Month: March 2017

CToolkit: Search

Testing search

  • Martin White CMSwire > The Ins and Outs of Search Application Testing
    • Testing search is a wicked (hard) problem
    • Challenges include:
      • Subjective results – some require a user’s judgement
      • Large base of users implies large range of expectations
      • Broad testing of filters and facets – billions of permutations
      • Fixing can take major recrawling
    • Suggestion: introduce User Satisfaction Testing
      • Requires planning / analysis / feedback

“During the listening session exercise, instead of concentrating on what question to ask next, I focused on visualizing what the person was describing to me.” This advice describes more clearly the tip I always mention: look out the window while you’re on the phone with a listening session participant. Visualizing what the person is detailing is a much better way to describe how your mind could be occupied. You’re not supposed to be analyzing what you hear. Instead you’re supposed to be making sure that you’re breaking through the crust of preferences, opinions and explanations to the rich reasoning, reactions, and guiding principles within. A great way to keep your mind from either analyzing or panicking about what to ask next is to imagine what the person is telling you.

Email from Indi Young

 

And now we have chatbots and the “chat interface.” Chatbots have tremendous potential but they are not some magical cure. They are not some plug-n-play technology that doesn’t require us to have a navigation and classification.

How exactly are these chatbots going to chat? From what magic-magic land will they access their answers? Chatbots will require an extremely rigorous information architecture in order to ‘chat’ in a useful way. Otherwise, they’ll pretty quickly become gibberishbots.

From: http://gerrymcgovern.com/information-architecture-still-vital-to-digital-design/

In the modern workplace knowledge can define a company’s unique proposition and is a key source of business value.

Source (not working): http://towardsmaturity.org/article/2017/02/14/press-capturing-and-sharing-company-know-how/

In the modern workplace knowledge can define a company’s unique proposition and is a key source of business value.

98% of organisations want to increase the on-going sharing of good practice through the use of technology-enabled learning, however, only 1 in 5 are achieving this goal – with the finance and IT and telecoms sectors being amongst the most proactive.

Data from 600 L&D leaders and 5,000 workers has been examined in this new research led by Towards Maturity and sponsored by Crossknowledge to identify the tools and tactics of those successful in capturing and sharing company know-how and the impact this is having on their staff and business goals.

Those successful in capturing and sharing company know-how are twice as likely to report that the capability of their organisation to solve problems has increased and that they have doubled the drive in business innovation.

Jason Hathaway, Director of Content and Learning Solutions, Crossknowledge, says:

‘Organisations today tick and prosper thanks to the breadth and depth of their employees’ combined knowledge and expertise. Retiring senior workers are leaving behind massive gaps in expertise so how organisations capture this critical knowledge and know-how before they disappear is crucial.’

Tools are critical to facilitate sharing and those that actively encourage learners to collaborate in building knowledge resources use tools such as wikis, forums, podcasts and videos.

As well as the tactics and tools used to encourage sharing, the new research identifies the behaviours of the employee. One in five staff members are proactively sharing what they know with peers, one in five are not willing to share what they know, and the rest need to be provided with an opportunity to share and help getting started.

Sharers are three times more likely to involve classroom trainers and twice as likely to have content curation strategies in place to help staff make sense of the resources available to them.

Indeed creating a culture where staff feel safe to share and contribute knowledge plays a crucial role.In organisations that share knowledge managers are four times more likely to encourage their staff to make time for social and informal learning and in sharing organisations people are twice as likely to contribute their own learning resources to share with others.

Commenting on the report, Laura Overton, Founder and CEO of Towards Maturity said:

‘Organisations and individuals are facing rapid change. Everyone is looking to encourage the sharing of good practice but fewer than a third are using tools that will help staff share and access knowledge and less than a quarter have the skills they need to facilitate social learning.

This report shows that the successful will not be holding on to their knowledge but actively sharing it with their peers. Modern people professionals have a critical role to play, having high hopes is not enough, they need to harness new tools and build new skills.’

GTD: The Ivy Lee method

From https://medium.com/the-mission/the-ivy-lee-method-the-daily-routine-experts-recommend-for-peak-productivity-9bb8119d9bee#.2353hvbsf

  1. At the end of each work day, write down your six objectives for the next day. DO NOT WRITE DOWN MORE THAN SIX
  2. Prioritise those six objectives
  3. When you start tomorrow, concentrate only on the first task. Complete that task before moving onto the next.
  4. Approach the rest of the list in the same fashion, move uncompleted objectives to the next day’s list
  5. Repeat this process every single day

Negotiation tips – John Niland

#1. Saying Yes too quickly. Being too eager is a classic pitfall. Whether this eagerness is born of enthusiasm, anxiety or need, eagerness does not enhance your credibility. On the contrary, it weakens your position. While it’s good to be friendly, it’s counter-productive to be too eager.

#2. Offering to do everything. In order to impress, many people strive to exceed expectations. To maintain credibility, however, it’s best to balance this by equal emphasis on what the other person needs to contribute for the project to be successful. Paradoxically, this enhances the value that you bring.

#3. Quoting numbers too soon, for example, your salary expectations. Why should you be obliged to name your expectations first? They know the value of the role; they know what they pay to others. There’s a golden rule in negotiation: He who names a figure first loses. (Many of my coaching clients have gained thousands by learning how to stick to this maxim.)

#4. Going straight into “solution mode” without exploring the problem fully. Like no. 2 above, this often stems from a desire to impress. But it bypasses two key steps in the negotiation process, depriving the provider of vital “ammunition” to establish value. (See “A structured approach to negotiation” below.)

#5. Not understanding the Why: i.e. the key drivers and the agenda of the other person. Even experienced negotiators fall into the trap of discussing the What: e.g. what needs to be done, what you want from me, what is the desired result etc. But it’s even more important to understand the Why, because this where their threats and opportunities lie. This is the vital context that drives the value of what you are doing.