Comments on: 3: Know My Customer http://www.ldscio.org/2006/12/22/3-know-my-customer/ Chief Information Officer for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Mon, 06 Sep 2010 23:46:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Doug Von Feldt http://www.ldscio.org/2006/12/22/3-know-my-customer/comment-page-1/#comment-351 Doug Von Feldt Fri, 12 Jan 2007 04:37:09 +0000 http://www.ldscio.org/2006/12/22/3-know-my-customer/#comment-351 I spend a lot of my time making sure that our project managers understand who their customers are. This is a very hard concept for many technical (and non technical) people to understand. During my Six Sigma Black Belt training, the instructor that I had was fanatical about making sure you understood who ALL the customers were. I have always remembered this and always try to teach this to others. I have also found this is a good concept to apply to all aspects of life including Church callings. I spend a lot of my time making sure that our project managers understand who their customers are. This is a very hard concept for many technical (and non technical) people to understand. During my Six Sigma Black Belt training, the instructor that I had was fanatical about making sure you understood who ALL the customers were. I have always remembered this and always try to teach this to others. I have also found this is a good concept to apply to all aspects of life including Church callings.

]]> By: Mike http://www.ldscio.org/2006/12/22/3-know-my-customer/comment-page-1/#comment-338 Mike Wed, 10 Jan 2007 00:18:34 +0000 http://www.ldscio.org/2006/12/22/3-know-my-customer/#comment-338 Since I'm here, I'll add this thought - If found scriptures.byu.edu a phenominal tool in doing gospel research and seeing what the modern church leaders have said about a specific scripture and how they have used and interpreted it. unfortunatley it is a well kept secret. Could you/someone in your team help to publicize it, make it more readily available? Mike PS are there other similar well kep secret resources available? Since I’m here, I’ll add this thought -

If found scriptures.byu.edu a phenominal tool in doing gospel research and seeing what the modern church leaders have said about a specific scripture and how they have used and interpreted it. unfortunatley it is a well kept secret. Could you/someone in your team help to publicize it, make it more readily available?

Mike

PS are there other similar well kep secret resources available?

]]> By: Joel Dehlin http://www.ldscio.org/2006/12/22/3-know-my-customer/comment-page-1/#comment-295 Joel Dehlin Sat, 06 Jan 2007 05:24:13 +0000 http://www.ldscio.org/2006/12/22/3-know-my-customer/#comment-295 I'll pass your feedback on, Carl. I’ll pass your feedback on, Carl.

]]> By: Carl W. Filiaga http://www.ldscio.org/2006/12/22/3-know-my-customer/comment-page-1/#comment-289 Carl W. Filiaga Sat, 06 Jan 2007 01:50:56 +0000 http://www.ldscio.org/2006/12/22/3-know-my-customer/#comment-289 Because of the slow connection speeds streaming video doesn't work very well here in American Samoa. Would it be possible to archive General Conference sessions and firesides as downloadable Windows Media files like the Feb 2006 Worldwide Leadership Training. That way I can download and watch with out constant buffering. Because of the slow connection speeds streaming video doesn’t work very well here in American Samoa. Would it be possible to archive General Conference sessions and firesides as downloadable Windows Media files like the Feb 2006 Worldwide Leadership Training. That way I can download and watch with out constant buffering.

]]> By: Joel Dehlin http://www.ldscio.org/2006/12/22/3-know-my-customer/comment-page-1/#comment-219 Joel Dehlin Tue, 02 Jan 2007 17:49:51 +0000 http://www.ldscio.org/2006/12/22/3-know-my-customer/#comment-219 Hello again Pops. We do use focus groups for applications, and are starting to do it more and more. They have to be used carefully or design becomes "design by committee" and good usability is mistaken for good discoverability. We are working on tools for allowing feedback from within the application for all of our applications. Hello again Pops. We do use focus groups for applications, and are starting to do it more and more. They have to be used carefully or design becomes “design by committee” and good usability is mistaken for good discoverability. We are working on tools for allowing feedback from within the application for all of our applications.

]]> By: Pops http://www.ldscio.org/2006/12/22/3-know-my-customer/comment-page-1/#comment-217 Pops Tue, 02 Jan 2007 17:31:57 +0000 http://www.ldscio.org/2006/12/22/3-know-my-customer/#comment-217 Let's say I'm running PAF and I get stuck because I don't understand the user interface and can't resolve my problem. I end up spending a lot of time in Help or searching the internet for answers. The goal of the PAF designers should be to minimize that type of negative experience. But do they have any way of knowing that it even happened? Is there a mechanism whereby a user can easily flag an issue and have it get back to the designers? And is that mechanism ridiculously obvious to the user? Or might there be some way to automate the collection of that type of information? (Do the designers use focus groups to test their user interfaces?) Having said that, I'm really pleased with what appears to be the new focus on interaction design. There are a lot of people using some of the Church software who aren't very computer literate, so user interfaces need to be the best they can possibly be. Let’s say I’m running PAF and I get stuck because I don’t understand the user interface and can’t resolve my problem. I end up spending a lot of time in Help or searching the internet for answers.

The goal of the PAF designers should be to minimize that type of negative experience. But do they have any way of knowing that it even happened? Is there a mechanism whereby a user can easily flag an issue and have it get back to the designers? And is that mechanism ridiculously obvious to the user? Or might there be some way to automate the collection of that type of information? (Do the designers use focus groups to test their user interfaces?)

Having said that, I’m really pleased with what appears to be the new focus on interaction design. There are a lot of people using some of the Church software who aren’t very computer literate, so user interfaces need to be the best they can possibly be.

]]> By: Joel Dehlin http://www.ldscio.org/2006/12/22/3-know-my-customer/comment-page-1/#comment-213 Joel Dehlin Mon, 01 Jan 2007 10:27:17 +0000 http://www.ldscio.org/2006/12/22/3-know-my-customer/#comment-213 Hello Rob. We don't today allow inter-state telecommuting. Thanks for your interest and for applying online! Hello Rob. We don’t today allow inter-state telecommuting. Thanks for your interest and for applying online!

]]> By: Rob Watson http://www.ldscio.org/2006/12/22/3-know-my-customer/comment-page-1/#comment-210 Rob Watson Sun, 31 Dec 2006 20:47:41 +0000 http://www.ldscio.org/2006/12/22/3-know-my-customer/#comment-210 Thanks. Like James, I'm interested in working for the Church, but I am considering full time employment. I encountered a full time spot in your job database, but it lists "North America" as the location. Does that mean that the Church allows some of its web and IT managers to work out of their homes? As I am currently living in Chicago, that would be something I'd be very interested in. I have a good broadband connection and more technology on-hand than I probably should have. Would just need to put up some french doors to keep the kiddies out of the computer room while I'm working. :) My resume is in your HR database now. Thanks. Like James, I’m interested in working for the Church, but I am considering full time employment. I encountered a full time spot in your job database, but it lists “North America” as the location. Does that mean that the Church allows some of its web and IT managers to work out of their homes?

As I am currently living in Chicago, that would be something I’d be very interested in. I have a good broadband connection and more technology on-hand than I probably should have. Would just need to put up some french doors to keep the kiddies out of the computer room while I’m working. :) My resume is in your HR database now.

]]> By: Joel Dehlin http://www.ldscio.org/2006/12/22/3-know-my-customer/comment-page-1/#comment-207 Joel Dehlin Sat, 30 Dec 2006 05:22:03 +0000 http://www.ldscio.org/2006/12/22/3-know-my-customer/#comment-207 Harris. Thank you for your feedback! We're trying to improve lds.org continually. We have a new version we're working on which significantly improves the search capabilities. You can find it at http://beta.lds.org. I don't see an easy way to find the Living Christ in Spanish, but we'll work on that. Thank you! Rob. We're looking into the possibility for this. Thank you for the feedback. Rolf. "Dead wood" (a term often used) are people. It's easy to objectify people who haven't kept their skills up-to-date or who have lost their passion or energy. But they're people just the same. Reconciling the need to be Christ-like toward people like this with the need to spend Church funds very carefully is one of the most difficult things a manager in our department deals with. We're trying very hard to be compassionate as we deal with performance through re-training, scope change, alternate forms of motivation and in some circumstances outplacement. James. We have some opportunities for volunteer work. But we have have more cases where people are working at the Church as a second career. We find we have much more use for people who are here full-time, as opposed to people who are here part-time. Send me more information. I'd love to look into possibilities for leveraging your skillsets! All. We've received some great feedback on the stake and ward web site and on MLS! Thank you! I've forwarded the feedback to the appropriate people. We're excited about what can be done with these two great tools! Harris. Thank you for your feedback! We’re trying to improve lds.org continually. We have a new version we’re working on which significantly improves the search capabilities. You can find it at http://beta.lds.org. I don’t see an easy way to find the Living Christ in Spanish, but we’ll work on that. Thank you!

Rob. We’re looking into the possibility for this. Thank you for the feedback.

Rolf. “Dead wood” (a term often used) are people. It’s easy to objectify people who haven’t kept their skills up-to-date or who have lost their passion or energy. But they’re people just the same. Reconciling the need to be Christ-like toward people like this with the need to spend Church funds very carefully is one of the most difficult things a manager in our department deals with. We’re trying very hard to be compassionate as we deal with performance through re-training, scope change, alternate forms of motivation and in some circumstances outplacement.

James. We have some opportunities for volunteer work. But we have have more cases where people are working at the Church as a second career. We find we have much more use for people who are here full-time, as opposed to people who are here part-time. Send me more information. I’d love to look into possibilities for leveraging your skillsets!

All. We’ve received some great feedback on the stake and ward web site and on MLS! Thank you! I’ve forwarded the feedback to the appropriate people. We’re excited about what can be done with these two great tools!

]]> By: Harris http://www.ldscio.org/2006/12/22/3-know-my-customer/comment-page-1/#comment-204 Harris Fri, 29 Dec 2006 15:09:49 +0000 http://www.ldscio.org/2006/12/22/3-know-my-customer/#comment-204 I found this blog quite by accident. I can tell you that I am one of those customers who do not understand computers well, but can use the programs. In using the LDS.org website, I tend to get very frustrated, because I can't find things that I need to find. For example, I wanted to get a copy of the Living Christ in Spanish. How to search for it? Using your website's search, I couldn't find it. I eventually found it in the shopping category, but it was too small to read. I ended up going out of LDS.org and using a Google search. The website needs a general search. It is hard to figure out where the meetinghouse locator is unless you know exactly where to look and this is often the case for many of my needs. I found this blog quite by accident. I can tell you that I am one of those customers who do not understand computers well, but can use the programs. In using the LDS.org website, I tend to get very frustrated, because I can’t find things that I need to find. For example, I wanted to get a copy of the Living Christ in Spanish. How to search for it? Using your website’s search, I couldn’t find it. I eventually found it in the shopping category, but it was too small to read. I ended up going out of LDS.org and using a Google search. The website needs a general search. It is hard to figure out where the meetinghouse locator is unless you know exactly where to look and this is often the case for many of my needs.

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