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An interview with a MoodWire CPO about Social Media

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Erick Watson was a manager at Microsoft a number of years ago, and he knows how to guide people to success.  I worked for him for a only a few months, but he did a great job as a manager.  Microsoft has a lot of good managers by the way.

Fortunately we separate our ways before my unique personality was revealed to him.  As a result, he is still talking to me, asking about colleges and so forth.  So without further ado, here is Erick Watson being interviewed by someone at Dataquest.

Source:

Ok, the truth and secret

  • Truth: On 6/26/2015, this link takes you to the MoodWire corporation that Erick Watson is CPO
  • Secret: No contrasting secret
  • Truth: MoodWire provides an API that helps keep your websites fresh and up to date. 
  • Secret: I am not certain about that statement, maybe go check it out.
  • Truth: My  blog didn’t work out in time today, and Erick was kind enough to share this fascinating interview with me. 
  • Secret: By the way, all managers are really this good at Microsoft.  Now the guys who work for them, different story…
  • Truth: I often make fun of Social Media
  • Secret: I wish I was more efficient at the use of social media

DataQuest caught up with Moodwire CPO Erick Watson.

DQ: Erick, great to meet up again. Tell us a bit about Moodwire.

EW: Moodwire has seen an incredible evolution over the past year. Its increasingly clear to us that the space we are in is not only burgeoning but that the broad categorization of companies that make “sense” of social will play a bigger role going forward.

DQ: As the Chief Product Officer, what is your specific role?

EW: Well as you know, with lean companies, we all wear many hats but if I had to focus on only one of these aspects, I’d say that my main role is building a product that people care about, will use, and will derive benefit from. There are too many solutions chasing problems, we have a clear problem and are working very hard on a practical solution; this very thing makes working at Moodwire a ton of fun, despite the challenges.

DQ: You have quite a provenance. How did you get to where you are now?

EW: I’m not sure that I am really all successful but the successes I have had relate not only to my desire to truly “get to the bottom” of the problem but also to think about business in an “imaginary” state which is to ask “what could be?” I learned that big-thinking in my ten years at Microsoft and continue to refine, perfect, and learn. Being both an entrepreneur and an intrapreneur now comes much more naturally to me.

DQ: People talk about social in two ways- one that elevates it to godlike status and the other that it’s a bunch of hype. Where do you stand?

EW: As you can guess, and this isn’t me being diplomatic, I stand in between. Social media and social expression comprise a set of channels that are very popular with some and quite irrelevant to others. The community that uses it, uses it very effectively and to the extent that this community has influence, companies like Moodwire are important. So I’m not overly-emotional about it – it is what it is.

DQ: Tell us a bit more about what you see on the horizon in terms of the business of technology.

EW: I think we see a few trends that are clear. I won’t repeat the obvious ones about Cloud, Mobility, and Social etc. I think we see both a massive rise in the ‘desire’ for automation but also in the use of technology to make human lives better. These can be seen as either complementary or as orthogonal. Second, I see a massive-though-silent rise in hardcore B to B, Enterprise to Enterprise technology. These companies get less press but they run the organizations of today and tomorrow.

DQ: Any parting thoughts?

EW: Looking forward to a trip to India soon to meet up with fellow technology marketers and product folks and to consider some investments. I hope to see you there!

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    • Copyright note:
    • Interview used with permission of Erick Watson. If the interviewer recognizes the copy and it is under copyright, let me know, Erick indicated that I could use this for my blog.