Up Close and Personal #3
Reading: 4 minsThe third in a series of profiles of the Motionlab team
David Maly - Product Owner
Tell me a little about your personal history and background.
DM - After high school I was teaching programming for 4 years and in the meantime I was studying for an engineering degree. I was also one of founders of Xamarin Developers Group Czech and one of the organizers of the DotnetDays CZ conference. I've also worked as administrator on the Czech website for ECDL.
After I finished teaching, I got a job at Certicon and one of their big clients I worked with was Medtronic who do a lot of medical technology including cardio stimulators and pacemakers which is what I was focussed on and especially the monitoring of pacemakers in your home.
It was very interesting – a mix of technology and medicine and this product was really saving lives and making a difference to the world.
And you would discover strange things like the product wouldn't work well in large parts of rural North America because they didn't have good enough internet coverage there. It changed my view of the standard of living in some parts of USA.
The problem with the job was that because of the medical and safety issues, you had to pass multiple tests to go through each stage and this took ages, up to one or two years. It had to be done but it was to too slow for me and I need a faster tempo of work to be satisfied.
Like a start-up?
DM - Yes! So I was talking to my friend Vojta who was working at Motionlab and I mentioned I was looking for a change and he told me about the company and it sounded interesting, so I joined. And yes, it's much faster and more dynamic.
And one thing that people who are not developers should know is that programming and developing is creative work. It's based on analytical thinking that's true, but the basis of this work is creativity. You have to be creative to solve problems which you've never faced before.
In some companies, you get your task description in such great detail that you are just basically translating words into some programming language, but it's not creative and that is not motivating for me.
And so without getting too technical, what is it you do at Motionlab?
DM - My job title is product owner. I get inputs from everybody around me, like the developers or management team or from customers and users of the product and then my job is to prioritise these inputs and find a way how to make these ideas become reality.
Sometimes it is difficult, because I have to focus on the work which will help us move forward the most, but it’s not always clear what that is at the time. Or sometimes it's an entirely new problem to everyone, and I am sailing on uncharted waters. There are many things I don’t know, and I’m still learning but it's an interesting journey.
And what are you working on at the moment?
DM - Currently I'm doing research on how to expand our platform with distribution capabilities like sending personalized emails, or sms. For me the interesting part is, I’m now doing business research as well as technical research. When I was a programmer, I mostly looked at technical requirements – like how to connect things so they can work. Now I’m also trying to find a way which will be optimal in terms of cost, commitment, trust and even more importantly how it will solve the problems of our customers. Another difference is that I’m talking with other companies to find the best solution, even if it needs to be something customized, or completely new.
What are the common issues you are getting from customers?
DM - There is sometimes a misunderstanding of what we are doing. Some people think we are an agency who will just shoot their idea to make a video and do the post-production. Or they don't understand the level of technology and professionalism we are offering. We had one meeting where this guy just wanted us to add voice-over to his MP4 video, and that was all. And that's not exactly what we do.
How do you see the future of video personalization right now?
DM - I think the future is the full personalization experience. That will start at the point of data selection and be continuous via different channels directly to the user. Currently we are focusing on the video part, which is something we can do very well, but I think video is just one part of the communication with the user. I think the key is to create fully personalized communication where every piece fits perfectly and creates the strongest connection between the customer and the brand.
Also, I think another issue is when a company has your data and knows what you like or what you want to buy but still tries to give you information which you don't want. So I don't I think that there's true personalization. It's bad because they're just using your information to push products on you and the message is not relevant.
Maybe one solution is that our product could have wider functionality and can provide a better ability to create a fully personalized experience, like a whole package – using relevant data to help companies to create strong connections with their customers. That would be smart personalization.
A video may cost a little more than sending an email but ultimately, it's not about the prices, it's about the impact it creates and how much it connects the customer to you. It's not just about buying a product and then another one. It's about liking that brand. The reason why you are doing it is creating a relationship and an experience, not just being some selling channel. That's the potential of personalization and personalized video.
I saw that Airbank has a very interesting marketing campaign - when you buy a beer and they see it on your credit card or whatever they will give you back some money. It's like they are inviting you for a drink. At first sight there is no reason why they should do that, but it's just a small part of creating a great customer experience. Everyone's spending more and more time online, you know, and everyone is trying to hit you to buy online and this is something a bit different – "Hi, I don't want to bother you and I'm not selling anything, but here is something just for you". If the content is relevant to you, then you want to see it, - that’s the whole point of personalization for me.
What are your views on collecting personal data?
DM - I think it's a bit of a grey zone. Because companies have been collecting your data for a long time, but you couldn't see they were using it, and you didn't know the data was being used. And that was the problem. I think now it's changing and people are more aware of it. But it's down to how the data is used. If it helps people, they like it; if it doesn't then they aren't happy about it. So companies have to make sure it does help people. If they annoy people they will break the trust connection and they won't be a customer any more.
People are mostly overwhelmed by too much uninteresting information. There's just too much and you don't want to see it or have it in your life. So I think people want a solution where they only get the information which they are interested in. One of the ways it can be done, is through personalization but there are also others like segmentation.
How has the last 2 years been for you in the Covid era? What have you learnt about life?
DM - Well, personally I don't think it was very different from the previous era because I was always somebody who enjoyed nature around me, especially in mountains every weekend and I don't need to go to the pub most times. When they said you can't go to the pub I was like "OK... no problem". <laughs>
But the thing I noticed with Covid is that if someone catches it from you it's your fault, you are the problem. I've never caught it but I noticed it in people around me... there was always someone to blame. It created a toxic, paranoid environment and I think that's a shame.
I guess people were hoping that 2022 would be better than the last two years but...
DM - Yeah, now we have the Ukraine crisis so I don't know. I think the vaccinations are working and it seems like we are learning to live with Covid. It was here and it will be here and we just have to learn to live with it.
Danny Holman, Motionlab