Carmen Ferrara’s Weblog 2.0

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that there were a variety of topics I’d be discussing to provide more clarity around my new product - Presio. Well, I’ll be covering Topic #4 - “How it fits in with existing presentation and training tools” in this post.

One critical aspect of building a successful software product is interoperability. Most software products will rarely operate in a silo. In most cases, your product will have other dependencies that, when combined with your application, provide true value for a user. There may be hardware or software dependencies. For example, a word processing program needs to be able to print documents to any printer. Contact management software needs to be able to import (and export) data from common formats or tools such as spreadsheets.

Creating a software package that allows users to create web presentations that combine audio, video and slides certainly has its share of dependencies. Presio needs to not only work with a variety of hardware devices; web cameras, dv cameras, usb microphones, 1/8″ microphones, soundcards, etc, but it must also work well with a variety of multimedia and image formats.

A sofware maker needs to understand that their paricular product is usually a single tool within a larger toolset that their customers pull out when necessary. So, Presio is not the end all and be all for creating rich media web presentations. Instead, it allows you to assemble a set of “assets” (which may come from a variety of sources) quickly and easily. For example, Presio does a good job at capturing talking head type video. Assuming you have decent lighting and a good background Presio will meet your needs. However, Presio is not a video editing application and as such it does not allow you to create fancy transitions or effects. But, Presio will allow you to import an avi, wmv, or mov file and will automatically synchronize it with an existing slide. This allows customers to continue leveraging their investments in existing tools (whether it be previous cost or knowledge gained). So, if you are more comfortable working with video in say, Windows Movie Maker, Final Cut Pro, Premiere, etc., no problem. Just import your clips into an existing slide and you’re good to go. See below:

This is just one example of how Presio “plays nice with others”. For audio, Presio can import wav, mp3, or wma formats as well. So, Audacity combined with Presio provides a very powerful solution for creating audio narrated web presentations. Presio also works nicely with all the major web image formats as well as with Microsoft PowerPoint.

Equally as important as being able to get data into your software application from other sources, you must make it easy for users to get data out. Presio allows any clip (whether recorded with Presio or not) to be exported out to a file as well.

So, keep in mind how your users will use your product within an existing ecosystem of other products and formats.

Just a couple of quick items. I’ve been moving along building out iPresent Online, and I wanted to quickly mention a couple of of interesting items from a technical perspective. After careful consideration (too much actually), I’ve decided to build iPresent Online on top of the Ruby on Rails framework. Personally, I do not subscribe very much to the programming language/platform wars that fly across the blogosphere on a daily basis. When choosing a platform, what matters most is: 1) selecting “the right tool for the job” AND 2) what’s makes the most sense for your business. Along those same lines I’ve also chosen to integrate with Amazon’s S3 storage service as the primary repository for published Presio presentations.

Thus far, building on top of Rails and integrating with the S3 API has been going fairly smoothly and I am pleased by the progress to date. In the future, I may post more on some of the reasons why I chose these respective platforms and my short list of other technologies considered (if anyone is interested). At the end of the day, customers only care that the software solves their problems and could care less as to what the underlying technology is. The selection of these 2 platforms will hopefully allow me to achieve that end.

When describing a piece of software to potential users, it is imperative that you speak in terms of “solutions” as opposed to features. All too often, software companies provide laundry lists of product features sprinkled throughout their marketing materials. People don’t buy features, they buy solutions.

I’m going to describe how Presio solves specific user problems thereby creating true value for its users.

One assumption I am making is that potential users have already decided that utilizing rich media web communications will benefit their business or organization. With that said, here are some of the problems I set out to solve with Presio:

1. User Problem: I’d like to create multimedia content for the web, but the process of creating and editing multimedia is too complex and/or time consuming

Presio’s Solution: Ease of use - The interface of Presio is very compact. There are only a handful of screens and functions, yet it is a very powerful program. I did not bloat the software with lots of configuration options, settings and menu options. In fact, the main interface does not even have a menu. I built the interface for users that simply want to record a rich media presentation for the web and don’t want to be fiddling around with timelines, markers, script commands, and trying to figure out how the software works.

Intuitive workflow – there are basically 2 simple workflows within Presio 1) Create New Presentation Wizard, 2) Edit Existing presentation. When creating a new presentation the user steps through 3 screens, where they 1-upload files, 2-capture audio/video, and 3-publish. In edit mode, there are only 2 screens; 1-Edit and 2-Publish.

Bottom-line: Presio is truly a rapid web presentation authoring tool.

2. User Problem: I have a wide variety of users I’d like to have view my presentations, but I’m not sure which format to provide

Presio’s Solution: Multi-format support – At the end of the day, a viewer just wants a presentation or video clip to just work. They want to hear and see what it is you are presenting, period. With all the different web media formats this has become a challenge. Most sites standardize on one format or another, be it Flash, Windows Media or Quicktime. Presio provides the ability to publish audio or video presentations in one or multiple formats. This allows you to start off with one format and move to others as you better understand your viewer’s needs. You are not locked in to a single format. Additionally, Presio also allows for publishing single file presentations (MOV, SWF, or WMV/WMA) OR embedded HTML presentations, allowing for even greater flexibility for your viewers.

3. User Problem: I’ve created some great content, now how to I distribute it to my viewers. I don’t have a web or streaming server OR trying to get my IT department to help me set this up would take forever.

Presio’s Solution: iPresent Online. Presio comes with a fully integrated content distribution system built right in. With a single click, presentations can be published to our Tier1 hosted service, iPresent Online. Presentations can be tracked and managed via an equally intuitive web interface. Each presentation is stored on our highly reliable network and is accessible via a simple URL. You can distribute this URL however you’d like, via a link in an email, posted to your company’s intranet or on your website.

There you have it. iPresent Presio and iPresent Online were designed to solve these 3 problems. These 3 issues were my guiding principles during development as I added “features” to come up with an end “solution”.

I finally upgraded to Wordpress 2.  Migrating over was very painless.  I’m always impressed by this software.  So far I’m liking it very much.  I think the UI is quite a bit cleaner, and doesn’t get in your way as much.  I decided to upgrade mainly because I was looking for a new theme.  Most of the best themes are only compatible with WP2 so that pushed things a bit.  I was also having some pretty serious comment spam issues and WP2 comes with the Askimet spam plug-in ready to activate.  In the last few days, not one piece of spam has gotten through.  Very nice.  Here’s what I had been dealing with (1 month of spam):

Excellent list of sites and resources for entrepreneurs:

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/20-great-resources-on-entrepreneurship.html

Some of which I do read, many I had not.

I’ve been spending time over the past month or so in the Microsoft Producer user group, and have been getting some great information and feedback on the upcoming release of iPresent Producer , my soon to be released web presentation tool. (Quick note on the name iPresent Producer: I never intended for this to be the final name of the product, and so I’m in the process of renaming the product and defining its identity, as I get closer to launch - more on this later).

Anyhow, I really should be blogging more frequently, but I’ve just been so focused on development. Luckily, I’ve been speaking with some great folks over in the MS Producer forum. I really wished I had participated in this forum earlier in the process. I can’t stress the importance of spreading the word about your new product, even before it is released. The feedback and response you receive is well worth any “trade secrets” you may reveal.

However, you have to approach participating in a forum where your potential customers may exist in the right manner. Here are some tips for doing so:

1. First and foremost, a forum is no place for blatantly marketing your product. You need to contribute in a meaningful way - answer questions and share useful information using your expertise in the market. I’ve been a user of MS Producer for several years, and have a lot of experience creating and distributing streaming media. I tend to answer technical questions on the board, because that’s what I know best.
2. When answering technical questions, help the poster achieve a resolution to their problem. That means following the thread, and continuing to help until the poster is satisfied. You should view it as a practice run to the customer support that you’ll eventually provide.
3. When you do contribute a useful response/post - always include your signature with a link to your website or blog.
4. When a poster says: I wish Product X did Y. That’s your opportunity to pounce. I feel it is completely appropriate to mention that you’re building a similar product that solves the unmet need. However, I usually respond first with another alternative solution (even a competitor’s product), then I mention that I’m working on something that does Y

Anyhow, if done tactfully, contributing to forums related to your market can be a great way to introduce your product to potential customers, and more importantly a great way to receive feedback.

I am often on the look out for good, practical tips on creating and delivering PowerPoint presentations. Say what you will about the venerable PPT, but it remains the lingua franca of business and educational communication. I recently came across this excellent post by Guy Kawasaki; “The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint”. Guy has recently started blogging and I’m looking forward to reading his thoughts on start-ups, entrepreneurship and technology. His most recent book, “The Art of the Start” is also very high on my reading list.

Many of the points Guy raises are spot on. I’ve always felt that PowerPoint should be used as an aid in delivering a message, and not serve as the message itself. So, I tend to keep my presentations simple - a few bullets points per slide, not too much text, clear, easy to understand graphics, and no animations or needless distractions. Even though Guy’s post specifically talks about how to create a presentation when pitching a VC, I think his tips could serve as an operating guide for creating a better presentation.

I came across this piece recently about the inner workings at Google. The article goes on to describe some of Google’s work practices, which have mostly been a mystery to outsiders. The piece I found particularly interesting was the importance placed on innovation, and the techniques and tools Google uses to drive innovation throughout the organization. I attended the Babson Forum on Entrepreneurship and Innovation 2005 conference last Friday. I will be posting my notes as an iPresent presentation and as a podcast on what I learned. I found many similarities between this article and what the speakers and panelists had to say.

A view into Google’s inner workings by ZDNet’s Dan Farber — Douglas Merrill, senior director, information technology at Google, entertained a sleepy Vortex 2005 crowd, offering a view into his company’s inner workings. According to Merrill, who joined the company in 2004 and was previously at Charles Schwab, Price Waterhouse and the RAND Corporation, for Google information is “enlightenment” (not power) and the entire organization is compelled to [...]

I posted my thoughts on releasing software as early as possible, in an effort to get feedback from customers as soon as possible, over at JoelonSoftware, in this thread:

I thought I’d also add it here.

First off, you seem to have thought out the product quite well, and you have made great progress thus far – so keep going.

I agree with what others have said: (paraphrasing) - “Freeze your to do list”, “Start thinking about marketing”, “prioritize what remains”, and “just execute”. But, I also wanted to comment on the merits of “release early and often”.

I am a firm believer in this credo, particularly in a bootstrapped situation (which I assume is the case for most on this board). True, you need to get the base features into v1.0, but the benefits gained from releasing as quickly (though prudently) as you can outweigh the negatives in my view. Releasing early offers:

1. Feedback from the customer. This is so critical in mind, particularly for a new company with its first product release. As entrepreneurs, we think we know what customers want/need, what features are important, and how to implement functionality, but until we get our product into customer’s hands we can’t be sure

2. Time to market – you mentioned this as a concern in your blog. Well, releasing something early addresses that

3. Confidence – getting your product out there, which begins to illicit feedback (hopefully positive), and sales will build confidence and momentum that you can build upon

As a bootstrapper, everything is tight; time, money, resources – but you can use that to your advantage. You can move quicker or change direction on dime more so than that of a larger competitor that needs to get projects approved, teams assembled, resources allocated, etc. Releasing “early and often” is something that can be a competitive advantage for small (or tiny) organizations.

I think your idea and product sound great. Good luck.

Just to add, generally speaking I subscribe to a software project/product philosophy where less is more and getting things done is more important than over analyzing everything. Hopefully, this will hold true as I get closer with iPresent Producer.

I talked about the Rocket Pitch event earlier this week. Well, it turned out to be a great event. First off, the turn out was very good. This is the 6th year Babson has held this event, and interest continues to grow. The audience consists of students, faculty, and alum as well as a professional investors, lawyers, and others. The primary goals of the event are: 1) Allow early stage companies an opportunity to “pitch” their business concept and receive feedback 2) Make connections with potential investors, customers or advisors.

As for me, these two objectives were certainly met and exceeded. I got very positive feedback on the concept and had quite a few individuals express interest in partaking in an early beta of the product. I was also able to demo my current prototype of iPresent Producer. All in all, I’m very glad to have had the opportunity to speak about the company and the products in front of a great group of people.

Here is a podcast of my speech in both MP3 and Windows Media formats. I re-recorded it so I could post it here:

Podcast: MP3 or WMA - (3 minutes, 42 seconds)

P.S. - Stay tuned, in the next day or so, I’ll be posting an audio with synchronized slides version of this presentation that will be created with an early version of iPresent Producer.