Working Out Loud – Mythbusting and Tips

Helping people feel more comfortable working in public rather than private

What is ‘working out loud’?

Working out loud is the art of narrating, and doing, our work in public. It’s about doing what we do in a visible way to our colleagues. It’s a generous way of working and we get back what we put in.

Not working out loud means we work in private at the pace we want, but we may miss out on important information. Other people cannot become engaged in what we’re working on and may feel like we’re doing things to them rather than with them. Working in isolation, giving others no visibility could also lead to duplicated effort because people don’t know what’s being worked on.

What are the benefits of working out loud?

Working out loud helps us make better decisions

Other people may have knowledge, experience and perspectives that could improve the quality of our decisions. We don’t know what we don’t know. Working out loud means people that we may not even know exist can see what we’re working on and offer input to help us make better decisions based on information from people closer to the action. If an organisation’s Product Development team works in an open way, specifications can be enriched by the insight gained from people in the Customer Support team who interact directly with customers.

Working out loud helps increase engagement

We can’t make people engaged. Engagement is an outcome. People become engaged naturally when they have the opportunity to get involved and take ownership. Working out loud makes it easier for people to get involved.

Working out loud helps organisations be more adaptable

If all decisions have to go through the ‘top’ of an organisation (Senior Leadership or Managers), it can take time to receive responses and begin acting on the new information. Organisations constantly need to respond to changes – markets, competitors, customer needs and internal. Working out loud means everyone, throughout the organisation, can immediately access the information and expertise they need to inform the best decision. When more people have more insight into the decisions that are being made, the organisation can be more aligned to strategic objectives.

Busting some myths

While helping organisations on the journey from working in private to working out loud, here are some of the myths we’ve encountered.

Myth: Too many people will get involved and it will slow me down

If we work out loud, then yes, it’s more likely that people will get involved if they are motivated. That’s the point, these contributors care about the organisation and want to help create the best work. Set expectations up front about the timeline of the project and who owns what decisions. This way, you still welcome feedback and you are also clear about roles and responsibilities.

Myth: My work isn’t relevant to others

Many people aren’t open to sharing their work publicly because they don’t think it’s relevant to others. The reality is we aren’t actually in the best position to determine if our work is relevant to other people. The other people are better suited to evaluate this. You never know who on another side of the organisation could benefit from the work you are doing, so before you post something in private, think about whether the benefits of it being in private outweigh the benefits of it being in public.

Myth: I don’t want to create more noise for other people

Previously in organisations, the recipient had very little control over what information was sent to them. For example, with email – the ‘sender’ chooses who to send email to, and the recipient has to click through, open and read each email.

Social networking brings a shift in the way that communication flows. Messages can be posted in public, and the power is shifting to the ‘receiver’. Individuals have more choice. They can follow the things they find interesting and scan through a stream of relevant messages rather than open each one individually.

Myth: I’ve been hired to do this job, other people should only do their own job

People have many skills beyond their job description. By working in the open, you can attract people with knowledge that you didn’t know about to help add value to what you’re working on.

Tips to help make the shift to working out loud

  • Make working out loud the default: Think about what you’re currently working on. Does it really need to be private? Ask: “would the benefits of working in public be greater than if I worked in private?”
  • Be confident: People will see your work. This might feel uncomfortable at first. The quality of your work could be improved by their input and advice.
  • Encourage an open culture: Will people be motivated to share? Changing culture can take a long time, though small incremental changes can make a big difference. Begin by helping our Leaders (those that set the tone) see the benefits of working out loud, and encourage them to role-model the behavior they want to inspire in others.

How would you help people feel more comfortable working out loud?

 

The Evolving Enterprise: Thoughts from E2

I recently traveled to Boston for the E2 Conference. This year’s event focused on how the enterprise technology landscape is changing, and how the influx of social, mobile, cloud, big data, and new software architectures are allowing organizations to move quicker and reach new customers faster than ever. I had an opportunity to speak about these trends on-stage during a keynote with Fritz Nelson, VP and Editorial Director of UBM. Other thought leaders from across the industry also shared their perspectives on these shifts in technology.

One of things I look forward to doing most when attending events like E2.0 is sitting down with press and analysts in attendance. These meetings create an opportunity to exchange thoughts and ideas, as well as learn more from those who keep a finger on the pulse of this increasingly changing industry. Things have changed dramatically in the 4 years I’ve been talking to press and analysts in our industry. Back then, I would start talking about the pace of change and the importance of empowering employees and they would stop me to ask questions about compliance and specific features such as customer facing analytics. Now they’re all nodding in agreement as we discuss the importance of choosing vendors based on their direction and velocity rather than any checklist of features. They’re also talking about the changing nature of business and the importance of empowering employees and optimizing for velocity and agility. Some of them almost sound like they could be on our payroll. We’ve come a long way.

The most interesting conversation I had was with digital strategist and blogger Mark Bonchek. We compared notes on the future of work and found we were aligned in our beliefs that the organizational structure of companies would radically change in the future. When I asked him what large companies were good examples of this he pointed to the military, which realized in the last decade that the traditional hierarchical organizational structure, which resembles most companies, wasn’t agile or fast enough to beat an increasingly decentralized, networked enemy.  So they rewired the military to act more like a network so they could coordinate across silos and allocate resources, ultimately increasing mission effectiveness. General McCrystal, who’ve I’ve quoted in my talks as having said, “The wisest decisions are made by those closest to the problem, regardless of rank,” actually left the military to start a firm to advise companies on how to follow suit.

During my conversation with Mark, I also started to ask myself what Enterprise 2.0 was actually supposed to mean. I see “social” in many of the definitions, but I was wondering whether we couldn’t learn something from Web 2.0.  Web 1.0 described sites (products) where every user only added incremental value, usually only to the site owner, such that new users added value in a linear way. I think this describes employees in E1.0 too. Each employee has a narrow range of responsibilities which are meant to support their immediate boss and so on. As you add employees you mostly get linear (or diminishing) value. Web 2.0 described sites (products) where each new user not only added value to the site owner, but also to other users. The value of the whole system increased exponentially as new users were added a la Metcalfe’s Law. In this way, a site with far fewer users could be far more valuable very quickly. So maybe E2 can be described in this way as well. An E2 company figures out how each employee can not only add incremental value to their boss, but also to other employees in the company. Such that adding employees should increase the value of the company exponentially.

I had another conversation with Tom Austin, VP and Gartner Fellow, where we talked about the rise of smart machines which would increasingly help humans find the information they needed to handle the ever increasing amount of non-routine work. Though he agreed that having systems surface valuable information that would aid decision making would be moot if employees weren’t actually empowered to make decisions. The exponential increase in data coupled with the rise in our ability to get faster feedback may be the single greatest catalyst for companies to realize they will have to empower their employees if they are to take full advantage of these capabilities.

These are things I think about constantly: the changing nature of work, how to empower employees, and how tools like Yammer can enable a “true enterprise 2.0.” It’s always inspiring to hear about the progress being made and the great strides companies are making – but we also know we have a long way to go to accomplishing our goal of improving every company and the jobs of every employee.

I often refer to a quote from economist William Gibson: “The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed.” And if there’s anything to takeaway from events like these, it’s that there are really passionate, innovative people paving the way. For example, Bill Oates, the CIO of the City of Boston, in his keynote talked about how he is a proponent of creating a place where people are encouraged to take risks, that there are burning issues in government that require them to change to survive. It’s pretty inspiring to hear that from someone in a sector that has been historically slow to change.

This summer, Yammer will be attending a few other events, including the Gartner Catalyst Conference in San Diego and Fortune Brainstorm Tech in Aspen. Let us know if you’re in the neighborhood or planning to attend. We’d love to hear from you!

Data Science and Marketing: The New Wave of Scientific Marketing

Data science has transformed the meaning of marketing at Yammer. Through data scientific measuring and testing, Yammer’s team of data analysts and marketers work together to grow a product that is based on actual user value and engagement. By creating and enhancing features that are specific to the user experience, Yammer has the ability of creating a virtual workspace that is intuitive.

To understand the importance of data driven marketing and the fundamentals of how it is used at Yammer, Director of Analytics, Peter Fishman and Data Analyst, Vincent Yates spoke candidly in regards to the importance of this methodology:

Q: What is data science and what skills are needed in order to become a data scientist?

(F) Data science is the intersection of data analysis: procuring, cleaning, and formatting data.

To be a data statistician, you’ll need the statistical skills of Nate Silver, the programming skills of Mark Zuckerberg, and the product vision of Steve Jobs. It’s a rare skill set to have. Collectively, we use analytics and advancing models to evolve the product and drive the way we market it to real people.

Q: Which scientific approaches do the marketing and analytics teams use to help Yammer become ubiquitous across the world?

(V) Yammer’s primary way of spreading is through virality, meaning our user base is our marketing department.  We depend on the fact that our users invite their peers because they are getting real value out of the software on a regular basis. The more peers who use Yammer together, the more value each user gets.

The marketing and analytics teams work together to identity and utilize any marketing channel that will attract the right type of users- people that will voluntarily adopt and benefit from the software and who will invite their friends and colleagues.

Q: How does analytics measure the effectiveness of Yammer’s marketing campaigns?

(V) We not only monitor how well the marketing campaign performs in the short term (I.e. click-through rates), but we also gauge how it impacts a user’s behavior within the product- an indication of the value they are getting out of Yammer. We do this by measuring “engagement,” a series of metrics that assess how a user uses the product differently after seeing the marketing campaign. For example, we observe how often they return to the product and what features they interact with. This way, we can evaluate the campaign from a more scientific and user-focused perspective.

Q: Do you believe there is a correlation between current user engagement and predicting future usage trends of Yammer?

(F) Yes, we believe there is a correlation and it is proven in the data. It’s interesting that as we track and measure engagement, we see more features that are aimed at improving those numbers. We sort the things we do as a function of the things that we track. At every step, we ask ourselves “will this actually encourage the users to use the product?”  The key is to change the mindsets in some sense.

Q: Where do you see data driven marketing in the future?

(V) A lot of companies are doing more clever things with data. Some are targeting behaviors and delivering ads that are modeled towards consumer behavior. Through segmentation and clever prediction, companies are able to generate more specific ads. The missing piece to this methodology is measuring the actual change in behavior and adjusting accordingly, frequently, and quickly.

At Yammer, we focus on engagement- something we are good at. We are actually able to quantify the precise impact of anything and everything we do at Yammer- every feature, every design, every marketing campaign. Through experimental design, we have the ability to improve and enhance the product iteratively based on real user experience and behavior.

So what makes this all unique? Simply, the vitality of data science and marketing together has allowed us to build and market Yammer around the actual value a user gets out of it. As Fishman would say: “To achieve and build up towards value, there must be a transparent system… in which we are able to market, measure, and be as effective as possible.”

Yammer Expands Platform Integrations, Including Klout

Yammer is more than just a place to communicate with colleagues, share content and work in teams; it’s also the social layer that connects all of your existing line of business apps. It’s our goal to create a platform that enables a uniform social experience across the applications people use every day at work. Yammer connects people to one another and to the information they need to get work done – whether this content is a document [note] created inside Yammer, or something shared from an external business app.

While we continue to create deeper connected experiences across Microsoft products, we are also committed to expanding our partner ecosystem to include all enterprise apps.  In fact, we’ve doubled the number of partner integrations to 60 since we launched the Yammer App Directory in October 2012. We’re excited to highlight some of our newest integration partners, including Klout, which we are introducing today.

Klout’s integration with Yammer is twofold. First, as a Yammer user, you can publish your public Klout score and expertise directly on your Yammer profile. If you’re someone who has a lot of influence in the public social-sphere, this is a cool way to showcase your Klout score in the workplace. The second aspect of integration allows Yammer admins to turn on a deeper integration with Klout to produce Yammer-specific Klout scores for employees based on their activity within their company’s Yammer network. This is a great opportunity for organizations to identify top contributors and subject matter experts based on their Yammer participation. Check out Klout’s blog post to learn more.

klout-yammer

In the past few months, Yammer has also added integrations with 7Geese, a social performance management tool, and Scoop.it, a content curation platform. From the business intelligence side, Yammer partner GoodData introduced a new and improved integration in conjunction with sentiment analysis provider Kanjoya. The updated integration combines operational reporting and sentiment analysis in the same dashboard, providing full context on the structured and unstructured data from your Yammer networks. Analytics is top of mind for companies looking to measure the ROI of their technology investments, and this integration offers a unique way to measure the impact of Yammer conversations.

GoodData

Just as the volume of Yammer partners has increased, so has the adoption of and activity on these apps. The frequency of transactions between Yammer and partner apps, measured through API requests, has increased significantly. Compared to year-to-date numbers last year, API requests have increased 180 percent and are on pace to grow 300 percent by the end of the calendar year.

Given the power and flexibility of Yammer’s open APIs, it’s no surprise that partners continue to reap the benefits of their integrations with Yammer. Mindflash, the online training platform who partnered with us last summer, has seen a significant jump in free trials since joining the Yammer App Directory. Mindflash is benefitting from the exposure their app gets on Yammer as they can target companies who are embracing technology within their organizations — in fact, Yammer is one of their top sources of trials.

Mindflash screenshot

We’re even broadening our partner ecosystem to include SharePoint partners. For example, SharePoint partners Axceler and Nintex have already developed integrations for Yammer, and we expect this trend to continue moving forward. The established SharePoint Partner ecosystem of over two thousand partners is embracing the app model, which is reflected within the SharePoint Store.

Coming this November, Yammer is launching a Developer’s Certification program, which will feature self-paced training, community groups, webinars, and a certification exam that develops the advanced skills necessary to be called a Yammer Certified Developer. It’s the latest addition to the certifications offered by Yammer Education Services. Needless to say, it’s an exciting time to partner with Yammer. There are more than 12,000 developers using our open APIs to create deeply social experiences for business users to make companies more open, connected and productive. We’re looking forward to watching this ecosystem grow even more. Check out the Yammer App Directory to take advantage of these new integrations or learn how to build your own.

 

 

Meet Rashida Powell, June Customer of the Month

Rashida Powell is an internal communications leader at Cbeyond. Her role includes effective creation, delivery, reporting and measurement of internal communications. She is passionate about helping companies reach their business goals through the use of strategic communications and about the contributions that digital tools make in this endeavor. You can find Rashida on her own blog, or on LinkedIn.

Cbeyond needed a way to celebrate our 1-year Yammer anniversary, train employees on how to use the tool, and increase engagement and participation. That is how “31 Days of Yammer” was born. Our “31 Days” campaign included daily tips; weekly contests; in-person, hands-on training; giveaways; and participation of our senior leaders. In the end, we were able to celebrate our Yammer milestone while teaching employees how to use Yammer to get work done – and we did it in a fun, engaging way! Mission accomplished. Read more about Cbeyond’s 31 days of Yammer campaign here.