M V P - S T Y L E P R O G R A M S F O R F U N & P R O F I T

J O H N M A R K T R O Y E R , C E O T E C H R E C K O N I N G

CommuniCon 2015, Oct 6 2015 @jtroyer jtroyer@techreckoning.com

W H AT I S “ M V P - S T Y L E " ?

Y O U T H E R E A L M V P

• 1993: Microsoft creates MVP award to recognize community contribution (CompuServe)

• … time passes …

• 2009: VMware creates vExpert Program to recognize community contribution (forums, blogs, user groups)

P R O S P E C T S

I N F L U E N C E R S

B R A N D A D V O C AT E S

A M B A S S A D O R S , A D V O C AT E S , A N D B E A R S ! O H M Y !

• Ecosystem of partners & customers

• Betting on you

• Willing to be advocates

• And helping each other

E M P L O Y E E A M B A S S A D O R S

M V P - S T Y L E P R O G R A M S :

E VA N G E L I S T S C H A M P I O N S

V M W A R E ' S D I L E M M A : 2 0 0 9

• Main competitor: Microsoft

• Advantages:

• Product love:

• Healthy (but smaller) community forums, blogs

• Goals:

• Recognize & deepen relationships with community leaders

• More More More!

“ I H AV E S E E N T H E FA C E O F G O D , A N D I T I S V M WA R E ”

B E N E F I T S O F A N M V P -S T Y L E P R O G R A M

1 . A W A R D P R O G R A M

2 . E N A B L E M E N T P R O G R A M

3 . F E E D B A C K P R O G R A M

4 . M A R K E T I N G P R O G R A M

P R O D U C T L A U N C H : 7 4 V E X P E R T B L O G P O S T S

O N D AY 1

5 . C A R E E R V I S I B I L I T Y P R O G R A MV E X P E R T D I R E C T O R Y

B L O G A G G R E G AT O R

6 . N E T W O R K I N G P R O G R A MG E T T H E I N T E R E S T I N G P E O P L E I N T H E R O O M

V M W A R E V E X P E R T P R O G R A M 2 0 0 9 - 2 0 1 5

• Hundreds of books

• Tens of thousands of blog posts

• Hundreds of thousands of forum threads

• Global user group >100K members

0

275

550

825

1100

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

V E X P E R T S H AV E P R O D U C E D :

}

V E X P E R T S T R AT E G I C I M PA C T

• (Hopefully) involved in every Google search involving VMware

• Involved in online community forum

• Involved in every product launch and beta program

• Involved in corporate conferences

• Involved with every product group and the Office of the CTO

• Involved in the user group program, customer reference program, customer advisory program, focus groups

• Involved when the sh*t hit the fan: 2011 pricing change

I N V O LV E D I N E V E R Y PA R T O F T H E S A L E S F U N N E L A N D C U S T O M E R J O U R N E Y

M V P - S T Y L E P R O G R A M T I P S

1 . U S E T H E A R M Y Y O U H AV E

F I N D Y O U R T R I B E , R E G A R D L E S S O F E M P L O Y E R

2 . W H AT ' S I N I T F O R T H E M ?

H T T P S : / / F L I C . K R / P / M J 4 S

D O N ’ T M A K E I T J U S T A P R O G R A M F O R R O B O T B L O G G I N G / T W E E T I N G

3 . Y O U K N O W I T W H E N Y O U S E E I TC H I C K E N S E X I N G

“ G I V I N G B A C K T O T H E C O M M U N I T Y ”

“ G O I N G A B O V E A N D B E Y O N D Y O U R J O B ”

4 . G I V E I T A N A M EI N S I D E A C O M PA N Y, N A M E S A R E M A G I C

• Microsoft MVP

• Citrix Technology Professional

• SAP Mentors

• VMware vExpert

• EMC Elect

• Cisco Champions

• SplunkTrust

• OpenStack Ambassadors

• DataStax Cassandra MVPs

• Veeam Vanguard

• PernixData Pros

• IBM #CloudMinds

5 . O N L I N E - O F F L I N E S Y N E R G I E S

6 . E M P H A S I Z E H E L P I N G O T H E R SC U LT U R E O F G I V I N G B A C K

O n e o f t h e f i r s t t h i n g s I n o t i c e d a b o u t V M w a r e w a s t h e i n c r e d i b l e l e v e l o f e n g a g e m e n t b y e x t r e m e l y r e a s o n a b l e p e o p l e w h o w e r e e x p e r t i n i t .

F r o m b a s i c u s e r s t o a u t h o r s , t o V M w a r e s t a f f e r s , I w a s i m p r e s s e d b y t h e i n t e l l i g e n t r e s p o n s e s I g o t t o e v e n t h e m o s t n 0 0 b i s h o f q u e s t i o n s .

M y q u e s t i o n s f o r h e l p t o h i m w e r e a n s w e r e d p r o m p t l y, a n d a c a l l f o r r e a d i n g m a t e r i a l s w a s s i m i l a r l y d e a l t w i t h ; s a i d r e q u e s t c u l m i n a t i n g w i t h a Tw i t t e r s h o u t o u t t h a t I b e l i e v e r e c e i v e d n o l e s s t h a n 7 5 i m m e d i a t e r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s , a n d a b o u t a s i m i l a r a m o u n t o v e r a t w o - w e e k p e r i o d .

S u f f i c e i t t o s a y, I w a s i m p r e s s e d . A s 2 0 1 0 m o v e d a l o n g , … I c a l l e d f o r a p i l o t p r o g r a m t o d e t e r m i n e j u s t t h a t , a n d t h e r e s u l t s w e r e p o s i t i v e . J O H N O B E T O

M I C R O S O F T M V P, C E O L O G I C W O R X B L O G G E R , A B S O L U T E LY W I N D O W S

- N O T PA U L D R U C K E R

“You can’t manage what you can’t measure”

- PA U L D R U C K E R

“Your first role . . . is the personal one. It is the relationship with people, the development of

mutual confidence, the identification of people, the creation of a community. This is something only

you can do. … It cannot be measured or easily defined. But it is not only a key function. It is one

only you can perform.”

T H A N K S !

• John Mark Troyer, CEO TechReckoning

• @jtroyer jtroyer@techreckoning.com

• Weekly Dispatch Newsletter:

• http://techreckoning.com

• The Reckoning 2015 Conference:

• https://www.youtube.com/c/TechReckoning

H E L P I N G C O M PA N I E S TA L K T O G E E K S

E N T E R P R I S E I T S T U F F & ¯ \ _ ( ) _ / ¯

T E C H N O L O G Y C A R E E R S & C O M M U N I T Y

I N F L U E N C E R M A R K E T I N G & P O D C A S T I N G