Interview Archives - Page 3 of 3

Autodesk, Interview, Polls, Subscription

Callan Carpenter interview 5 – the 12 month cycle

By Steve Johnson 24 May 2010, 9:09 am 24 May 2010 itemprop="discussionURL"2

This 5th post concludes the Callan Carpenter interview series. For the record, this interview was done in real time over the phone, with no prior notice of the questions. SJ: The 12-month cycle that you have for most of your software has come under some criticism from all sorts of people, especially me. Once you have your customer base practically all on Subscription, what’s the incentive for the 12-month cycle to persist? CC: In what way have you criticised the 12 month cycle? SJ: In that it damages the product. In that there’s not enough time to release a properly …

Autodesk, Interview, Subscription

Callan Carpenter interview 4 – enhancing the program

By Steve Johnson 22 May 2010, 9:10 am 22 May 2010 itemprop="discussionURL"1

Part 4 of 5 in this series. SJ: There is always the fear that once you have all of your customer base on Subscription, you’re not going to need to offer those benefits any more. Can you assure people that that’s not going to be the case, that you are going to keep being “nice” to your customers? CC: Absolutely. I think my team and I spend as much time and brain energy trying to figure out how to enhance the program as anything else. Our goal is to make Subscription a compelling value proposition; to make it not only …

Autodesk, Interview, Spin, Subscription

Callan Carpenter interview 3 – the cost of complexity

By Steve Johnson 21 May 2010, 8:54 am 21 May 2010 itemprop="discussionURL"2

Part 3 of 5 in this series. SJ: In one of my blog posts, I was pretty cynical about one of the phrases used in the press release: “the streamlining of upgrade pricing based on feedback from customers and resellers”. Was I wrong to be cynical about that? Did your customers really ask for upgrade prices to be increased to some nice round number? CC: What our customers have asked for is simplified purchasing. We have a very complex price book and it leads to thousands of prices items, maybe tens of thousands when you have all the permutations across …

Autodesk, Interview, Subscription

Callan Carpenter interview 2 – upgrades a tiny minority

By Steve Johnson 20 May 2010, 3:36 pm 20 May 2010 itemprop="discussionURL"5

Part 2 of 5 in this series. SJ: Is there anything specific you want to say about what I have written in my blog? CC: There are a number of things we can do to put Subscription questions and Simplified Upgrade Pricing into context. I think the first thing we need to recognise is that there is a very small fraction of our revenue that comes from upgrades at this point in time. For the last 8 years or so, our customers have fairly well self-selected to either prefer to be on Subscription and have the latest version and technology …

Autodesk, Interview, Other Blogs, Subscription

Callan Carpenter interview 1 – Autodesk and social media

By Steve Johnson 19 May 2010, 8:19 pm 19 May 2010 itemprop="discussionURL"0

A couple of weeks ago, Angela Simoes from the Autodesk Corporate PR team invited me to interview Callan Carpenter, Autodesk’s Vice President of Global Subscription and Support. Callan is responsible for the sales, marketing operations and product support associated with Subscription. He is also Vice President in charge of Jim Quanci’s Autodesk Developer Network. This morning, we had a very extensive discussion about Subscription and other topics that I intend to publish in several parts over the next few days. Deelip has already published a Callan interview, but mine is quite different. In this post, I will let Callan introduce …

AutoCAD LT, Autodesk, Development, Interoperability, Interview, Legal, LISP, Other Blogs, Other Products, TrueView

CAD International interview on drcauto and other subjects

By Steve Johnson 1 February 2010, 11:33 pm 1 February 2010 itemprop="discussionURL"1

This morning I spoke with CAD International‘s Nigel Varley. Here is a paraphrased summary of the interview. SJ: When did CAD International buy the drcauto intellectual property rights? NV: About two weeks ago. SJ: You are currently helping drcauto customers with authorisation codes, is that correct? NV: Yes, masses of them. It’s taking up a lot of our peoples’ time. SJ: Are you charging for this service? NV: Not at present. SJ: Do you intend to charge for this service in the future? NV: Maybe. We may need to, both to pay for our time and to recoup our investment. …

AutoCAD, AutoCAD 2010, Autodesk, Interview, Other Sites, Thoughts, Video, Web Stuff

Some thoughts on AutoCAD Exchange

By Steve Johnson 25 March 2009, 8:20 pm 25 March 2009 itemprop="discussionURL"1

I’ve added a link to Autodesk’s new AutoCAD community site, AutoCAD Exchange. As with most things Autodesk, there are pros and cons. Here are my first impressions. I think it looks good in a Vista-black kind of way. I know some of you don’t like the black look in software, but I do. The layout looks a bit cluttered and confused at first, but I’m sure visitors will quickly get used to where to find things. The site appears to be designed around 1024-wide resolution. If you have more than this, as most CAD users do, then there are wide …

AutoCAD 2010, Autodesk, Fun, Interview, Other Blogs, Video

A gaggle of geeks

By Steve Johnson 27 February 2009, 12:38 pm 27 February 2009 itemprop="discussionURL"6

Time to lighten things up a bit, I think. While attending the AutoCAD 2010 product launch in San Francisco on 5 February 2009, I conducted a series of micro-interviews with a collection of AutoCAD bloggers and Autodesk employees. One geek asks 14 other geeks if they are geeks; nothing too serious here. I hope Shaan enjoys my tabloid journalist editing job right at the end. YouTube link. Thanks to all the interviewees: Heidi Hewett, Autodesk blogger Lynn Allen, Autodesk blogger Melanie Perry, blogger Robin Capper, blogger Brian Benton, blogger Todd Shackelford, blogger Jon Page, Autodesk person Matt Stein, Autodesk person …

AutoCAD, Autodesk, Interview, Other Autodesk Products

Autodesk answers – 2 of 4

By Steve Johnson 24 February 2009, 12:03 pm 24 February 2009 itemprop="discussionURL"2

In a comment on the first of these posts, Ralph G raised the possibility that these answers have been edited by marketing people. I have checked with Eric Stover and he assures me these answers come direct from the program managers concerned and are unmassaged by marketers. That ties in with the partial email trail that came with the answers. It also ties in with the impression I have formed recently that Autodesk is starting to open up a bit. That’s a trend I’m happy to encourage. There’s one thing that clinches the marketing-interference matter for me. Despite Eric being …

AutoCAD, Autodesk, Interview

Autodesk answers – 1 of 4

By Steve Johnson 23 February 2009, 10:10 pm 23 February 2009 itemprop="discussionURL"16

At the end of January, I asked for your questions to put to Autodesk product managers. My intention was to pose your questions in a video interview format while attending the AutoCAD 2010 product launch, but for logistical reasons I was unable to make this happen. Autodesk’s Eric Stover kindly arranged for your questions to be answered anyway. The delay in getting these answers back to you is my responsibility, not Autodesk’s. The answers come courtesy of the following product managers: Diane Li – lead manager on AutoCAD; Guillermo Melantoni – 3D and Parametrics expert; Kathy O’Connell – customer requests, …

AutoCAD 2010, Autodesk, Customer Service, Interview, Video

Autodesk not listening? The response, part 2

By Steve Johnson 8 February 2009, 7:06 pm 8 February 2009 itemprop="discussionURL"6

In this second part of the interview, the Autodesk trio continues to respond to the question about listening to customers. YouTube link.

AutoCAD 2010, Autodesk, Customer Service, Interview, Video

Autodesk not listening? The response, part 1.

By Steve Johnson 6 February 2009, 7:04 pm 6 February 2009 itemprop="discussionURL"5

While attending the AutoCAD 2010 launch today, I took the opportunity to interview three Autodesk people: Eric Stover, Jon Page and Shaan Hurley. I raised the issue of Autodesk being seen as not listening to its customers, and was given a very comprehensive response. Here is the first of two parts of that interview. YouTube link. Disclosure: Transport, accommodation and some meals were provided by Autodesk.

AutoCAD, Autodesk, Comments, Development, Interview

(Don’t) Ask Autodesk a question

By Steve Johnson 30 January 2009, 10:19 am 30 January 2009 itemprop="discussionURL"32

If you had a real live Autodesk development person standing in front of you right now (an AutoCAD Product Manager, for example) and were allowed to ask one question, what would it be? Please add a comment here with your question. I would ask that you keep your question civil and reasonably concise (one or two sentences), and bear in mind that the development person in front of you isn’t going to have a useful answer to policy questions about pricing, license agreements, customer service and so on. Other than that, anything goes, so let’s have ’em. I can’t promise …

Autodesk, Interview, Other Blogs, Thoughts, Web Stuff

The John Walker interview, and other observations

By Steve Johnson 4 October 2008, 9:22 pm 4 October 2008 itemprop="discussionURL"1

I have been thoroughly enjoying Kean Walmsley’s interview of Autodesk co-founder John Walker, which he has now finished. Kean’s link to part 4 is currently broken (edit: now fixed) and that broken link has been picked up by others (edit: also fixed in Between The Lines), so here are the correct links: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4. One of the best things about the interview is that it contains some frank criticism of Autodesk (and Microsoft, for that matter). On an Autodesk blog. Think about that. OK, it may be criticism of some stuff that is …

AutoCAD, AutoCAD 2009, Comments, Interview, Navel Gazing, Other Blogs

The Ribbon Man interview – fluff?

By Steve Johnson 13 June 2008, 4:12 pm 13 June 2008 itemprop="discussionURL"0

Looking at the comments, it seems not everyone is happy with the Matt Stein interview. If so, I’m sorry you feel that way about the piece. In my own defence, I would point out the following: I like to think my work at Cadalyst represents a balanced viewpoint. I pride myself on being fair. Whether Autodesk deserves praise or criticism for something, I provide it. But an interview isn’t really the place to do that. An interview is supposed to be an opportunity for the interviewee to say things, not a platform for the interviewer’s opinions. My job as an …

AutoCAD, AutoCAD 2009, Interview

The Ribbon Man interview – part 2

By Steve Johnson 11 June 2008, 9:25 pm 11 June 2008 itemprop="discussionURL"3

The second and final part of my interview of Matt Stein has now been published on the Cadalyst site. There were some other questions I would have liked Matt to answer, but some unfortunate logistical problems prevented that from happening. Never mind, I guess it ended up plenty long enough anyway!

AutoCAD, AutoCAD 2009, Interview

The Ribbon Man interview – part 1

By Steve Johnson 5 June 2008, 9:23 pm 5 June 2008 itemprop="discussionURL"1

Over on the Cadalyst site you will find the first part of a two-part interview I did with Autodesk’s Matt Stein, the man responsible for making the Ribbon interface work in AutoCAD 2009. I hope you find it interesting.