Interesting... there is something missing, in the direction of
helping customers help themselves.
I think this is an unintended legacy of our initial framing. VRM... the
"R" is relationships. "Tools for independence and engagement", which
frames the value proposition in the context of a relationship to
someone/something else.
Even in my discussion of user-driven services, http://blog.joeandrieu.com/2009/04/26/introducing-user-driven-services/,
I am speaking essentially about services run by others:
- Impulse
from the User
- Control
- Transparency
- Data
Portability
- Service
Endpoint Portability
- Self
Hosting
- User
Generativity
- Improvability
- Self-managed
Identity
- Duty
of Care
Even the core definition I propose is missing it:
User
Driven Services: services that maximize value creation by
maximizing user control and authority.
The presumption we all have, is this:
Good services/companies/technology create value for the individual.
(I'm sad to say that "for the individual" is missing in that definition
of User Driven Services. It should be.)
I expect that the idea that customer is the recipient of value is so
inherent to the entire conversation, that we just don't think about it.
Like a fish who doesn't know about the water... but if you think about
it, corporate software does NOT have this mandate. Corporate software
is there to create value for the corporation. VRM is there to create
value for the individual.
Doc and I both anchored this here:
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/vrm/2011/03/22/the-customer-vector/
And here:
http://blog.joeandrieu.com/2008/01/09/the-vrm-vector/
But even these are still focused on value for the customer by someone
else (the vendor).
There is something vital in the idea of tools that allow the individual
to create value for themselves.
To her credit, this has always been a focus for Adriana Lukas. While
I've focused more on reinventing service relationships, she's always
been much more passionate about self-service VRM. It's a thread we
should include in our core.
-j
Joe Andrieu
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+1 (805) 705-8651
On 6/15/2011 1:36 PM, Doc Searls wrote:
"
type="cite">Thanks!
I had meant #4 to cover that, in the sense that "managing" one's
data would include understanding it; but maybe that's not the case.
Gotta think about it....
Doc
On Jun 15, 2011, at 3:44 PM, Jamie Smith wrote:
Thanks Doc, this is a great start.
Would you say that number 4 ('help customers manage') would include
tools to analyse your own data?
Such tools might help you identify your own behavioural or commercial
trends (for example by finding patterns in your travel expenses or your
weekly shopping), and in doing so would help you better a) express
intent (#3) and b) engage (#4).
I suspect that such VRM tools would not necessarily have to have this
characteristic, but if they did, then I'd want it to be a separate and
distinct characteristic from 'help customers manage' - perhaps along
the lines of:
6. VRM
tools help customers better understand their own data. This
is helping the customer discover and expose new value in their
own data sets, on their terms and for their own benefit.
Keen to hear your views.
Jamie
On 15 June 2011 19:07, Doc Searls <
" target="_blank">
>
wrote:
@jamiedsmith tweeted a
pointer to Alex Bogusky's New Conscious Consumer Bill of Rights...
... adding "needs more symmetry of power for consumers
though".
Rather than critique or seek to improve Alex's Bill, I
thought I'd post something we've needed for awhile: a list of
characteristics shared by VRM tools. I did that here:
Here they are:
- VRM
tools are personal. As with hammers, wallets and mobile phones,
people use them as individuals,. They are social only in secondary ways.
- VRM
tools help customers express intent. These include preferences,
policies, terms and means of engagement, permissions, requests and
anything else that’s possible in a free market (i.e. the open
marketplace surrounding any one vendor’s silo or walled garden for
“managing” captive customers).
- VRM
tools help customers engage. This can be with each other, or with
any organization, including (and especially) its CRM system.
- VRM
tools help customers manage. This includes both their own data and
systems and their relationships with other entities, and their systems.
- VRM
tools are substitutable. This means no vendor of VRM tools can lock
users in.
Suggestions and improvements welcome.
Doc
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