Agile Development - A Product Owner's Story

Well, another new year is almost upon us.  Before I talk about what I and some of my peers in the industry think 2011 will bring for Mobile Marketing, I just want to briefly summarise 2010. For me, 2010 was the coming of age for Mobile Marketing.  I remember back in my BT days, as early as 2002, when we were developing strategies for mobile marketing based on advice from the soothsayers that are industry analysts who claimed mobile data and the services it enabled were the next big thing.  It's taken the mobile marketing industry significantly longer to establish itself (short battery life, small unusable screens and GPRS reliability and cost being the main barriers), being limited mainly to SMS marketing and even then this was dominated by would be SPAMmers.  However, I think Apple deserves a big pat on the back for taking the plunge and convincing the critical mass that touch-screens and apps were the thing to be doing on your mobile - "what?! You want to talk to...

It would appear more and more retailers and brands are realising the massive benefits of marketing via the mobile channel.  In particular, I've seen a strong surge in the number of sales prospects requesting, or at least expressing an interest in, mobile vouchers. The latest big brand to jump aboard this express train is UK supermarket giant Waitrose, which is part of the John Lewis group.  They will be placing QR Codes (see image for an example QR Code, QR means Quick Response) in their TV adverts over the festive period.  Viewers can photograph the code whilst it is on screen (the pause button on your Sky+ box will come in handy here) using their iPhone.  This will allow iPhone users to download Waitrose's Christmas app from iTunes free of charge.  Not sure why you'd want to do that, but apparently there are recipes on there from the famous celebrity chef's that are featured in Waitrose adverts, such as Delia Smith and Heston Bloomenthal (wasn't he t...

Last week I wrote about the ISIS partnership in the US - where the major mobile network operators are getting together to develop an NFC based mobile payments platform and service portfolio.  A similar move is happening in parallel amongst the German operators. Well, this was the latest move in a complex chess game between the mobile operators, the banks, card issuers such as VISA, Mastercard, Amex and Barclaycard an a number of independents such as BT.  All want to control the secure element of the transaction so that they can consequently control how much each party gets in terms of transaction revenues, more importantly how much they get specifically...  The operators want the secure element to be on the SIM card because they own that.  The banks and issuers see this as a potential threat as, traditionally, the secure element has been on the credit/charge card.  BT and other independents believe they can act as mediators and provide the control that's neede...

With the announcement that US Carriers have formed an alliance to deliver Mobile Payments and a similar deal taking place in Germany, is cash finally entering it's death throes? The news is that US carriers AT&T,T-Mobile and Verizon have joined forced to develop a nationwide mCommerce network that will utilise technologies such as NFC and Smartphone devices to allow payments to be made by swishing a mobile phone close to a payments receiver.  Think of the Barclaycard ads where they guy flies down the waterslide on his daily commute home and pauses ever so briefly to pass his bit of plastic over a sensor to pay for a banana he had a sudden craving for.  This is the same thing except you will wave your phone and not have to carry another bit of plastic around with you. The benefit of phone over plastic in this case is the richer interface.  The phone can act as a vessel in which to store financial information, such as the credentials for several credit cards or othe...

At the moment the majority of mobile apps are developed in house or purchased as non-configurable solutons from an App Store.  However, this trend is changing as businesses integrate mobile apps into the very fabric of their operations, requiring more complex levels of integration. Apps will also need to work across a mix of platforms and form factors (tablets and other evolving technologies in particular).  As in the web the apps are likely to become browser-based rather than device resident. The use cases will evolve to cover more functions within the business so the Smartphone will no longer be the toy for sales or the ruggedized device used by field engineers.  Management, business travelers and knowledge workers will all latch on to the benefits of using powerful applications anywhere and at anytime. This poses an interesting question about build or buy.  Increased complexity and portability of apps could suggest professional, external development agencies...

With a bamboozling number of mobile apps available on the iPhone and Android apps stores, it's no wonder that the majority of apps fail - they are never downloaded or rarely used. So what's the biggest mistake you can make when starting to scope out your mobile app, what is it that will ultimately cause your app to fail? Forget the user.   That's the one mistake many make. You get lost in your idea,  excitedly throw yourself into developing your baby and - it's so very easy to forget who will be using the app once it's live.  Kipling wrote a great short poem ("I Keep Six Honest Serving Men") of which the opening lines could be referring to how he writes such perfect and engaging stories and are equally valid for anyone creating anything, including mobile apps.  It goes something like this: I keep six honest serving men They taught me all I knew Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who In his excellent book, Tapworthy, Josh Clark ...

Any company selling goods and services to consumers or other businesses should become savvy in the practice of Mobile Marketing. It’s one of many marketing channels that have been around for sometime, but until now it’s been in the shadows of the mainstream mass media channels such as TV, Direct Marketing and, more recently, Online Marketing. However, according to Gartner, the number of people using the Mobile Web to find content on the Internet will, in 2010, surpasses those using a web browser on a PC. There are already over 3 billion mobile phone users in the world and in increasingly more countries, penetration exceeds 100% (as some have more than one phone). The fact is, thanks to advancing technology and ever reducing mobile data network prices, the mobile as a channel has matured and any brand ignoring the marketing value of this channel will start to fall behind its more adventurous competitors. (Dushinski) What is Mobile Marketing all about? One thing is certain, Mobile Marke...

I'm often asked whether marketing to the mobile channel using SMS is cheaper than traditional mailshot campaigns.  To answer this we need to think about direct and indirect costs. Considering direct costs, think about the costs of running a traditional mailshot campaign, that is stuffing printed leaflets through doors.  Firstly you have to design the leaflet which can cost anything between £50-£5,000 depending on how innovative you want the graphic design to be, or how conformist it needs to be against branding values and guidelines or whether you want original artwork or re-use library images and layout templates. Then you have to print the leaflets incurring a printing cost and a logistics cost (getting the leaflets to the distributors from the print room).  You then need to pay someone to physically post the leaflets through doors. Then there are the indirect costs.  Designing the leaflet will require hours of time from yourself and your colleagues to meet wit...

The benefits of off-shoring any kind of development are clear - lower costs.  However, it's the potential drawbacks that turn many away from off-shoring apps development, the complexities of dealing with foreign cultures from afar, the lack of hands-on control, communicating with individuals for whom English isn't their first language and, regrettably, the risk of coming a cropper due to fraudsters. It's a shame that these drawbacks exist though as apps development lends itself to off-shoring quite nicely.  I think it can still work, and the low cost benefits can be realised, if it's managed in the right way.  What's needed is a middle man, a company that is based in the UK and has a knowledge of UK industry, culture and language.  They would deal with clients to gather requirements and draw up storyboards and requirement documents.  The middle man would then suffer the pains of dealing with off shore development houses, delivering an end product to the UK bas...

At a recent Mobile Marketing event I was asked by a journalist what apps I had on my own iPhone and which ones I find most useful.  I must admit that when it comes to an app, I tend to only download those that I will use again and again.  What we don't see enough of, outside of gaming apps, are free demo apps.  Personally, I prefer to play around with an app and test to see if it adds value to my life before committing to buying it, even if it only costs a few quid.  As such, a quick flick across my iPhone apps reveals the following that I would recommend to anyone: Camera & Photo Editing I was frustrated with the pre-loaded iPhone camera app so I now use an app called Camera+ from taptaptap.com.  This provides, even on the 3GS, a 1.0x digital zoom and some nifty editing tools including photo cropping and enhancements.  You can upload your photos to the popular Social Networking and Cloud storage sites as well. Social Networking I use IM+ for inst...

Considering that there are over 4.3bn mobile phones worldwide there's no doubt that there is a huge target market for anything that uses a mobile phone. For years service providers have been taking advantage of SMS marketing, ring-tone downloads and other simple services to monetize this market.  The smartphone enables richer, more exciting applications and after a few years of stuttering, the market for Smartphones is starting to take off.  Apple led the way with the iconic iPhone and the Android platform has moved us on to another level.  Microsoft's Windows 7 for mobile brings the operating system giant back into the market and Nokia haven't given up with their Symbian based offerings.  Of course, don't forget RIM and the Blackberry.  This increase in competition together with rapidly advancing technology, better and cheaper mobile data networks, have helped Smartphone penetration to grow.  There were some 41m Smartphones sold in Q3 of 2009. Back to th...

This one is easy to answer. You outsource it. I've recently been involved with a company called AppDragon who provide complete end to end solutions for brands wishing to create mobile apps for Smartphones. It's by far the easiest way because, even if you do have someone in house who has a penchant for coding, there's far more involved if you want you app to be a success. Here's a pyramid diagram I've created that outlines the different stages of a successful app. Yes, it's upside down and that's to reflect the fact that the key elements are the upfront creative and design aspects. Get these right and the rest if a sausage factory... Here's my pyramid. The first layer is essential and you need a partner that is willing and able to listen to your aspirations, goals, ideals, needs, problems and issues and how your business currently operates and then build on your own ideas with creativity of their own. Only if you get this stage right will your app be...

According to Bango, mobile apps downloads are predicted to reach 4 billion for 2010. This, they claim, will rise to 21 billion by 2013. This is based on a prediction of the number of Smartphones out there beating 390 million by 2013, growing at a rate of 20.9% year on year. I don't think these are unlikely scenarios, judging by the current euphoria behind Smartphones and mobile apps. I saw an opposite view the other day, can't recall who from, but their conclusions were negative about apps downloads, based on research that told them only 35% of Smartphone owners had downloaded an app in the previous month. Considering the purpose of an app (they're generally not a one use commodity) this doesn't surprise me. That said, using these pessimistic figures, if there are 390m smartphones in 2013, that's still 1.36bn downloads per annum. Bango claim 45% of developers plan to monetize their apps. According to iTunes the average app price is £2.19. Therefore, using the...

I 've recently done a fair amount of work in the finance and insurance sector, mainly with a couple of large insurance companies. Their products range from pensions and annuities to travel, home and car insurance and they contacted me because they were curious how SMS could help their businesses. Their main aim on first contact was to boost sales by using SMS to alert existing clients to new products and services, directing them to their website or call centre for more information. This works great and the flexibility of SMS means they can modify campaigns at a minute's notice, making special offers to keep in line with competitor offers or to react to events, such as excessively wet weather and the threat of flooding. However, our conversations quickly moved on to other areas of their business where SMS could add value. Firstly we looked at reducing costs by removing the need for inbound calls into their call centres. For example, if a client makes an application for, say...

Following a recent deal I was involved in where a large well known UK charity are allowing donations to be made using SMS text messaging, I thought I'd blog on the topic. SMS texting is quite straightforward. An individual uses their mobile phone to send a text message to a short-code, usually with the name of the charity or other keyword as the message content thereby signifying which charity the donation is intended for (e.g. text OXFAM to 7177xx to donate £1 - note this wasn't my client, just an example!). The concept is the same as premium rate texting services used to buy ringtones or other similar services. Basically, the mobile network receives the text message and bills the relevant amount (usually a fixed donation of £1, £3 or £5) to the mobile phone owner's phone bill. The network then takes its cut to cover its costs and a small profit, and the rest goes to the service provider who take their cut and costs (for managing the billing, deciphering the text ...

I owe an apology to everyone. I've been so busy lately with a new business venture that I'm trying to launch in the Mobile Marketing arena that I've made far too few posts over the last month or so. In fact, I owe you another apology because I haven't had time to write anything on the wonderful world of Mobile Commerce this week either. Instead, I wanted you to hear a story I was told that helps me put life into perspective when things get too busy and hectic. A mobile commerce strategy consultant was taking a few days off near a small coastal Spanish village, where he came upon a fisherman............ The consultant complimented the fisherman on his catch, and was astonished to learn that it didn't take long for the fisherman to complete his daily work. The consultant then asked the fisherman what he did for the rest of his day. 'I sleep late', the fisherman replied, 'fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, stroll ...

I've been working for some time now with a company that, in partnership with a large UK telco, develops and manages SMS middle ware applications for corporates and the public sector. One particular solution they offer in the Health sector allows SMS , Email and automated voice IVRs , to be used to remind patients about upcoming clinic or minor surgery appointments. Over 15 Primary Care Trusts in the UK use this service from my client and recently I was told by one of them that since introducing the service 12 months ago, their "did not attend " or DNA rates have dropped from 30% to less than 10%. It's difficult to put a fiscal benefit against these savings, but you can imagine the sunk cost that goes into running a clinic - the salary of the consultants and the nurses. Medicines and prescriptions that are prepared and never collected and have to be disposed of and the cost of re-arranging the missed appointment. Also, there are knock on effects as Consultants c...

According to a recent survey conducted by iCrossing, 84 percent of respondents said they expect sites they visit frequently to provide a dedicated mobile version. In the UK there are over 76 million active mobile phones in circulation and 15% of those are used on a regular basis for surfing the internet. The Mobile Web isn’t just the ability to access existing web sites from a mobile device. Successful mobile web sites go beyond replicating what’s available over the internet using a PC or laptop, it is a collection of mobile-friendly websites along with search engines optimised for mobile, mobile advertising and pay-per-click advertisements that are not only displayed specifically for mobiles but are also relevant to the situations that the user of a mobile might find themselves in. Think of the mobile web as “an ecosystem for mobile devices” [Dushinski [1]] Dushinski also presents a nice little equation which summarizes what a successful mobile web presence is. I...

Once you have decided your company needs a mobile web presence, the default and incorrect decision is often to miniaturize your highly successful existing company website. In most instances this is not good practice and here's why: Mobile phones have smaller screens with different dimensions to a PC monitor display and generally poorer resolution and refresh rates. Even film makers don't just transpose a movie from the ultra-wide screen, very high definition cinema scope format to a smaller TV format, even though TV's are rapidly catching up on the cinema in these terms. We all remember the highly dissatisfying practices of the past where actors looked horizontally stretched or cut in half if they were to one side of the cinema scene... Don't just assume a web site will work on mobile by shrinking it to fit, even with the bigger better quality mobile displays of today. Simply miniaturizing an existing site will lose the advantages of mobile such as personalization, ...

I was presenting at Informa's annual Mobile Financial Services event in London yesterday and stayed and listened to the other presentations for most of the day. There were some interesting snippets of information gleaned that I wanted to share with you here. Firstly, the one mobile financial service that cropped up time and time again was International Mobile Remittances or International Money Transfer. Everyone seems to agree this is a very lucrative market though not without it's perils and pitfalls, especially on the recipient's side. Edgar Dunn claim there are over 96.1m migrant workers in the top 15 Euro economies alone, and that the total market value is around $97 bn . One speaker from the Deutsche Bank presented research that said this was more than $300 bn . For those of you new to this area, this proposition is about allowing migrant workers to send money from the developed economies back home in the developing world using their mobile phones. Credits ...