Agile Development - A Product Owner's Story

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...