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Otter Advisory Newsletter #9
November, 2021

Hello

This is the ninth edition of the newsletter.

What's your theory? This sentence is on my mind a lot at the moment. Most breakthroughs in science come from someone taking a contrarian position. Triggered by some academic research, I've started asking my clients the question, "What do you believe that few others in the industry believe?" I'm planning to develop this into a proper workshop.  More news on this to follow in the new year.

I spend a lot of time reading stuff, and I’ve experimented with a variety of tools to track interesting posts and links, I post a few of these here. This month's version has a bit about SaaS adoption trends, funding and strategy,

The newsletter is a miscellany of what I’ve read, written, watched or heard over the last little while. This may interest people who work in the world of HRTECH, SaaS, work tech etc, either as users, builders or investors. I’ll do this once a month or so at first, and see how it develops. Let me know what you would like to see here. Eventually I might even do some fancy formatting. Or not. 

Things I've written recently and an old one

• My Haufe column (in German) –  Bismarck and HRTECH.

• My Unleash column –About roadmaps and reality.

• What's your theory? Applying the valuelab to HRTECH.

An old one: Zoom and the UX.

Things I've read

• HRTECH in China. So much going on. Time to take off the valley goggles.

•  Burning Platform: HR - "what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger" Vinnie interviews Stacey.  Stacey's research on HR  trends is excellent. 

• New SEC rules include a bit of Human Capital disclosure. I'm not yet convinced this is a big deal, but let's see.

• Red Thread Research on the Employee Engagement market.

• SaaS survey. via Dave Kellogg. KeyBanc SaaS survey. This is gold

• From academia: Performance management’ research co-authored by

• More from academia: Chatbots get the blame if they look too human. while this looks at customer-facing chatbots, I think this problem is challenging for HR chatbots too.

• Language/market fit.  A fascinating thread. Matt Lerner on form. Words are important, yet so many companies get this wrong.

• Customization is everywhere in enterprise software, and most of it sucks. Josh explores the customization as only he can.

• The Economist on VC. I read the Economist in paper form. Worth the subscription just for the puns in the headlines.

•  While I had this in last month's newsletter, it is so good I'll ask you to read it again. A must-read report on the state of work by the one and only Jason Corsello.

Someone to follow on Twitter

David Greene. Workforce analytics etc. top notch.  His newsletter is excellent.

A blog to subscribe to

Redmonk's James Governor. I've mentioned him and his firm before, but this post is brilliant. And browsing through past posts gives a fascinating insight into the last 15  years of tech.

A book to read

Stephen Fry. Fry's ties.  This is lovely. There is very little this man can't do. 

Something to listen to

Phoebe Bridges. Genius.

Something to watch

• The world chess championships.  This is remarkable, and I love the feature on the Guardian site to click through the game. Rey Lopez is hip again. 

•  I've been having a bit of fun on Twitter with something I call Enterprise Software Metaphors.  search on twitter for "Enterprise Software Metaphors"

Come and talk Enterprise Product Management

Dave Kellogg and I are taking a break from the SaaS product power breakfast, but we will be back soon with a new improved show in the new year. All our past episodes are  here. 

If you would like to get in touch, click here to schedule a call or drop me a note. If you were forwarded this, and would like to subscribe, you can do so via the website.