Activity one: Research a product
(Carried over from last week.)
Researching a technology product can be daunting, especially if you’re not 100% sure how it works. Today we’ll practice some techniques for learning about corporate ownership and governance, as well as the larger competitive environment in which a product operates.
Questions to ask
- Who owns the technology?
- Is this proprietary technology, or is it open-source?
- If the technology is open-source, how is it governed? How does it propose to sustain itself?
- Is the company publicly or privately owned?
- How large is the company?
- How old is the vendor?
- Where is the vendor located?
- What is the technology’s business model? For example, does the company earn revenue via product sales, via subscriptions, via selling data? Some combination?
- What is the larger category to which the technology belongs? (For example: ERMS, ILS, etc.)
- What is the technology supposed to do?
- Which products are this technology’s competitors?
- How does this product distinguish itself from its competition?
- What is the technology’s market share?
- What factors might influence the technology’s adoption (or lack thereof) going forward?
In the service of…
…these larger questions:
- How is the product likely to evolve?
- How long might you expect the company maintain the product?
- How is the company’s ownership or governance likely to affect the future of this technology?
- For which kind of institution might this technology be suitable?