Thursday May 05, 2005

S10, JDS, Email and washing dishes

I've been answering JDS and Solaris 10 feedback alias questions all day and I am reminded of washing dishes. I read Shane Nickerson's weblog. I really enjoy his writing. In a three part story called The Corner of the Kitchen he talks about a job washing dishes for an Italian restaurant in L.A. He says " I did find a certain masochistic pleasure in conquering the dish pile each night. There is something very liberating about a job which has a definitive, simple goal. In this case, the goal each night was to wash all the dishes." To me answering a whole pile of emails with questions about JDS, Solaris 10 or our strategy is similar to attacking a pile of dishes. It gives me a certain masochistic pleasure. Of course in my case I not only clean out my inbox but I also gather valuable information that we can use to improve the product and the roll out. And by doing so I am building support for our efforts.

What we are doing by seeking feedback is really the engaging support and resistance step of Sun's Change Acceptance Process (Sun CAP). I honestly believe that the personal responses to the 400+ emails we have received since November were a significant part of the success of the JDS Preview roll out.

Companies and organizations are understandably very hesitant to put a personal face on their support. The fear of being buried or attacked is very real. We have been debating recently where to send users with feedback about the S10 roll out. We started with an alias but the problem is that an alias doesn't allow us to easily track problems and their resolution. Now we have decided to send users to our internal help desk. That will guarantee problem tracking but we know users are very skeptical about the abilities of the help desk to resolve their problems and many users would rather solve problems themselves than submit a ticket. Ideally users would get thanks and feedback about how useful it is to us for them to submit a ticket and they would get their problem resolved and we would identify all the issues that make the transition less than flawless. Those personal and authentic conversations with our users will augment the team to make the roll out a success. But creating the dialogue is not an easy task.

I've been thinking about how this applies to external support. Imagine the loyalty and community that would be created if when you sought support you had a conversation with a real support person, you got your problem resolved, you believed that your feedback was appreciated, and you knew that your feedback ultimately resulted in product improvements. The challenge of course is volume and cost but I do believe that this kind of support is possible.

I believe more and more that authentic, real conversations between individuals and the relationships and community that result are an extraordinary tool that can make a big difference in the success of a company, a product or a change.