Prioritize Solutions to Structure the Unstructured
All of us, every day, waste time employing workarounds, whether because of things like broken copy/paste functionality from product to product in the same software suite, to “someone’s broken the group spreadsheet,” to someone else has broken a CRM report.
So, yes, enterprise software is … not great. And emerging tech is also … not great.
Enterprise software isn’t great because the software community has never prioritized an unsexy but vitally important piece of the puzzle, Software Maintainability. Here’s a great book on the topic by my former (and brilliant) boss, Joost Visser: Building Maintainable Software.
Emerging tech, on the other hand, is plagued by a different, toxic conundrum: what it takes for a tech founder to land investment is very, VERY different from what buyers and users need when it comes to using the product. I’d argue that by the time founders land the investment, they are more attuned to what VCs demand than what users need. Add to that the years of listening to those same VCs micromanage product direction, as well as listening to new VCs buying in to each additional series of funding - none of whom are likely to ever actually use the product they are investing in - and, well, the landscape looks pretty dismal for the eventual customers.
Of course, for the most part the foundational tech (legacy enterprise software) is riddled with flaws, hence the need for emerging tech to plug those gaps. But each emerging tech point solution comes with its own integration flaws and functionality gaps. Thus requiring even more tech. In a never ending circle. Good heavens, it’s a bleak picture.
What Does This Have to do With This Structured Insights Sharing Initiative?
It has everything to do with it. It should not be that hard for us to share insights. While the market is harping on evangelizing the importance of being data-driven, you and I both know that our systems are sub-optimal for that purpose. In all but the best of companies, we are pulling data out of the foundational tools, manipulating it and then shoving it somewhere else. We are still communicating in un-integrated, static apps.
Enough.
Aren’t We Powerless Here?
As individuals? Yes. Together? No.
We are not powerless. In fact, together we are powerful enough to drive change!
Until the tools we need come to life, or at least become better than what we have today, we DO have a tool that we CAN use to advocate for change: our own voices.
And we are stronger if we use those voices together.
Contract for Humans-in-the-loop
A quick story about Turtl, the platform you’re reading this book on.
When I became a customer, I experienced customer care for the first time that felt like actual customer care. Onboarding was great, and they were keenly aligned to our needs throughout our customer journey. There when we needed it, hands off when we didn’t. Prior to Turtl, I’d not experienced that type of care with any tech vendor.
Here’s what so many of us usually go through: you know how you buy some tech? And then it doesn’t work with the tech you have, even though all parties claimed integration? Ugh. Let’s say you’re programming your social via an app, and there are issues with how it’s reporting into your marketing automation platform. Both vendors claim each other as partners, so this should be an easy fix via the two tech providers working together, right?
Hahahahaha
If you’re able to actually get through to a human at the marketing automation vendor, they will say it’s an issue with the social app. Easier to get ahold of someone at the social app company, but they will say it’s an issue with the marketing automation. Both will put up with you for a conversation or two and then they’ll ghost you.
Sound familiar?
Where Turtl was exceptional was when we experienced the inevitable integration hurdles. Even when the issue was clearly with the marketing automation vendor, Turtl was with us every step of the way, including pressing hard on all MAP resources.
My experience with Turtl was a lightbulb for me: I will never again contract for tech without an explicit, written in the contract, humans-in-the-loop agreement, and I’ll be very specific about it.
When the tech vendors don’t fulfill their end of the bargain, and then disappear after the sale, it exacts a huge productivity toll on organizations.
Every piece of tech that we have requires capacity to onboard it, learn it, use it, and then troubleshoot the inevitable downstream issues that come with it. We are doing workarounds and plugging gaps all the time for every piece of tech in our stack.
This is particularly grueling for marketing leaders, which I shared with the fab folks at London’s B2B Marketing GetStacked event, if you’d like even more detail.
Find out more about Turtl
Here
In whatever way you are comfortable, you simply must start sharing your views with your colleagues around the world. Whether you’re blogging, posting on social, speaking at industry events, the rest of us need to hear your perspective.
For folks who aren’t comfortable sharing publicly, that’s ok too. I’ve long been an advocate of Personal Advisory Boards, and although mine has morphed over the years, here’s my take on it: Baring It All. Critical to my success and results is continually being in touch with trusted peers who can give me the straight scoop.
The important thing is, publicly or privately, that we start sharing with each other. We need to know what’s working and what isn’t. The frenetic pace of work means we are too often heads down, focused on the tasks at hand and insane deliverables.
Advocate For the Tech We Need
A quick story. I am not currently a Sprinklr customer (although I look forward to being one). This summer, they were kind enough to publish my research (that you saw in Chapter 3) and invite me to a panel where we covered the painful cost to business from not having insights gathered upstream, in order to mitigate downstream customer experience risks.
In the course of these projects, I was lucky to get a couple of Sprinklr demos and a lot of time with their team, and I stumbled upon some key functionality they don’t even promote. Their core functionality is listening to and structuring ad hoc insights that exist unstructured on the web.
As if that’s not cool enough - do you know what they do without even bragging about it? Even though it’s too special not to brag about? They make their reports easy to share! Even with colleagues who don’t have a license. Brb weeping.
See something cool in Sprinklr that your colleague needs to know about? Said colleague doesn’t have a Sprinklr seat? No problem. Sprinklr (again, weeping) doesn’t block you from sharing. They actually facilitate their customers’ sharing.
You know, as opposed to other tech, where you have to do some crazy manual, static process to share something with someone else who doesn’t have a seat. Raise your hand, (especially you, marketers) if you have done manual research, downloaded and then emailed colleagues analyst reports, let’s say, all because your company could only afford one or two seats.
Or, how many of you have had (again, marketing example) data in one tool that you’d like to share with other colleagues? But its functionality doesn’t integrate well, and you can’t share via a CRM report. So, again, you’re pulling data out of a tool, manipulating it in some way, and then communicating it back to colleagues via a static app. Too. Much. Time. Wasted.
You Know What I’d Like to See?
Conference sessions, blogs, twitter threads - heck, I’d even take an Instagram story - on the tech we need. The functionality we need. Instead of the incessant pitches on what we’re all doing wrong, perhaps vendors need to hear from us on what *we* need.
The challenge is that all of the non-pontificators, those who are doing the actual work all day every day, have the least capacity to be pulling all these threads together. See above re: time wasting. Sigh.
And that’s where talking with folks outside our organizations, within our own functional areas, in our digital communities, can help us move forward and have attention focused on the solutions we need.
There is power in numbers. Let's hit the metaphorical streets in protest of the astronomical amount of time, energy, and maybe most importantly, money , we all waste year after year.
Afroze Ali, Human-centric Experience Strategist | Entrepreneur | Author
My own experience in change leadership has been more “enthusiastic cheerleading for change” rather than a structured approach to motivate others. Afroze’s book, In Power to Empower, is a must read for all of us hoping to improve our skills at leading change effectively.
I know first-hand how well Afroze combines deep expertise with both a zen and strong leadership style. Her group navigation skills are something to behold.
Her book is great; here are just a few of my key takeaways:
Connect with Afroze on twitter and LinkedIn. She’s a gem.
