Category: Work

(Also posted at https://www.bounteous.com/insights/2018/03/01/practitioners-guide-personalization/)

Personalization. Go to a conference, read a blog, or talk to a software vendor and you will hear that personalization is key to engaging customers and increasing revenue. But what is personalization really and how do we achieve it?

Personalization is the second most overused term in digital marketing (second only to experience). When terms are used this way, covering everything from an email subject line to what type of eCommerce platform you should choose, they lose their meaning and descend into jargon.

At Bounteous, we know that personalization can drive increased customer engagement and greater revenue. What differentiates Bounteous is that at the start of any client discussion around personalization, we define some concepts and capabilities that are needed for sustained success.

When Bounteous talks about personalization, we talk about Personalized Experiences and Personalization Capabilities as two related but distinct items. A Personalized Experience is a unique customer engagement that uses customer insight to deliver the right content at the right time via the right channel to get a user to undertake the desired behavior. Personalization Capabilities, however, are the combination of organizational capabilities including the processes, platforms, and people necessary to produce Personalized Experiences. Put even more simply, an organization’s Personalization Capabilities enable them to deliver Personalized Experiences to their customers. Additionally, if you want to create truly engaging Personalized Experiences, you need to focus on expanding your Personalization Capabilities.

Personalized Experiences

When we talk about Personalized Experience, we are really talking about how your brand and/or company are communicating with your customer. The confusing thing about Personalized Experiences is that many people talk about them as if it is black or white; an experience is either personalized or not.

In reality, personalization exists across a spectrum. There are a wide variety of experience types that can justifiably fall under the label personalization.

Bounteous has decomposed the landscape into six main types of personalization that can be viewed as a spectrum from Personalized Experiences that range from Static (yes, that is really possible) to Manually Updated, Optimized, Targeted, Individualized, and even Adaptive.

This is all well and good, and probably reinforces what you already know, so let’s discuss the next factor in the personalization equation, which is Personalization Capabilities. These are the tools and resources that your organization needs to implement a Personalized Experience.

Personalization Capabilities

Now that you have a general understanding of the broad spectrum of personalized experiences, it’s important to differentiate them from personalized capabilities. If you don’t have strong personalization capabilities, your personalized experiences will be limited. You have to envision the personalized experiences that you want to create and develop the personalized capabilities in your organization to create these experiences.

Through our experience with leading brands defining, designing, developing, and deploying Personalized Experiences, we have determined the six main capabilities that an organization needs to have and improve upon for success.

These include:

• Recognized and Integrated Customer Profiles
• Codified Learnings via Models and Scoring
• Automated Decisioning Systems
• Intelligent Content
• Orchestrated and Integrated Platforms
• Feedback Loop of Analysis and Measurement

Think of it this way: In order for a painter to be successful, he or she at the most basic level needs to be equipped with the adequate resources to complete the task of painting. The painter can’t create a great work of art without the right tools – paint, brushes, and a canvas.

The painting is the personal experience. The supplies are the capabilities.

Taking the analogy one step further, if you already have a great brush and lousy paint, where should you invest your money in improving? You need better paint, right? Personalization Capabilities are the same way. The Personalized Experiences you create will be constrained by the weakest of your Personalization Capabilities.

If you want to deliver more meaningful and relevant experiences to your users, you need to focus on developing the Personalization Capabilities within your organization so you can create that masterpiece of Personalized Experiences.

From an article on Built in Chicago in July of 2017.

Even if you’ve never heard of John Telford, you’ve probably encountered his work in the wild: Now Executive Solution Director at HS2 Solutions, one of his first jobs at the company was overseeing the development of the Domino’s pizza tracker.

A former software developer, Telford switched career paths to become a technical project manager in order to have a bigger impact on the projects he was working on. In 2010, he received a call from his old employers, Phil Hollyer and Keith Schwartz, about joining their new venture. At the time, HS2 Solutions had 35 employees. Today, that number is closer to 150 — and Telford is responsible for overseeing client success.

We spoke with him about the advantages of technical expertise in project management, the importance of work-life balance and how HS2 utilizes effective planning to help its employees avoid unnecessary all-nighters.

What sparked your decision to move from software development to project management?

I wanted to find ways to contribute as much as I can. Some project managers are primarily focused on reporting and communication, but in the technology world it’s very helpful to be able to actually sit down with team members to solve problems and make tradeoffs. Every problem we solve and every solution we build weighs competing forces around deadlines, cost and quality. Being a technical project manager allows you to help make those informed decisions taking everything into account.

What are the most interesting trends you’re watching in your industry?

Twenty years ago, when I was still a programmer, personalization was a big thing. But back then, personalization meant saying “Hello, John!” on the homepage. Now, personalization is about getting the right message to the right person at the right time through the right channel. That requires an orchestration of many different software solutions, data warehouses, analytical models, targeting and optimization tools and so on.

There’s probably been more change in this field in the past 36 months than there was in the past 10 years because of things like cloud computing and AI. And I think we will see that continue to expand, because people will expect consistent digital experiences when engaging with their phones and their computers as when they engage with Alexa, Google Home or their cars.

What are some concrete examples of ways in which these changes impact consumer experiences?

Tesla. For many years, the automotive industry was driven by brands rather than features and functionalities. People think Tesla has a big focus on performance and style, but one of the things they don’t realize is that they are really focused on user experience.

Tesla is continually measuring how people use their products. Then they iteratively optimize everything about the car, from the touchscreen UI to actual car performance, while observing how people react to the changes. There’s a lot of other industries where you’ll see companies making changes like that, like healthcare, which is a competitive industry where the user experience has traditionally not been a priority.

What sets the HS2 Solutions team apart from other teams you’ve worked with?

I often tell people that my number one goal is to make HS2 Solutions as successful as possible so I’ll never have to work anywhere else again. We have a great combination of people who are very good at what they do and who really enjoy their work, which creates a very high-energy environment.

Our first core value is putting the customer first, but our second one is to create a healthy work environment, ensuring that people are fulfilled by the work they do and that they have time to spend with their friends and family at home. We don’t have a foosball table or a dusty Rock Band set, because we’re not interested in creating those artificial fun experiences. We get our enjoyment during working hours by doing great work together for great clients.

It’s easy to imagine situations where those two core values conflict with each other. What can you do as a company to prevent that?

Failing to continuously look ahead can cause things to spiral out of control until people are scrambling, putting in all kinds of extra hours that would have been completely avoidable with more planning. We work at eliminating as many of those fire drills as possible, so that when we do have to work past dinner or pull an all-nighter, it’s a real exception and it’s because there’s a real fire.

How do you find the right people for building that kind of culture?

We bring up those values early in the interview process, because if someone isn’t interested in supporting a positive and healthy workplace culture, it’s just not worth their time or ours. But one of the great things about HS2 is that we get a lot of referrals.

It kind of becomes self-fulfilling when you really focus on hiring the right people for the right reasons and protecting your culture. If you have all the skills in the world but you don’t have people who can work together, you’re never going to get anything done. You can have a team of the most elite people in the world, but a team that can work together well and is focused on a goal will beat them every day of the week.

Many of you know how special a place I think that HS2 Solutions is to work, some of you have even joined me here. Well, we do have an opportunity opening up for a great Java Developer. If you are interested forward your information to Leah (contact info below).

Currently, HS2 is looking to a Java Developer. We are looking for people who are smart, work well in both a virtual office and a client setting, who are passionate about what they do, and want to hit the ground running! If you are actively looking for a new career opportunity or want to learn more, forward your resume to leah.weyandt@hs2solutions.com.

Java Candidates Must Have:

• Proficiency using Java, Web Application Development, SQL Database (Oracle, MS SQL, My SQL), HTML, AJAX, CSS, JSP, and Javascript;
• Experience with Spring Framework a plus;
• Proven ability to work independently on multiple, concurrent projects;
• Experience working with co-workers and clients in distributed environment;
• Excellent written and oral communication skills:
• Ability to create succinct and accurate documents, incorporating text and technical design diagrams;
• Technical proficiency to accurately document code;
• Ability to tailor messages to the client or internal teams;
• Desire to actively participate in client meetings in a professional manner;
• Strong analytical problem solving skills and ability to resolve complex issues;
• Project Management experience;
• “Self-starter” approach;
• B.S. in Computer Science or an equivalent field, with a GPA of 3.3 or higher;
• Willingness to periodically travel to client locations

How are new IT workers going to survive in a world where they are forced to compete with Russians, Indians, and Chinese people from around the world? Two words, “management”.

Study: You can lower the odds of being outsourced – Computerworld

(Also, it is important to have a sense of humor. 🙂 )