> So to translate IBM speak, this survey is trying to understand which
of your buttons
> they can press to help push more kit.
It's really not that cynical. They are trying to understand which areas of
the product produce a painful user experience so this information can be
used to decide what areas to prioritize in future engineering work. Of
course the end goal is to sell more product, but the means to that end is
actually to make the product better in areas that are causing customer
pain.
So it is supposed to be win-win: we make the product serve your needs
better, which leads you to perhaps buy more of it *because* it is serving
your needs better -- not because someone tricked you into it.
Information from prior consumability surveys was used to help choose some
of
the new features and areas to be reworked in Cheetah and Cheetah 2.
When we don't get enough input from actual customers, we have to guess. We
try to make the guesses as educated as possible through a formal internal
consumability "survey" process, where a cross-section of people with
knowledge of a given product (e.g. product management, QA, information
development (what we call the tech writers), engineering, tech sup****t,
etc.) form a team to attempt to estimate the consumability on numerous
different dimensions. I participated in one of these efforts for IDS a
year
or two ago. We do our best, but the product would benefit even more if
real
live customers and users like you took the survey, especially if you
attempt
to make constructive criticisms (not just why some area is bad, but also
suggestions for how it could be improved). :-)
--
Kevin Cherkauer
Software Engineer
IBM Informix Dynamic Server -- Database Kernel
"Ian Michael Gumby" <im_gumby@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:mailman.1287.1214578783.20610.informix-list@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> From: theharlequin36@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: IM Consumability Survey
> Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:55:08 +0100
> To: informix-list@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
> I got as far as the bit that asked "What business problem are you trying
> to
> solve", and gave up.
> IBM is obsessed with "Business Problems" I am trying to solve.
> Or, at least, the people who write surveys and partner evaluation forms
> are.
>
I should explain why IBM has this "fixation" on "solving problems".
IBM is very good at drilling in their sales training. They use a "solution
selling methodology".
IBM trains their sales force to try and understand the customer's pain.
Once
they know the pain, then they can address it with a solution. This is the
core of their solution selling methodology.
So to translate IBM speak, this survey is trying to understand which of
your
buttons they can press to help push more kit.
For example... Suppose you're in retail and you want to be more than just
"PCI compliant". Your pain is that you need to ensure that your customer's
credit card details are not going to be exposed within your database. So
IBM's solution would be to offer encryption within the database, along
with
some form of auditing.
By answering the survey, you're helping IBM to build a use case along with
some form of demonstrating customer demand for a specific feature.
Does that help to put things in perspective?
-G
The i’m Talkathon starts 6/24/08. For now, give amongst yourselves. Learn
More
|
