I think marketing is a very crucial part of technology.  Software is great, but because it isn’t something you hold or physically touch and interact with, a really important piece of making technology understandable is how you tell the story around what it does, and how you can use it.

And with software, the most important way of describing it is to compare it to something that they do in their everyday lives.  Which is why I never understood the analogy of calling software as a service, the ‘Cloud’.

First of all, picture what you think of when you’re imagining clouds.  Clouds are fluffy.  Clouds are dreamy.  Clouds are really far away.  They’re not really touchable.  In fact, I don’t even interact with clouds on a daily basis.

So now, you tell me something about how all my software is going ‘to the cloud’.  Okay, you’re basically telling me it’s going into some fluffy dreamy white place, that I have no way to reach.  And that is where the whole analogy breaks down.

The issue with the cloud is, there’s no real-life human interaction where I literally get to go into the cloud and interact with it.  It’s something far away, hand very high in the sky.

So when I tell my mom that she can use Microsoft, or Google, to store everything in the cloud, she looks at me perplexed.  What do you mean? she says.  How would I reach it?  How do I put it there?  How do I get it?  Clouds are open – planes touch them.  Does that mean people use it?

To be honest, the name that really makes this analogy make sense, is a deposit box, or, a drop box.  DropBox?  Ooh.  Really think of your money.  You store your money at home, or in a bank.  When your money is in a bank, you can go to ATM’s and get them.  You can also leave your money under your bed, but that means you can only use that money by going home to get it.

The only thing worse than using analogies are analogies that have a flaw and lead to more confusion.  And hence that is why I think a big learning curve about using ‘Cloud’ technology will confuse everyone.

One thing I will add.  From a technical perspective, ‘Cloud’ computing makes sense.  It is about an architecture that is not local to the system, and is in some remote location (that does not need to be specified).  Clouds traverse the world and connect to one another.  Clouds oversee the entire North America.  Clouds are abstract.  Cloud computing is abstract.  So in this discussion, I’m not advocating that we change the technical terminology.

What I am advocating is that Microsoft, please stop putting up commercials of stereotyped families saying, “To the cloud!”, because to the normal human, that is not going to make sense.

-Adam

It seems like every time I’m reading tech news or articles, it’s always about Google’s next big thing, or what’s Apple coming with next, or where is Amazon going with its crazy hiring, kindle, and super shipping warehouses.  There’s been very little about Microsoft lately, until finally, the Windows 8 OS has come out along with some other things.

But holy crap.  I have never been so blown away by a Microsoft product.  Windows and Office are nice, but its a necessity.  The Xbox was fun.

But what is this?  A tablet that actually is better than any other one out there?  

Finally, something that, without actually using it, looks like it actually delivers more use than anything out there.  What are three reasons why I would buy a surface over an iPad?

1. You don’t need to hold the darn thing up.

My girlfriend has an iPad, and she loves to watch her gossip girl.  Unfortunately, she always has to prop it on her knees or use her cover and be very still without it falling over.  Last night, I was watching NFL highlights with my roommate in the living room, and I had to hold the iPad up with my hand so we could watch it.

The surface is all about media consumption with convenience.  Just use the kickstand to prop it up and you’re set.  The hardware is perfect.  I can set it down and use it.

Think about watching your news channels while eating breakfast.  Following app recipes.  Doing other things while using your surface.  This little thing makes a HUGE difference.

2. It is slick.  Really slick.  Like, and I hate to say it, Apple slick.

It feels really, really, slick.  It’s so not Microsoft to deliver something with such form.  Our company is known for delivering value and function and productivity, not focus on beauty, sexy, and sleek.  How they have been able to introduce a change in development patterns to enable such a design in a 90,000 company is astounding.  The surface introduces function with form on the surface, and this thing is not only sleek in hardware, but the typography, color choices, and layouts are intuitive, new, and well designed.

3. The mother***ng keyboard, and being able to do real work-related things.

There’s a soft touch cover, and a hard touch cover.  My biggest complaint about tablets has been that they lack a keyboard, and they lack productivity suites.  Because of that, tablets would be stuck in a place where it couldn’t replace the desktop computer.  The Surface is going to take you very, very close.  With Office built-in on it, a touch keyboard that allows you to type almost like a desktop machine, and most applications in the world going to the cloud (think about Joe the stock trader being able to access applications directly from his company’s self-service portal) and work on his surface., you’re losing a lot of reason why you need a desktop computer.

Ok, maybe if you have terrible vision.

Conclusion

I still have some reservations about the Surface at the moment.  One, the apps will make or break this thing.  The Facebook app, the Office app, how easy it saves documents, my dropbox accounts, my pictures, my music, etc.  That’s all I care about.  Maybe even a couple of chat apps, video calling apps, etc.  Skype.

If the Surface in its app form can deliver me all that, then I am super compelled to buy a surface and ditch a desktop computer all together.  And now, as we prepare for the future, we should all embrace cloud computing, as it’ll make it very easy and very possible to work from anywhere (including the subway, or the T).

-Adam

For those of you who know me, you’ll know that I’m a loyal Audi driver.  For those who don’t, well, now you do.  And talk about a potential business revolutionizer: Silvercar.

Founded by the ex-CTO of Zipcar (go figure), Silvercar is going to make airport rentals really easy, and do it in a niche fashion.  They plan to provide a fleet of nothing but silver 2013 Audi’s (uh, brand spanking new vehicles anyone?), mobile phone access to the cars (no more line ups), and itineraries, destinations that will plug into the GPS via your phone ($11/day GPS rental?  Forget it).

Ok, so this thing, what are my thoughts?

Well, it’s cool.  It’s hip.  And I’d be tempted to use it, given their price point.  But I’m just a consumer and a user – for me, money’s really important.  Vacations aren’t cheap, and if there was something that i _really_ didn’t need, it’s probably the car rental.

The biggest factor for people traveling is going to be price.  A car is likely going to be my second biggest expense on a trip (hotel being the first), so if I really was traveling somewhere and wanted to be on a budget, I’d cut luxury car first.

More likely, they did the business plan and this is aimed at the business man who has a corporate AMEX, and needs to get somewhere fast.  The convenience factor, mid-class luxury sedan all scream business class to me.  A sleek silver too.  Can we add tints please and sunglasses so everyone gets to be Jason Statham from The Transporter just once?

I’d love to see what the market research shows on rental cars at the airport for business men, and where the biggest market is.  Anyway, $11 million funding for a product that doesn’t exist?  It must have a compelling market.

And of course, it doesn’t hurt to have the CTO of a rental car business leading the fray.

I was looking for a way to share some slides with some friends tonight, and remembered that slideshare provides that service.  Navigating to slideshare, I unfortunately realized that private powerpoint sharing is only for the professional service.  Nonetheless, I did find something of value.

I noticed a deck that was “recommended” for me, named, “I don’t know and it’s ok” – a guide to product development.  Well, the first thought that came to mind was, huh?  How’s that okay?  A product development manager and any leader needs to always know the direction.  This doesn’t make sense. Hm.

Reading it though, I couldn’t agree more.  Actually, it’s not that it’s okay to not know the direction of the team – i.e. a leader should always know what needs to be done and when.  However, it’s about not knowing the how.  In fact, you don’t want to tell people how.

Telling people how, if you’re right, takes away the opportunity for the team to feel good.  Telling people how, if you’re wrong, takes away credibility from you.

One thing I’ve learned the hard way, again and again, is that to grow a team, it’s important to let them deal with the how, and only provide feedback, and course correct when necessary.  It’s also good to lay off and stay high-level, but only come down when there seems to be an issue.

I don’t think I say it as good as Ms. Cindy Alvarez, so I’ll just let you see it here.

One of the most important things you must learn when going through rough times is to keep yourself motivated at any cost possible.  Being an entrepreneur and PM is a lot about being a leader, and setting the tone for your team is super important.

The best motivational speeches have to come from sports.  The training, the endurance, the persistence and determination that athletes have to endure and go through is almost super human.  It takes an immense amount of focus, but it’s a great way to remind everyone that success is not something that comes easy.

It has to be earned.