No Need to Downgrade to an Old Dream
By R.T. Barcik, Mid Market Sales Manager, EMEA region
Like many Gen Xers, I thought we were going to instantaneously change the world with this whole global internet economy thing. As a result, I bounced around from one apathetic company/job to the next right out of college. 4 jobs in 6 years to be exact, none of which I thought made a real impact on anything meaningful. 6 years ago I was at the tail end of job number 4 when I found a little start up…
My good friend was an independent recruiter that said why don’t you interview with this company tomorrow, just to see one end of the spectrum. ‘’Yeah sure,” I said, “I’ve always been a big fan of options and why not start the job hunt out with having a plan B in the bag.’’ I went through a full day of phone interviews where I individually talked to one third of the company, just so I could make it to the final meeting with the CEO the next day. Right from the start it was a completely unexpected challenge, where everything moved a mile a minute, you could tell the people knew their stuff but weren’t hung up on it, and the big guy was one you just had to meet. I didn’t know what to expect around the next corner but I was intrigued. Around the next corner happened to be an interview with the CEO of this tiny little company at a Potrero Hill (San Francisco) coffee shop. ‘’What was I thinking, this little pinger of a company probably wouldn’t last another 6 months… ‘’ I thought as I asked for more and more coffee while I waited for my interview to start. 14 cups of coffee later and ready to run a marathon, I only had half the energy the dynamic Danish CEO had naturally. ‘’I think I’m gonna like this company…”
Six years later, I am ironically starting my 4th role with the company and am changing people’s worlds with that same global internet thingy. Just yesterday I watched the ‘’light come on’’ as I helped a customer who had historically been in a support role in HR see how they could have real measurable financial impact on their business and in doing so become a driver of revenue. She realized that our software is going to change her professional world completely, just like it has for the 1,950 plus companies we’ve brought on before her. But this time it was different. This time it was in London, my new home thanks to SuccessFactors. This is just ridiculously cool.
Along the way it’s important to note that every ‘’significant-to-me’’ professional milestone has happened while at SuccessFactors (see photo of ringing the Nasdaq bell). More importantly, I’ve worked with more people that have something unique that I can learn from. Just about every day my light comes on because someone I work with changes my world with a new idea I haven’t thought of. I am in a perpetual state of appreciation for the collaboration that happens naturally here. I am humbled by and motivated to keep up with the quality people I work with. This collective knowledge and focus on the same goal is infectious. Wait a minute, that’s what we sell… but that’s what we live as well!
I tell ya, I originally got into software sales just to earn enough money to open my own restaurant. I am now enjoying myself too much living the SuccessFactors life to downgrade to my old dream. That Kaizen value we proclaim isn’t BS and it applies to everyone at our company—well done, SuccessFactors. It’s also fun to admit many that things within our company are getting even cooler despite becoming a ‘’real’’ company with 700+ employees. It’s been a wild ride. No offense to bull riders who measure their success by 8 second increments, but it’s been 189 million seconds of a wild ride for me…bring on the next 189 million!
A Week with the Society for Human Resource Management in Chicago
By Liz Gaither, Marketing and Event Manager
SuccessFactors recently attended the SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) National Conference, where we were able to meet and mingle with over 15,000 HR professionals from all over the world. SFSF was represented by 20 employees, a 20×20 booth on the show floor, and countless numbers of customers and partners at the event. Over 300 attendees stopped by the tradeshow booth in order to see a demo of our products for the first time, meet with a specific sales rep, ask questions about current implementations, or just to say hello as an existing, HAPPY customer!
The SHRM audience heard from keynote speakers such as Sidney Poitier, who spoke about the importance of diversity and motivating people to make a difference in the world, to Patrick Lencioni, author of books such as The Three Signs of a Miserable Job, who talked about the importance of making any job more rewarding and fulfilling for managers and employees alike.
All in all, the conference was a success with great content and ample time to work with attendees on the expansive show floor. The SHRM organization draws HR professionals from companies of all sizes, but this tends to be a show that many mid-sized and smaller organizations are sure to attend, because there is always something from every arena of HR in the room. We will continue to support and work with SHRM on events throughout the year!
Tapping into the Knowledge of our Customers
By Giovanni Bacigalupi, Lead User Interface Designer
Two weeks after SuccessConnect, the User Interface team continues to reap the benefits of customer visits to our usability lab, which was located in a room at the SuccessFactors product booth room. There was a constant stream of SuccessFactors customers who kindly gave us 20 minutes to an hour of their conference time. The team came away with notes, screen recordings, videotapes of each session, and a list of folks keenly interested in participating in future testing. We gathered useful data to improve existing and future designs, and the lab itself served as a tangible manifestation of the company’s belief in making usable tools.
This was a first-of-its-kind event for the UI (User Interface) team, and we’re happy to report that we had:
* 7 customers pre-registered for sessions
* 16 customers who participated in the testing
* 8 tests chosen as finalists from an original pool of 18
* A target of 5 sessions per test
* By the end of the conference, 27 sessions were run on 6 different tests
The SuccessFactors UI team has conducted research before, but this was the first time a lab had been set up at a conference venue, and the first time so many team members talked to this many customers within a two-day period. UI team members participating in the lab activities included: Giovanni Bacigalupi, Brigitte Chan, Douglas Lee, Yenly Ma, Daniel Mark, Andrew Wong, and Jimmy Wu. Each took turns in the three roles for the conference: Host (greeted/screened customers outside lab door); Moderator (conducted tests); and Note Taker.
How did it work? The Traveling Usability Lab consisted of a video camera and two computers. One computer was for the participant and the Moderator, while the other was used for taking notes. The video camera provided backup documentation for all the online sessions, and was the primary record for the test involving a card sort. The Moderator walked each participant through one or more of the 20-minute tests.
The future for the Traveling Usability Lab is to have an even better experience at the next SuccessConnect. Until then, the UI team will continue testing from the office with remote users and periodic customer site visits. There is still plenty of data that needs to be gathered for the tests left over from the pool of 18. The existing conferencing tools can be leveraged so the team can test customers anywhere in the world. The SuccessFactors Community site also provides opportunities for future testing activities–so stay tuned!
Thank you to all those who participated!
Yoga-rrific at SuccessFactors
By Doug Lee, Lead User Interface Designer, Yoga Enthusiast
Down dog, tree, warrior, revolved triangle … and breathe … and breathe … There’s a new yoga program here at SuccessFactors, and it totally rocks!
Twice a week, we head out to a lunchtime yoga session with a professional yogini (the term yogi refers to males). And the interesting twist here - instead of a studio, the sessions are outside on the grass, right in the grandest studio of them all.
Never having tried this, I’m totally realizing that the natural connection is AWESOME. So much so that I’ve taken to foregoing the yoga mat entirely, opting instead to practice right on the grass. The sensations of grass between your toes, lilting citrus notes wafting up from the daffodils, birds singing, and wind whistling through the trees - it’s amazing.
Afterwards, there’s a peaceful, easy feeling that stays with you throughout the day. Each yoga class ends with the incantation “namaste” - a mutual recognition and respect for the spirit within each of us. Carrying this over from the class to the office makes the day just that much more navigable. So, to each of you, I say - “namaste”.
** This post written under post-yogic influence. Adjust interpret-o-meter accordingly
Overheard at SuccessConnect…
Each year, SuccessFactors holds our Global User Conference, welcoming customers from around the world. With the conference usually being held at a large hotel, the hundreds of customers and SuccessFactors employees are bound to attract some attention as non-conference attendees encounter the masses. What a fun way to get the word out about our products!
The following story was overheard by Lori Brzakala, SuccessFactors Regional Sales Manager, in an elevator at the hotel where SuccessConnect was behing held. And, scene…:
I was in the elevator on the way back up to my room (the elevator was packed) and a woman not with SuccessFactors looked at my badge and said, “What is SuccessFactors anyway?” So I explained who we are and this man in the front turned around and said, “I LOVE SuccessFactors!” I asked if he was a customer, and he said he wasn’t here with our conference but he used to be the Chief Technology Officer with one of our customers and now he was with NBC. He said “I loved using SuccessFactors to write reviews when I was with [my previous company].” All the customers in the elevator cheered.
Very rewarding elevator ride indeed.
Live from San Francisco, it’s SuccessConnect!
By Hilary Terrell, Community Manager
I admit—I’m not just a SuccessConnect newbie, but a conference newbie as well. So coming into SuccessConnect, I was eager to see how these three days would unfold and all of the interactions and learning that would take place. With customers and employees coming together from all over the globe, it’s sure to be SuccessFactors’ most important event of the year. It’s been quite an experience—and isn’t over yet!
I’m writing live from the product demo booth are of the conference, where customers and prospects can see live demos of any of our products. The energy here has been fantastic, so I couldn’t help but share some of that here on HappyFactors.
At each product booth, customers are watching live demos of any of our products—from Performance Management to Analytics & Reporting. Our Product Managers are right here, each day of the conference, answering any questions—whether a customer is experiencing a problem with a product they already have, or want to learn more about a new module they’re interested in. Customers are also demoing their instance of the product, so that other customers can learn how from the way they are utilizing the product. It’s been wonderful to watch their customer’s expressions as they watch all of this.
As the Community Manager, I’ve been giving demos of the Customer Community at one of the product booths. For those that aren’t familiar with the Community, this is a website exclusively for our customers and contains everything from training materials and a robust knowledgebase, to active discussion forums and our IdeaFactory, where customers can submit and vote on product enhancements. While giving walkthroughs of Community to customers and prospects, I’ve had the chance to put faces with numerous members of our Community. And with over 7,000 members on the Community right now, this opportunity was incredibly valuable. Watching all of these interactions throughout the conference, it’s clear just how much value these one-on-one connections hold here. The people who I showed the community to now know exactly who they’re communicating with when they contact the community team with a question. The customers and prospects who watched a product demo at other booths now personally know the incredibly hard working Product Managers that are working on each of our products, and the people who they’re directing their questions to in the future. Customers have now witnessed first-hand the energy and passion of our CEO, Lars Dalgaard. Company names that we see every day finally have faces associated with them, and customers now have a better grasp of our company culture as so many of our employees are in attendance. Without a doubt, any conference of this size is large chunk of change (for the host or attendees), not to mention the months and months of planning—but it’s clear that these one to one interactions are what help to create stronger relationships between SuccessFactors and our customers and prospects, and that is invaluable.
If you’re a current customer, I hope you can join us for a future SuccessConnect. And if you’re considering purchasing SuccessFactors, I have no doubt that attending one of these events will seal the deal.
Top quotes overheard at SuccessConnect:
“I love the energy of your company.”
“What a wonderful event—and what a great location to have it.”
“We’ve been a customer for 7 years and look forward to seeing what other tricks [SuccessFactors] has up its sleeves.”
“Great presentation.”
“Oh hell yes!” (customer’s response to being asked by the product testing team if they would use the functionality to be able to do nominations without using a form)
“ ULTRA is smoother, looks better, and is more intuitive.”
No Jerks, No Strangers
By Brigitte Chan, UI Designer
It’s been two and a half years since I started at SuccessFactors, and I have to say–I continue loving it here! Why? It’s the people that make this place so special and fun.
Thanks to the open office layout we have, you feel closer to everyone sitting next to you. You can join in any conversation you want, or tune out to focus on your own work. You can even, right from your seat, greet someone who’s walking down the hallway. Some interviewees have asked me, “Don’t you get distracted by the conversations happening all around you?” “Sometimes,” I replied, “but I got used to it very soon. It’s great to be able to chit-chat with one another while working. I’d rather be able to relate to people in an open environment, than to be surrounded by four walls.” Just like one of our founding principles is “No Jerks,” there are certainly no strangers here either, as you get to know everyone so well.
One of the SuccessFactors core competencies is “not leaving any wounded soul behind.” I truly see that in the Engineering Department. As a User Interface Designer, one of my responsibilities includes enhancing the look-and-feel of the application by tweaking code in the development environment. If my environment ever fails to work, I know I’ll be doomed because the error message that pops up is like a foreign language to me. Fortunately, there’s always someone nearby to help me debug and fix the environment, even when they are in the middle of doing something. And most importantly, they make sure that everything’s working for me before they take off. How awesome is that?
I truly love the gang sitting around me—and I know that most people can’t say this about the people they work with. They are the motivation for me to come in every morning. They are the ones who turn a bad day into a joyful day. I love being here because of the thought and care I receive from my coworkers. I still remember the day when I faced several roadblocks, one after another, yet when I walked back to my desk after a break, I saw a cup of bubble tea sitting there—it was from a coworker who knew that this was my favorite. That just made my day! And this has actually happened more than once.
It’s simple interactions like this that makes SuccessFactors so special.
Saved by the Bell
By Terrance Seto, Associate Technical Product Marketing Manager
I remember those long days in the office at a previous organization that I used to work for back in 2006. The office was quiet. Almost too quiet I would say. Those 6 foot tall cubical walls blocked off quite a bit of sound. Working in marketing, I developed sales tools and managed trade shows that our company had attended. I enjoyed what I did, but I never received that pat on the back from my fellow colleagues. Did I do something wrong? Probably not. You went in and worked your 8 to 9 hours and just left. No “have a nice evening!” or “thanks for helping out today” from team mates. After a while, it just stopped being exciting.
Fast forward to June, 2007. It was summer, and I was just about to begin my first day at SuccessFactors. After finishing my orientation, I was given the tour of the office. The first thing that hit me was the noise. At first, I thought there was a party that I had just missed out on. But it was better. A deal was closed in sales, a bell on the wall was rung, and everyone cheered with joy. It was pure excitement. I had never seen, nor heard, anything like this before.
Fast forward to August, 2007. In my position here at SuccessFactors, my duties are to configure and develop product demo environments. This is an important tool, critical to the success of our sales team being able to demo a robust and compelling product to their prospects. The bell rang, a cheer went out, along with an email notifying the company of this new closed deal. Wait, what’s this I see at the bottom of the email? “Thank you to Terrance for providing an excellent demo! The prospect loved it!” Wow, what a great feeling to be recognized for your work! This is what keeps me and my fellow colleagues excited about what we do. The open office environment, the friendly people, and the passion are what drive us all each and every day.
Seeing the value in SuccessFactors’ values
By Jennifer Boyd, Director of Talent
Welcome to HappyFactors! I’m the Director of Talent–what we call “Human Resources” at SuccessFactors–and lead the Talent Business Partnering group. I recall the day when I was the first HR person hired at SuccessFactors (waaay back in 2005) and built the HR team from zero. We now have 16 team members! The growth is energizing and truly phenomenal—an experience that can never be replicated.
Of my many experiences while here, one that I vividly recall is speaking about our company at a seminar for a local University. Carnegie Mellon University West (yes—they have a campus in Mountain View, CA…a little way from home base in Pittsburgh, PA) offers a class on managing software professionals as part of their Masters program in Software Management. They asked me to speak to a seminar class about terminations—not the most popular topic, but one that is a rich area of understanding for new and prospective managers. And a little scary, too.
The class had read Robert Sutton’s book, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t, for a segment on managing people. They loved the fact that SuccessFactors had incorporated so much of the “no asshole” concept into our daily work and culture and were eager to learn more about how we do this. We covered all kinds of topics—SuccessFactors’ Rules of Engagement, how to handle performance issues, cultural concerns in employee exits, analytics, and more. They were truly floored by how much of an impact a simple concept like well-articulated and well-executed company values can have on every part of the employee life cycle, and how we are able to use our own products to accomplish this! They were thrilled to see that SuccessFactors is able to weave our company values into our talent processes like performance, on boarding, and termination—the total blending of people, process, and technology. Stepping away from my desk at SuccessFactors for a bit allowed me to see the value in what we do through other people’s eyes, and this was truly valuable.
What a great gig for an HR person—working for a company that sells products that you WANT to use every day!
Oh, How Good Pay-for-Performance Feels!
By Hilary Terrell, Associate Product Marketing Manager
There’s nothing like a good, old-fashioned pat on the back. Or, in the world of Performance & Talent Management, there’s nothing like fair pay-for-performance. I recently completed my first review cycle at SuccessFactors and realized just what I’ve been missing.
I knew that coming to work here would be a (welcome) change in corporate culture, but I learned first-hand how valuable the concept of pay-for-performance truly is. Sure, I’m surrounded each day by materials that promote the values of paying for performance, aligning your workforce, and retaining your talent, and how our products are helping other organizations to do just that. But to truly experience a culture of pay-for-performance for the first time? Now that was educational.
Perhaps it’s the result of coming from a company that had no inkling of such a culture—seeing the stark contrast of night and day. For the past four years, I slogged away in an industry in New York City that people clamor to break into, but an industry in which the modest financial rewards come much farther down the line. For years, you try to make a name for yourself, all without getting much of the credit and for one of the lowest starting professional salaries there is (you might fall out of your chair if I told you…). But when you love the trade you’re learning, you convince yourself that it’s worth sticking through such a situation.
Until you learn that…this isn’t the way the rest of the world works!
Excuse me?!? Come again???
Up until this point my experience with yearly performance reviews was limited to filling out three questions on a Word document, including my “goals.” I’d discuss these items with my manager, having walked in eager at the chance of getting a promotion or raise and then…nothing. I didn’t know what my manager’s (or manager’s manager) goals were, or how mine fit into the larger picture. We didn’t discuss the previous year’s goals and whether they had been achieved. And I didn’t see my performance being rewarded in any tangible way, aside from increased workload and being told that I was doing a good job. Even more frustrating, I didn’t know if there was something I just wasn’t doing quite right that was preventing me from moving up the ladder. Since all of the feedback from my manager was positive, what were the missing pieces? And what was my team’s plan for the coming year? I would soon learn that there was nothing overtly performance-oriented about the slow crawl to the top—it was simply a case of too many qualified people vying for the same positions and a matter of whittling down the pool over time. Interesting. Did I want to stay in such a rat race?
I knew from friends in other industries that there were companies out there that valued their employees, and had heard of these wonderful things called “raises” and “bonuses”–and ones above the 1% range. But who got them, and how was it decided how much each person received? Was every person that met their goals rewarded? (what a concept!) I found out this and much more during my first review cycle at SuccessFactors.
Throughout my review process here, not only was it clear that I was being rewarded for a job well done, but it was clear exactly what I was being rewarded for. Specific goals had been set and achieved, numerous projects had been completed successfully, and we discussed all of this and more. I was able to wrap my head around the accomplishments of the past year—and what could be improved upon—and set my sights on the goals for the upcoming year. It wasn’t a mystery what my manager’s goals were for the coming year—quite the opposite, as we went through and made sure that our goals were aligned to one another. It was crystal clear what I needed to do over the next year, how I fit into the company’s larger goals, and what I would be evaluated on. What’s more, I knew that my work was being valued and I came out of my review motivated—really and truly motivated—to have a killer year.
It’s amazing what pay-for-performance—coupled with insightful goal alignment and meaningful face-to-face time in the process—can do for your employees’ productivity and motivation. It certainly made me a believer.
Post script…And it looks like I’m not the only in-house fan of our culture. Just after this post was written, SuccessFactors earned another well-deserved award for being one of the best places to work.
