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Microsoft

skype

The global adoption of online tutoring due to various reasons, including the COVID-19 pandemic, has led to educators embracing video conferencing tools to conduct classes. While there are dozens of choices in the market, the most obvious choice for tutors is either Skype or Zoom. For educators just starting out tutoring online, free video conferencing tools would be more inviting. Two of the most commonly used video conferencing tools in the market currently are Skype and Zoom. Zoom vs Skype is the most extensive debate that happens among online tutors who are just entering the world of digital education. As an independent educator, which platforms among these are the best for tutoring online? This blog intends to look into the benefits of and what makes tutors choose Zoom over Skype. using zoom for teaching What’s better, zoom or skype We once lived in a time when everyone “Skyped” each other. Skype was the ultimate choice once, but it was replaced by “Zooming. Once the COVID-19 pandemic hit and people were confined to the home and remote working culture, everyone started turning to Zoom. So if you ask whether Skype or Zoom dominates now, people who chose Skype initially start turning to Zoom. So, what is the real reason? Zoom is relatively simpler to use than Skype. It means even the non-tech-savvy people can easily use Zoom without any friction. And Zoom is as close to that as you can get when it comes to classroom-based teaching, as the powerful features allow educators to teach as in real. To know what’s better, Zoom or Skype, let’s take a close look at the features of both. Zoom vs Skype- Ease of use and user-friendliness Both Zoom and Skype features are easy-to-use and have straightforward interfaces, making setting up and attending meetings a breeze. When setting up meetings on both, hosts are provided with a unique link that they can share with their invitees. Zoom vs Skype: Scalability To understand which is better, Skype or Zoom, it is great to look at the scalability of both platforms. One of the main capabilities a must have is the ability to hold large video meetings. Skype supports up to 50 members on one call. Zoom can support up to 1000 people, which better suits educators who host classes with a large group of students. video conferencing platform for online tutoring Zoom vs Skype: Plans tiers and pricing Zoom comes with a free plan and the other three paid plans. The pro plan for Zoom costs $14.99/month and comes with features like social media streaming, 1 GB cloud recording per license, and supports about 100 participants per meeting. The business plan comes at $19.99 every month per license and can host up to 300 participants. Users receive perks like receiving recording transcripts and more. The last one, the enterprise plan, is for businesses to buy 50 or more licenses. The cost per license comes around $19.99 every month. This plan can support up to 500 participants in every meeting and comes with features like unlimited cloud storage and recording of transcripts. All Zoom premium plans come with a large meeting add-on that allows you to level up the participant limit to 1000 for a fee of $50 per month. When it comes to Skype, it has a free video calling service for personal use and small business teams. Microsoft teams have replaced Skype’s Business solutions ranging from $5-$12.50 per user per month. Zoom vs Skype- Security Skype has end-to-end encryption and has a . It leverages Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), also called as Rijndael (A standard used by the US Government to secure sensitive information). good reputation regarding system security Skype uses strong 256-bit encryption while it is not responsible for the content of external websites. All skype-skype conversations, including audio, video, instant messages, and file transfers, are encrypted.When it comes to Zoom vs Skype regarding security, Zoom has end-end encryption available on all plans. However, due to Zoombombing. Zoom’s security has been questioned recently Zoom vs Skype: The common features and differences First, let’s see what’s common between Skype vs Zoom. Zoom and Skype have many features in common. Both provide a free plan and allow users to access meetings, record sessions, share screens, and chat within the live class, all without signing up for an account. Both video conferencing solutions are available on different OS, including iOS, Mac, Windows, Android, and Linux. While and Skype can set up meetings, learners don’t have to join either platform to attend the sessions. educators tutoring on Zoom Now let’s explore the difference between the two software. Skype doesn’t not offer a premium plan for organizations, whereas Zoom has three premium plans ranging from $14.99-$19.99 per license per month. The maximum participant capability of Skype is 100, and that of Zoom is 1000. Skype allows video meetings for up to 24 hours, whereas Zoom’s free plan limits the meeting duration to 40 minutes. But one-to-one sessions can go up to 30 hours. Zoom offers breakout sessions, whereas Skype doesn’t. With the premium plans of Zoom, you can live stream your sessions on social media, whereas this feature is not available with Skype. Now, why do we use zoom instead of skype? Zoom features polling and whiteboards for interactive and engaging sessions, which skype does not. Both Zoom and Skype offer the ability to change your virtual background, which is great for educators who want to look more professional during their classes. Users can use Skype with an Alexa device and Xbox, but Zoom doesn’t support these options. Benefits of using zoom for teaching While both Zoom and Skype are popular video conferencing tools, we see a trend of most educators relying on Zoom instead of Skype to conduct their classes. If you wonder why do schools use zoom instead of Skype, there are several reasons Zoom wins the battle. Zoom records the classroom with ease; Skype can’t One of the biggest benefits of using Zoom for teaching is that it comes with an in-built recording feature. Skype has added the feature for voice calls but not for video calls. Skype supports video recording through third-party programs, which makes Skype less reliable when compared to Zoom. So if you ask what’s better, Zoom or Skype, if you have attempted video conferencing with Skype, you will know how it lacks reliability. With Skype having difficulty in finding users via the search function and frequent connection issues, Zoom is better in many aspects. The integrated recording feature of Zoom is very useful for educators as learners can get a copy of the sessions. They can revisit areas they struggle with and revisit the concepts explained in the class. Zoom was designed for online teaching Skype has its reputation, and that is for casual use and casual users. In contrast, Zoom was designed to conduct video conferences with multiple participants while also having features like screen sharing, instant, group messaging, and a lot more. When you analyze Zoom vs Skype, the former is becoming the go-to solution for educators who want to tutor online as it comes with all essential functionalities for a dynamic and interactive classroom environment. Whereas Skype was designed for simple classes, you get all you need to build an outstanding online tutoring environment if you plan to adopt Zoom tutoring. Learners can be invited with no user names Many users have reported issues with not being able to find each other on Skype. But Zoom is simpler to use. One of the main reasons most online tutors rely on Zoom for online tutoring is that they can easily invite learners to attend their online sessions. No user names are required, no need to add people; things happen with a single click. This leads to an excellent user experience for all involved parties and allows the educator not to worry about learners missing their classes. Zoom has a free plan While you are just beginning with just a couple of students or have a vast fan base, Zoom can accommodate you. It must be noted that Zoom has a free plan for users. So when should you upgrade if you want to use Zoom for online tutoring? When you expand your user base and plan to have a lot of students in the classroom at the same time, you can consider upgrading to pro plans of Zoom. Additional features that make Zoom better Zoom allows users to take screenshots, create groups, mute participants, send invitations and other relevant files during the classes. Zoom supports virtual backgrounds, which is important for online educators. (Skype has launched the feature of virtual background recently, but it doesn’t match the quality of Zoom.) Conclusion While there have been talks about security issues related to Zoom, it is a superior choice for most online tutors over Skype. Long story short- Zoom offers more robust business features than Skype, which makes it the ultimate choice for online educators over Skype. With Zoom, you can even hold meetings with up to 1000 participants, whereas Skype limits you to 100 members per meeting. Zoom has whiteboards, polling, social media streaming, breakout sessions, great tech support, and a lot more. To know better, go ahead and put it to the test to understand it yourself.

Skype VS Zoom for Online Tutoring

A lot has been written about Zoom in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The share price has risen 800% since its IPO, valuing it at $144 Billion, it is well funded, profitable and has attracted some of the smartest people in tech and business into its ranks. Zoom is riding a high that is well deserved. It has an amazing product that cut through a crowded field to do things better than the well-established competition, including the likes of Oracle’s Webex, Google Hangouts and Microsoft’s Skype. When I first started to use skype in the mid-2000’s it was easy to use, lightweight and always maintained a connection in other words… it just worked, first time every time. So when I first used Zoom, I instantly had warm a feeling of Déjà vu. When I first tried it, it was a delight to use, it just worked, even when one participant had a low-quality bandwidth. Setting a meeting was easy, entering it was easy, and the quality was superior and rarely dropped out. This is why, as a startup founder (who at that point had not raised any money) Zoom was the first SaaS product we paid for. It was that far ahead of the competition in my eyes. In my opinion, there are a few essential metrics to measure any video conferencing service by. Some of these are more subjective than others. Number of clicks to set a meeting Number of clicks to enter a meeting The experience of someone who hasn’t use zoom before but joins a zoom meeting for the first time Audio & Video Quality (Audio being the most important here) How often a “critical issues” occurs (I define this as anything that stops a participant from engaging in the call, including dropped participants, connections issues etc.) Skype, over time, got more bloated, less reliable and less intuitive to use, it started to fall behind in many of the measures I list above. It didn’t get the fundamentals right, and eventually, this is why I and many others like me stopped using Skype. In 2021, Skype will be dead, almost precisely ten years after its acquisition by Microsoft, I doubt many will mourn its demise. Zoom is at risk of making the same mistakes, over the years of using Zoom, the number of complaints from my employees has increased significantly. Unable to join meetings, the app closing mid-call repeatedly, people inside the organization (company email) unable to join without being let in, and in one instance in a meeting of four people, two were put in one room and two into another with the same zoom Id. Someone in each room almost simultaneously messaged asking why the other party hadn’t shown up. Some of these may sound like small issues, and yes I agree, but small problems and annoyances are how we judge these types of products because ultimately they should blend into the background and facilitate rather than dominate. It was these types of issues that had in the past driven me, and many like me from other competing products. Zoom is in a great position to become the next big platform, but it risks it all if it doesn’t get the fundamentals right. The fundamentals are, after all why I, my company and many other Zoom users were attracted to Zoom in the first place, it just worked… and it worked well. Don’t get me wrong I am excited by the slew of new features in the pipeline, and third party integrations can transform Zoom from a mere video conferencing service to a full-blown platform. However, these integrations and new features mean nothing if they come at the sacrifice of the fundamentals, high-quality video conferencing that just works. Zoom has grown quicker than even it had anticipated due to Covid-19, and many of these issues I mentioned above are probably growing pains. Still, they should be addressed quickly because as we have seen in the past consumers and businesses are fickle, especially with video conferencing tools.

Will Zoom Become The Next Skype?

Why everyone should stop using Skype, Google Docs etc. for taking tech interviews! The things mentioned in this article are my personal opinion and true to the best of my knowledge and experience :P I take a lot of interviews at work and it was hampering my productivity. Specially remote interviews where you have to download tools like skype and connect with the candidate. This all makes need of strong internet connection a must have at both the sides while taking interviews. I have tried to come up with this article to explain how using latest tools can help you overcome those challenges and improve productivity at work as well. :D Few things coming in the way of taking remote interviews correctly! Skype Collab-edit Google-docs Telephonic interview Other random code sandboxes Screensharing Combination of any of the above This guy is not happy with the tools listed. Are you that guy? or may be your are about to know by the end of this article. All of the above mentioned have the following drawbacks: Complicated with no real programming environment Too many downloads/tools for one interview Not made to take interviews Bulky Learning curve Promotes theory or Rote learning Uninspiring & Uncoordinated Image describing loop-holes in the current process of taking remote-interviews and calling anyone on-site with no proper judgement To further explain the gravity of the situation Google Doc: It is a collaborative word doc. It was not made to take interviews Collaborative: YES Audio/Video Calling: NO Code Editor: NO Code Compilation/Output: NO Any programming language supported: NO Skype: Video calling tool not meant to take tech interviews. Screen-sharing via skype and typing on a code editor is a heavy operation and candidates can take advantage of it in a slow network for sure. Audio/Video Calling: YES Collaborative: NO Code Editor: NO Works without download: NO Code compilation/output: NO Telephone/Mobile calling: Only meant to talk to the person for introduction and initial impression. Not meant to take coding rounds. Also, it is not very comfortable for both interviewer and candidate to talk on the phone while giving a coding round Audio Calling: YES Video Calling: NO Code Editor/Compilation: NO Tests practical knowledge: NO Collab-edit and other random sandboxes: Meant for code playground to test small chunks of code. Does not serve the purpose of taking a complete remote round Collaborative: YES Audio/Video Call: NO Code Editor: YES Code compilation/output: NO Programmer friendly or Intuitive: NO Random tools cannot bring out the best in candidates. Candidates end up trying to give their best on tools that give them a hard time. They end up downloading additional softwares and co-ordinating between the softwares becomes a task as well at the time of interview Candidates hate them: Interviewers expect the candidates to type on tools that will never be used in real time Interviewers do not care enough: HRs cannot standardize the process and end up losing quality talent most of the times HRs give up: Here are some tools that can help you save your time, increase your productivity, and help you assess the candidate the right way without downloading any additional software Intervue.io, Coderpad.io, CodeInterview.io: Latest tools that can be used to take remote tech interviews Lets go over them one by one: I have used all of them, hence, I am giving my opinion for each tool. Intervue.io This is by far the best tool I found in terms of User Experience. Lots of languages are supported. My opinion: : URL https://www.intervue.io/ : C, C++, Python2, Python3, Javascript, Node, Typescript, CoffeeScript, Java, Bash, Swift, R, Rust, HTML/CSS/JS, Ruby, Erlang, Elixir, PHP, Plain Text Languages supported Collaborative: YES Code compilation and output: YES Code editor: YES Audio/Video calling: YES Tests practical knowledge: YES Candidate friendly editor: YES Schedule Interviews: YES Organisation support to add teams or multiple interviewers: YES Organisation branding: YES Interview feedback can be written: YES Comes as a free trial of one month after which user can upgrade to different plans which are not very expensive. Free/Paid: Intervue.io: An easier and efficient ways to take remote programming interviews Coderpad.io This is also good. Has more languages supported as compared to intervue.io. Intervue gives slightly better usability experience in my opinion. My opinion: : URL https://www.coderpad.io/ : Haskel, Go, C, C++, Python2, Python3, Javascript, Node, Typescript, CoffeeScript, Java, Bash, Swift, R, Rust, HTML/CSS/JS, Ruby, Erlang, Elixir, PHP, Plain Text, SQL Languages supported Collaborative: YES Code compilation and output: YES Code editor: YES Audio/Video calling: YES Tests practical knowledge: YES Candidate friendly editor: YES Schedule Interviews: YES Organisation support to add teams or multiple interviewers: YES Organisation branding: YES Comes as a free trial of one month after which user can upgrade to different plans which are not very expensive. Pricing is slightly on the higher side at the time of writing this article as compared to Intervue Free/Paid: CodeInterview.io : This is not very rich in user experience. Looks a little bulky as well while using as the look and feel is on the heavier side, but it serves the purpose of taking a remote round. My opinion : URL https://www.codeinterview.io/ : Haskel, Go, C, C++, Python2, Python3, Javascript, Node, Typescript, CoffeeScript, Java, Bash, Swift, R, Rust, HTML/CSS/JS, Ruby, Erlang, Elixir, PHP, Plain Text, SQL, React, Angular, Vue (Beta mode) Languages supported Collaborative: YES Code compilation and output: YES Code editor: YES Audio/Video calling: YES Tests practical knowledge: YES Candidate friendly editor: YES Schedule Interviews: YES Organisation support to add teams or multiple interviewers: YES Organisation branding: YES Demo pad can be created free of cost. Post the demo pad it is paid. Free/Paid: Conclusion There are some more tools that I have not mentioned but you can take a look. These tools did not make it to the best tools available list as they have their own pit-falls Codebunk https://www.hackerrank.com/products/codepair https://codeshare.io/ Hope this article helps you to be more productive at work if you are taking interviews! This article is my opinion on the tools that I have used as I take a lot of interviews at work and I was losing productivity. These tools came to the rescue. I will also write about more such tools and articles for different things to increase productivity at work but that is a scope for another medium article. Stay tuned!!

Stop Using Skype and Google Docs for Remote Interviews

Merely removing apps on Mac OS X is not a hard thing to do: drag & drop or just delete to the Trash. But sometimes after such removal on your Mac, there could be left system files, caches, logs, and other debris – called app leftovers. That is why it is better to use special third-party for removing programs from your Mac with all their service files. app uninstallers During the development and research of system files, applications, we reviewed a variety of different applications. Sometimes its service files occupy tiny space calculated in KB, other times – comparable to the size of the application itself. Here are the most “dirty” apps that can take tons of MBs on your hard drive without any warning. Applications with Large System Files: 1. Shazam (for Mac) Service that helps people around the world to not lose their favorite tune. Its system files occupy around 17.1 MB. Not huge, but it’s around 70% the size of the application (23.5 MB). 2. Pixelmator A simplified and very convenient alternative to Adobe Photoshop. After removal leaves you with ~20MB scattered on your startup disk. 3. Skype One of the most common messengers in the world. Its service files take up about two times more than the app itself. In our case, it was 475.6 MB with the original app size of 257.4 MB. 4. Xcode The basic environment for the development of Apple software. By the size of files outside of the container, it is the undisputed leader. But, firstly, the app is not very common among regular users, and secondly, the specifics of the application justify such dimensions.  Xcode client – 11.91 GB, service files – 5.2 GB. 5. Google Chrome And of course, no one could get to the first position other than the king of the dimensionless. It uses both RAM memory and the memory of your drive. His Majesty the Google Chrome. System files of which have a royal size of around 1.2 GB. It is commonly recommended to regularly clear applications` service files to keep your Mac running fast. You can clear applications` service files manually. However, you should note that this method requires understanding the macOS catalog system which takes a bit more time.

5 Mac Apps with the Largest Service Files

The world has been evolving ever since its inception. There is no doubt that Generation-Z (1997-2012) has witnessed many changes. These changes were related especially with the advancement of science and technology. The concept of video calling dates back to the year 1910, and back then it was termed as video telephony. So, the concept is pretty antiquated, but with time innovation played its part and kept it looking contemporary. Having said that, we’ll now look at the options we have when it comes to video calling. The above-shown picture is the earliest concept of Video calling by an artist of the year 1910. According to the artist, this is how people were supposed to communicate by the year 2000. The year 2000 is now behind us past 20 years, and apparently we have exceeded the expectations of the people in the past. In year 2020, the top video chat apps are mentioned below; Skype: For many people, Skype is one of the earliest memories of video calling. They remember using it for making video calls to family members living abroad. And people still use it to do a video chat, with anyone they want to or need to. The app for Skype is free and you can easily make free calls from any device that’s in your use. Facebook Messenger: Facebook messenger is one of user’s favorite video apps. It is quite comfortable and easy to use. Facebook Messenger can also be used with or without Facebook. But Facebook for phone can’t be used without messenger. As we connect on Facebook with people all over the world, we make friends, we have video chats to exchange knowledge and we showcase our expertise there. Anyone who uses Facebook can organically. This way you can make a very good social media presence and you can also have a lot of people to have live video chat with.  For this purpose Facebook messenger is a must have app. It is like a Facebook exclusive WhatsApp. buy Facebook Likes WhatsApp: In the year 2020, if you aren’t aware of WhatsApp, then you are probably an alien. It is impossible not to have WhatsApp if you have a phone. It allows free calls to the numbers in your phone contact list. So, if you don’t have credit to make a call from the SIM network you are using, then you always have the option to use WhatsApp as long as you have an Internet connection. It allows simple text messaging, voice messaging (we also refer to them as voice notes), simple calls (video off) and video calls with video on, of course. WhatsApp is a necessity for smartphones. You may have many apps for making video calls, but you’ll always revert back to WhatsApp. Botim: Relatively new app to facilitate video calling, chatting through typing messages and voice notes. It is pretty similar to WhatsApp, and as mentioned it is comparatively new. So in the year 2020, in all the options that you have, you can also have Botim as another option. Microsoft Teams: Considering, the current pandemic situation which is created by Corona virus. Microsoft teams is the one app that is on the phone of every other student. The students are using it because countries have decided to stay in quarantine. The use of Microsoft team is more suited for educational and professional use. Although once the teams are created, the members can chat and do video calling with their own discretion as well.  Microsoft Teams is a pretty engaging platform, more then we realize. During lectures it allows you to share material. Take, for instance, you have a presentation to deliver and you want your PowerPoint slides to be shown. In such a case, Microsoft teams gives you an option of ‘slide share’ and your task is done. There is so much to learn at Microsoft teams.

Crypterium’s new crypto-fiat solution is here

Full-fledged remote work has become a global trend. The trend of a remote team (virtual team) has become popular with top world companies such as Skype, Slack, Github, MySQL, Opera, Groove, and others. In the world, there are quite a lot of large companies operating completely remotely. Businesses that implement remote work policies see increased efficiency, productivity, and fulfillment from their employees. So why do companies choose remote or distributed teams for software development? Benefits of having a virtual team. The performance of important functions is delegated to contractors. Therefore, the necessary corporate result is achieved by external efforts. Getting results from business processes without managing them. Outsourcers are professionals in their field. Therefore, they cope with the solution of highly specialized tasks like no one else. The attraction of competent specialists. The reduction in staff leads to a decrease in the total payroll. This, in turn, provides a reduction in the cost of contributions to social funds and tax payments. Saving money resources. To get rid of non-core functions is to get an opportunity to concentrate on the main direction and increase its effectiveness. Increased core business performance. Although accountants, lawyers, and other employees serve the customer company, they officially work with the contractor. Lack of formal labor relations with specialists. If a specialist is dissatisfied with something, he can only make complaints to his employer. The client pays the agency for the services and does not engage in personnel management. Exclusion of disputes and disagreements with staff. The partnership between the contractor and the customer is executed. It spells out all the duties and responsibilities of the parties, as well as important nuances of cooperation. Contractual form of relationship. Let's look at how large companies directly use the remote team. Skype was one of the most disruptive tools and technologies during the early 2000s. The idea of Niklas Zennström and the Dane Janus Friis wouldn’t have been part of our lives if they hadn’t outsourced the back-end development of the app to three Estonian developers named Jaan Tallinn, Ahti Heinla, and Priit Kasesalu. Skype. The important thing here to stress is that thanks to outsourced developers, who later became partners, Skype was able not only to enter the market but also becoming a widespread tool among businesses of all sizes. From 2011, Skype is part of Microsoft who bought it for $8.5 billion. If you work with remote peers, there’s a high chance you use Slack, an online collaboration tool app for teams based on Instant Messaging.  Before opening it up to the first beta testers, Slack’s development was outsourced to a design firm, who took care of the app, website, and even their logo. Slack. After that phase, once the product was good enough for the founders, they started to invite other users and teams to test it out and provide feedback (8K users signed up the first day). Today Slack accounts for 5 million daily users. Founded in 2008 by Chris Wanstrath, PJ Hyett, and Tom Preston-Werner, as a way to host, document, edit and share private code, it has its roots into an outsourced development consultancy. GitHub. As Tom recalls: I was thinking Git might be really cool and could get really popular. Scott was the ideal candidate for that. The problem was they didn’t have enough money to hire him as a full-time developer. So they had only one choice left to reach their goal of simplifying their product and push it further: they hired Scott as a Git outsource contractor to eventually build the backend of Gist, a sharing feature within GitHub. With its first release back to 21 years ago, MySQL proved to the world it was something we needed when it comes to working and manage databases. Part of its success is due to two key elements: the release of its source code under the GNU General Public License and the smart outsourcing strategy implemented by the management right from the beginning. MySQL. In fact, the company saw its growth strategy would need to include mostly outsourced developers and staff all over the world to boost operations in each location. Today, MySQL runs on millions of servers, and it’s used by many of the world’s largest and fastest-growing organizations such as Amazon, PayPal, Nasa, Cisco, just to name a few. Nowadays, hundreds and thousands, of companies use outsourcing to some extent, especially when it comes to the IT department. From the article, we learned how large companies have successfully used and are using remote teams for their development.

Corporations Goes with Remote Devs: Skype, Slack, GitHub, MySQL cases

As a Product Manager, you have great ideas! Ideas that could change the way people do things, ideas that could solve the world’s most pressing problems. And all you need to do now, is go ahead and build it! Let’s build an MVP (minimum viable product), sell the hell out of it (because the idea is super-disruptive in your mind) and then iterate. Soon to realize 6–8 months down the line that your product no longer has that level of adoption that you had expected, or that you now have to pivot to cater to the needs of your ‘revised’ audience because the initial market definition was too narrow. Product Managers are nothing but entrepreneurs, trying to launch their startup, pitching a business plan to internal stakeholders (your investors), gathering resources (creating a startup team), launching and selling to customers (marketing and launching your product). Thus, as we all know the fact that more than 80% of startups fail, the path to building a successful product should mimic the approach to launching a successful company. The Lean-product approach The Lean Startup approach discoursed by Eric Ries, has popularized the ‘fail fast, iterate often’ notion. This involves evaluating the problem the customer has with a prototype and then iterating with measured data from the feedback loop, using minimum resources. A core component of lean-startup methodology is the build-measure-learn feedback loop. I take this methodology and apply it to defining, validating and iterating to achieve the right product-market fit and create a rock-solid product strategy. Problem definition Innovative ideas lead to great solutions, however, without a deep understanding of the problem space, you are at a risk of getting ahead of yourself and building capabilities which do not receive customer traction. Defining your problem statement involves understanding of the problem space, the sense of urgency to solve the problem, the existing solutions in the market that have attempted to solve the problem all in the context of your target audience. “If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it,” Albert Einstein said. One example of the many ways of framing a problem statement is by defining: What is the problem?
Who is facing this problem?
How often?
Why do you need to solve it? In your initial level surveys or focus group interviews, these are a few statements that could be derived: “I am a salesperson, constantly on the road and am always struggling with managing and submitting tiny paper receipts for reimbursement as I keep losing them.” Using our above framework we have our problem statement e.g. “Business travelers or salespersons (who) need a way to capture and manage their travel expenses (what) because they are always on the road (how often). We need a solution to make this process less-time consuming and less-cumbersome (why).” This, by the way, is the problem as identified by DePasquale, founder of Outtask that made an online tool, Cliqbook, that allowed workers to book and manage their online travel and which in 2006, was acquired by Concur. Target Audience In the problem definition we have identified who is facing the problem you are trying to solve. This is where you identify the core audience who will be using your product. Your user as well as buyer personas. It is important to be honest about sizing your market here. This is not your $2B TAM pitch to investors. Be realistic and as specific as possible. Core Value Proposition A value-proposition is not simply a list of your benefits. It explains what benefit you provide for who and how you do it uniquely well. It should be a single statement articulating what is the value promised to the customer? There are tons of frameworks to define and state your value prop in a concise way. The simplest, perhaps is the template from Steve Blank, “We help [X] to [Y] by [Z]” Some great examples are: Dollar Shave Club*: “A Great Shave for a Few Bucks a Month”*
Stripe*: “Scale faster by building your business on Stripe’s payment processing platform.”*
Uber*: “Everyone’s private Driver”* Once you have your value prop defined, it is extremely important to continuously evaluate and test it with potential customers, even before you start building your MVP. Why is your product offering unique? This is probably the most important question you need to ask while determining the customer’s ‘willingness to pay’ for your product. Why should the customer go for your product vs the competitors? This becomes even more important when you are trying to displace a largely incumbent or crowded space such as enterprise productivity tools or online food delivery. Also, remember, you do not need to differentiate on a fancy feature or capability. Sometimes the simplest of things such as a clean design and user experience is what customers may need the most. Figuring out what matters to your customers the most and then choosing to differentiate on that aspect should be the approach. There is a reason why Zoom has completely disrupted the video conferencing market with their focus on creating virtual experiences when it comes to digitizing the workspace. The current space consisted of a stack of products, some wider and some narrower and some part of a larger ecosystem (Skype and Cisco Webex). Zoom clearly understood the need to converge video, web and mobile. Zoom’s offering that integrated audio, web conferencing and mobile integration was a simple, straightforward solution to what customers needed. Also, their willingness to work with most platforms and devices coupled with their all-inclusive fremium model was different from how all the other players went to market. Product quality, technology, user experience, price, go-to-market model and customer-service are just a handful of factors that you can think of and choose to base your differentiation upon. Metrics Ries’s lean framework follows a build, measure, learn loop. However, defining what to measure and how to evaluate the success for your product needs to be done as early as possible. You should be able to answer the question “How is the product doing?” at any point in time. And defining the response in clear KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) helps you evaluate the progress in a very objective way. The AARM method defined by Lewis Lin is a good framework to pick your metrics in each of the areas of acquisition, activation, retention and monetization. However, you need to go beyond frameworks, pick the appropriate metrics and customize them for your product and growth stage. Metrics creation and measurement is a highly iterative process and hence you constantly need to set KPI goals, evaluate and track these goals, and create new ones as your product grows. Apart from coming up with metrics for areas of acquisition, engagement and monetization, what needs to be agreed upon from an early stage is the ‘North-Star Metric’ that is going to drive most product decisions. This topic needs a separate article so watch out for another blog from me, deep diving into defining and evaluating metrics. Example Uber is a classic example where there was instant product market fit. Uber quickly realized their problem statement was “Limited, inconvenient access to taxis and transportation options in urban areas”. To solve this problem, Uber used GPS-enabled mobile apps to match drivers with riders, providing a reliable, real-time way to find and book a ride. Uber built their technical architecture  focused on real-time data processing and location-based services, which supported their rapid request-response model. Geolocation Services: Built using Google Maps API and Mapbox for precise location tracking and route optimization.
Dispatch System: Microservices handling real-time dispatching of drivers based on location and demand, with APIs for matching, pricing, and tracking.
Data Layer: Uses Cassandra for high-availability, fault-tolerant storage and MySQL for relational data.
Queueing: RabbitMQ or Kafka for asynchronous communication between services, handling surge pricing, availability, and ride requests. Uber’s use of microservices and a modular data architecture helps ensure that their systems remain responsive and scalable in real-time. Conclusion In conclusion, a successful product identifies and tests the product-market fit hypothesis from the get go and throughout the process of building the MVP. The Lean Startup message sums it up well. “What differentiates the success stories from the failures is that the successful entrepreneurs had the foresight, the ability, and the tools to discover which parts of their plans were working brilliantly and which were misguided, and adapt their strategies accordingly”. As a Product Manager, you have great ideas! Ideas that could change the way people do things, ideas that could solve the world’s most pressing problems. And all you need to do now, is go ahead and build it! Let’s build an MVP (minimum viable product), sell the hell out of it (because the idea is super-disruptive in your mind) and then iterate. Soon to realize 6–8 months down the line that your product no longer has that level of adoption that you had expected, or that you now have to pivot to cater to the needs of your ‘revised’ audience because the initial market definition was too narrow. Product Managers are nothing but entrepreneurs, trying to launch their startup, pitching a business plan to internal stakeholders (your investors), gathering resources (creating a startup team), launching and selling to customers (marketing and launching your product). Thus, as we all know the fact that more than 80% of startups fail, the path to building a successful product should mimic the approach to launching a successful company. The Lean-product approach The Lean Startup approach discoursed by Eric Ries, has popularized the ‘fail fast, iterate often’ notion. This involves evaluating the problem the customer has with a prototype and then iterating with measured data from the feedback loop, using minimum resources. A core component of lean-startup methodology is the build-measure-learn feedback loop. Lean Startup I take this methodology and apply it to defining, validating and iterating to achieve the right product-market fit and create a rock-solid product strategy. Problem definition Innovative ideas lead to great solutions, however, without a deep understanding of the problem space, you are at a risk of getting ahead of yourself and building capabilities which do not receive customer traction. Defining your problem statement involves understanding of the problem space, the sense of urgency to solve the problem, the existing solutions in the market that have attempted to solve the problem all in the context of your target audience. “If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it,” Albert Einstein said. “If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it,” Albert Einstein said. “If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it,” Albert Einstein said. One example of the many ways of framing a problem statement is by defining: What is the problem? Who is facing this problem? How often? Why do you need to solve it? What is the problem? Who is facing this problem? How often? Why do you need to solve it? In your initial level surveys or focus group interviews, these are a few statements that could be derived: “I am a salesperson, constantly on the road and am always struggling with managing and submitting tiny paper receipts for reimbursement as I keep losing them.” “I am a salesperson, constantly on the road and am always struggling with managing and submitting tiny paper receipts for reimbursement as I keep losing them.” Using our above framework we have our problem statement e.g. “Business travelers or salespersons (who) need a way to capture and manage their travel expenses (what) because they are always on the road (how often). We need a solution to make this process less-time consuming and less-cumbersome (why).” “Business travelers or salespersons (who) need a way to capture and manage their travel expenses (what) because they are always on the road (how often). We need a solution to make this process less-time consuming and less-cumbersome (why).” This, by the way, is the problem as identified by DePasquale, founder of Outtask that made an online tool, Cliqbook, that allowed workers to book and manage their online travel and which in 2006, was acquired by Concur. Target Audience In the problem definition we have identified who is facing the problem you are trying to solve. This is where you identify the core audience who will be using your product. Your user as well as buyer personas. It is important to be honest about sizing your market here. This is not your $2B TAM pitch to investors. Be realistic and as specific as possible. Core Value Proposition A value-proposition is not simply a list of your benefits. It explains what benefit you provide for who and how you do it uniquely well. It should be a single statement articulating what is the value promised to the customer? There are tons of frameworks to define and state your value prop in a concise way. The simplest, perhaps is the template from Steve Blank , “ We help [X] to [Y] by [Z]” Steve Blank We help [X] to [Y] by [Z]” Some great examples are: Dollar Shave Club*: “A Great Shave for a Few Bucks a Month”* Stripe*: “Scale faster by building your business on Stripe’s payment processing platform.”* Uber*: “Everyone’s private Driver”* Dollar Shave Club *: “A Great Shave for a Few Bucks a Month”* Dollar Shave Club Dollar Shave Club Stripe *: “Scale faster by building your business on Stripe’s payment processing platform.”* Stripe Stripe Uber *: “Everyone’s private Driver”* Uber Uber Once you have your value prop defined, it is extremely important to continuously evaluate and test it with potential customers, even before you start building your MVP. Why is your product offering unique? This is probably the most important question you need to ask while determining the customer’s ‘willingness to pay’ for your product. Why should the customer go for your product vs the competitors? This becomes even more important when you are trying to displace a largely incumbent or crowded space such as enterprise productivity tools or online food delivery. Also, remember, you do not need to differentiate on a fancy feature or capability. Sometimes the simplest of things such as a clean design and user experience is what customers may need the most. Figuring out what matters to your customers the most and then choosing to differentiate on that aspect should be the approach. There is a reason why Zoom has completely disrupted the video conferencing market with their focus on creating virtual experiences when it comes to digitizing the workspace. The current space consisted of a stack of products, some wider and some narrower and some part of a larger ecosystem (Skype and Cisco Webex). Zoom clearly understood the need to converge video, web and mobile. Zoom’s offering that integrated audio, web conferencing and mobile integration was a simple, straightforward solution to what customers needed. Also, their willingness to work with most platforms and devices coupled with their all-inclusive fremium model was different from how all the other players went to market. Product quality, technology, user experience, price, go-to-market model and customer-service are just a handful of factors that you can think of and choose to base your differentiation upon. Metrics Ries’s lean framework follows a build, measure, learn loop. However, defining what to measure and how to evaluate the success for your product needs to be done as early as possible. You should be able to answer the question “How is the product doing?” at any point in time. And defining the response in clear KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) helps you evaluate the progress in a very objective way. The AARM method defined by Lewis Lin is a good framework to pick your metrics in each of the areas of acquisition, activation, retention and monetization. However, you need to go beyond frameworks, pick the appropriate metrics and customize them for your product and growth stage. Metrics creation and measurement is a highly iterative process and hence you constantly need to set KPI goals, evaluate and track these goals, and create new ones as your product grows. Apart from coming up with metrics for areas of acquisition, engagement and monetization, what needs to be agreed upon from an early stage is the ‘North-Star Metric’ that is going to drive most product decisions. This topic needs a separate article so watch out for another blog from me, deep diving into defining and evaluating metrics. AARM method Example Uber is a classic example where there was instant product market fit. Uber quickly realized their problem statement was “Limited, inconvenient access to taxis and transportation options in urban areas”. To solve this problem, Uber used GPS-enabled mobile apps to match drivers with riders, providing a reliable, real-time way to find and book a ride. Uber built their technical architecture  focused on real-time data processing and location-based services, which supported their rapid request-response model. Geolocation Services: Built using Google Maps API and Mapbox for precise location tracking and route optimization. Dispatch System: Microservices handling real-time dispatching of drivers based on location and demand, with APIs for matching, pricing, and tracking. Data Layer: Uses Cassandra for high-availability, fault-tolerant storage and MySQL for relational data. Queueing: RabbitMQ or Kafka for asynchronous communication between services, handling surge pricing, availability, and ride requests. Geolocation Services : Built using Google Maps API and Mapbox for precise location tracking and route optimization. Geolocation Services Dispatch System : Microservices handling real-time dispatching of drivers based on location and demand, with APIs for matching, pricing, and tracking. Dispatch System Data Layer : Uses Cassandra for high-availability, fault-tolerant storage and MySQL for relational data. Data Layer Queueing : RabbitMQ or Kafka for asynchronous communication between services, handling surge pricing, availability, and ride requests. Queueing Uber’s use of microservices and a modular data architecture helps ensure that their systems remain responsive and scalable in real-time. Conclusion In conclusion, a successful product identifies and tests the product-market fit hypothesis from the get go and throughout the process of building the MVP. The Lean Startup message sums it up well. “What differentiates the success stories from the failures is that the successful entrepreneurs had the foresight, the ability, and the tools to discover which parts of their plans were working brilliantly and which were misguided, and adapt their strategies accordingly”. “What differentiates the success stories from the failures is that the successful entrepreneurs had the foresight, the ability, and the tools to discover which parts of their plans were working brilliantly and which were misguided, and adapt their strategies accordingly”. “What differentiates the success stories from the failures is that the successful entrepreneurs had the foresight, the ability, and the tools to discover which parts of their plans were working brilliantly and which were misguided, and adapt their strategies accordingly”.

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