Ryma’s Vision Statement

January 18, 2012 Leave a comment

Product Managers are at the core of the innovative products that change our daily lives. They are the unsung heroes of every successful product release – masters in the art of capturing customer feedback and insight, aligning the wide array of stakeholders across their company, and setting teams in the right direction to define product roadmaps and strategies. Product Managers are driven by passion and a desire to innovate – often with a unique blend of creativity and technical expertise.

Having spent the past 20 years managing, developing and marketing a number of different products, I have seen Product Managers face the challenge of inadequate resources, time and budget to do their job right. Managing a product is far more complex than just creating a simple list of features. Knowing what kind of product to develop and having the right time to market is not a trivial thing. For every story we hear about visionaries such as Henry Ford or Steve Jobs, it’s all about getting an intimate understanding of the customer needs and converting this knowledge into powerful products that will impact the market.

Whether you’re into classical music, marching bands or rock and roll – any great musical performance share a common thread of group alignment, collaboration and precise execution. Product Managers are very much like the conductor or leader of the Product Team. To deliver a great product, the Product Manager must stay on top of all incoming customer feedback and market information and convert this into insightful marketing and product requirements. They must then seek alignment and collaboration, ensuring that every stakeholder is executing a complex plan of action that will ultimately result in the release of a product that the customers will buy.

But unlike a rock band or a small orchestra, companies are often designed in a much more complex organization. People work in different spaces and locations, and can have agendas that are not always compatible with the Product Manager’s vision. On top of this, everyone involved suffers from data overload, which makes it very difficult to get all the stakeholders on the same page, using a common language and up-to-date set of information. Of course, with a lot of hard work, you can do a lot of bridge the gaps and making sure that everybody is in sync and moving in the same direction. But then again, Product Managers still need the time and bandwidth to think about the right kind of products they need to create.

Our vision at Ryma is to provide every Product Manager with a platform where they can maintain all the latest and relevant information, align all the stakeholders across the company, facilitate collaboration between teams, and help individuals execute to the best of their abilities. By automating or eliminating repetitive tasks, we help them focus on driving innovation. By facilitating collaboration and access to information, we improve the communication channels and overall efficiency. By assisting in the process of developing a product, we ultimately help Product Managers optimize the quality of execution – which is much needed to deliver better products to market in a shorter timeframe. We want to touch the lives of all Product Managers and give them the tools that will allow them to develop innovative and great products.

Michel Besner
President and CEO
Ryma Technology Solutions

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The stickiness of your blog – my unplanned experiment

December 2, 2011 Leave a comment

As some of my regular followers have noticed, I am back at writing on my blog after a hiatus of 259 days. At first, I just wanted to take a little break of a few weeks (had been writing regularly for over 2 years) and then suffered from a lack of inspiration – which led to a much longer than anticipated downtime.

This extended break led to an unplanned experiment, where I got to measure the stickiness of the content I had written over the years. Of course at first, traffic went down – but not by that much. As time went by, it seemed that I was keeping a steady amount of traffic with regular visits on many of my blog posts as you can see from the following chart. I don’t have any deep and profound analysis on the matter but I was definitively pleased to see that what I had written is somewhat withstanding the “test of time”.

At the end, I guess that the time off was worth it – I am re-energized and ready to talk again about business processes, topics around product management and marketing … thanks for everyone that have been bugging me to come back to writing on my blog and I am looking forward to your on-going feedback.

Rock and roll!

Michel

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Thank you Steve

November 30, 2011 1 Comment

When Steve Jobs passed away, it was the first time that I was so disturbed by the death of someone famous. It took me many days before I could even think straight – having such a hard time understanding how I would function without such an influential element in my life.

Steve is very much the primary influence in my interest in technology. From the first time I saw an Apple II, I have been mesmerized by his thinking, vision and determination. He’s the one that got me into computer programming (I remember bugging my parents for months until I got my own Apple II) and ultimately computer graphics. Back then, computers were an amazing source of innovation – you had no choice as you did not have many applications to play with – programming was the way to go. And this pushed me toward finishing my studies in Computer Engineering.

The Mac has influenced many people – this was not the one for me. The work that Steve did while at NeXT completely blew my mind and got me thinking about the aesthetics of software, usability and really thinking out of the box. It also was a great lesson on time to market – NeXT being way too many years ahead of its time.  Steve’s passion and desire to make a dent in the universe forced me to think about my own path and what I wanted to do. This burning passion got me to start a company with a few of my friends – Kaydara.

Very much like every entrepreneur, I took the long road of learning what it means to be a CEO. There is a fundamental difference between starting a company and running a successful business. Again, many of my life lessons on how to become a good CEO came from watching Steve as he came back to Apple. I don’t think I have missed a single of his keynote (in person or on the web). His approach on simplifying the message, focusing on what is key and how to be a leader all impacted my own style. At the same time, I learn the hard way that being somewhat of a tyrant was not a good thing (some of my first employees can attest to that). But over the years I have matured and mellowed – finding a style that I both like and people around me can relate to and appreciate. Finding your own leadership style is probably one of the hardest things to do, as there is no recipe or secret ingredient.

In the later years, Steve’s quest to simplify our digital lifestyle continued to influence me in different ways.  For one, my house is filled with Apple products: one Mac, 5 MacBook Pro, at least 5 iPods, one iPhone, an iPad and a couple of Apple TVs. Some people could call me a Apple freak … Also I once saw a quote from Steve saying that “Software is the user experience” – something I deeply believe in and have made me think of usability in every product I have been involved with – both from a product management point of view but also from a marketing angle.

I will always remember what I felt when I first heard about Steve’s passing. I often get up from the couch and go check my computer to see if there is any emails or news that is worth reading – my home page when I start Safari is the default startpage on the Apple site. It took me a few minutes to really grasp the simple image of Steve with a start and end date. I was in shock.

For days following the news, I did like many people did – revisit Steve’s legacy and re-read many of his famous quotes, including his beautiful commencement speech at Stanford. There is a lot of great content in there but the one that is still resonating in my head is: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today? And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

The sense of urgency is a great tool to help you make decision about life – both personally and professionally. Who knows how long you will live and stay in good health? If you have a burning desire to achieve things in life, don’t waste your time, focus on what is really important and let you passion lead the way.

Steve, thank you for everything you brought in my life – you have given me so many life lessons, making me a better person every day.

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Cocktail 101: how to pitch your business

February 21, 2011 4 Comments

Tomorrow evening is the launch cocktail of Capital Innovation 2011 where I will be again an honored member of the advisory committee. Last year, I made myself available to help all the companies that entered the contest and I am very happy to say that last year’s winner, Artfox, did spend a lot of time with me in improving their business plan and overall pitch (full disclosure: since then I have invested in them as well as accepted the role of Executive Chairman). So while I have lots of excitement to see the companies that have registered so far, I have no choice to cringe on the idea of listening to badly delivered elevator pitches. So in hope of making this more enjoyable for everyone, here are my 8 tips on better cocktail pitching:

Introduction

Please take the time to introduce yourself but don’t get started for a mile long presentation. Say your name, role and company name (slowly and pronounce every bit properly). The follow with a SHORT one liner about what you do (WITHOUT acronyms or industry specific words). This is not yet your elevator pitch; it’s an introduction on the matter.

Get to know the other person

Nothing worse than to hear someone rapidly pitching what he or she is doing even before they even know whom they are talking to. Take a few moments to find interest in the person you are in front of: what are they doing here? What are they looking for? What kind of businesses interests them? By knowing more about them you will be better at giving them a proper pitch.

What is the problem you are solving?

Never assume that people understand and get your field of expertise. Take a few seconds to put your business in the context of the problem you are solving. Try to find an example that can be highly visual and simple for anyone to get his or her head around.

What kind of solution do you have?

Once the problem is understood on the receiving end that you can take a few seconds to explain what is the solution that you have (plan to have in the near future). Again, make this as simple as possible (think of explaining this to your aunt that has no understanding of technology – never assume that anyone will get it).

What makes you different?

It’s one thing to have a solution; it’s a completely different one to be unique (i.e. to have a competitive advantage). You need to detail here what will differentiate yourself, what will make you win the war against the others. This also does not need to be uniquely technology related. Having a specific go-to-market, pricing strategy, distribution channel, etc. all count as differentiators.

Why do you believe you will succeed?

Almost closing time on your cocktail pitch. What makes you say that you will make it? Why would I think that you are a company to follow and feel that you have the right stuff? Here the challenge is to stay within the boundaries of being pragmatic and not look like a Looney bin.

What do you need?

Ok, you are obviously there for a reason. So what do you need to make your business a success? Do you need money? Senior leadership? New partners? All of the above?

Make it short

This entire cocktail pitch should have lasted only a couple of minutes. Now if the other party is interested, it may last longer but don’t try to hog on someone too long. There are a lot of people to talk to … :-)

Looking forward to see all of you tomorrow evening and hopefully my little tips will help you polish your cocktail tips.

 

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Why Apple would do just fine without Steve

February 14, 2011 Leave a comment

There is a lot of talk about the future of Apple and how they can possibly survive without Steve. For one, I think they would do just fine. Of course, Steve has amazing drive and vision but you have to look a bit deeper to see what he has achieved; above and beyond all the amazing products they have done.

Culture
If you ever had the chance to work with anyone at Apple, there is a deep and well-defined culture over there. Everybody marches with the same level of discipline and engagement. For example, try to get confidential information from any employee (I think that most leaks have come from 3rd parties) and you will get the same textbook answer that you usually get from any Apple employee. There is a deep sense of culture and following within the company; this is very deep and would require major changes for years to come before this changes.

Ultimate User Persona
Whether Steve is there or not, he personifies the ultimate user persona; I am convinced that anyone involved in any decision-making instantly has a thought of “what would Steve say or do” before doing something. It has already been proven that market driven companies thrive upon the use of a user/buyer persona. Apple has probably implicitly created with Steve the uber persona.

Product Roadmap
If you were ever involved in any off-sites or product brainstorming, you know that Apple has most likely a bunch of new product ideas and well-defined roadmaps for years to come. The genius behind ofthe past decade has most likely written down what to do for at least 3 or 4 generations of upcoming product releases and updates.

Executive Team
Most of the key players around Steve have been working with him for more than 12 years: Jonathan Ive (Head of design, since 1997), Scott Forstall (Head of iOS software, worked with Steve at NeXT and followed him in 1997), Tim Cook (COO at Apple for 13 years), and Philip Schiller (SVP of Worldwide Product Marketing, rejoined Apple in 1997). When you have been working with the same team for so long, there is no doubt that they know a lot about the man and his vision. And most likely they know how to continue this going forward.

In short, unless the Company changes all these key executives, run out of what’s on the multi-year roadmap and change the overall company culture and finally stop using Steve as the uber persona, you can expect great things from Apple for many many years to come.

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My Presentation Tips & Tricks

February 8, 2011 1 Comment

Here is a follow-up on my latest post regarding the content of an investor presentation. Beyond the information that needs to be put into each slide, here is my top 10 list of tips when it comes to doing a presentation.

Simplify the content

Making presentation is an art form where less is better. Try to make each of your slides and clean and simple as possible. Try to extract the essence of what you are trying to say in each and every slide.

Use words that are easy to pronounce

Sounds silly but in a Province where English is most likely not your first language, try to pick words that are easy to pronounce. Be careful about words that might have a different meaning when badly pronounced (for example, saying “fuck us” when wanting to say focus). Of course, some words cannot be replaced so you just need to practice your pronunciation.

Rehearse, Rehearse, Rehearse

You never rehearse enough; don’t just try to wing it. Even the pros practice a lot their speeches and presentations. Practice your timing, practice the quality of your speech. You can do this by yourself but it is also quite valuable to practice in front of a mirror, in front of people that you are not as comfortable with, and ultimately record yourself with a camera.

Lead the presentation

Too many times, we start talking once we have flipped the slide. If you ever have noticed great speakers such as Steve Jobs, they will lead the slides; starting to talk about the content that will appear next – BEFORE the slides is displayed. This will create a better flow and prevents you from just reading what’s on each slide.

Tell a story

Presenting is very much about telling a story. Make your presentation compelling by focusing in getting your audience engaged and getting them thru a series of steps; up to the closing statement.

Take your time

By keeping the content short, you can make sure not to exceed any allocated time period. You can then make sure to take your time. Nothing worse than a rushed presentation because you have too much to say or are not sure on how long you will take.

Pause by taking a sip of water

One useful trick is to take a quick sip of water once in a while. This will allow you to take a second, make sure you are focused and composed (if you were starting to lose it). While this sip of water will feel like you have paused for a minute (or even feel like an hour), it creates just a small enough of a break to catch your breath.

No matter what happened, focus on closing strong

Even if you have fumbled plenty during the presentation, you always have a last chance upon closing. Take a deep breath and make sure you deliver a good and final message correctly. While always better to do a perfect presentation, a good finish can go a long way.

Be careful of your body language

How are you placing your hands? How is your body moving around can say a lot about your level of confidence and comfort. Make sure that you don’t do any twitching, dangling, or too many sidestepping moves. This is where recording your rehearsals with a camera can greatly help. Sometimes we are just not aware of all the things we do when we present.

Smile

Nothing worse than a presenter that is tense and looks like he is in a bad mood. If you can, remember to smile and have an upbeat attitude as you are presenting; even more when a presentation is recorded and then posted to a public website.

 

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Looking for funding? Here is my presentation template in 15 slides

February 2, 2011 1 Comment

Raising funds is something that most startup hates doing – being very difficult (and sometimes next to impossible) as the primary reason. While not easy, getting investors on board is not as hard as you might expect. That is of course if you have taken the time to build the right business plan and have taken the time to sell your story. There are three basic rules that will make a round of funding happen. To begin is there a market (and a problem) that is big enough to invest into? Second question is do you have the right solution to that specific problem? Finally, to you have what it takes to succeed? Investors want to put their money into things that have a shot of succeeding. For any business plan they read or presentation they see, this is basically what they are trying to answer. If you succeed, you will get the funding you need. Missing anything and the road to money will be long and painful… Here is my top 15 slides that I believe need to be in any investor presentations:

Company Overview: make it short; explain where you come from and how you got to this point. What kind of experience do you have? Who are the key people in your team?

Distinctive Competences: Take a few moments to explain what makes you unique. What do you have or do that other companies would not or cannot do? This is extremely important. If you are just a “me too”, what confidence can I have that you are the right horse to bet on.

Market Problems: What are the problems that the industries you are serving have? How painful is that pain for them? Make sure to show that you are addressing a real pain, not just a nice to have.

Market Sizing: How big is that market opportunity? How many customers are there? How much would they be willing to spend? Try to have 3rd party references such as industry research and market analysis to support your hypothesis.

Solution to the problem: What kind of solution is needed to fix this problem? How complex this is? Will it take a few years or a decade in order to get there? This is as much as product agnostic as it needs to be. Focus on the solution rather than what you product does as of today.

Target Customers: The market is large and that is very good but you still need to focus. What will be the types of customers you will be targeting first? Types of customers can define this but having samples of customer names is always good.

Your product line: Ok now it’s time to put things into perspective. What is the solution you have (or plan to have) that matches best the market problems and the needs of the customers?

Product roadmap: You need to show that you know what to do for years to come. How can you demonstrate that what you have in your plans will align with the evolution of your target market?

Go to market strategy: How will you get your customers to notice you? What is your plan to get the meetings you need and the volume of business required to be financially viable? And please be specific. Just saying that you will use SEO, Adwords, Social Media and mailing list does not cut it …

Competitive landscape: Whom are you competing with? This can be a direct competitor to your products and solutions but this can also be the customers themselves (in-house development, status quo). How will you position yourself in order to have a competitive advantage?

Revenue Model: What is the pricing for your solution? Do you have plans for recurring revenues? Will you have a reseller channel? How will you monetize your web service? Sometimes a simple illustration can help visualize the flow of money and how it gets to you…

Financial Projections: How much money will you make in the coming years? How much will it cost you to get to profitability? What is the breakdown of spending per category (R&D, S&M, G&A)? Keep it simple but show numbers that fit within metrics found in your industry. For example, if you nearest competitor is running at 15% profit margins, don’t show margins at 40% (unless you have a major compelling reason that shows why you will be so different).

Exit strategy: This is not as much about selling the business as what will be the triggers that will allow the investors to get a return on their investment in the next foreseeable future.

Funds needed: How much do you need and what will you do with it? There is no problem is asking for more, just make sure that you can demonstrate how the proceeds will be spent. Money invested needs to be used to create value, not to sit in a bank account for 3 years.

Summary: Time to wrap up; this is your last chance to make a lasting first impression. What are the key take away points you want to investor to remember; no matter if they will be investing or not. People talk and you want to make sure you leave them with the right message.

I hope this will give startups looking for funding some insights into the key points that investors are looking for. Of course, I might have made it sound easier than it really is. If you need some help or just want to get some feedback, drop me a line and I would be more than happy to assist you in making a killer presentation that will help you get the funding you need.

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When the fear of dilution (or desire to keep control) makes you a failure

January 30, 2011 2 Comments

Over the past two years, I have seen a numerous number of business plans, new startups and startups that have been startups for too many years. It is always surprising the see so many entrepreneurs concerned about majority control and the fear of being diluted in an upcoming round of funding. I actually believe that too many of them end up dying or selling too early for lack of proper financial support; mostly driven by this fear.

You lose control the second you need money – no matter how much

If you want to make sure you never lose control, you better have a business that never needs any form of bank loan or third party investment. No matter how little you need, you will virtually lose control of the business. Maybe not on paper, but as soon as your business will be in trouble, you will have to deal with your banker or group of investors. You want absolute control? You should never ask for money. Then again, your business better be highly profitable and cash strong to handle your growth, otherwise you will inevitably run out of money.

Keeping control, no matter how much you own

Instead of focusing on your ownership of the business and who has majority control of the business, concentrate your efforts in building a realistic business plan and spend your time on making it happen. No investors want to change a winning combination (well unless you have a serious personality clash with them – and that’s a whole other discussion). If your business is hitting the key milestones and is providing the value/ROI your investors are looking for, then you will be in charge and your Board and shareholders will let you do your job.

When was a very successful business been ever over capitalized?

It is funny to see so many discussions about the valuation of Facebook, Twitter, Groupon and other companies lately. People are spending all their time wondering about what valuation multiples are being applied. The resulting effect is very much like the dot com bubble where people worry about valuation (and ultimately the dilution that would occur for a round of funding). Startups worry too much about what they are worth instead of looking at how much they really need for run the business. Focus on the money you can get and what it will give you. At the end, I don’t recall a company where the executive team does not get properly rewarded upon being highly successful.

Get as much money as you can and make your business grow

Entrepreneurs should not think about how little they need in order to un-dilute themselves. Think instead of what that extra million dollars would allow you to do. Could you accelerate your product development? Could you expand faster in international markets? Could you acquire other business that complements your solution? Again, I am more curious to see what Facebook will do with the latest 1.5B$ of funding. The game is about building a long term sustainable and growing business. No matter how much we talk about the price of gas, you would never drive for a long distance without doing a proper fill up of your gas tank. Who is in sane mind drives a car and fills up for a few gallons/liters every couple of miles/kilometers? Getting funding should not be different.

So if you are thinking about raising more funds, focus on creating value, don’t think about the valuation, how much you are getting diluted (well, just make sure you are not getting screwed…) and build the right plan to wisely spend that money. If you are truly successful as your business plan says, there will be plenty of money (and ROI) for everyone …

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New year’s resolution: under promise and over deliver

December 30, 2010 Leave a comment

As we are about to begin a new year, most of us get in the habit of making resolutions; things we want to achieve in the coming year, things to stop doing, or simply things that will make us a better person. It is usually a process that makes us highly optimistic where many of these resolutions will never happen and most of them rapidly forgotten only a few weeks later. So my suggestion as you make you list is quite simple: under promise and over deliver.

No matter what you pick, set yourself for success with simple goals and objectives; milestones you have a high degree of chances of achieving. Be realistic. If all of us pick items that can be done, it will be a fantastic year. You want to achieve a million dollar revenue year? Aim slightly lower but make sure you will deliver above expectation. You might still get the million dollar mark but if it comes as an over achievement, it will be even more rewarding.

In reality, under promising and over delivering should be all our first resolution; then any other ones you pick will be gravy on top. :-)

With that in mind, I want to wish all my readers a great 2011, enjoy the rest of the holidays and if you are drinking, do it in style with a fantastic bottle of wine …

Michel

 

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Business Confidential: how sensitive is your data?

September 27, 2010 Leave a comment

Do you find sometimes that you are swimming in a world of non-disclosures (a.k.a. NDA), whereas most of them are not really needed? Honestly, I believe that we could live without the majority of NDA’s that we are signing. In this day and age, people qualify anything as sensitive or confidential data – including their business address and who does the cleaning – lol. But seriously, how confidential is the data you want to share? Most of the time, we spend way too much time around the definition of a NDA, only to find out that there is very little information that is being shared.

What are you really afraid of?

How much can someone else do once they learn about your secret sauce? Can they just go and do what you’re planning to do? Information that needs protection is either information that would have an impact on the market (mostly if you are a public company) and specifically hurt your business if it becomes public knowledge. General direction of a business or a vague idea about your business plan does not cut it.

What competition would do?

That’s one of the most important question you need to ask yourself. What would be the impact if your competitor were to learn about this so-called confidential information? If the impact is low or nil, then there is not much you should be concerned about. Of course, if you have specific trade secrets or revolutionary new product coming, you want to make sure to safely guard this information.

Do you have just ideas?

You are in trouble if you have just a bunch of ideas but without the ability to execute them – NDA or not. People should spend more time on execution that to worry about others stealing their ideas. Beyond accusing others of taking your ideas, focus on making your ideas and plan a reality. If you execute well, competitors should never have enough time to beat you to the market. Nothing in an NDA is stopping you from badly executing – so stop blaming the others if you failed.

How much do you really need to disclose?

Again, learn to be selective about what you disclose. We actually say less when there is no NDA in place. People have a tendency to talk a lot more because “we can do it in confidence”. Staying quiet is the best method to protect confidential information. Let me burst your bubble and let you know that people still talk even with an NDA in place. Maybe not officially but people like to talk. Companies that have a culture of staying quiet have a better chance of keeping confidential information to themselves.

Learn to sign NDA’s when they are really needed. Talk less and focus more on your execution – these are the best tricks to stay ahead of the game and keep your information confidential.

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