February 11 2011 8:11 PM by Adam
filed under ColdFusion | ColdFusion Builder | Story Of My Life

Back in September of 2010, Alison Huselid and I traveled to San Francisco to present our plans for ColdFusion X, ColdFusion Builder 2 and the future of the ColdFusion business. It was a culmination of nearly a year of research, design and countless customer meetings. We presented a plan that broke from the norm of how ColdFusion was being developed, sold and marketed. Our plan was overly ambitious and aggressive. Our goal was to aim high and let Adobe upper management cut us down to size. To our delight, we got the full and complete sign-off from upper management!

Once we had the plan in place, the next step was on how to execute and set up ColdFusion for success. The first thing you might notice is that ColdFusion X (Link) will have a release cycle that's a bit longer than usual. Quite simply, we are working on some BIG features for ColdFusion X that just couldn't fit within our previous development timelines. As the saying goes, good things come to those who wait.

The other aspect critical to the success of our plan for ColdFusion was an increase in upper management support and focus for ColdFusion. For the last few years ColdFusion has been managed under the Platform business unit along with Flash Player, Flex, AIR, Flash Builder and the rest of the Flash Platform. While there are many advantages in being so closely tied to the Flash Platform, it should come as no surprise to learn ColdFusion was on the lower end of priorities. For our ambitious plan to succeed, we knew we needed a higher level of involvement from upper management.

The decision was made to find a new home for ColdFusion within Adobe. Those who are particularly astute might have noticed in a December 2010 SEC filing (PDF) that the management and development of the ColdFusion product line recently moved to a different business unit within Adobe. Our goal was to find a business unit that was able (and ready) to execute on our plans for ColdFusion X while bringing management and engineering closer together. The only effect this move has on the product team is that all product management and marketing would be moved to Bangalore, India to be closer to engineering.

If I want ColdFusion to truly succeed, I have to give up the best job I've ever had.

Starting now, Alison and I will be transitioning our roles of Product Management and Product Marketing to counterparts in the new business unit. We're currently searching for a new Product Manager and a new Marketing Manager and we expect to have someone hired within the coming months.

In the meantime, I would like to introduce Tridib Roy Chowdhury, Director of Products of the PPBU. Product Management and Marketing ultimately rolls up to Tridib in this new business unit (the new PM and PMM will report to him). In addition to ColdFusion, Tridib is also responsible for Captivate, the eLearning Suite and several other products. Earlier today Tridib shared some of his history of growing product markets and creating thriving businesses with the ColdFusion Customer Advisory Board (CAB). I wanted to mention this specifically, because it's the first time a Director-level Manager at Adobe had time to sit down with the ColdFusion community – the level of focus and support we've asked for is already materializing. I've had the pleasure of working directly with Tridib over the past month and I must say that I'm very impressed. He quickly won my support with quotes like "if a feature is added in version 1 and we don't make significant updates to it in version 2, then Product Management needs to apologize to Engineering for wasting time on an unimportant feature". I expect you will be hearing a lot more from Tridib in the coming months. If you are local to the DC/MD area, I'll be visiting a number of ColdFusion shops to introduce Tridib. If you have time to meet with us, drop me a line at adrock at adobe dotcom.

I'm sure ColdFusion critics will try and say "Adobe doesn't care about ColdFusion, they are shipping it off to India". Let me be the first to dispel that notion. The fact of the matter is Adobe just upped their commitment to ColdFusion in a HUGE way. This change only affects Alison and I. Engineering, evangelism, sales, community team, support, etc. remain completely unaffected. You'll still have access to Hemant, Rupesh and the rest of the engineering team. Terry, Claude and Josh will still be out at conferences supporting ColdFusion. Rachel and Liz will still be supporting ColdFusion user groups and events. There is just no way we could keep this guy away from ColdFusion.

I promise you this. Over the course of this year we will be sharing more about ColdFusion X. We will start with some big announcements at Scotch on the Rocks and roll right into the ColdFusion Builder 2 launch. If all goes according to plan, all will be revealed by MAX 2011 (hopefully in the keynote).

This truly is the Modern Age of ColdFusion! Stay Tuned...

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PS. Please don't worry about Alison and I. Adobe's given us an incredible opportunity to tackle some new challenges. I'll post some more information about that later... you haven't seen the last of us!!!

Update: I'm the new Product Manager for Flash Builder!