Here’s my current saga with @HomeDepot and a story about their technology that is completely broken.
I returned $1000 worth of brick I bought online to the store. It said I could. The store accepted it but had to call homedepot.com to process the return. /1
This is an issue I run into all the time at @HomeDepot. They can never return the things I bought online without help but they still tell you to return to any store. So they accept the return, I leave. Here’s a pic of it sitting in the store. /2
I call to make sure it got processed when I leave, and they said yeah everything fine.
I get a call a week later from their shipping company trying to schedule to have it picked up. I tell them it’s at the store they can’t. They said they’ll cancel the pickup.
This is January. No refund yet. I call @HomeDepot today to discuss this and they tell me they canceled my return. I said no no, it’s been returned, where is my refund.
Now they are telling me the only way to get my money back is to dispute with a credit card.
What the hell kind of technology and customer service systems are you operating where a store cannot refund an order online with these issues. Disputing with my credit card is not a resolution. You are ripping me off @HomeDepot.
How can you build a computer system that cannot talk to each other? If you are letting people return to stores, make sure they actually can. This is such a broken system.
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If you’re not rethinking how your business model and company could be disrupted and made better by software products, you’re not truly doing a product “transformation”.
Over the past 7 years I’ve worked with many large enterprises which are what I call “software enabled”. That means they don’t primarily sell software for revenue.
Banks, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers, etc. /2
These companies typically were run on a traditional IT approach - the business tells tech what tools they need, and tech builds them. Tech is a Dev shop, a services org. Not strategic but reactive. /3
Calling your Product Managers something else may solve some issues in the short term, but it's just going to prevent you from hiring great people in the long term.
Anyone who says titles are not important is either trying to screw over someone or in a very privileged position.
Salary bands are determined by seniority. Salary bands are determined by job titles and positions.
This is from @BuiltInNewYork but I don't necessarily agree with these, just pointing out discrepancies in title.
Director of Product vs VP of Product salaries are HUGE differences.
If you do have a bit of experience in PM or someone to learn from there, I think startups are great. I had an opportunity to be employee 40ish at OpenSky or go to Amazon. I would have made a lot of money if I went to Amazon. My career would have never been the same.
Also I know there’s privilege in these choices, and I’ll say this- if you can negotiate a pay that’s comfortable, I’d recommend a startup. I had to do this to pass on Amazon (OS matched their base). I lost out on stock, but 10 years later my career has more than made up for it.
When things are broken, it gives companies an opportunity to solve the problem and exploit it for value. That's what Robinhood's doing. It's SMART. You find a problem, you solve it. Good business.
But we have to be careful not to exploit our customers as well. /2
When you specifically target unsavvy customers in a complex industry, the burden of education falls on you.
The risk to keep your customers safe falls on you.
I don't know of a single Chief Product Officer who has a PhD. What is this trash advice, Cleverism?
Also, make sure you brush up on those Microsoft PPT skills if you want to be a CPO! You know, because that's SUCH a good investment in your time, and it's not like you could hire someone to help there.
Let's go back to 2005 and break out the Fireworks, shall we? That will REALLY get the board to invest in our roadmap.