Google wave and lessons in product management

Keep it simple stupid!

Although I wasn't lucky to be invited to evaluate the google wave but what followed on the Internet was more than enough to get at least introduced to. Upon getting introduced to various functionalities and capabilities, I was sure that Google is entering into the PLM world unknowingly but little later I realized that it was actually to compete the one and only one facebook.

Google is one such admired company that doesn't need to spend a penny on marketing. The whole world is ready to do for them for free. Even then the wave stopped!!! 

There are invaluable lessons for strategic product management here.

1. Keep it simple stupid: Google search engine, gmail, gtalk were the cleanest software products available! Why this step child treatment for the Wave? The interface was horribly complex. Although the idea to start with had a merit; when we communicate, we don't pause for the other people, many people in a discussion talk simultaneously talk but then does it qualify to a useful discussion? In the wave you can be bombarded with sudden messages amounting to various points of views. Humans beings have some limitations at least. Wave certainly is better for a brain-storming session but it needs to be more organized. It surely has the potential to replace e-mail, document sharing and collaboration.
2. Facebook is the leader in the social networking. You cannot outpace the leader in whatever he does unless he is recklessly poor in his business model and segmentation reach. Brand wars are never won so easily. Before google was born there was yahoo; yahoo was into search as well as content providing business. Google didn't enter into information providing, instead they created a different market of search altogether. Now who knows yahoo search? Google is verb and an adjective now. Microsoft didn't outpace IBM by providing better and faster mainframes, instead they created a revolution of PCs. On the other hand Flipkart simply concentrated on the market segment left by Amazon. In the same way, if the google had to use Wave, enterprise wide applications could have been the target instead of facebook. Current document management systems, PLMs, ERPs are too poor and inefficient. Google could easily penetrate the market and mop up the market share. But directly hitting the king in his arena is a tough nut to crack.
3. Google has too many products to offer. People are confused about what to see and what not to! This is like the case of  "Consumer Revolt" in the case of many brand/category extensions. (Seriously what is the difference between buzz & wave?)

I strongly believe that Google Wave would have been a huge success had it positioned itself as a B2B document management application. Wave could have swept the whole document management on the cloud market share because of the brand name. We have so many certified SAP consultants; such a move might have change the course of history. (Interestingly this is what Volvo did in India; India is a huge market for Buses and Tata is the king. Indian consumers are price sensitive, thus no operator would anyway test the market with a costly vehicle. Volvo didn't compete directly in that segment, instead they competed in long distance travel where luxury does have a meaning. They also positioned their brand as 'Safe' with the help of Volvo driving schools. Rest is history; I don't wonder when people say, "I don't want Luxury ticket, give me Volvo ticket. This is the Brand at work.)

So what do I conclude today?
If the competition is high, a new product should either create a new market for itself of it should concentrate on the unattended segments to start with, otherwise the demise is inevitable even if little delayed.