Today I shadowed Neil Lancia, a product manager responsible for the Lenovo App Explorer (can you tell that app is kind of a big deal?). After introducing ourselves, answering some email, and responding to a few forum comments, we headed down to the development lab and the HTC Vive to test out a third-party virtual-reality assistant, which allows users to play their favorite legacy games in VR, even if a VR-specific version has not been made for them. For about 45 minutes, I got to play Bioshock 1 and offer my feedback on the experience so that Lenovo can better inprove their apps for the future. They wanted to get a fresh set of eyes on the game, so that they could see how an example consumer, particularly one who has a ton of gaming experience (me), liked it, and what criticism or praise I could offer it. It was a bit disorienting but they said my feedback was very useful and they appreciated the fact that I was able to offer consistent feedback, since apparently most people just get lost in the game as they play and don’t offer much feedback at all.
In the afternoon, we went to a 12-person “roundtable” meeting with Igor Bergman, and I got to listen to a Q&A session where some product managers and engineers were able to ask him questions. After one of the questions, Igor took the opportunity to casually roast engineers in general, as he pointed out that on one of their recent consumer-directed apps, some engineer had placed a CPU temperature gauge, something about which the average consumer should barely EVER care, on the very front page of the app, instead of something visually appealing to an average consumer. His point was that engineers should not be in charge of marketing and that product owners need to step up and take care of it, but it really resonated with me because I consider myself an engineer with a good understanding of the customer as well.
NOTE: I was able to visit the Industrial Design Lab at the end of the day, and saw a stack of Yoga devices that were made in colors that will never reach the market. It would have made for a very nice picture, so I asked if I could take one, and I was told very decisively “NO”, so I was unfortunately not able to get pictures of specific activities during the day. See above (or below, I’m not sure) for a cool angled picture of the main building I have been in for the last three days.