Humor is a universal language, it has no limits, no boundaries. It is the channel to communicate with your customers and collaborators in a direct way and the most efficient transport for your ideas to go around the world.
In the ever-growing ocean of content that is shared every day in social networks, those that add irony, sarcasm or sympathy or usually the ones being shared the most. All colors and tones of humor are welcome on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, blogs and newsletters.
So, if you want to know how you can use the right sense of humor to spread your brand in all the corners of the world wide web, here are some clues:
Connect with your audience. Write, edit, program or design in a way that you talk to your customers in a natural way, inteligent people with whom you would go for a beer with. You will understand their needs, this process is called empathy.
Be funny without making a face. This is important, a good sense of humor does not consist of easy jokes. You could be sympathetic the same time smart and professional. The tone should fit with your company’s values.
Original content. This is the key to everything and to have more value adds some customization and adapt your messages to each format. Creating content is easy, being original not so much, start enjoying your own products and services. Enjoy doing your job. Feel it and try it. Write down your sensations and you will have perfect script.
The spark. This point is as easy as it is difficult. There is no manual to know for sure what’s funny, the best way to know may be to use the scientific method. Make a hypothesis, try it, and then take a distance and decide: Does it make you smile? Then it’s working.
Choose your channel. The continent is as important as the content, it simply chooses the networks and channels, it does not have to be omnipresent. Always think about who you want to read your content and who your target audience is and that will give you the answer.
As product focus is more important than ever in building startups in a very competitive market, the product manager role is increasingly getting more common and is highly valued.
But to many it’s a job description that’s a bit vague, and often means different things from company to company.
We invited three product people from the startup ecosystem in Barcelona to discuss the topic: Former PM at Google and currently product consultant Itamar Gilad, CEO and co-founder of FactorialJordi Romero, and CEO and co-founder of QuipuRoger Dobaño.
Long time product expert Gilad says it’s hard to explain the PM role in one sentence:
The position has changed so much over time, and it’s still changing. I like to define the PM as the person who’s the expert on the users, the customers, the market and the competition, and manages to deliver this context to the product team in a good way — it’s a super man basically!
From product to customer first
From the left: Sindre Hopland, media manager at itnig, Jordi Romero, CEO and co- founder of Factorial.
The last 10–20 years, tech companies have shifted their focus from trusting their engineers more than market, to lifting the customer and the users as the number one priority in making the product, says Gilad that for the last six years has managed products such as Gmail and Youtube:
The first time I heard the term product manager was back in the 90’s, and back then it was very new. The thought was that engineers always knew best, but that has changed a lot.
Also Romero, CEO of Factorial, recognizes the attitude from earlier times when he worked in other SaaS companies in the US and in Barcelona:
I remember we first defined ourselves as a product-first company, then a sales-driven startup and later a customer focused company. It think these terms are hard for startups that alter and change the way they do business often.
Dobaño is both CEO and head of product at accounting SaaS Quipu, he defined the product role like this:
You’re the CEO of the product, but it’s not just about making a great product, it’s about continuously solving problems for the customers and making an impact in your customers life.
Even though the PM has the word manager in the title, all three guests agrees that the only thing the PM actually manage is the product itself.
Romero points to several challenges connected with this kind of responsibility:
An issue I’ve seen in many product teams, is that the PM is managing the team itself, and not only the product and process. I think this is a real problem that is hindering the communication in the organization.
Itamar explains that the PM is there to fill all the holes of work that aren’t being worked on, which means that the person needs to be diverse:
The PM is working closely with both customer service, the business side, designers and engineering, it’s more about creating a pattern for collaborations and a good flow of progress. It’s needless to say that soft skills are in high demand.
He continues to say that a startup needs a designated PM when the startup is at a scale where the business people and the engineering team start arguing what to build next, and you don’t have time as a CEO to deal with all the discussions.
How to become one
From the left: Itamar Gilad and Roger Dobaño.
Romero says he believes a lot in promoting PM’s within the company that share the original values and vision of the founders.
Itamar explains that it’s not necessary to know how to code, but many big companies require it:
In companies like Microsoft, Apple and Google they alway prefer someone with a coding background. However, the personal also needs to be interested in the business side of the startup and have strong soft skills for team management.
Dobaño thinks many companies are setting too high requirements for their PM’s:
What you’re describing here is a unicorn. I do agree that PM’s should have a computer science background, but my job is to empower one person within each product team, and I’ll then make sure the communication flow is good between the company.
Romero repeats how vital soft skills are to this profession:
To have all the technical skills is one thing, but to be able to both do a sales pitch and to convince the developer team that what they’re building is the right thing to focus on, that’s tricky.
The global apps debate got another dimension as Google proposed progressive web apps as the next big thing in 2015.
However, most people building apps today still prefer native apps, for several reasons, mostly because it’s what people actually use.
We gathered three experienced developers and CTO’s to discuss the three types of apps most developers are building today. jordimirobruix, former CTO of Wuaki.tv, senior developer at Ulabox, Rubén Sospedra and founder of Javascript coder bootcamp Codeworks Alessandro Zanardi.
Friction, friction friction
A big question in the app-building discussion, is about the app install friction. In other words how many clicks there are from finding the app in the app store – to becoming an active user.
After voting on what type of app most people with build something with tomorrow, more than 40 percent of the people attending the debate chose native.
Briux believes the friction is the same in both PWA’s and native apps:
What’s the difference of the friction generated by the app store, compared with downloading a web app to your home screen?
Zanardi believes progressive web apps is much more frictionless because the device itself promotes the use of PWA’s:
There is much less friction in installing a progressive web app because the device your using is actually wanting you to install it. Compared to going to the app store, installing an app that takes up tons of space, and needs an update every two weeks.
Sospedra turns to the metrics:
The numbers tell us a story when 86 percent of the media being consumed on mobile phones are through native apps and only 10 percent of the total time spent on smartphones are used in browsers. PWA’s are still the new kid on the block, so maybe in five years we can talk again?
In one of the last question rounds, the app defenders had to reveal their answer about app stores — good or evil?
Miro says that if you get rejected it’s an evil thing and continues:
Android is pretty easy, just push and you’re in. With iOS however, to wait for someone from the other side of the world to test your app, that’s a black box for developers and nobody likes black boxes.
Codeworks CEO Zanardi points to that the app store or Apple, is the biggest preventer for making PWA’s really big:
The biggest problem PWA’s have at the moment is that Apple’s Safari doesn’t support service workers and that kills a lot of the purpose of the app. Firefox and Chrome are embracing PWA’s. As long as Apple is making tons of money from the app store we’ll have a real challenge.
What does your startup need?
Former Wuaki CTO Miro says choice of app to build all boils down to what kind of business you’re building:
If you asked me four months ago, hybrid apps were not the way because we couldn’t build what the business needed in Wuaki. But today for what I’m building, we’re looking for speed, something that’s tested and reliable and we wanted access to Canvas or WebGL, so hybrid is the way for us today.
Miro explains how the business decisions often dictates what kind of apps you end up building.
Sospedra agrees with Miro, saying that your business goals need to be clear before deciding what kind of app you’re building. He’s also adding that what kind of technology your team is comfortable with is important as well:
If you have a team that are really good at Javascript, then go for React native, but that’s my opinion.
As progressive web apps might be the bet for the future, Zanardi wanted to end the discussion with a statement:
I completely agree with these guys that if you’re building an app today to work on iOS and Android I would go native. The main problem you would have with PWA’s is with the iOS. If you’re targeting mostly Android devices you might go for a PWA. As long as Apple is blocking the spreading of PWA’s we’ll have an issue we need to solve.
There was a lot of other interesting points in the full debate, so check out the video at the top!
