New Year Resolution - 100% College Roll Out

I don't normally go in for New Year Resolutions but I have had a goal in mind for a few years now which I'd like to share;

I would love to work on a project that gets 100% roll out across FE Colleges

Sounds like quite a feat doesn't it? Indeed, given that I have not been able to find any products that every college uses (and this includes some great services that are free of charge) some might see this as an impossible task... just the kind of challenge I like.

But something that I think is as important as this challenge are my reasons for such a goal.

Money? Nope.
Am I a megalomaniac who wants to be liked by everyone in FE? Might be nice, but nope. Because am an "alpha male" and feel the need to conquer all and/or win at all costs?
As I've worked in the corrosive culture this personality type can create... Most definitely NOT!

Core Values... And a Noble Cause
My motivation comes from something that is way too undervalued in UK business - my core values. I discuss core values in my culture report through highlighting companies like Zappos and their Core Values;

While working on my EdTech report "Developing Relationships & Delivering Value" I contemplated on what the core values of any organisation that I might want to work with, or establish (watch this space!), might include. I came to the conclusion that my core values are;

1) Quality products - Organisations that delight their customers so much that they become evangelists & fans (e.g. Apple, Google et al), or companies that educators universally praise on social media and who grow more through word of mouth rather than using aggressive or unwelcome sales tactics. 

2) Making a Difference - My favourite success stories in education include Sugata Mitra and KIPP. Mitra uses technology to make a real difference with young people; KIPP has had some amazing results with underprivileged kids through the positive culture they establish. 

3) Ethical - That products should add value to the customer/user. My favorite observation on this comes from Henry Ford;

“A manufacturer is not through with his customer when a sale is completed. He has then only started with his customer... the sale is an introduction. If the machine does not give service, then it is better for the manufacturer if he never had the Introduction, for he will have the worst of all advertisements – a dissatisfied customer…”  

Dave Logan's book, Tribal Leadership, researches common attributes of great teams, which includes having "a shared set of core values and then aligning those values to a noble cause," any product that gets 100% uptake will surely add value to the college and, hopefully, improve the outcomes of our young people... that's a noble enough cause for me! 

Person-Environment Fit - Difficult Job Search
I have tried to look for FE suppliers like this within organisations where my skills and personality would be a good "person-environment fit" (Being engaged in an occupation, role and/or setting that fits your personality) but there were not too many organisations that jumped out at me, those that do either have my CV and/or know that I'd like to collaborate with them.

I am not being critical of any suppliers here, but it is a fact that there are few products or services that are working with 80%+ of FE Colleges. Indeed what if we stop for a moment and think about how hard it is for an organisation to get everything right with a service and become a market leader, whose customers are evangelists and fans.

We all know about the success and ubiquitous use of Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, You Tube etc, but this is a relatively small number of companies who have reached this stage and successfully "Crossed the Chasm" of their initial niche target markets, before going on to achieve universal roll-out to become household names. Imagine what it takes to;

• Get the product right 
  Apple and Microsoft's products were not quite right straight away

• Getting the right people
  Steve Jobs lost his job at the company he created as a result of board room battles with John Sculley

• Establishing the right culture
  Steve Jobs created a "Let's be Pirates" counter culture with his Mac team Vs John Sculley and the team working on the Lisa PC.

• Getting the sales and marketing right

• Rolling out at the right time... and to the right kind of customer
  One of the main reasons that companies fail is because they scale the business too soon

• Maintaining FocusGoogle focused only on search while their bigger rivals, Yahoo and Inktomi, saw search as a small part of their business 

• The aims, goals and strategic vision of the founders and investors to be in sync as the company matures. 

Open for Business
Not only have I read a great deal about these issues, but I have also had the painful experience of having a front row seat watching the "Five stages of decline" that Jim Collins describes in "How the Mighty Fall" at a previous company I worked for... not something I wish to repeat.

I have also been accepted onto this course on Innovation and Entrepreneurship with Stanford University, which I am SO excited about and looking forward to.

All of which suggests that I'm ready to take on my goal of finding the kind of products and services that might achieve 100% roll out. But, as Socrates observed;

Which is definitely the case with me... I have learned;

• From working at start ups who promised much initially... but failed to deliver
• About tried and tested principles for effective roll out of successful companies
• That there are A LOT of things you need to get right to develop good products
• Why collaboration with potential customers at an early stage is so key
• The ONLY way to have any chance of finding the right product is by getting input from FE

Which leaves me with the only 2 things that I know today is that;

• Getting the mix right and roll out a product or service out across FE will be a challenge.
• Such a task would be impossible without the input and support of the sector.

Help Wanted... Apply Within!

The core message from my EdTech report is that collaboration is a prerequisite for successful products/services. This is reinforced within education through the success stories from Start up Education weekends and from startups who achieve viral growth.

So what do you do if you don't have all the answers? Ask the right questions? Who better to explore the answers to these questions than with your prospective customers?

I have put together 4 surveys that have been designed to help identify areas of best practice to help confirm some of the ideas that I have. This feedback will help provide a plan of action based on my EdTech report, I would be extremely grateful if you could take a moment to complete any of the surveys that are applicable to you or your department;

Report Feedback Survey - I have produced 7 reports and it would be great to hear your thoughts on our exploration with "Inbound Marketing"

Supporting FE - Before making any marketing plans we would like your input on how people in FE feel suppliers can best support FE & their students at a national, regional & local level.

FE Tech Products: Best Practice Survey - We are keen to hear about which products/suppliers are meeting and exceeding their FE customers expectations

Critical Friend Network - The only way that any organisations can achieve product-market fit and a welcome and efficient roll out plan is through close collaboration, I am looking to develop a network of critical friends who can help me assess various products and ideas that will be new to FE.

I would also be extremely grateful if you could share this post and/or these survey links with your colleagues.

Working on projects that achieve product-market fit is only possible with input from FE.

By the way if you're an EdTech supplier reading this (ideally a startup) that shares the core values above - get in touch I'd love to have a chat about seeing if there is any scope for collaboration! Suppliers may also be interest in my #StartUpEduChat post and follow @KatrinaStevens1 & @StartUpEduChat for more info.

#StartupEduChat Meets #EdTechBridge

I am working on a new report and have a back log of blog posts that I am working on. Given that one of the major Startup Edu Weekends was a couple of weeks ago, I thought I'd focus on innovative start ups in education... and tell you why they frustrate me?!

I have discussed the merits of #EdTechChat in a number of posts, how the discussions have helped me form a number of new ideas. In today's post am going to raise a complaint I have about the chat... 

Every week, without fail, people discuss the EdTech that they find really useful - the functionality that makes them such great tools in education etc... But there is rarely any mention of HOW they became such great products. What was their development and roll out process?

NB EdSurge do a great job with exploring this but as someone who wants to explore this in a lot of detail I find their coverage can leave me wondering "But how..." on some specific points.

As I am not an educator there are some topics where I am not able to contribute a great deal in #EdTechChat sessions so find myself "lurking and learning." This week was one of those kinds of chats - it was an hour of me watching the Twitter wall cascade... app after app that educators find so useful that they are recommending them to others. 

As I sat back and watched these Tweets there were two thoughts going through my head; 

1) The future prospects of EdTech sales people is about as promising as someone on the check out counter Vs a self scan machine - Replaced! Redundant!

2) Look at all these companies and EdTech tools that have a "eText book" roll out - developing education tools that I'd be delighted to be associated with - being praised by their customers and with "Net Promoter Scores" so high that users have become proponents and fans.  

But what about "how did these companies do this?" I wondered why is it we never discuss this? Then I wondered;

Is it up to educators to explore (or even care) about how these results were achieved? 

As a driver, when you jump in the car, you want to know that it will take you to your destination... not how to build an internal combustion engine. 

Educators priority is to make sure that the #EdTech tools work in the class, not how the engine works. There is a big difference between the shiny customer facing car showroom and the factory they are built in... or the garage where  poorly designed or old cars that have broken down are towed to.

I am extremely interested in how do we create better EdTech tools, how can we explore this in more detail? 

Surely the best thing to do is to head down to the race track and ask the precision engineers who are on the fast lane with building great #EdTech... and asking the dare devil drivers to take our inventions for a spin to see what it can do.

I think this is an important issue because as David Feinleib reminds us  in Why Start Ups Fail;

"No-one sets out to build a bad product... but it happens all the time"

And goes on to tell us just how much we need to "get right" or, depending on your perspective, how easy it is to get things wrong! There seems to be enough services in education that are not quite fit for purpose to demonstrate this to highlight the need. 

Now there are some fantastic articles by EdSurge that do go into some detail about this, my current favourites that I can't stop Tweeting about being "EdTech in India - Go Slow or Go Home," "How Good Ideas Go Viral," "SVSUmmit: EdTech Jamboree" "How This Start up won over Oregon" But could we be doing more?

Start Up Edu Winners
If it's so easy to get things wrong then surely we should be asking those who are getting it right for some help. Anytime I see #EdTech being praised there seem to be one of two attributes;

1) They are developed by (or with close collaboration with) educators, or
2) A disproportionate number appear to be coming from some of the dedicated EdTech incubators that have been established.

But there are challenges with these models given;

• Educators teaching commitments and budget cuts they are extremely busy, so it can be challenging for smaller companies to engage with the sector.
  
  This is something that the winner of Startup Weekend Edu, Tinker Ed, is looking to address as they will help to bring educators and start ups together to road test ideas.
• EdTech incubators have worked hard to establish a network of experts and mentors - whether seasoned tech entrepreneurs, investors or education experts.
  
  However there are only a handful of these incubators  - and it's great to see a couple being established in the UK.

Therefore I wonder if there might be value in some kind of #StartupEduChat - a forum for suppliers to network and share their expertise with other providers... A PLN for EdTech suppliers.

This could also be a place for educators to offer their input on product ideas and improvements, but also to find out about how startups are operating in terms of best practice and culture that educators could experiment with at their schools and in their classrooms. I think that there are benefits to this kind of forum for suppliers and educators.

I would be delighted to be involved in establishing this kind of EdChat, but feel that others may be better placed to lead on it and (this will come as no surprise to my regular readers) I am thinking specifically of EdSurge here with support and/or co-moderators from people like;

•  #EdTechChat and other EdChat moderators
• Graphite and other Edu peer review sites
• Startup Education Weekend winners
• EdTech incubators
• Startups that have achieved rapid and/or organic growth

If you like the sound of this idea and would like to be kept updated about it please fill out the details on the following link - #StartUpEduChat Survey

I look forward to hearing what the various #EdTech stakeholders think of this idea.

15th March 2014 - Update 
#StatUpEduChat Crosses Over #EdTechBridge
After canvassing my contacts on this idea and trying to get things going I noticed some really interesting discussions on the #EdTechBridge hashtag at the #SXSWEdu conference. I followed the trail of Tweets and found that Steven Isaacs (@Mr_Isaacs) and Katya Hott (@Katyamuses) had the same idea but were coming at this from Educators perspective. Here are some of their posts on the issues that they had identified and led them to the idea of #EdTechBridge.

• Identifying the need for EdTechBridge 
• Teacher/Entrepreneur Collaboration Experiences 
• EdTechBridge SXSWEdu Presentation page
• Steven Isaacs SXSWEdu Reflection
• The myths and realities of the EdTech Community

I will be emailing everyone who has expressed an interest in #StartUpEduChat this week and letting them know about this development and encouraging my Education and Supplier contacts to get behind this. 

As my EdTech Report "Developing Relationships & Delivering Value" highlights, there is such a difference in products and services that are developed with educators input whether by; big tech companies who understand the development and roll out process, EdTech Incubators who have an infrastructure of experts that they can call on; or entrepreneurs like EduClipper & Crowdmark who are educators-turned-entrepreneurs.

Please get behind this community and feel free to take a few moment to complete this #EdTechBridge Survey. Whatever your skill, job title or background, if you've got an interest in Education Technology its time for Edu and Techies to Assemble... great products 

EdTechers Assemble! 

Disconnected, Disengaged...Or Dispossessed?

This week a report that I've been involved with over the last 10 months was finally published. I am really pleased with this research and extremely proud to be associated with it. 

This is the 5th report like this that I have worked on in the last 3 years, and there is always a great deal of anticipation about how each one will be received within the FE community.

I wasn't quite prepared for the reaction I got from some people and am left wondering if it is an issue of disconnectedness, disengagement of dispossession... and was hoping that some FE people might be able to provide some insight.

I started working on this project last December, which I anticipated would take 3-4 months to complete. I thought this was ready in April and sought the critical input from my Fantastic PLN, but got something of a mixed response... some felt the work was really good; others felt the main points could be drawn out a bit and/or structured a little better.

Six months and 2 complete restructures later, I sent the updated draft to my PLN and to some well respected tech experts. I was delighted at how positive the feedback was for the revised version, and looked forward to circulating it.

This report went out this week and there has been some great praise from people that have read it. Thank you! I am extremely grateful for all your comments and feedback... It truly does make all the work well worthwhile.

However sharing this report has highlighted an aspect of FE that I would like to explore.

Disconnected

This report advocates the importance of focusing in a niche target market. For me this is the UK Further Education sector.

While I do engage with a lot of US educators on Twitter, but this is because I find it useful to connect to discuss what they are doing, as it helps to generate some new ideas and develop some "slow hunches." 

For example, this new report took on an added dimention in April when I joined #EdTechChat, and saw the kind of relationships that US educators had with some of their suppliers.  

FE is a somewhat "Disconnected" area of education compared to the US, but was surprised to see that the traffic to my blog is, with more and more frequency, coming from the US and, on occasion, clicks from the UK is relegated to 3rd behind Russia, Indonesia and other countries (which I am extremely grateful for, thank you - and hello - Russian and Indonesian educators).

However, this international traffic is all from Twitter and I email updates & newsletters with links to my blog directly to my FE subscribers, so it does make me wonder if my posts are making a connection... maybe they are, but it is just that US educators are more connected. If this is the case, that's fine. However, if this is an issue of engagement, then this is more of a concern.  

Disengaged

When the report went out I was really surprised to see people unsubscribe from my newsletter and updates.

I'm by no means arrogant enough to think that my content is so compelling that everyone must read them. Nor am I suggesting that people should not unsubscribe from updates that are not relevant (although I was confused when people who are connected via LinkedIn unsubscribed from Mail Chimp... I may be a digital immigrant trying to figure stuff out, but I'm sure LinkedIn connections are not just for decoration?)

What is concerning with this particular project is that it has been put together with input from so many people, both within FE, and from some extremely experienced tech experts.

Indeed, I don't even feel this is my work, All I did was gather advice and practices from people at MIT, Google, Silicon Valley Tech experts & VC's and attempted to pull it together to highlight some ideas that FE might consider exploring to benefit from the advice and recommendation of these tech startup experts.

This is my 5th report, which is an attempt to produce useful content based on "In Bound Marketing" principles. I would have no problem putting any recent unsubscribers down to the fact that the content simply is not good enough and say to myself that I "Must do better" - Wonder where I have heard that before from a group of educators?

This has been my view and attitude with my other reports, but not with this one. The source material for this report came from people with a vast about of knowledge about technology and start ups. The final draft was also reviewed by people who are involved with companies that turn out GREAT EdTech... so poor content is not a factor this time.

But when I circulate this great piece of work that I am so privileged to be involved with I find that; 

• People who are connected on one platform request not to receive my updates via on anther social media channel?
• FE based enterprise orgs who are contacted decide, for whatever reason, not to engage.
• It can be a challenge to get some FE organisations to even re-tweet an update any time such a request is made  

Dispossessed?

So where does this leave things? 

The sector didn't seem to appreciate tired old "out bound" cold-calls... but attempts at Community Engagement appears to have its challenges as well. 

I know that people with sales experience are renowned for their persistence and ability to take rejection, but this is bordering on the ridiculous... Anyone who didn't have the thick skin of a "recovering salesman" might start to take it personally.

As I detail in my latest report, experienced tech entrepreneurs can tend to stay away from education, if they have the choice of entering other niche target markets with their products. I've always been a bit of a slow learner but, after 13 years, I'm starting to see what they mean. The irony here is that this new report suggests that, with a little effort and planning, FE could be a fantastic niche target market. 

I have been known to be persistent with my projects, and am life long learner who is not afraid of critical input in the name of self improvement. 

So I'll try a more direct approach to cold calls and exploring inbound marketing... to simply ask the sector what its looking for. Therefore, if you are involved in UK Further Education I would be extremely grateful if you could take a moment to let me know;

• What kind of engagement the sector is looking for from their suppliers
• Which suppliers are producing the best services in terms of their sales team, product quality, customer service, user friendliness
• Any individual sales people or account managers who are exceptional at what they do, so I can see if they might be willing to give me some tips and advice about their techniques and practices.

I see some fantastic EdTech coming out of the US as a result of collaborative approaches and a lot of companies looking for inbound marketing techniques, and thought that they would be well received in FE too... and maybe they will be. But, for now at least, there sure is a feeling of being dispossessed.

Makes you wonder if maybe it's time to move on...