I attended KETIV AMA yesterday. It was not really a vendor presentation. It was more of a training event. they had several tracks and many classes presented by their team of internal staff and Autodesk employees.
I am always looking for tips and trick and cross industry information that I can apply to the firms with whom I interact. I attended several classes but two of them stood out.
The event opened with an introduction to the event by Kanwar Anand. His disarming nature and candid speaking manner makes you think he is chatting with only you. He presented some lessons learned by KETIV about the impact of the economy and how they could apply to each persons firm or business. Very practical and a lot of the listeners shared many of the same struggles over the past 18 months or longer.
The first was Optimal CAD Management presented by Javier Chavez. Javier talked about creating deployment images and how you could set many of the standard settings that a CAD Manager would want to unify as part of the deployment. He covered the CUI, Profiles, standard config files,workspaces and much more. My compliments to Javier. I have heard him speak before and he always does a great job. He answers questions well and takes those question that are specific to only one person offline after the class. He stays on topic and reviews what was presented at the end.
Another good class was “The Convergence of BIM and Digital Prototyping”. It was focused on sharing components created in Inventor with those using Revit. Rob Cohee of Autodesk discussed what he thought the top attributes of quality BIM content from the Revit users point of view.
Some of the things he listed included:
- Conveying Design Intent
- Appropriate level of Detail
- Adequate number of items in a family
- Flexible use of Parameters
- Industry or Category Standards
- Good performance
- Usability
- Rendering Quality
He went on to discuss how the BIM Interoperability in 2011 addresses many of these concerns. There is not a lot out there on this subject that I could find.
Good presenter that interacted with the audience well. He polled the attendees to see what they were using, industry they were in, what kind of tools they were using and then used this info to make his presentation better.
Here are a couple of links on the Interoperability tools in Inventor:
http://saarc.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/index?siteID=5967151&id=14530772
Check out his Youtube video’s – http://www.youtube.com/user/robcohee
All in all a very good event. And my good friends at KETIV just keep getting better and better. (full disclosure – I use to work with them)
My perspective may not be the final word on this subject, but I have seen so many of these that I do have some suggestions. It may not make for the perfect presentation, but if this advice were taken then at least I would be happier. 🙂
Many of these have been used by presenters
1. Ask a few questions to see who is in the audience. See who is there. Owners, Engineers, Architects, new users, seasoned vets or others. You need to know who you are talking with. I have seen this done and it helps for future interaction with the audience.
2. Adjust your presentation based on who they are and what they want to see. I have not seen too many presenters ask what the people want to see. It might work if the presenter really knows the subject.
3. Don’t give the canned demo. Nothing is worse that seeing someone read from a script or show a product that they really don’t know. Get to know your tools before you show them to others.
4. Put the good stuff up front. Don’t make me wait through the slide show or the little improvements. Show me the best – first.
5. Interact with the audience. Ask them questions and get feedback. Let them interrupt you (within reason). The more you engage the audience the better you are at hitting their curiosity.
6. Take specific questions offline. Answer every question briefly and directly and move the long answers to the end.
7. End on time. Make your presentation and end on time so that those who have not seen something worth chatting about can move on. The ones that are interested will stick around. And they are the ones you want to talk to anyway.
These suggestions may improve your presentations and demos. But the most important thing is to know your product.
I have seen so many vendor presentations in my career that I cannot count them. Some have been forgettable, some unforgettable, some boring, some exciting, but they have all been done with the best intentions. I am speaking on the general presentations that are made to large crowds either in person or via the web. They may be populated with many warm bodies, but the presenter is hoping to get a lead from the group. Someone that is interested.
Good intentions or not all of these presentations either hit the mark or they do not. Here are some things that I think make them miss the mark.
1. They are talking to the wrong audience. Presenters cannot control who comes to their presentation so they may be shooting at the wrong target. They ramble on about certain features or tools and seem to have no idea if those attending even care.
2. They show too many slides before getting to the demo. This burns me. If I have not decided if the tool they are showing is going to apply to my firm or my needs, I have little need to find out how long the company has been around, or how many offices they have or how many users they have. Get to the demo
3. They take too long to demo the good stuff. Ok… the demo finally started… but they take forever to get to the good stuff. Don’t save the best for last – put it up front and make me interested in the rest.
4. They answer the wrong questions. By providing more information than I am willing to sit through they sometimes give me more than I want on the wrong subject.
5. They talk too long on the wrong subject. What they think is “killer stuff” may not be what I think is great. Not that I am the only one that matters when they are speaking, but some topics wander around and get discussed too long.
Granted, it is tough to hit everyone’s sweet spot. And maybe my sweet spot is not what everyone else wants to see. But I have seen the things above consistently for a long time.
I have sat in on quite a few software presentations from vendors and have noticed that they are generally selling features. Or should I say “telling” me about the features.
I have heard that there is a subtle differentiation from selling and telling. In an audio book that I listened to some time back called Spin Selling by Neil Rackham.
Basically he says that “Telling” is just running through a list of features that you want to present, while “Selling” is building a relationship, uncovering needs or problems and finding solutions.
SPIN is his acronym for a process that he suggests for doing that… another topic for another blog post.
Back to my point… do software presentations tend to “sell” or just “tell”. I have seen so many that just rattle through a list of features that is it frustrating. I know that the initial point of contact may be a sales presentation and it is not designed to actually turn instantly into a sale. The list of features is used to uncover what might be a hint at a solution for you. So the presenter just rolls through them one at a time and builds to the crescendo of what he thinks is the best feature of all (usually 3d or visualization).
There are many ways to present… face to face, webinar, con call, etc. All of them seem to march toward a list of features. But some of them are different.
What have you seen as lacking or great in a presentation on software?
I just posted on my BIM Manager site as I was wondering about reasons given for AEC firms not to move to BIM. Big firms are moving, but are smaller firms moving?
This is an AEC debate and may not impact your CAD environment if BIM is not a tool that addresses your needs, but I wanted to point the AEC readers over to the other site so that they could let me know what they think.
Are you moving from CAD to BIM? If not – why not? Is the marketing hype not based in reality? Have you tried it and it just didn’t work out for your firm?
If this conversation impacts you – go read the post and comment.
I have been working in technology with hardware and software for a long time. I have seen to good, the bad and the unexplainable.
Here are some of the unexplainable things…
Why do software problems just work when I do the same thing that others have done to fix it? I see things fixed in many ways by many people, but sometimes things just seem to fix themselves. Has this happened to you? I claim no magic, no horse whisperer kind of connection, no electromagnetic fields. But sometimes things just work when try to get them running by doing what others have tried (or at least they said they tried it).
Why do things work when I just walk over to someones desk? This is akin to the one before only this time I don’t even touch anything. I just get close and things work.
Why are there others like me that I see these same things happen to also? I see it happen when some others do the same things I do (usually those who seem to be very adept at using the software). They may not know how it happens either.
Why can’t I apply this same effect when I need to fix my leaking faucet or a sprinkler pipe? When I touch anything mechanical, it becomes worse. If I try to fix a leaking faucet, the handle snaps off the water valve and it gushes water all over the floor before I even touch the faucet to start fixing that. Now I have two problems to fix.
There are just some strange things that happen which I cannot explain… does this happen to you? Can you explain it?
Here is a list of my classes and times (PST)
Tech Transitions: Will the Move to 3D Make You Obsolete?
CM220-1 | Lecture | Tuesday Nov. 30 | 10:00am – 11:00am | 1-Hour
Strategic Planning 101: The Basic Tools for Success
BO228-1 | Lecture | Tuesday Nov. 30 | 2:00pm – 3:00pm | 1-Hour
Strategic Planning 101: The Basic Tools for Success
BO231-1U | Unconference | Tuesday Nov. 30 | 3:30pm – 4:30pm | 1-Hour
The BIM Manager Career Path
CM327-1 | Lecture | Wednesday Dec. 1 | 1:30pm – 2:30pm | 1-Hour
Primary Speaker: Mark Kiker, Owner
AUGI® Unplugged
CM427-2U | Unconference | Thursday Dec. 2 | 1:30pm – 2:30pm | 1-Hour
I am also doing a Virtual Class:
Virtual Class: CAD Leadership 2010: Beyond CAD Management
Class Date: 11/30/2010 – Time: 7:00 AM – 8:00 AM
Class Date: 11/30/2010 – Time: 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Register for AU2010 and AU Virtual today at http://au.autodesk.com/
When does something become a best practice? How does it become standard procedure?
Here is what TechTarget states about the spread of a best practice.
A best practice tends to spread throughout a field or industry after a success has been demonstrated. However, it is often noted that demonstrated best practices can be slow to spread, even within an organization.
They go on to say…
According to the American Productivity & Quality Center, the three main barriers to adoption of a best practice are a lack of knowledge about current best practices, a lack of motivation to make changes involved in their adoption, and a lack of knowledge and skills required to do so.
So if one area of your firm has adopted something as a best practice, but others have not, is it really a best practice?
Let’s examine the proliferation of the best practices related to CAD or BIM.
First – it is written down – right? That may sound like a dumb question, but is it? Do you expect a process improvement to spread without documentation? So write it down first. Make it official.
Next – Offer it as an option. Change for some is not easy. Deeply entrenched workarounds can be hard to break. Go back and read the post on this. Offering a change as an option may soften the change perspective.
And – Make sure that the average user can use the process. Don’t create fanciful new ways of doing things that only the whiz kids can understand. It has to be simple and easy to use.
Also – let success spread. If offered as an option, then if it is truly better, it should spread on its own. New users will adopt better and easier ways of getting things done. As teams move from one project to another, the better way will spread.
Finally – Add it to your training. Make it part of your training efforts with all users. Give them tutorials or quick training lessons to show them how to use the new method.
Best practices in CAD or BIM come from many differing places and people. They may be pulled in from another firm when someone joins your team. They may be developed by some creative chap in your office. They may come from internet searches or even just dumb luck.
They can appear randomly or in a more structured process. Any way that you gather them is fine, but is there a way that might improve the odds of finding and embracing best practices?
What are the best practices for developing best practices?
Here are a few tips from my experience that might help you…
1. Document your existing processes. Unless you know what you are doing at the present time and have it written down, it is hard to find what can be improved. The first step in making things better is just knowing what is going on at the present time. It may be the existing CAD Standard that you have or you may have to start from scratch and write it all down. If the CAD Standard is outdated, then you may need to add more documents that explain what is actually happening now.
2. Look for holes. If after you have documented your process you find that some areas are a little vague and no one is sure how something is done, it may be a hole. Maybe not everyone knows about this area of a process. This might be an easy win if you just get the process down in print. Holes will be filled by users with differing methods. The work has to get done and they will find a way to do it. So understand that holes in the documentation may be filled by others. You need to fill the holes with one method of choice.
3. Unify the process. As you write down the processes, look for differing opinions on how it is done. One team may do things one way and another group may do it differently. Just by getting them to agree to which is better and then getting them to do it all the same way is an improvement.
4. Look for patterns of productivity. Keep your eyes open for those teams or users that get things done efficiently. Those that consistently produce faster or better than others. Watch what they do and ask them what their tricks are. This is the beginning of a developing best practice.
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