ASAE Technology Conference – Part 2
February 2, 2009
As I mentioned in my previous post, Associations have a real opportunity to move beyond fixing and replacing their existing systems as the focus of their technology initiatives if they embrace a couple of key concepts that were highlighted by Chris Sacca in his General Session talk. These concepts are: stay laser focused on the user and embrace disruptive technologies.
Sacca talked alot about Google’s passion for solving user problems and creating compelling user experiences. In my view, this is the essence of innovation, which is fundamentally about identifying important problems to be solved. And innovation is the pathway for Associations to get beyond the technology inertia that is still focused on the AMS/CMS/Website triumvirate.
Most Associations conduct at least an annual member survey to try and understand member needs. Unfortunately, asking members what they want and need can be dangerous because the type of information members typically provide include things like solutions, benefits, needs, and specifications — none of which will help you to devise breakthrough products and services or make the innovation process more predictable (http://twurl.cc/esw).
So the first step on the innovation pathway is to change the unit of analysis from member needs and to instead focus on the jobs that members need to get done (http://twurl.cc/esy).
The philosophy is simple: members have jobs that arise regularly and need to get done. So they seek out products, services, and indeed, organizations to help them get the job done. These jobs can be functional, personal, and social. So when joininig or participating in an Association a member may want to have access to specific information or services (functional), but she may also want to enhance her career (personal) and feel more connected to her peers (social).
By deeply understanding jobs to be done, associations will really understand their members and be in a better position to leverage technology in creating products and services that resonate with them.
So the next step is to understand the power of disruptive technology, which will be the subject of my next post.
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