[Posted by Shar VanBoskirk]

In this morning's opening remarks and keynote sessions, Olli-Pekka Kallasvio introduced the theme for Nokia World and the primary driver of Nokia's:  To translate the internet into *your* internet.  This means not only enabling customization of sites or content, but of course literally getting any information *you* need to live your life directly into your pocket.

Phrased differently, Nokia wants to put in your hand the power to be more in tune to the world around you.

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been involved in several conversations with a common theme: What's a product?

While that might seem like a profoundly dumb question, it's not. The definition of "product" can be pretty elusive, and not just in the technology industry. Do you define a product as a clearly identifiable thingamabob that vendors sell, such as cars and ERP systems? Or are customers the real measure of products, based on the business problems that the product is supposed to solve?

While I'm sympathetic with the intent behind the customer-based definition, I think it's better to choose the vendor-based one. Customers have business problems that require solutions, which include one or more products. (Usually more than one, in the tech biz.) Vendors may be very good at providing one of the solution components, but they often run into trouble trying to do everything, even for clearly identifiable business imperatives like "keep us from getting sued for non-compliance."

In these economic times, it's best to stay close to the people in companies that buy things -- the sourcing and vendor management (SVM) professionals. At Forrester's sourcing Forum in Florida this week I hosted a dinner for ten vendor management executives and four vendor reps.

This group was fascinating. They are experts in purchasing, evaluating vendors, arranging sourcing agreements, pricing, and negotiation -- the front lines of their company's operational and capital expenditures. The role is still in its infancy -- some are still tough purchasing agents while others have graduated to a more complex model of "diplomacy" -- seeing all of the interests around the table and working to arrive at a solution that helps everyone succeed.

Over dinner the executives worked on a simple question: "What are sourcing and vendor management best practices in a recession?" So if you've ever wondered how the screws will be tightened, here's a peek under the tent:

In my last post as a product manager, sales training did not top my list of favorite things to do. The problem wasn't the sales team, which was composed of bright, motivated people, with a genuine interest in what was coming next from the development team. Instead, the problem was with the format of sales training.

Who looks forward to three days of non-stop PowerPoint? Not me, and certainly not the audience. We had to come up with a better approach, particularly as the company expanded into new technology areas, such as records management and scanning. Therefore, we experimented with a few new ideas. Some worked, others didn't.

One of the moderately successful experiments started with the assertion, "Scanning isn't as complicated as people think it is. I bet that I could put a bag on my head, pretend to be the most stupid end user imaginable, and I could still understand scanning. Someone just needs to explain the basics in the most practical terms imaginable."

And here's the result:

By Gil Yehuda
Those who drink the Web 2.0 Kool-aid live in a idealistic world where we can mentally connect a great idea to a great implementation of that idea. We live on faith that the great implementation will come, since there are plenty of smart people out there who will eventually figure out how to make value out of technology building blocks. Sometimes our faith is tested when the killer-app does not show up for a long time. But evidence can restore our faith.