Turducken (Slicing customers differently)
February 5, 2010
** This great blog was originally posted on 2/26/2008 **
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Talk about complexity, I will never forget the day that I first learned about Turducken! For those of you who don’t know, a Turducken is exactly as it sounds; a chicken stuffed in a duck, stuffed in a turkey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turducken). You know, the classical hierarchal relationship of meat taken to the extreme. They go for about US $100 after shipping, but the adventurer can stuff their own. When I think of customers I sometimes think of the Turducken – Let me break this down a bit.
I have always thought that the most important thing that a company can do is to keep their customers. Makes sense to me, after all there is that great concept that its “X times as expensive to attract a new customer than to keep one”. Now don’t get me wrong, I would walk on broken glass without shoes uphill in the snow to help my customer with their Oracle Forms 4.5 on top of a My Sql implementation in a Citrix environment running off of a 1982 walkman radio. But when businesses say customers, they know what they are really talking about. But let’s decompose this a bit more.
You all know those sayings – the ones we all know and love…
- Customers are great!
- The customer is always right!
- Customers may not be right but they are never wrong!
- Our Customers are number 1!
Well, over the years I have come to modify that statement a bit and here’s why. “Customer” is a large group to take into analysis at face value. Customers are a complex group. Companies shell out a lot of moolah to understand this group. After all, this group is responsible for the business’ inertia. When companies wish to understand who their customers are, they don’t simply run a ‘customer listing’ and read through it while attending some boring IT meetings about data governance. They spend big money and they head down the road that ultimately leads to … Segmentation.
Segmentation is the classification or taxonomy of the business’ customers. They are usually based on habits or lifestyles plus some kind of loyalty factor. This data is usually derived by their purchase behavior – at the purchase or cart level. There you go; you now have X-subsets of customer. The theory is that each has their own set of core beliefs, common principles and behaviors. The goal is to then approach them in a more intimate manner, allowing both a level of customization and attaining some economies of scale.
However, let’s take another look at customers. This time lets add two driving forces; Business Intelligence and a potential recession. The impending economic fear will be the catalyst for innovation, as it always is. To maintain market share or to at least out pace our competition, companies will need to do something different and the conditions seem to be perfect. Lets pick up the story from above and write the ending.
Tom is returning from lunch when he just happens to walk past the marketing folks. They are talking about how to approach the “young and fun city dwellers” segment and how that must be different than the “impoverished with kids in college” segment. As he rounds the corner, he passes the finance folks as they make mention that yesterday’s margins are down 3.2% and that translates to a need for some kind of new report because it will impact profitability. Almost back to his office, he passes the sales folks who are chattering about how the “young and fun city dweller” are buying more and that even the “impoverished with kids in college” seemed to spend their tax refunds this week. And it hits him…
What if we combine this data? What if we work together? What if we look at customer loyalty and segmentation, but we add a dimension called ‘profitability’? Like reading the last 20 pages in a good novel, Tom plays this through and nets out as follows:
If we look at our segmentation of customers, within each group:
- We have customers who are loyal and profitable – these are out best customers. Our number one job is to keep these customers. Things I can do are; understand who they are and engage them on a more intimate level, customized for them (special offerings, internet bindings, tools, tips, personalized greeting, etc…), surround them with rewards and incentives (redirecting the money spent on the next group).
- We have customers who are not loyal and not profitable – why do we waste our resources on these folks? Or maybe it makes sense to cut them off completely. Recently Sprint gave their top 1,000 problem customers the boot (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/06/AR2007070602131.html). I’m not going to mention the online movie delivery service I use, but it seems the more I rent the longer it takes to get my movies. If I rent only a few, I get really good service. Coincidence?
- Now we need to understand how to make our profitable but non-loyal customers more loyal. How can we deliver better service, what promotes loyalty, maybe we should ask this subset?
- And we need to understand how to make our non profitable but loyal customers more profitable. Can we push higher margin items, does it make sense to engage them with alternatives, blend costs/products to move margin?
Of course this is only the beginning. BI can bring a depth of understanding to those who look across the enterprise to bring data together. The above scenario is only the tip of the ice berg – it’s the beginning point of an in-depth analysis that will deliver real and actionable information. Look for information to unhide and your customers will flock to your side!
Now for the perfect customer saying, feel free to quote me on this:
“Our best customers are best!”
It’s the perfect storm out there and BI just might be the generator that keeps your business’ lights on. If you do lose power, please make sure to eat up that Turducken – it only lasts a day in the fridge!
~ Scott Felten
9 Business Principles from… The US Army
February 3, 2009
It’s a battle out there – How does your strategy align with the 9 Principles of War that the US Army has developed?
1st Principle of War
Mass: Concentrate combat power at the decisive place and time.
Our strategy: This principle is saying that there is a key place and a key time that you should spend your efforts at. For us, this is determining how we can provide the maximum value to our organization. We think this through and then we must prioritize those areas in terms of risk and reward. Once we do this, we find out where we need to focus.
2nd Principle of War
Objective: Direct every military operation towards a clearly defined, decisive, and attainable objective.
Our strategy: This principle is saying that we have to define realistic goal and objectives and that once we do this, then everyone works within this focus. Having everyone on the same page is very simple to understand but in reality, we often have many directions and agendas, driven by egos, greed and poor leadership (to mention just a few). Operate within your senior leadership’s understanding of your company’s strategy. It is the responsibility of the leader to ensure the people and teams within their area of influence are focused on the main objective. Focused light cuts – we call this a laser. Unfocused light brings revelation (illuminating the surroundings), but not action.
3rd Principle of War
Offensive: Seize, retain, and exploit the initiative.
Our strategy: Don’t have the relationship with the business as just a supplier. This type of a relationship is passive and the problem is that you become a commodity – something easily purchased on the market. We want to strive to become a partner with the business. IT is the source of great innovation, but we can only do so when we are experts in the areas of our clients. We need to be in a position to understand the business problems. Envision the solution. Sell the value. And then of course, lead the business in its implementation and harvest of value.
4th Principle of War
Surprise: Strike the enemy at a time, at a place, or in a manner for which he is unprepared
Our strategy: Well, this brings up a good point? Who is our enemy? I’ll provide a working answer for us; Risk. Risk is our enemy. We need to defend against risk. What is risk? In my top of mind response; Risk is anything that causes us to loose momentum in a direction that we were heading that was on the path of providing value to our organization. With this in mind, it becomes obvious that our surprise lies within our ability to capitalize on innovation.
5th Principle of War
Economy of force: Allocate minimum essential combat power to secondary efforts
Our strategy: There is great danger here! This principle is an excellent check for us. We sometimes get too tunnel visioned, we get too focused. In our effort to combat risk and provide innovations and value…when we are looking at things that may be hurting our business and watching our competitors and trying to outperform them – it is easy to move massive amounts of resources and efforts to these area. After all, it is said that we must win! This principle talks about ensuring that the secondary, the peripheral projects, programs, systems, servers, customers, etc… get enough resources to guarantee success. Here we need to ensure we build into our timelines the necessary ‘stop and evaluate’ tasks to ensure that we in fact are addressing our 360 degree risks.
6th Principle of War
Maneuver: Place the enemy in a position of disadvantage through the flexible application of combat power
Our strategy: I love this one! It’s all about leveraging innovation and creativity to dislodge risks! Our combat power is our creativity harnessed through the lens of innovation and expressed in forms of systems and systems of systems. For us IT warriors, we live for this principle – become curious with things that don’t work, learn the risks and then lets level the big guns of IT to blow those risks away!
7th Principle of War
Unity of command: For every objective, ensure unity of effort under one responsible commander
Our strategy: Common sense, right? There can be no projects without someone serving the role of project manager – and please let that person be responsible! Also, there can be no projects with more than one project manager – ok a complex project may have many, but isn’t it really just a series of smaller projects that roll up into one another. It is also saying that every objective needs to be accounted for by someone. There are many layers of benefits with the unity of command; proper project management, built-in upstream communication channel, top-down understanding and support to name several…
8th Principle of War
Security: Never permit the enemy to acquire an unexpected advantage
Our strategy: Remember that risk is our enemy. This principle is about taking them serious…all of them. It means that we ensure we know all the risks and monitor them over time. We don’t want to get caught off-guard. What are your risks? Do you know them all? I can tell you that the sum of your team’s risk assessment will get you about 80-90% of the way there (if not more)! It’s always a fair question to ask; “What can happen if…”
9th Principle of War
Simplicity: Prepare clear, uncomplicated plans and clear, concise orders to ensure thorough understanding
Our strategy: Have you ever played the game telephone…the simple message at the beginning is usually nowhere close to the message at the end once it went through a bunch of people! Everyone listens differently. Everyone brings a unique perspective because we all have our own understandings, experiences, goals, passions… In our industry we are challenged by an enormous amount of new information – things are always on the move. How much more important is it that we ensure standards, strategies, goals, objectives… are clear and simple. Any large initiative can be broken down into smaller more simpler initiatives. Take the time and ensure that understanding is apparent.
~ Scott Felten
Politics and the Engine of Business
January 28, 2009
I know that an engine is a series of highly integrated and interconnected parts that have very small tolerances. And I know that oil is the main ingredient that buffers each surface and allows these parts to move very rapidly. And without this oil, the parts will be reduced to hitting each other. This creates heats and damage; eventually there will be a catastrophic failure and the entire engine will blow. Then you are left with a car that looks like a car on the outside but has zero functionality, save for the radio!
I get it, the oil is like politics; it’s the grease that ensures the proper movement of the smaller parts to produce the much desired resultant. However, I never cared much for the political side of the business. But, let’s take a closer look at this, because I fear we get confused. When I rethink the above metaphor, what I really see are the following components:
- An engine – well, this can be a company or organization or team of any sort
- Smaller parts – I suppose this represents the individuals or groups or departments of folks. The bottom line is that the small parts ultimately consists of people.
- Oil – In our example above, the oil is often referred to as ‘politics’. Let’s go with this for now.
- The resultant – Here the engine has a purpose or outcome. This is the reason the engine exists; for a series of purposes. In real life, the engine delivers power that sparks momentum (pun intended!) and with this inertia we receive a change in location (we were here and now we are there). This change in location could be a sales goal or business strategy and so forth along the analogy vector.
However, is it really safe to say that the oil is politics? I’m not feeling that one, sorry to bust your nice metaphor. But, what really serves as the layer of protection between people? After all, this is what we talked about when we were praising the magic of the oil. How do people work together at a high rate of speed with very low tolerances between integrated points? The answer is found in leadership. This is the true oil. Leadership creates the necessary layer of ‘protection’, if that’s the best word to describe it and I’m convinced that it is not, that protects people.
Leadership must create a safe space where people can trust. A place where people can have the right conversations. It’s a mechanism that produces highly invested people who share the resultant at the highest level. It’s a bunch of folks that actually care and are stimulated to action by their passions of doing what’s right and not afraid to share this information by being vulnerable and accountable to each other. Its understanding that you will elevate yourself only after elevating the engine by achieving the resultant!
Now that that is on the table, we are still left with that term ‘politics’ or ‘acting political’. Don’t sell yourself short by just assuming some level of magic happens that covers off leadership and label it ‘politics’. Don’t say, well it’s political so we’ll have to wait and see. Don’t think that anything is too political. Call it how you see it… acting political is really done by people who are very short sighted. These folks think that they need to elevate themselves by elevating themselves. They don’t see the power that the shared engine can bring. So, acting political is really the process of adjusting what you say to fit your immediate audience. Doesn’t that really resound with you after watching ‘politics’ on TV?
Bottom line is: “Let your yes be yes and your no be no!” In other words, do what you say and say what you do. Be a straight shooter. Be honest and accurate. Follow through – make your words powerful by embracing them with action. Sometimes, this crazy world makes sense when one person makes a stand by seeing the issue and being genuine about it.
~ Scott Felten
Stories
December 18, 2008
What happens after we roll our applications into production? We are left with the stories?
It’s like raising a child, isn’t it? We spent so much time and pour our lives into the development of those much needed applications. As we trade hours for dollars as we watch them grow…
A problem turns into an opportunity.
That opportunity turns into a solution.
That solution gets a sponsor and a team.
The team raises that young solution.
Suddenly it blossoms into a application…a production application!
It may have taken us weeks, months or even years, but we were given guardianship over that child for a period of time. As it grew, and that production day came closer and closer, we felt the awkward anxiety of letting go. Yes, we know the dangers out there waiting for our young application; potentially low chance of adoption, push back, rejection, even the fear of death.
That young application is safest in the test environment. At least we can control its exposure and limit its risks. But in our heart of hearts, we know that the application was build for production. We know that it was designed to take on the hardest of situations and out perform expectations – that this application will make an impact in the business; making things better, faster, cheaper!
That day comes and we let it go and watch it fly. For a period of time, we watch it closely and ensure its safety. We anticipate the missteps and try to head them off. We add to it and extend its capabilities as new challenges are seen. We pour more and more of our time and energy into that application.
Soon, it grows mature and reaches the stage of life where it takes on its own personality. It reaches critical mass and there is no slowing it down. That application forms new relationships and makes new friends.
Then in a cruel twist of fate, it forgets about you. After all, you have other children to raise. While we may look back in pride, our jobs demand we look forward with a combination of power, agility and leveraged experiences to make an impact for the future.
Now the question remains; “What are we to do about this?” The answer is easy but it does draw against your heart. The answer, my friend, is that we are left with the stories, those fascinating stores of how we did it. Yes, some people call that experience, but who wants to hear about experience when they can listen to a story.
What are your favorite stories?
I’ll never forget leading a large government Oracle-based BI project back in 1998 when you couldn’t get an Oracle person for 100 lbs of gold. I brought in 4 network engineers – yeah you guessed it, they were Novel network managers. I trained one to be a DBA and the other three to be developers. What a time that was; gathering requirements, navigating the murky waters of government contracting, designing complex integration between the US Air Force and the US Navy, data architecture and applications development…and at the same time training four people in the art of Oracle! The point that I remember most was bringing that last person on board. You see, the contract stated that the person had to have a 4 year degree. Well, that last person had only an A.S. degree – well to be exact, she had two A.S. degrees. I remember it well; walking into the General’s office to get an exception. It had come down to that…asking a General! I walked into his office and after I gave my 2 minute context introduction, I said “Sir, this person has two 2-year degrees and the last time I checked…2 plus 2 equaled 4″. Then I shut my mouth and waited for what seemed to be a very long time and he looked me up and down and finally gave me the go ahead to move forward.
What attachment do I have with that application that is still in production today? My attachment is through those stories which make up the sum of my experiences. It is from these stories that I am forming who I am and amassing my worth.
Happy Story Telling!
~Scott Felten
A Secret from an Old Man
December 3, 2008
I graduated college in 1985 equipped with a B.S. in Mathematics and an excellent work ethic. My first position was working for Ross Perot at EDS. I was 21 years old, dressed in a suit and slung COBOL code and stacks of punch cards. I was nervous and insecure. Here is what went through my mind:
In the morning I thought to myself; “Everyone else was smarter than me.” And “Everyone else is doing a better job than me.”
Around lunch time I dwelled upon thoughts like; “They like everyone else better then me.” And “I have to keep this job.”
On the drive home I would usually think; “I wonder what’s happening” And “I wonder who is out to get who and then of course when and how does that affect me.”
Of course I’d stay awake and think dreadful thoughts; “What would I do if I was let go” And “Where could I get a job fast, very fast.” The last thought of the evening was usually something like this…”Man, I gotta get a handle on this because these thoughts are killing me.”
When we are young there is a lot to learn. If only I knew then that I’d be in my career for 24.5 years and never miss a single paycheck or be without a job for even a day. Even more solid than that, I’ve never been without a career for a moment. Not that I knew then or even now what I’d like to do when I grow up, but my career found me. My skills and talents and experiences guided me naturally to what I was good at and what I liked. Sometimes I strayed a bit off course, but was always lead back to my calling.
Well, back to the late 1980′s and my insecure thoughts. It was then that I met a man in his 70s. He sold encyclopedias door to door. He was smooth and conversation flowed from him effortlessly. He was gentle and kind and my wife and I were enamored by his seemingly command of life. I bought (and still have) a set of those encyclopedias and we spent an evening with him and his wife. Of course we went to pick the books up and we stayed for 6 hours. He shared with me something that I will never forget and it changed my life. As a matter of fact, I share this nugget of wisdom from time to time when I see someone struggling with the same insecurity. You see, when he was 18 years old he broke 100k in commissions selling door to door and he never looked back. He told me about how he dresses in the morning to engage with people, how he gets their interest and holds their attention. How he genuinely cares for his ‘clients’ and how he wants to get them happily involved with his encyclopedias (not just sell them). He went on and on and we were riveted.
He asked about our plans and future, what we desired and worked for. We shared with him our dreams and our fears. I shared with him about my insecure thoughts and how most of the time I could handle them but at times I felt paralyzed by them. But it was what he said next that changed my life. It wasn’t anything magical or spiritual. It was simple. He said, “Well Scotty, you are only as secure as your ability to handle your insecurity. So, decide this minute that you are secure and there you go.”
You know, I didn’t like to feel insecure. It really played out in so many ways that was destructive; from caving in during negotiations, to acting subserviently, to holding back when you really could have done it, not taking risks, gossip and so forth. The simple truth is that we really are only as secure as our ability to handle our insecurity. Decide that you are secure. Be confident. Take risks, work hard and never give up. For me, this was a transforming time. This position change was noticeable. I went from leaning backwards to leaning forwards. When those feelings of insecurity raise their heads, just stare them down with guts and say to them that you have mastered the ability to be secure.
~ Scott Felten
It’s 11 O’Clock. Do You Know Where Your Databases Are?
November 11, 2008
Where are your databases? (And what is your strategy for knowing…)
Saying and doing are two different things. This is true and it’s also a good delineation along the lines of databases. How’s that you say? Well, for one thing, I have never worked anywhere recently (last dozen years or so) that had one database technology in play. Different products have different value propositions, especially over time – as new features and capabilities are rolled into existing product lines and even new database technologies are introduced. Recently I had an engagement where they used IBM’s DB2, Oracle 10g, Sql Server, Sybase, My Sql, Informix and even Red Brick (never heard of that one before). Sounds like it’s out of control, doesn’t it? Well, to tell you the truth, it wasn’t and here’s how I got there.
First of all, they had a strategy. This strategy was built on a common taxonomy of terms that was agreed upon by all parts of the organization. These terms were used to classify and underpin the database technologies. With these terms, there was a foundation and a single version of understanding in which to base conversations and negotiations on. Here is an example that might be helpful for you.
Proposed (or Candidate) – This category represents those technologies (databases) that someone or a team would like to be considered as part of the enterprise architecture. The process has not yet started for technologies with this classification, but they have been identified as having some initial momentum towards inclusion.
New (or Emerging) – This term does not reflect the current state of the technology, but rather the current state in the context of the organization. For example, the technologies with this classification have been approved and accepted as part of the enterprise’s strategy, but with a limited focus. These technologies indicate that there is a high degree of oversight in when, how and where they are used. It could well be that there is a need for DB2 (which is not a new technology by any stretch of the imagination), and in this case it could be that DB2 is ‘emerging’ in the context that the organization does not yet recognize this as a standard, but has agreed that it can be (should be) used within limited scope with oversight.
Standard (or Approved) – This term denotes that these technologies and products are used within the normal business practices. When these products are leveraged, there is not much discussion on scope and the oversight is usually limited to the technical framework in place versus the bigger discussions of should we and could we and how would it impact the rest of the organization and so on… We like to have standards so that we can focus our attention on solving business problems and not on political positioning and other side issues.
Contained (or Restricted)- This term refers to those technologies that are ‘restricted’. These are non standard and are usually relegated to existing applications. This is an important part of the strategy. While the scope is known, the oversight is focused on limiting the proliferation of these technologies for reasons of enterprise impact on the overarching strategy.
Declining (or Phasing Out)- This term refers to all those technologies that are being identified as ones we wish to sunset. Here this technology, while still in production, is not allowed for any new use and a plan is in place (that also includes a sunset date) for its removal from the organization.
Retired (or Removed) – This term refers to those technologies that are not allowed to be used at all under any circumstances within the organization. A formal write up of the justification and historic retirement plan must accompany the technology.
One important thing to note is that this taxonomy of classification is not linear. It could be that My Sql was identified as a candidate and after the proper feasibility discussions and general impact analysis, it was promoted to emerging. After some experience and discussions, it might be that My Sql becomes established within a niche use. When this is the case, My Sql would be promoted to contained; not that we want to phase out the product, rather, we want to liberate is growth but highly restrict it to a certain scope of use.
Start to understand your environment and where your technologies are located within the database strategy 101. Set goals to identify those that are too costly and create a strategy to sunset them. At the same time, look out on the horizon and see those new (or new to you) technologies that may play a part in your organization in the (near) future – start to embrace them and set processes up to manage them as they flow from term to term within the organization. Determine what your real standards are and socialize them. It could be that your headaches of the future can be averted if you properly set up a containment strategy. The benefits are there for you to harvest, but you have to do your part by leading the way.
Once we know what we have and classify those database technologies (or any technology or practice), we can then focus on the implementation of the strategy; Better, Faster and Cheaper. For without this mature taxonomy and disciplined approach, we will struggle to get a hold of our infrastructure and we need to be able to not only get a hold of our infrastructure, but to wrestle it to the ground an show it who is boss!
Enjoy the Journey!
~ Scott Felten
Career Planning: 10 Things That Really Matter!
October 29, 2008
I have three daughters who are nearing the age when they will seek careers. This is a bit scary for me but that is fodder for another blog. Today, I want to share with you some of the advice that I give college aged kids who are thinking about the future. No matter who you are and no matter what you plan on doing, if you want to succeed, you must make sure that you follow these strategies!
1. Trajectory! It’s not about where you are, it’s about where you are heading! I remember when I was making next to nothing and wondering what was going to happen. I knew I was working hard and that I had the ‘never give up’ work ethic (together this is called momentum). I knew I was in a field that was growing. But, I really wanted to make enough to support my family. My wife and I talked about my career trajectory. I was tracking up! As long as I kept my path point up, it did not matter where I was today. The most important thing is to keep that long term focus and to keep your plans rising up. Time will take care of the rest. What affects trajectory…Aim and Momentum!
2. Look the part! If you look like a bum, you will get paid like a bum – and who can afford that type of income. Who is your boss’ boss and what do they look like? Find out and cloth yourself in their cloths. So, wear what your boss’ boss wears. Dress like the position you want to have in 3-5 years. 90% of people’s confidence in you is judged within 10 seconds of them meeting you.
3. Never, ever give up! There are times to change direction, but this is not the same thing as giving up. When faced with a challenge, take it and keep going – keep trying and persevere. When you see the really hard problems and others are running, volunteer! What can go wrong – if you make it happen, you are a hero. If you can’t, well no one else was able to either. Success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration!
4. Learn baby learn! One time I walked into the office of a general for a project that I was on. We had a short (and focused) discussion. He wanted things done right. I was prepared because I bought a book on how to do it. In my honesty I told him that I was going to do it by the book. I meant literally, I was going through this book section by section and I was going to follow it. He took at as that phrase goes… “by the book”. His reply, yes, I want it done by the book. I didn’t correct him. When we stop learning, we stop earning.
5. Take responsibility! There are people who I depend on. These people say, “I’ve got it” or “I’ll get it done”. These are the people that I will turn to every time. When someone takes responsibility they look different than those who don’t. Responsible people take the initiative and remain focused on the task. They understand that it’s not about them, it’s about the team, the project, the task. People who don’t take responsibility walk that gray area in-between, they ride the fence, they leave themselves outs and look to blame early. They portray that it’s really about them. If you want to be responsible, then make a decision to do so – it’s really that easy.
6. You will never fail! Understand that there is no way that you can fail. People don’t understand what failure is any more. Failure is when you give up and according to number 3, that can’t happen to us! We will learn many many ways how things don’t work. Don’t confuse this with failure. Be like a stamp and stick to it! When you find how something doesn’t work, this is also called learning. But as long as you keep on trying (number 3) and keep learning these lessons (number 4) and take responsibility (number 5) while dressing the part (number 2) and knowing that it doesn’t matter so much where you are now (number 1), you cannot fail!
7. Be Humble! My kids play a lot of soccer and one day they asked me to play in an indoor league. Now it’s been a long time since I played and I was pretty out of shape and everyone else was better than I. Well, I told my kids that if I scored, I would simply jog back to my position and act like I’ve done this before. That game I scored two! And while I was really excited, I did what I said, I acted like this was expected. When we are humble and give credit to others, without saying it we communicate “Of course I was successful, that’s what I’m about”. But the magic is that when people see/say this about us, it’s true in their minds. But, when we have to tell them how great we are, they don’t believe us.
8. Act like everyone is watching, all the time! Our character is our sacred honor. It is the most expensive thing we have. If your actions depend upon who is watching, I guarantee that one day it will catch up with you and your character will be bankrupt. Don’t let this happen. From day one make an oath to yourself that you will always act in a manner that you would normally do when the big boss is around.
9. Let your yes be yes and your no be no! Politics is when you filter what you say so that you will influence your current audience. While it is ok to adapt your communication style and content to your audience to communicate different points, it is not ok to slant your motives to gain favor for one group at the expense of another. When people do this, it is poison and will kill the team and eventually your career. Are you the antidote or poison?
10. Rewards follow performance! I have seen many people’s career stall because they won’t move on something because it’s not their job or they don’t pay me to do that. I have actually had many people say they won’t go that extra mile because they are not getting paid for it. Well, until you understand that rewards follow performance, your prophecy will be self fulfilled. It takes performance and most times, continuous and consistent excellent performance to be rewarded. The person whose career excels is the person who makes high performance a standard.
When You Have Trust
October 28, 2008
The other day we had a technical team meeting where we were discussing access rights for a global solution that we have begun to implement but have a need to extend some functionality. Well, it gets complicated pretty quickly. To be honest, I started drawing out all the potential combinations of variables that can occur and I’m trying to lead the group through this thought.
Well, this one “rogue” guy (I think to myself) keeps bringing up an idea. I hear it but it doesn’t seem to make sense to me. So, I discount it and try to get the group to move on. He keeps bringing it up and won’t let it go. We all tell him that he sometimes has listening problems and to hang it up for a bit.
Does he do this? No. Not because he is really a “rogue” guy or because he enjoys making things difficult (I have encountered my share of these people), rather, James knows that he can trust the group. James feels the trust and sees it played out over time. James knows that the environment is mature enough to handle the truth. Remember that line, “You can’t handle the truth” from the movie A Few Good Men. There was no trust in that relationship – that is for sure!
James sticks to his guns and won’t let it go. He did so in an encouraging way, but forceful. Finally, it dawned on us that he was right. Had James not felt the trust, he would avoid the conflict by either shutting down and ceasing to contribute or becoming defensive; and we would not have the proper solution to the problem. Way to go James (you know who you are)!
By the way, I called him later that day and said thanks and that I appreciated the way he handled himself. I thanked him for putting the needs of the group ahead of the need for him to avoid unpleasant conflict. This was a highlight for both of us that day. We saved a few days time and money and walked away with a better solution for less money.
In a recent blog post I wrote “This is a key point (gaining trust) because without trust the team is guarded and people don’t share. A solid foundation of trust is necessary for any team that wants to be highly successful.” Conflict is a necessary part of a team. But healthy conflict doesn’t focus on people, rather it focuses on the topic at hand.
Did you ever experience a team that had conflict and someone when historical? Not hysterical, historical! You know; “…yeah, but remember when you did this and you said that and he said… and she said…” This is because there was a lack of trust. When this happens, people focus on defense and of course sometimes a good defense is a good offense. Other times they shutdown and withdraw. Either way, that conflict is not healthy.
Conflict + Trust is healthy debate and leads to innovation!
Conflict w/o Trust leads to murder (of at least one’s character).
Go find someone to Trust.
~ Scott
Business Intelligence, Done Right
October 14, 2008
Business Intelligence efforts often fail, not because of the technicians, but because of the disjointed relationships we (IT) have with the business. We fear relationships. We think that our investments and communications are a waste of time because we have a tremendous amount of downward pressure to deliver – so we start quickly and build according to some document that we substitute as face time with our partner. To fix this problem, we need to take the best part of our building experience as ITers and put that together with the best part of relationship management – skills that we often don’t posses, but are vital to successfully delivering value and meeting our partners expectations.
{more on “The Right Way” below}
Kimbal’s methodology calls for the segregation of the three layers of BI and this is fantastic. There are in fact three separate BI tracks that can and should run concurrently. The three tracks are:
1. Technical Architecture
2. Data Architecture
3. Application Architecture
After all, we need to make progress on the technical choices of architecture and tools. What is our environment like, what standard tools do we use, what is our technical strategy to frame and contain our BI effort?
At the same time, we need to start looking at our data. What data will we need to work with, what is it, how should it relate, where does it come from, how do we extract, transform and load it. These are considerations of the data architecture effort.
Again, at the same time, what level of innovation do we need to arrive at? How do we present this to the user and provide the desired interaction to help mine data to craft information.
Kimbal’s Methodology
This methodology is right on! It is triggered by and the scope is managed by the requirements. These requirements are derived from that box that is labeled “Program/Project Planning”. But it’s not enough, it’s not there yet! In my mind, this is a bit limited and really only addresses the “Go” portion of the project – to build. All too often, BI projects fail because of thing that are ‘above’ or before the Go. Here is what I have found to be the differentiating factors.
Requirements should be built from Strategy. Why are we building this BI application? What are the important questions that need to be answered? What is the value that these answers bring; are we making things better or faster or cheaper? A well formulated strategy addresses these questions and should manage the deliverables. When we rely on a set of requirements to build a BI solution, we are abstracted from the strategy and this is not good. When this abstraction occurs, we are removed from the business value and are relegated as a commodity…simply build to this specification.
However, strategy is not born without a birthing process. The birthing process consists of a couple of elements. The first is an alignment or a focus at most senior levels. If we can’t align on the true aspects of the business, we are forced to work in a vacuum and can, at best produce a solution that is severely slanted. This slant often caters to the loudest voice or the biggest ego. Worse, our solution is then forever raised in a silo that contributes to expensive growth and maturity with a limited enterprise appeal. If and only if we get this alignment, we are doomed to deliver value slices rather than holistic value.
This alignment is not enough. After we have a focus, we then have to dive deep within the organization to see what raw materials we have to work with. I refer to this phase as ‘Discovery’. Once we are aligned and focused on the business value, what do we have to work with? What data exists in what format and at what availability and quality?
To state this concisely, we have the following necessary phases that will lead us to success.
1. Alignment – A common focus with enterprise level buy in.
2. Discovery – An exploration to ascertain our resources and an evaluation to ensure it supports the common focus.
3. Strategy – The actual strategy that is an outcome of “What do you want” + “What do we have”.
4. Requirements – The plan of how to get there from here.
Now, we are ready to “Go” forth and multiply! We are ready to build! And we know what we are building (requirements) and how the effort will benefit the organization (strategy). We know what we really have to work with (discovery). And finally, we have those committed at the top who are committed at the deepest levels of the effort and will both support/defend the effort as well as ensure that its accepted and reused across the enterprise.
Putting it all together, let me suggest the following methodology…
Sometimes we are asked “Why are you just sitting there? Do something!” We need to rally and fight the urge to just do something. We need to change that around as ask “Why are you just doing something? Sit there” (and get focused, aligned, discover, produce strategy, birth requirements…then we can “Go” and do something excellent).
The difference between a commodity and a partner is the level of time you invest in the relationship.
Take the time to do it right and it will be celebrated!
The next series of blogs will outline the above components; alignment, discovery, strategy, requirements and the three team approach to building BI solutions. Feel free to shoot me some questions or thoughts you may have regarding these topics.
Enjoy the ride!
~ Scott Felten
The Data Governance Color Palette
September 24, 2008
It is no secret that people are different. My wife loves process and order. She is disciplined and pays attention to detail. I, on the other hand, love chaos and new things. I like to create and invent.
Then there are those accountant/analyst folks who love details and facts. Finally, there are those who are people people – the ones who pay careful attention to others and their feelings. True, these are simply attributes that we all have in varying degrees. But, it is no secret that we have some in big doses while others are very small.
So, what happens when governance groups are out of balance? What if we have a data governance group that is made up of ten people like me…loving new things and big visions with little to no attention to detail? Or, there are ten folks like my wife – loving processes and steps to implement. Not a whole lot of new out of the box thinking – but truly skilled in the art of process.
Also, imagine ten folks sitting on the data governance group that are those people people – they think of relationships and peoples feelings. Are these people going to be ‘enforcers’ of the rules and standards? Finally, how about those factual lovers? Can they implement?
We need to have a well balanced governance team that has the right amount of visionary ability plus the people needed to validate those ideas against facts and figures plus those important people people who can tell you how to craft that message and how to reach people plus those implementers, those who can frame the plan in all its glory!
Well, if you have been around governance groups at all, you have seen cases where the team is not well-rounded. There are just too many of the same type of people in the group – or one ‘attribute’ exists in a dominate individual which infects the entire team.
Consider the following:
Where the yellow are the folks who are visionaries, always thinking up new things, but don’t have much skill at details, working with people or process.
Where the blue are the folks who are based in facts and figures.
Where the red are the folks who are those people people.
Where the green are the folks who are highly skilled in the art of process.
I was thinking about these different attributes and what happens when we have an imbalanced group. What are the warning signs, what can we expect when we are unbalanced. In the above diagram, I list the three roles of governance at the top and the different attributes in the color bands. Crossing them are the things that seem to happen when that group is out of balance.
For example, I have seen this many times…a team that is unbalanced and mostly blue (based in facts and figures) spends lots of time to produce the “10 Commandments”, then they post them on the world for all to see. These are the folks who develop principles and standards with complete definitions and taxonomies. These become artifacts or works of art to hang up and be proud. But nothing happens after this? Why, because they needed the greenies!
Or take the unbalanced team in the yellow zone… lots of big ideas come from this team. We often see a tremendous amount of momentum out of the gate because they sold senior leadership who moved mountains to take advantage of these ‘game changing’ ideas. But, very soon their progress stops, more than stops – we simply never hear from those folks again. Why, because those ideas were not tested by the blue folks!
Another example is an unbalanced green team… they spend tons of time to put together standard operating procedures which stream line operations. But this group misses the mark because they didn’t have that spark that a yellow brings!
Finally, when those red folks who are so needed in the group are in the majority – we have to be careful that we don’t approach the governance from the touchy feeling perspective, where we may be more interested who’s feet we may step on.
I have only touched on four cells – there are twelve to consider. Think it through. We need all these attributes and need to have them in a balanced manner. Look for those warning signs and think about who is in your group. Do you need to bring about change? Start by knowing where you are, looking at where you have been, so that you can make those adjustments to take you where you want to go!
Happy Balancing!
~Scott Felten
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