uTest CMO Matt Johnston Presents "Online Communities: Changing the Way Work Gets Done" at E2.0
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The document discusses crowdsourcing as a method of sourcing work traditionally performed by designated teams to a large group through open calls, highlighting its potential and limitations across various industries. It outlines key principles for effective crowdsourcing, including community profiling, ratings, precise matching, and the importance of understanding organizational culture and the nature of the tasks to be crowdsourced. The document also debunks several myths about crowdsourcing, emphasizing that it is meant to complement in-house teams and should streamline rather than complicate project management.
uTest CMO Matt Johnston Presents "Online Communities: Changing the Way Work Gets Done" at E2.0
- 1. Online Communities And How They‘re Changing the Way Work Gets Done Matt Johnston | Chief Marketing Officer [email protected] | @matjohnston
- 2. Agenda • Session Intro • Crowdsourcing 101 • Secret Sauce • Where It Fits (And Where It Doesn‟t) • Myths & Misconceptions • Q&A
- 3. What‘s Crowdsourcing? “The act of taking a job or service traditionally performed by a designated person or team and sourcing it to a large group of people in the form of an open call.” - Jeff Howe, Wired journalist & author of Crowdsourcing
- 5. BUT crowds often look (and act) like unruly mobs
- 6. And mobs don‘t work in every category Example: Delivering a skilled service at an enterprise level of predictability and efficiency requires an orderly “community” capable of consistently producing the desired results
- 7. So how do you turn this –
- 9. The Secret Sauce of Crowdsourcing
- 10. 4 Crowdsourcing Building Blocks 1. Community profiling – Technical: OS, browser, mobile devices, carriers – Geographic: City, country, languages – Demographic: Age, gender, education, hobbies 2. Community ratings & micro-ratings – By testing type – By industry 3. Highly precise matching – Between each project & each tester 4. Services layer for enterprise clients – Maximize throughput – Minimize overhead
- 11. How Does This Work In Testing? Recruit, train & incentivize testers: • Two forms of compensation in crowdsourcing 1. Monetary – Paid for approved bugs, test cases, usability surveys 2. Reputation – Robust tester rating system and badges – Customers can mark testers as „favorites‟ • Other forms of community engagement o EG: uTest University (all community-driven) – Training & certification – Career advice – Networking with peers – Product reviews
- 12. Community Management: (Hard) Lessons Learned Scaling Requires: • Rating & reputation systems that drive desired behavior • Matching that sets people up to succeed • Creating tools & programs to serve the masses - Best proof point: Two years ago, uTest community was 3x with 10x revenue… yet total inquiries in 2011 are now lower • Embracing FUBU concepts, such as: - Community vetting community: uTest Sandbox - Community teaching community: Crash Courses - Community managing community: Test Team Leads - Community policing community: Forums Moderators
- 13. Where Crowdsourcing Fits (And Where It Doesn‘t)
- 14. Tenet 1: Know Thy Task
- 15. Tenet 2: Know Thyself • Is your culture highly cautious & risk-averse? • Are you in a highly regulated industry? – Defense industry – PII and PHI • Do you have an appetite for innovation? • Are you centrally organized or decentralized? – Sourcing – IT & IS – Engineering
- 16. Tenet 3: Know Thy Partner Selection criteria are vital: • Referenceable customer successes – By company size – By industry • Ability to adapt to your legacy systems and processes • Ability to satisfy legal requirements – IP protection – NDA • Ability to do the job – Consistent – Predictable – Professional
- 17. Tenet 4: Know Thy Trends (Enterprises that already leverage crowdsourcing)
- 19. Myth #1 Less In-House Staff, Less Overhead TRUTH: • Complement & scale “as needed”…not replace • Only employees will fully understand strategy, company position, internal processes BEST PRACTICES: • Build strengths around employees‘ core competencies • Where does the crowd ‗fits‘ into your team? – Fresh eyes, fresh perspectives, and fresh ideas – Rote or repetitive tasks
- 20. Case Study How Google Taps Into The Crowd… To Launch Great Apps BACKGROUND: • Google tests 15+ software products via crowdsourcing - Web products - Desktop clients - Mobile applications LESSONS from a BRAND LEADER: • Pick the right projects – Public-facing apps with diverse user bases • Rethink ‗outside the box‘ in maximizing team expertise • Rethink ‗team‘ to maximize flexibility and scale • Save overhead on testing that might otherwise be cost-prohibitive
- 21. Myth #2 …One Less Project to Manage—Yeah! TRUTH: • Crowdsourcing (when executed well) should NOT require more time to manage than internal team… should make life easier, not harder • But, it still requires effective, detailed communications BEST PRACTICES: • Assign an internal project manager – Secure executive buy-in – Ensure flow of information – Track deadlines, progress • Hand-off clearly defined ―pieces‖ of a project
- 22. Myth #3 One crowdsourcing vendor should be all I need. TRUTH: • Some crowdsourcing firms do many, different tasks well within similar scope – Crowdflower – Samasource – TaskRabbit • Crowdsourcing boom = specialization BEST PRACTICE: • Match the work to the vendor – A crowd vendor produced great web design for you… – But…should that same company be your „go-to‟ for advertising vs.Trada?
- 23. Myth #4 But we need to own the results TRUTH: • Intellectual property (IP) is a legit issue, esp. for the new & innovative – Copywriting – Design – Animation – Code writing • IP policies vary within crowdsourcing orgs BEST PRACTICES: • Establish the ground rules: What‘s their IP policy? – How is it communicated to the crowd? – How is it enforced?
- 24. Myth #5 Tell the crowd? But we‘re in stealth mode! TRUTH: • Confidentiality is a serious matter with material consequence. • Crowdsourcing is often used for pre-launch products BEST PRACTICES: • Ask upfront about preventative measures – Precautions… NDAs? What else? – Is the policy all-inclusive? e.g. incl. social media, message boards, etc. – What are the consequences for breaches?
- 25. Key Takeaways • The nature of “work” and “jobs” is changing • Crowdsourcing has already permeated the enterprise • Moving upstream into more technical, sophisticated work • Engineering • Testing • Advertising • Marketing • And like any other trend - There are highly proficient actors… and posers - There are times to leverage it… and not - Growing in momentum… and based on VC funding, that won‟t change - The enterprises that figure out how/where/when to deploy it, will win
- 26. Questions? Answers.