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Business, Amiga Style

A discussion with Vince Pfeifer, Vice President of Operations

Vince Pfeifer saw a problem.

"The software industry would hire MBAs and put them in charge of products. Those people would make really poor decisions without truly understanding how users use products." It's an observation that would shape his career.

Pfeifer considers a position as Senior Product Manager with Symantec around 1990 as the start of the bulk of his computer software experience. After a stint with Fifth Generation Systems, a company acquired by Symantec, Pfeifer switched to ConnectSoft Corporation, then to Exodus, Inc., a spin-off from ConnectSoft.

Confused? Don't be. Though companies and people move quickly in the software business, Pfeifer's focus has remained stable throughout. "I have a history of being able to step into companies where they have problems releasing products and getting them released," he says. And his record attests that claim: From the Product Management position with Exodus, Pfeifer moved to Engineering and then to Vice President of Product Development. Then he moved on again.

"I joined a company called GraphOn Corporation, which was privately held and went public while I was there. We quadrupled sales in the year and a half I was there and I moved into VP of Product Development and was the person responsible for overseeing Engineering, Quality Assurance, and Tech Support for all products created by GraphOn." So why to Amiga?


Vince Pfeifer, Amiga's VP of Operations

Besides Bill McEwen's ability to sell ice to Eskimos, he says, "I'm at Amiga because it's an opportunity to build not just a single portion, but rather the entire company, into something that I believe with a method I believe." And as Vice President of Operations, he's finding that opportunity, though building a company from the ground up requires some role-changing to keep things moving.

"I stepped originally into Product Management on the Software Developer's Kit, or SDK. I then turned that over as I hired a Product Manager to do that, and then I ran engineering on the SDK. As the SDK and the hardware reference specification came to fruition, I stepped aside from that." More recently, he's been working heavily with Gary Peake to build the development support organization, and taken on building a merchandising group "which I've had to step heavily into just because it's a brand new organization," he says.

"What's keeping us busy now is planning for two years out." Which is more in line with Pfeifer's core strengths and goals. "It was agreed when I came on that my influence would be company wide." And he's been able to foster the attitude he feels is so critical to success: The user experience as paramount. "We've begun building a mindset where the employees feel they can trust each other implicitly. It's our second family and I want to continue to create that feeling. I've been able to stress the importance of the user experience; the company has bought into that. As we move forward, the paradigm for computing is going to change because we're going to change it."

That user experience is what the new Amiga is all about. Pfeifer describes a scenario: "I'm reading an article in the Times about humpback whales," he says, "and I can switch to an encyclopedia on line and look up humpback whales. It's that kind of concept, where you can go from one information source to another."

The key here is what conveys the experience. When the devices are simple enough, portable enough, cheap enough and ubiquitous enough, then you really have something--something that's redefining computing as a user-based, rather than hardware-based, experience.

Pfeifer describes how this can go wrong, like his experience when Engineering had free reign over a product: "They took something that was very successful and very easy to use, added functionality to it and made it functionally a better product, but the way they displayed it to the end user was such that the end user couldn't find that functionality." And if users can't find it, it might as well not be there. "So that was a lesson learned company-wide. We learned that you have to take very careful measure of who your customer is, how they behave and what they understand. Because if you don't you'll end up with a product that ends up losing its customer base."

And the Amiga can't afford to lose any more customer base. In fact, Pfeifer says, building on the existing Amiga user base is a key part of Amiga's plans. "They are our target user base, of course, and they are an asset." But dealing to just a fixed market is not a recipe for growth. Amiga recognizes the importance of the community as a base, a starting point, a launch pad. "The people who have used Amigas in the past seem to really have a passion for them. They left not because the computer was a piece of junk, but because there was simply no more innovation going on. Those people still have a very good feeling for the Amiga."

Starting a new company based on new technology with a known, pre-existing customer base is something a little different. It presents Amiga with a unique opportunity in the marketplace of the new decade--An opportunity they plan to maximize as a bargaining chip in negotiating with potential business and technology partners.

And that community will develop software for the new platform, which has presented a unique challenge, according to Vince. "With the development community scattered so far world wide, we got more done in a three-day weekend developer conference than in a one week period of time." That's changed as Amiga has actively recruited and hired and moved people into the fold, to the tune of 21 people in-house right now. "And that doesn't include people outside of the building-we have contractors all over the world," he says.

Amiga has received a tremendous response from current and former 3rd-party Amiga developers eager to see the platform revitalized, and recognizes their importance. "The Amiga development community is a vital piece right now to our future," he says. "Getting them to write for the platform is what will make it a success or a failure."

"The first SDK isn't really strong in the area of sound or 3D video, stuff like that," Pfeifer observes. "It's more focused on the guy who is going to create the tools to do those things." It's a critical transition phase, as those tools have to be in place to draw mass-market developers to port their applications to this new, essentially untried platform.

The pace of change will be rapid, but it has to be in this business. "We've already released the first phase of the developer box and the SDK. Our goal, and it's a very aggressive goal, is to have the next Amiga box [with the Amiga user experience running natively] by the end of this year." In the mean time, before it stands on its own, the Amiga experience runs on top of suitably powerful Linux boxes.

Doesn't a stated plan to do away with the need for current business partners produce some strange business practices? "By no means is our first iteration going to wipe out the big players," Pfeifer points out. "The reality is that future devices won't need full computing power." And that's the key. You build computing environments with components of limited computing power that work together to provide the Amiga user experience-an experience something more than the sum of its parts, something the marketplace as a whole, beyond just the Amiga community, has never seen before.

It's a process and goal Pfeifer is passionate about. "Phase I," he says, "is removing all the extraneous computing knowledge necessary to work with a PC successfully. What's easier than a Playstation? Throw a disc in, turn it on, boom, it's there. Fifty percent of people right now don't have PCs either because they're cost-prohibitive or they're difficult to use. You've got a very large market you can go after. And that's not even counting the people who use Windows now because they don't have a better choice."

Phase II is the presentation of applications and data, another case where people are forced to adapt to the PC's interface. Pfeifer sees that going away in favor of user-defined paradigms, for lack of a better word. "You still have the common methods for interfacing with your applications," he says, "but if you understand what actions are used up front and you're involved in the creation and placement of your paradigm, you're more comfortable with it." And comfort leads to productivity and fun. Exactly the user-experience Amiga is shooting for.

Pfeifer knows it won't happen without a struggle. "We're working toward a moving target. This is my first experience in the area of creating an operating system (which is essentially what we're doing). There are a wider range of issues [than in developing applications] and it's a larger development process for a single piece."

By keeping true to the philosophies Amiga is putting forward-the user-experience, small independent yet interconnected devices-Pfeifer believes they'll be successful. In his words, "This box is going to be a good box."

The philosophy makes sense: Sell to your existing customers and work with technology partners, then use their help to expand beyond them. Stay focused on the customers to determine what they really need a product to do. Shift from brand loyalty to experience loyalty. It's all part of doing business in the new decade. Business Amiga style.

Vince Pfeifer at a Glance

First computer? Age?
VIC 20 when I was 13 or so.

Technology to live without?
Microwave

Best technological advance of the 20th century?
Cable TV

Late-night computing snack?
Donuts

How fast can you type?
40 wpm

What kind of program do you wish someone would write?
Ultimate baseball management simulator

Most-used computing application/activity?
Web Browser

Supermodel least want to date? Why?
Christie Brinkley because she totally screwed up Billy Joel's music.

How many computers do you own? Platforms?
Four. 2 Windows, 2 Linux

Describe yourself in one word.
Large

Favorite cancelled TV show?
Beavis and Butthead

Favorite current TV show?
ESPN Sportscenter

On the bookshelf?
Zimmerman's Algorithm

Anti-geek, not-a-geek, normal geek, super-geek or an uber-geek?
Tarah (Amiga's receptionist) says I am either anti-geek or normal-geek.

Favorite computer game?
Used to play Tron for over an hour on one quarter.

Shaken or stirred?
Shaken

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