Month One Done For The New Guy…
May 12th is my one month anniversary at MindTouch and the fire hose is still pumping. My role at MindTouch is Product Manager so I have spent the last month diving into and thoroughly trying to understand the key scenarios that MindTouch currently solves. I am also looking into the future and reviewing plans for our 2010 release.
Before I joined the MindTouch team I was pretty familiar with the company from my time at Microsoft. I will tell you however, my journey so far has been incredible and I now better understand all of the ways MindTouch is working to solve collaboration problems for its customers. What is fascinating to me is how quickly the value of a MindTouch install can be realized. As users learn the value of “sharing” what they are working on, they really begin to understand the value of an open collaborative environment. And, as organizations and users begin to use DekiScript and Dream Extensions to bring together information from around their intranet and the internet the value grows exponentially.
So what does a Product Manager at MindTouch do? The title Product Manager is somewhat overloaded and I am sure my job description will likely change almost daily. For now, I am primarily learning what our customers want and need from MindTouch and how we can add key features to support our users. I am also studying past releases of MindTouch to determine the changes that have had the greatest impact over time. Finally, I am working on defining a process for transitioning the data I collect to the amazing developers we have here. I am honestly wowed at the level of talent at MindTouch.
In the next two months I plan to complete my 90 day plan and spend time interacting with the great community around MindTouch. To ensure we continue producing versions of MindTouch that help you, our users, accomplish your goals, I ask that you provide us your feedback. User feedback is key to a successful product and the most important part of my job. A good place to start is right here with comments to this blog.
