Sitecore

Empathy in Product Management

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Swiss Army Knife with too muchI’ve discussed the need for us to use more empathy in our projects. One easy step in is to stop talking about users and remember that people use the solutions we create. There are fellow human beings trying to get things done with what we deploy.

This consideration needs to be taken back another layer. We are people as well. The products we are forced to use, from the standard Content Management System (CMS) to the most complicated Information Governance suite, needs to be easier to use. It shouldn’t take a week of training to just start using a system, much less being productive. Mistakes made in the beginning shouldn’t doom us to years of pain.

Enterprise software User Experience matters.

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Sitecore Sym NA: Sitecore Roadmap

One more session today, the Product Roadmap. Normally I prefer these sessions in the morning so I have time for the entire conference to follow-up. Given that I personally needed more background first, I’ll let it slide. Once again, Darren Guarnaccia is speaking. Dude is earning his pay today.

  • CMS 6.6 this quarter, November 5, 2012
    • Mobile SDK, Device simulation, MVC (new development approach)
    • Mobile SDK, build mobile apps with Sitecore managed content
      • iOS first, Android later
      • Restful API’s that are optimized for mobile applications
      • Device Specific API’s, First for iOS devices in Objective C
      • SDK for creating an “App Shell”
    • Device simulation allows viewing a page in different simulated mobile devices through page editor

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Sitecore Sym NA: Leveraging SEO to Drive Measureable Customer Engagement

Here to hear Ted Prodromou talk about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Any tidbit that I learn that can help us is important.

  • Good Old Days, SEO 1.0, was easy back then
    • Meta fields, repeating terms, keyword stuffing, and links all USED to work well
    • Meta Titles still works well
    • Meta Description is useful because it will show-up in the Google result (helps people choose your result)
  • Panda and Penquin (monthly) updates to cut down on cheating
  • Thriving in current SEO world

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Sitecore Sym NA: Building, Connecting, and Measuring Communities with Sitecore

Time to learn about the communities module for Sitecore by John Field. This has been a big challenge for AIIM and I’d love for Sitecore to give us a way to solve this problem without having to write it all from scratch.

  • Shared Source currently
    • Blogs
    • Polls
    • Comments
    • Ratings
  • Social Starter Kit powered by Telligent, complete integrated platform

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Sitecore Sym NA: Social Connected Deep Dive

Checking out the Sitecore Social Connector. If you’ve been to the AIIM website, you see that we do a little of this. I want to do it better. I’m here to see if we can do it cost effectively. David Morrison is presenting in this session.

  • Version 1.3 was just released and it is a free module (Nice confirmation for ignorant people like myself)
  • Social Brainstorm
    • Simplify visitor registration and authentication
    • Post content to social networks directly from CMS
    • Manage multiple Facebook accounts

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Sitecore Sym NA: Product Track Keynote

First, going to abbreviate the conference name in the title. It is just too long. This session is Driving Tangible Business Value through Integrated Cross-Channel Marketing. Being presented by Lars Birkholm Petersen and Darren Guarnaccia.

  • This track is focused on Best Practices and what is shipping or about to ship
  • Improved Customer Experience = Improved Share Price, Consistency drives loyalty, Integrated marketers outperform
  • People, Process, and technology (Like any business problem)

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Sitecore Symposium North America 2012 Keynote

Notes from this morning’s Keynote. Not sure how much I’ll be blogging the event but I figured the keynote was one thing that needed to be covered.

Michael Seifert, CEO and Co-Founder takes the stage…

  • 500 in Boston last year, 1,000 this year in Vegas
  • Customers don’t want to have to tell you what they want, the customer wants you to anticipate what they want
  • WYSIWYG of tomorrow is “What You Need Is What You Get”

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A New Conference Experience for Pie

It has been an interesting year so far as the CIO of AIIM. My world is subtly difference. I’m still acting as an Information Professional for an organization but there have been a few key differences:

  • Only one client
  • I don’t advise, I execute
  • The problems faced are mine but I can address them

There are lots of other differences, but those are the significant ones. This experience is also affording me a new experience.

I’m attending a technology conference as a client.

I’ve attended a lot of conferences either as a technology partner or a company trying to sell something. When I was neither of those, I was at an industry event like the AIIM Conference for networking and learning.

This is a new role for me, except for the part where I expect to be busy.

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