Happy birthday my sweetheart! Yet another incredible year with so much fun, laughter, learning, acquiring, sharing! So proud of this little boy…
Cupcakes ready! In the photo you may see the result of my first attempt – not 100% perfect, yet not disappointing either. Taste good anyway 🙂
I’ve devoted a couple of hours and some more time afterwards to clean up the mess in the kitchen but it was worth it mainly cause my son enjoyed it even more. He was actually the one to motivate me in baking the cupcakes he saw in a leaflet. And stayed next to me during the whole process – unless the cleaning part!
Lesson learnt and cross checked: cooking / baking is a significant bonding process!
Anyone interested to taste is welcome to come by – coffee and cupcakes on the house!!!
Borrowing a digital marketing terminology that refers to the high level representation of all touchpoints with a customer segment within a year, I think this is a perfect analogy to describe the photo 🙂
What you see is the collection of handcrafts (a great part of it, not all!) created along the year by our son in the kinder-garden! Starting from top left and moving to a circular right direction, you may recognize the passage from of seasons, with celebration days as milestones along the way! From the “automn” man and the welcoming to school cards, to the 28th October national celebration (the greek flag), to christmas time etc.
As a grownup i’d stopped thinking of the year in milestones like that, which go together with related songs, stories and history… The year to me is more like Q1, Q2 …reporting cycles, project timelines, milestones, man months, delivery dates and lifecycles 🙂 and then August!
Im very happy that this first year of my son at school gave me as well a good reminder of the years i used to know, the smaller or bigger celebration days and the small things in life…
The iMarketing Society is a brand new initiative, to create a Greek hub for digital marketing. The aspiration is to create a meeting hub for networking and cooperation among all those people working with digital marketing technologies; a hub for ideas and experience exchange, for synergies and collective knowledge that will be beneficial for all.
Get to know the initiative!
A little snow is enough to lighten up a day and make an indifferent place look beautiful. When leaving the office this afternoon my eye was attracted by the snow covered trees that were shining along the way. Feelings of calmness  and peacefulness.
This moody weather blends naturally with soft jazz music. That was the simple thing that made my day a little better 🙂
Very nicely set article with useful – and documented – tips on how to best fit the length of our online content. Don’t miss the infographic!
The length of everything online
How long should my tweet be? Or my blogpost? Or my headline? By Kevan Lee, BufferSocial
A snowman on your table!
Ho ho ho!!! Carried away by my 3,5 year old son, who is now discovering Christmas songs, tales, letters to Santa etc, I’m also “playing the game” – and orchestrating it 🙂 I can tell you that it proves to be very helpful against stress and frustration feelings… Today I did some “deco-therapy” research, one of my favorites!
If you are in the mood, visit decoholic.org for more Christmas table decoration ideas!
A nice piece of reading and learning, by an experienced Program Manager.
BY KAREEM SHAKER, PMI-RMP, PMP
Innovation does not guarantee success. Many top-notch organizations have launched innovative product-development projects that were broadly marketed and hugely funded but turned out to be fiascoes. Remember Microsoft Zune, Google Wave and Apple Maps? None of these much-trumpeted products met its predicted impact. Just because your project intends to deliver a one-of-a-kind product or service does not mean your customers will buy into it. Here are the common pitfalls of innovation projects and programs—and how to avoid them.
Insufficient GovernanceÂ
Though innovation can never rest on one person’s shoulders alone, it does require a centralized role that can be held accountable in case the project or program proves unproductive. Most organizations do not have a dedicated chief innovation officer who drives the innovation practice and owns the ideation and implementation processes.
The innovation framework must receive buy-in at the executive level. This framework should cover ideation; filtering ideas; selecting, balancing and prioritizing the ideas portfolio; and delivering the end result. The framework must be rigorously followed and governed, using a set of key indicators that should be periodically reviewed by a steering committee and board of directors. Without proper governance, innovation projects and programs can end up being futile, with responsibility thinly spread across different teams.
Fuzzy GoalsÂ
A sense of purpose is the main driver for your team to innovate, so make sure team members understand the goal behind the innovation project. Passion won’t spark unless the team believes in the project or program. That means moving beyond project parameters and communicating the strategy driving the desired innovation. A precise goal—clearly stated and discussed—is an essential antidote to innovation failure.
Customer DisregardÂ
If there is a common root of failed innovations, it is ignoring customer feedback during the innovation process. Disregarding this key stakeholder feedback has led to poor adoption or weak sales time and again. Maybe the product isn’t intuitive to use. Or it’s overpriced or unrealistically bold. Many projects and programs fall victim to these pitfalls because organizations overlook customer feedback early in the product-development process. These stakeholders can be the best source of insight and ideas, and their feedback on the innovation journey is a crucial forecast of the long-term viability of the product.
Perfection SeekingÂ
An innovative product with a decent number of features that’s ready to be launched today is definitely more advantageous than one that will be ready in a year’s time with more bells and whistles. Trying to gold-plate the product may wind up paralyzing the project, as scope creeps ever outward. Seeking perfection can also inflate project costs, lengthen time to market and make you lose customers who are ready to buy your product now. The first-generation iPhone operating system, for example, lacked copy-and-paste functionality, but Apple made the bold decision not to include it in the first version. PM
Kareem Shaker, PMI-RMP, PMP, is a senior manager, project and enterprise risk, at Dubai World, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He can be followed on Twitter at @kareemshaker.
