The Umbraco “elevator speech”

MIsc
13 Core/mvp people met at a country house in Denmark prior to CodeGarden 08 to discuss "What is umbraco". We used the format "Open Space Technology" and these are the minutes from the different sessions.

Chapters

• Chapter 1: What Needs Doing that Isn’t Being Done?(or, how you can help the umbraco project)
• Chapter 2: The Umbraco “elevator speech”
• Chapter 3: Keeping Tabs On Direction - the balance between community and company
• Chapter 4: Improving documentation from the point of a new user/developer/architect
• Chapter 5: Dividing Umbraco be divided into to separate projects
• Chapter 6: Sharing implementation experiences and discussing how to support web builders even better

The Umbraco “elevator speech”

Ruben Verbough
Tim Geyessen
Per Ploug Hansen
Warren Buckley
Paul Sterling - facilitator

Task: define the 20-second talk that communicates 'what' Umbraco is

• Who is the elevator speech audience?
• More than 1 type
  • Developer
  • CxO
  • Designer
  • Ex-DNN
  • Integrator
  • General technical (technologist)
• BUT - we assume we don't know who our audience is for the purpose of the elevator speech
• The elevator speech is the "pickup line" of marketing
  • Are we doing Umbraco marketing?
• "What" is Umbraco?
  • Technical: web development framework optimized for web content management
  • Simple: content management "tool"
• We need to avoid BUZZWORDS and METAPHORS since they have different contextual meaning to different people
• We should emphasize the SOFT values of Umbraco
  • Example: how does Ford explain car engines to customers?
    • Use ACTION words that have EMOTION
  • Umbraco soft words:
    • Simple
    • Easy
    • Speeds up development
    • Free!
    • Transforms\glue
    • Bridge
    • Clay
    • Common tool
    • Advanced
    • Complete system
• We should ask: What problems does Umbraco solve?
  • How to build a web application?
  • How to manage a web application?
  • How to design a web application?
  • How to update/revise a web application?
• What does Umbraco do?
  • Makes it easy to do things that would otherwise be difficult
  • Let's you create a website even if you don't know how
  • Runs your website
  • Maintains your website
  • Makes the bridge between website developers, designers, administrators, and content creators
  • Allows content creators to have ownership of their content/data
  • Creates web applications
  • Allows all people involved in a web application to use the same tool
  • Allows project members to be unconcerned about things not related to their tasks
  • Gives a clear view of what needs to be done
  • Once a web application is complete it provides an easy way to manage the app for the next 5-years
• Umbraco can be what you want it to be - but that's not all it is
• Transforms into whatever you want it to be
• Creates
  • Product database
  • Contact list
  • …whatever you want…
• Its FREE
• Umbraco's platform (Microsoft) is not material to this discussion
• If Umbraco was a car, what kind of car would it be?
  • None, best choice is "an orange transformer"
• What IS Umbraco?
  • It's the center of the web development project
  • It's the glue
  • It's nice to work with - the friendly CMS
  • It's not limited
  • It's developer and user friendly
  • The tool that is the foundation to all project phases
    • Design - dev - deploy - manage - revise
  • Flexible website creation tool
• First tries at the elevator speech
  • Umbraco is free orange sticky glue for websites
  • Umbraco is the common tool that let's all people involved in creating and managing web applications easily collaborate and have a clear view of can be and needs to be done