Passion of the Loti
Brent Peters April 21 2009 03:13:50 PM
I would like to say how I appreciate the passion of the lotus community. I really appreciated the Lotusphere, "Lotusphere Comes to You" events and the SDR a couple of weeks back. I had some travels, ... and so took a while to update. There was a lot of STUFF covered in these events. I appreciated eveyone's passion. Feedback, mostly quite positive, some on things to improve. I would like to say something, as I sad in the beginning of LCTY calls and other events. It is overall about the passion of the community and our focus.
For one event, after I opened up for this group of about 100 people singing Hank Williams, I stated my wishes. My wishes were to get CONSTRUCTIVE feedback. This means treating our discussions as a scientific discipline, and focus the discussion in a constructive way. Now for the singing, In the first place, I can't believe that my employees put me on the spot to do that. In the second place, I can't believe that I actually took the dare and did it. However, Hank Williams is good stuff, and I am sure most of the people from around the globe had not heard true, albeit slight, yodeling/sing before.
I opened these sessions and said how "we really want your feedback. This isn't a popularity contest. I like bad news.". I truly do. When this team here executed on near impossible schedules to deliver Notes/Domino 8.0, like I said, we knew there were issues with some slow performance, but we wanted people to tell us anything else missing. What else do we need to constructively focus on. That list was slight. What I love about that state of a product's lifecycle, is the fact that "we know what to fix... we know where to focus... We know where we are lucky.". There is nothing worse than knowing that you need to change/adapt, ... but not knowing what to change. So I truly believe in Design Partnerships, beta feedbacks in general, forums, communities, .... as things to help me and my teams know where to focus our attention.
3 reasons why I am saying this:
1. I was awfully surprised, that some of the questions around DXL were as 'peaceful', IMO. I was thinking, hoping actually, that people would really try and "shoot holes", in everything, but especially DXL, due to it's popularity at Lotusphere. In fact in the "Meet the developer" session that I led, there was about (2000-3000 people(??)), huge group, and DXL all through Lotusphere was a hot topic. I actually tried to stir things up and start the "food fight" for those "Animal House" fans. Also, on the Business Partner section. I actually had to start a fight between one of my peer executive Vice Presidents, ... the guy that owns this program which isn't me, and the BP teams. So we shouldn't be bashful to have constructive feedback. So I know there is difference between "food fight", and "constructive feedback", but I really appreciate when people speak up, and that we are focusing on DXL in the right way. The user-stories, scenarios, requirements from BP's to customers, is varied, and thus it is important that we get the right fundamental business requirements covered ASAP.
2. A lot of times people in the community say that "some of the people in the community are noisier than others.". Some people are concerned that me, my teams, product management, ... are listening to too small of a demographic to be accurate. I truly know the "Innovator's Delimma", which is a good analogy for following your current (easiest) customer set "over the edge of the cliff", so WE in development are always testing everything. We want to know that what we focus on is needed and in what method (BP's, Customers, both, .... ). Obvious the goal of any business venture is the maximum amount of Return on the minimal of Investment (ROI). So when items appear to be the opposite, high cost/low return, then we tend to shy away. So rest assured, we are listening but also vetting and testing what we receive. Now, what I like about the "noisier" people is they help get the stuff on the table for us to consider. Things like CrowdedWisdom (IdeaJam), are great inputs, but I like talking about this things as well. So point here, don't be bashful. If you have thoughts here, or input, please speak up in the forums and events that we have. Regardless what Bill Buchan says about me "aside from being a huge and scary guy with a nasty glint in his eye...", I am one of the nicest people that I know, oh and sometimes funny. Once I talk, answer, I do tend to "ramble", as I am often told.
3. Bob Balaban - What can I say about Bob? Well, first word that comes to mind is "Passion". The kind of Passion that I am talking about. He brings good points to the table. He focuses problems, issues (now, and in future), marketplace, competition, ... in an extremely contructive way. Do I agree with every point, and execute on every point, no back to the "vetting" process I talked about earlier. Bob, has been a great member of this community. I wish for more people that shared his passion to be like him, jump in, share their thoughts, let's discuss and test it. So at Lotusphere "Meet the Developers", again about 2000-3000 people in the room(?), I even made a joke at Bob's expense, but it was a joke. Now while everyone laughed, again what can I say I got my grandmother's wry sense of humor, I want to make sure it is understood by that group that I was just kidding. Sometimes my developers will say to me "sometimes your jokes are funny, but semi-true, and so we don't know when you are kidding or serious", my standard answer is "only important for me to know when I am kidding.". Let me say, that I would NEVER over extend and be serious like that in an event. Bob is high on my list. As a matter of fact, the next morning, his limo gave me a ride to the airport, and we had a great talk; of course the driver stopped half way there to the airport and Bob said "ok, get out you creep...!!!!", sorry, just kidding again. Also, Bob is a darn sharp guy. So anyway, I wish to thank Bob for his passion, input, feedback, and his long term commitment to the "Passion of the Loti" community.
Now, for those that say "reading my James Joyce prose is difficult", read no further past this point ..... :)
Brent
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