I've gone back and forth with a co-worker about this, and it seems clear that our best bet for having employees understand what we offer, who we are, and how to work with us, is literally to sit with each employee separately and have an in-depth conversation one-on-one.
Though it seems tedious at the outset, it's the best way for us to introduce not only what we do, but who we are, our level of experience and the breadth of our services. I think that it also engenders a sense of personal responsibility in the employees who meet with us, rather than allowing them to zone out in a group meeting or presentation.
What about the information service groups that can't offer one-on-one time with users? It makes all the more clear the frustrations they face when limited to group orientations and bibliographic instruction sessions.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
In Which Owl Revisits Service Marketing
Our intrepid group of researchers has a huge internal marketing opportunity. While we focus on one-on-one training, group orientations, occasional "brown bag" lunches and daily mailings, we need to bust out in terms of both marketing format and frequency. With the turnover rate of employees in both Creative Services and Client Relations, there seems to be an amnesia pandemic when it comes to what our department offers.
The key is to market ourselves simply by showing how our efforts apply to the company's goals. It usually only takes one instance of working with Information Services for employees to say "I get it" and appreciate what we bring to the table.
But that offering is broader than people know, and often comes too late in the game, and that is OUR FAULT. Pushing harder for inclusion at the proposal stage, a willingness to promote our information management as well as information provision capabilities, and a willingness to explore the initial request deeply (the reference interview further dimensionalized) would all serve to narrow the gap between what we offer and the people to whom we offer it.
So many basic business operational issues come down to communication. It's easier to be lazy and assume that someone will figure it out. Tedious as it may seem for those around the table, the earlier the hard questions are asked, the better.
The key is to market ourselves simply by showing how our efforts apply to the company's goals. It usually only takes one instance of working with Information Services for employees to say "I get it" and appreciate what we bring to the table.
But that offering is broader than people know, and often comes too late in the game, and that is OUR FAULT. Pushing harder for inclusion at the proposal stage, a willingness to promote our information management as well as information provision capabilities, and a willingness to explore the initial request deeply (the reference interview further dimensionalized) would all serve to narrow the gap between what we offer and the people to whom we offer it.
So many basic business operational issues come down to communication. It's easier to be lazy and assume that someone will figure it out. Tedious as it may seem for those around the table, the earlier the hard questions are asked, the better.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
In Which Kanga Experiences Roo's Randomness
Little J. is definitely responding to several things -- Mom returning to work, turning 3 months old (and the growth spurts that come with that), and just plain excitement at "all the living going on."
As a result, Young J has eschewed her previous sleep-through-the-night angelic behavior in favor of continuous reminders to Mom and Dad of her presence through the evening and early morning hours.
Really, it's no big deal. She IS hungry, and nursing more often makes it easier to pump at work the next day. But I hate to see her end her days in such a grumpy mood. Bedtime used to be really fun and happy for her, but now she yells for a while before settling in.
As a result, Young J has eschewed her previous sleep-through-the-night angelic behavior in favor of continuous reminders to Mom and Dad of her presence through the evening and early morning hours.
Really, it's no big deal. She IS hungry, and nursing more often makes it easier to pump at work the next day. But I hate to see her end her days in such a grumpy mood. Bedtime used to be really fun and happy for her, but now she yells for a while before settling in.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
In Which Owl Once Again Ponders Service Integration
I had a good meeting today with my boss and an associate, regarding the best way that our group (I hesitate to elevate us to "department" level) can serve the primary research staff and the design teams in general.
It turns out I had misunderstood the thrust of our initial conversation. I now agree that -- for the moment -- it makes the most sense for primary and secondary research to partner closely at the company, in order to serve everyone better.
It has taken a few years, but the picture is now clear -- secondary research, desk research, library research, literature review, call it what you will -- is not only crucial to the beginning of a design project, but valuable throughout. It serves to keep fieldwork honest and contextualized. It offers a background for teams entering new market spaces. And it simply SAVES TIME AND MONEY, helping teams avoid fieldwork missteps and wheel-spinning, inspiring new design opportunities and codifying industry gaps for multiple audiences.
We have already sold ourselves internally. The next step is sexifying secondary research. First of all, we lose the term. It's inadvertently pejorative and meaningless outside the profession. So what does it become?
Information Services is a favorite of mine, coined by my work associate. It's simple. I don't know that we need to step beyond that. Certainly not sexy, to be sure. But a whole lot clearer than Secondary Research or Consumer Insights or what-have-you.
I feel extremely fortunate to repeatedly find myself in a work environment where evangelization of information science pays off in spades. It takes time, but we have an opportunity before us now to streamline the research process, productize what we offer and get paid for it.
Neat.
It turns out I had misunderstood the thrust of our initial conversation. I now agree that -- for the moment -- it makes the most sense for primary and secondary research to partner closely at the company, in order to serve everyone better.
It has taken a few years, but the picture is now clear -- secondary research, desk research, library research, literature review, call it what you will -- is not only crucial to the beginning of a design project, but valuable throughout. It serves to keep fieldwork honest and contextualized. It offers a background for teams entering new market spaces. And it simply SAVES TIME AND MONEY, helping teams avoid fieldwork missteps and wheel-spinning, inspiring new design opportunities and codifying industry gaps for multiple audiences.
We have already sold ourselves internally. The next step is sexifying secondary research. First of all, we lose the term. It's inadvertently pejorative and meaningless outside the profession. So what does it become?
Information Services is a favorite of mine, coined by my work associate. It's simple. I don't know that we need to step beyond that. Certainly not sexy, to be sure. But a whole lot clearer than Secondary Research or Consumer Insights or what-have-you.
I feel extremely fortunate to repeatedly find myself in a work environment where evangelization of information science pays off in spades. It takes time, but we have an opportunity before us now to streamline the research process, productize what we offer and get paid for it.
Neat.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
In Which Kanga Hangs With the Kitties
It's no surprise that the kitties have suffered since J's arrival. They are still petted, cooed over and fed copious amounts, but the raw time they spend with Mom and Dad is WAY down.
Tonight I realized that observing J and seeing her learn can show me ways to love the kitties better, too. After all, I spend lots of time each day experimenting to see what J likes: a certain sitting position, a new toy, having her back or tummy rubbed a specific way.
I haven't done that with my cats in a LONG time -- just paid attention to how they react to new ways of being scratched, petted or talked to.
Mundane example. This evening I serendipitously discovered that my 14-year-old male cat loves to have the pads of his back paws spread apart and have the skin between the pads scratched.
Fourteen years I've owned this cat and his sister, and I never noticed this. Meanwhile, I notice new things about J hourly, it seems.
Why should they be afforded any less attention? Certainly they lag in terms of quantity, but with regard to quality they are deserving and unique creatures, just as J is. I'll certainly never understand them as deeply as I might another human being, but it was an important reminder to me today that they are just as...specific...as babies in terms of their idiosyncrasies, wants and needs.
Tonight I realized that observing J and seeing her learn can show me ways to love the kitties better, too. After all, I spend lots of time each day experimenting to see what J likes: a certain sitting position, a new toy, having her back or tummy rubbed a specific way.
I haven't done that with my cats in a LONG time -- just paid attention to how they react to new ways of being scratched, petted or talked to.
Mundane example. This evening I serendipitously discovered that my 14-year-old male cat loves to have the pads of his back paws spread apart and have the skin between the pads scratched.
Fourteen years I've owned this cat and his sister, and I never noticed this. Meanwhile, I notice new things about J hourly, it seems.
Why should they be afforded any less attention? Certainly they lag in terms of quantity, but with regard to quality they are deserving and unique creatures, just as J is. I'll certainly never understand them as deeply as I might another human being, but it was an important reminder to me today that they are just as...specific...as babies in terms of their idiosyncrasies, wants and needs.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
In Which Owl Assesses the Workplace
Yesterday was my first day back at work. To begin with, work itself...I noticed that things were simultaneously the same and quite different.
The sameness reflected itself mainly in the overall staff (fortunately, there's been fairly low turnover) and, frustratingly, the circuitous nature of the interactions employees have with our information services team. It's hard to build these bridges. Or they fall down a lot, or something.
The differences, however, were uniformly positive. People at work are getting more and more excited about ways to organize, save, manipulate and enhance the information they gather. Wikis and PowerPoints are connecting...discussions are happening on travel blogs while our designers are in the field...employees are responding well to our daily industry and design mailings.
I credit my two associates with much of this; they have the youth, energy and patience to evangelize these capabilities and rally behind them. (Is my jadedness showing?) Now to focus on insinuating ourselves at the early stages of projects, in order to ensure that we not only provide teams with information and inspiration, but that we help them make the best use of what they have already collected.
OK, now to the tough part. Driving to work s-u-c-k-e-d. I alternated crying jags with finding deep meaning in each Top 40 song being played on the radio.
Once at work, the distraction helped. A mysterious stranger (mom?) sent me flowers, with a card ostensibly from J. "Hey Mom -- have a good day. I love you. (J.)" That, combined with my husband's wacky BabyTrack updates on the computer, got the waterworks going again.
Long story short, I made it till 2:30 and then worked from home on my laptop. I'll stay a bit later each day this week (today I stayed till 3:30), and I imagine that I'll be "full on" next week.
The sameness reflected itself mainly in the overall staff (fortunately, there's been fairly low turnover) and, frustratingly, the circuitous nature of the interactions employees have with our information services team. It's hard to build these bridges. Or they fall down a lot, or something.
The differences, however, were uniformly positive. People at work are getting more and more excited about ways to organize, save, manipulate and enhance the information they gather. Wikis and PowerPoints are connecting...discussions are happening on travel blogs while our designers are in the field...employees are responding well to our daily industry and design mailings.
I credit my two associates with much of this; they have the youth, energy and patience to evangelize these capabilities and rally behind them. (Is my jadedness showing?) Now to focus on insinuating ourselves at the early stages of projects, in order to ensure that we not only provide teams with information and inspiration, but that we help them make the best use of what they have already collected.
OK, now to the tough part. Driving to work s-u-c-k-e-d. I alternated crying jags with finding deep meaning in each Top 40 song being played on the radio.
Once at work, the distraction helped. A mysterious stranger (mom?) sent me flowers, with a card ostensibly from J. "Hey Mom -- have a good day. I love you. (J.)" That, combined with my husband's wacky BabyTrack updates on the computer, got the waterworks going again.
Long story short, I made it till 2:30 and then worked from home on my laptop. I'll stay a bit later each day this week (today I stayed till 3:30), and I imagine that I'll be "full on" next week.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
In Which Kanga is Fretful
I return to work tomorrow. My husband will take care of J at home for the next three months or so. I have full confidence in the two of them as a superhero duo, of course, but am equally confident that my insides will twist around for a while as I adjust to this new situation.
The truest thing about parenthood is that all the cliches are right on the money, at least in my case. You love your child beyond all reason. You would die for them. You could, if called upon, kill to save them. You know that someday they will break your heart. And they are more interesting than anything else that could appear before your eyes.
The old cynic in me chafes at the admission that the sappy Hallmark cards have got it right. At the same time, this former cynic now joyfully waves the white flag of sappiness.
Tune in tomorrow for tales from work, in which I try to wrap my brain around issues of information retrieval, transmission and organization after 3 1/2 months away.
The truest thing about parenthood is that all the cliches are right on the money, at least in my case. You love your child beyond all reason. You would die for them. You could, if called upon, kill to save them. You know that someday they will break your heart. And they are more interesting than anything else that could appear before your eyes.
The old cynic in me chafes at the admission that the sappy Hallmark cards have got it right. At the same time, this former cynic now joyfully waves the white flag of sappiness.
Tune in tomorrow for tales from work, in which I try to wrap my brain around issues of information retrieval, transmission and organization after 3 1/2 months away.
Friday, January 18, 2008
In Which Eeyore is Contemplative
I stumbled across the web page for my 20th high school reunion (20th reunion, not 20th high school...though I was an Air Force brat, we didn't move around THAT much).
It hit me hard. At first I spent an hour reviewing the weight gain, baldness, striking beauty and overall change of my classmates then and now. Then I clicked on "In Memory."
Of the five classmates who were listed as deceased, I had only been aware of one death -- a suicide that, I am chastened to say, did not surprise me when it happened. But the other four shocked me. At that point, despite the other offerings on the site, I was really only able to focus on finding the reason for their deaths.
That information isn't listed on what is intended (and succeeds) as a warm and upbeat site. But it's still bothering me.
Partially because of the field I work in, I sometimes get into a snit if "big news" happens and I'm not the first to find out. This self-centeredness in me is ugly, especially when viewed in light of the bigger issue: the disastrous events of these people's passing.
And yet...how could I not have known? How could we not have known? I'd like to think that the flip side of my self-indulgent failing is a keen sense of how my high school community could have helped surviving family members, had we been aware.
It hit me hard. At first I spent an hour reviewing the weight gain, baldness, striking beauty and overall change of my classmates then and now. Then I clicked on "In Memory."
Of the five classmates who were listed as deceased, I had only been aware of one death -- a suicide that, I am chastened to say, did not surprise me when it happened. But the other four shocked me. At that point, despite the other offerings on the site, I was really only able to focus on finding the reason for their deaths.
That information isn't listed on what is intended (and succeeds) as a warm and upbeat site. But it's still bothering me.
Partially because of the field I work in, I sometimes get into a snit if "big news" happens and I'm not the first to find out. This self-centeredness in me is ugly, especially when viewed in light of the bigger issue: the disastrous events of these people's passing.
And yet...how could I not have known? How could we not have known? I'd like to think that the flip side of my self-indulgent failing is a keen sense of how my high school community could have helped surviving family members, had we been aware.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
In Which Piglet Entertains a Houseguest
For the last two days my best friend from college has been visiting. She is an Episcopal priest living in Boulder, CO. It's been a complete joy having her here, and in many ways we picked up right from the last time we saw each other.
She married my husband and me in August 2000, and prior to that she and I hiked Moab together, visited Aspen and spent time hanging around the Denver area. Prior to THAT, back in the bad old days, we were roommates at Dartmouth. We made quite a combo. I slept till 11 am every day, was often drunk, and paraded through a confusing series of male visitors. She rose at six am every day to run or swim, baked her own bread, and never took a drink.
We went swimming today, and I realized how motivated and disciplined she has always been about fitness -- she looks essentially the same as she did in 1990 -- and how hard I will have to work to shoehorn exercise into the weeks ahead.
She married my husband and me in August 2000, and prior to that she and I hiked Moab together, visited Aspen and spent time hanging around the Denver area. Prior to THAT, back in the bad old days, we were roommates at Dartmouth. We made quite a combo. I slept till 11 am every day, was often drunk, and paraded through a confusing series of male visitors. She rose at six am every day to run or swim, baked her own bread, and never took a drink.
We went swimming today, and I realized how motivated and disciplined she has always been about fitness -- she looks essentially the same as she did in 1990 -- and how hard I will have to work to shoehorn exercise into the weeks ahead.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
In Which Owl Considers the Role of Information Services
I had a meeting with my boss today to ramp up for next week's return to work. In it we debated the relative merits of separating out a corporation's "information services," vs. the integration of those services into the company's larger tasks and deliverables.
My knee-jerk reaction to this has always been integration-integration-integration. But now I'm not so sure. In a field that already lacks clarity to outsiders, do we feed the fire by embedding ourselves with the troops? By separating ourselves, do we force ourselves to create clearer definitions around our functions and deliverables?
A larger question remains regarding my leadership potential at this firm. I have some clear challenges ahead in establishing both the department sub-group and my own career path.
My knee-jerk reaction to this has always been integration-integration-integration. But now I'm not so sure. In a field that already lacks clarity to outsiders, do we feed the fire by embedding ourselves with the troops? By separating ourselves, do we force ourselves to create clearer definitions around our functions and deliverables?
A larger question remains regarding my leadership potential at this firm. I have some clear challenges ahead in establishing both the department sub-group and my own career path.
Monday, January 14, 2008
In Which Kanga and Roo Visit a Grocery Store
Today J and I ventured out to New Seasons for the first time. I was pleased to discover these narrow shopping carts they have that you can use to buy oh, three items, while placing the car seat on the "upper deck." They are actually pretty cool.
It amazed me how nervous I was, juggling clam chowder, a brownie, the cart, and my wallet, all focused on getting myself SAT DOWN in ten seconds or less. My friend Annie and her baby were much calmer.
I turned to her as we wheeled the carts into the dining area and commented that much of my time spent out of the house with J was focused on making sure I didn't annoy anyone.
If eighty percent of life is showing up, for me the other twenty percent is making sure no one else is uncomfortable. As J gets bigger and louder, this could become a challenge.
I'll spare you the details of the Tense Diaper Blowout Change.
It amazed me how nervous I was, juggling clam chowder, a brownie, the cart, and my wallet, all focused on getting myself SAT DOWN in ten seconds or less. My friend Annie and her baby were much calmer.
I turned to her as we wheeled the carts into the dining area and commented that much of my time spent out of the house with J was focused on making sure I didn't annoy anyone.
If eighty percent of life is showing up, for me the other twenty percent is making sure no one else is uncomfortable. As J gets bigger and louder, this could become a challenge.
I'll spare you the details of the Tense Diaper Blowout Change.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
In Which Pooh Has A Foot Rub
The two of us went to a foot spa today while a friend babysat The Small One. It was an utter pleasure. I found myself thinking about work during it (probably because my boss called my cell phone in the middle of the massage portion), but in a fun, non-threatening way.
I've heard other moms returning to work say that going to the office is like a respite for them after taking care of an infant. I do have to say that I feel more interested in my work, more creative and more ambitious than I have in years. The "break" must have done me good.
I've heard other moms returning to work say that going to the office is like a respite for them after taking care of an infant. I do have to say that I feel more interested in my work, more creative and more ambitious than I have in years. The "break" must have done me good.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
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