Category: Becoming a PM

Hunch co-founder Chris Dixon wrote a blog post about the “Goldilocks Principle“, and how it affected their relationship with customers as Hunch pivoted from a B2C to B2B offering.

Hunch was in the position of being “too hot”. I think that OpenTok is still in a position of being… not “too cold”, but I’d revise it to actually be “not quite cooked yet”. In lean startup methodology, I think that we’re still a “nice to have” as opposed to a “must have”.

I’ve spoken a lot with my fellow PM Andrew about what it’s going to take to make the OpenTok platform cross over to that sweet spot where folks understand that not only do they need live video to be a part of their applications, but that they need live video as powered by TokBox.

It’s a tough problem to solve when you’re creating a market. The real value of face to face communication can only be experienced, it can’t be sold. And that makes it difficult to try to hand wave one’s way to a deal or partner launch. At the more abstract level, you need to convince someone that something they never knew they were missing is actually a critical component of the product that they live and breathe every day. That’s pushing water up a hill if ever there was an example.

All of that said, we’ve done a few things that have really started to help move the needle for us. Better demoes, live demoes and improving quality of partners, and with it testimonials, have all helped with the “you’ve got to see it to believe it” problem that we were having. Those were big steps forward, but I don’t think that they are the real game changers.

The biggest game changer, in my opinion, is what we didn’t do.

Not doing has two components – what you actively chose not to do, and what came to you outside of your control.

We chose not to wait
I can definitely say that I disagreed with the TokShow plug-n-play application. It felt too close to what some of our favorite partners were doing. I don’t actually believe in grey areas, and a lot of the defense around the app used grey area arguments. I’m of the opinion that you make a decision consciously, and that you confront the known consequences of that decision.

Why was the decision right, and I was wrong? Because the opportunity wasn’t a need; it was a flash in the pan. This is where I truly realized that we weren’t a “must-have” platform for anyone yet. But the transition across that proverbial chasm required that when there were flashes in the pan, we caught them.

Is it possible to grow organically, and really let the market come to you? Yes. Disqus did it. But that just wasn’t in the cards for us, and so we didn’t wait.

Our competition arrived
I don’t know how many people thought that video chat was relevant before July of this year.

Yeah some phones had it, but not really.

Yeah Skype had it, but that didn’t live in the browser nor did it integrate into other applications.

And then Google Hangouts landed, and the Facebook+Skype integration followed. And then it got interesting.

Our competition has arrived.

We chose not to be afraid of specialization
I think that I was under the impression that a platform had to solve all problems to all people. It worried me that at times we were making trade offs and decisions that applied to certain verticals, and helped certain partners.

I now realize that platforms never start as all thing to all people. That’s way too difficult a problem for day one. Instead the early adopters of a platform help to shape and define the path from from where we are to where we are going.

It’s still our job to be the conductor, but every now and then there’s a soloist who needs the opportunity to shine for all of us to get to the next level.

New, unforeseen use cases emerged and we did not ignore them
We spent almost nine months on the archiving infrastructure. We did a lot of things wrong (and that’s coming in a new post). The one thing we did right was listen.

During our beta program a new use case emerged; we rapidly iterated and got the stand-alone recorder and player to our developers.

I don’t know that if we had allowed ourselves to be (a) consumed by a desire to singularly focus and (b) driven by a need to launch we would have made the same decision.

Instead we chose not to ignore the blinking light off to the side, and it has brought the archiving API into many more applications as a result.

I haven’t read the remainder of Chris Dixon’s blog series about the journey that Hunch has taken in getting acquired by eBay, but I wonder if NOT doing played as integral a role for Hunch as it has for TokBox.

I do know though that when we look back at what got us to the “Goldilocks point”, not doing will have been as important as anything we did on purpose.

I found out today how important it is to be vocal when you really believe in something.

First some background:

I believe that the reason that TokBox is successful right now is because we’ve built the right culture. Hiring in the Valley is a bitch, and if you aren’t careful, then you’ll hire anyone out of desperation. We’ve made that mistake before, and I’m sure we’ll do it again, but lately we haven’t.

What is the crux of our culture? I think TokBox as a company is focused around building an excellent product together. There is team buy-in to our vision, strategy and execution. Buy-in doesn’t mean consensus mind you, but at the very least we force ourselves to come into a room and hear each other out before anything is committed to paper.

At some points that community approach is challenged. People have a bad day or they fundamentally disagree with how something is being presented. It’s these days that challenge the culture hardest, and we recently had one of those days.

It happened; we acted on it quickly, and I think that at the very least the problem has been surfaced. There is a clear chink in the armor, and that’s not going anywhere. At the end of the day, we’re all people, and the dynamics of that come into play. But in immediately responding to the situation, and vocally championing what’s right instead of what’s easy I think we took a big, big, big step in showing that our culture is sustainable.

Good job us, and now on to the next challenge.

I’m on a soccer team that is a mix between very serious, competitive folks (about a third) and folks who are just out there playing because they want to exercise, have some fun and the like.

It’s tough to be on the more serious end because you end up getting extremely frustrated by the folks who aren’t taking it as seriously as you are. The right way to approach this frustration though is the difference between whether you enjoy the season and your teammates or whether you let the frustration get in the way of your success.

When I coached the JV Girl’s Soccer team at Cary Academy, I took the approach of anger. When the girls didn’t take things seriously I got angry, and they ran sprints. Or, I took away a privilege. At the half-way point of the season, I was really burnt out. I realized that the problem wasn’t the hours, girls or trying to mix a 5-day a week gig with school. It was my attitude. We had an amazing second half of the season, and I saw a LOT of growth in the girls and the team. The pride they took in their matches once they felt like it was a team they wanted to be a part of was really astounding to see, and to be a part of.

This came up again today in my mind because the team that I play for now has had the classic  mix of serious folks being committed and showing up, and the not serious folks just coming along for the ride. Today we got a bit of a flame e-mail from a player, and it surprised me. Don’t yell in email; it never works. Worse, you’re not going to inspire the uninspired digitally.

Here’s how I would handle that situation. Get to the point where we have a solid 7 – 9 players at practice every week. Then, first game of the season, only play those 9 guys for the first 20 minutes of the game. Make people earn their starting role. The team will suffer as a result, but it proves the point. On top of that, it actually rewards the folks who come to practice in the sense that they’ve earned something the others haven’t.

Create pride in the end result. Let others have a sense of ownership. And then, you don’t have to flame anyone because the outcome takes care of itself.

I can’t quite put my finger on why, but Friday was an amazing day.

A lot of pretty large projects finally came together, and I really feel like came to a conclusion. Finish lines are too damn difficult to find in their own right, but when you cross two or three together at the same time it’s really a nirvana experience.

It was an intriguing blog post by Brad Feld detailing the 99% committer that helped me realize we were stuck. Everyone wanted one more ounce of promise about direction, marketing or resource commitment before things crossed the finish line. There were good reasons for all of the above, and it wasn’t done out of malcontent or ill intentions, but nonetheless it had to be worked through. Ian let me know that we were, “paying the penalty lap”. It’s an end game that I hope to not make the mistake of replaying anytime soon.

When I announced that Friday was a good day, I got a really good ribbing. You see, I bitch and moan like crazy, and Ian only hears about one-quarter of it (poor guy). Amelia hears the rest, but she just smiles through it all so I’m not too concerned for her. Underneath all of that energy is an anxiousness born from the need to be three steps further ahead, and prepared for what’s coming even beyond that. What this process taught me though was the importance of the present.

Lesson learned: If you don’t hustle the present moment, then there is no future worth planning for.

The theme for the next few months for me is definitely going to be (a) get project started, (b) mature project into product, (c) get product out the door.

Item (a) is too easy. It’s easy to the point where you really end up trying to do as many (a) as possible without worrying about the rest. It’s hustling through (b) and (c) that’s going to win the game though, and that’s a very important skill to build.

Video chat is about to explode, and we’re on the door step of the first anniversary of the OpenTok prototype. The next few weeks will mark the first round of video chat solutions drawing their line in the sand about what/who will win the long term real time communication space. We’re definitely a flyweight trying to win in the heavyweight division, but we can bite ears off with the best of them.

And we’re going to do it by out-hustling the big boys today, and not worrying about tomorrow.

At least not too much

Related articles

• Facebook’s “awesome” new thing next week will be Skype-powered video chatting (benzinga.com)
• Facebook rumored to launch Skype-powered video chat (digitaltrends.com)
• WebRTC

They don’t teach you the formula for convincing people of things in school.

In school, I had to take a public speaking course, and I’ll be 100% honest… it was awesome! I had a fantastic professor, and a great, great, great group of classmates with whom I worked. The glass taught me a lot about communicating, but nothing about convincing.

It’s amazing how difficult it is to convince someone that you’ve thought something through to the point that you’ve actually solved it. There are a few major hurdles you’re always forced to overcome:

• The idea that you have any idea what you’re talking about
• The idea that what you’re solving is actually relevant in any way
• The idea that your solution, recommendation or general direction is valid

The situation is exasperated by a need to educate at the same time that you’re convincing. I think the best at this must be folks with kids aged 4-7 years old because your life is constantly getting that kid to do what you want for the reasons that you want them to.

That said, I’m starting to see a pattern emerge.

1. Start with the background
   There’s always a need to establish the problem being solved. The problem may be one specific thing, or it may be a collection of things that have come together. Present the most general problem as your background information. Talk about motives; talk about concerns; talk about what customers are saying; talk about what customers aren’t saying.
2. Build out a set of credible solutions
   For some reason, folks generally don’t like that you give them an answer. Instead, they want to work through the problem with you. So give people a family of solutions. Talk about the pros and the cons of each. Discuss the monetization strategy behind each. Identify the tactical hurdles, marketing hurdles and other challenges. Be honest about the fact that you did your homework, and that you did it well
3. Provide a thesis
   Given that you’ve got a family of solutions, provide a strong thesis around which to build a framework. The thesis should act as a slogan for your solution. It should be something that’s easy for everyone to understand, and should also become how others sell your idea to the company at large. A very strong thesis built on the data points provided in the previous step goes a long way towards establishing buy-in into the solution you’ve chosen.
4. Stop and listen
   At this point you’ve dumped a lot of information on people who have been, at best, tangentially thinking about the problem that you’re solving. The best thing you can do now is to stop, and get feedback. People’s gut reactions are probably their best insights into your solution. Do they buy into the thesis? Do they buy into the homework that you’ve done? Do they buy into the problem that you’re solving? You should know the answer to all of these things after this point. To know the answers, you have to stop and listen.

After that… I don’t know yet. It’s some part execution, some part investigation, some part re-doing the whole thing.

I’ll figure it out as it comes to me I guess 🙂