Creating Strategic AlignmentAcross a Large, Complex Enterprise
Lala Mamedov, Intuit
David Kay, DB Kay & Associates
2
AGENDA
• The business context and challenge• The KM community of practice• What we did, how we did it, and what we learned• Outcome• Next Steps
BUSINESS CONTEXT
3
Who is Intuit? America’s most trusted name in tax software #1 best selling tax software year after year More federal returns e-filed with TurboTax than all other consumer tax software combined
#1 rated by the Wall Street Journal
>85% U.S. retail segment share 7 million U.S. small businesses use QuickBooks #1 payroll service
#2 best selling software in the U.S. after TurboTax More than 14 million users Over 75% U.S. retail segment share Over 70% brand awareness in households with PCs
How Intuit Develops Products
• Deeply understand people’s real behavior and real pain points• Watch people and then build tools that work the way they work • Create solutions that help them make better decisions and feel
more confident • Launch & learn then revise based on observing users’ behavior
Customer Driven Innovation
Find The Important Customer Problem Today
That We Can Solve Well
6
Intuit Ecosystem Approach
• Nine Business Units focusing on specific "Me" • Customer experience optimized for users of the
product – not for users across the company
• Portfolios of services: need to present One Intuit
7
KM Challenge at Intuit
• Shared vision that KM was strategically important...
• Each group was solving the KM challenge in a very creative and innovative way – but its own way
• Little in common Customer experiences Agent competencies Processes Technologies Measurement frameworks
Photo credit: nerovivo (Creative Commons)
THE KM COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE
8
9
Burning Platform?
• Increase customer delight
• Prepare for the new models of support
• Improve the bottom line
“Better answers faster”
10
The Solution: KM CoP
What:Cross-Business Community of Practice sponsored by a
senior leader
Mission:
Build social architecture supported by performance and reward system to enable the creation, communication and application of knowledge to achieve business goals
Photo credit: ewiemann (Creative Commons)
11
Measurable Outcomes for CoP
1. Identified critical competencies, capabilities, and mindsets
2. Established common framework of people, process, and tools
3. Defined performance metrics, performance standards, and terminology
12
Why Our Work Was Cut Out For Us
BU1
BU2
BU3
BU4
We had at least three failed
attempts at KM in the past five
years…Our incidents are all unique
We are world-class in designing innovative
online support experience…but no
KB
We do everything
exactly right – but
the other
members of our
ecosystem don’t
WHAT WE DID
13
1. Engaged Executives
• Individual meetings• Open-ended discussion guide
– Business goals– Hopes for KM– Pain points– Concerns– Coaching
• Used to align; dispel myths
14
Outcome: positive anticipation; commitment of staff
We need a clear strategy: people,
process, technology
Different business units are in very different places
The nature of our work is changing
We need to become One Intuit
We have a sense of urgency and a bias
towards action
2. Built on Proven Practices
• Extensive questionnaire• Each group completed,
in detail• Analysis
– Readiness– Innovations
to reuse
• Group readout
15
Outcome: people knew we were open to their ideas (no “NIH”). We harvested some really great ideas!
Leadership
Store, Deliver, &
Reuse
Contribute / Maintain
Customer Engagement
Analytics / Measures
Operational Profile
About Your Business
Technology
Compe-tencies
PPD
3. Organized Around Deliverables
16
Outcome: Clear visibility to the finish line;logically structured, manageable chunks of work
How should agents use and create knowledge?
Knowledge Capture, Reuse, and Improvement
How will customers benefit from knowledge? Customer Engagement
How do we drive change and inspire participation? Leadership
How do we measure success and continually improve? Measurement
Do I need a new KM tool? Infrastructure Requirements
What skills do I need? Do I need a dedicated team? Competencies
4. Distributed Leadership; Self-Organized
17
Outcome: People worked on what was interesting and urgent; had opportunities for leadership, visibility
• Six total activities– Two parallel tracks– Approximately 3 weeks per deliverable
• Leaders volunteered– Role / expertise, or interest / desire to help
• Team members volunteered– Often, they needed to implement the practice– Managers: this is your day job
5. Used a Face to Face Kickoff• Hard, hard, HARD!
…but worth it• Official agenda
– Scope– Work planning– PPD readout– Controversies
• Unofficial agenda:create a team
18
Outcome: Quickly dealt with rat-hole issues. More “us,” less “them.” Common vision. Accountability.
Photo credit: Office Now (Creative Commons)
19
What Would We Do Differently?
1. Better near-term follow-through– Self-assessment
and planning tool: don’t just offer it, facilitate the use of itBe more explicit:“do this next.”
2. Use teleconferencingcapability more
3. Create an executivesummary deliverableas we went
20
Self-Assessment and Planning Tool
-1 0 1 2 3 40
1
2
3
4
5
0.766666666666667
0.85
0.225
0.10.1
0.475
0.10.1
0.10.475
2.1
0.850.475
Self-Assessment
Prio
rity
OUTCOMES
21
22
Shared Guiding Principles1. Knowledge management is the core
job of support– Capturing and creating– Improving and updating– Sharing and reusing
2. Knowledge is created and captured at every level, including the frontline
3. People are rewarded based on their contribution to the shared knowledge system
4. The Intuit KM Framework is built on the foundation of Knowledge Centered Support (KCS), an industry best practice for KM
Photo credit: dans le grand bleu (Creative Commons)
23
Tangible Deliverables
Compiled requirements for enterprise-wide KM tool and completed vendor selection process
INTUIT KM
FRAMEWORK
Intuit KM Framework – a detailed playbook of six core elements
Redefined support agent competencies, published new job descriptions with knowledge creation requirement for each level
24
Intangible Deliverables
• Sense of community• Regular CoP meetings to share challenges and
successes• Available KM Mentors – people who worked on
each section can share best practices with other teams
• KM CoP is recognized as a success story and will be used as a blueprint for future cross-BU initiatives
WHAT'S NEXT
25
26
Next Steps for KM and Intuit
• Applying the Framework to two initial groups• KM tool implementation based on the
Framework• Other groups are already lining up • Sustain community as members cycle in and out• Evolve the Framework with new learnings• Take it beyond Support
27
Lessons Learned: Change Management
• Establish common understanding with key leaders: what success will look like
• Answer simple question: what it all boils down to• Define specific outcomes early• Find out what already wors (PPD)• Self-organized team: people with passion or pain
(or both) – then negotiate to make this part of their day job
• Break out massive project into small chunks, have small groups work in parallel