When you see a job advertised with a title like
General Manager for Discerning, Developing and Delivering
What the Customer Wants
it is hard not to be curious. In particular, I’d never had a job title that needed an acronym before - “GM 3D WCW” has a sort of geeky attractiveness about it, so I had to come and have a look.
Frequent readers to this blog will have noted an organogram included in a post made back in January that identified the organisation structure and responsibilities that existed at the start of the year.
Since that time, our business has been evolving fairly rapidly – with a fair number of changes already completed (and a number still to go) in order to ensure that we really can deliver on our primary core value of “Customers First!”.
When I have a bit more time, I will post in more detail about some of the other developments that have been completed, or are still in progress – in this post I just wanted to ensure you were aware that last Monday (22nd March) we were delighted to have someone start with us as our new General Manager for Discerning, Developing and Delivering the Software our Customers Want.
The title is a bit of a mouthful, so he will shorten it in most cases – but he will certainly be specifically focused on delighting our growing customer base with the software we develop.
I will let him introduce himself in his own time, so stay tuned for more …
As you may be aware, we’re in the process of recruiting a General Manager for Discerning, Developing and Delivering the Software our Customers Want (Need).
Up until this weekend, we have been receiving proposals from a small number of candidates shortlisted from the large number of applications we received in the first 2 weeks after the position was opened on 24th January.
Given the importance of this position (for us, and for the candidates) this has entailed investing many hours of time in getting to know each other, and to ensure the candidates could gain a clear view of our company (where it is now, and where it is headed). We want them to come in with their eyes fully opened – both to the opportunities and the challenges!
This week I will be reviewing these proposals to determine which one is the best fit for where our bus is headed.
On January 24th 2010, we commenced (in earnest) the recruitment of our new General Manager for Discerning, Developing and Delivering What the Customer Wants (Needs) – more traditionally known as our GM Products. We posted this advert on our blog then.
This led to Derrick Hill starting with us in this role on Monday 22nd March 2010.
The process was was intensive (lasting 8 weeks, not including considerable preparation time) but has resulted in a good fit to our needs.
As part of this process, we shortlisted a number of candidates, and provided them with a detailed briefing note to explain more about our starting point, and where we wanted them to help take the business. As part of this briefing note, we also included the following core areas of responsibility. read more »
In long-hand, you will be known as our:
General Manager for Discerning, Developing and Delivering what the Customer Wants
That’s a bit of a mouthful, so we have shortened it to a variety of titles used on this blog and elsewhere:
1) GM Software
2) Chief Software Engineer
3) Director of the Product Development “Factory”
I would stress that all three aspects of the role are important.
Post updated on 1st February 2010 to clarify the primary KPI.
This post is designed to provide an overview of what is required. Note that (if you are successful in your application) I would expect that you would be proactive in working with me to flesh out the details of this position, in terms of specific deliverables and dates!
I have spoken with a number of people (online and offline) over the course of the past few months, since I determined that we needed to hire you.
It seems that no job title that could encapsulate this role is universally understood. For this reason, you will be known as our:
General Manager for Discerning, Developing and Delivering what the Customer Wants
Bit of a mouthful, I know, but all three aspects of the role are important.
.
Had to chuckle one night last week when I saw (in one of the many books I am reading at present) the following passage:
When I was studying [about software] at [uni], it was common to talk to professors and students about new products. We’d focus on what components these new software products used and how they compared against what could have been. Value was … how much of the latest technologies they used.
Generally, we thought everything sucked. Very few products survived our critiques. We wondered why the marketplace was packed with mediocrity and disappointment.
We’d even invented geek conspiracy theories to explain the evil decisions, which we thought were made against engineering purity and thus made little or no sense to us.
Often, we’d focus blame on the marketing departments of these companies (not that many of us understood what marketers did).
Even in my first few years in the industry, the same kinds of conversations took place again and again.
Actually, it was more of a liberal dose of belly-laughter than just a chuckle, which brought a look of consternation from my wife.