Offers to join the Marketing and Communications Teamso far . . . in no particular order.
- JasonMR
- Mamba
- seth_sd
- wtravel
- davidl2
- Luciano
- skara
My apologies if I have missed someone.
Please add your name.
Thanks to all!
---
Quote:
Herko Coomans wrote:
XOOPS was built by coders, not by designers. Mambo was built by designers, not by coders. That's why XOOPS looks better on the inside, and Mambo looks better on the outside. It also shows the focus: Mambo has an outward focus (it's system users), XOOPS an inward focus (it's community). I think this explains a lot, and also gives some direction on where we want to go. Keep what we have, and build on top of it.
From a marketing standpoint - this is the problem.
Mambo is more focused on the end-user, and marketing (external).
XOOPS lives in its own little world (all internal).
If these were both commercial software, Mambo would outsell XOOPS substantially.
As you have said XOOPS does not focus on the end-user.
Additional evidence:
Usability is a focus on the end-users needs.
Mambo has focused on this and recently upgraded the admin interface.
The XOOPS admin interface is horrendous from a usability standpoint
There is no visual hierarchy, no logical grouping of tasks, it's a link dump.
Yes, everything is there, but is hard to learn and ugly.
The newBB2 interface another link dump.
There is no logical grouping of tools, the visual hierarchy is minimal.
Technically newBB2 is probably fine work, maybe even a marvel.
To the end-user it
appears inferior.
Perception is important.
Would you buy BMW with a lousy paint job?
Usability is just one feature to examine in the Competitive Analysis.
If someone is offended by this assessment, tough.
Openness, honest assessment, and reality are required in successful marketing.
Anything else and we are just wasting everyones time.
The landscape is littered with failed products whose developers
refused to deal in reality. The marketplace proved them wrong.
The users do not care about technical superiority. (eg. MS vs. Linux)
- Does it do what I need? Solves my problem.
- Does it do it now?
- Does it setup easily?
. . . and on to the next project.
What is under the hood does not matter.
Yes, the code work may be excellent.
Yes, one may be rightly proud of such good work.
To the end-user it does not matter.
All the end-user cares about is
what does it do for me.FeaturesFor some reason various features keep being discussed.
Features are not marketing.
Features are a competitive advantage or disadvantage depending
on the market you are trying to reach.
Based on the seth-sd post above, if you are trying to penetrate the corporate
intranet market Exchange integration is a required feature.
Without this feature XOOPS will not be successful in this market.
To other potential users this feature may not be important.
Good usability is a competitive advantage.
Good documentation is a competitive advantage.
And on and on . . .
Some features are a deal breaker for particular target markets.
Some features must be tweaked for a particular market.
A corporation may require documentation that is a searchable, bookmarked,
easy-to-print, all-in-one PDF. Some may want a searchable CHM.
Q. Why do you think larger vendors supply HTML, PDF, and CHM documentation?
A. User focus, user needs, user request.
Back to
Where to Start(1) Setting some goals (as discussed in my earlier post)
(2) A Competitive Analysis is then done to assess the market environment.
Everything else emanates from here.Part of that analysis is to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the product
(XOOPS) in light of those goals. This includes product features.
A goal to penetrate the intranet market may not be realistic without Exchange
integration. XOOPS will lose to products which offer this feature. That other
product meets the customer needs in this situation. XOOPS does not.
If that is the goal, development needs to be focused on adding that feature.
Competitive Analysis is a self-assessment and a comparison to other products.
Living in your own little world is common for small commercial companies.
The client reaction to the Competitive Analysis was many times shock.
They had no idea on how they and their product fit in the marketplace.
They had no idea of how they are actually perceived by the marketplace.
Target MarketsIf you only want to promote XOOPS to the audience of fellow coders
little is required. They understand the language. They appreciate the work.
They will dive in up to their elbows.
The rest of the business world speaks a different language.
Talking code excellence to the corporate manager in-charge of the knowledge base,
internal communications, and the intranet is a complete waste of time.
Swahili would be just about as effective. You will get the same glazed look.
His language is benefits, features, ease of use, maintenance cost, etc.
Those are the items which will be created after the goals are set
and the competitive analysis is done.
1. Define the target market.
2. Create the messages for that target market.
3. Communicate those messages to that target market
Until I and the team know who those target markets are this
will all be theoretical and perhaps hard to understand for a
non-marketing-trained person. That is to be expected.
Hopefully we will be able to do as much of this project as possible
in a open environment for all to see the process and participate.
First Step - GoalsHerko, Mithrandir and others are going to start the goal setting process.
As the FNG, I don't know who all the players are yet.
A project home will need to be established.
Again as the FNG, you (the collective you) will need to help guide this.
Herko, Mithrandir, your ideas on this?
Note: Glad to see XOOPS News being discussed. Sorely needed.
Product News is a marketing communications channel so at some
point we may want to coordinate.
I appreciate all those who have offered to help!
Ken McDonald
