Inspired by Brian Fuller's cross-country "Drive for Innovation", last week I jumped at an opportunity to head out and visit customers in the heartland of America.
Here were the common themes heard during the trip:
(1) Discovering Power People Didn't Know They Already Have
A lot of people don't realize that support for the things they need to do are actually in our products already (in some cases, it's been there for years). However, because they are frozen on an older configuration, or the methodology to exploit a given set of features in a particular order isn't immediately obvious, they think they need to buy some other piece of software to get them where they want to go. It's a real win-win to be able to show them the power already at their fingertips.
(2) Formal & ABV really is going mainstream
Echoing my experience at DAC and other industry events over the past year, at both our Incisive Seminars and direct customer meetings Formal, ABV, and especially the mixed technology Assertion-Driven Simulation (ADS) were of high interest. To wit: people actually holstered their smartphones during the ADS segment of the seminar/presentation, and peppered me with questions about it. As per point (1) above, to the delight of several users they were pleasantly surprised they could go back to their desks and try ADS and some other techniques right away.
(3) EDA360 needs are clear & present
I had several people ask me about the EDA360 roadmap. Specifically, the gist of the conversation was an affirmation that the issues raised by the vision paper (apps-driven specs & monetization, IP integration vs. creation, etc.) were their day-to-day challenges. In short, they made it clear that the EDA360 initiative was right on the money and advised us [Cadence] not to drop the ball on executing to this strategy. These remarks came from end users at a very competitive account -- so it's clear that EDA360 principles are resonating with real, front-line users.
Do these notes square with your summer trip reports? Please share your experiences in the comments below, or contact me offline.
Happy Verifying!
Joe Hupcey III
On Twitter: @jhupcey, http://twitter.com/jhupcey