Effectivus Product Management » about us

New Revenues from Existing Technology

Chris — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:00:54 +0000

A leading manufacturer of products in a niche market had a wealth of specialist intellectual property in both hardware and software developed over more than 20 years.

What they wanted to do was to find new sources of revenue from this IP, but they were caught in the very common trap of already being committed 100% to servicing their existing markets, with maintenance and new releases of their products in those markets. So if they did not have the time to create new products, how were we going to find new sources of revenue?

Effectivus stepped in to help them with the problem.

Read the rest of New Revenues from Existing Technology

© Chris for Effectivus Product Management, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: commercial, projects, strategy, tech

Segmenting Storm

Chris — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 13:20:51 +0000

Product Managers are often exhorted to “listen to their customers”, but it is sometimes not at all clear how and when to do this. This short case study describes how we took an outline product concept through to working prototype, keeping customers in the loop every step of the way.

STORM is a new product from The Foundry that assists the digital movie camera workflow in professional film and television production.

The Product team behind STORM is Richard Shackleton, James Wilson and me, Chris Steele. Between us we have contributed to a wide range of products such as Matador, Illusion, boujou, SOCRATTO, Film Master and Nuke. They’ve worked together several times and share a strong conviction that good products are born out of listening carefully to potential users.

Read the rest of Segmenting Storm

© Chris for Effectivus Product Management, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: clients, customer, marketing, markets, product

Mari case study

Chris — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 13:15:23 +0000

I love writing case studies. There is something so completely satisfying about expressing how a good product meets real user needs. Some time ago, I was interviewing a customer and digging away at what the benefit of using a product had been for them. He replied, “We thought we were going to have to work all weekend on that job, but then the product worked so well we got the whole thing done and were even able to go to the pub on Friday night”. For an industry packed full of young people, that was a real, concrete, measurable benefit.

When The Foundry was preparing to launch a new product, Mari, I stepped in to help with the marketing strategy and as part of that, had the chance to write a case study. It was slightly unusual in that this software product was written by Weta Digital who had created it to complete highly complex, computer graphics intensive films like Avatar. Great that the product arrives production proven with a film like Avatar behind it. Even better they were prepared to talk about that in a case study and allow us to use some stills.

Read the rest of Mari case study

© Chris for Effectivus Product Management, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 3D, clients, FX, marketing, users, writing

Remember Parallax Software?

Chris — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:04:23 +0000

Read the rest of Remember Parallax Software?

© Chris for Effectivus Product Management, 2010. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: fun, Matador, projects

Researching new product markets

Chris — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 17:21:51 +0000

Business plans rely on estimates of the size of your target market, but how and when to approach this?

In a recent lecture to students on the Technology Venturing elective of the MSc in Entrepreneurship at Royal Holloway University of London, School of Management, I explored opportunity evaluation, market research and commercial feasibility. The lecture, based upon practical experience, cited four real life examples of new products for the film and television production market, describing the process and the outcomes.

The process he described is an iterative one involving going out into the market to seek inspiration for ideas, then confirming that the ideas are valid within the organisation. Forays into the market help to ensure that the product continues to address real unmet needs throughout its development. Alternating these forays with work within the organisation ensures that products are realistic within the confines of the organisations abilities, resources and values. As the activity cycles between organisation and market, the project progresses through the stages of product definition, development and delivery.

Each example covered one of the stages of desk research, industry interviews, preliminary product pitching and recognising new opportunities. The examples were described in detail and the results and conclusions shared. These real world examples helped to illustrate how contrary research can be and how new product development can be full of highs and lows.

Using stories from his experience in the film and television industry, Chris brought what can be a dry subject to life. With humour, enthusiasm and dynamism Chris entertained and informed.

“Chris has a wealth of insights and experiences to share. He definitely captured the students’ interest”, Dr Harveen Chugh, Lecturer in Strategy & Entrepreneurship, School of Management, Royal Holloway, University of London.

Redboard

Chris — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:14:28 +0000

Redboard is a proprietary workflow for 3D animation particularly suited to the rigours of television series. Effectivus have been working with its creators at Hibbert Ralph Animation since early 2008.

Jerry Hibbert, a 30 year veteran of the animation industry, has directed many animation series and television advertisements. Recognising the need to reduce costs incurred by errors in interpreting storyboards, HRA have developed a CGI workflow which gives directors and commissioning producers the confidence that final media would match approved storyboards. This combines traditional storyboarding techniques with the benefits a true 3D environment and allows exact camera and object positioning to be communicated to the remote rendering company along with the artistic expressions and actions that will bring the animation to life. This increased confidence has allowed the storyboard artists to be more adventurous in their work, knowing that the practical issues of communicating their vision have been resolved. The workflow has enabled considerable savings in the production and reduced both errors and overruns on the latest series of 52, 10 minute, episodes of Fireman Sam.

Read the rest of Redboard

© Chris for Effectivus Product Management, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: projects, Redboard, users

The Three Legged Stool

Chris — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:28:58 +0000

Product Development without a sound commercial footing is just play. Play can be good and at times is vital, but the ultimate test of how great a product you have is how much people are prepared to pay for it.

Only with a really thorough understanding of the technology can you hope to understand what it could do and grasp the reasons why your customers might want them to use it.

Why would customers pay for products? Because they satisfy some need. That need may be explicit (in which case your competitors can see it) or maybe it is implicit and ready for you to uncover it by really understanding your customers.

Innovation links the two; no long baths, no retreats, no drugs, no Budhist chants, just energetic, creative thinking and problem solving informed by a deep understanding of the technology, the market and commercial reality.

© Chris for Effectivus Product Management, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: lifecycle, theory

boujou

Chris — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:43:16 +0000

Before forming effectivus Chris Steele worked for OMG plc as CEO of 2d3 Ltd where he helped bring boujou to market.

boujou was the world’s first automated camera tracker, a vital tool for inserting computer graphics into live action footage. It replace a previous generation of manual, complex, technical tools. Creating an automated camera tracker was considered “impossible” in the industry.

Read the rest of boujou

© Chris for Effectivus Product Management, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: boujou, product, projects

Matador

Chris — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:31:49 +0000

Before forming effectivus Chris Steele worked for Parallax Software where he developed Matador. Parallax Software was purchased by Avid Technology in 1995.

Matador was an innovative paint and 2D animation software package for the television and film industries. It was the first to offer an automation system, first to offer paint animation, and the first to use a RAM based 64bit framestore. It competed against hardware based systems which were 100 times more expensive. It sold over 2000 individual copies and several site licenses.

Read the rest of Matador

© Chris for Effectivus Product Management, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Matador, product, projects

Weather In Vision

Chris — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:46:13 +0000

Weather graphics system developed at Spaceward Graphics in 1988-9.

In use by ITV for all national weather forecasts from 1989 to 1994.

The project was developed in collaboration with the Meteorological Office in the UK. It downloaded and animated radar and satellite imagery and allowed the simple placement of symbols on maps.

© Chris for Effectivus Product Management, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: product, projects