On niche specialization
I have spent most of my career working at, and analysing mega-vendors. Portfolios, markets, pricing maneuvers, customer leverage, acquisitions, suites, sales enablements, alignments and realignments, 'strategic' customers, MQ positions, rebrandings, integrations,...
It’s all about the data
We have heard from many analysts that this is HR's moment to shine. For HRTECH vendors too, this is an opportunity to prove that their stuff really works. eLearning consumption is way up, for instance, as is use of survey tools. Processes like Kurzarbeit in Germany...
Announcing a new offering: Otter Advisory Tech Marketing Services.
I hope everyone is well and staying safe. Over the last year or so, working with HR Tech software companies, bigger corporates and investors, I've noticed that many start ups, scale ups and even established vendors don’t have the optimal marketing set up. I‘d like to...
Tech: Let’s follow and support, but not lead.
Yesterday I wrote about the need for HRTECH vendors (and users) to be cautious about building and deploying COVID-19 related applications. Healthcare tech is hard, and you can't really learn it over a weekend. I should probably have been a bit more blunt. One of sites...
COVID-19 and your HR related applications. Suggestions for users and builders.
I felt there were more than enough folks posting advice about COVID-19 and HRTECH, so having made my position clear, I had promised myself not to add to the exponential curve, but nevertheless, here I am (note, I am neither a lawyer nor an epidemiologist). I have...
Advice for #HRTECH marketing departments as of March 16th 2020.
A quick Google search of "never waste a crisis" attributes the quote to Winston Churchill. After a little more digging, it turns out that it wasn't him. I suspect many marketers are working hard at their newly remote desks figuring out how to position their products...
Of seamless, seams, Conway and APIs.
Many enterprise software vendors promise seamless integration. This strikes me as both impossible and undesirable. The term is meaningless at best. Rather than wishing the seams between products away, we need to learn from cricket, and embrace the seam, it would be...
Reflections from the Unit4 sales kickoff.
In my career I have attended a variety of sales kick offs, as an employee and as an external speaker. They generally involve sales leaders telling sales people that they are awesome. There is lots of talk of crushing the competition while simultaneously showing deep...
Documentation and Safety.
Safety image (via flashbak) I recently read the latest book by Gene Kim, the Unicorn Project. Essential reading for anyone involved in building software. It should be on Netflix, with Claire Danes from Homeland in the lead role. In the book Gene mentions the Alcoa...
The Future of Work Index by Acadian Ventures.
I see lots of theories about what the HRTECH market is worth. The numbers range dramatically, depending on who is calculating them. When I worked at Gartner, I admired the work Chris Pang and Fabrizio Biscotti did to figure out the value of the software markets. While...