How I am on-boarding a new colleague into my team and making him comfortable and productive

There have been many reorganizations in my company recently. Looks like almost always we are getting new colleagues, who are required to start contributing immediately.

Recently, James, one of my rock star colleagues from the sales enablement organization moved on to a new job and a new person, Steve, took his job. I have been researching about the best way to on-board colleagues into a new role. The people I spoke to said that the most important thing is to be part of a community of people who will "re-pot" them into the new job without the shock and stress of "re-potting". So i decided to delight the new colleague with a community of people to support him.

When Steve sent me an email asking for access to a demo system, instead of just replying to his email, I created a learning space for him and shared the information with him in the learning space. I suggested a book he should read and told him how to get access to the book. I invited my product management colleagues to join the learning space, specifically set up for Steve. More importantly I also invited James, who played the role very well before, to join the learning space so that Steve can ask him questions and guidance. Steve now has access to content, software and people to on-board him into his new job.

When required, I plan to invite the partners who have integrated with my product to Steve's learning space so that they can share info about the partnership and technical integration with him.

All this interaction is captured in a learning space where Steve is surrounded by two product managers and the person who had his job before. Every one who joined Steve's learning space gets an update on the activities of the space in their mobile phones and can reply directly from their phones if required. I can already feel that Steve is comfortable and is on his way to high performance.

I used SAPStreamwork to create this learning space. If you like what I am doing and would like to try it out in your organization, check out www.sapstreamwork.com. You can have up to 5 activities for free. Go ahead. Delight a new colleague and get the best out of him.

Don't worry about the message on the home page that says, SAPStreamwork is for making decisions. Of course it helps you make decisions. But it can do much more.

Linchpin - Are you Indispensable?

Reading the book Linchpin by Seth Godin
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He says that the book is about somebody in an organization who is indispensable, who cannot be replaced—her role is just far too unique and valuable. And then he goes on to say, that you need to be one of these people, you really do. To not be one is economic and career suicide.

Product Managers, You can out teach your competition even if you don't have a budget

I am an admirer of the company 37 signals. In their book Rework, the founders of 37 Signals talk about how they out educate their competition even though they cannot out-spend, out-sponsor or out-market their competition.

I agree with them and want to share an example of how it worked for me.  Since I manage a product that brings several ten of millions of dollars to SAP, you may think that I have all the marketing budget in the world. That is not true. It is easier for me to get an $8000 plane ticket to Frankfurt approved than to get a $20 book purchase approved. Don't ask me why. That is how things work in large companies.

I realized that my product, SAP Enterprise Learning, was getting drowned not only among competitors products but also among other SAP products. Competitors were spending heavily on advertising, sponsoring events and marketing. Since I was not in a position to out-spend, out-sponsor or out-market the competition, I decided to take matters into my own hands and out-teach the competition. I started by writing a book to educate customers about my product. Teaching customers about your product creates a bond between you and your customers that you cannot get from traditional advertising or marketing.

Once the book was published, the term "SAP Enterprise Learning" appeared in thousands of web sites and started showing up on "Google Suggest" list when anyone typed "SAP Ent".

Publishing a book can have this kind of incredible effect on the product. Hundreds of potential customers bought the book and it was a big driver of customer education and revenue for the product. The publisher also released an eBook version, which made it easy for customers from Asia to order, access and search the book quickly.

Although I cannot put a dollar value on the training and education received by customers, I am certain that it is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars if not millions of dollars.

Add information about your product to a public wiki. Adding product related information to a public wiki or blog will significantly increase the information available to your customers and engage them.

Create informal learning activities in SAP Streamwork
Recently I have started creating informal learning activities for sharing information about my product with customers using SAP Streamwork. The response from customers is promising. You can read more about it here.

Go ahead out-teach your competition. Write a book. Create a wiki page. Post a blog or create a very personal learning activity for your customers using SAP Streamwork.

Engage - The Book

Started reading the the book Engage by Brian Solis. I like the information covered in the book, especially the Chapters  named "New Media University".  More updates after reading the book.
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Why you are better off saving your money with ING Direct than Wells Fargo

I bank with both Wells Fargo and ING Direct. I opened an account with Wells Fargo, because they had banking stores in the West Coast and the Midwest, where I was living a few years back. Then, I opened an account with ING Direct because Wells Fargo's saving rates were 1% or so less than that of ING Direct's.

Since then, I have realized that the reason I wanted to bank with Wells Fargo does not matter much anymore. Well Fargo, to its credit, works very hard to make sure you don't come into a branch to see a real person. You can deposit money, deposit checks, deposit cash and withdraw cash from an ATM. If you go into a branch for any unusual service, the bankers normally say that it is better to call the contact center. For example, if you want a deposit verification letter, you have to call a contact center. Wells Fargo will charge you $10 and take more than 10 days to send you the letter. All this despite the fact that I am what they call, a PMA customer. Supposedly a very important person. I have a checking, savings, mortgage, home equity and brokerage account with them.

ING Direct pays you more interest and provides you a better service
Apart from the obvious benefit of a better interest rate, ING Direct shines when it comes to customer service. When you call their contact center, they will send you a notarized, deposit verification letter electronically within a day and send you a paper letter in 3 days. If you mention their name on Twitter, they track it and respond. In other words, they have not only have adopted social media, they have also designed their operations to meet the expectations of their customers.

Brick and Mortar banks do have some advantages. For example, they have lockers. I thought for a while and really could not think of any other major advantages.I used to believe that being local matters and brick and mortar companies can provide better service. That does not seem to be the case with Wells Fargo.

So if you are a Homo economicus, or Economic human who cares only about the money and efficient execution, ING Direct makes sense because they pay you more interest. If you are a regular human being who cares about efficient service and support, ING Direct makes sense. Not much need for Wells Fargo, or the likes, really.

Can you think of a reason?

Update: A few days after this post, I had a conversation with @JohnFMoore about this. After my conversation with @JohnMoore @Ask_Wellsfargo contacted me via twitter. Let's see what they do.