An interesting article from Kevin Michaluk caught my eye today, and really got me thinking. His post, “What are the top FIVE things you would do if you ran Research In Motion?”, garnered some cheerleading, some expected inane commentary, and some thought from myself. While I realize that no one can claim to have THE vison of what to do, and I certainly don’t attempt to pass off that I do, I have my thoughts. Take them for what they are worth, here are the things I would do should Jim and Mike suddenly show up on my doorstep tomorrow, begging me to take the reins.

RIM makes some tight hardware, and it causes me very few complaints. That said, put an ergonomist on the design team. The last several devices I have owned have had excellent build quality, but have had a few glaring issues when it came to actually using the device for a long period of time, or in certain situations. Anyone who has ever attempted to use a 9800 or 9810 device while it is charging know how much of a pain that USB port placement is. If I’m making hardware for a mobile device, I want my end-user to want to use the device, and to use it a lot.

Yes, more focus has to be put on encouraging developers to bring their talents to the BlackBerry platform. RIM has made some good strides in this area, making the sign-up- process easier, waiving/reducing fees, and creating a solid development community to build from. That said, I’m sitting in the big chair now, and the first thing I’m asking my software development team is why App World has apps like BerryBuzz and screen capture applications. Seriously now, I am still amazed that after all this time, some of the most popular utility apps haven’t simply been implemented natively within the OS. Changing LED colours for different notifications may not be an intuitive thing to build into an OS, but when someone else has been making money off of your shortfalls for years, something is wrong.

Encourage the development community you have, and woo potential developers to your platform, and you will ensure that enterprising individuals will continue to find the gaps you leave and fill them. Those who have already done so should be a) recognized, and b) hired/acquired..

I want at least one person on the development team at RIM (both software and hardware) to utterly HATE my product. Give me an Apple or Android fanboi, down to the core. That person will likely be the Dwight Schrute of his/her team, vilified and hated. But, that person will challenge the rest of the team, pushing them to do things outside their comfort zone. I don’t want another Apple, and I certainly don’t want to copy Android, but they both do very good things with their hardware and software that RIM could start taking cues from. Learn from the strengths of others, and from their failures.

Hold more events in Canada, for the love of Gretzky. RIM is a Canadian company, based in Canada, yet I have to travel to the opposite end of the damn continent to catch a decent BlackBerry event. Are there no BlackBerry fanatics/developers/supporters/etc that live here in Calgary, or Vancouver? I realize that no one really wants to hold a convention here in godforsaken Winnipeg, but is being able to DRIVE to a RIM event so much to ask? I’m not talking about something on the scale of BlackBerry World, I’m talking about reaching out to the various urban centers of Canada, and creating local “chapters”. Call it a grassroots movement if you will, but the very best advertising in the world is word of mouth. I can guarantee that somewhere in each major city across Canada, you would find a business that would be more than happy to join a promotional partnership with RIM to put on an event, launch party, or something of the sort in exchange for advertising as a partner, or perhaps an extra discount on devices etc. The same holds true all around the world, not just here, but I’m a Canuck, it’s my article, and I’ll egocentrically whine if I want to.

Sorry Kevin, I could only think of four off the top of my head. Apologies for not posting in the comments as you asked, but as you can see above, my verbosity would take over a complete page. Now, if the rest of you will excuse me, I’m going to go home and wait for Jim and Mike to contact me. Rest assured, if they do, a prototype of the rumoured QNX Colt just might be found “lost” in a Tim Hortons near you one day soon.