On 08/19/2013 03:42 AM, Yury Katkov wrote:
Hi guys!
I think that besides advertising your own company's service to
increase revenue we have to promote MediaWiki, wikis, and wiki way in
general to attract more potential clients. Because of that I decided
to do some journalism from time to time and highlight successfull use
cases that have been implemented with the help MediaWiki and Semantic
MediaWiki.
But who are those people that can be interested in using MediaWiki in
their enterprises? Technical documentation specialists, knowledge
managers, enterprise architechture folks? And where do they
communicate?
Let's brainstorm a little bit.
Cheers,
-----
Yury Katkov, WikiVote
This is a good question to ask and an example of good marketing
thinking, in my opinion. Caution: lots of writing ahead! If you just
want my direct answer, skip down to "But back to discovery."
When we think through the workflow of how an organization decides to use
a new process or tool, I think there are a few approaches. Here are
three I've seen:
The "consultants in a helicopter" pattern:
1. A company has a nagging sense that Something Is Wrong, and hires
short-term consultants to diagnose and fix the problem.
2. The consultants swoop down (in the metaphorical helicopter), read a
lot, interview people, remember what they have used before or heard
about via colleagues and conferences, write up some suggestions,
implement some new tools and processes, and then fly away.
3. Sometimes the people who do the work learn to use the new thing and
change their workflows to incorporate it. Sometimes, though, the
culture's immune system rejects it, and it goes unused.
The "internal zealot" pattern:
1. Someone at a company hears about a new idea from a friend, a
magazine, a blog, or a conference, and gets really excited about a new
tool/process.
2. That person persuades or overcomes opposition and launches the new
way to do things.
3. See "Sometimes...." same as step 3 above.
The "compliance and lawyers" pattern:
1. A new requirement, usually one with an alien-sounding abbreviation
(e.g. "PCI," "SarbOx," "FERPA," "HIPAA"), comes
down from a regulatory body.
2. The company's lawyers write a memo to the head of tech giving a
deadline for compliance.
3. The tech head searches around the web, checks with his/her
professional network, and perhaps brings in a consultant to help choose
a tool.
4. Tech implements the tool, and Human Resources sends out manuals and
leads training sessions to show people how to use it.
I've seen all three of these at various places I've worked.
So when we're helping people choose MediaWiki *and stick with it*, we
need to address:
a. Discovery -- how do we help consultants, life hackers, and chief
technology officers learn that MediaWiki is an option?
b. Persuasion -- how do we help those internal champions get their
superiors and colleagues to agree to try it out?
c. Retention -- how do we help organizations adjust their ways of
working, use the wiki effectively, and customize it to their needs?
In my opinion we need to work on all three of these. Regarding
persuasion and retention, Atul Gawande has recently written a piece you
might like to read: "Slow Ideas: Some innovations spread fast. How do
you speed the ones that don’t?"
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/07/29/130729fa_fact_gawande?current…
But back to discovery. Some ways that technologists, executives,
consultants, and lifehackers hear about tools to adopt: TV, blogs,
Twitter, salespeople, conferences, magazines (including in-flight
magazines).
But to get a clearer picture, and some steps to act on, I'd recommend
that you find five people who would be good customers, but who don't use
MediaWiki yet, and ask them where they get their news/information about
new tech tools.
--
Sumana Harihareswara
Engineering Community Manager
Wikimedia Foundation