Microsoft Office, Messaging, Needs, Standardization and Interoperability

This is a cracking article about 'Tools for getting the job done' (hat tip to Clayton Christensen), standardization of processes, ubiquity and interoperability.

Also watch this stylized video about Productivity Future Vision from Microsoft.

It ends with this classic quote:

Old: all software expands until it includes messaging
New: all messaging expands until it includes software

How to connect back to your customers

If, like me, it takes a real dedicated effort to really understand customers' requirements and get quantitative and qualitative feedback (ie saying 'No' to lots of other things!), then this list of mechanisms from Product Focus is a good refresher, plus some new techniques that I wasn't aware of

1. Roadmap reviews –  face to face interview with customers
2. Focus groups – facilitated sessions to get in-depth insights about your product
3. Implementation and operational reviews - in-depth discussions about how your product works
4. Customer Surveys - invite your customers to give their views through online and product surveys 
5. User groups and user conferences - bring customers together to talk and listen
6. Observation – watch how customers behave    
7. Product usage analysis - get information from your product on how it’s being used  
8. Prototypes and Scrum product demos - let customers give feedback about your product as it’s being built
9. Outcome Driven Innovation (ODI) - a structured questioning techniqueto understanding customer needs   
10. Kano analysis – how to decide what’s important for your next release
11. Conjoint analysis – using statistics to uncover customer preferences
12. Innovation games – using games to uncover customer requirements   

NTT DoCoMo shuts down its 2G network

After 20 years of service, NTT DoCoMo shuts down its 2G network. It was Japan's digital phone services (i-mode was launched in 1999 on this network) that was initiator of mobile internet service. According to Eurotechnology Japan, the last 2G phone was shipped in December 2007.