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Tableau, still not boring

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Here’s one reason I’ve always liked Tableau, and still do even as it enters a mother ship’s cold embrace. An email pitch from Tableau this week:

Music is a global unifier—connecting us from afar and strengthening relationships closer to home. Within every note is a larger story, sparking conversations and creating memories.

But, what if … we could uncover more of these stories?

It’s personal, therefore more meaningful than the tired old promises so many other data vendors keep recycling. This pitch isn’t boring.

And so I forgive them for overusing “story,” the magic word these days.

Homeless? There’s an app for that

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If any app gets just 15 minutes of fame out of the box, isn’t marketing critical? It seems obvious to me that those who offer an app would rank marketing up there with programming — especially when the app’s produced by a low-budget, volunteer-run civic-tech group.

But among some civic tech groups, it’s programming first and last. That’s what one recently retired CTO and former engineering instructor at San Francisco State University has found.

Edy Ortiz Aragon has been shopping for an interesting volunteer role, and he’ll be a prize for any group that snags him. (I have obscured identities to protect the well intentioned.)

Who’s your customer?

At one project, he asked a group leader, “Who’s your customer?” Her answer: the city. Wrong. The real answer is the homeless.

“The first thing you do is follow the transaction,” he said. It’s essentially the same challenge as in banking. You ask what the transaction is for the homeless? That tells you know who you’re going to talk to.

To ensure your app’s adopted, you next go to work on getting buy-in from everyone at the table, from the homeless to the civil servants they encounter. “Everyone has to buy into it a little bit, and slowly they’re going to find it useful if it has enough bells and whistles. That’s when tech becomes important when people using it.”

The homeless app he’s looked at could become the SalesForce of homelessness, he said. Instead of hiring, payroll, and marketing, this app’s chain could be food, clothing, and shelter. The model can be reused in every city, very state, every country.

Attention to the customer, even among non-profit, do-good groups, sounds to me like a worthy vision. Inattention to the customer and overcharged attention to engineering is an error made over and over in the technology industry. When the mistake is committed in business, it thwarts growth. The consequences have far more meaning and consequences when the mistake occurs in civic tech, especially when serving a group like the homeless.

Content marketing / Building trust with trust

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When Lee Sherman ran marketing content at Mint, he crossed a line most organizations won’t dare to. He mentioned a competitor.

Oh, no! It’s one thing for a boss to say “you build trust by showing trust.” That sure sounds good coming from a glossy inflight magazine. But trying it takes guts. Often, a watered down “trust” creeps in, which tells customers that we don’t respect your nose for bullshit and unanswered questions.

“You have to assume they’re smart,” Lee says. “Give all the info without bias… When we didn’t, it was obvious we were doing that, which was bad writing. It was clear something was missing.”

Everyone knows there are competitors, and many prospective customers can even tell each one’s story. For some, Mint’s features and marketing story would work best. Let the others go.

“Companies need to get away from idea they’re going to provide every solution,” he said. “Not even Apple, Microsoft, or Google can do that. ”

Ultimately, this strategy worked. How could he tell? For one thing, the comments showed that people had actually read the blog post. He could also see that it made them think; they argued with others about the product.

The process has its risks, but it’s a lot better than the alternative.