“Unlocking data.” Since the 2000’s we’ve been trying to “unlock” data in organizations. We’re still talking about it. What keeps it all locked up? Is this driven by the need to access it, or lower bills? How do we keep ending up locked up data? I feel like there’s a Straussian read on this enterprise tech marketing meme.
People don’t read vendor1 PDFs anymore. This is oft said. Is it true for you?
Should anyone be writing white papers anymore? Or should we (1) do short form pieces from social media micro-content, blog posts, advertorial, (2) do a lot more videos and podcasts (by that, I mean interview videos that happen to have an RSS feed), (3) make sure we have content to feed the AIs because people are getting their research from AIs? (4) Something else?
Put another way: what are the last three vendor PDFs you read that were useful?
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“vendor” - you know, cloud companies, software companies…but also consultants and even industry analysts. Maybe “white papers” from any source, really, that are not the actual “enterprises” doing the work. ↩︎
If you have PowerPoint pillars, your organization probably has strategy BO. From The Octopus Organization.
Some product management maxims.
The job isn’t to ‘prioritize value,’ but to create the conditions where value can move. You don’t reveal value through prediction; you reveal it through flow.
🔗 Everything I Got Wrong About Product (So You Don’t Have To)
"technically fine, offends no one, and also does fuck-all to advance the conversation"
Me: Give me a definition of and commentary on “anodyne.” It seems like smarty-pants people use it as a dog whistle (a shibboleth!) for saying “I’m a smarty pants.”
ChatGPT 5.1:
Definition
Anodyne (adj. or noun):
Something that relieves pain or soothes; By extension, a remark, policy, or idea that is inoffensive, bland, and so safe it has essentially no substance. How it’s actually used
In modern writing, people usually mean sense #2: an anodyne statement is technically fine, offends no one, and also does fuck-all to advance the conversation.
It me, except I don’t even want to send the email, or have sent it.
🤖 The 2025 OWASP Top 10 rebrands “Vulnerable Components” as “Software Supply Chain Failures” and elevates “Security Misconfiguration” to the number two spot. Chris Cropper and Rita Manachi analyze the changes and argue that bypassing security controls for the sake of “innovation” is increasingly a liability, not a competitive advantage.
🔗 Beyond a Team Sport, Security is a Community Sport: Exploring the 2025 OWASP top 10
Agile fails quickly if you don’t follow the practices.
If I could only give one piece of feedback for the rest of my career on all tech marketing content it would be this: rewrite to describe the activities done, not the outcome achieved.