October 2, 2000
Adrenaline's Product Management Expertise Drives
Competitive Digital Businesses
With an approach based on extensive commercial-software industry experience,
the Adrenaline Group applies product management, information and systems architecture, and application development
disciplines to bridge the gap between innovative technology and high-level product strategy. The company takes
an end-user perspective to help growing dot.coms, dot.corps, and emerging technology companies identify and build
the value-added online product features and competitive differentiators that will turn end-users into customers.
With new Internet companies appearing daily and blue-chip corporations moving to establish or
improve their Web presence, low prices and convenience have become less important as competitive differentiators
for Web-based businesses. As a result, decision-makers in online retail and e-Market companies are realizing that
among the most effective competitive tools at their disposal are Web applications rich in features and functions
that are easy to use and satisfying to customers.
Commercial software firms have long used features and functions as competitive differentiators,
applying product management and planning disciplines to identify and address end-user needs. The Adrenaline Group
(Adrenaline) - a custom Web solutions services firm founded by veterans of the commercial software industry - uses
the same product management processes and expertise to help entrepreneurial clients deliver feature-rich, high-value-added
online applications to their customers.
Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Washington, DC, Adrenaline's 60+ employees are spread across
its four principal practice areas: Product Planning, User Interface Development, System Architecture, and Software
Development. Having recently opened an office in Austin, TX, and on track to achieve calendar year 2000 revenues
of $11 million to $12 million, Adrenaline is, in many respects, typical of many rapidly growing Internet consulting
and application development firms.
However, unlike many Web services suppliers in the custom solutions sector, Adrenaline's heritage
is in application development, not creative design, making it one of the market's more technology-product-oriented
firms - helping even technology vendors bring products to market. The company's client base primarily is made up
of aggressive online companies that have embraced Internet economy business models. Consisting of both startups
and enterprise spin-offs, these companies are highly entrepreneurial - using technology to create dominant positions
in new market segments.
Adrenaline's focus on the total Web experience as a set of customer-driven features, functions,
and benefits is represented by the company's Product Planning services. Designed to help clients ask the right
questions about customers, competitors, and desired out-comes, Product Planning is both a set of stand-alone service
offerings and the starting point for the majority of the company's client engagements.
Operating in a sector in which product cycles are driven by rapid time-to-market requirements,
Adrenaline has created a delivery model that compresses planning and development into what it calls its Adrenaline
Rush Methodology. Working directly with clients in small multidisciplinary planning teams, Adrenaline's staff focuses
on identifying the core features needed to create successful Web sites. The result is "Multi Release Technology
Plan" (MRTP), a phased product roadmap for adding features and functions to online systems that is also geared
to meeting client time-to-market requirements.
The early and ongoing involvement of the firm's information architects in client engagements
is another reflection of Adrenaline's approach. Focusing on what is becoming known as experiential design, information
architects help clients work through the deliverables, flow, and interactions that will become the basis for easy-to-use,
logically arranged, and satisfying online transactions. Only after defining and testing the entire online experience
does the company work with design firms to add graphic elements to a Web site.
Rounding out Adrenaline's planning and application design methodology are the company's systems
architecture and software development practices. The former works with clients to select the right technologies
to integrate into secure, cost-effective, reliable, and scalable systems. Using open-source software and reusable
object libraries developed in-house, Adrenaline's Java and C++
Unix developers concentrate on delivering feature-rich, robust custom applications in Internet time.
Firms that rely on the Web as the primary, if not the only, customer interaction channel require
technology partners that can help deliver effective, user-oriented applications and online services to attract
and retain customers. Drawing from its software product heritage, Adrenaline's skills, methodology, and services
are geared toward working with entrepreneurial firms - whether large-cap dot.corps or startup dot.coms - in this
dynamic sector of the e-Business market.
- Stephen Lane
