new site for blogging in french

Hi everyone,

Last year, I have started a Product Management freelance activity and did not get much time to carry on my blogging on this site.
I have decided to suspend undefinitely my blogging activity on this site and switch to my new one which targets a french-speaking audience.
It's on the website of my Product Management company.
Have a great year!

Pierre-Antoine Antonini

Orange's Libon ReachMe feature :)

Hey everyone,

Here is a nice article from GigaOm on the feature I'm the Product Manager of. Can't wait to launch it commercially :) You'll like it!

Don't forget to download Libon (Android and iOS) and tell me what you think of it! That would be really helpful in my Product Management mission to get your feedbacks :)

Pierre-Antoine

How many Facebook fans do you need to make a living out of your "product"?

Photo by Toni Rosado [toni@scannerfm.com]

I recently read a great article on "What The Number Of Facebook Likes Says About Musicians".

Even though musicians may not be comfortable with comparing their music to a product, it is interesting to see the correlation between the number of likes on their fan page and their success.

The above article orders numbers of like with success of the band. Here is how it is split with real-life examples:

• less than 1000 fans: "Unless someone comes along to shake them up and makes them pay attention to their business, they will not be going anywhere anytime soon." That's the case for most amateur bands (like mine with 319 fans) who plays for fun.

• 2k-5k:"They’re a local band who care enough to put some effort into their career." Like for the parisian band "The Parisians" who is at 3k and has recently ceased to exist as they didn't make it through.

• 5k-10k:"They’re a touring band or have had some licensing or YouTube success". Right now, no bands in that scale comes into mind

• 10k-50k:"Either they have been beating the road touring for YEARS or are starting to kill it somewhere on the interwebs." For example, the french band, Deportivo with 12.5k comes here but they are still far from making it a real success.

• 50k-100k:"This band can headline national tours and bring a few hundred to every city they visit." For example, the french band, Plastiscines has had several successes and press coverage. I am still not sure they can be considered successful.

• 100k-500k:"They’ve had a big hit. Either radio or YouTube, but their numbers are strong. They have YouTube views in the millions. They are touring internationally. They can pack theaters wherever they go. They are on the brink of mainstream. Their fans are hard core." Most of the indie bands I like seem to be in that range (The Dandy Warhols with 120k, The Vines with 250k and the Libertines with 505k). The "brink of mainstream" seems to be the reason why I like them ;)

• 500k-1M:"Multiple hits. Die hard fans. Life is good. Touring internationally and they have it figured out."The french band Air with 700k falls into that category, yes they seem successful.

• 1-5M:"The superstars of the industry. Label support. They’ve either had their day or on the up and up fast. They’re on the brink of mainstream or were hot last decade." I can think of Jack White with 1.5M and the Strokes with 4.5M. 

• More than 5M:"Mainstream. Your mom’s heard of them." Close to 5M you have the Arctic Monkeys and far ahead Guns N'Roses with 30.5M

From what I know of these different bands, it appears that to start making a decent living out of your "product", you need to go over the 100k fans milestone.

Before that, you are just one in a million and this is a struggle.

What would be interesting is to see whether the same ranges apply for other types of product.

Chineze Hanzi Mnemonics #13: 要(yào) / want

Are all women crazy about handbags? :)

Today's hanzi is 要 (pronounced yào) that means "to want, to desire". In the hanzi, you can recognize 女(Nǚ) that means woman.

Above that, you have something that looks like a handbag. So if I look for the link between women and handbag, what is it? They all "WANT" the latest fashionable handbag!

10 ways to be better organized

image credit: Mike Savad

These are some tactics I use for my personal organization, maybe some could be useful to you.

1. Handle your tasks and goals with a calendar (I do it with google calendar so I can easily switch from my Mac to iphone)
2. A task should be doable in 45min (like this post :))
3. Your goals and tasks are SMART (Specific Measurable Assignable Realistic Time-related)
4. On every Sunday night, make a review of the past week goals (achieved, failed) and set new ones for the coming week.
5. Every Sunday night, start to allocate important tasks you need to do for the coming week
6. Every month, on sunday night, review your past month goals and set new ones for the coming one.
7. Assign each day of the week with a main topic that is in your goal list
8. Every night, look at your task list, review and prepare the tomorrow's one
9. Have a color code in your calendar for task status (red: not done, green: done)
10. Activate SMS notification for your tasks

If you have any suggestions, I would be happy to read them, always ready to improve my efficiency.

Product Management Mistake#2: In B2B2C there is C

Here in France, restaurant booking services such as La Fourchette or Restaurant Michelin are quite popular and it is really great to be able now to book a restaurant directly from your mobile phone or your PC without having to make a call. But not every restaurant enables that online booking and that is how I came across this product mistake.

So there is a very nice restaurant near my home called "Chez Marcel" and I wanted to book a table, so I went on Google on my mobile phone and looked for "Chez Marcel Saint-Mandé" (this is my town). 

Strangely, Google sent back a similar named restaurant in Central Paris whereas as specified "Saint-Mandé", anyway I arrived on Michelin restaurant website with the place I was looking for.

You arrive on the restaurant page and
need to click on "Voir le numéro" to
display the phone number

Now you see the number and cli..Wait!
Nothing actually happens when you try
to click on this button....

So there, I clicked on the button "display phone number" and that actually displayed the "phone number", so far so good.

Then I naturally clicked on the number to call the restaurant (as it is done everywhere else) but nothing happened! You cannot even copy the phone number to put it in your dialer!

This UX is so bad here because as a final user, I am sure I won't go there anymore since I know it is useless.

Since I remembered I liked the restaurant on Facebook, I went on FB to look for the restaurant and saw the same number. I clicked on it and...TADAAA! it worked!

The Facebook page of the restaurant,
you notice there is all important info

When I clicked on the phone number,
I can call the restaurant to book

So now, I know that it's better for me to go on Facebook to book restaurants I like (and LaFourchette for all those who have online booking). That's too bad for Michelin!

I guess one reason Michelin did not check it, is that their business model is based on people displaying the number. The more people display the number the more they can charge the restaurant showing they brought people in.

But apparently they got too focused on that and forgot that, OK, you display the number but to call the restaurant (personally I don't care to display the number, just connect me with the restaurant, please) is the final "scenario".

Calling the restaurant to book is the final goal and apparently Michelin forgot that...

So product managers, please remember your value proposition not only for the B but also for the C!

Chinese Hanzi Mnemonics #12: 工/work,worker

Today's Hanzi is 工 (gōng) that means work or worker depending on the context.
My tip is to think of a table/desk that is viewed from the side. Since I work at a desk, it's pretty obvious that when I see a desk, I think of work :)

工 (gōng) is a desk from the side

Chinese Hanzi Mnemonics #11:土/soil,earth

Today's Hanzi is 土(tǔ) that means soil, earth, dust.

No need to do some drawings here.

When I see 土, I immediately think of a cross on a grave. From there, I remember the Genesis 3-19 quote:
"Remember, man, you are dust and to dust you will return."

How can you be more explicit than that? :)

Day-to-day Product Management #4: 55% download increase with Facebook ads

Based on my previous experiment, I decided to run a Facebook Ads campaign for my mobile application I decided to spend 30$ to check whether the 25c per download would be linear.

Therefore, by spending 30$ and estimating a cost of 25c per download, I was expecting to get 120 new download. At the end of the campaign, I got 113 new downloads.

That's actually not far but I am quite disappointed because I was expecting some magic to happen but that was not the case :(.

Now I am going to try iAds (in-app ads from Apple) and a website.
Stay tuned!

Chinese Hanzi Mnemonics #10: 叫 (Jiào) / "be called"

Today's Hanzi is one you will rarely write and is mostly used verbally.

It is 叫 (pronounced jiào) and that means "to be called". The basic use is for presenting yourself (your first name only, there is another word for the surname).

ex: 我叫玛丽 （Wǒ jiào mǎlì）translates literally "I am called Mary"/"My name is Mary".

To remember the Hanzi, just imagine the left square as a big open mouth (remember ...) and the right kind of 4 as a hand placed next to the mouth. 

From there you can easily imagine someone calling someone else.