"Ask the Product Managers" at Lotusphere 2012?

October 23 2011

Last week, one of my colleagues asked me if we were going to do "Ask the Product Managers" again at Lotusphere 2012. After this year's debut of the session, I was pretty sure I wanted to repeat it...until I was asked to reflect upon it.

On the positive side, the session was a good opportunity to meet many of the product managers across the IBM Collaboration Solutions team. We also used it as a way to start punctuating the conference, by having each PM mention something about the conference they were particularly happy about. We had some very good questions, and it served as a relief (pre-lief?) valve for questions that normally get asked during "Meet the Developers". Overall, lots of goodness.

On the downside, there were a few things about the session that I didn't like. First, the buildup lead to much apprehension from the product management team, worried they would be pilloried for one last time before we all headed for the exits. We did a pretty good job of taking some questions "off the table", things that couldn't be answered by the group assembled on the stage, but there were still some of the stinkers that we simply can't ever give a good enough answer for in public. And then there were the "peacock" questions -- questions that had already been asked in sessions, labs, and meetings during the week, but the person asking the question was trying to get attention for their cause in front of a larger audience.

It was this last category that has lead some of my colleagues to request that we not repeat the session at Lotusphere 2012. By the time Thursday afternoon rolls around, we've had enough about whether there will be 128-bit Linux versions of the C API for Notes R5 (Answer: No, still). If "Ask the Product Managers" simply becomes a venue for playing to the crowd, we aren't accomplishing anything by doing it. The product managers know what the relative demand/interest is for any particular cause or concern; it is rare in more than 12 years of doing product-related work that someone has come to me with a genuine requirement I haven't considered before (and I am usually quite open when such an idea comes forward as to its newness to me).

If we are going to do the session at Lotusphere 2012, I need to allay some fears. I thought about having a set of voting buttons in the room, where each question could be rated on its merit -- is it a peacock, a ringer, a dead horse, or a legitimately good question? That crowdsourcing could make things really interesting, though in practice using that technology never seems to work as easily as it should.

So, what say you, the Lotusphere-going public? How can we format this session to be successful from both sides of the equation?

By the way, this is my first Lotusphere 2012 post, so it is also worth mentioning that the Lotusphere 2012 call for abstracts is now open. We are taking session proposals over the next two weeks.

Ed Brill | Highland Park, IL USA Category:  Lotusphere 2012  Add/View Comments [30]

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  1. 1  Thomas Duff http://www.duffbert.com | 10/23/2011 5:21:30 PM

    I promise to behave this year... O:-)

  1. 2  Mark Myers http://www.stickfight.co.uk | 10/23/2011 6:17:23 PM

    Perhaps publish a "we have already discussed this one" list before hand (even pop the 10 ten peacocks on the screen at the back)

  1. 3  Craig Wiseman http://www.wiseman.la/cpw | 10/23/2011 6:26:55 PM

    Call a peacock a peacock and move on. Truly everyone will understand.

    Of course, I guess I say that with some trepidation. (I don't .remember. trying to be a peacock, but....)

    cpw...

  1. 4  Max  | 10/24/2011 1:36:18 AM

    //is it a peacock, a ringer, a dead horse, or a legitimately good question?//

    So the ratio is 1 in 4, for valid questions? ;)

    Have no fear, give it another try and take it from there.

  1. 5  Alan Hamilton http://alanghamilton.com | 10/24/2011 2:45:50 AM

    Why not have an Ideation Blog on a Lotusphere Community where people can vote for questions in advance? That way the questions we want answered will be clear and the product managers have a chance to prepare, or take it off the table?

    On the day only questions which graduate from the Ideation Blog are discussed.

  1. 6  Gabriella Davis http://blog.turtleweb.com | 10/24/2011 4:18:05 AM

    I think my concern here is the whiff of them vs us coming out of this. Business Partners and Customers are fans of your products, the questions they ask come from wanting the products to be the best they can. It's not personal. Frankly I don't think 99% of people in the audience know enough about the people on stage to make it personal. If the product managers feel hurt by the questions, I can assure you those asking are hurt they have to ask.

    To the point about "peacocks" - I honestly don't think people ask questions to garner attention (that would be pretty weird but what do I know) but instead to attempt to get support from the room for an issue they are being told is unique only to them. How often do we hear "we aren't hearing that from other customers" or "there's no demand for it" ? I suspect what people asking the questions hope for is not that it's new to you but that a spontaneous wave of applause / support will follow their asking and that you / the product managers will go "oooh. that has more support than we realised".

    I sympathise that it's a long week. It is a long week for everyone but LS has always been more than a sales or marketing conference, it's an opportunity to engage directly with those that produce the products we run our businesses on. Even though Meet The Product Managers was new last year, it generated huge positive excitement and kudos for the team. I really hope the opportunity to repeat it isn't lost.

    On a practical level, if you really feel that the product managers can't take spontaneous questions then having pre-prepared questions that have been filtered would, in my opinion, be worse than not having the event at all.

    As I recall last year, no-one was shouted out, no-one swore, no-one threw soft fruit, there was applause. We want to hear that the product managers believe in the products as much as we do and will stand behind them. I hope we get to.

    Gab

  1. 7  Roberto Boccadoro  | 10/24/2011 4:56:12 AM

    I agree with Craig. You can declare in advance that "peacock" questions will be ignored and when someone ask this kind of question, just ignore it and go on with the next. The session is very valuable IMHO and cancel it only due to a handful of silly people would be a pity.

  1. 8  Alan lepofsky http://Http://www.alanlepofsky.com | 10/24/2011 4:58:19 AM

    I did not attend this session last year, so as an unbiased outside observer I'm surprised by this post. I would think that in this era of "engage with the customer" (something you've always personally excelled at) that the PMs would be excited about the session, not worried about it. If there are people in the audience with a personal agenda then just turn their annoying questions around on them and you'll win the room over. "No so and so, like we've already told you 3 times this week, we won't be doing that."

    Comedians don't avoid being on stage because they are worried about hecklers. Dont let the fear of a few bad eggs ruin the opportunity for a much greater number of people.

  1. 9  Carl Tyler http://www.epilio.com | 10/24/2011 7:43:04 AM

    Gab +1 Alan +1

    How do these PMs handle press briefings?

    These sound like the PMs of old that didn't want to take part in internal discussion forums, in case SEs were mean to them and made them cry. They're professionals, paid very good money I'm sure. If they don't want to hear from people that buy their products, then who do they want to hear from?

    I think a lot of IBMers forget the customer/supplier relationship. It's much easier for a customer to go and get a new supplier than it is for a supplier to go and get a new customer. Sometimes, customers want to give the people they have paid money to some abuse. They've paid for the privilege, so take it.

    Imagine if the head of IBM said, I don't want to go to the stock holders meeting as they might pick on me, he wouldn't last long would he?

  1. 10  Andy Donaldson http://blog.macian.net | 10/24/2011 8:06:00 AM

    Coming from a customer perspective, I think the session was fantastic. Sometimes those of us down here don't always feel we are being heard. Blogs and social media help, but it does sometimes feel like we are not in the inner circle being heard. Not me directly, but I've observed enough chatter to see that over the years. It happens sometimes.

    You have to remember, our community is *extremely* passionate and we all know how people who are being passionate come off as sometimes on the blogs. Sometimes it's from the heart and other times is ASW-time. IBM is a social company and this is a social event. Take advantage of it. Embrace it. Listen and if needed, act. Just my 2 cents.

  1. 11  Howard http://www.tlcc.com | 10/24/2011 8:36:35 AM

    How about some sort of mobile app where the crowd can help choose the questions or even ask questions?

    Howard

  1. 12  Lisa Duke http://www.simplified-tech.com | 10/24/2011 9:25:26 AM

    I agree with what Gab and Carl said.

  1. 13  Loretta Golby http://www.allegroassociates.com | 10/24/2011 9:51:18 AM

    I can't believe you are even discussing this topic internally.

    If the product managers are not willing to be on "stage", I would have to ask why are they a Lotus Product Manager?

    I thought this was a very good session, and I thought it would do them good to hear from the "crowd" what the passionate clients/customers/business partners said and crowd reaction.

  1. 14  Thomas Leriche  | 10/24/2011 9:59:38 AM

    Bit surprised by this post. It's kind of like having an interview with the US President and the media is told that there will be no questions allowed about the U.S. economy, Libya, Afghanistan or re-election. Because the president has answered all these questions before.

    Huh?

    Perhaps the easiest solution is to simply have this session first thing on Monday, instead of waiting till Thursday.

  1. 15  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 10/24/2011 10:17:18 AM

    OK, I think the feedback is pretty clear.

    At a minimum, my team will be back for this, and I assume we'll get the other PM teams on board as well based on this feedback.

  1. 16  Nathan T. Freeman http://ntf.gbs.com | 10/24/2011 10:39:18 AM

    How about you change the format to a big group debate between the PMs and the IBM Champions? ;-)

    "If "Ask the Product Managers" simply becomes a venue for playing to the crowd, we aren't accomplishing anything by doing it. The product managers know what the relative demand/interest is for any particular cause or concern; it is rare in more than 12 years of doing product-related work that someone has come to me with a genuine requirement I haven't considered before (and I am usually quite open when such an idea comes forward as to its newness to me). "

    Ed, I am blown away by this statement. If the Product Managers fear sitting on stage and being presented with ideas that the audience applauds, one wonders whether they understand the term "social." Why not just say "we don't want to have to listen to our customers and partners when they say things we don't want to hear?"

  1. 17  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 10/24/2011 10:49:34 AM

    @16 I already conceded the point. Again, it was never me/my team against, but I started getting some feedback from elsewhere. I have sent the link to this discussion along, I believe the point is well-made and we can move on. Next blog topic coming up :-)

  1. 18  David Jones  | 10/24/2011 11:45:13 AM

    Ed, thanks again for all you do for the product! Looking forward to attending this session again.

  1. 19  John Detterline  | 10/24/2011 12:36:13 PM

    How about soliciting ideas for discussion topics on the days leading up the session? That would let you filter out questions and/or redirect the people asking the questions to the right place? Use some the technology you're selling to help out - social software + social event = ???

    A little heads up on the potential topics could give the product managers time to gather more information and give "better" answers.

  1. 20  Carl Tyler http://www.epilio.com | 10/24/2011 12:51:22 PM

    I like the ideas people have of people being able to submit ideas, especially useful for those that are unable to attend. Add to the suggestions people posting questions to YouTube. Some PMs if then so inclined could even answer some of them pre Lotusphere. I hope your colleagues become as enlightened as you Ed.

  1. 21  Mike Kinder http://www.acadiasolutions.com | 10/24/2011 1:28:13 PM

    Think it is great it will be back....but an idea to help with this would be that all points discussed be outlined somewhere online for future review.

    If it was answered, then post the question and answer, but if left open, post it as open for discussion/answering at a later date. Perhaps then allow for discussion and a way for your team to actually post a proper response. We could sign up to get updates or RSS feed to the info if we are interested in hearing more about an issue, and thus keep up to date on the information.

    I think the reason not getting an answer is frustrating, is that often we all get busy with day-to-day work and these questions get lost/forgotten and never really get an answer. A follow up forum would keep then open for further response and would be more likely to get answered.

    Maybe not though - just a thought.

  1. 22  Craig Boudreaux  | 10/24/2011 4:54:48 PM

    I like the idea of crowd sourcing and voting on the questions beforehand. I don't like the idea of filtering them. I know some like the spontaneity of asking questions while in the room.

    What if you do a combination of the two.

    Provide a place for people to submit questions and vote on the questions submitted. The highest ranking questions are discussed in order from top down.

    You could present 2 of those for every one question from an audience member. I'm assuming the submitted questions would be of high quality and highly popular based on the voting.

    On voting: Duplicate questions could be rated down by allowing people to mark them as such as they are found. (Maybe you could count 'unique' votes among the duplicate questions for the tally.) Also, you might only let people vote for say 10 questions, that way they don't vote for everything in the queue, only the stuff that really matters to them.

    I agree with others that the roar of the crowd is not something to be feared. That's a gauge that something is either working out really well if it's positive or that there's more demand out there than the PM's realize, which is one of the points of this session, no? I attended the 2011 session and thought it was one of the highlights of Lotusphere. Though I was upset when someone asked about an issue that concerns me, one that appeared in Idea Jam and had several votes on it, and the PM said they'd never heard anyone ask for that before.

  1. 23  Mark Lepisto  | 10/24/2011 6:11:40 PM

    I know it's already a done deal, but I did want to add my support for the session for the future IBM'ers that read through this thread. I thought last years was great as I have always attended teh Ask the Developers sessions because of their overall quality. What I especially like about the "Ask the..." sessions is hearing the questions from other companies/people about issues I may not have come across yet - but may soon be addressing myself. So while "Bob" may have asked IBM 3 times already that week, I wasn't there to hear his question and IBM's answer, but in this session I am there and that's often valuable.

  1. 24  Kristin Keene  | 10/25/2011 7:49:23 PM

    Let's go for it. Best time I had all week! (Then again, I'm not a PM, but have certainly spent my time on the hot seat :)I vote YES.

  1. 25  Rob Novak http://www.lotusrockstar.com | 10/26/2011 3:37:42 PM

    I support the session (though I think it overlapped with Gurupalooza) but even moreso I would like to have a few one-on-ones with specific PMs, and think a roundtable, cafe, or other organized time & venue would be valuable. Firing off one question just doesn't allow you to interact with the same quality as a 5-minute conversation.

    I may know who the PMs are that would be my target, but a lot of folks won't. If IBM could publish a list...

  1. 26  Stuart McIntyre http://blog.collaborationmatters.com | 10/26/2011 3:48:50 PM

    Somehow only just saw this post (thanks for tweeting it, Rob).

    Add my +1 to all the others. This was one of the very best sessions at last year's Lotusphere. In fact, I'd love you to give it more time on the agenda, and possibly move it forward from Thursday when many have already left. I know there are 1:1 sessions available throughout the week if needed, but there is nothing better than having an open public forum such as AskthePMs offers.

    Thanks for asking Ed, and glad you received the response you did.

  1. 27  Christian Dencker http://www.performance-peek.com/blog.nsf | 10/28/2011 10:32:35 AM

    Well ..

    @20 - +10

    @22 - +10

    @24 - +10

    1. The objective is to learn from clients how to make Notes/Domino better !

    2. Ask the clients, per product category, how you (IBM) can make your products better. Do this on the a website (LSOnline).

    3. Have the LS12 Community vote on the ideá's on LSOnline.

    4. Pic the 2 best idea's, or the ideas that got the most votes, big or small, fun or .. for eg. 4 products and have the PM's debate this.

    Thats the way it's done in other software development communities :-D

  1. 28  David (The Notes Guy in Seattle) http://thenotesguyinseattle.com | 11/15/2011 1:06:35 AM

    (I just got off the river after 21 days unplugged in the Grand Canyon. Lots to get caught up on in this world.) Ed, if it's any comfort on this issue for you, no one is helping to fund my way (yet) to attend Lotusphere, so you won't have to field any of my questions. That should cut the length of this session in half. To everyone who was there and tweeted me all the positive support as well as asked me to ask their questions, my apologies. At this time it does not look like I will be attending.

    Cheers

  1. 29  Greg Stover  | 11/18/2011 8:02:05 AM

    I'm trying to put together a justification document for Lotusphere 2012. I would like to include the updated Track descriptions in my document instead of using last years descriptions. When will those be posted?

  1. 30  Chris Hamoen http://www.ardexus.com | 11/21/2011 1:40:58 PM

    One solution is to only allow customers to ask questions. Partners, industry people, etc - should already be in the loop and are more likely to be the parrots.

    There were people in it last year who abused it by asking questions that were really just to promote their business.