citizen Evangelist

Part of being a good citizen is participation in the primary and election process. In that spirit, I made it a priority to visit my polling precinct to cast my vote for my preferred candidate. This is my first time participating in this process in Texas. Of course, they do everything a little different in Texas. Last night, I spent a few minutes brushing upon the Texas Primary / Caucus process. The details are a bit more than I expected. That said, I was able to put these pieces together:

• When you show up, you must declare if you’re voting Democrat or Republican. I was happy to discover that Texas didn’t require prior declaration with either party, so I was free to make my choice upon arrival.
• Voting would be for the Primary.
• The Primary would account for ~2/3 of the pledged delegates for the state
• Immediately after the polls close, the Caucuses would begin
• Participation in the Caucus would require ‘being present’ and signing a form of some sort
• Any participant could support the same or a different candidate (though I assume it has to be within the same party)
• The amount of attendance for each candidate would some how influence the caucus results
• The caucus results would then account for the remaining 1/3 of the pledged delegates for the state

My Polling location for the Primary was a high school just up the street. We faced a near catastrophe when the power switch linking the Hart InterCivic eSlate to the JBC (fancy talk for Judge Booth Controller). This snafu ground the process to a halt for 30 minutes, giving me enough time to enjoy fond memories of high school as all the students made their ways from one class to another. After a few apologies to the growing line, a support call or two (I’ll assume it was <a title=”Hart InterCivic Customer Care” href=”http://www.hartic.com/pages/13″>Customer Care</a>) the team was able to revive 5 of the 10 or so voting booths.

Now… I’ve been following the presidential primaries with great interest, but the ballot I was presented with made me realize just how ignorant I am regarding local politics. It sure seems like it would be a natural extension to allow some information (other than name) to be provided so that I can make an informed decision if I wanted to. As a result of my ignorance, I found myself not voting in any category other than the presidential primary. I don’t feel good about that, but I couldn’t cast my vote without any information or context.

The next question I face is whether I will venture back out for the caucus. At this point, it is about 60 minutes until the event is scheduled to start and it just may be worth my time to observe this additional piece of the process.

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What is the value of an idea?

Some might say that ideas aren’t worth much. In fact, there are many different people who feel the same way. Even Thomas Edison was quoted as saying: “The value of an idea is in using it.”

I think most people only consider the value of ideas when:

1. They feel ownership of the idea
2. The idea represents something they would find useful

The irony with most companies is that most of the focus is only around those ideas that are generated within the company. In those cases, yes… I too agree that ideas are worthless unless executed.

But companies need to be mindful that there is a segment of ideas that has significant value. The value could be either positive or negative, and the risks associated with ignoring these ideas can be dramatic. Do you know what ideas I’m referring to?

Customer generated ideas

Customer generated ideas are typically incremental improvements or extensions to existing products or services. These ideas are rarely ground breaking or disruptive (for example: a user of a stove would not suggest the creation of a microwave oven and the owners of horses would not have suggested the introduction of an automobile). Because these ideas are not generated within the company, many organizations and individuals cast these ideas aside with a “not built here” mentality. Other organizations willingly collect these ideas and even act upon them to deliver incremental improvements. By far, the biggest problem companies face is the fact that there is not an effective method for the company to:

• Collect these ideas in a method that is easy for the customer to participate
• Record who suggested the idea
• Easily get feedback from the stakeholders on the value of the idea
• Communicate to those stakeholders:
  • The popularity of the idea
  • The stakeholders who support the idea
  • The priority of the idea
  • The status associated with action on the idea

Building customer engagement is difficult at best. When your customers feel strongly enough to share their ideas on how to improve your product or service, you have an opportunity to engage that customer and deepen that relationship. If you make it difficult to receive that idea, fail to acknowledge that you’ve received that idea, fail to consider that idea, and fail to communicate status to that customer you’ve given that customer a valid reason to seek a relationship with another vendor.

So, the next time a customer shares a product or feature idea with you, consider this: is the real value to your company in the idea? Or is the real value in how you interact with the customer?

My opinion: treat the customer like they are important & then determine how to act on the idea. The value still comes from how you act, but make certain that you don’t set yourself up to lose the customer in the process.

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I had a great conversation with a former coworker about the challenges faced since we went our separate ways. I couldn’t help but think about how the things we discussed were so similar to every situation that I’ve ever faced as a product manager.

Internal Politics vs. Customer Priorities

As a product manager, when I was faced with the task of determining what we should do for our next release, the core challenge always came down to selecting the best enhancements &/or new products that would help drive market adoption, drive increase value (revenue) and drive reduced costs. At face level, this seems to be an easy task. In truth, this process is much more an artform than a science. The challenge faced by most product managers is the validity of the “truth” used in making decisions.

When the CEO or the executive management team make assertions that the number one priority for the company is to do something, it is often difficult to refute. Further, doing so can be a career limiting move if you don’t have market facts to back yourself up with.

When the VP of Sales or any respected member of the sales team claims that a particular feature which is lacking would generate a higher close rate and millions of dollars in additional revenue, it is a challenge to hold a different opinion.

When the executive in charge of customer loyalty and customer experience points to user flows or the absence of features and boldly states that changes will lead to reductions in customer attrition or increases in use and revenue, any dedicated product managers will want to deliver solutions that improve customer revenue and longevity.

When all three of these executives are demanding different things and the development organization only has capacity to implement a portion of one thing, what is the correct answer? Should you side with the CEO? Do you act on the advice of Sales? Perhaps you focus on the areas identified by the stakeholder responsible for customer loyalty & customer experience?

The unfortunate truth is that none of these individuals can absolutely know the right answer. The right answer can only be determined in hindsight — after the decision is made, the development team executes, and the organization pushes the new release to production. Even then, the product must be used and opinions made by the intended beneficiary of the enhancement before any true measure of the ROI can be made.

What makes this even more challenging is the fact that not everyone on the team has the same objectives. What if the sole objective of the CEO is to earn short-term reputation points with the board of directors? Or, perhaps she is looking to get the incremental valuation bump based upon early news of the release? What is the motivation behind the message from Sales is closing a very specific deal which will help him to get his commission or save his job? What if the reason that your seeing customer attrition has nothing to do with specific features and the real reason is due to poor customer support?

Seth Godin posted some thoughts on who the “Boss” actually is just a few days ago which helps to keep things in perspective. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who on the team thinks they are right. What matters is whether the decisions made add new customers, keep current customers longer, drive up revenues, or decrease the costs of servicing those customers. The “boss” will always let you know how you’re doing in a measure called revenue from which you can qualify your success using another measure called profit. Make the right investments in the right way, profit goes up. Make a mistake… and well… that’s another discussion.

So… who is driving your priorities?

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