RE: A cautionary tale: Portfolio Assessment

[KMcLauchlan -at- chrysalis-its -dot- com]

Bruce Byfield [mailto:bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com] said:

> First, always get permission to leave copies from the 
> sample's owner - the company you did the work for. Some 
> companies that have no objection to a sample being in your 
> portfolio will object to you leaving the sample behind. 
> Others won't object to the sample being left at some 
> companies, but would rather it wasn't left with a rival 
> company. To avoid bad blood, get permission, and keep a 
> record of how you can use each sample.

If the document in question was a secret, in-house 
document, I might agree.  How often are most folks 
going to be shopping those around in their portfolios?

Otherwise, I disagree. I believe the circumstances are 
extremely limited, in which true competitors don't 
already have plenty of copies of the other company's 
customer documentation. You would not be giving them 
anything they didn't already have.

It's SOP.  You buy the competitor's product and take 
it apart to see what you are up against. That includes 
reviewing their docs, to see whether:

a) they are better than yours ( giving you some ideas 
   for improving your own docs) or 

b) they are worse than yours, giving your sales and 
   business development people some amunition...

/kevin
 

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