Oliver Zachau - Personal Blog

Apple M1 Chip

So here it is, after the announcement earlier this year from Apple to shift away from Intel towards Apple Silicon. Three events in a single year, from upgrades to iPad, iWatch, new services, and now the new MacBooks and Mac Mini! While companies like Intel are struggling to keep pace,

crowdsourcing

Indiegogo / Kickstarter

I am a massive fan of those platforms, while I admire crowd financing in general. What those two platforms have created is so much more. It is a product management heaven. It takes out some of the broader issues during product cycles. You can test the demand for your idea,

email

Transactional Data From E-Mails

Checking my own Amazon order mails, I figured that many of them are lacking the purchased products. This made me wonder, from an e-commerce perspective, I would want them included. It gives transparency to the customers and is generally considered good practice. Some sources claimed how this might be related

"Flaschenpost" deal with Oetker

The leading delivery service in Germany for mostly beverages will change ownership and become part of the Oetker group. Oetker on the other hand, owner of the largest brewery group Radeberger had to acknowledge that their clone "Durstexpress" may not take over the leadership anytime soon. With an estimated price

gaming

Gaming PC as a Subscription

When you have a hammer, everything becomes a nail. During my time selling pc components and systems, this idea floated around for years, creating a tiered subscription model for pc hardware. You would get updates according to your tier based on a pre-defined upgrade schedule. It has some great benefits,

Tesla

Why many still get Tesla wrong

Every week somewhere, a new skeptic comes out of hiding and sharing their insight into why Tesla is terrible—driven by the large stock value gain over the last year. You hear the same arguments from those "experts": Tesla is worth more than any other car company globally, while they

bias

People don't want more choices. They want to be more comfortable with the choices they make.

Over the last ten years, I tried to convince customers that choice is what they are looking for—offering PC systems tailored to their needs, with configurations sometimes boosting several millions of combinations. But the reality is that most people have been sticking to the default configurations. They changed the

microsoft

Microsoft Edge Adds Price Comparison Functionality

Finding a new solution to an existing problem is the life of a business. So Microsoft is adding a price comparison functionality. Starting to compete in the market as Idealo, Google Shopping, and PayPal's acquisition of Honey. After switching out the rendering engine in Edge with chromium, Microsoft focused on

IFTTT - A Clever Way To Figure Out Price Elasticity

For many companies that start out as a free model. The moment you start to look for monetizing options is hard. Not only is the selection of the right model troublesome, you also need to find the right balance. Push too hard and even your loyal customers run away, aim

gaming

The Gaming Market Disruption

When a year ago, Stadia entered the market. Many thought this would be the end of traditional Gaming PCs. Today with COVID and other effects, we have seen this is not the case. But when we acknowledge that people are generally bad at predicting how long something takes. We are

e-commerce

Why E-Commerce Companies Need Many Income Streams

You buy products, you sell them. Based on the effectiveness of your business you make a profit. Easy enough right? For years this basic model has been enough to create billion-dollar businesses around the world. If I want to make it easy for me, I could point to Amazon. With

google

Google Back on Track with Google TV

There are waves when it comes to innovation and products. It is a zig zack between aggregation and individualism. Something that happens across industries. From eBay and Amazon gathering sellers and aggregate them. To Shopify, which initially was based on creating individual solutions and are now on its way back

EPIC

Update on the EPIC vs Apple Dispute

While EPIC was able to get the attention of its Fortnite community and some free rider. The judge seems less impressed with the performance of EPIC in court so far. Here are the important parts: Judge Rogers questioned Epic on when, exactly Apple became a monopoly given that its App

How the Smart TV invades your privacy

Linear TV is getting a beat down for years, revenue is declining, and the usage is going down. Only a few big cows fill in gaps that don't care too much about ROI on their ads. With second screen usage going up, more and more longstanding industry elements are on

Why is 5G a Game Changer?

Advancements in the underlying technology standard for cellular networks is going on for years. But 5G is, in many regards, different, as it seems to power the entire next generation. A Brief History 1991 - 2G SMS, E-Mail, and internet text become available. 1998 - 3G Apps, Websites, Videos, Pictures

Amazon Entering Cloud Gaming

LUNA is Amazon's latest entry to the already crowded cloud gaming market. From a positioning point of view, it is between GeForce Now and Stadia. You will not be able to stream games that you already own, but there will be many channels. Which means it isn't precisely like Stadia

acquisition

Microsoft Acquires Bethesda

Right before the release of Microsoft's next-generation gaming console with $7.5 billion in cash. With the next-generation consoles from Sony and Microsoft around the corner. And the PC market-dominant in the high-end segment, the war for content is on. Nintendo did such a great job of having its core

strategy

Porter's 5 Forces

Identifying the forces that shape the competitive landscape is a fundamental task for companies. But not only there, in interviews for product managers, competitors also play a role. With Porter's 5 forces it is possible to have a structural first approach. While Porter is offering a good starting point, in

design thinking

Design Thinking and Deep Experience

When talking about innovation, design thinking as a framework comes up. Being a valuable tool in every product manager's arsenal. One part of what makes design thinking so appealing is the rapid creation and valuation of ideas. As a job requirement for many product manager positions, it often conflicts with

apple

Apple Fitness+ Innovation

We got reminded yesterday how innovation can kill your business model overnight. With Fitness+ the business models of Peloton, VAHA, freeletics, and MIRROR are on the line. Peloton stock dropped from $88.43 immediately to $83.93 Fitness+ looks like such a better value for customers doing fitness. For those

arm

SoftBank set to sell UK’s Arm Holdings to Nvidia for $40bn

Looks like we are getting closer to what many, including me, thought wouldn't be happening. Nvidia is looking to buy Arm from SoftBank. A deal that made sense in many ways, but was problematic due to the nature of the ARM business. With many companies licensing ARM including Apple and

product-management

E-Mail Registrations

For the longest time we asked customers for there e-mail. The assumption was that by having a form of contact we could improve metrics. Asking people to return, sending out personalized recommendations, or security reasons. But not in every case is asking for e-mails or even creating accounts necessary. We

Education

Online Education

With COVID-19 causing issues left and right, the educational sector is also affected. What we have seen in the last couple of months is a push toward online education. And while this hasn't worked out everywhere to the same degree. I am sure we can agree on the general idea.

Web By Google

More and more parts of the web become dominated by Google. Looking into Browsers"Mozilla and Google have extended their current search deal for another three years, multiple sources have told ZDNet." "The new search deal will ensure Google remains the default search engine provider inside the Firefox browser until

product-management

End to End Ownership

Product managers are responsible for maximizing the value the product creates. We even generate product teams now and give them end-to-end ownership, including P&L. Taking ownership and feeling responsible for something is for me tightly connected. As such, I was always wondering about this specific point. During my