Recap from Product Camp Boston

With some randomness and last minute luck, I made it out to Product Camp Boston on Feb 28.  The gracious hosts at the Microsoft Research Labs gave us this amazing venue for Boston Product Management professionals to learn, to teach, to network and just simply enjoy each other’s company.  Check out the Flickr group to see pictures.
The organizers led by  C Todd Lombardo did an amazing job with the event and I am grateful for all their hard work. I figured I should note down the books, tools and links that were flying around during the event for posterity sake.

Tools and Web Sites Mentioned

Over the web usability testing tool : Userfly

I recommended this web based usability testing tool to a few people citing the virtues : a) easy to set up, b) cheap and c) convenient for remote users. I think the easiest way to see how Userfly works is playing with the demo they put up.Check out their site

Product Innovation Through Playing Games : InnovationGames

This site was recommended by the session leader of  Product Innovation Session. It appears to be a  collection of interactive techniques/games you play to ultimately define your product’s future vision.  The site and concept are based off of the book with the same name.

Book Recommendations

Bob Levy who led the session Requirements Management Best Practices recommended these two books for building relationships among different teams.
In my User Experience Session, folks were asking what books they should read to get the basics of User Interface Design and I recommended Steve Krug’s book : Don’t Make Me Think.

Dont Make Me Think book cover

Here are a few more books you can read if you are completely new to this subject and you’d like to get more into it.

  • If you really want to get into the details, try About Face 3.

About Face Cover

At the Innovation session, I mentioned this awesome little book called Why Not? by Barry Nalebuff and Ian Ayres. (Side note: these guys are  the guiding forces behind Stickk, another one of my favorite sites.)

If you were at ProductCamp Boston and have anything to add, please let me know in the comments!

| March 11th, 2009 | Posted in General, Technology, Tool, UI |

One Response to “Recap from Product Camp Boston”

  1. Chuck Anastasia Says:
    March 12th, 2009 at 9:34 pm

    Thanks Aye, Great references. PCamp was a fun and productive day!

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