Monkeynoodle.Org

Tag: Partnership

  • Accidental Contradictory Incentives

    Accidental Contradictory Incentives

    Here’s a sad story that happens sometimes: And so now you have regret. Not responding to the market with a product does not mean that nothing happens. It means that something else happens. How did you get here? Misaligned incentives of course, but how did that happen? Well, it’s the same sad story as always.…

  • Thoughts on Logging

    Thoughts on Logging

    Those two phrases are contradictory and context dependent. This is why logging has different levels. They may be expressed as numbers or words. Each more verbose level is inclusive of the less verbose levels. Sematext has a nice in-depth overview.  I can’t count the number of times that initial log collection didn’t uncover the root…

  • The regrettable features you have to do

    The regrettable features you have to do

    Sometimes as a product manager you get a feature request that’s fun and challenging and moves your company forward. Then there’s requests that just make you feel like a sad clown: stuff that doesn’t fit your plan at all. It’s hard work to ignore the nay-sayers and make a new thing. The product team and…

  • Licensing Roundup

    Licensing Roundup

    I’ve written a number of articles now about licensing software: here’s a guide through them.

  • Engines and Fuel part two

    Engines and Fuel part two

    Part One Why don’t software vendor companies make content? The best answer is that they have decided not to invest (or similarly, have not decided to invest yet). Companies are often aware of the gaps their customers complain about, and yet choose to prioritize other things. A less good answer: they are not hiring the…

  • Finding the Price

    Finding the Price

    Let’s dive once more into the licensing breach! Here’s the background: What’s not covered? Well, when I wrote this post about evaluating a side business, it came close to the process for defining the price of a cost-plus service or product. That’s not a particularly hard task in theory: Of course, this simple approach will…

  • Offering Multiple License Models

    Offering Multiple License Models

    I’ve written quite a bit about licensing software now, you can start here to follow the whole thread. In The Platform License Problem, I mentioned some free pricing as a hide-the-sausage technique. When there are multiple markets to find product fit for, and the vendor has a software base that tackles those markets, the platform…

  • The Platform License Problem

    The Platform License Problem

    In my other three posts about licensing, I discussed simple products. But what about platform companies? A platform company sells two types of products: the platform, which enables everything else, and the use cases which rely on that platform to solve specific problems. The key to the platform company definition is that the solutions will not work…

  • Platform and Partners, Round Two

    Platform and Partners, Round Two

    After reviewing this post on platforms and partnerships, there’s more to dig into. By definition, you can’t cross the Bill Gates line by yourself, but who should you be seeking partnership with? Developers who consult or consultants who develop? What tools should you build for them? At the end of that article, I felt that…

  • Licensing models, self-service style

    Licensing models, self-service style

    In my other two posts about licensing, I suggested that flat rate pricing is best for customers, but impossible in enterprise sales because of the variable and high costs of making a sale. Those costs are difficult to understand if you haven’t been exposed before, but they are all too real. Weeks spent in negotiating…