Tag Archives: product development

Hulu Wins in the Details

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hulu logo

Hulu announced a new player for its popular online video site this morning and Eugene Wei, their VP of Product walks through the new functionality in a detailed blog post about the new features in the Hulu player.  If you take a few minutes to read it you’ll notice that most of the updates don’t feel “major,” or part of a “massive relaunch” as tech companies like to say when they version up on their platform. Instead they demonstrate an obsession with getting the details right. And this is where Hulu wins.

Because unlike other technology companies that ship big platform updates with lots of ballyhoo but often with “we’ll get that in the next release” rough edges, Hulu focuses on how to make the user experience the best it can be – by starting with the details.  Proving in product, it really is the little things that make a difference.

Look at some of the changes they’ve made – half of them you can’t even see, the others you’ll barely notice individually; but when you put them all together you see that Hulu is one step further out ahead of everyone else in video in delivering the world’s best online video experience.

Changes:

  • Color and background color of captions on videos
  • Ad audio level normalization
  • Variable bit-rate streaming
  • 25% increase in player size
  • Removing player controls from  the viewing area

If you’ve worked in product or with product management the level detail in these is rare.  I imagine in many technology companies these features would lose to the “edge case” argument and never get rolled in.

But when you start with the goal of creating the best online video viewing experience in the world and mean it, you see how all of these features are vital and not “edge cases” at all.  So kudos to the Hulu team for sweating the small stuff, because where you win is in the details.

Pardon the Dust « Hulu Blog.

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Watering Down

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Watering down.  It’s what happens to great concepts once they enter the beauracratic world of a corporation.  A concept goes from revolutionary and unlike anything other to just another boring product.

It’s what happens when you get too many cooks in the kitchen.  It’s what happens when every executive wants a piece of ownership in a project.  It’s what happens when your coworkers want safety, to be as close to the other market participants so that there isn’t a big miss.   Watering down is easy.  It also makes everyone feel good in the process. It makes the executives feel good to have their input come to life, it makes coworkers feel good that they won’t get fired for making a product that flops, it makes you feel good because everyone around you feels good; until the market gets it and hates it.

Or worse, yawns.

Then everyone doesn’t feel so good. Then they look to you as the product manager or project leader.  What happened? Why did you do this? Why didn’t you do that? Why isn’t it working? Why isn’t it selling?  What happened?

And the only real answer is that no one (you) fought hard enough for the original vision.

Thats your job as a product manager. Fight for the original vision.  Tell your coworkers no. Tell your executives no. Tell your suppliers no and customer service people no and operations people no.  Tell anyone that wants to water the idea down for the sake of making it easier on the status quo, no. Fight for the vision.

While people may dislike you in the process they’ll like you when it’s finished.  Because no matter how many ideas you reject, how many compromises you refuse to make, in the end people love bold, original ideas.  They’re exciting and inspiring.

And if they or the market don’t end up liking your idea? You stuck to what you believe in – and that’s something worth feeling good about any time.

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What Marketing Can’t Do

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Inspired by this post at 37 Signals.

This Murphy bottle sticker is just one example of what I like to call “little green lies” — product packaging and advertising claims that try hard to spin natural stats on unnatural products in their favor.

As the 37 Signals highlights,  when marketers can’t do anything more than control the message they’re rendered pretty much useless (and in fact potentially dangerous).  The absurdity of this label is hard not to miss.  I mean plastic comes from corn at some level (that’s naturally derived, right?) This got me thinking about my role as a marketer at a company and what marketing can and can’t do.

What Marketing Can’t Do

Marketing can’t:

  • Make your product suck less
  • Make your product work better
  • Make your product provide more value
  • Make the product something people want and love
  • Make people happier about your customer service
  • Improve your warranty
  • Improve your return policy
  • Make your customer service people care
  • Make your account managers more on the ball
  • Make your user interface easier to use
  • Make your product easier to use

I could keep going, but I think the point is pretty clear.  There are a lot of parts of the overall experience that a consumer has with a company that isn’t controlled by marketing.  But often times, the buck is passed to the marketing and PR teams who are tasked with selling it.  Putting lipstick on a pig if you will.  When marketers feel like they have to spin the value, repackage the product based on message alone you end up with labels like the above.  You can imagine the conversation:

“Can we say we’re organic?”

“No.”

“Can we tie into green in any way?”

“Well we’re based on a lot of natural materials.”

“What will legal let us say?”

The answer of course is what’s on the label.

What Marketing Can Do

Of course, there are things that marketing can do. And should do instead.

  • Marketers can go talk to customers
  • Marketers can listen to people (customers/marketplace/etc.)
  • Marketers can research what people are looking for
  • Marketers can watch people struggle with their products
  • Marketers can decide to make post-sale marketing a priority
  • Marketers can work with trainers, customer service reps and all parts of the organization to be more customer-centric
  • Marketers can cut their budget and tell the company to spend it on product instead
  • Marketers can evangelize for the customer

If you’ve got the responsibility in your organization to be the marketing face of the organization what are you doing?