Today was day 1 of Business of Software 2011, aka, #BoS2011. This is my first time in this conference suggested to me by Dov Bigio (@dovb).

Good speakers and interesting topics, although nothing really new for those who follow product management, agile software development and startup related feeds.

Below are some tweets and references. From the number of tweets it’s easy to spot the talks that brought me something new. 😛

Clayton Christensen

• Look at Netflix and Quikster through a “job to be done” perspective.
• Wise words to financiers – best way to measure profitabilty is not by ratios, but by tonnes of money on bottom line.
• Do not need traditional marketing – need to understand the “job” completely to create pull rather than push.
• You need to invest when you don’t need the results of the investment. Innovation is a long term investment.
• When you aggregate feedback, you wind up with “one size fits none” products.
• “The customer rarely buys what the company thinks it is selling them” – Peter Drucker quoted by Prof. Christensen
• The unit of analysis is job, not customer. It’s not what cust. thinks he needs, it’s what job needs to be done.
• @ClayChristensen explained that the customer is the wrong unit of analysis. It’s the job the customer needs to get done.
• Christensen on competing: Pick a fight where the giant is motivated to flee rather than to fight you.
• If you make something affordable and simple, the market will be much larger than your competitors.
• Disruptive innovations have different measures of performance. (We tend to forget that).
• When competing against non-consumption, you just have to be better than nothing.
• Extension of the Innovators Dilemma – If we could build a company that would disrupt our company. How would we do it?
• Focusing on profitable customers can blind you as to long term market changes @ClayChristensen’s Innovator’s Dilemma.
• On sustaining innovation: “If you do everything we teach B.School, you’ll fail in the long term”

You can find more at Product Principles blog: Highlights: Clay Christensen at Business of Software 2011

Clayton Christensen (@ClayChristensen)

Jason Cohen

• @asmartbear talks about honesty in business at #BoS2011. Does honesty makes more money for businesses? Short answer: yes!
• Great talk on genuine honesty by @asmartbear #BoS2011
• In a biz interaction, ask yourself, “why did you lie?” Is small immediate benefit offset by larger loss of trust. #BoS2011

You can find more at Product Principles blog: Naked Business – How Honesty Makes Money

Jason Cohen (@asmartbear)

Honesty

Alex Osterwalder

• Having fun filling out a business model canvas at Alex Osterwalder’s talk at #BoS2011
• The right business model is the difference between success and #failure. #bos2011
• Explore and create new business models. You may design one that suits your business better- Alex Osterwalder #bos2011

Alex Osterwalder (@business_design)

Business Model Canvas

Dharmesh Shah

• #BoS2011 is an interesting conference for companies willing to make the move from license model to the online subscription model.
• I have never ever met a successful software company where the early team didn’t work their asses off. Not once.
• “We are not a family. We are a team.” From Netflix culture.
• New price model: “cheapium”!
• You need humans to sell when product is complex, market is new or price is somewhat high.
• That’s the future of software business model: RT @MarkDalgarno If you’re not on a subscription model now, get on it!
• CHI – Customer Happiness Index – is better than churn because it measures customer’s success.
• Negative churn rates = more upgrades than cancelation.
• Types of churn: customer, revenue, discretionary and involuntary.

You can find more at Product Principles blog: Building Bad-ass Software Businesses

Dharmesh Shah (@dharmesh)

Jeff Lawson

• @jeffiel just lightly touched the consumer SaaS biz model topic. Basicaly: ads. #BoS2011.
• I wonder if someone will talk about software for consumers, specially pricing for consumer SaaS. #BoS2011
• The 3 “mating calls” of SaaS companies: “(1) tour, (2) pricing, (3) sign up and get going” #BoS2011

You can find more at Product Principles blog: Pricing that Hot Saas

Jeff Lawson (@jeffiel)

Tobias Lütke

• Don’t start a company with the purpose of making money. @tobi at #BoS2011.
• Agree 100% RT @stephenmedawar: Success doesn’t make you right – @tobi #bos2011
• Our responsibility is to build companies that don’t embarrass us in 100yrs time. #bos2011

Tobias Lütke (@tobi)