Sharing Some Learning – Observations from D11

This past week the 11th All Things D Conference, D11, was held. It is such a great opportunity to attend and to learn from a great combination of interviews, speakers, demonstrations, questions, and attendees. Attending this conference has been a very valuable learning experience for me over the years and I ve always made it a point to reflect and share some observations or learnings that stuck with me. This year is no different. As with all events these days, so much of what happens at the event is tweeted, live blogged, re-blogged, etc. That makes it challenging to offer more by way of learning. If you re interested in the details of the sessions, by all means watch the videos or see the official coverage on the All Things D, D11 Conference site. All the interviews are done by one or both of Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. There you ll also find some behind the scenes KatieCam videos shot by WSJ writer Katherine Boehret in a more relaxed setting as speakers left the stage and other behind the scenes videos and articles by the ATD writing team. Definitely check out the amazing photos from Asa Mathat (and team) that really capture the unique qualities of the conference. The Dialog For me what separates D from other events, if you had to pick one thing, is the dialog that takes place. While the format is an interview, I see it as more of a dialog. There are no slides, no setup, and after the interview the dialog continues with audience questions and then even more in the hallways during breaks (not to mention the electronic dialog). I feel sometimes in an effort to report the event as news, the back and forth or the dialog itself can get a bit de-prioritized. The dialog is important because the timing of the conference is the same every year. That means not every speaker has something to announce or launch. In fact some speakers have announcements already scheduled for the future and even with a lot of pushing they still aren t going to preempt their organization s efforts. This means that speakers sign up to attend knowing there are definitely questions they will get that must go unanswered. I think that speaks volumes to the appreciation for the dialog and participation that speakers share. Still, that can be a tiny bit frustrating for folks reading about the accounts you are hoping for news but don t get any. There is a slightly different tone in the room which I am hoping to convey through these notes. The tone is very much about the nuance and subtlety of the topics being raised. So even if there is not news, the conversation is interesting. It is an important part of innovation and convergence of industries (the original and ongoing theme of the conference was how media, entertainment, and digital technologies are coming together). There are gems in most every session if you watch the video not necessarily news gems, but articulation of challenges and tradeoffs that everyone is facing as they do their work. Making products is never a stark either/or set of choices and capturing these tradeoffs on stage, in the hot seat as it is called, is something I appreciate very much. Big picture There were

25 speakers along with demo sessions. The breadth of topics discussed delivers on the promise of the conference. Through the lens of product development there were a number of themes that surfaced for me: Mobile era No one doubts the era we are in as an industry and across industries. The tech folks were mobile first from apps to advertising, not as a place to port to or also support. The entertainment folks see mobile as a place to enjoy entertainment or as the screen that accompanies entertainment, not as a competitor to television. Even attendees were mostly seen on their mobile devices most of the time. While this might not seem newsworthy, observing the changing perspectives over the years of the conference provides a neat context for this change. Disruption Most tech conferences are about disruption in some form or another. This conference came about during a time when disruption was really happening (and to be fair, the WSJ and ATD are/were both part of disruptive dialogs over the years and the topic of conversation at the show). The interviews always do a good job of confronting speakers who are viewed as participants in a potential disruption. Sensors The role of sensors as part of the baseline experience for computing is front and center. There was a lot of discussion around form factors, wearables, and scenarios but all of this is rooted in devices that know about surroundings, which means products can be designed knowing the computers will have these capabilities. Consumerization Walt Mossberg has always taken the non-techie, consumer approach to looking at technology which, as he said during the show, was somewhat heretical when he first started his column. These days the notion of consumers driving the experience and setting the bar does not seem so far-fetched. You know that is the case when the CEO of Cisco says bring your own device trumps security . Embrace of digital In past years the content attendees appeared more on the defense than the offense. While the business challenges remain in some parts of the content space, I think there is far more of a sense of embrace and partnering going on between the tech and content parties. In general it felt to me like much more of a healthy dialog rooted in respect than in past years, which is a positive evolution. Sessions As mentioned, the sessions are all available on the D11 site along with live blogs done by WSJ/ATD reporters. Check those out for sure. I just wanted to offer some additional observations from a small set of sessions that hit close to home from a product development perspective. Inclusion / omission or number of points below are not indications of quality or importance! Apple / Tim Cook Measuring what counts There was a strong focus on measuring usage as a way of looking at success. This contrasted with the recent debate about market share (units or revenue). The depth usage of iOS devices is significantly more than competing devices. It is super interesting to think about how to inform product development when balancing existing depth usage, new users, and growth very interesting. Relative to Android The dialog turned to defining winning along the lines of usage, customer satisfaction, and even the amount of commerce done on iOS devices. Magic There was a good discussion about how working across the team needs to focus on the intersection of hardware/software/services as being where the magic happens . Everyone in the product space knows that wherever seams exist there is an opportunity to innovate or for there to be challenges--seams can be found all over the place, especially as a product gets larger or an ecosystem around the product develops. Tradeoffs As an example of the nuance/subtlety that is hard to capture, Cook tried to walk through some of the tradeoffs that go into making different sized devices for different segments (Walt s description). He talked about color correctness, white balance, battery life, brightness, and more. A favorite expression from Cook was customers expect Apple to weigh all these factors and decide things along with the humble notion that deciding means shipping and learning. I personally love when the dialog turns to these types of issues at this level in an organization and also externally real engineering stuff that is worth talking about in an open way. Openness and control In talking about the difference between iOS and Android (using keyboards as an example), Cook was asked about opening up more. He talked about the challenges and tradeoffs invol