DysfunctoSoft is effed: Legal Department has become a revenue center — suing LOTS of customers for license non-compliance #prodmgmt #
Smart ass CodeBoy is email flaming the Cranky PM for not providing profit estimates for fixing the broken "undo" feature. #prodmgmt #
It's about friggin time! http://tinyurl.com/ydgtnu9 #prodmgmt #

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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

1 Roger February 16, 2010 at 4:45 PM: Cranky PM also can’t count :-) (#3 twice)

A previous company I worked at used to redo the licensing on the product on a fairly frequent basis. Apparently the reason customers weren’t buying enough of the product was because the licensing wasn’t complex enough for them – they wanted combinations of per user, per seat, per server, upgrades, security and various other components. Oh and then we had to add base licenses and “activation” licenses. The list of resulting SKUs was several pages long.

Management in their infinite wisdom would decide to make all these changes two weeks before a release and several engineers would have to work on it due to the complexity.

I now use this as the canary in the coal mine. Changing the licensing mechanisms are usually a sign of impending doom. If customers wanted your products they would always have had a way of handing over money. If it was too pricey you could give discounts. If your licensing scheme was “wrong” then why would the same people coming up with a new one be any better at defining the new one?

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