Highly Competitive - software industry insights

A Smarter Edgier Collective: Business Technology Professionals on Twitter

 

As a departure from my usual in-depth article I’m sharing my somewhat ‘social-logical’ thoughts on the community of business technology professionals on Twitter.

Twitter has many faces for its users. There is one Twitter where masses of people tweet about pop culture and everyday life. There are also the Twitter worlds of brand promotions and consumers. And then there are Twitter “collectives”, floating through the Twittersphere with distinct flavor and vigor, where certain “birds of a feather” come together.

One particularly strong “collective” swirls around business technology professionals. These tech professionals work with hardware and/or software, as: users, vendors, analysts, consultants, marketers, product managers, practitioners, writers, developers, critics, innovators. And most of these seemingly disparate professionals are continuously and serendipitously crossing paths on Twitter, in a way that was never possible before.

Of course, this tech professionals’ collective on Twitter is not formally organized nor does it need to be to result in effective communication and interaction. I like to think that the some of the propensity for technology folks to interact on Twitter has origins in software / hardware in “old school” developer communities, BBSs, and forums. “Special interest groups” within the tech professionals collective exist on Twitter (frequently marked by hashtags) – but mixing and interaction amongst all such groups are continuous and fruitful.

In mixing it up, software analysts are talking to social media agencies and practitioners, marketers to systems analysts and developers, big fish talking with not-so-big fish. Silos are being evaporated, as individuals are walking a bit in another professional’s shoes and seeing from another’s perspective. Twitter has been an extended and natural collaboration experience with open communicators, willing listeners, change agents and change acceptors. For these tech professionals, is Twitter becoming “collaboration as business process” that is essential to their professional endeavors?

As a collective, technology professionals take advantage of many activities, both organized and impromptu, that are possible on Twitter. Many lead and/or participate in chats or tweetjams via organized events, or jump in on lively exchanges that start with a couple of people. Connections and brainstorms spring up where impromptu conversations are usually open to all, with an almost stream-of-consciousness flow. Unexpected new relationships develop. When disparate worlds willingly collide, it can enable the emergence of new ideas, perspectives, unexpected slants on topics and problems.

 

Interactive Social Caretakers

On Twitter, each tech professional might be considered individual social caretakers or personal “community managers”. David Armano articulates how effectively trained community managers should posses the following seven qualities:

Articulate: Able to communicate effectively in a variety of media

Social: Engages in authentic conversations and interactions

Professional: Acts as a responsible ambassador of brand/org

Adaptable: Can make decisions quickly, handle crisis situations

Enthusiastic: Energetic, passionate and engaged in relevant topics

Connected: Has ties to the right people within the community

Organized: Can keep track of data, relationships, content calendars, and a variety of assets essential to maintaining community  

I find that this list captures the traits embodied by many of the tech professionals interacting on Twitter. The “communities” they manage permeate the collective.

 

Twitter as Social Intranet for Tech Professionals?

Looking at this loosely-organized Twitter collaboration phenomenon for tech professionals, is it reasonable to think of Twitter as an über Social Intranet for such professionals?  This would be a very public intranet but this Twitter intranet has much in common with the current fledgling social intranets behind the firewall.

Toby Ward describes a social intranet as:

An intranet that features multiple social media tools for most or all employees to use as collaboration vehicles for sharing knowledge with other employees. A social intranet may feature blogs, wikis, discussion forums, social networking, or a combination of these or any other Web 2.0 (intranet 2.0) tool with at least some or limited exposure (optional) from the main intranet or portal home page.

Intranets are places where an organization goes to find knowledge, experts, documents, discussions. If we consider the intermingled tweetstreams of the tech professionals collective as the “home page” or the gateway to the treasures of this “social intranet”, then a smörgåsbord of blogs, wikis, discussion forums, social networks, and so on are available to all of the collective. Indeed Twitter itself may be the ultimate open forum. The Twitter “social intranet” also reflects continuous change: unpredictable, dynamic, significant, evolving – allowing exchanges of unexpected information and opinion.

In his presentation on Social Intranets, Oscar Berg sees a shift to Value Creation, emphasizing Collaboration – Learning – Innovation – Relationships. Twitter interaction experiences encompass the tenets of Berg’s Value Creation as well as these points called out by Berg regarding the greater expectations people have for organizations:

• Fast response
• Accessibility
• Simplicity
• Freedom of choice
• Transparency & influence
• Need-driven

 

Holism through social networks and cultural change

If each tech professional on Twitter is their own community manager (and brand manager), and is participating in a social intranet super-structure, what sort of “social organization” describes the overall collective?

In the work that Jeremiah Owyang is doing on social businesses, he maintains that companies organize social in 5 ways: Centralized, Distributed, Coordinated, Multiple Hub-and-Spoke, and finally Holistic. Holistic is the least frequent in organizations where everyone uses social media equally and consistently across all organizations, somewhat as “social masters”, with the essential qualities of community managers.

The central notion of holism is that the whole ends up greater than the sum of the parts, meaning that something organically greater emerges. The tech professionals’ collective derives its organic strength from such parts as mutual respect, active listening, cross-culture, cross-geo, cross-functional to achieve a collaboration that is alive and kicking.

 

 

Related Links

Social collaboration in enterprise:The heart–and goal–of Community is “collaborating people”, not collaboration tools

 The Effective Intranet – Engaging the Employee as Customer

 Achieving the Social Business, Inside and Out

 

About the author: Julie Hunt is an accomplished software industry analyst, providing strategic market and competitive insights. Her 20+ years as a software professional range from the very technical side to customer-centric work in solutions consulting, sales and marketing.  Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitive and on Twitter: @juliebhunt   For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Strategic Product & Market Intelligence Services

 

Content Marketing Strategy for B2B Software Vendors: Starring the ‘New’ White Paper

 

For the past several years, multiple studies by different research firms have been conducted to evaluate the most sought-out and influential content for B2B technology customers during decision-making buying cycles, and every time, in every study, the #1 preferred content is the White Paper.

The white paper is the #1 most influential piece of collateral that technology purchasers consult when making or influencing a buying decision for their company, according to a recent survey by Eccolo Media

However, many B2B software vendors still are missing the boat with their use of white papers and have not employed them in ways to engage potential buyers, let alone convert them to customers.

  

In The Beginning…

Technology white papers find their origins in government briefs that were called white books, alluding to the plain white binding that was used. With the transformation to the technology white paper, experts, lead architects, systems designers used these documents to provide authoritative discussions of key ideas or technologies to show thought leadership and future direction. The classic white paper was very technical and dissertation-like, rich with in-depth details and research results.

Then something happened to white papers when many software companies began to generate them as “product collateral”. White papers were hijacked by many product marketing and marketing groups to directly promote products. Content became thinly veiled product brochures extolling the virtues of the software offerings, highlighting information favorable to the vendor. White papers became just another item in the checklist of collateral to generate for a product launch. Little strategic thinking or advance planning went into creating white papers, including the recruitment of a top tech professional to write the white paper. Well, guess what: software solution buyers do not like that kind of white paper.

 When asked what most disappointed in a white paper, poor writing ranked number one.

 One surprise in the findings – the respondents said they're more disappointed when a white paper doesn't contain enough technical information rather than when a paper contains too much.

 

 What Potential Buyers Want In Effective White Papers

Quality Quality Quality

Customers continue to call out high quality writing with accurate and useful content as top values for the white papers that they want to read and use. They want plenty of details (tech / business), which means content has to be: tight, clear, compelling, authentic.

The survey also found that the quality of report writing gets noticed. Some 86% of respondents felt that high-quality writing was at least moderately influential and 51% ranked good writing as either very or extremely influential. By contrast, poor quality writing was the most frequent reason respondents gave for decreasing the influence of a white paper.

 

Less Time to Consume Content

A lot of great content is constantly published on the web, due largely to constant brisk evolution of business needs and corresponding software solutions. Customers would like to consume a large variety of content, so they prefer shorter lengths for white papers. Shorter white papers also allow vendors to generate a constant flow of new content that also keeps pace with business and tech changes. According to most of the studies cited in this article, the ideal length of a white paper is 4-8 pages. (Tech Marketing Best Practices Research Series on white papers states that 86% of tech buyers want white papers under 10 pages.)

 

Buyers are proactive in the use of white papers:

How to Maximize the Use of White Papers in Your B2B Marketing and Sales Process, released by InformationWeek in February 2009. Its survey of 542 professional buyers found that 93% of IT buyers pass along up to half of the white papers they read/download, and that 54% of those surveyed contacted a vendor for more information after reading a white paper.

 

No Registration Please

When marketing groups co-opted the white paper another marketing staple was added: requiring buyer registration to be able to download the white paper. There is a strong buyer sentiment that vendor websites should not require any information from the buyer for any content downloads.  After all, the sales engagement is buyer-driven, with the buyer deciding when and if next steps will be taken.

A recent survey done by Spiceworks (SMB IT management resource site) addressed the issue of having to register for white papers:

We also found a lot of people – more than 75% – DON'T sign up for papers requiring registration, which means the vendor is missing the opportunity to share and disseminate their knowledge.

         How many (vendors) stopped requiring registration as the result of your survey?

A handful so far. The results are pretty staggering. When you remove the "registration wall," downloads go way up. One white paper that was offered without registration was downloaded 500 times in three days!

  

White Papers and Content Marketing Strategies

Potential buyers visit B2B corporate websites with the intent of finding all kinds of information that will help with purchase decisions. Buyers also look for vendor information on other web venues. It is critical for any vendors who see web presence as a key to success to build a strategy for content marketing. A content marketing strategy for B2B software vendors should focus on providing relevant, compelling, and frequently updated information for target markets and customers/buyers. A high quality white paper is a significant business asset for content marketing: quality content holds its value for reusability, engagement, impact, and vendor credibility.

Adam Needles: Content marketing is the architecture behind information exchanged with the buyer before we can get them to ’sales ready’; it is the rationalization of what content that our prospective buyers need at various stages of the buying cycle and via what media and channels; and it is integral to the nurturing process.  Content thus has moved from tactical to strategic.

 

Many B2B software vendors could benefit greatly from building a content marketing strategy around white papers. Don’t just produce single white papers in a reactive fashion, as a product launch checklist item done in a hurry. Plan, create and publish excellent white papers well in advance of any product launches.  B2B software vendors should be publishing white papers with high frequency (since customers want shorter white papers): set the stage for what your company does now and will do in future. Show authentic thought leadership, clear understanding of various customer needs and real problem-solving.

Publishing sets of “companion” white papers is a good idea for vendors targeting buyers with different perspectives such as business and tech buyers, and biz-tech composites. Some white papers can be created to bridge the gap between business and tech, to encourage collaborative definition of needs and problem-solving. Series of white papers that break down a complex topic can be an interesting approach as well. These approaches will show vendor commitment to helping customers understand current technology trends as well as provide guidance for solving problems or for becoming more competitive.

Beyond publishing great white papers is the opportunity for vendors to engage customers in conversations through social media, wherever customers participate. There already is a social aspect to downloaded white papers – customers have a high rate of sharing white papers. Tap into social media for interactive conversations with potential buyers and industry writers. On download pages include links to communities and forums to encourage discussion. Schedule Tweetjams for topics covered in white papers. Comment on blogs that address the topics of vendor white papers, not to directly promote the white paper, but to add to the brainstorm and show command of the topic.

 

Value of white papers for B2B software vendors:

 
 

   

The Right Industry Professional to Create White Papers for B2B Software Vendors

Keeping in mind that customers have made clear that they want high quality content with extensive tech details, it would make sense to work with a software industry professional with strong tech experience, business smarts, and who can articulate complex ideas clearly and authentically. This would be a professional who has worked with customers, understands both business and tech, has the ability to hold the interest of these readers. And of course, this professional has to be a really good writer.

White papers will benefit from a professional who has decent smarts for several software solution categories and who has good hands-on experience on the tech side of software. The business-technology professional should contribute rich insight, produce creative content and original thinking, see unexpected connections and future trends. Direct customer experience enhances an understanding of how tech will help customer competitiveness, and will enable writing from the customer POV.

Another very useful attribute of the right professional would be one who is inter-connected to individuals throughout the software industry: analysts, practitioners, consultants, writers, vendors. A professional who is in constant conversations with other industry SMEs will be up-to-date on key topics and trends, and will have resources at hand for research and confirmation. Quality white papers will result if the professional regularly writes software industry-related articles and blog posts, participates in new product briefings from various vendors and start-ups, and continually monitors several software solution spaces. A business-technology professional who is well-connected in social media can also provide guidance to vendors for content marketing strategies that target white papers and social media.

 

The ‘New’ White Paper:

• Reflecting studies cited: high quality and accurate content, plenty of deep details (tech / business), 8 pages or less which engenders content that is tight, engaging, well-written, inspiring
• Often written from the customer POV, using customer language
• Covers trends that matter: new solution segments – transitions of solutions
• Real takeaways that benefit customers whether they buy the vendor solution or not - vendor is associated with insight to solving problem, doing things in new way that is useful
• Inform, educate at sophisticated level to provide real depth
• Create companion white papers when different customer roles come into play for the topic (business, tech, hybrid/composite)
• Passion in the treatment: blogging has shown that writing about software solutions is more engaging if the writer inserts personality into the work – apply this to white papers when appropriate
• Provoke thought about the solution space: new thinking for addressing needs; provoke desire to find out more;  provoke a conversation that will lead back to the vendor
• Look into employing variety of buyer scenarios to connect customers to relevance of topic
• Infographics, tech details, guidelines, suggested reading, links to other resources (not necessarily on vendor site) – all add to value in buyer eyes
• Format for readability, flow, quick-scanning, engagement
• Publish on the distributed web – not just on corporate site but share on sites frequented by buyers
• Stir the pot: encourage social media conversations through blogs, Twitter, forums, communities, Facebook; also actively contribute comments on relevant blogs
• Not self-serving brochure-ware solely touting vendor offering – but can address issues that matter to buyers that generally could be solved with vendor’s offering

 

Related Links

SMB / Mid-Market B2B Software vendors - Findability + web presence + social: attracting the “customer as buyer”

I have a confession to make: I am a Hybrid

Goodbye Corporate Website – Hello Web Presence Management Framework?

 

  

About the author: Julie Hunt is an accomplished software industry analyst, providing strategic market and competitive insights. Her 20+ years as a software professional range from the very technical side to customer-centric work in solutions consulting, sales and marketing.  Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitive and on Twitter: @juliebhunt   For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Strategic Product & Market Intelligence Services

 

Influential Moving Target? -- Edelman’s Top Tweeting IT Analysts List

Jonny Bentwood of Edelman recently unveiled an example of Edelman’s approach to measuring influence on Twitter, utilizing the Edelman-branded TweetLevel tool. The list of Top IT Analyst Tweeters, initially published on July 21, consists of the top tweeters among the IT analysts who are active on Twitter. These analysts include individuals from large and small firms, consultants, SMEs, and even some firms and brand names.

 

A Curt Monash post, So who is an analyst anyway?, contributes a fine discussion of analyst services for technology vendors and buyers in a professional world that includes newer venues like social media. Monash also explores the notion of what qualifies a tech professional as an analyst. One point from Monash has particular relevance to the Edelman TweetLevel influencer work:

 

You need flexibility in how you deal with influencers.  Everybody is different

 

 

I conjecture that Edelman / Bentwood view this list of top tweeters as a test case / work in progress where they are fine-tuning calculations - and assumptions - while processing reactions, analyses and feedback.  They deserve props for jumping into the fray by publishing a list that results from evaluating a class of tweeters using their “influence” meter (TweetLevel). With so many calls for metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of many aspects of businesses, here’s a starting point for trying to determine levels of influence. It may evolve and mature into a useful tool -- if tested, tweaked and nurtured thoroughly. 

 

 

How do the calculations work?

 

The backbone of calculating the ratings of IT analyst tweeps is TweetLevel. TweetLevel can take daily influence temperatures that are tied to Twitter presence, based on 4 high-level attributes (as explained by Bentwood below):

 

1. Influence (What you say is interesting, relevant and many people listen)

2. Popularity (How many people follow you)

3. Engagement (You actively participate within your community)

4. Trust (People believe what you say)

 

 

Per Edelman, what constitutes a “top tweeter”, and potentially a top influencer, is described in the overview that explains the calculations on the TweetLevel site. The formula behind each TweetLevel rating for anyone on Twitter looks like this:

 

 

 

 

Jonny Bentwood comments on the calculations:

 

…as it happens the formula is all about being transparent. I can’t stand measurement tools that purely focus on popularity so have tried to be as open as possible about the inner works of how tweetlevel works. There is some real science and hard-core maths behind this if you want to dig deeper.

 

The full Bentwood post provides much more detail on the calculations, weightings of scores and methodology.

 

 

Anyone who tweets may visit TweetLevel to calculate current ratings based on the four attributes of Influence, Popularity, Engagement, and Trust. TweetLevel also provides comparison profiles to people included in an individual’s ecosystem of “friends”.

 

 

Personal Snapshots and Fluctuations

 

When first published July 21^st, the list stood at 1000, but two days later Bentwood added at least another 150 individuals, and then re-ran the TweetLevel ratings, which of course reset positions for many individuals. This change suggests the possibility of continuous updates for this list, perhaps on a daily basis. Such a list is dependent on the daily fluctuating nature of TweetLevel ratings, in turn based on the daily fluctuations of each participant’s Twitter activity. If maintained in this fashion, the Top Analyst Tweeters list would be in continuous flux, to a certain extent.

 

I’m in the list and was surprised by my inclusion. I’m a one-woman show for my consultancy, and while many years of a software industry market intelligence practice qualifies me as an analyst, I never really thought a lot about whether or not I’m an “influencer”. For a small consultancy, the Edelman list may help with visibility – to connect to more colleagues and potential clients. But am I a “top influencer” due to my presence on Twitter, or even through my professional writing and interactions? – I’m asking this while looking at the many very talented heavy-weights in the Top Tweeters list. Thorough study of Michael Wu’s marvelous work on influence would be quite helpful here.

 

After Bentwood replaced the original list of 1000 with the second version, and as I began to understand more about the nature of TweetLevel-measured “influence”, I decided to track my “TL influence” temperature over several days:

 

 
  
 

Like a game of musical chairs, the individuals in this list could continuously jostle one another for somewhat different positions relative to one another. Barring some major career-changing event (positive or negative), most of the participants may continue to hover in predictable plus/minus ranges near where each one is currently on the list, if Bentwood does not continue adding new individuals.

 

 

Analyst Influence On A Daily Basis?

 

How often should these ratings be rerun and published? Is that a helpful activity or just muddying the waters?

 

The flux of the TweetLevel approach is problematical but also to be expected for a work-in-progress. With this list of top IT Analysts on Twitter, we are not tracking a relatively shorter-lived entity like a Justin Bieber, where day-to-day popularity seems to matter. Bieber is currently the #1 TweetLevel “influencer” of all Twitter users, a position he has held for a while; Bieber’s overall influencer score is 95. The person in the #1 position on Bentwood’s list of top analyst tweeters is Jeremiah Owyang with an influencer score of 76.6.

 

Instead of tracking pop culture figures, Bentwood’s list of Analyst Tweeters covers highly-qualified and respected technology professionals whose influence and credibility emanates from a lot of work that occurs outside Twitter. Edelman’s TweetLevel measures Twitter attributes that are also impacted by influence earned elsewhere, sometimes subtly, from other actions and interactions involving these analysts. Yes, Twitter presence and worthwhile tweets are part of the story - but many people may follow these analysts on Twitter because of who they are and what they write in blogs or accomplish in client projects, not because of what they do each day on Twitter.

 

Does a particular analyst really have less influence during a day or even week of less activity on Twitter, than during the many days and weeks of constant activity? Not really. Call it “residual kharma” –  just because a well-known analyst that is a frequent Twitter contributor has taken a week or a month off, it doesn’t mean that all of the previous tweets suddenly have no influence. Nor does it mean that the anticipation of future tweets doesn’t carry influence across the break. Only if the analyst / influencer is absent from Twitter for a long periods of time, is influence likely to ebb a bit, until the analyst begins anew with tweets.

 

 

Vetting and Influence: Interested Parties

 

Who will be looking at a list like this? Most likely: buyers, vendors, other analysts, AR professionals, writers, consultants – pretty much anyone looking for guidance, assistance and forward-looking thinking regarding different segments of the technology industry.

 

®   While the notion of influence may matter more to AR professionals and vendors, a lot of people will still consult a list like this to understand more about whose work they want to follow or whose experience they want to enlist.  People and companies who are more attuned to Twitter may take this list more seriously, while others may think it trivial.

 

®   Does this approach help vendors identify analysts with influence?  In a very limited fashion, depending on the tweeting ability of each participant, there is a certain element of influence associated with analysts on Twitter. But to really assess “influence” and “reach”, there are lots of factors, including significant qualitative ones, that have to be evaluated as a whole.  Context of expertise for each analyst is the starting point – goals of the vendor also matter. There are great analysts who are influential but don’t make a lot of noise on Twitter.

 

®   From the buyer’s POV, are these fluctuating ratings helpful or distracting?  A list like this will draw buyers to look at certain analysts or consultants, but as for vendors above, many factors come into play to help buyers to decide on tapping a particular analyst for assistance.

 

®   AR Professionals are definitely interested in influence - take a look at a recent #archat on Twitter. I can see this list as particularly useful for introducing “new” players who are sharing information and opinion on Twitter. AR maestro Carter Lusher of Sage Circle has posted his take Technobabble 2.0’s Top Analyst Tweeters provides useful insights into visibility, but does not show who is influential where he concludes:

 

Bottom Line: Analyst influence is a complex condition that is the result of the interaction of business objectives, visibility, opinions expressed, client base, and so on. While a generic, mechanically-created list can provide useful input into a formal analyst list management process, such a list cannot measure actual influence.

 

 

Influence is still largely subjective and ephemeral. Reliability, credibility, expertise, integrity, top-notch work – all are probably more easily measured – but not necessarily as characteristics of Twitter presence. And reliability, credibility, expertise, integrity, and top-notch work are essential qualities of technology analysts and consultants who really make a difference for their clients and readers. To determine the ability of any analyst as a fit for a particular purpose requires looking at each individual’s body of work, knowledge and talent, original thinking, relationships to significant entities, and then evaluating how these attributes map to client needs and objectives.

 

 

 

Additional thoughts regarding influence, analysts who tweet, tech industry analyst practices:

 

§  Michael Wu’s series on Influencers

 

§  Twitter-based #archat on Influence, Analysts and AR professionals – transcript for the conversation

 

§  Vinnie Mirchandani - DealArchitect: More tenets for the next-gen analyst

 

§  Ray Wang: 7 Tenets of Building a Star Analyst Firm

 

§  Barbara French & Gideon Gartner: Advisory Industry Competition: Pushing Past ‘Business as Usual’    Part 1   Part 2    (also read the comments in each Part)

 

 

 

Related posts:

I have a confession to make:  I am a Hybrid

 

 

About the author: Julie Hunt is an accomplished software industry analyst, providing strategic market and competitive insights. Her 20+ years as a software professional range from the very technical side to customer-centric work in solutions consulting, sales and marketing.  Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitive and on Twitter: @juliebhunt   For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Market & Competitive Intelligence Services

 

 

 

I have a confession to make: I am a Hybrid

B2B Software Vendors: Hybrid Roles for Business Technology

 

  

 

 

Like many other companies, software companies have allowed silos of work activity and responsibility to proliferate with adverse effects. There are now increased efforts to improve collaboration and cross-team project work to bring best efforts into play for company competitiveness. The ever-increasing presence of social collaboration practices and social media applications are driving changes to corporate collaboration cultures.

  

 

The demands of innovation, meeting customer needs, and rapidly changing solution markets are challenging software companies to work much more quickly and collaboratively than ever before. SW companies need to innovate: job roles, how work is done, better collaboration practices. Software companies are showing increasing need for “hybrid” roles even though few software companies are actively encouraging an evolution in how work roles are defined. 

  

 

Hybrid roles are intersection points for cross-team expertise, collaboration and communication. People in hybrid roles understand many different perspectives both internal and external to the company. The hybrid professional works to integrate multiple perspectives in work being done with multiple teams. Hybrids have real potential for broadly connecting the dots in new ways, to help company innovation and competitiveness. For software companies, what hybrids can do somewhat parallels the “good kind” of integration and convergence of solution spaces, and even of the companies themselves, into new entities.

  

 

To be able to communicate across many teams, hybrid roles must be “multi-lingual”: techie talk, customer speak, product management/product marketing lingo, as well as the lingua franca of reality checks. Creative thinking, new directions, new ways of looking  at the business of the company not only contribute to the positive direction of the company but also are effective for catching problems with current initiatives and strategies.

  

 

 

  

Different Hybrid Roles Are Popping Up in Many Companies

Common denominators for hybrid roles in different disciplines and industries seem to include: specific deep knowledge in multiple subject matter areas, technology astuteness, the understanding of business needs that cross traditional boundaries, belief in collaboration, even the use of social capabilities to support work processes and better communication.  Hybrid roles are frequently focused on crossing silos to achieve better results and to see bigger pictures.

 

  

CIO Hybrids

With the need to better align IT responsibilities with corporate business, many CIO positions are evolving into hybrid roles. There is strong strategic reasoning behind CIOs taking on cross-team and cross-functional positions. By placing CIOs in hybrid roles, they have more power and visibility to be able to improve enterprise-wide processes, to have real impact on business goals, and to better tie technology to the business. In the companies that have migrated CIOs to hybrid roles, the CIOs have more opportunity and punch to influence how technology and the business can work together for the overall good of the company.

  

  

 

Theses hybrid roles are very demanding for both the CIO and the IT group. As with all other technology-related hybrid roles, there is a risky side, particularly with the CIO stepping into areas not traditionally the usual tech turf.  But for the CIO to better support the business of the business, she/he must have real participation in business and overall strategic decisions for the enterprise.

  

 

Indeed, CIOs who have taken on additional business are better positioned to deliver improved processes and business results. "I am both the customer and provider of a solution. There are people on my team that are using technology to generate revenue, and there are people on my team who are delivering technology"

 

 

  

Marketing Technology Hybrid

Scott Brinker published an extensive and well-crafted piece on the rise of the marketing technologist, which describes yet another hybrid role. He thoroughly considers the future of “technology-powered marketing” where “Marketing must take ownership of the technology in its domain”. I highly recommend reading the entire article. 

 

 

  

Some of Scott’s observations on the marketing technologist hybrid:

As marketers, you're already responsible for the outcomes based on such technology. The accountability so widely promoted in digital marketing has you in the hot seat for results. It's only sensible that you should have full control over the means and mechanisms to deliver those results.

 

 

  

You must be the driver of marketing technology, not merely a concerned passenger. But if you don't have technical depth, who can help you navigate? …I propose a new role in the marketing department: a marketing CTO or chief marketing technologist. The mission of the marketing CTO is to provide that technology navigation.

 

 

  

I believe that digital marketing is more like product development than IT because it is:

· More front-office than back-office

· Experienced directly by customers

· An engine for new revenue

· Integral to the brand

· Visible in competitive positioning

· A creative endeavor

 

 

  

Financial expert / Business Analyst / Software Developer

Rummaging around the ‘net I found this recent job posting for “Business Analyst - Financial Accounting - Developer Role”

So if you are an accounting/finance professional who also has a technology background, apply!
* Background in accounting and general knowledge of GAAP
* Excellent communications skills
* Bachelors Degree in Accounting, Finance or related
* 5+ years working in technology as an (systems) analyst or developer

 

  

  

So What Makes Me a Hybrid?

Being a hybrid is risky business – I know from personal and professional experience. But it is also extremely rewarding, where the unexpected is just around the corner. My particular hybrid perspective draws on down-in-the-trenches experience in the technology, business, and people-oriented aspects of creating, marketing and selling software. My other hybrid bits include product/solution strategy, market and competitive intelligence, GTM strategy.  

  

 

A hybrid perspective comes in very handy for constructing relevant strategic market and competitive intelligence, recommendations for company competitiveness and innovations, and understanding whether a company’s software technology can map to new customer solution scenarios. I can bring a perspective of understanding how all the pieces fit and inter-relate, when working with different teams.  Such a perspective also helps with “seeing outside oneself” to visualize how a company is positioned in the larger worlds of solution spaces, markets and the overall software industry.

  

 

 

   
    

  

Overcoming Problems - Achieving Wider Acceptance

For hybrid roles to become part of strategic staffing in software companies, cultural and organizational change will have to take place, particularly in upper management and HR groups. Management-engendered cultural change should lead to company teams better accepting the value of hybrid professionals. Collaborative thinking in software companies will need to stretch out of traditional silos. Also needed is a much better understanding of what hybrids can accomplish for business and project goals, and the value of such accomplishments to the company.

  

Another impediment to accepting and understanding hybrid roles is the issue of job titles.  Most existing titles don’t adequately express what a hybrid really embodies and is capable of doing.  When trying to “identify” an employee as a hybrid, titles often deteriorate into dreadful, overly long hyphenated messes, or worse, opaque “vanity” titles. Along with an evolution in the types of positions and work done for software companies, there is a need to create more meaningful titles for many positions.

  

 

HR department gatekeepers likely will not understand these hybrid roles and their value to software companies: hybrids don’t fit the pre-built HR system job definitions that harken from the late ‘90’s. Upper management and HR must update approaches to filling key positions by enabling inclusion of new breeds of professionals that companies need to attain more innovative thinking and change how work is done.

 

  

In writing about “Social Is A Hybrid” Rich Nadworny - @rnadworny – makes these important points:

I've spoken to a few hybrids who, while providing invaluable services to their companies, lost their jobs when new bosses couldn't understand their function or value.

 

 

  

The challenge for most businesses is that people don't operate as hybrids. They operate within silos, with clear role definitions and even clearer budgets.

 

 

  

The bigger question for businesses today is whether they accept hybrid structures and if they support the growth of hybrid individuals

 

  

  

Hybrid Roles Matter for Software Companies to be Competitive

It may well be time for software companies to give way to evolution for how work is done, where work is done, and how workers connect with one another to achieve business goals. Hybrid roles have the potential to facilitate some of the evolution:

· Help show the way to redefine key roles – time to abandon traditional roles to achieve better results and truly tap into experience and knowledge needed across multiple teams

· Provide new thinking to assist with eliminating more silos that inhibit better cross-team collaboration, big picture perspective and faster results

· Improve cross-team communication by seeing the big picture from multiple POVs and speaking multiple “languages”

· Fuel much-needed innovation and new solution direction – connecting the unexpected dots and knowing why the connection matters

· Hybrids are more likely to feel at home with social media, social CRM and collaboration practices, and usually make excellent advocates for the use of social in software companies

 

  

The increasing proliferation of social capabilities and practices in many companies will lead to more hybrids, particularly as companies transition to becoming “social businesses”. Social business will require new roles to bridge gaps, improve communication, weigh the relevance of new ideas, and better understand customer perspectives. However, a hybrid role is not a position of omniscience – continuous and healthy cross-team collaboration (including customer relationships) is extremely important for best results.

 

  

Companies lose out when they do not recognize, employ and nurture hybrid professionals who will contribute a great deal to the business. Considering the lack of acceptance and recognition by most software companies, it’s little wonder that so many hybrids become independent consultants. Unfortunately for these companies, these hybrids take with them the broad and deep team-spanning IP that so many software companies seriously need.

  

 

  

Related posts:

 Shallow Thinking Ensures Bad Business Decisions

 Software companies still fail to tap into top benefits from market and competitive intelligence programs

 B2B Social CRM for Software Vendors and the Lifecycle of Customer Experience

  

 

About the author: Julie Hunt is an accomplished market intelligence analyst, providing strategic market and competitive insights for the software industry. Her 20+ years as a software professional range from the very technical side  to customer-centric work in solutions consulting, sales and marketing.  Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitive and on Twitter: @juliebhunt   For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Market & Competitive Intelligence Services