@ Bay Area Video Coalition – Product Development for Creatives & Entrepreneurs

The Bay Area Video Coalition offers classes and workshop space to creatives in digital media and entertainment. At this event, ‘High Tech Product Development for the Non-Engineer’ we looked at key skills, tools, and approaches for the freelancer, creative, or manager who wants to expand their capabilities in product development. For an example, I used the (synthetic) company ‘Pheasant’ which is doing an app for families.

About the Talk

As applications become easier to build and distribute, the roles of non-technical domain experts become increasingly important.

If you’re a freelancer, this talk will provide you tools to pry open the big picture and increase your value to clients.

If you’re a product manager, project manager, salesperson, marketer, designer or other ‘non-technical’ contributor, this is a chance to make yourself more effective in a technology-driven organization.

You’ll learn how to:
– Avoid the most common disconnects between engineers and businesspeople
– Package and present your ideas to a technical team so they’re implementation ready
– Understand key concepts around modern software design, architecture and development
– Identify and organize around key roles and responsibilities in a technical team
– Evaluate technical hires, contractors, and partners
– Participate as the product owner/voice of the customer in an agile development program

Alex Cowan is the Author of Starting a Tech Business and CTO of Leonid Systems.