I’m not giving it away now

July 16 2009

The last three weeks have probably been among the most intense of my career.  In the last two days, five months of work culminated in approvals to move a project forward.  Unfortunately, as with many things since I moved back into product management, I can't say what we decided, yet.  But I can promise you this much -- my team and I are not content with business as usual.

So much else has been going on.  I was in new executive training at IBM's learning center last week.  100+ of IBM's ~6000 executives, assembled for three days to help understand our company's future -- and learn how to shape it.  I received feedback from my team on my progress as a manager and a leader, and my results were extremely encouraging.  It's always interesting when you get survey results and find out you're (much) harder on yourself than anyone else is.  I'm grateful to be working with a whole bunch of talented people -- and to be able to help lead them to achieve more.  This week, I've had some staffing changes in those I manage (announcements coming soon internally), and I'm confident those who are doing new things will be successful at those new things, while equally excited to bring in new talent.  One of the quotes from one of my staff in the surveys was something like "Ed expects greatness from his team and ensures we are set up to achieve that".  The intensity those of you on the blog see in words is entirely consistent with my actions as a manager and a leader, and is why I'm proud of what we've done as an organization in the last few months.

There have obviously been some challenges and distractions along the way.  The lies -- and there is no other way to characterize them -- coming out of Microsoft's partner conference this week are simply astounding.  Declaring "Notes free countries" and claiming that they've "Exchanged" millions of Notes users in the last three fiscal years -- let me say this clearly, it does NOT compute with the fact that we have grown the number of active Notes/Domino users on maintenance for four consecutive years, that we've brought in thousands of new Notes/Domino customers in that time, and most importantly, that IDC said in their recent report that both IBM and Microsoft were essentially flat in terms of market share in the integrated collaborative environments markets in 2008.  I am working on other evidence points...can't find any data that we've got any Notes customers in North Korea right now, maybe that's what MS is talking about.

There's progress, too.  The 8.5.1 managed beta is doing extremely well.  We're working on some ways to start publishing feedback from beta participants -- on Designer 8.5.1, on XPages in the Notes client, on Notes Traveler for iPhone.  The fixpack for 8.5 should be out any day now, too.  OpenNTF.org took a huge step forward today through the selfless actions of the steering committee.  I am hopeful the foundation is there now to move back from organizational creation to what really matters -- more code, more accessible.  And in another I-can't-tell-you-yet, I saw some stuff this week from our marketing team that is nothing short of wow.  Yes, it should have come sooner and no, it will never be enough, but despite some of the blogosphere attacks, the Lotus marketing team is doing many, many good things right now.

I know there has been an enormous amount of hue and cry in the Lotus community in the last several months.  I'll leave the individual comments out here, but through my actions and where I'm spending time -- which blogs and whose tweets -- it should be obvious which contributions matter and which ones are self-important irrelevancy.  I've also learned to apply a coarser filter to what's being said -- there's just too much good out there to worry about responding to the misguided.  I won't put my credibility at risk by ignoring problems -- I've jumped into some pretty heated discussions in the last few weeks -- but I also won't give that credibility to baseless, narrow attacks.  

Many, many of you reading have been great about the side conversations, e-mails, bleedyellow IMs, and face-to-face discussions in the last three months.  It's what inspires me to keep one eye on planetlotus.org and/or my blog and Twitter each day, and spending as much time talking with all of you.  Thank you for your meaningful contributions -- you have no idea how important some of these blog discussions have been.  Well, maybe you would if you had seen the slides I was using this week -- many of your comments ended up on slides in front of the Lotus executive team and other decision-making bodies.  And let me tell you this -- they had an impact.

The second half of this year has a lot of excitement ahead.  I hope you enjoy the ride.

Ed Brill | Highland Park, IL USA Category:  Lotus  Add/View Comments [35]

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  1. 1  Mike Brown http://www.browniesblog.com | 7/16/2009 11:41:24 PM

    Wow! Talk about generating expectations!!

    When will we find out more?

    Cheers,

    - Mike

  1. 2  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 7/17/2009 12:00:31 AM

    If I could have said a timeframe, I would have. "Forward-looking statements" and all that.

  1. 3  lb_felix  | 7/17/2009 12:23:30 AM

    I really don't understand what you said...but I liked it, I can find a lot of passion in those words, go for it Ed!

  1. 4  Mike  | 7/17/2009 12:29:57 AM

    Great post Ed

    You've got my loins stirring and my heart racing! Looking forward to the follow posts in the (hopefully)near future

  1. 5  Rishi http://www.lotus-blogs.blogspot.com/ | 7/17/2009 1:05:11 AM

    Nice post Ed, bravo for your efforts which you've been put in last 2-3 years.Looking forward ..........

  1. 6  Henning Heinz  | 7/17/2009 1:17:44 AM

    Good luck.

  1. 7  David Stephens http://www.workflowstudios.com | 7/17/2009 1:36:29 AM

    Thanks Ed for sharing this information. Thank you for keeping up the attack internally and externally. I appreciate your efforts and feel better knowing that you and your team are working hard at growing the platforms to new heights.

  1. 8  Mikkel Heisterberg http://lekkimworld.com | 7/17/2009 2:06:27 AM

    Great to hear and as always looking forward to hearing more in the time to come. I once heard one say that "whining is an indication of a vibrant community". I think this is true and I think the Yellowverse is more vibrant than ever and feel that we don't always have to agree on everything. The most important point is that we share a common goal. Don't doubt that.

  1. 9  Randall Shimizu  | 7/17/2009 3:16:30 AM

    I hope this means more marketing Ed (I know you don't like to hear this, but just was compelled to say it. ).

  1. 10  Dan King  | 7/17/2009 4:33:56 AM

    All good to hear Ed, glad you get the recognition you obviously deserve

    Now, when is 8.5.1 coming out again?:)

  1. 11  Edwin Kanis http://www.eniac.nl/essentials | 7/17/2009 5:30:01 AM

    Thank you for sharing and your effort in these matters Ed!

  1. 12  Nathan T. Freeman http://nathan.lotus911.com | 7/17/2009 6:19:46 AM

    Best blog title ever, Ed.

  1. 13  Henry Ferlauto  | 7/17/2009 6:36:16 AM

    Looking forward to all of it.

  1. 14  Marie Scott http://www.bleedyellow.com/blogs/crashtestchix | 7/17/2009 6:44:40 AM

    Thanks for sharing what you can at this time Ed. We appreciate your openness, candor and willingness to channel with us! Looking forward to what's to come next!

  1. 15  Erik Brooks  | 7/17/2009 6:46:32 AM

    Cool.

    On a side note, there's a serious Lotus website problem you should probably know about:

    { Link }

    Scroll down, under "Spotlight". Look at the first link. "A preview of the next release of Lotus Notes Software: Hannover"

  1. 16  Roland Reddekop http://www.bleedyellow.com/blogs/sanitycheck/ | 7/17/2009 7:52:41 AM

    Reading between the lines of your blog title and also noting Nathan's oblique comment "Best Blog title ever, Ed" I am guessing that you're going to give away the Notes Client for non-Domino server usage (e.g. personal mail and personal applications) for free...try to go mainstream. No I am not privy to any information...just a wild guess coupled with a strong desire to see Lotus embrace a marketing model like Firefox and most of the Google applications like Earth and Picassa...oh and I guess Symphony...so yes, Lotus has started to embrace the free entry level model. Maybe you're going the next mile.

  1. 17  Maria Helm  | 7/17/2009 8:10:33 AM

    RE: ...can't find any data that we've got any Notes customers in North Korea right now, maybe that's what MS is talking about.

    LOL!

  1. 18  Volker Weber http://vowe.net | 7/17/2009 8:15:30 AM

    Pretty radical, Roland. Besides, they tried that with R5 in Germany and it did not work. How about the Designer?

  1. 19  Nathan T. Freeman http://nathan.lotus911.com | 7/17/2009 8:25:26 AM

    @16 - Wow, that's reading a lot into a comment! Why the heck would you think I'd know anything about a plan like that?

    I was trying to make an off-color joke. Guess I didn't pull it off.

    Interesting proposal, though.

  1. 20  Keith Brooks http://www.vanessabrooks.com | 7/17/2009 8:42:19 AM

    The happy lotus people await the future

  1. 21  Timothy Briley  | 7/17/2009 8:53:35 AM

    @19 - Nathan, you did pull it off for those of us next to you in the gutter. ;)

  1. 22  Ben Poole http://benpoole.com | 7/17/2009 9:01:43 AM

    Roland, your analysis of this post's title means that you're assuming that Nathan knows what Ed is referring-to. And that surely can't be the case, as Nathan doesn't work for IBM.

  1. 23  Roland Reddekop http://www.bleedyellow.com/blogs/sanitycheck/ | 7/17/2009 9:06:46 AM

    @Nathan - This was a simple case study that people hear what they want to hear...my subjective biased view of reality misinterpreted your comment...or did it? :-)

    @Volker - YOU are the radical my friend...walking around with that pointy blog stick ready to provoke reactions. You do a good job though I must admit. I suspect that a free R5 wouldn't be comparable to the "Hannover" version of Notes. A free Designer...interesting too. Peter Presnell made a tongue in cheek announcement of this here

    { Link }

  1. 24  Roland Reddekop http://www.bleedyellow.com/blogs/sanitycheck/ | 7/17/2009 9:36:29 AM

    @Ben - You're right, nobody outside of the blue firewall could possibly know (or anticipate) IBM's next move. They're inscutable. [insert sarcastic laugh here].

  1. 25  Peter Presnell http://www.bleedyellow.com/blogs/dotdomino/ | 7/17/2009 9:52:31 AM

    Well done Ed, this sounds like one of the most exciting non-announcements from IBM in a while. If you're quietly announcing a plan to go to war against MS and Google please let me be one of the first to enlist...

  1. 26  Brett H  | 7/17/2009 10:08:42 AM

    "I see you shiver with antici.................pation"

    Great news on the marketing front Ed, very much looking forward to anything new.

    Sure is good to have you here and available, communicating with those of us not behind the blue firewall.

    Also, congrats on the new talent, I hope they can live up to your level of involvement, sounds like they will, or you wouldn't have 'em.

    Cheers.

  1. 27  Ben Poole http://benpoole.com | 7/17/2009 10:09:50 AM

    @25 Peter, one sentence for you: "Lotusphere 2006 closing session."

  1. 28  Peter Presnell http://www.bleedyellow.com/blogs/dotdomino/ | 7/17/2009 11:49:21 AM

    @Ben - Not having ever had the opportunity (yet) of attending LotusSphere I will probably need to use one of my lifelines here - Can we do 50:50 on that?

  1. 29  Kevin Pettitt http://www.lotusguru.com | 7/17/2009 12:49:54 PM

    @Peter I had to scratch my head on @Ben's reference too but I found a pretty good writeup of that session (which I did attend), here: { Link }

    That said, there was no Notes/Domino 8.5 or Lotus Foundations in 2006 so we are at least better armed today.

  1. 30  David Hablewitz - Notes guy in Seattle  | 7/17/2009 5:40:05 PM

    Ed, I expect you are challenging to work for. In a good, rewarding way. Now you have me wondering if any of my otiose posts were worthy of your presentation. That I could have made a contribution to the goal.

  1. 31  Michael Kinder http://www.acadiasolutions.com | 7/17/2009 6:50:56 PM

    Again Ed, thanks for sharing this and continued contributions and support of our community. I am very intrigued and looking forward to the marketing. I want to help where I can as well.

    Mike K

  1. 32  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 7/17/2009 9:06:47 PM

    @30 yes, you were quoted (realizing that ack'ing this means everyone else will want to know who was quoted...) ;-)

  1. 33  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 7/17/2009 9:07:54 PM

    @31 where you, or any other business partner, can help more than anything are references. Deployment references, upgrade references, migration references. The IBM reference process is pretty painless. If you don't want to use our process, no problem, just publish some case studies on your own site. The more we can show the market how and where IBM Lotus is winning, the better off we all are.

  1. 34  Bruce Elgort http://elguji.com/products | 7/17/2009 10:00:20 PM

    @33,

    Having recently gone through the reference process I can attest that it is in fact painless. Also, the staff who assisted Elguji with theirs were simply wonderful. Kudos to the Customer Reference Team!

  1. 35  Darren Duke http://blog.darrenduke.net | 7/18/2009 9:57:16 AM

    Again, no prior knowledge of anything from anyone from anywhere. So, my guess is that Symphony is lacking an email client. I think Lotus have one lying around somewhere (the one I'm thing of was replaced by Lotus Workplace Messaging I think). And if memory serves, it was pretty good. With a bit of tweaking they could probably re-write the email client on the same development framework as Symphony. Expediter or something..... ;)

    As for references, non of mine ever get called back, hopefully Lotus have so many they can pick and choose.