Starting at around 9:45am Saturday, you can access the full schedule via your mobile phone browser at:  www.getcs.com/PCA10.

 

We ask that all session leaders to post their presentations or other info to the ProductCamp Austin slideshare event.  You can also view presentations here.

Below you will find a full list of sessions offered at this Spring's ProductCamp Austin.  Read and consider which sessions you would most like to attend! 

Here is a PDF listing of all sessions to print out and help you plan your day at ProductCamp Austin Spring 2010   PCA Sessions PDF 2010.pdf

 

We need to fill ~30 session slots, all offer by you - the ProductCamp participants.   List your offered session here, if we end up with more than 30 offered sessions, than the sessions will be chosen by the participants the morning of ProductCamp (Saturday, March 27th).  Please indicate the track that best matches your session. 

ProductCamp only works if you get involved - that means speaking or presenting, moderating a panel or roundtable discussion, conducting a workshop, or being on a panel.  Proposed sessions will be voted on the morning of ProductCamp (Saturday, March 27th) by the ProductCamp participants with the most popular sessions getting best scheduling. If you can't think of a session to lead, check out the section below called "Topics I would like to hear about" for ideas, or check out some of the really cool sessions offered by people just like you at ProductCamp Austin in June 2008, January 2009 and August 2009.

Session Template: 

Help us thank our ProductCamp Spring 2010 sponsors by including this Thank You slide in your presentation. You are “required” to show the sponsor slide before you start your session and at the final wrap-up of your session.  You can use any other format for any content slides you use. To include into your PowerPoint presentation, open your presentation, select Insert->Slides From->Other Presentation. Select the PCA10Sponsors.ppt file, make sure "Keep design of original files" is checked, and click "Insert All". (Exact menu option may vary from version to version of PowerPoint.) 

 

For categories/topics of interest, please see the graphic at the bottom of this page.

 

The following are the sessions proposed for ProductCamp Austin Spring 2010, listed by topic/track:

 

• Agile
• • Agile is killing me! - Managing your time when development goes Agile   
  • • When software engineering transforms to an Agile methodology, big changes are in store for Product Managers. The planning process becomes a regular occurrence instead of a once-a-year event. The requirements process morphs from lots of documentation up front to continuous conversations and progressive elaboration. All of these changes can wreak havoc on a Product Manager's schedule and can blur the lines of responsibility beyond recognition.  The workload can increase more than 60%, especially if you have both Product Manager and Product Owner responsibilities.  In this session we will share successful techniques to adapt to Agile including: dealing with role conflict, adapting to global engineering teams, and organizational models.  This will be presented in a Town Hall format, where the audience will also be invited to offer their best practices for each of the challenges discussed.   (Town Hall)
    • Paul Brownell leads the Software Process practice for Growth Acceleration Partners, a management consulting and outsourcing firm headquartered in Austin.  Paul is an experienced software executive and practitioner of Agile methods since 2001.  As Product Line Director at BMC Software, Paul successfully led SCRUM teams distributed across India, Israel, and the United States.   
• Brand Management 
• • Relevant User Agreements
  • • Should a company's user agreements (Licenses, Terms of Use, etc) actually reflect how the company operates and serve the brand, or simply be an iron-clad shield against all liability and responsibility that intimidates potential customers ?  Which is the case with yours ?  What do you want them to be ?

      We'll talk about the effects of both approaches, and how you, as a Product Manager may find a sweeter middle position.  We will discuss what everyone loves to avoid ... working effectively with your own attorneys. FWIW, I am a PdMgr and *not* an attorney but have worked with, hired and managed several, and occasionally get paid by them. (Town hall)

    • Don Jarrell has worked as a Product Manager and consultant in Product Management and intellectual property matters for over 20 years and is now building a SaaS-model start-up.  He has a long-running crusade to get Product Managers to work more closely with attorneys - especially IP attorneys - to get better results and reduce both disputes and misunderstandings.  He plans to bring a local licensing attorney to join in the discussion.

 

• Career
• •  Navigating the Product Management Minefield
  • • Establishing and growing the product management role in an organization is full of pitfalls and hazards that can quickly derail your effectiveness as a product manager, and sometimes it even blows up on you. Product management training teaches you how to do product management, but it doesn’t teach you how to navigate the political mine field of implementing product management or dealing with corporate conflict.  In this session, I'll share a series of scenarios that can derail the role of the product manager and we'll discuss how to handle these situations to help product managers achieve success as they implement and grow the product management role in their organization.  (Town Hall)
    • Tom Evans is Principal at Lûcrum Marketing and brings over twenty years of successful hi-tech business experience helping start-ups as well as Fortune 500 companies create and launch winning products. Tom’s experience covers numerous vertical industries, technologies and international markets.

 

 

• Talent is the most important piece of any business.  The right people in an organization will help a company soar to greater limits.  The wrong people in an organization and the ship will quickly sink. 

  If you (or your company) are in the mode of looking at a resume 10 minutes before an interview and then making a decision because "you like them", you should come attend so you can find out what other things you should be thinking about so you can find out if they are a fit immediately instead of 3 - 6 months down the road.  (Presentation)

• Kim Brushaber is the Owner of Bridge ATX.  For 7 1/2 years she BUILT applicant tracking systems. She has also spent a lot of time as a technical recruiter.  She has seen the hiring process from every angle in an organization.  Come listen to her to find out the things you haven't been thinking about.

• Silence is Not an Option - Speaking Up in Your Market Place

• Ok, so you're out of work or maybe want to make a career change. You've got some time on your hands and you need to stand out in the crowded job market. Submitting job applications online or going to networking meetings just isn't enough any more. And, let's face it - lots of people have a college degree and project management or product development chops.  What to do? You have to speak up! Learn tips and tricks to get noticed as a shining star among dull rocks.  We'll discuss affordable (and usually free) techniques, both offline and online, to make sure that when your name comes up, it shouts "hire me!".  (Workshop)
• Vicki Flaugher, aka @SmartWoman, is a marketing strategist who specializes in crafting effective & profitable online personas.  She was recognized recently in Forbes as one of 30 Women Entrepreneurs to Follow on Twitter, as well as one of WE Magazine’s Bloggers to Watch.  Vicki focuses on using social media tools to build reputation, authority, and rapport as an expert in a niche.

• PMM Non-Management Career Paths   
• • What happens to experienced individual contributors when your next title requires you to manage people?  How can you avoid the Peter Principle? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle    (Town hall)
  • Paul Teich is the first individual contributor at AMD to be promoted to the newly created title of Marketing Fellow.

• The Entrepreneurial Hierarchy - from Wage Slave to Free Agent and Beyond
• • Are you a frustrated employee? Aspiring entrepreneur? Somewhere in between? Product Managers are often called the CEOs of their product, but oftentimes that feels more like all responsibility - no authority. No wonder so many of today's CEOs and entrepreneurs are former Product Managers. In this interactive session, we will discuss different modes of employment and work in today's economy, their trades offs, and how to move from one to another. Learn to think about the work you do - and what what you'd like to do -  differently.  (Town Hall)
  • Colleen Heubaum is the founder of Winnow Consulting and a former wage slave. At one time or another, she has worked as an engineer, business planner, product manager, contractor, free-lancer, consultant, business owner, volunteer and mom.    

• The Old  Launch Codes Won't Work
• • The whole concept of product launches is rapidly changing in the technology industry. In this presentation, a Forrester analyst will describe, based on recent research, how and why launches are changing. Does the traditional idea of a launch still make sense? During this period of transition, what best practices will increase the probability that a launch will be successful? And what role do product marketers and product managers play in the new type of launch?  (Presentation)
  • Tom Grant is a senior analyst at Forrester Research, where he studies product management, product marketing, Agile, and social media. Before coming to Forrester, he was a VP of PM in Silicon Valley companies.

• Implementing a Joint Venture to Market Information Products on the Internet- via a live case study
• • This session describes the research required to create a successful joint venture to market an Information Product on the Internet-- from getting a Joint Venture partner with the right skills, to setting up the agreement (with revenue share and flow of funds), to providing for upselling of other products, and to the execution of the exit strategy. A live case study will be the center of the discussion, with requests for questions from the audience, so that a good understanding results of the nature of Joint Ventures by small business owners with these types of Marketing Programs.  (Presentation)
  • Allen Lindsey is currently the organizer for the Meetup of EXPLORING NEW MEDIA. He has also taught at UT, ACC and has been a SIG leader for WORDPRESS. He has taught a hands-on course on CREATING YOUR WEB PRESENCE, and has several decades of experience with AMD, IBM and other enterprises as a webmaster, developer and technical specialist. He is also the Managing Director of his own Entrepreneur firm.

    Fred Castaneda has been the organizer for the AUSTIN PODCASTERS Meetup. Besides University teaching experience in Business and the Arts, he has been a Systems Engineer and has worked in Marketing and Sales for 3 decades with firms like IBM. He has taught Personal Productivity and CUSTOMER SERVICE for 17 years with his own small business. He is a podcaster with over 11 podcast series, including THE STRUGGLING ENTREPRENEUR, Finance for Startups and Gain Control of Your Day.

• Why Social Does Not Matter
• • Ok, social marketing does matter, but only if  integrated into an overall marketing strategy whose primarily purpose is to help the organization generate more revenues. This session is not meant to be a lecture but instead an engaging discussion on what it takes to be a successful marketer (product marketer, social marketer, corporate marketer etc) in the software industry. How to build an effective marketing strategy, what measures to look for and who to work with to get the job done. Led by a practitioner (not an expert), this session will appeal to anyone involved the product management process who is looking for practical advice.    (Town Hall)
  • Bertrand Hazard is VP of Product Marketing at Troux Technologies with over 15 years of business experience devising and executing sales focused marketing strategies. He is known for his 'franc-parler' and can-do attitude.   

• Non-Traditional Pay-Per-Click
• • Pay-Per-click advertising is old-hat when it comes to online sales, but can it be used for more? In a word, yes! In this session we will discuss the completely overlooked ways to use PPC marketing (Google/Bing/Yahoo/Facebook/LinkedIN) to determine market interest, market size, feature selection and message testing. Use of these abilities can save your company months of time and effort. The session will end with a demonstration of how to set up a Google PPC account, select keywords, and go live in under 15 minutes. (Presentation)
  • Craig Barrett is the Search and Email Manager at nFusion. His clients range from Fortune 100 tech firms and national beer conglomerates to local startups.  He has been working in advertising for 10 years with a primary focus on PPC and digital tools.  

• Salespeople do the darndest things – and it just might be your fault!
• • Product managers are constantly amazed at the things salespeople will do, from chasing long shot opportunities to promising impossible benefits and non-existent functionality to prospects and clients when trying to close a deal. Even though we like to blame the sales team for behaving in this manner, it may really be the product managers’ fault. Product Managers should own the message and then enable the sales team to take this message to the market. Unfortunately, sales enablement has become one of the most overlooked functions of the product management role.

    In this session, we will review the reasons salespeople do the darndest things, learn the detrimental impact this has on the company and discuss product management’s role in preventing this.  We’ll address four key components of effective sales enablement tools and show you how to build these components. Then we’ll wrap up with final thoughts on best practices to help you achieve an effectively enabled sales team.

    This  session will include a short presentation and then a lively discussion of best practices led by a group of experienced panelists.  (Panel Discussion)

  • Tom Evans is Principal at Lûcrum Marketing and brings over twenty years of successful hi-tech business experience helping start-ups as well as Fortune 500 companies create and launch winning products. Tom’s experience covers numerous vertical industries, technologies and international markets.

    Sheryl Posey: Product & Project Management, Channel Relations & Account Management in the IT industry.  Focus in channel business development, partner and alliance management and product strategy, planning and continuity.  Project specialties include product life-cycle development & management, business processes and client solutions.

    Mike Boudreaux is a product manager for process automation products at Emerson Process Management in Austin, TX. Prior to Emerson, Mike filled various engineering, sales, and marketing roles at Akzo Nobel and Alcoa. Mike holds a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from the University Houston and a Marketing MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

• Just because you don't know the rules doesn't mean you should break them - digital marketing
• • With the rise of digital marketing, more and more people sign up for a social network, spend five minutes talking to their ten friends, and instantly are "gurus" of web marketing and product positioning based on their ten friends' habits.  In digital communications, it is easy even for the most seasoned marketer to get caught up in the echo chamber that is social networking and to stop listening and researching which truly should be an endless part of the digital workflow.  We'll be talking as a group about what some of the basic positioning rules are for products as they are marketed online and we'll discuss best practices while a few discover why they may need an expert. (Town Hall)
  • Benn Rosales is the Founder and CEO of Austin based New Media Lab, a digital communications company born to reduce costs for businesses by teaching them how to use social networking tools themselves.  Benn's entrepreneurial spirit is also evident in his role as Founder and CEO of AgentGenius.com, the nation's most widely read online real estate magazine.  Benn has worked with companies such as Apple, Kroger and is the former CEO of GoSinglePointe.com.    

    

         

         

 

 

 

  

These are the session categories that ProductCamp Austin Spring 2010 Participants requested.