Thursday, March 27, 2014

Don’t Get Lost in the Nomenclature of Cloud Computing

Courtesy dreamstime.com
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), Database as as Service (DBaaS). Most recently Google had come out with a model that molds PaaS and IaaS together. Hardly a week goes by before another definition of these popular buzzwords comes out. How much coverage does each provide? How far up the stack does it go? Is it a pure play or a hybrid? Public cloud or private cloud?

Some of the confusion is driven by the difficulties in understanding the exact functional boundaries and the provider-specific decisions that drive the architecture of each type of cloud-based service. But also, as each type of cloud service continues to evolve, the lines between technologies are starting to blur making it even more difficult to differentiate between them.

What seems to be altogether omitted from the conversation so far is the value that these cloud technologies are bringing to both the business and consumer audiences that use the services. What specific problems are they helping to solve? What issues or pain points are they helping the customer to avoid?

In the buzz created by the release of the latest, most definitive definition, the voice of the customer gets lost. What the cloud service provider community should start to focus on is going back to listening, and understanding where customers need to go, and then identifying the best vehicle(s) to take them there.

Rachel, Dan, & Dmitry

Thursday, March 20, 2014

The Top 5 Reasons You Are Wasting Time Instead of Getting the Job Done

Courtesy sxc.hu
It's hard to resist taking a peek at the "Top X articles." We live in a fast-moving world, constantly short of time. The ability to get information in bite-sized nuggets, stripped of all but the most relevant facts makes it very tempting to click those "Top 5 Trends..," or the "Top 10 Reasons..," or the "Top 7 Habits of..." under the impression that by reading them we'll not only learn something new and interesting but save tons of time as well. Cracked.com has made an art of the genre and regularly produces Top articles on the wildest of topics.

But, hang on a minute: when was the last time you read one of these articles? And do you remember what it was about? The chances are you read it recently and forgot what it was about in five minutes. The information in these articles is very rarely actionable. At best, if you're lucky, it entertains; at worst it does exactly what it's supposed not to do—wastes time. Put simply, most of these articles are just filler material, like the pink slime in your favorite burgers.

To prove my point, I've called this article "The Top 5 Reasons You Are Wasting Time Instead of Getting the Job Done". I chose 5 reasons was because I thought 3 might be deemed too few to be considered a valuable source of information, and 7 to 10 would be too many for those of us who do care about "saving time."

In the course of extensive research, I examined 5 other lists of "Top Time Wasters" only to discover that they had next to nothing in common, thus making them useless as a point of reference (so that was a waste of time). It was at that point that I started feeling guilty about tricking my readers into reading as far as to this point, and decided to cut to the chase (i.e. to stop beating about the bush or, to put it another way: to get to the point without wasting words, or time) by providing The Top 3 reasons why people end up wasting time instead of getting on with their work and… bonus!!! – I bet you didn't know this was coming – what are the ways to address that.

#1: Not having a clear goal: when you show up at work and sit down to work, do you have a clear idea of what you hope to accomplish during the day? True, there are meetings in your calendar, and there are tons of emails to respond to, but what should you really be doing today? Today, you should really be looking at the bigger picture and doing something aimed at achieving your plans not just for today but for this week, for this month, for this year and for the years to come.

What should I do? Despite the abundance hi-tech apps and tools that can do all this stuff for you, I personally find the easiest, simplest and most helpful thing is to write down a list of my goals for the day in a notebook and cross them off as I do them. The notebook should always be in your line of sight. At the end of the day, if you see that certain items haven't been crossed off, the chances are that you've been wasting time, but at least you'll know what to do tomorrow! The notebook method also enables you to gleefully review your accomplishments at the end of the week/month and gives you something other than pink slime, with which to beef up your performance reports.

#2: Doing the wrong things: OK, so you didn't get round to doing any of the items on your list but you did get A LOT done. You went out of your way to help micromanage an employee, or you reviewed a report that isn't due for several weeks, just to be ahead of the curve. Even the most conscientious of us has a tendency 1) to procrastinate, 2)to find things to do that are easier than the things we should be doing—and then trying to come up with convincing reasons for doing them.

What should I do? Go back to item #1. If it really is so important to micromanage an employee in the context of the big picture, fair enough, it should be done. But, if it isn't, then grasp the desk with both hands, refocus both eyes on your list and carry on as if nothing has happened.

#3: Yielding to distractions: you're searching for some information or responding to an email when, before you know it, you find yourself reading a "Top X" article. Most of the time, you don't even have to be looking for one. They come at you from all directions when you least expect them, to lure you away from the work you would much rather be doing.

What should I do? This is not easy, and, as with items #1 and #2, it requires constant vigilance. Start small by gradually introducing minor changes into your daily routine. This will allow everyone to adjust painlessly to your new, more efficient work practices. Begin by excluding the outside distractions that interfere with the most productive part of the day, for some, the morning. For example, you could make it a rule not to look at your email for two hours after you've responded to it at 9am. Obviously, this won't be feasible if you work for the support team, but you get the general idea.

So, that's one possible distraction eliminated—and don't worry, if there is a real emergency there are plenty of other ways people can reach you. Another tip: don't forget to mark yourself as "busy" in the calendar for that special time period. Once this has been working successfully for a couple of weeks, implement the next small step of making silent text notifications on your cell phone and turning off all chatting agents for the same few hours. If may appear that you are "unplugging" but what you are actually doing is finding ways to stay focused on your daily tasks, for a portion of the day at least—but it's a start!

That's it. And, if you don't see anything actionable here, get back to work!!? :)

Rachel

Thursday, March 13, 2014

The MiniMax Rule Applied to the Social Media Marketing

Courtesy sxc.hu
Social media marketing can take up awful lot of company time but can your new organization achieve success without it? Not if your offering is where your clients are: online and/or on the mobile.

How can you rein in the insatiable drain of social media marketing while ensuring the optimal results? Presenting the MiniMax rule – brainchild of operations guru Cesar Bocanegra used to score top grades in his Wharton Executive classes with apparently the smallest amount of effort involved. As you may have already guessed, MiniMax stands for the minimum input with the maximum output. So, how is it done?

First and foremost define your social media strategy. What is the overall vision you are looking to communicate to your connected audiences? It should really boil down to a few bullet points central to your message. Social does not imply "subjective." Once you've defined strategy, subsequent activities will be driven by whether or not they will contribute to the ultimate objective - executing on your company vision.

Next, it's time to consider the tactics for implementing your strategy. In this context social media strategy is another vehicle for getting your ideas across. Think of ways of communicating the company's vision in the context of a company story. How should it be told? Whose voices will tell it?

Build the Body of Knowledge
Those bullet points will translate into the context for your story. Context should be based on a fundamental body of knowledge amassed internally and externally. Focus your efforts on expanding and sharing the content and monitoring the flow of information related to your organization and industry. This way you can leverage the content by targeting your audience and responding to external events. And, always limit your sharing to the most impactful social outlets.

Let's make it clearer with an example. If your organization has developed some amazing accounting software, it's up to you to get your value proposition across: an innovative, reliable product that speeds up monthly invoicing. To communicate this message, your marketing team will research and develop a series of articles and stories that will serve as a basis for your white papers, product cutsheets, blog content, case studies, marketing collateral and more.

Leverage the Content When Communicating With Your Audiences
Whilst sharing this content at every opportunity the marketing team should also keep their collective ear to the ground, continually monitoring information outlets for relevant stories and chiming in with appropriate commentary and the occasional reference to related content. What this activity lacks in spontaneity, it makes up for by regularly communicating a consistent message that will ultimately get your point across. Many new companies dream of creating that "major viral video" but the chances that it will go viral and bring consistent long-term success to your organization are a bit lower than winning the Powerball ;)

As far as listening to the social activity sphere is concerned, divide and conquer is the way to go. Split up the team to monitor different information outlets and topics then reconnect and share impactful findings and specific responses. This is where leveraging specialized tools like Hootsuite, Buffer and Tweetdeck come in handy. Make a posting plan and stick to it. Always have content available to ensure no gaps in your social activities. Create multiple channels to leverage your audience's different "watering spot" formats. Connect all the social activities on your website and drive new followers by including references in your signature and on your business cards.

Track Performance
Finally, consider the metrics. What kind of responses are you expecting? Are they realistic? Do they correspond to your strategy? What course of action will you take if you don't see the results you were expecting within the specific timeframe? Are you keeping accurate track of the time spent in your marketing activities.

Strong organization and consistency help to create effective social marketing campaigns that won't drain your time resources.

Which social marketing activities will propel your organization forward most effectively?

A final thought, don't overlook your own organization when communicating your vision and story. More about defining your corporate social policy and getting the team on the same page and engaged with the social strategy in upcoming posts.

Rachel, Dmitry, & Dan

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Plan B

Courtesy sxc.hu
Whether You Are Trying to Keep Your Software Organization Flying or Afloat, Disaster Planning is No Longer "Optional"

Being stranded at Heathrow after one of the most recent winter storms gave an invaluable insight into how a company handles events of this kind. In the context flying, delays and cancellations—thanks to our less than accommodating weather of late—seem to happen more frequently.

Emergency Planning is Often an Afterthought
Why? It involves effort and expense but delivers nothing tangible in return. "Plans Bs" have grudgingly been developed to cover areas at greatest risk. That's why you get to hear the mandatory safety briefing every time you get aboard an airplane, and why office buildings put up plans showing evacuation routes and emergency exits.

Although an emergency in the software development field may not pose a dire threat to human life, it can spell death for the organization. If you provide payroll, but don't have your product up and running, there could be some very disappointed people around when checks are being cut. If that happens too many times, most of those people will turn around and look for other options.

Larger organizations are not immune to occasional misfortune, but they usually have the necessary resources to 1) fix the situation quickly; 2) woo back the disappointed customers. Emerging organizations typically have neither.

Back to our not-so-miserable non-flying incident. Having experienced it a few times, Virgin Atlantic was clearly prepared. During our three-hour wait on the plane regular briefings from the staff kept us in the loop. Food and drink were circulated to temper the pangs of hunger. After being herded back to the terminal, we were briefed by a member of staff (alas only one) on the next steps and directed towards the buses waiting to take us to the hotel, whose staff, in turn, was waiting with room keys in hand. While we didn't get to our destination on time, the company did do all they could to put everything right. So, we'll be coming back.

Thinking about Plan B
In the context of a software organization, it makes sense to think about Plan B even when the coast appears to be clear. What will you do if your data center goes offline due to a massive power failure? A key component of your server farm disintegrates? Your one and only network guy or gal leaves? You may not have the resources to come up with a fully-fledged solution, but going through the process will give you insights into your vulnerabilities and offer the opportunity to mitigate the risks pro-actively.
The reality of today's software space is that your prospects and clients will be expecting you to be prepared for these eventualities. Not having a Plan B in place could now have an adverse effect on your ability to secure your client base.

When Disaster Finally Strikes…
Nothing good about that obviously, except you find out at first hand whether or not your plan works. That and you may also get an opportunity to learn from experience and adopt better practices. However, keep in mind that with the business continuously driving towards better efficiency, disaster planning may get relegated to the backburner—until the next time… leaving the only remaining other option in place to deal with disasters: when in danger or in doubt run in circles scream and shout (hopefully not!!)

What disaster planning activities are key for your organization to succeed?

Rachel, Dan, & Dmitry