My first professional job involved playing video games for 9 hours a day. After the first signs of brain rot, I decided to teach myself how to write software.
I'd like to say my entire career is characterized by this “why not?” attitude.
Over the last 20 years I've worked with a range of companies - from pre-investment startups to large corporations - to bring high-tech consumer products to life.
Much of my recent focus is in product management and product marketing with a concentration on SaaS, iOS and Android product development. I'm also well versed in product lifecycle management, product roadmaps, product positioning, business models, product requirements documents, user stories, UX and interaction design.
Throughout the course of my career I've either directly managed, launched, or developed software for the following:
- An online video advertising network
- An interactive music video network
- A 3D body scanning system to help women find great fitting clothes
- Video set top boxes for hotel pay-per-view services
- A personal video recorder akin to TiVo
- Audio sound cards for the music and video game industry
- A SaaS marketing automation platform that helps businesses connect with their customers
I've been included in a few lists of Product Managers to follow. The best way to do see what I'm up to is via Twitter @JoeCotellese or my website https://www.JoeCotellese.com
Hi, I've spent some time thinking through how I would go about implementing a Q&A forum.
I don't think I'd necessarily go the API route. In my company we've implemented Zendesk with a custom URL and theme. It lets us add our unique branding while letting Zendesk handle managing the platform.
You could then leverage Zendesk APIs to bring pieces of the help desk into your application.
I'd be happy to jump on a call with you if you want to explore these ideas more in depth.
This might be obvious but check Youtube to see if there are any walkthroughs of the product. Some enterprise software is hard to just turn over to someone to use. They often are not self-service.
I like your idea of signing up for sales demo via website. Masquerade as a potential customer. It would be good to see how they position their product and give you some insight so you can offer suggestions on how to improve things when you get into the interview.
Good luck!
I would put content out for free on YouTube, share via social media channels. In your Youtube channel, promote people to visit your website.
On the website, collect email addresses to begin building an audience. Use the email address to send behind the scenes exclusive content and in each email message you send request a donation via Patreon.