Geek to geek communications

As a product manager in a technology company I wonder how often I get caught in “geek-to-geek” mode of promotion of our solutions. After all when speaking on the geek level it is very easy to find that we are focused on the latest greatest widget/function/button we have added to the software and not on the benefit to the user.

This has become very evident to me within the realm of Sheet Metal Stamping simulation of late, as more and more we (and the competition) are flogging the geek speak. Kinematic Hardening, Stochastic modeling, Element Formulations, Contact Algorithms, blah blah blah. But at times it is hard to pin down the Benefit that any new software feature truly brings. “We didn’t have it before now we have it, that is beneficial…” (to us but not our end users). What is the pain that we are addressing, what is the problem that we solve for them. And if you cannot answer this question then all the lovely features are of no use.

Getting a room full of technologists to actually try to enumerate the benefit to the customer has been very challenging indeed. And a practice that we all should exercise more frequently. Had a very good wake-up call to this at the SME annual meeting when keynote speaker gave his schtick. ere is a free online version of the workshop.

So what truly is the problem in sheet metal stamping?
- lagging profits (if any)
- parts, processes, tools that don’t achieve intent

The other stuff we obsess about (springback, HSS, Tool steel, wear, coatings, lubes, formability, hot-stamping, etc) are they the problem to be solved or contributors to the larger problem. Have we gotten so tied up in the minutiae of these topics that we lost sight of actually helping the industry? I don’t know… but I guess it is important that I asked, and that I continue to ask of myself and my colleauges.