How often do you walk into a public restroom in a venue that is non-smoking (restaurant, office, sporting venue, airport), and you get hit with a blast of cigarette smoke.
I just rolled off the plane here in MSP, walked into the bathroom and BLAM. A face full. Really, you are not fooling anyone.
As I approach a million miles on United airlines, and lately have struggled to earn even premier status on their Milage Plus program, I am accorded the benefit of “Unlimited Domestic Upgrades”. This is a nice touch. But I have yet to receive this “benefit” in the last 2+ years that they have offered it.
Why is this bullshit, you might ask? Well, today, I was dutifully waitlisted for the “free” upgrade. I was # 23 in the queue. There were 12 seats. So, even if First Class checked in empty, I am not going to get an upgrade. Pretty scummy, eh?
I prefer the days when I had coupons, and I could exchange them on long enough flights. This new mechanism is really just wishful thinking.
And they wishfully think that I will remain loyal? Ha!
Twice in the last week I have received emails from the NY Times advertising a special 80 weeks all access for $0.99. That is roughly 13 cents a week. Sounds like a good deal. But, after the 8 weeks, ir will rise to the $30+ per month.
Your digital deliver options are too expensive. I would probably pay $2.50 a week ($10 a month or $120 a year) for your iPad and browser all access. I do want to pay you for the information you provide, it is just that at near home delivery prices for the dead tree version, you are expecting too much.
I am sure that the low uptake rate on the full access version of the digital offering is due to your pricing structure. If you ever decide to get realistic in your pricing, let me know and I will likely subscribe.
Summary: A few weeks ago, a sales engineer was being disruptive in our iteration demo meeting. I sent a (non appropriate) message to my scrum master to get this individual to stop trying to turn it into a design review. The message was mistakenly displayed on the main screen (I may have used the acronym STFU for shut the F__k up).
I blogged about it. About the proper purpose for the meeting, the type of feedback that was appropriate, and outside members are in “listen only” mode.
The SE whose feeling were hurt found the blog, and I was told to remove it.
Now I am sad. My blog was where I shared some of the inside story on my life as a product manager. 14 years and you build a thick skin, a set of rules that work, and a string of successes. I enjoyed sharing them. Now. They are gone.
Product Management is not a career that is great. It is a thankless job. It is the bucket that all the other groups dump the shitty tasks that they would prefer to not do. You are part customer support. Part sales engineer. Part sales manager. Part senior leader. Part marketing. I am envious of all the people who stand there and say that they live the Pragmatic Marketing system. Or the Blackblot system. I call bullshit. I have been at many different places, and product management is always a messed up, ill defined, master of all trades role.
I am tired of it. I hate it. I want off the rollercoaster. This is not fun anymore. Sadly, I happen to be good at product management, so I will probably continue to gravitate to it. I just want it to end.
I sit here typing this as I await my 8:45PM update call with our India team.