portland region software cluster insights

Increasing the Competitive Advantage of our Software Industry

Findings from the first community conversation

May 2010

Software industry one of the key clusters of Portland’s Economic Development StrategyThe Cluster Strategy is the City of Portland’s 5-year commitment to economic development and job creation in the 4 traded-sector industry clusters at right.For the Software Cluster, the goal of the PDC's work is to enhance the competitiveness of the industry A cluster strategy is especially critical for a market like Portland, where limited resources require selective investments in the concentrated groups of firms that demonstrate the most promise of growth

Developing new ways to guide the innovation process for cluster growthGoalEngage industry professionals to co-develop new public/private initiatives designed to strengthen the connection with the regionApproachUsing new technologies, create a series of online dialogues & face to face conversations designed to make software an even more vibrant, job-producing clusterEnabling TechnologyIntelligent dialogue technology from Portland-based i-OP used for the design, development and analysis of the community's feedbackThis technology will help to guide our future efforts

First community dialogue: quickly framing the opportunities and challenges

Responses:Total intelligent dialogues completed 271Software company respondents 71%Executive/CEO respondents 50%Average time 15.2 minDate April 16th-26th, 2010

A broad cross-section of our community responded to this survey, from independent developers to large corporations

Most enjoy doing business in Portland

Themes emerged about what people enjoy: community, talent & quality of life...

"There's a sense of excitement about being part of a community like what is here in Portland. People see value in the quality of people here."

"The community is extremely supportive from a peer standpoint."

"Love the creative startup vibe in Portland and the focus on sustainability."

"There is a nice palatable non cut-throat creative vibe here. I feel supported in my efforts to start up a business here. Also the vibe has been contagious for me in a good motivating way."

"Infrastructure, quality of life, talent pool."

"Talent base, attractive environment/surroundings, proximity to Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles video game industry without the cost and other downsides."

"There is a high level of technology knowledge in the area. This probably comes from the presence of Intel and other technology companies. People seem to embrace technology."

"Portland is clean, efficient and has all the supporting infrastructure to conduct a global business in or from."

Most would recommend Portland to their peers as a place to work or build a company

Most of their customers, however, are outside the Portland region

As a result, Portland’s software industry is very aware of other regions

Most felt that the Portland region provides a fertile environment for innovation

R&D is essential for this innovation

Most of this R&D occurs in Portland

This creates an important local asset: talent

Another important asset for many is local mentorship

When looking at local infrastructure, education seen as most impactful

Analysis shows that attitudes are actually impacted by 3 things: taxes, politics & education

Focusing deeper on our key drivers

While most respondents enjoy doing business in Portland and would recommend doing business here to their peers, the PDC wanted to discover ways to increase our competitive advantageAn analysis of a smaller subset of respondents (those who were very passionate proponents and detractors) identified some interesting motivations for their points of view

Attitude toward taxes most likely to predict overall attitude (both positive & negative)

Attitude surrounding politics is another leading indicator of happiness or dissatisfaction

Attitude about the education system also strongly predicts a respondent’s view of PDX

Summary of findings:

The Portland-area software cluster distinguishes itself in several important ways:Driven to be innovative (with local R&D)Big importers of monetary & intellectual capital to the regionVery aware of and networked in other regionsMentoring relationships weave the community together

Working on 3 infrastructure issues will result in an even more dynamic cluster: taxes, politics & education

Next step: Engage community to work with the PDC on key issues

Focusing, developing and initiating:Come to our next PDC gathering (#PDCgathering) May 21st (3pm at PDC’s offices in Old Town) to further discuss & identify new ways to address key issuesParticipate in future online intelligent dialogues to develop community alignment around new initiativesShare ideas in our Facebook group “PDX Software!”Click here if you want to know more about PDC's cluster approachQuestions? Please drop Thompson a note

Thompson Morrisontmorrison@fuseinsight.comBlog> theRadicalEar.comTwitter> twitter.com/thompsNmorrisN