1. Nerd, Geek, and Gear
Herding: Technical
Management Techniques for
Managers v 2.0
#12NTCNERD
Grant Howe
Stacy Dyer
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2. Evaluate This Session!
Each entry is a chance to win an NTEN engraved iPad!
or Online at www.nten.org/ntc/eval

3. INTRODUCTION
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4. Your Partner in Dialogue
Grant Howe
• Vice President of R&D w/Sage
• 15+ years in Software Development
• 30 years experience with Nonprofits
Boy Scouts of America, Sig Tau Alumni Association Board Member
• Favorite food: Italian (anything with Alfredo sauce)
• @geekbyte if you want to tweet nice things
• @darthvader if you want to use the dark side
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5. Your Partner in Dialogue
Stacy Dyer
• Product Marketing Manager w/Sage
• 8 years in Nonprofit Technology
• 15+ years experience with Nonprofits
Ballet Austin, Asolo Theatre, FSU School of Theatre
• Techie, Mom, and puzzle solver
• Favorite food: Coffee (TrianonRoasting.com)
• @stacydyer (if you want to talk #nptech)
• @helenalauriat (if you want to see cute baby pictures)
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6. Sage, 30 years of experience
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7. “I wouldn’t do nothin’ else”
EDS “Cat Herder” Commercial
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8. What are we talking about today?
Best Practices for:
Managing technology selection
Managing emergencies
Growing and rewarding technologists
“Crowd Source” your current technical
management issues
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9. Q&A Experiment
at the end of the session
• Note cards on the tables.
• Jot down your real word Nerd / Tech herding
issues or best practices to share.
• Or tweet w/ #12NTCNERD
• We will collectively “crowd source”
suggestions and best practices.
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10. “Paging Dr. Nerd”
MANAGING TECHNOLOGY
SELECTION
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11. Paging Dr. Nerd
• Talking to a technical solutions specialist
is like going to see the doctor.
• Most people have a preconceived notion
of what the treatment should be.
• The best solutions usually come from
meaningful dialog about the problem or
task and a discussion of the “treatment
options”
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12. Tip: When to
When to Call Dr. Nerd call the doctor
• Are you first line of
contact for staff?
– “Hey Mom, my ear
hurts!”
• Recognize when to
call the “doctor”
– Scope
– Bandwidth
– Timing
– Risks of failure
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13. A successful office visit agenda
• Tell me where it hurts.
• Tell me what your desired results
are post treatment.
• Discuss and choose a treatment.
• Take your medicine.
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14. Tell me where it hurts
• Focus your initial discussion on the
Tip: Prepare a symptoms of your problem.
list so you
don’t forget • Do your best to help me understand your
anything! current state.
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15. What are your desired results
• “I want to play tennis three times a week
without knee pain.”
Tip: Think big!
Dr. can’t help
if you don’t
ask for it.
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16. Discuss and choose a treatment
• “Your MRI shows you have a
slipped disc in your lower back,
here are our options…”
 Lets discuss the top 3 options I have come up with.
 Additional solutions we come up with are likely to be
flavors of the top 3.
 Lets talk about these instead of emailing. Real time
discussion is important.
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17. Ask questions about each solution
• What will this cost (in time, resources and
Tip: There are money)?
NO stupid
• How does this solution compare to my original
questions!
Ask, Ask, Ask
desired end state?
• What other “side effects” can I expect from the
solution, good or bad?
• What is the risk of something going wrong or
causing damage? Is there a mitigation?
• What skills are required to implement and
have you done this before? How many times?
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18. Compare the Solutions
• Write down the pros and cons of
each solution and compare them.
• Walk me through your thought process of making
the choice. I want you to be successful and if
you’ve forgotten to consider something, I’ll
discuss it with you. Tip: A good
Dr. won’t be
• You are also entitled to seek a second opinion insulted by 2nd
and talk to others about the solutions. I opinions
encourage you to do so.
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19. Take your Medicine
• “Take these, 3 times a day…”
Tip: This is
YOUR
responsibility! • Many people go through all this effort to make
but don’t follow the prescribed treatment.
• These people usually don’t get results and
neither will you if we don’t follow the plan.
• Solutions are holistic; often we see poor results
from not following the full plan.
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20. Most poorly performing organizations do
not suffer from lack of plans or strategy.
They suffer from lack of
consistent execution.
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21. “The House is on Fire!”
LEADERSHIP DURING
EMERGENCIES
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22. Tip: DON’T
The House is on Fire! PANIC
When faced with a severe technical crisis (think mail server
down, fried DB server, website hacked) it’s important to
approach the situation methodically and in an organized
manner. When the “fire alarm” sounds, be the calm leader
in your organization.
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23. The House is on Fire!
Survey the Situation
Assemble the Team
Act Now!
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24. Survey the situation
• What is impacted and what is the current risk?
• What’s the possibility of it getting worse?
Tip: Reality
• What skill sets are needed for recovery?
check!
• What level of alarm should be raised and
to who?
•Volunteer firefighter example
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25. Assemble the Team
• Assemble the team. You’ll need the right resources to
investigate more thoroughly and come up with possible
solutions.
• What skill sets are needed for recovery?
• Where can you get them? Tip: Not the
time for OJT!
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26. Act Now
• Get your team working to understand the problem right
away. While they’re doing that, you should be managing
the situation with the rest of the organization.
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27. Been asked these questions before?
“How could this happen?”
“Who is responsible?”
“What do we need to do to make sure this never
happens again?”
“Who do we need to fire because of this?”
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28. Get the Children out First!
• Focus all efforts on diagnosis
and resolution of the issue.
• Postpone discussions that could
either become emotional or will
not further crisis resolution.
• Promise that a root cause
analysis will be delivered to all
interested parties after crisis
resolution.
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29. Arson investigations are
performed on cold ashes
• Debrief the team post-crisis, documenting how the
situation began.
• Investigate and define operational changes that could
prevent the crisis from reoccurring.
• Compile a report detailing the crisis, resolution, root
cause, and recommended preventive measures.
• Insist that the preventive measures be
implemented. Accidents happen, but
shame on you if they happen twice. Tip: An ounce
of prevention
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30. How can you win?
MOTIVATING AND REWARDING
TECHS
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31. The IT Situation
It feels like you just can’t win…
• IT infrastructure and Software isn’t
thought of much unless its not working.
• When its not working, staff in general
have a low opinion of those who build /
maintain it.
• When the issue is fixed, few will consider
the effort successful because they were
impacted.
• Few staffers call the Tip: IT is like
support desk to report that a box of kitty
“things are working great, litter...
keep it up!”
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32. Best Practice - Scoreboards
• Setup a public scoreboard in a highly
trafficked location.
Tip:
• Track meaningful metrics: Everyone
– System uptimes loves a gold
– Project milestones star on their
paper!
• Make it clear whether the team is winning or
losing to the reader in 5 seconds.
• Update weekly or monthly.
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33. Scoreboard example
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34. Best Practice – Celebrate Winning
• Make success visible:
– Mail server uptime cookie celebration
– Project Milestone completion happy hour
– Public congratulations from executives
– High internet availability pizza party
Place more focus and visibility on consistently
winning than on occasional failures
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35. Best Practice –
“Motivation” for the cash poor
• Say thank-you often – Do not underestimate the value of
these two words.
• Spend more time talking about “did well’s” and less on
“next times”
• Give paid time to learn between projects.
Tip: Nurture
your team – • Provide career growth advice and
help them mentoring.
learn to fly!
• “Best Companies to Work for” example.
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36. Best Practice – Coaching
• 30-45 minute special 1:1 meeting every 8 weeks.
• Staffers submit two “did wells” and one “next time” 24 hrs to
manager prior to the meeting. Manager may add to the list during
the meeting..
• Staffer to discuss each “did well” and what the key factors were in
creating success.
• Staffer to discuss each “next time” and what should be key factors
for creating success next time are.
• Spend more time talking about “did well’s” and less on “next times”
The point is to have dialog with staffers about what they
think is important and listen intently!
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37. Lets make it happen
Q&A CROWDSOURCE
EXPERIMENT
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38. Q&A Experiment
• Note cards on the tables.
• Jot down your real word Nerd / Tech herding
issues or best practices to share.
• Or tweet w/ #12NTCNERD
• We will collectively “crowd source”
suggestions and best practices.
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39. Thank You!
Grant Howe
grant.howe@sage.com
@geekbyte
Stacy Dyer
stacy.dyer@sage.com
@stacydyer
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40. Evaluate This Session!
Each entry is a chance to win an NTEN engraved iPad!
or Online at www.nten.org/ntc/eval