“Don’t pee in the pool,” one customer’s rollout strategy
I love how creative our customers are.
I got an email this week from a big pharma company who’s about to begin their rollout of Clearspace. This customer has impressed me in a number of ways. They actually did a “Coke vs Pepsi” test before choosing which collaboration platform to standardize on. They brought in people from around the company and had them use each application stripped of its Jive and Microsoft branding.
This is smart because ultimately the entire company would be using the end-choice. As an aside, this same company is one of the earliest adopters of the iPhone as an enterprise device. They have an amazing people-centric approach to technology. Both the iPhone and Clearspace seem to be on similar schedules and it’s cool to see all the ways this company gets employees involved.
Their rollout plan
They actually spent a lot of time thinking through and testing out what to call their internal instance of Clearspace and just how to roll it out. I thought their choice of a “pool” metaphor not only works for the reasons they articulate below, but the need to just “jump into the pool” when it comes to people-centric collaboration like this often comes up in my conversations with people.
Bipolar Training
5-10 folks from each department were selected to be part of the soft launch program. Of those people, half of them were enthusiasts and half were technology laggards–but all were people that others turned to in some form or fashion. The training was more centered on great cases for using Clearspace and how to become proficient at engaging with others. The logic of including the laggards was to capture the, “well if Sally is in there using it, I can too.” This same seed group would play a critical part later on (see below).
Naming is important
A lot of our customers replace the name of the product (Clearspace) with their own company name or they create a completely new brand. In this case it was the latter. I’ve modified the logo for this post since the customer’s Marketing/PR department isn’t ok disclosing vendor associations.
Reasons for the Genepool Name:
- Shortens the learning curve (observed through focus groups)
- Sounds scientific
- Conveys a sense of shared community
- 8/10 people I asked liked it better than all the other ideas
- “Genepool” sounds like a collection of important “stuff” rather than a Livelink replacement or new “where files go to die” Document repository
Great “Genepool” metaphors:
- Becoming Proficient with the applicaion = Learning to swim
- Clearspace Policy Guidelines = Don’t pee in the pool
- Novice features = The Shallow end/ The wading pool
- Advanced Clearspace features = The deep end
- Space Administration = Adult swim
- Digg-like content area = The Hot Tub
Use it in a sentence…
- “Post a question in Genepool”
- “Did you check the ‘Pool first?”
- “Look for it in the ‘Pool”
- “Did you just read Todd’s blog post in Genepool?”
Get the VPs blogging
As part of their “Coke vs Pepsi” test with users, they also asked everyone what sorts of things would get them to participate. As we’ve seen with nearly all our projects, it was having top management both supporting the project but also actively participating. In this case the VP has committed to a regular blog called “The Diving Board.”
Explode the word out
It’s very hard to let a massive company know that there even is new software for them. These folks have done a stellar job breaking through the noise.
- Have posters with provocative questions plastered everywhere
- Email announcement
- All-hands/department meeting announcements
- Create tent-cards for everyone’s desk inviting them to log in
- Get the seed group (mentioned at the top of this post) to “sneaker-net” around and ask people if they’ve logged in, need help or training
What about you?
Are you in the beginning, middle or end of a social software deployment? Love to hear what you’ve seen work and what’s failed.
Things people have said about this post
This is great, thanks for sharing. A case I will bring with me when jumping into the pool.
[…] Go Big Always - “Don’t pee in the pool,” one customer’s rollout strategy - If you're going to get new technology adoption to bite then you have to be inventive. It's good to see how inventive some companies can be. […]
I love this approach! Internal marcom is very important when rolling out an enterprise 2.0 solution. In addition, they gave the solution it’s own identity, so its not just another “tool” within the organization. I wonder if the the Enterprise Octopus will make a cameo appearance in their materials someday
Here are some tips and tricks I’ve created and/or gathered from my customers and colleagues to encourage more widespread use:
To encourage blogging, set up a “blog counseling” forum and ask your star bloggers to monitor it and respond religiously.
Get a few folks from your helpdesk involved early.
Get one or two corporate communications folks involved early.
(stated above) Get one or two high-level execs involved early.
Accept that Xers, Yers, Boomers all approach this stuff differently.
Accept that the majority of your organization will only lurk.
Introduce the idea that feed readers are for learning, inboxes for confidential collaboration.
Do a pre-assessment (surveys?) to take a “before” picture. That way, you have something to measure against later, in case you must prove value to higher-ups.
Employ “big seed” viral marketing tactics (”Viral Marketing for the Real World”, HBR, May 2007); use existing email newsletters, intranet sites and conference calls to advertise.
Incorporate games and recognition into your internal marketing plans
If you’re a large organization, set up an internal ambassador group, whose goal is to educate and coach targeted groups of people whose participation would make a significant difference to the bottom line (e.g., customer-facing employees)
Don’t forget to track the lurkers. Reads are just as important as writes.
Forgot one important item: provide hands-on, “explain it to me like I’m 2″ ongoing guidance in person for the people in your organization who naturally propagate information on a large scale in your organization. Your trend-setters, your Malcolm-Gladwell connectors, your viral “infectors”, the people everyone listens to and tries to emulate. Some mistakenly think that these people are executives.
Positive first impressions of new software/ways of working come right after basic awareness by potential users of its existence in the enterprise.
Oops, hit submit by mistake. continuing previous post - Once you have a clear direction form senior management and consensus with key users internal marcom is an awesome way of building buzz - Simom Revell at Pfizer UK did a great job of launching basic web 2.0 tools virally inside his organization.
His slides at Office 2.0 last September were all about getting a groundswell of awareness and enthusiasm, worth finding on slideshare
Sam, how “big” is this big pharma company? The challenges I see with enterprise companies is that they have different teams working on social collaborations at the same time, but with different tools.
Sometimes teams work together, lets say PR and Marketing. But the needs of some teams are different and Sales feels they needs a different solution than the Marketing is working on.
Its silly to think this way. Consolidation and true collaboration is the key to a successful rollout and long-term acceptance by users.
@Julio I know how hard this consolidation really is. There are so many moving parts. Agreed with your They have over 10,000 employees.
@Gia Those are great best practices, thanks for sharing them.
This is an excellent post. I think the notion of isolating and engaging the go-to people, both early-adopters and laggards, is a huge step that many companies miss. Creating giant all hands snooze-seminars is not the right way to get people engaged.
I agree with Gia. Large organisations need evangelists to spread the word and display the benefits of any changes. People need to be intrinsically motivated to use new tools, because of the benefits they can achieve from their use, rather than any management edicts.
These connectors and mavens have the task of displaying the benefits through stories and examples. Stewart Mader talks about Wikichampions being clear communicators, providing coaching, being patient, enthusiastic, engaging and fun. Any large change in an organisation needs highly visible people with these characteristics to motivate others and drive the change forward.
Oliver - is this the slideshare you are referring: http://www.slideshare.net/revells/sowing-the-seeds-of-enterprise20-in-a-global-organization
I run a large developer community that has grown organically over time so my perspective is different. We started almost 6 years ago with forums and have layered in other parts over time. I wish we could move to an integrated platform and do it right knowing what we know now! Our efforts to integrate our disparate applications have been mixed at best.
Anyway I’m quite jealous of the luxury of starting a community project from scratch and not worrying about all the legacy code, content, and processes. I just sighed when I read this.
You Jivers have some savvy clients - if everyone paid this much attention to deploying new systems, we’d have a true brave new world on our hands.
I’d be willing to bet that, like many phamaceutical companies, they have a rich heritage in knowledge management, and in the literal value of information and interactions.
Sounds like they have the drivers about right as well - both fostering the bottom-up (jump in the pool), and top-down (the diving board). Exactly what we found in our Market IQ on Enterprise 2.0 just last month (free download - registration required - http://www.aiim.org/enterprise20).
Culture, strategy, attitude, *and* technology, it all matters - but the technology choice needs to follow rather than lead the rest. I highlighted the KM findings of the report in a presentation I gave last week at http://www.biztechtalk.com/2008/04/enterprise-20-k.html
@Jay - definitely agree on the legacy front. Much easier to start from scratch, although again, it’s much easier to pick a technology and run (without strategy, etc.), rather than to take the learnings you’ve accumulated, and trying again to do it right. “We need a social site!” “Great - but why?” “Uh… because… we… do?” “How will we know we’re successful or have failed?” (crickets) Transitioning is definitely an interesting experience - there is always the Michael Hammer approach. Blow it up, and try again!
Gia sounds amazingly good at her work. Here are a few more pointers to dovetail on hers. Nominate some “community reporters” and these need not only be drawn from your mentors and veterans. Partner newbies, boomers, lurkers, with those who are less collaboration technology averse but also new (I picked up this idea from @Engagingbrand aka Anna Farmery) as a double win. The new member collaborator-types become more vested in the community as they help those who are less comfortable in the collaboration platform to have their say.
When someone wants to blog but feels inhibited let them blog-alog (have a dialog with another experienced blogger crediting both)
Acknowledge and even embrace (but never underestimate or dismiss) the pain of the learning curve. There is nothing more off-putting then hearing how “intuitive” something seemingly obtuse to you is. When laughing at how intuitive it isn’t, some folks overcome their fears of participating.
Make sure there are a number of safe-haven-mavens. Those are resources for whom no question is a stupid one.
Oh, here’s a lesson I learned from one of my pals who helps customers spread the use of social software for a living (and from a customer I worked with directly)…
Executives, be at peace with the fact that, after finally giving your employees a voice (and depending on your culture), they might spew forth all the complaints and ugliness that have been festering in your organization for months or years. This is good. You’d rather keep it in the family than plaster it all over the Internet. You’d rather know what’s wrong so that you can fix it, than sticking your head in the sand. Don’t take it personally. Be humble and listen, and let them know you’re listening, even if you can’t fix “it” for awhile.
This is how you gain trust. This is how you model the community you hope evolves. And, once your people complete an organizational colonic flush, you can get constructive.
Oh, and don’t get all up in your pants if they upload a damn picture of SpongeBob in their profile. Pick up the phone and ask them to replace it, if that’s what your culture is all about.
@Dan We got lucky when we started because nobody cared about what we were doing. We were left alone, there were very few pesky questions from question-people. Today if you try anything social everyone is interested.
Our community is external with a lot of participation from internal people. It’s at the middle-aged state where decisions made years ago have locked us into many, how should I put it, non-optimal patterns. On the other hand it’s still thriving and has launched more than a few careers within the company. I guess we’re still at the bleeding edge but for us it’s what to do with an existing community that could be so much more. There isn’t much research for that, it’s all around how to start a community.
Blow it up? Sure I’d be game for that a lot of days. Where’s the dynamite?
@Gia or Carl Spackler.
[…] Rather than repeat the latest story, I’ll simply point to the provocatively titled Don’t pee in the pool post which sets out some of the tactics a client operated to implement his company’s […]
Great stuff…thanks for sharing. We’re just beginning to build an external Clearspace community and have been struggling to find an apt metaphor of our own, let alone integrate it into our roll-out strategy. This case study gives us a fabulous example on how to do it right.
[…] Go Big Always - “Don’t pee in the pool,” one customer’s rollout strategy (tags: enterprise2.0 blogs collaboration community management socialmedia socialnetworking toread) […]
I love all of this. And Gia’s tips are really good.
So, one thing is in common for all of these successful internal rollouts: a core of very passionate and very talented people who are committed to making it happen; not because they have to, but because they want to.
I can’t see any of this stuff working without that important ingredient.
Thanks for sharing, Sam! I wonder where the “pool” analogy came from?
I was part of this initial project team and cannot agree more with Chuck Hollis — it was the passion, focus and involvement of the team with the user that made it successful. Congratulations, guys! Great job. I’m proud.
Sam,
This is a great example of a well planned roll out. What a contrast to the top down, “Use this tool!” roll outs that are still common.
Thank you for sharing this.
Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams Report (April 23, 2008)…
The People Part of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams SearchCIO released a series of papers on planning an enterprise collaboration strategy, including “Getting Everyone on Board”, “Improving Productivity” and “Tools and Technologies”. Pa…
Good post, a little bit about what Gia Lyons had to say. When Sabre Holdings (Travelocity) rolled out Cubeless, exec buy-in really wasn’t the issue, or at least the “biggest” issue. Problems came in two different forms…
1. Openness, in a way, can turn people off. Where I am coming from is the inevitability of a small fraction of your employee base that will be so enamored with your networking product that they will overload ti with, to be frank, crap content. Granted, it not necessarily an HR problem, but for those to have legit business related questions, your product may not feel like the right “forum”. I guess “too slapstick” for a hardcore technical question.
2. Bitch is fine. Bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch is not. Its a social networking turn off when there are individuals who bitch constantly in the community. The community doesn’t want to be social then, who wants to.
FYI. Magnets worked really well for us to spread the word about cubeless.
[…] Since the last customer highlight was so popular and since Nike’s newest online community went live yesterday, I thought I’d share some of the kick-butt things that they’re doing. They are an unbelievably creative company that spends a huge amount of time engaging with their customers. Loic had already interviewed Michael Tchao (first video). I got a chance to do the same with Roberto Tagliabue (who also provided videos about how Nike puts on events for their community’s “super users” as well as a commercial they made highlighting their top community member). […]