Shared Services refers to the provision of a service by one part of an organization or group where that service had previously been found in more than one part of the organization or group. Thus the funding and resourcing of the service is shared and the providing department effectively becomes an internal service provider. The key is the idea of ‘sharing’ within an organization or group.
Background
As the title suggests, this is the third and final part of my Lessons Learned series and where I’ll propose the business model I’ve come up with. Here’s my previous related posts:
Monitoring the social software market. Using Radian6, I would create a Topic Profile including keywords for social software vendors / providers like Socialtext, Atlassian, Blogtronix, MindTouch, Cynapse, Liferay, Vignette…
Filtering out and tagging relevant buzz about product features and directions across the market
Offering free service exporting tagged content and publishing on blog
Offer monthly fee-based services where I would:
Net out tagged content with respect to product features and publish on permission-based site (Say for example there’s a few posts about “permissions”. I would then write a 1-liner describing the “permission feature” and link to the original supporting content published Step 1.3)
Offer hourly, or, tiered fee-based services where I would:
Collaborate with respective social software vendors’ / providers’ (Customers’) Product Managers to determine which features described in Step 2.1 should be elaborated
Engage with original content authors and elaborate on product features selected in Step 3.1
Privately share results of Step 3.2 with respective Customer Product Managers
Collaborate with respective Customer Product Managers to determine which features described in Step 3.3 require further assistance / services
Other variations
I could resell Radian6 Seat licenses – governed by certain permission restrictions and share my Topic Profiles for those:
Customers whose only pain is the cost of Radian6 (who can then determine later on if they want Steps 2 and/or 3)
Potential colleagues who would collaborate on Steps 1, 2 & 3
Thoughts?
What do think? If you’re a social software vendor/provider, is this a service that may be of interest to you? Do you currently have a Product Manager? If so, is your Product Manager able to keep up with the social content? Do you see the any value in consolidating the redundancy? Do you see where it really is just a matter of per·spec·tive? Where …
one piece of content can yield dividends for many investors
I’d love to hear from you folks in the field & prove there is a way we all could succeed at doing more with less.
per·spec·tive n. Subjective evaluation of relative significance; a point of view.
Perspective
Background
In an earlier post, How to infuse Social Content 2.0 into your social software lifecycle, I reiterated a common theme I noticed in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Social Software. That theme basically stated that many social software providers’ ability to execute may suffer due to their lack of resources, or, size does matter – according to Gartner. To address this issue, I posted my Trial offer to test the Social Content 2.0 Circle of Life where I proposed the services of a new player – the Community Product Manager. And finally, after receiving some much appreciated feedback, I followed-up with my Lessons learned from Social Content 2.0 Circle of Life – Part 1 where I clarified the distinction between a Community Manager, Product Manager and a Community Product Manager. In this post, I’ll focus on what I discovered during that trial week by presenting some concrete examples and how I think it fits into the big picture.
A fleck of paint
Recently, there’s been a lot of news about Space Junk;
In June 1983, the windscreen of the U.S. space shuttle Challenger had to be replaced after it was chipped by a fleck of paint measuring 0.01 of an inch that impacted at four kilometers per second.
So here’s my fleck of paint: For the purposes of discussion, I purposely selected trivial content in order not to distract from the point I’m trying to articulate. For now, you’ll have to trust me about the volume of content flying around in cyberspace 🙂
It’s really a matter of perspective
Here’s some content I found using Radian6 during the trial period and a few different perspectives:
Scenario 1: Broadcast of new feature to anyone listening for Socialtext
Tweet from pascal_venier on Feb 28, 2009 02:48 PM
Studying Socialtext wiki automatic “Email notification of Recent Changes” to your inbox. A nice feature. http://twurl.nl/ypcmoj…
Perspective
Possible reaction
Anyone connected to Socialtext
May retweet
Competitor’s Customer
Compares to current experience and may contact support, or, retweet
Competitor’s Community Manager
May need to ask Support about feature and if it exists, may tweet their own spin
Competitor’s Community Product Manager
Compares to current feature-set & if it exists then tweets their own spin else documents 1-line User Story. For example: “As someone interested in the contents published on a particular wiki, I’d like to receive email notifications of updates on a scheduled basis, so I don’t have to visit the site to ensure I have the latest content.”
@Liferay Our business problem… “News” both organizational and departmental. Need to display “all-in-one” and “by department”.. thoughts?…
Perspective
Possible reaction
@Liferay (Perhaps Community Manager)
Depending on their role, may forward to Support, or, Development
Anyone listening for Liferay
May retweet & contact Support too
Competitor’s Customer
Compares to current experience and may retweet & contact Support too
Competitor’s Community Manager
May need to ask Support about feature and if it exists, may tweet own spin
Competitor’s Community Product Manager
Compares to current feature-set & if it exists then tweet their own spin else documents 1-line User Story. For example: “As an author, I’d like to publish hierarchical content, so that groups based on the hierarchy have permission to read it.”
Scenario 3: Blog post targeting sought after project management features and referencing a few social software players
The Best and Worst Project Management Apps posted Feb 08, 2009 05:17 AM
… But there are a number of organizations that command large amounts of cash who need to procure project management systems for their divisions around the world. This includes NGOs, Government Agencies, International Schools, Non-Profits and more. In these harsh economic times, businesses should be looking for ways to tap into new markets. Most emerging economies still have nearly 100% room for growth, if only developers take into account their needs and circumstances.
Do any project management products exist that are ready to serve this multi-billion dollar sector?…
Anyone associated & listening for any of the above organizations
Compares to current experience and may comment, tweet, or, contact Support too
Competitor’s Customer
Compares to current experience and may comment, tweet, or, contact Support too
Competitor’s Community Manager
May need to ask Support about features and possibly comment/tweet their own spin
Competitor’s Community Product Manager
Compares to current feature-set & possibly comments/tweets their own spin else documents 1-line User Story for each missing feature. This example is really about architecture: “As an emerging market decision-maker for social software selection, I need a self-hosted solution, so my users need only intranet access since Internet access is not always available.”
Do you see the pattern?
Assuming the organization has a Community Manager then there may be an overlap in responsibilities with a Community Product Manager. However, this can be easily addressed with a little bit of collaboration. However beyond the overlap, a Community Product Manager could potentially extend the above scenarios by:
Reviewing User Stories with their counter-part Product Manager & determine any course of action
Engaging with the source and/or user community to elaborate and document the feature requirements
Supporting the Product Manager in the feature development lifecycle thereby completing the Social Content 2.0 Circle of Life (see post title)
Panning the River of News for gold
However, the most important pattern that emerged and lesson I learned was the one of Perspective. No doubt, even with the help of Radian6’s River of News, there’s a lot of work involved in mining for gold nuggets in cyberspace. But the beauty of striking these nuggets is that they’re environmentally friendly – they’re reusable! As illustrated in this post, one piece of content can yield dividends for many investors. It’s just a matter of perspective.
Up next
My next post will propose a Community Product Manager business model. I’d love to hear any of your ideas and will be more than happy to attribute and share them here.
Reflection
Do the above scenarios and quotes help in providing concrete examples of where a Community Product Manager can add value to your development process? Do you need more? Do you have any examples of your own you could share with me?
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