{"id":26780,"date":"2015-09-25T11:00:41","date_gmt":"2015-09-25T15:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/?p=26780"},"modified":"2024-03-12T11:41:33","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T15:41:33","slug":"meet-the-product-definition-team-jeff-niederman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/2015\/09\/meet-the-product-definition-team-jeff-niederman.html","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Product Definition Team: Jeff Niederman"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SOLIDWORKS<\/a><\/p>\n

Who decides What’s New in SOLIDWORKS? Product Definition team\u00a0members are a major component in determining and defining enhancements and new functionality included within the SOLIDWORKS products each year. They meet face-to-face with SOLIDWORKS customers to discuss what’s working, what isn’t, and what they would like to see in the future. These customer visits are fantastic opportunities for you to connect with SOLIDWORKS directly, and let us know what we can do to help make your jobs easier.\u00a0Over the next few weeks, we’re going to be talking with members of the Product Definition team for an inside look at their favorite 2016 features.<\/p>\n

\"Product<\/a><\/p>\n

Meet the man who jumps through fire, literally. Jeff Niederman’s been with\u00a0SOLIDWORKS for most of his career, fifteen years now! Before he joined the Product Definition Team, he worked in Technical Support, first on the phones and later as a manager.<\/p>\n

What is your favorite 2016 feature?
\n<\/strong>In Technical Support, I used the same versions of SOLIDWORKS as the customer, but in Product Development, I get to be at the front of the design process, typically two years ahead of the customers. That\u2019s very exciting to me.\u00a0I work on many back-end projects, but one of my more visible projects is the new 3D ContentCentral<\/a><\/strong> we launched simultaneously with the release of SOLIDWORKS 2016 Beta.<\/em><\/p>\n

Why 3D ContentCentral?
\n<\/strong>I used to support customers who were downloading and uploading models on 3D ContentCentral, so my history with the product goes back a long time. It is an enormously helpful site to share models for fun, education, and for serious design, but it had been neglected. I wanted to be part of the effort to rejuvenate it. <\/em><\/p>\n

How does the new 3D ContentCentral enhance\/improve the user experience?
\n<\/strong>First, it is more attractive. Our mission of creating a place for people to share models still guides the effort, but now we have a website that is leading in web design instead of trailing. Second, we got rid of the old downloadable plug-in. Now, when you want to preview a model, you can preview the model using a webgl version of eDrawings without having to download and install anything. It works on most current web browsers with no effort, unlike our previous viewer. Third, we added tools for businesses to encourage them to upload more content. The idea is to get more content and more consumers to the site. That kick-starts the spiral of enticing users to come for a better experience and more content and suppliers to come because there are more users. <\/em><\/p>\n

What was the hardest part of bringing 3D ContentCentral to\u00a0life in 2016?
\n<\/strong>It was a sprawling effort, working with graphic designers, third-parties, usability testing, database developers, and web developers. Everyone was motivated, but planning all the pieces which would come together for the release was no small feat. <\/em><\/p>\n

What was the most enjoyable part of working on this project?
\n<\/b>Typically, I work with a small development team to implement a feature or enhancement, but the exposure to all the different groups involved was a great learning experience.<\/em><\/p>\n

Was this project\u00a0initiated by a customer visit? An Enhancement Request? How did it start?
\n<\/strong>All of us knew what we needed to do, we just needed the green light to allocate the resources to do it.\u00a0 We got the green light last summer.<\/em><\/p>\n

And to wrap up with the man who jumps\u00a0through fire, there was only one question to ask. Who’s your favorite super hero?
\n<\/strong>The Hulk. Sometimes, you just want to smash!<\/em><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re interested in setting up a Customer Visit\u00a0with a member of the SOLIDWORKS Product Definition Team, send an email to\u00a0SOLIDWORKS.NAM.RD-Info.com<\/a>.<\/strong>\u00a0Please include: your name, company, contact number, and a brief summary of what areas you\u2019d like to discuss (Assemblies, Weldments, Sheet Metal, Drawings, Simulation, eDrawings, SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard\/Professional, etc.) to get started. You can\u00a0also find the team at your\u00a0<\/strong>local user group meetings<\/a><\/strong>, and at\u00a0<\/strong>SOLIDWORKS World 2016 in Dallas, Texas<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Every year SOLIDWORKS releases a new version of its flagship product, and last year, a new tradition was born here on the Blogs. Over the next few weeks, we\u2019ll be taking a Sneak Peek at 15 new features here on the SOLIDWORKS Blog, and then we\u2019ll be following them up with short, detailed videos on the functionality over on the SOLIDWORKS Tech Blog<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0beginning September 23rd<\/sup>. Until then, you can learn more about SOLIDWORKS 2016 by clicking the banner above and checking out the Launch Site<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who decides What’s New in SOLIDWORKS? Product Definition team\u00a0members are a major component in determining and defining enhancements and new functionality included within the SOLIDWORKS products each year. They meet face-to-face with SOLIDWORKS customers to discuss what’s working, what isn’t,<\/p>\n... Continued<\/a>","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":26782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,61,18,138],"tags":[453,1124,2061,19,430],"class_list":["post-26780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-new-features","category-solidworks","category-usability","tag-customers","tag-enhancements","tag-improvements","tag-solidworks-2","tag-whats-new"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26780"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54615,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26780\/revisions\/54615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}