How an ISV uses "inbound" social media

In this week's Heretech podcast, I spoke with Alex Bender of Archer Technologies about the role the Archer community plays in the development process, all the way through the release. If you click the thumbnail shown here, you'll see their process in graphic detail. While Alex and I didn't get into all the specifics of how they do it, we did cover most of their "social product management" approach in the podcast.

Among other interesting aspects of how they use their community as a resource for innovation and adoption, the role of partners really stands out. Of course, in the governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) space, you have an ecology of partners who are experts in things like Sarbanes-Oxley and risk management best practices. They'll tell you in plenty of detail why your product isn't really doing the job it should as a GRC tool.

GRC implementers and advisers have a very explicit kind of domain knowledge. However, if you stop to think about it, almost any partner has domain knowledge that's valuable to ISVs. To cite an obvious example, how does the average organization implementing your technology define the project? What obstacles do you impose at the critical landmarks in the implementation?

We usually talk about communities as consisting of customers. However, I think it's worth including partners whenever you talk about your community strategy.

Comments

[rick]

Tom, good to see you're getting it!

I've got a webinar coming up this week called "SaaS and the Death of Product Management,"; I'll be sure to make reference to the fact that you're learning about SaaS communities and their power!

rick chapman
www.saasuniversity.com
www.softletter.com

[Tom Grant]

Rick, you have all the facts completely wrong.

Archer still has product managers. They do a lot more than just jot down interesting ideas from customers. (One example, among many: Guess who makes go/no-go decisions during each stage of the innovation process? Or figures out the boundaries of acceptable designs?)

Archer isn't even a 100% SaaS company. They still have an on-premise version of their product. More to the point, there's nothing about how they work with their community that depends on the SaaS model.

So, there's nothing here to "get," because they don't follow your strained, implausible theory of the relationship between SaaS and the product management function. So please, do not reference the Archer community, or my comments about Archer, or my podcast interview with the VP of Marketing at Archer, as any form of support for you or your ideas. In fact, I'd prefer that you not make reference to me at all.

[rick]

+++ Rick, you have all the facts completely wrong. +++

I don't have it COMPLETELY wrong because after reading Softletter's material, you got some religion and began to investigate the concepts we first began writing about in 2008.

But that's OK. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery! I am glad to show you the way!

+++ They do a lot more than just jot down interesting ideas from customers. +++

Well, no kidding! This Wednesday I'll be discussing what SaaS "product managers," assuming the title survives in SaaS, will be doing in the future. Plex will demonstrate what they replaced their product management system with, Quantum Whisper will provide a look at where I think community goes in a SaaS environment, I will discuss what comes after the current obsolete and increasingly irrelevant product management model employed by most software companies.

+++ Archer isn't even a 100% SaaS company. +++

They are primarily a client/server firm and you are certainly correct that this impacts their ability to use a community.

+++ More to the point, there's nothing about how they work with their community that depends on the SaaS model. +++

It's the other way around.

+++ So please, do not reference the Archer community, or my comments about Archer, or my podcast interview with the VP of Marketing at Archer, as any form of support for you or your ideas. In fact, I'd prefer that you not make reference to me at all. +++

I will be referencing you and Archer. Sorry about that. I will encourage people to listen to the Archer podcast and read the past posts on your site and Softletter's; I believe they are valuable, offering differing perspectives on important industry changes. I'll also be referencing another bit of Forrester data that I believe suppports an assertion I made in Chicago during our SaaS U session in which I discussed key metrics SaaS community managers will measured on in the future.

However, I will also point out the limitations in community leverage inherent in the C/S model.

But do attend the Wednesday session! I am quite sure you will listen to it, learn, and begin to investigate and write about the concepts and ideas we're introducing. As you have already done, and good for you!

rick chapman
www.saasuniversity.com
www.softletter.com

[Tom Grant]

Rick, you're impossible to take seriously, for the following reasons:

(1) There is no evidence that you would treat as disproof of your hypothesis.

(2) You misrepresent our relationship (or, to be more accurate, lack thereof). I have not based any of my work on yours. In fact, I didn't even know SaaS University until June of this year. I've been doing research on product management since early 2008. My research on PM in a SaaS company was published in November 2008 (and started long before that).

(3) Your condescension crosses the line into the insulting. You are not my teacher. I am not your student.

(4) Your efforts at self-promotion might be darkly comic, if they weren't so desperate.

[rick]

Tom, we already have 200 people slated to attend on Weds; I don't need to promote anything. I'm just having some fun!

I'm sure you'll be in attendance in some guise or another at the session on Weds. and I'm sure you'll learn some interesting things (or at least hear interesting opinions). (And I suspect we can look forward to you writing about some of the concepts discussed.)

Best of luck!

rick chapman
www.saasuniversity.com
www.softletter.com