My December 2019 presentation at the MASAE Annual Meeting about my association's experiences in migrating from an Association Management System (AMS) that we had for 10 years to a brand new one.
The purpose of the Sprint Retrospective is to:
- Inspect how the last Sprint went with regards to people, relationships, process, and tools;
- Identify and order the major items that went well and potential improvements; and,
- Create a plan for implementing improvements to the way the Scrum Team does its work.
D MGMT655 Team CharterTeam Members and contact information .docxalanrgibson41217
D MGMT655 Team Charter
Team Members and contact information:
Name
Preferred Email
Phone Number
Time Zone
Denise Brown
[email protected]
970-313-8763
Pacific (California)
Purpose Statement and Team Objectives:
Team Values:
List the values/behaviors you will use to effectively achieve your mission.
Values might include behaviors such as listening with an open mind, sharing knowledge, respectful communication, take responsibility/no blame, decisions based on reasoning, etc. Come up with your own list!
Team Expectations:
Collectively identify a list of expectations for team members.
Expectations might include behaviors such as keeping commitments, being proactive in staying current with your team, everyone contributes, process if someone does not keep commitments, etc.
Team Meetings and Communication:
Working as a virtual team can present some challenges in terms of communication. Identify when and how the team will meet/communicate with one another. Include how to communicate with those who can’t attend.
Team Assessment:
Identify the strengths and weaknesses of each team member.
For this course, identify who is most comfortable with the simulation and with Finance. Be sure to tap into these skills in your team process.
Functional Roles:
Based on skills and interests, indicate each individual’s role and their tasks for the team project. Define the responsibilities of each role.
COO/ Team Leader –
Organizes team meetings, facilitates team discussions,facilitates problem solving and collaboration, and strives for team consensus and win-win agreements. The COO collects and compiles the Product Manager slides for the Board of Directors presentations (Group Projects), adding a “state of the business” executive summary-type slide, a finance slide, and, ideally, a “lessons learned” slide. Typically, the COO makes the final Finance decisions just before simulation round close when financing needs for the company are available in the Pro Formas.
Product Managers (VPs)–
Each team member selects one sensor product to manage. There are five sensor products in each company. If there are only five team members, then the COO also will manage a product. The Product Managers (VPs) will make all functional decisions for their product – R&D, Marketing, and Production. No decisions will be made for another VP’s product without their agreement. Each VP will create at least four slides for the Board of Directors Presentation (Group Project), including a cover slide, and one slide for each functional area. Ample notes explaining and assessing decisions are included. The slides are submitted to the COO and Instructor.
Fill out the table below to confirm product management responsibilities. The sensor names begin with the same letter as the first letter of your company name. E.g., Cid is the high end sensor for the Chester company. You will find the sensors and associated primary market segment listed on pag.
Endeavor italia scaling up business growthEd Capaldi
An Agile Mindset together with Scale Up tools from Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0), Strategyzer and Wemanity can turn high octane forward thinking Scale Ups into Hidden Champions
How to build your company vision & mission, brand platform and big idea for c...Rahmatullah Akbar
HOW TO BUILD YOUR COMPANY VISION-MISSION-BRAND PLATFORM-BIG IDEA OF
COMMUNICATION CAMPAIGN It’s foundation of your business. So It must be strong.
Vision is question about.
what kind of product that will make you believe that you can do some contribution for better world ? Where? or How far you will gonna go?
Why you do these business? what do you stand for? When your business will arrive to your ‘far’ destination? Who’s people that will believe what you believe?
The mission statement reflects every facet of your business: the range and nature of the products you offer, pricing, quality, service, marketplace position, growth potential, use of technology, and your relationships with your customers, employees, suppliers, competitors and the community.
CHALLANGE
Write your business purposes and GOAL here.
OBJECTIVE
Imaging. Now your talking to your customer. then, what kind of reaction or response you expect to get.
TARGET MARKET
Who is you want to talk to?. What kind of gender?where she live?what kind of education she got?how much she spend for a month? what kind of behaviour she have?
INSIGHT
It’s a hidden need of your customer. You must be deep and beyond. why they buy a thing?
MESSAGE
It’s a combination of your insight and your objective
BIG IDEA
Simple inspiring word that can covered all of your message.
Seminar 6 Benchmarking Table - Business Model Canvas - 22 and 25 march 2021Fahri Karakas
In this seminar, we have two activities:
Benchmarking Table
Business Model Canvas.
First, we prepare our benchmarking table. In this exercise, you learn about brands at multiple levels (country brands, company brands, and individual brands). You create lessons and inspiration from these brands for your career.
Second, you create a business model canvas to create your own creative assets. You might use this activity to plan your asset creation strategies, such as creating your own YouTube channel, podcast, or Medium blog.
Enjoy.
The purpose of the Sprint Retrospective is to:
- Inspect how the last Sprint went with regards to people, relationships, process, and tools;
- Identify and order the major items that went well and potential improvements; and,
- Create a plan for implementing improvements to the way the Scrum Team does its work.
D MGMT655 Team CharterTeam Members and contact information .docxalanrgibson41217
D MGMT655 Team Charter
Team Members and contact information:
Name
Preferred Email
Phone Number
Time Zone
Denise Brown
[email protected]
970-313-8763
Pacific (California)
Purpose Statement and Team Objectives:
Team Values:
List the values/behaviors you will use to effectively achieve your mission.
Values might include behaviors such as listening with an open mind, sharing knowledge, respectful communication, take responsibility/no blame, decisions based on reasoning, etc. Come up with your own list!
Team Expectations:
Collectively identify a list of expectations for team members.
Expectations might include behaviors such as keeping commitments, being proactive in staying current with your team, everyone contributes, process if someone does not keep commitments, etc.
Team Meetings and Communication:
Working as a virtual team can present some challenges in terms of communication. Identify when and how the team will meet/communicate with one another. Include how to communicate with those who can’t attend.
Team Assessment:
Identify the strengths and weaknesses of each team member.
For this course, identify who is most comfortable with the simulation and with Finance. Be sure to tap into these skills in your team process.
Functional Roles:
Based on skills and interests, indicate each individual’s role and their tasks for the team project. Define the responsibilities of each role.
COO/ Team Leader –
Organizes team meetings, facilitates team discussions,facilitates problem solving and collaboration, and strives for team consensus and win-win agreements. The COO collects and compiles the Product Manager slides for the Board of Directors presentations (Group Projects), adding a “state of the business” executive summary-type slide, a finance slide, and, ideally, a “lessons learned” slide. Typically, the COO makes the final Finance decisions just before simulation round close when financing needs for the company are available in the Pro Formas.
Product Managers (VPs)–
Each team member selects one sensor product to manage. There are five sensor products in each company. If there are only five team members, then the COO also will manage a product. The Product Managers (VPs) will make all functional decisions for their product – R&D, Marketing, and Production. No decisions will be made for another VP’s product without their agreement. Each VP will create at least four slides for the Board of Directors Presentation (Group Project), including a cover slide, and one slide for each functional area. Ample notes explaining and assessing decisions are included. The slides are submitted to the COO and Instructor.
Fill out the table below to confirm product management responsibilities. The sensor names begin with the same letter as the first letter of your company name. E.g., Cid is the high end sensor for the Chester company. You will find the sensors and associated primary market segment listed on pag.
Endeavor italia scaling up business growthEd Capaldi
An Agile Mindset together with Scale Up tools from Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0), Strategyzer and Wemanity can turn high octane forward thinking Scale Ups into Hidden Champions
How to build your company vision & mission, brand platform and big idea for c...Rahmatullah Akbar
HOW TO BUILD YOUR COMPANY VISION-MISSION-BRAND PLATFORM-BIG IDEA OF
COMMUNICATION CAMPAIGN It’s foundation of your business. So It must be strong.
Vision is question about.
what kind of product that will make you believe that you can do some contribution for better world ? Where? or How far you will gonna go?
Why you do these business? what do you stand for? When your business will arrive to your ‘far’ destination? Who’s people that will believe what you believe?
The mission statement reflects every facet of your business: the range and nature of the products you offer, pricing, quality, service, marketplace position, growth potential, use of technology, and your relationships with your customers, employees, suppliers, competitors and the community.
CHALLANGE
Write your business purposes and GOAL here.
OBJECTIVE
Imaging. Now your talking to your customer. then, what kind of reaction or response you expect to get.
TARGET MARKET
Who is you want to talk to?. What kind of gender?where she live?what kind of education she got?how much she spend for a month? what kind of behaviour she have?
INSIGHT
It’s a hidden need of your customer. You must be deep and beyond. why they buy a thing?
MESSAGE
It’s a combination of your insight and your objective
BIG IDEA
Simple inspiring word that can covered all of your message.
Seminar 6 Benchmarking Table - Business Model Canvas - 22 and 25 march 2021Fahri Karakas
In this seminar, we have two activities:
Benchmarking Table
Business Model Canvas.
First, we prepare our benchmarking table. In this exercise, you learn about brands at multiple levels (country brands, company brands, and individual brands). You create lessons and inspiration from these brands for your career.
Second, you create a business model canvas to create your own creative assets. You might use this activity to plan your asset creation strategies, such as creating your own YouTube channel, podcast, or Medium blog.
Enjoy.
The handout from a presentation about ideas for developing a sustainable business. Done after 20 years in business as a one-person consulting and training firm and delivered to ASTD and NASAGA conferences for stimulating ideas and reframing beliefs. It is old but still a worthwhile read for anyone thinking about starting up a training business with limited assets.
How would we define Scrum? How could we convince people to do Scrum? I believe that agreements are more powerful than rules. I also believe that Scrum implements patterns that most of us have experienced in our own most successful projects. Let's test that belief and see how we can apply that to facilitating Scrum adoption. During this interactive workshop, we:
• Share and reflect on the experiences from our own best projects
• Look for patterns in those projects
• Compare Scrum with our own best experiences
• Explore an agreement-based adoption strategy
The workshop also includes some additional food for thought: What if we considered the Scrum Flow as a series of opportunities to ask ourselves powerful questions?
Investors historically sit through pitches and evaluate early stage startups on three primary metrics: 1) great looking product demos, 2) compelling presentations, and 3) a strong team. Steve Blank, the Godfather of the Lean Startup movement said in his Customer Development Manifesto: “There’s no formal way for an investor to assess project maturity or quantify risks. Other than measuring engineering progress, there’s no standard language to communicate progress.”
What has been missing is a common language to communicate objectives and data that investors and entrepreneurs can use to communicate startup readiness.
Fortunately, the principles developed in the Lean Startup movement can be utilized to help entrepreneurs assess their Investor Readiness Level in a way that allows them to demonstrate “evidence” of their readiness. In this session, Max Green and Heath Naquin, both of the IC2 Institute, will share this new method for entrepreneurs to gauge their own investor readiness using the principles of Steve Blank's Investment Readiness Level and LeanLaunchpad.
Entrepreneurs attending this session will learn a valuable approach helping their start-up team prove their competence and validate their ideas by showing investors “evidence” that there’s a repeatable and scalable business model.
Heath Naquin serves as Executive Director for the SW I-Corps Node at The University of Texas at Austin. He also serves as the Managing Director for a multi-university NSF Industry University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) the Center for Next Generation Photovoltaics. Heath was a founding member of three different start-up business initiatives across sectors. He has helped companies raise more than $30 Million in funding from private and government sources.
Heath actively works on international commercialization initiatives and efforts focusing on industry collaboration, new project development and deployment along with building linkages between industry, government, academia and the venture capital community. Heath has worked in more than 20 countries on international commercialization and entrepreneurship initiatives in countries such as Colombia, Jordan, Iraq, Korea, Mexico, Portugal, Armenia, and Turkey. Heath has extensive experience with the NSF, EPA and NIH SBIR programs as an active commercial reviewer for many years. Heath also currently serves as Faculty for the Concordia University Executive MBA program.
WeWork provides small businesses, startups, and freelancers with beautiful workspace, inspiring community, and meaningful services. With weekly events, personalized support, flexibility, and access to thousands of like-minded entrepreneurs around the world - WeWork is the perfect place to grow your business in 2015.
The WeWork Congress location sits in the heart of downtown Austin at 6th St. and Congress Ave. To learn more about joining the community, email joinus@wework.com or call 855.593.9675.
Agile in Action - Agile Overview for DevelopersMatt Cowell
Excerpt from a presentation I gave to the University of Alabama Association for Computing Machinery in November 2010. I wanted to give the students a practical overview of Agile and Scrum and give them some perspective on what Agile means for developers.
The handout from a presentation about ideas for developing a sustainable business. Done after 20 years in business as a one-person consulting and training firm and delivered to ASTD and NASAGA conferences for stimulating ideas and reframing beliefs. It is old but still a worthwhile read for anyone thinking about starting up a training business with limited assets.
How would we define Scrum? How could we convince people to do Scrum? I believe that agreements are more powerful than rules. I also believe that Scrum implements patterns that most of us have experienced in our own most successful projects. Let's test that belief and see how we can apply that to facilitating Scrum adoption. During this interactive workshop, we:
• Share and reflect on the experiences from our own best projects
• Look for patterns in those projects
• Compare Scrum with our own best experiences
• Explore an agreement-based adoption strategy
The workshop also includes some additional food for thought: What if we considered the Scrum Flow as a series of opportunities to ask ourselves powerful questions?
Investors historically sit through pitches and evaluate early stage startups on three primary metrics: 1) great looking product demos, 2) compelling presentations, and 3) a strong team. Steve Blank, the Godfather of the Lean Startup movement said in his Customer Development Manifesto: “There’s no formal way for an investor to assess project maturity or quantify risks. Other than measuring engineering progress, there’s no standard language to communicate progress.”
What has been missing is a common language to communicate objectives and data that investors and entrepreneurs can use to communicate startup readiness.
Fortunately, the principles developed in the Lean Startup movement can be utilized to help entrepreneurs assess their Investor Readiness Level in a way that allows them to demonstrate “evidence” of their readiness. In this session, Max Green and Heath Naquin, both of the IC2 Institute, will share this new method for entrepreneurs to gauge their own investor readiness using the principles of Steve Blank's Investment Readiness Level and LeanLaunchpad.
Entrepreneurs attending this session will learn a valuable approach helping their start-up team prove their competence and validate their ideas by showing investors “evidence” that there’s a repeatable and scalable business model.
Heath Naquin serves as Executive Director for the SW I-Corps Node at The University of Texas at Austin. He also serves as the Managing Director for a multi-university NSF Industry University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) the Center for Next Generation Photovoltaics. Heath was a founding member of three different start-up business initiatives across sectors. He has helped companies raise more than $30 Million in funding from private and government sources.
Heath actively works on international commercialization initiatives and efforts focusing on industry collaboration, new project development and deployment along with building linkages between industry, government, academia and the venture capital community. Heath has worked in more than 20 countries on international commercialization and entrepreneurship initiatives in countries such as Colombia, Jordan, Iraq, Korea, Mexico, Portugal, Armenia, and Turkey. Heath has extensive experience with the NSF, EPA and NIH SBIR programs as an active commercial reviewer for many years. Heath also currently serves as Faculty for the Concordia University Executive MBA program.
WeWork provides small businesses, startups, and freelancers with beautiful workspace, inspiring community, and meaningful services. With weekly events, personalized support, flexibility, and access to thousands of like-minded entrepreneurs around the world - WeWork is the perfect place to grow your business in 2015.
The WeWork Congress location sits in the heart of downtown Austin at 6th St. and Congress Ave. To learn more about joining the community, email joinus@wework.com or call 855.593.9675.
Agile in Action - Agile Overview for DevelopersMatt Cowell
Excerpt from a presentation I gave to the University of Alabama Association for Computing Machinery in November 2010. I wanted to give the students a practical overview of Agile and Scrum and give them some perspective on what Agile means for developers.
This presentation, created by Syed Faiz ul Hassan, explores the profound influence of media on public perception and behavior. It delves into the evolution of media from oral traditions to modern digital and social media platforms. Key topics include the role of media in information propagation, socialization, crisis awareness, globalization, and education. The presentation also examines media influence through agenda setting, propaganda, and manipulative techniques used by advertisers and marketers. Furthermore, it highlights the impact of surveillance enabled by media technologies on personal behavior and preferences. Through this comprehensive overview, the presentation aims to shed light on how media shapes collective consciousness and public opinion.
Mastering the Concepts Tested in the Databricks Certified Data Engineer Assoc...SkillCertProExams
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Collapsing Narratives: Exploring Non-Linearity • a micro report by Rosie WellsRosie Wells
Insight: In a landscape where traditional narrative structures are giving way to fragmented and non-linear forms of storytelling, there lies immense potential for creativity and exploration.
'Collapsing Narratives: Exploring Non-Linearity' is a micro report from Rosie Wells.
Rosie Wells is an Arts & Cultural Strategist uniquely positioned at the intersection of grassroots and mainstream storytelling.
Their work is focused on developing meaningful and lasting connections that can drive social change.
Please download this presentation to enjoy the hyperlinks!
1. Surviving your AMS Migration
TIPS FOR NAVIGATING THE PERFECT STORM
KIM RUSSELL
SOCIETY OF HOSPITAL MEDICINE (SHM)
2. Who am I?
Been with SHM for almost 8 years (56 in
association years)
Proud representative of GenX
(the generation that’s in between Boomers and
Millennials)
I am not a professional public speaker, a paid
consultant, or an industry expert
I am mildly terrified right now
3. My Promises
I will not mention an acronym without defining it
I will not endorse an AMS
I will stop early for questions and so you can have a
tiny break before the next session.
5. Timeline
July 2016 – the very first meeting
July 2016 – CEO asks his peers what AMS they use
September 2016 – began to schedule demos with current AMS vendor and 4 new ones
October 2016 – demos with current vendor and 3 providers begin (#4 never responded!)
November 2016 – talked to references for each platform
December 2016 – decision made!
January 2017 – contract signed! Excited!
February 2017 – kickoff!
(various nervous breakdowns)
December 9-12, 2017 – LAUNCH!
6. THE TIPS
1. Analyze your data beforehand
2. Standardize your vendor demonstrations
3. Be honest with your limitations
4. Make it your organization’s #1 priority
5. Prepare for the Second Day One
(Don’t leave yet!)
7. Analyze your Data Beforehand
BEFORE the first email is sent out to the first
vendor.
◦ What is relevant?
◦ What can use finessing/cleaning?
◦ What can be left behind?
The biggest and most important question to
guide you…
8. What has changed in your organization
since you launched your current AMS?
13. Your turn!
What has changed in your
organization since you
launched your current AMS?
14. Standardize your Vendor Demonstrations
• Schedule demos close together
• Have the same group of staffers at each demo
• Plan some questions in advance
• Create a rubric/scale to assist with ranking
15. Create one scale
for ranking the
AMS you see..
Ranked each AMS demonstration on:
Core Business Needs
Usability
Integration
Technical Support
Strategic fit
• Core business
needs
• Usability
• Integration
• Technical Support
• Strategic Fit
16. Standardize your Vendor Demonstrations
• Schedule demos close together
• Have the same group of staffers at each demo
• Plan some questions in advance
• Create a rubric/scale to assist with ranking
• And rehearse this important question…
17. Is this feature available out-of-the-box
OR does it require a code
customization?
18. Be honest with your limitations
Ask how much time will be needed for each
sprint/phase of deployment…
Configuration
Conversion
Testing
Rollout
19. FTE recommendations for each sprint
Role Configuration, Conversion
and Testing
Rollout
Project Manager 50% of 1 FTE 50% of 1 FTE
Subject Matter Expert 50% of 1 FTE 25% of 1 FTE
Information Technology 50% of 1 FTE 50% of 1 FTE
Project Sponsors 5% of 1 FTE 5% of 1 FTE
FTE = Full Time Employee
20.
21. FTE recommendations for each sprint
Role Configuration, Conversion
and Testing
Rollout
Project Manager 50% of 1 FTE 50% of 1 FTE
Subject Matter Expert 50% of 1 FTE 25% of 1 FTE
Information Technology 50% of 1 FTE 50% of 1 FTE
Project Sponsors 5% of 1 FTE 5% of 1 FTE
FTE = Full Time Employee
22. Be honest with your limitations
Ask how much time will be needed for each
sprint/phase of deployment…
Ask for references by other organizations your
size – ask them how they staffed the project.
23. Make it your organization’s #1 priority
Of course your conference, election, board
meetings take priority…however…
24. Make it your organization’s #1 priority
Redesigning the entire website
Planning our largest annual meeting to date
Redesigning all of our branding and
collateral
Launching a new LMS
Building new conference rooms
25. “The Perfect Storm”
In 1991, three nor’easters combined off of the
coast of Nova Scotia to create one ‘perfect
storm’
It pummeled the East Coast all the way down to
Florida
Inspired book and movie, starring George
Clooney and Marky Mark as crewmen on the
fishing ship Andrea Gail
26. EVERYBODY
DIED.(even Marky Mark)
PRO TIP: DO NOT PLAYFULLY NICKNAME YOUR LARGE PROJECTS AFTER ANY
TYPE OF MEDIA WHERE THE GOOD GUYS DIE.
EX: THE ROAD, TITANIC, RED DEAD REDEMPTION FRANCHISE, BLACKADDE R
GOES FORTH, ETC.
27. No really, make it your organization’s #1
priority
• Create an interdepartmental team/group/task force
to help you test
•Bribe them with food
• Keep the project LOUD and the timeline transparent
• Involve your board or relevant committees with
testing
28. Prepare for the Second Day One
NOW WHAT?
◦ There will be panic
◦ There will be regret
◦ There will be uncertainty
◦ Everyone will suddenly ADORE your old AMS.
“I HATE THIS!” = “I’M UNCOMFORTABLE”
Train before launch and train, train, train, train, train after launch.
30. DIRECTOR’S CUT SLIDE
aka “Tips that didn’t warrant their own slides”
Software can’t solve people problems and software can’t solve
process problems
Your vendor works FOR YOU
Don’t get a puppy
32. THANK YOU!
How you can find me:
kimberussell@outlook.com
krussell@hospitalmedicine.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/russellkimberly/
Or, the cheapest craps table after tonight’s party
PS: You could completely speak at next year’s annual! If I did this, you can too.
Editor's Notes
(BREATHE!!)
Hello, and thank you for being here – I appreciate you giving up some time in this preciously short conference to spend time talking about Association Management System migrations!
My name is Kim Russell, and I’m the Data Operations Manager at the Society of Hospital Medicine, fondly shortened to SHM. SHM is a membership organization based in Philadelphia. We have around 19,000 members right now, and our members are all involved in hospital medicine, which is a relatively new specialty. A hospitalist is a professional whose expertise is … practicing medicine in a hospital setting. Simply put, if I have an ear infection, I want to see my primary care physician. But if a slot machine sign falls from the ceiling tonight and lands on me, I want to see a hospitalist.
About me!
Working at SHM has been my first time working with an association and an intentional nonprofit. Before that I worked at my local newspaper which was an unintentional nonprofit. I’ll be there 8 whole years in January.
GenX: We help the Boomers with their computers and we help the Millennials use the office phones.
I’m not a professional public speaker, as you can likely tell. I’m not a consultant. I’m an association person and a member of MASAE just like you all are.
And I’m really nervous. This is my first solo talk outside of SHM. And there are more people here than I thought. So every now and then you might see me take a deep breath and actively try not to run away. I’ll be fine.
I am not an expert on AMS migration – I’ve participated in one upgrade, and one migration to a new AMS. And while we did a good job throughout the rollout, we didn’t execute the process perfectly … so I can’t say we’re an example of what to do. But we – and I - certainly learned a lot along the way and I thought I could share our experiences – and to be completely transparent, our mistakes – with you.
My goal is for you to be able to go back to your associations and when the talk inevitably comes up of switching from one system to another – even if you’re going from spreadsheets to an access table or an access database to an AMS – you’ll have the smoothest journey that you can.
My own ground rules for this chat…
Acronyms – this industry is filled with them and I hate being the person in the room secretly looking an acronym up on her phone.
Endorsement – what works for us might not work for you, and just because the first AMS didn’t fit our needs any longer doesn’t make it a bad product. I’m going to refer to them as AMS and AMS B
Stopping early – I was originally told this was a half hour slot and I can only pad so much.
We were with AMS A for about 10 years While people had been complaining for a while about our AMS, the idea of moving wasn’t seriously talked about until one fateful day in July of 2016.
After that initial talk, our CEO circulated a quick survey to other medical society CEOs via listserv. From those results, we narrowed the field down to 4 new vendors, plus the possibility of staying with our current vendor but upgrading to the most recent version of the software.
Because of some customizations we made with AMS A that weren’t going to be supported after 2017, we had a hard launch deadline of December 31st, 2017. Factor in the holidays and some post-launch testing time, and we couldn’t launch any later than December 19th. As you can see, we came in with a not-so-comfortable week to spare.
And here are the main points I’m going to cover –
(read them)
And here we go…
Tip 1: Analyze your data Beforehand (repeat)
Before you even START contacting vendors, start taking stock of that sweet, valuable data you have. Because as soon as you send that first email, you will be entered into the sales process. And then the snowball starts rolling.
What to ask when looking at your data…
What is still useful or relevant?
Did you have a program that you sunset years ago and will NEVER go back to again? Did you used to fundraise, but decided that wasn’t for you? This is information that you don’t have to bring into your new AMS. And I’m not saying to jettison it completely, but it’s the type of data that you can export into a spreadsheet and save on the old network drive.
What can use finessing/cleaning?
Look at your free-form text fields. They are a blessing and a curse, aren’t they. We are in the healthcare field, so in our case we are dealing with hospital and healthcare system names. Do you know how many ways someone can enter “Saint Frances Hospital” Into a freeform text field? You can type out Saint or use ST or ST PERIOD. Frances itsef can be spelled with an E or an I, and misspelled with an S intead of a C. Or it might be nicknamed St. Fran. Or St. Fran –apostrophe S. And you can type out hosp – okay I can go on for days about this and trust me you don’t want that.
Long, extemporaneous story short, your free-form text fields could definitely use some cleaning up and data massaging before you begin THINKING of moving it over.
Think about your committees or sections – we had some cases where the committee names changed but they were created in the system as a new committee. You may have a committee called Widget Quality and Safety Committee, but it used to be named Safe Widgets Committee. IN that case you might want to merge all of that data together and bring only the Widget Quality and Safety Committee over, but roll in the people who had tenures on the Safe Widgets Committee – does that make sense?
What can be left behind?
In our case, we decided to leave behind prospective members that were in our database longer than 2 years who never did anything with our organization. If they had a change of heart post-AMS migration, they could create a new account.
We left behind membership orders older than 5 years – ALTHOUGH we did make sure to notate the accounts with the original join date and brought those customer notes over.
We left behind prospective members and inactive members who had a bad mailing address, an undeliverable email address, and no telephone number. With no way to contact them,
Old test accounts, former staff accounts. Decommissioned committees. Products that didn’t sell.
And again, when I say “LEFT BEHIND” I mean we have all of that data sitting in an old database. And while it’s not easily accessible, it’s researchable.
This should definitely be a group decision, but go to the group with your own recommendations first, or else you can easily get caught up in an endless cycle of what-ifs.
But the one question that really can guide you in figuring out your data needs is ..
What has changed in your organization since you launched your current system?
You set up your current system in a certain way, years ago. And times changes and boards change so your priorities change.
To get the creative juices flowing on this topic, I’m going to share an example of a change in a fictional organization, an actual change at SHM, and while I’m talking, feel free to think of some examples – fictional or real – that you can holler out when I’m done. That way we’ll be able to tuck these questions away for when this discussion next comes up.
My first example is from the fictitious association that I would quit my job in a hot minute to work for: NABBM, National Association of Boy Band Members.
NABBM established in the early 1960s has a due structure that is based on the size of the boy band, with members of larger bands paying less dues because they’re splitting the royalties among a larger group, and some of them might not be as attractive or as good a singer or as good a dancer.
Traditionally, their member classes are:
Bee Gees (3)
> examples, Jonas Brothers, Hanson
Beatles (4)
> One Direction, Backtstreet boys
Beach Boys (5)
Original New Edition, New Kids on the Block, N Sync
NABB is looking to change their AMS. What’s changed?Meet BTS. They are a K-Pop band and they have SEVEN members.
NABBM established in the early 1960s has a due structure that is based on the size of the boy band, with members of larger bands paying less dues because they’re splitting the royalties among a larger group, and some of them might not be as attractive or as good a singer or as good a dancer.
Traditionally, their member classes are:
Bee Gees (3)
> examples, Jonas Brothers, Hanson
Beatles (4)
> One Direction, Backtstreet boys
Beach Boys (5)
Original New Edition, New Kids on the Block, N Sync
NABBM is looking to change their AMS. What has changed in the boy band world since they set up their current AMS?
Meet BTS. They are a K-Pop band. Forbes magazine described them as "easily the biggest and most successful name in K-pop in the world" that can "do things no other name in their genre can.”
But the most important attribute if you’re working at NABBM, (like I would LOVE to do), is that they have SEVEN members. SEVEN! Do yourselves a favor and look up BTS’s live performances and watch them dance. It’s mindblowing.
Currently, NABBM’s poor membership staff has to charge them each the 5-member rate and adjust the membership rate downward.
So if dreams come true and I became the Vice President of Membership Technology for NABBM, I would want to make sure that our new AMS could let us create new member dues structures on the fly, AND out of the box. Or, more radically, I’d think of changing the membership structure altogether and base it on group music sales instead.
Back to SHM ,which is much less flashy.
When we stared with AMS A, we were mostly a physicians-only organization. And one of the data points we collected is the simple question: What medical school did you graduate from. It was a drop-down list, and was informed by a back-end table that someone set up years ago, but nobody had the time to keep it up because who has the time to keep track of new medical schools and schools that change their name.
ANYWAY as the years rolled by, SHM decided to become more of a big-tent organization – we started actively welcoming and recruiting non-phycian members. In other words, Physician Assistants, and Pharmacists and Nurses and Hospital Medicine Program Administrators.
And when they applied online, we’d sometimes get the question “Hey, I didn’t go to medical school.” and we thought, “hm, we need to address that.” So what did we do?
We took that question with the out-of-date dropdown list and added a freeform text field (UGH, right?) beneath that said, “OR OTHER SCHOOL” and let people enter whatever they wanted.
This meant that if someone wanted to pull a list of members and the schools they attended, the person who pulled the list (HEY THAT’S ME) would have to pull BOTH the Medical school field AND Other School Field AND smush them together in one column.
So we thought .. Hm…this has changed. Maybe when we bring this data over, we should condense these fields together into one that says “ medical or professional school” and either brush up the dropdown OR sadly leave the freeform.
And that’s when the story ended. But in reality, we could have dived deeper. How often DID we end up pulling lists of medical or oteh rschools? We really don’t. Turns out, we could have left that all behind! . But then we dove deeper. We asked the person who pulls those lists and the convers
I’m looking for a few brave individuals to offer up some examples. They can be real or fictional. Anyone? YES NO? OKAY
Thank you! That’s a really helpful one!
Ohmigosh….that’s definitely a change.
Tip 2 – Standardize your vendor demonstrations.
Try to schedule all your demonstrations as closely to each other as possible. You’ll not be able to compare them side y side, but you don’t want too much time to pass in between them.
Have a consistent group of people from as many different departments as you can at each demonstration.
Ask your participants to create a list of questions in advance that will be asked at all demonstrations. This is a good use for any collaboration tools you have.
Give your task force a standardized scale to ‘rank’ each.
We created a scale in SurveyMonkey that allowed the task force to rank each AMS on these subjects
Core Business Needs
membership, meetings, online store, finance, relationship management
Usability
user friendly for members, staff?
can we get to the data easily for manipulation and reporting? (excel-heavy org)
does it play will with our social media presences?
Integration
with our other software suites, like our email software and our Learning Management System or LMS
with website CMSs – which are content management systems
does it support SINGLE SIGN ON
Technical Support
training for us?
support after launch
does it seem like they have a roadmap for the future?
Strategic fit
short term (1-4 years)
long term (5-10 years)
pricing?
And of course a free form text field that let us gather various comments.
This was created in SurveyMonkey once, and then the survey was copied for each AMS that we saw. We printed the survey out and distributed a copy to each member of the task force before each AMS demonstration. And after the demo, we sent the link out to each person and asked them to complete the online survey. THIS GAVE US DATA so we didn’t have to rely strictly on gut feelings or quality of swag given.
The final point I want to touch on in Standardiznig is this important question that you’ll want to ask whenever you see a feature that makes you go … WOW….
Because you’re going to be swayed by all of the AMAZING promises your vendors are going to make. Software can do A LOT of things. And new software can cast a siren song.
And sometimes, especially with the larger companies, you’re going to have the sales team demoing the software, NOT the technical team. And sometimes, SOMETIMES, not all of the time of course but SOMETIMES, a sales person will say one thing but not have the tech team there to give you a 100% correct answer.
An out-of-the-box feature will, with appropriate setup, is ready to go. Code customization means someone (you, them, a contractor) will have to modify the code of the product get that functionality that you want.
You ask me… Kim… can you run a 5K?
Me: Suuuuure. With enough customizations. Shoes, training, illegal performance-enhancing drugs, perhaps. But not today. Not out of the box.
For example, all AMSes we saw were able to process membership orders. We were able to set dues prices, we were able to set up our grace period, we were able to set our membership model up as an anniversary dues cycle.
Would we be able to create a zero-dollar STUDENT rate? Yes, of course – just like you’d set up your regular PHYSICIAN dues rate.
Great! And would we be able to require a student to submit proof of being a student as they sign up?
Yes, of course!
Fantastic!
And that’s how the conversation ended. If we could rewind, we’d have instead replied…
Fantastic! Is that feature available out-of-the-box OR does it require a code customization.
Because the answer would have been, “Oh, you’d need to add custom code to your “Join us” page to make that happen.
And that’s how we launched our new AMS without a functionality that we had in our old one.
Take note of this question and rehearse it in front of the mirror until you don’t feel cringey saying it.
Tip 3: Be honest with your limitations!
Modern project management methodology, especially for software rollouts, includes a concept called “sprints.”
A sprint usually takes 2-3 weeks to complete and the goal at the end of each sprint is to have a working version of the module that could be deployed.
Configuration, Conversion and Testing included daylong meetings where the vendor discovered how we were currently running that aspect of business; for example … our membership dues structure or how our meetings were run or how we sold and fulfilled products in our store.
Configuration: We at SHM were also responsible for many of the setups in the system as it was being configured.
We either had to deliver a list of setup options to the vendor, or go into the new product and set it up ourselves.
You know how you open your current system to enter a new constituent and for prefix, see “Mr, Mrs, Ms, Honorable, etc?” That needs to be filled. And if you need “doctor” in there, either you have to tell your vendor or you do it yourself.
Conversion: It also included taking the data from our current AMS and seeing how it fit in the new database. Anything that didn’t fit had to be converted into a format that would fit. Do you have an excel or database wizard who can go in and write a script or a macro to reformat large quantities of data? If not, is that something your vendor can do for you (for a fee) or recommend a contractor who can? (again, for a fee)
Testing is pretty self-explanatory.
And Rollout is going into the module once it’s completed and making sure it works. Ny changes that need to be done would be addressed as part of the next sprint.
Our first sprint was Customers – setting up the customer module and getting our individuals and institutions in there.
Our second sprint involved committees – setting up our committee structure, getting the individuals who were already in there set up with their past, present committee terms. AND cleaning up whatever didn’t work correctly in Customers.
The Third sprint was meetings – getting all of the meeting products from the last x many years built in the new system. AND cleaning up committee stuff that maybe didn’t work for us in sprint 2. AND any outstanding customer issues from sprint one.
Don’t worry, I’m not going through each sprint because frankly, after that we had so many plates spinning I basically suppressed most memories of the process.
After we decided to move forward with AMS B, we asked them for an estimate as to how much of SHM’s time would be taken by this migration. This is what we received..
It’s pretty straightforward. We had someone in SHM with a PMP (project management professional) certification who was the project manager. The Subject matter expert is the person or people who knows the most about how that module is supposed to work. The IT person helps with the technical issues that crop up and/or database finessing, and the project sponsor is the person who says, “very well, very well” and reports to the staff.
This was circulated in December of 2016 and the consensus was…
‘actual quote from an email’
Because what happens with your Project Manager is also your IT person? And your subject matter expert is also your project sponsor? Or you only have one person who oversees membership AND meetings, so now you’re requiring 50% of their time for at least two different sprints?
And who’s filling in for the 50% of that person’s CURRENT job responsibilities that they can’ do anymore because they’re tied up with this project?
And you can say to yourself: Well, we’re a hip, young organization. We’re great at multitasking. We’re great with new technology. We’re quick learners.
But it only takes one key person leaving for a role at another organization to throw all of the best laid plans into disarray. Or someone going out on maternity or paternity leave – remember our timeline from first meeting to the second day one was 16 months. Or another person’s mother falls twice in six weeks and ends up with a broken elbow, kneecap and hip. (she’s fine now)
Ask your vendors for references from associations set up like yours. And ask them how they handled the staffing expectations.
Of course your conference, election, board meeting is going to take priority. The invisible things, like your AMS? It’s not fun or sexy for most people to talk about.
Here’s what’s not to do:
In February of 2017, we kicked off the active work portion of our AMS migration, with a deadline of mid-December. This was a very aggressive timeline. At the same time our organization was
Redesigning the entire website
Planning our largest annual meeting to date – it was in Las Vegas
Redesigning all of our branding and collateral
Launching a new LMS – learning management system
Building new conference rooms – obs we weren’t doing it but there were walls being torn down and built, painted, wallpapered, etc.
Replacing our telephone system
Changing our committee structure
I ran out of slide room.
It was ridiculous.
We had so much going on that at an all staff meeting a senior executive joked that we were in the middle of “The Perfect Storm.”
Indulge me while I follow this tangent… does anyone remember “The Perfect Storm?”
THIS IS A TRUE THING THAT HAPPENED.
Who here knows what happened to the crew of the Andrea Gail? Holler it out, the movie is 29 years old, you’re not spoiling…
Yes. EVERYBODY DIED.
Think about it. You’re in a position of leadership, you’re staring at a group of emotionally wrung-out staff and you start calling it all the Perfect Storm.
If I could take this little tip and slide it under the wall to one of the Executive Tracks I would.
Don’t do that. It’s not cool.
If you need a bigger boat, bring on more people, even if they don’t have a day to day stake in the project. Create an interdepartmental team, because fresh eyes and eyes that are at a distance from the project is always good. They also going to become your evangelists and in return, they’ll be able to pop this project on their LinkedIn
On that team, make sure you have a balance of long-time and new employees. The new ones will have a fresh perspective on things and will definitely find the weirdnesses in your current business processes and call them out.
Keep the project LOUD and keep the timeline transparent
Do you have a company newsletter? Commandeer a spot every issue.
Don’t assume that this project will be talked about in senior meetings.
Write it on a white board
Send out regular all-staff updates
Countdown to launch
Keep the timeline transparent – this means that everyone who’s working on the project has the right to know when they’re due up to bat. Nobody likes surprises.
If you have overly-eager board or committee members, let them get involved too – they can be valuable when you’re trying to see thing from your members’ points of view.
Tip 5: Be prepared for the Second Day One
Your first day one was the day you had your kickoff meeting or call with your new AMS. You pushed through the project and you crossed the finish line. But you’re not finished.
The Second Day One is the first day that staff doesn’t have the old, now-oddly-beloved AMS to fall back on. The phone rings. Someone wants to renew their membership and you’re looking at shiny and now-oddly-scary interface of AMS B and ..it’s on.
People will have lied to you about having tried their modules on test. This does not make them bad people.
Interesting observation:
Not having the software that the longtimers were used to was a real social equalizer in the office.
You may have a grace period before you are transitioned from your vendor’s migration team to regular customer service. Don’t rest when during the time period before you are transitioned to regular customer service. It will be VERY short, but you’ll want to take as much advantage as you can of that direct help line.
And train your staff. And train them some more.
And we did a lot of training.
We did 30 minute quick trainings once a month AFTER launch for a 5 month period.
This is an example of a training invite I sent out. It sets the expectation that these sessions are going to be no-frills and quick.
In hindsight I would have changed 2 things:
I would have started these training a month BEFORE launch. We just didn’t have the time.
I would have made them mandatory.
These aren’t bad tips, they’re just tips that didn’t warrant their own slide.
People problems: The people who won’t use your current AMS aren’t going to use your new one either. They are going to continue to wave around a sheet of people with 4 people on it and ask for someone else to do it. Your new AMS won’t fix that issue.
Process problems: If you have some weird business rules that are illogical, they are process problems. If you’re discounting things to a hundredth of a percent – like a 18.73% discount – that’s a weird business rule that your AMS might not be able to accomodate.
Your vendor works FOR YOU – it’s easy to become a little attached because they’re the ones carrying you through this process. Just keep in mind that they have their own timetable to get you through and sometimes their dates and deadlines might not work for your organization.
New puppy – that’s pretty obvious. You don’t need less sleep and more poop at home while your migration is ongoing at work.
And that wraps it up with time to spare. Who has a question, or a suggestion that worked for your organization the last time you migrated systems?
Here are various ways to find me if you have anything to share or ask. And that’s my LinkedIn profile in case you want to start up the National Association of Boy Band Members and need a VP of Membership Technology.
Finally, if you’re sitting there and are saying, “I could completely have given that level of presentation” then jump right in and apply in June for next year’s MASAE Annual meeting. If it’s your first time, let me know at those email addresses and I promise I will not only attend your session, but I’ll sit close to the front and smile at you the whole time.
Thanks and have a great day!