Links for August 4 2013
- CIOs need to learn to become enablers rather than gatekeepers — Tech News and Analysis
Quote: CIO bashing has become popular sport, but in reality companies are now finding an edge by focusing less on cost-cutting and more on how IT can help enable better functionality and innovation.
- Jim’s Notebook: Measuring What Matters
Quote: Ultimately, the work we do is about improving the customer experience, taking it on faith that it will result in improving the financial performance of our firms – and generally, this turns out to be true. Having a vague sense that you’re doing the right thing is likely better than having no sense at all – and better still in feeling a sense of accomplishment for doing something terrible. It cannot be taken for granted that a general metric is an indicator of success at anything but making a number better.
- Content Strategists Must Become Engineers of Content-Driven Customer Experiences | The Content Wrangler
Quote: I believe that all content strategists should be knowledgeable about the entire content ecosystem, the content lifecycle, content tools, technologies, standards, and methodologies — even those that fall outside of their area of specialization, or are tangentially-related to the project on which they are working. Content strategy problems are seldom problems with content alone.
- DIRECTV CIO On Getting IT To Recover From Fear Of Failure – Forbes
Quote: Beyond improved trust and motivation, the program has changed how IT solutions are being deployed. “We were always very focused on not putting anything into production until we really had it rock solid,” says Gerjets. But this year the IT team has started to roll out new tools and applications as beta solutions, letting users try them out and give feedback while they are being developed. “This is something, culturally,” says Gerjets, “that we have never been able to do before.”
- How to Know When You’re Ready for Beta | On Product Management
Quote: Beta testing is a key part of product development, but it can be difficult to get the timing right. Product teams are often pressured to get new products through beta and out the door as quickly as possible, but if a product goes into beta too early it can defeat the purpose of running a beta test altogether.
- Why the world’s governments are interested in creating hubs for open data — Tech News and Analysis
Quote: The Open Data Institute, a non-profit in London that’s working to create demand for open data through research, storytelling, consulting and startup incubation, is starting to get some velocity.
- The Power of Algorithmic Marketing – semanticweb.com
Quote: There are already some signs that suggest the algorithmic marketing transformation is underway, especially in industries that rank high in terms of big data value potential, such as financial or information services. As algorithmic marketing takes hold, it is likely that big winners – and potentially even bigger losers – will emerge in the near future. In North America, Amazon.com grew 30 to 40%, quarter after quarter, throughout the recession, while other major retailers shrank or went out of business. How Amazon achieved these results may be surprising
- Knowing Where Our Customers Live | Partners in EXCELLENCE Blog — Making A Difference
Quote: We must have empathy. We must recognize what our customers are going through. We must see things through their eyes, understand their emotions.
- Five Steps to Enterprise Gamification | UX Magazine
Quote: This five-step process to gamification begins with a good understanding of the player and the mission. This is followed by psychological research on motivation. Based on this solid foundation, we advocate a thoughtful application of game mechanics and rules to create a core engagement loop. We recommend you start small, monitor closely for best results. The enterprise context including legal and ethical considerations cannot be ignored. And remember: make it fun!
- The year after the CIO’s honeymoon with Big Data, regret.
Quote: Here’s the thing: of course Big Data should be exploited. But like a balance investment portfolio, the factors that drive customer excellence need to be tended to first: no customers means no need for Big Data – except to find your next job.
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