Disqus - Latest Comments for michaelvaliant

Re: Changes on downtown menu | Barrie Examiner

Michael Valiant — Sat, 28 Mar 2015 20:49:39 -0000

Don't forget Boon Burger Cafe! Barrie's premiere healthy fast food restaurant on Dunlop East! We've only been open 7 months now and have tried to bring something fresh (and delicious) to the heart of Barrie!

Re: Chronic Back Pain and The Writing Life: A Few Remedies

Michael Valiant — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 13:17:01 -0000

As a teenager I suffered through a pretty bad crash that led to years of rehabilitation for chronic lower back pain, rehabilitation that included taking up yoga.

20+ years later, as a practicing writer and recovering-coporate-drone I found myself dealing with a return to chronic back pain caused, at least primarily, by: too much time at a keyboard.

Rediscovering yoga has completely taken care of all hip, neck and shoulder issues. A real lifesaver.

Re: http://newstrategist.ca/post/15946729599

Michael Valiant — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:17:47 -0000

I understand your point, and market confusion is rarely the right move, but...

I think renaming the cup sizes is a great idea. Tim's first mistake was in reducing the sizes of the cups so greatly over time that their 'large' is now the same size that their 'medium' used to be, 10 years ago.

I'm not a daily Tim's addict, I'm an occasional drinker, and I have hated the fact that Tim's cup sizes are 'off' for a long time now.

The average consumer has a general expectation when they stop by any drive through window and order a coffee - the sizes may not be exactly standardized, but if you order a Large, or a Medium, you have a general expectation on the size of cup that's going to be handed back to you through the window. Tim Hortons sizes are about 25% smaller than that - in fact, the last time I ordered a small coffee I actually snorted in laughter when I saw the cup "I didn't know Tim's served espresso shots!"

I'm sure that's all fine for a daily drinker, you know you need to order an extra large to get a decent cup of Joe. But for an occasional drinker who tends to order the same size everywhere, you will be disappointed with what comes back out the window at Tim's :)

This move may cause some confusion with regular Tim's drinkers (you know, 40% of Canada) but let's face it... you are addicted and this move isn't going to change your morning ritual.

For the rest of us, let's call this a right-sizing move by Tim's.

Re: Update! New Best Practices for ALL Online Marketers. YOU MUST READ NOW!

Michael Valiant — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:04:03 -0000

I asked PowerPay about this and here is the answer:

PowerPay has proactively created this as a 'Best Practices Guide' in anticipation of new rules to be handed down from Visa/MasterCard this year (possibly as soon as April).

We have corroborated with other Merchant Account Providers that a push has come from Visa/MC aimed at the acquirer level... PowerPay just seems to be the most proactive company so far.

Re: Update! New Best Practices for ALL Online Marketers. YOU MUST READ NOW!

Michael Valiant — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 10:42:47 -0000

Hi Everyone!

I just got off the phone with a group from PowerPay, including their Compliance Officer, and wanted to clear a few things up for everyone who received an email like the one above this week.

First, the above document seems to be PowerPay’s efforts to try and create a Best Practices guide for online marketing - and I agree with many of the comments here that they've done a good job so far.
It is true that some of the language is still a little unpolished potentially and I want to help clear up some of the common concern points if I can:

- Upsells are fine, as long as there is nothing sneaky going on. Make an offer, tell the customer what the terms and price are, and give them the choice to accept or decline the offer.

- Selling a recurring product, like a membership or coaching service, as an upsell is perfectly fine! The key point of contention (and this is the impetus behind many of the points in the PowerPay document apparently) are the business practices and intentions driving the upsell implementation – specifically here, poor disclosure and hidden upsells. So offering a recurring product as an upsell is fine, if you tell the customer what you are offering, what the terms are, and give them the opportunity to either accept or decline the offer.

- 1ShoppingCart’s Upsell Express feature (a post-sale upsell tool) is fully compliant. (disclosure: I am a product manager for 1Shoppingcart; I mention this point specifically because there are several comments asking whether this tool is a problem: it’s not!)

- “Don’t charge twice in 30 days” – Interpretation: Don’t offer a two week ‘free trial’ for a monthly recurring product only to charge the whole price on day 14 at the close of the free trial, then charge the full price again two weeks later at the commencement of the second month (hence, no real free trial)

I don’t want to write a whole new blog post in the comments here (too late?), but this covers some of the big questions.

If I can help with more answers, we are in communication with PowerPay and I’m certainly willing to try and clear the air for all of us; either here (if it’s okay with Ryan) or on Twitter (find me at @1SC or @michaelvaliant).

In the meantime, take the PowerPay guide for what it is - a guide to try and help merchants do eCommerce better - and know that the goal should be open and honest – read: full disclosure – eCommerce.

Hope this helps!

Re: Update! New Best Practices for ALL Online Marketers. YOU MUST READ NOW!

Michael Valiant — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:05:27 -0000

Ben, no, Upsell Express requires the customer to agree to the upsell offer, there is nothing hidden about it.

But there may be some implementation concerns - like not being able to sell recurring products from the upsell (one of the rules above I don't understand) - most of which are not exclusive to Upsell Express and would be equally valid concerns for your website itself - like ensuring the Final Price is displayed close to the offer buttons.

We have a meeting with PowerPay to go over the finer details on Friday and I'll make sure to come back and try and keep the community as up to date as I can.

1ShoppingCart
twitter.com/1SC

Re: Update! New Best Practices for ALL Online Marketers. YOU MUST READ NOW!

Michael Valiant — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:59:41 -0000

Ryan - Glad to see someone posted these rules for the community - And kudos to this community for all of the great feedback!

David - We don't see Upsell Express as being a violation to the rules in this post. The quick answer I received was, it was the upsell itself, not the use of upsell express that was the problem. I have a call Friday morning to open up a discussion with PowerPay, find out more information and to try figure out for everyone what these rules are going to mean moving forward.

Michael Valiant
1ShoppingCart
twitter.com/1SC

Re: Review - 1 Shopping Cart

Michael Valiant — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 11:48:53 -0000

Mike, what a great summary, thanks!

I'm especially happy to hear you've had some success with the new Upsell Express module!

If you ever have any questions, look us up on Twitter: twitter.com/1SC

Re: More Strategy Wisdom from McKinsey

Michael Valiant — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:26:27 -0000

I don't think uncertainties make it difficult to do strategy... you have to walk in the light you have or you'll never get anywhere. Uncertainties simply force you to nimble and not take the strategy for more than it is.

As for luck, I've always believed that "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity"

I don't think what happened to Clear is either Lucky or Unlucky... Unless you want to look at it as "it's quite unlucky that Clear didn't have a Product Manager who could see the product from the users POV or steer the product when the circumstances/opportunities changed."

Re: Community Manager

Michael Valiant — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:40:20 -0000

Someone just asked me (via twitter) what tool I used to create the mindmap.

I use a few different tools for visualizations, but often return to FreeMind, a great and free tool that is simple (and fast!) to use and exports into several formats.

You can find FreeMind here:

http://freemind.sourceforge...

Re: Ecommerce Tracking through 1ShoppingCart’s Google Analytics integration

Michael Valiant — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:38:36 -0000

Sorry Donovan, I didn't see this comment when you posted it...

Thanks for sharing, and excellent point regarding a digital download process.

You may run into the same problem using PayPal too (inaccurate numbers), as many PayPal customers leave the process once PayPal confirms the purchase and don't click through all the way to the thank you page.

Re: OMG! Off to SF for OMW!

Michael Valiant — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:33:56 -0000

Alline,

Thanks for the great tip! I missed it unfortuantely because I flew back on Friday afternoon, but I'll make sure to hit it next time I'm in town (my wife has made me promise to take her back soon!)

We love Farmer's Markets, so it will be a must stop!

I loved SF, we had a great time and enjoyed a lot of great food (esp. sushi!)

Michael

Re: 30 Day Challenge Update & Musings

Michael Valiant — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:11:53 -0000

Hi Susan,

Actually, this was from 2007. I've been so busy this year, I haven't been able to keep up with the 2008 challenge.

I'm not sure why there are no dates on some of these older posts... I'll have a look and see if I can figure it out... :(

Thanks for visiting!

Michael

Re: If I don’t wave back…

Michael Valiant — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:39:11 -0000

Absolutely! The shower holds strong as my #2 Thinking Spot :)

I used to listen to my iPod on the way home, but my drive is only about 10 minutes. You can't listen to much in 10 minutes, but it's amazing how many great thoughts can bubble up in that time!

Re: Why Product Management Is Easy

Michael Valiant — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:40:37 -0000

What a great conversation!

Funny, it was kind of like reading a biography ("my life in PM")

I kept finding myself nodding my head in a "yup, I've had to deal with that too" kind of way

Re: Why Product Management Is Easy

Michael Valiant — Thu, 01 May 2008 00:09:20 -0000

Nice Post Adam. I love product management and would have to say the job is a lot more gratifying than it is 'hard'.

The biggest problem I had when I started out was learning to let go and delegate more... Once you get that down, everything else just sort of falls into place. Think big, and ask for help...

Also, I follow the same Twitter Product Management conversations :) so you're not the only nerd out there. If you haven't already, try Summize, it's a real-time twitter search tool and lets you see actual conversations (if they exist) instead of individual tweets:

http://summize.com/search?q...

Michael Valiant