Hello Everyone,

So with several milestone events behind us this year – what lies ahead for Alberta’s Innovation Community?  Well happy to see that it is the Impact of these events!

With over 10,000 attendees collectively recently attracted to Alberta’s Advanced Manufacturing, Artificial Intelligence, and Innovation and Investment events – we have seen a lot of press reporting on what is happening in our province.  Betakit is one of the most well-respected national networks – and their recent focus on Alberta, shared by Minister of Technology and Innovation Nate Glubish spells it out nicely:

• Alberta is hitting above it’s weight class nationally in attracting tech investment
• Alberta’s tech sector is benefiting due to the long-term investment in AI
• Outstanding companies are growing across the province, including Benevity (Calgary), Jobber (Edmonton), and more.

 So in addition to ‘cheering on’ the success found in some of Alberta’s star tech companies – what can we learn from them?  Coming from Matrikon (which grew to over 600 people, and is now part of Honeywell), and talking to companies in Silicon Valley, Toronto, and Vancouver – one of the leading practices that Alberta is now starting to adopt – and companies like Benevity and Jobber are championing for Alberta’s tech community – is the Product Management mindset.

Companies-that-scale, sell “products” to customers, not an “invention” or “custom software”.  Custom Software can become Products when there is a lifecycle plan that addresses future trends in markets, in platforms, in usability – and keeps the users and use-cases in mind, insuring a low-cost of ownership, and easy upgrade plans – and thus reduces customer risk. While at Matrikon, our users such as BP, Suncor, Nova Chemicals were excited to hear about our Product Management plans – and provided great input to future features, and we grew our company through inviting our customers to our users groups in Alberta – and then they started selling our other products to each other.  Inclusive product management can create an inclusive (customer) sales team – as well as great products that provide value to companies around the world.

With leading companies such as Google, Amazon, Jobber, Benevity, Matrikon, Microsoft,  all using Product Management – Technology Alberta,  Alberta Innovates, and Tacit Edge have partnered to create a 5 week self-paced on-line cohort Product Management micro-credential course – that can help your company scale with less risk, less waste, and more revenue.  Join us on Thursday June 13 at 12:00 PM for an insightful LinkedIn Live session with David Ferris, Product Manager from Jobber, together with Tacit Edge founders Christa Hill and Renee Matsalla who met on the Product team of Benevity. As part of Technology Alberta’s commitment to Talent, Learning, and Community – we are pleased to support the first 5 course registrations with a “pay-it-forward” match – so that you can bring along a team member or other community participant at no additional cost.

So spread the word Alberta, and lets scale our companies and tech sector together – by learning and applying leading practices.

See you soon everyone!

Gail
Gail J. Powley, P.Eng
President, Technology Alberta