10 answers to the tell me about yourself question

10 answers to the tell me about yourself question10 answers to the tell me about yourself questionYou know its coming.Its the most feared question during any job interview Do you think I would look good in a cowboy hat?Just kidding. The real question is Can you tell me about yourself?Blecch. What a boring, vague, open-ended question. Who likes answering that?I know. Im with you. But unfortunately, hiring managers and recruiters ask the question. Even if youre elend interviewing and youre out networking in the community - you need to be ready to hear it and answer it. At all times.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreNow, before I share a list of 10 memorable answers, consider the two essential elements behind the answersThe medium is the message. The interviewer cares less about your answer to this question and more about the confidence, enthusiasm and passion with which you answer it.The speed of the response is the response. The biggest mistake you could make is pausing, stalling or fumbling at the onset of your answer, thus demonstrating a lack of self-awareness and self-esteem.Best sample answers to the most common job interview questionNext time youre faced with the dreaded, Tell me about yourself question, try theseI can summarize who I am in three words. Grabs their attention immediately. Demonstrates your ability to be concise, creative and compelling.The quotation I live my life by is Proves that personal development is an essential part of your growth plan. Also shows your ability to motivate yourself.My personal philosophy is Companies hire athletes not shortstops. This line indicates your position as a thinker, not just an employee.People who know me best say that Im This response offers insight into your own level of self-awareness.Well, I googled myself this morning, and heres what I found Tech-savvy, fun, cool people would say this. Unexpected and memorable.My passion is People dont care what you do people care who you are. And what youre passionate about is who you are. Plus, passion unearths enthusiasm.When I was seven years old, I always wanted to be An answer like this shows that youve been preparing for this job your whole life, not just the night before.If Hollywood made a movie about my life, it would be called Engaging, interesting and entertaining.Can I show you, instead of tell you? Then, pull something out of your pocket that represents who you are. Who could resist this answer? Who could forget this answer?The compliment people give me most frequently is Almost like a testimonial, this response also indicates self-awareness and openness to feedback.Keep in mind that these examples are just the opener. The secret is thinking how you will follow up each answer with relevant, interesting and concise explanations that make the already bored interviewer look up from his stale coffee and think, Wow Thats the best a nswer Ive heard all dayUltimately its about answering quickly, its about speaking creatively and its about breaking peoples patterns.I understand your fear with such answers. Responses like these are risky, unexpected and unorthodox. And thats exactly why they work.Otherwise, you become (yet another) non-entity in the gray mass of blah, blah, blah.Youre hireable because of your answers. When people ask you to tell them about yourself, make them glad they asked.Let me ask you this How much time did you dedicate this week to becoming more interesting? Let me suggest this For the list called, 61 Stupid Things to Stop Doing Before Its Too Late, send an e-mail-nachricht to me, and you win it for freeThis article was first published on July 22, 2014.

Customize this Impressive Communications Coordinator Resume Sample

Customize this Impressive Communications Coordinator Resume SampleCustomize this Impressive Communications Coordinator Resume SampleYou know you have what it takes to succeed in a new job as a communications coordinator, but does yur resume have what it takes to convince potential employers to consider you? In a competitive job market, it is essential to have a strong resume that markets your best professional qualifications and capabilities. To make your resume as relevant and striking as possible, compare it a sample resume, like the one below.Use our communications coordinator resume sample to better understand what hiring managers look for when they review your resume. Follow its example as you choose which skills to include and format your document. If you still need help after reviewing the sample, use our resume builder to make the process even easier.Create Resume Claudia Stonestreet100 Broadway Lane New Parkland, CA, 91010 Cell (555) 987-1234 example-emailexample.com100 Bro adway LaneNew Parkland, CA, 91010Cell (555) 987-1234example-emailexample.comProfessional Summary Communications Coordinator with background for effective promotion of a brand through marketing, media and public relations, communications and otzu sich channels. Familiar with fund development, coordinating scalable events and projects, donor cultivation, fundraising, etc. Through innovation, stewardship and accountability, will serve best interest of the organization and their customers.Core QualificationsCorporate communications strategyMarketingPublic relations strategiesEvent managementDetail oriented problem solverStrong leader and team playerExperience March 2007 to Present The Amble Association, New Cityland, CA Communications CoordinatorAssist Senior Communications Director in the development and implementation of corporate communication activities.Write or edit content for press releases, reports, presentations, memorandums, newsletters, etc.Design and implement communication campaigns, monitoring budgets, scheduling, materials, etc.Monitor e-mail marketing campaigns, surveys and online promotional materials.Ensure daily administrative tasks were completed. March 2002 to February 2007 Masterson Community Services, New Cityland, CA Communications CoordinatorResponsible for maintenance of corporate website, blog and all online advertising.Delegated tasks for and monitored preparation of marketing literature, including companys weekly newsletter and promotional posters and brochures.Provided administrative support to Director and Senior Vice President.EDUCATION 2002 University of California, New Cityland, CA Bachelor of Arts, Human ResourcesCustomize ResumeWhy Is This a Good Communications Coordinator Resume Sample?To begin, the sample resume offers an engaging professional summary statement. The jobseeker gets straight to the point by illuminating a number of major skills relevant to the position. She then asserts her knowledge in areas such as coordinatin g scalable events and donor cultivation, which shows she understands the more intricate but invaluable aspects of the position. The summary closes by identifying a few of the jobseekers key soft skills that help to round out her professional character. The entire section consists of only three succinct sentences to pique employers interest and convince them to continue reading.Notice the concise formatting of the core qualifications section that follows the summary in the communications coordinator resume sample. The jobseeker uses bullet points and concise phrases, saving details for other parts of the document, so hiring managers can skim through the section quickly. It is a great idea to make sure each skill addresses a different but equally important aspect of the job. The jobseeker does this, listing relevant and crucial skillsets such as corporate communications strategy and event management.Next, take a look at the experience section. The jobseeker details the past 15 years o f her career using bullet points to make this section easy to read. She expands on the skills listed previously in the core qualifications section, showing how she used each on a day-to-day basis, and begins each sentence with a dynamic action verb such as design, ensure, and delegated. This helps to paint a clearer picture of the candidates duties and achievements in hiring managers minds. The communications coordinator resume sample comes to a conclusion with a short but informative education section. Hiring managers dont need to see too many details here, so follow the sample resumes example by simply listing your degree, the institution, and the year you graduated.Why You Need a Strong Communications Coordinator ResumeHiring managers often use your resume to get an idea of how you might fare in the position if hired. As a communications coordinator, your job often entails marketing a brand or the business itself, maintaining superb public relations, and communicating with custom ers and donors. If your resume fails to either effectively market your own capabilities or engage readers, employers may not consider you for the position.Multiple studies have determined employers initially spend fewer than 10 seconds glancing at a resume. As you construct your document, compare it to our communications coordinator resume sample to make sure that whatever section hiring managers skim through first, they will want to take a closer look.Costly Communications Coordinator Resume Mistakes to AvoidWhen writing your resume, avoid common mistakes that may diminish hiring managers view of you. Proofread your document multiple times to catch spelling errors and excessive word or phrase repetition. Written communication may play a big role in a position as a communications coordinator, so ensure your resume communicates effectively to employers. Its also important to avoid the mistake of using the incorrect tense when detailing your work experience. If you currently have a jo b, use present tense to describe your responsibilities and accomplishments, and switch to past tense for previous positions, as exemplified in the communications coordinator resume sample.Finally, do proper research to ensure you dont come across to employers as unknowledgeable or unaware of what the job entails. Peruse the job listing and use some of the important keywords you find there within your own document to emphasize your suitability for the position. If you have them, include important skills in marketing, public relations, and fund development, as the jobseeker in our sample does.ConclusionWith all the confusion surrounding how to create the perfect resume, it helps to have clear writing and formatting tips to guide you through the process. Use our communications coordinator resume sample to make sure every part of your resume stand out to hiring managers. It may take some time and effort, but the finished product is well worth it.

How to Remake your LinkedIn Profile for Job Search

How to Remake your LinkedIn Profile for Job Search How to Remake your LinkedIn Profile for Job Search According to recent research, more than 85% of employers use LinkedIn to find new hires. How can you make your LinkedIn profile stand out from the millions of others so that recruiters and hiring managers will find you? (And perhaps more importantly, want to follow up with you after they find you.) Here are some tips for remaking your LinkedIn profile so that you can land that job of your dreams. Or, if youre leid that picky, just a job.Youre leid looking for job.Thats right, even though you are looking for job, youre not just looking for any job. It seems counter-intuitive, but employers want what they cant have, not whats easily available. Remove that blaring IM LOOKING FOR A JOB text on your LinkedIn profile. Tone all job search references down concentrate on making yourself look more desirable and less desperate. Your profile should reflect an accomplished professional in the exact field and industry in which you want to get a new position. Youre not looking for a job. Repeat that to yourself again. Youre instead a professional open to opportunities in ABC. You want to make your career with a company that ABC.Make your headline clear and concise. Your headline is what recruiters will see first about you. Many people try to use certain buzzwords that are clich and are used over and over again. Try to clearly state what you can offer to an employer, using keywords that they will search for. You will also want to make sure that you are not limiting yourself in your headline. If you are currently a vice president or higher up, but are willing to start in a job that is not senior management, it might be wise to leave the vice president off of your job title in your headline. You want to leave the possibilities as open as possible while conveying what you have fruchtwein experience in.Remember that youre designing your headline after what employers want to sea rch for, not to brag to other professionals in your industry. If youre a Project Manager, write that, not A Seasoned Executive Consultant with Project Experience. In other words, dont try to make yourself something youre not make it easy for people to figure out what you do. Stay simple, specific, and positive when writing about your skills and experience.Write a direct, informative summary and experience section. Your summary and experience section should tell a clear and concise story about your work history. Most managers will scan this section fairly quickly, so make sure that the most important information is at the beginning of the summary to catch their interest and draw them in. Use specific examples and clearly point out your results in past jobs.The specialties section is a great place to put keywords for search, but do not overstuff. Just put a few of the most important words that describe you to make your profile easy to be found in searches by managers.Remember that th e summary and experience section, as well as the specialties area, is the place to show what you are made of and to really sell yourself to employers who have found your profile. Put most of your effort and focus into these vital sections.Feature a few solid recommendations. Only feature a couple of recommendations, as more than that can be overkill and can jumble your profile. Any old or outdated postings should be removed when you are starting your job search so that recruiters can see the most up to date and relevant referrals. This way, they can contact people who have most recently recommended you.With recommendations, pay more attention to who is recommending you than what they are saying about you. A management level reference from your current or recent employer is fantastic. Shoot for senior people in the industry in which you are most likely to find work. You can also use strategy here want to work at a particular company? If you have a friend or know an employee there, h ave them recommend your work.You can easily remake your LinkedIn profile for job search with a few key changes. Do not exaggerate or build yourself up with adjectives, but use examples of quantifiable results to show a manager what you can bring to their company.After your profile is shaped up, stay present on LinkedIn by joining industry groups and posting interesting news about your field. Connect to as many relevant people in your field as you can. notenzeichen that the people you connect will then see your activity on their homepage this is your change to keep yourself top of mind. When jobs open up, consistent activity could make the difference between getting the call and not. Good luck out thereMaster the art of closing deals and making placements. Take our Recruiter Certification Program today. Were SHRM certified. Learn at your own pace during this 12-week program. Access over 20 courses. Great for those who want to break into recruiting, or recruiters who want to further their career.

7 Best Books to Boost Your Career - The Muse

7 Best Books to Boost Your Career - The Muse7 Best Books to Boost Your Career - The MuseHere at The Muse, we spend a lot of time talking about careers. Whether its how to start it, change it, or enhance it, weve thought about it all. So, it probably comes as no surprise that we also spend plenty of time reading about how we can move further along our own paths. Below, our team shares seven of their favorite recent reads and explains how their picks have helped them do their jobs (even) better. 1. Dot Complicated Untangling Our Wired Lives by Randi ZuckerbergIm currently reading Dot.Complicated by Randi Zuckerberg. I love reading about her perspective on tech-life balance and stories about Facebooks early days. This is great for anyone whos interested in learning more about the companys history and for anyone who is craving to understand how technologys changing the way people interact with each other. Jessica Huang, Account Executive2. Deep Work Rules for Focused Success in a Distr acted World by Cal NewportThe point of the book is to better understand how distraction and shallow tasks take away from us producing our bigger projects- i.e., the deep work, strategic thinking, new ideas- that were really hired to do. What Newport calls deep work is the opposite of the environment we have by default in most offices. The book is about building repeatable rituals to overcome those defaults, with practical methods like time blocking, fixed scheduling, systematically saying no to different obligations, and how to make the most of your unconscious mind. (Quick tip Give it room to breathe rather than pulling out a screen.)Shahzad Ahsan, Demand Generation Manager3. Power Questions Build Relationships, Win New Business, and Influence Others by Andrew Sobel and Jerold PanasRight now Im focused on improving my ability to better understand clients and guide them to realize that they want and need. This book succinctly walks through insightful and original questions to boost a business conversation or how to improve a personal relationship. Its an easy read and extremely actionable.Daniel Ratner, Account Executive4. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie KondoIts not a traditional career book, but Im finding it very applicable in both my career and life. Im personally always feeling bogged down and overwhelmed by all the things I have to do. This book is teaching me that by decluttering my physical things, I create more space for things that matter. Similarly, she has a lot of good nuggets of positive thinking advice about tidying up your mental state. By creating space in your physical life, youre freeing up mental space to pursue the things you love and were made forJena Viviano, Account Executive5. Covert Persuasion Psychological Tactics and Tricks to Win the Game by Kevin Hogan and James SpeakmanIt welches recommended to me when I was asking around for a great sales read to help me improve in m y role here at The Muse. One of the best takeaways I got was how to turn a no into a yes by focusing on practical tools that work. One thing Ill say after reading a lot of sales books is that theyre not just for people in sales. After reading Daniel Pinks To Sell Is Human (another great read), you realize everyone, in one way or another, is in sales and can benefit from these books.Dara Meyer, Account Executive6. The Compass of Zen by Seung SahnIt seems tangentially relevant since I see mindfulness, and sometimes meditation, mentioned a lot in career advice or personal growth writing. But in these writings, direct references to Buddhism sometimes get filtered out to keep folks from turning away. I dont think thats always necessary, and Ive generally found the more unfiltered source material a lot more helpful regarding personal growth and very relevant to daily life.Chris Ryan, Data Scientist7. Primed to Perform How to Build the Highest Performing Cultures Through the Science of Tot al Motivation by Neel Doshi and Lindsay McGregorIt applies data and metrics to the elusive and hard to measure importance of company culture. As The Muse is scaling, the more we understand about how our culture is developing, the better prepared well be to keep making it stronger and to keep attracting driven and high-performing Musers.Lindsay Moroney, Chief of StaffJoin Us at The Muse- Were HiringWhat are some of your favorite career-oriented reads? Let me know on Twitter.Photo of woman reading courtesy of Shutterstock.

A Fools Handbook to Job Skills for Resumes Revealed

A Fools Handbook to Job Skills for Resumes Revealed Your employer will have the ability to more easily discern your true skill set from such categories. If its a job which has the possibility of advancement, the employer might want to know that you have what it requires to be a leader later on. The sorts of computer skills employers expect will vary depending upon your career or industry. Actually, there are particular jobs in which its important to place a skill section at or close to the top of the resume. The Battle Over Job Skills for Resumes and How to Win It Soft skills are a little more vague and open to interpretation. Soft skills on the opposite hand, are not merely useful across multiple industries, but are a fantastic tool for standing out from different candidates who all possess the very same hard skills. Resumes may be used for a number of reasons, but most often theyre utilized to secure new employment. Employers today still think about the resume a critical bit of a work candidates file. They want to see that you have what it takes to succeed on the job. They look for jobseekers who love what they do and will keep at it until they solve the problem and get the job done. Among the biggest perks of a great deal of remote jobs is you have flexibility about when you work. Your skills are an overview of what you could do for the prospective employer if you were offered the work at this time. There are quite a few other computer skills, however, that are usually used across all industries which are important for most job applicants to know. For each past job, give the conventional information found in the majority of resumes. If you are in possession of a wide selection of technical abilities, however, your abilities might end up being precisely what gets you hired. Unlike hard abilities, this form of skill is difficult to quantify. If youre not certain which skills that you want to share, consider your prior experiences. If you do nt have any one of these skills, it may be time for you to acquire a couple. Soft abilities, on the flip side, arent simple to quantify. They are the skills that apply to every job. In the majority of cases, your soft skills can boost your hard skills. As stated earlier, assessing soft skills is a lot more difficult. Getting the Best Job Skills for Resumes Job applicants with computer skills are highly sought-after due to the growth of technology at work. Hardware skills permit you to physically operate a computer. You might find it helpful to practice your customer service abilities. Review their About Us page and see whether your soft abilities or attributes are aligned with the corporations core values. The Dos and Donts of Job Skills for Resumes Your skills section stipulates a window into how much capability youll be able to bring to the organization. Technical skills are either something youve got or you dont, but theyre always something which youre able to learn. Students will be liable for turning in all classwork and projects employing the Schoology site. Job Skills for Resumes Can Be Fun for Everyone A hiring manager will be searching for skills which are the absolute most relevant to the job accessible. If youre still not positive if any one of these skills are best for your situation, one quick approach to check which skills the employer is seeking is to confirm the work description. Thus when writing down your job skills take some time to strategize and find out the very best approach to organize them in your resume. Look through the work description. To aid you in getting started, have a look at the sample job descriptions below. The competitive climate of the work market has gotten to a fever pitch recently. Make certain that the specifics you include are about the job which you are working to get. An excellent editing job will take a small longerand some particular tactics intended to catch resume errors. Supply a copy of your own personal statement if youre applying for graduate school. Speak to professionals in the area If youre having a tough time determining what skills an employer might want to see, look at contacting a professional already working in the business or position very similar to the one that youre applying for. If youre interested in turning in an application for a particular job, review the post carefully and pay attention to the list of skill requirements. Although your target job may not ask that you speak with customers or give presentations, its rare to discover a position that doesnt involve some sort of communication on a standard basis.

What Needs to be Done About Professional Resume Design

What Needs to be Done About Professional Resume Design 1 day, you chance to find the call about your fantasy job. Most professional resume readers can effect a choice to keep a resume in under two minutes. The majority of the moment, applicants waste lots of time worrying what things to write in their resume, rather than how it ought to be written. How well you layout your resume is critical to increasing your likelihood of getting hired. In different kinds of advertisements, you ought to rack your mind and emerge with contacts to acquire the things fall at their various places, however, in internet advertisement, you merely need to employ a business that will undertake the obligation to host your site, purchase the domain name and make a customized web design for your on-line property. An effective pet website design may be the perfect means whereby you are able to register huge volumes of sales in your website. Youre allowed many more opportunities to find out if youre abl e to succeed or not. To avail better opportunities make sure your resume does not get eliminated because of inadequate presentation. Select Resumes is prepared to be put to the test in all the above places. Rather, the fruchtwein crucial message in your resume is the reason you are the ONLY person for the job. Functional Resumes would likewise be useful for freshers who havent worked for any provider yet but possess the needed knowledge and abilities. What Professional Resume Design Is - and What it Is Not You will ensure that every design component is outstanding If you need assistance, utilize some totally free web keyword tools such as Google Free Keyword Tool. Therefore, once you are anxious and worried regarding the pet website design, be sure that you approach Ultimate pet Websites for getting the most suitable design solution. The design for such a website ought to be completely different and distinctive.

Make 2015 the Year Your Company Fails Better

Make 2015 the Year Your Company Fails BetterMake 2015 the Year Your Company Fails BetterMake 2015 the Year Your Company Fails Better Sastry and Kara Penn, authors of FAIL BETTER Design Smart Mistakes and Succeed Sooner(HBR Press, 2014)No matter how forward-looking or agile companies aim to be, workplaces dont look on failure kindly. Yet anyone who wants to innovate knows that theres a risk that things wont go as planned.Heres the silver lining when things go off track this can be a good thing, if youre prepared to harness the benefits. Managers, teams and companies can plan for, and even craft, a better kind of failure.In our book, Fail Better, we explain how to enable small-scale and affordable failures that are linked to broader goals and designed to reveal key insights quickly.The six tips below will help make failure work for you.Elevate the humble project. No need to wait for a eureka flash of brilliance or a fall-from-the sky insight. You can use your current work as your sandb ox for experimentation.Think about every effort to create a novel product, result, or service as a project. Your projects are the vehicle for innovation and progress. In the end, only if projects succeed will you, your team, and your company do well in a changing market.Cultivate a mindset that sees projects as crucibles for improvement, learning, and new ideas, and you can design smart mistakes into your everyday work.Know your limits. Along with your personal tolerance for mistakes, its important to know within your company whats riding on the success of your project.By doing this, youll know how much messing up your project can afford and to assess how much your client, boss, or organization values insights gleaned through failure.Look at all three arenas at the outset of your next project to define the boundaries for your own trial-and-error experiments, and determine if you need to win over others to erleichterung your approach.Map out the thinking behind your project plan to generate productive surprises. Yes, you need to do work planning, but were talking about going further. Start by identifying the problem youre trying to solve, the outcomes you desire, and the actions you think will get you there.Make the linkages between cause and effect a little more explicit, so that when your teamencounters something unexpected while carrying out the project, you can pounce on it, figure out what it might mean, and adjust next steps as a result.Scale back on grandiose one-shot efforts. Iterate instead. Plan your work in repeatable chunks that you can try out early and then revamp, iterate, and improve upon everything.Nothing beats a real-world test Prioritize actions that will yield the most useful information first the type of information which challenges a core assumption, tests a prominent concept, or represents a proposed solution to the problem at hand.Kayak.com is a great example of this practice. The website presents two versions of their home page ever y week, determining which version performed better the information is then used to design the next round.If you have scope to try again, making tweaks along the way, youll be more open to finding opportunities for improvement.Be kind but discerning. No one is born with an ability to talk about failure in the moment. Talking about failures in a professionally appropriate way may take practice.Focus on demonstrating compassion, both to yourself and others, in the face of disappointing results, enabling team members to both learn and perform, and communicating with honesty and without shaming.Even if you aim to tolerate and embrace failures, not every mistake is beneficial. Failures arising from lack of attention, insufficient effort, or disregard for the data must be weeded out from the rest, otherwise you run the risk of encouraging poor performance.Figure out three things to take away from every project (and share them). Its easy at the end of a project to rush on to the next thin g, but the seeds of future failures are often sown in this critical wrap-up moment.Carve out time to extract and share actionable lessons. It need not be complicated. Try just three steps to help identify and documentOne thing you did you should not do again in future projectsOne new thing you tried that is worth doing againSomething new you learned about the world that others in your company could use to inform and improve their work.If every employee committed to this single activity, imagine the resulting cumulative learningMany a corporate hero tells a story of failures that paved the way to eventual success. Inspiring as they are, such stories dont tell you how to actually create the conditions for and capture the benefits of productive failures. These six tips will equip you to begin failing better.The best part? You dont need anyones permission or even any extra investment just the sandbox of your own work and the practical methods weve outlined here.Start today and make 201 5 the year in which you, your team, and your company fail better.We then invite you to share your insights by visiting our website at FailBetterbyDesign.comAuthor BiosAnjali Sastry is senior lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management and lecturer in the department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Her research investigates global health delivery and management, applying systems thinking and practical, business-based approaches in low-resource settings.Kara Penn is cofounder and principal consultant at Mission Spark, where she works on the front lines of practical management to implement new approaches in complex settings. She has led award-winning community collaboratives designed, managed and evaluated multi-year social change initiatives and guided more than sity NGOs, social enterprises, corporations and foundations.

Product Planning A Key to Entrepreneurial Success

Product Planning A Key to Entrepreneurial Success Product Planning A Key to Entrepreneurial Success Entrepreneurs strike out on their own for many reasons. Some are realizing their dream of independence at a time in their life where social and/or financial circumstances allow. Others may join the start-up ranks because they are frustrated with their current work situation. In either case, entrepreneurs typically bring to the table what they believe to be a killer product or application and one that will enable them to reap the emotional and financial rewards of commercial success.So Why Do So Many Fail?Entrepreneurs are typically resource-limited and cash-strapped, causing them to cut important corners in product planning and development. While they may be truly gifted product designers, most dont understand or possess the geschftsleben savvy that will translate their idea into commercial success. Most importantly, many times entrepreneurs, driven by pride or ego, dont know when to p ull the plug on a product idea. Even armed with undeniable facts, they feel like they can overcome the obvious negative factors and succeed against all odds.How can they avoid this trap? Long before the engineers open up their favorite design tool, they need to develop a product-planning strategy. Comprehensive product planning is essentialit encompasses market analysis and justification, competitive product analysis, pricing analysis, manufacturability, and ROI. With a thorough and objective analysis in these critical areas, the entrepreneur can develop a value proposition for the new product and decide early on whether the product has a commercial future. If the stars are aligned, then that information will be the crux of the business plan that will gain the attention of investors. If the data just doesnt add up, then they have the information needed to step back and make a no-go decision before a lot of money is poured into a loser.Lets take a closer look at some of the product-p lanning essentials.Market Analysis and JustificationWhat problem does the product solve and how big is the problem? Here, entrepreneurs need to gather information about the kompetenz users of the product and size of the potential market. Does the product replace an existing solution or is it a new way to solve an existing problem? What are the trends in the market? All of these factors need to be carefully analyzed before proceeding to product development.Competitive Product AnalysisIf there truly is a perceived need for the product in identified markets, the next step is to develop a competitive product analysis that will provide the data necessary to pinpoint competitive marketing positioning and create a value proposition for the product. Here, its necessary to drill down into competitive product specifications and compare them to the new product, identify key points of differentiation, and analyze the value of the competitive points to the user.Pricing AnalysisThe next step is t o understand the value to the end users of the new or differentiated competitive product features. How much will they be willing to pay for these perceived benefits? What price will the market bear? Can a definitive ROI be quantitated for the end user?Manufacturing AnalysisAt this stage, the entrepreneur has established the market need, perceived value, and market price for the product. Now it is critical to determine how much it will cost to design, manufacture, and distribute the product can the product be manufactured and sold at the anticipated market price for the expected profit? And at what quantities?Making the Go/No-Go DecisionBy now, the entrepreneur has the information necessary to determine whether the product can be a viable commercial success. And if the answer is yes, a firm value proposition is in hand, which will be the foundation for a strong business strategy and execution plan. If value proposition is weak, than the entrepreneur can stop the effort and save a lot of money and agony moving forward before any further investment in resources, materials, and time are made.While there are many more factors to address in launching a commercially successful product, initial and comprehensive product planning is critical to success.Tom Ricci is the owner of Ricci Communications.Comprehensive product planning is essentialit encompasses market analysis and justification, competitive product analysis, pricing analysis, manufacturability, and ROI.

Autonomous Vehicles with Depth Perception, Part 2

Autonomous Vehicles with Depth Perception, Part 2 Autonomous Vehicles with Depth Perception, Part 2 Autonomous Vehicles with Depth Perception, Part 2In Part 1, researchers were able to develop a 4D camera that will give self-driving cars the panoramic vision so critically needed for smooth and safe driving. Here they innovate the solution to an even more challenging problem depth perception.To add depth perception and refocusing capabilities, researchers used a technology called light field photography, which had been previously developed at Stanford. The technique captures the two-axis direction of the light hitting the lens and combines it with the 2D image to give depth to the image.138-degree light field panoramas (top) and a depth estimate of the second panorama (bottom). renommee Stanford Computational Imaging Lab/UCSD Photonic Systems Integration LaboratoryOne of the things you realize when you work with an omnidirectional camera is that its impossible to focus in every direct ion at once. Something is always close to the camera, while other things are far away, University of San Diego electrical engineering professor Joseph Ford says. Light field imaging allows the captured video to be refocused during replay, as well as single-aperture depth mapping of the scene. behauptung capabilities open up all kinds of applications in VR and robotics.Inside the camera is a set of lenslet arrays. Each of these has hundreds of thousands of micro-scale lenses, and together they transform the main, spherical lens into a light-field camera, says Donald Dansereau, a Stanford University postdoctoral fellow in electrical engineering.The 4D camera is good at improving close-up images, he adds.Something like a compound eye, this kind of camera understands light in terms of directionlike a normal camerabut also position, where the rays are in space, he says. With many different perspectives on the 3D world, this camera inherently captures 3D shape and higher-order effects lik e transparent and reflective surfaces.These capabilities help robots navigate across landscapes semi-obscured by rain, snow, or fog and through crowded areas. Needless to say, thats a boon to self-driving vehicles driving around pedestrians and other cars while on a snowy day, Wetstein says.This could enable various types of artificially intelligent technology to understand how far away objects are, whether theyre moving and what theyre made of, he adds.The camera is now at the proof-of-concept stage and researchers have plans to create two compact prototypes to test on a robot, Dansereau says.One of these is for panoramic capture, much like the first prototype, he adds. The second camera has disconnected fields of view and is designed as a low-cost method to track a robots motion in a broad range of conditions.Future autonomous vehicle passengers are likely thanking the researchers in advance.Jean Thilmany is an independent writer. For Further Discussion One of the things you reali ze when you work with an omnidirectional camera is that its impossible to focus in every direction at once.Prof. Joseph Ford, University of San Diego