Customer-Focused Community Source: Concepts and Processes Mark Notess, Development ManagerUITS/Digital Library Program, Indiana University

Customer FocusWhat is it?Why do it?How can we do it?July 2009210th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A.

What is customer focus?The answer would seem obvious, but…July 200910th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A.3

What is Customer Focus?1. We have met the customers and they are not us.July 2009410th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A.Imagine a copyrighted image of Pogo sitting here, saying, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”Next Bench

Who are our customers?July 2009510th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A.CIOIT StaffSupportOther StaffInstructional Design/ConsultingLibrariansFaculty AStudent AFaculty BStudent BFaculty CStudent CEtc…

How Do We Differ?July 200910th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A.6

What is Customer Focus?We have met the customers and they are not us.We are committed to customer success.July 200910th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A.7

What is Customer Focus?We have met the customers and they are not us.We are committed to customer success.We plan, design, and deliver activity enablers rather than just technology.July 200910th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A.8

Two Worldstoolobjectsubjectoutcomedivision of laborcommunityrulesSystems have a way to “think” about themselves—data structures, algorithms, application programming interfacesUsers and organizations have ways of accomplishing work, whether tacit or explicit, whether documented or informal—tasks, roles, attitudes, knowledge, habits, etc.Structure of computer activityStructure of human activity

Enabling ActivityJSR 168OKIIMSHow do I …?What just happened?≠The way computers need to think about themselves is very different from how people need to think about their work.

About Sakai, c. 2004The University of Michigan, Indiana University, MIT, Stanford, and the uPortal consortium are joining forces to integrate and synchronize their considerable educational software into a pre-integrated collection of open source tools. This will yield three big wins for sustainable economics and innovation in higher education: * A framework that builds on the recently ratified JSR 168 portlet standard and the OKI open service interface definitions to create a services-based, enterprise portal for tool delivery * A re-factored set of educational software tools that blends the best of features from the participants’ disparate software (e.g., course management systems, assessment tools, workflow, etc.) * A synchronization of the institutional clocks of these schools in developing, adopting and using a common set of open source software.(thanks to the Internet Archive Web Wayback Machine)July 200910th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A.11

About Sakai TodayThe Sakai CLE is a free and open source Courseware Management System. It features a set of software tools designed to help instructors, researchers and students collaborate online in support of their work--whether it be course instruction, research or general project collaboration.For coursework, Sakai provides features to supplement and enhance teaching and learning. For collaboration, Sakai has tools to help organize communication and collaborative work on campus and around the world. Using a web browser, users choose from Sakai's tools to create a site that meets their needs. To use Sakai, no knowledge of HTML is necessary.But the product vision reaches beyond teaching and learning applications. Many Sakai deployments include as many or more project and research collaboration sites. In addition, the Open Source Portfolio e-Portfolio system is a core part of the Sakai software. Finally, the Sakaibrary project links library resources to Sakai. You can try Sakai for yourself by downloading and installing the demonstration or by visiting one the sites of our Commercial Affiliates, several of which have test drives of Sakai where you can simply create your own account. No installation necessary.(from sakaiproject.org, 3 July 2009)July 200910th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A.12

What is Customer Focus?We have met the customers and they are not us.We are committed to customer success.We plan, design, and deliver activity enablers rather than just technology.Our understanding is open to constant revision.We recognize and seek out requirements variability across time as well as across types of users and usesWe recognize the difference between user needs and their many proxies, and work towards high-quality proxyingWe recognize the richness of contextual details and their impactJuly 200910th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A.13

Proxying PhenomenonJuly 200910th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A.14What the customer asked forHow we understood what the customer asked forWhat the customer really needed

Proxying PhenomenonJuly 200910th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A.15?DeveloperCustomer needsJira ticketInstitutional Sakai repInstitutional requirements committeeMy memoriesPROXIESSurvey resultsCompeting or similar productFocus group rankingsUse CasePersona

A Fictional Proxying ExampleJuly 200910th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A.16

Tacitness of Work KnowledgeJuly 200910th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A.17What people know about what they know and doWhat people don’t know about what they know and doHow well does our requirements process work under water?

Self-Report ReliabilityJuly 200910th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A.18Elliot, R., & Jankel-Elliot, N. (2003). Using ethnography in strategic consumer research. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal , 6 (4) 215-223.

Discovering User Needsmake it up—we’re smart!I am the user!ask those who know usersask early adoptersask users what they like or wantDesignerask users what they docompetitiveanalysisask users what they didread pubsBbstudy real artifacts & dataMoodleuserswatch users work & discuss

Contextual Inquiryask users what they didstudy real artifacts & dataDesignerwatch users work & discussusers

What is Customer Focus?We have met the customers and they are not us.We are committed to customer success.We plan, design, and deliver activity enablers rather than just technology.Our understanding is open to constant revision.We own the full customer experience and constantly improve it.“Dive for the ball” mentality – potentially harder in a non-hierarchical, somewhat volunteer organization like Sakai communityFull experience: tryout, evaluation, adoption, planning, implementation, support, maintenance, …Product vision: a designer’s job. Don’t ask customers to be designers.July 200910th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A.21

Why be customer focused?Is it really necessary?July 200910th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A.22

Customer Focus is HardCustomer focus requires bridging technology and human activityAs technologists, our expertise, focus, and often our interest is in the technology itself“Work practice”—where real requirements live—is a hard place to visitTechnology organizations always risk becoming technology focusedOur training as technologists seldom addresses how to uncover hidden customer needs

But It Beats the AlternativesTechnology focusedInternally focusedUnfocusedCustomer drivenJuly 200910th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A.24

Risks to SakaiWe could lose the critical mass needed for sustainabilityWe could waste resources doing things that don’t matter, that people don’t useAnd, most important to me,When usage is required, we force people to experience unpleasantnessJuly 200910th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A.25

How can we be/stay customer focused?A few suggestions …July 200910th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A.26

Five SuggestionsGround requirements in real data via contextual inquiry and high-fidelity proxyingPrivilege data from those less like us: dissenting voices, students and faculty from non-technical disciplines, laggardsInvite ethnographic, qualitative, or design research classes at your institutions to do projects that enrich our customer understandingSupplement personas with “coursonas” or other activity-based representationsFigure out how new members become enculturated in Sakai and make sure a shared understanding of customer work practice is part of the experienceJuly 200910th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A.27

Coursona Example2a. The Technology Semi-Distance GroupshopFocus on learning and applying a technology-related process in group projectsIntensive technical, procedural work with a parallel focus on how to work in (possibly distributed) teamsCourse content is technical, and some students are remote making it convenient and necessary to use technology for course management (slide sharing; podcasting; online group sessions, discussions, and filespaces)Examples: Instructional technology design course(For more examples from last year’s talk, google “notesscoursonasakai”)

Process Alone Won’t Do ItJuly 200910th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A.29CommunicationProcessPredispositionsPeople

DiscussionOther elements of customer focus?Is customer focus important for Sakai?How are we doing? How could we improve?July 200910th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A.30