By Brendan Delumpa, User Interface Engineering Manager

Back in the late ’80’s to early ’90’s when getting your “personal power” was all the rage (remember those campy Tony Robbins infomercials?), I’ll admit it, I took several of these courses designed to help me face my weaknesses, conquer my fears of success and learn to grow; gaining my own sense of personal power. Most of the ground we covered in these seminars has proven to be invaluable over the course of time, and while they were fairly expensive, I consider them a great investment, as I don’t think I could have grown both personally and professionally had I not taken them.

The courses covered a lot of ground. But over time, I’ve learned to distill and refine the subject matter into much more condensed versions. An area of particular interest to me has always been personal performance; that is, how I honestly perceive my performance in any situation and evaluate whether or not I’m showing up 100% and providing myself with opportunities to grow and expand my knowledge, efficiency, or output. Granted it’s not always an easy thing to determine whether or not I am, but I’ve come up with a little saying that has helped drive me to constantly look for ways to improve and at least do my best to “show up.” Here it is:

If you know you can do something phenomenally, don’t settle for just being good.

If you think about it, many of the limits we place upon ourselves and thus growing and developing in anything in which we’re engaged have much to do with what we believe the outside world – our culture, society, peer groups, or even those with whom we work – may accept to be the line of good or satisfactory performance. Hey! There’s nothing wrong with performing satisfactorily or good, and meeting the standards placed before us. But to me, that’s just maintaining the status quo. I suppose you’ll eventually grow by meeting the standards, for as soon as you hit a particular standard, you go to the next level with its own set of criteria for satisfactory or good performance. Let’s face it: Meeting the standards is safe. But those who wish to truly excel at their endeavors take the standards into account and draw their own line of optimal performance; especially if they know they can exceed the commonly accepted standards.

But what really holds us back? I will submit that it is an inherent fear of being successful; of breaking free and traveling beyond the comfort of the pack. Excelling at anything can cause anxiety, especially if you’re always used to doing what everyone else does. That inner voice will tell you, “You’re going too far too fast.” You may have waking dreams filled with images of your peers saying, “Don’t leave us behind!” As a result, we’ll almost invariably make excuses as to why we won’t take a stand about our own success. “I could’ve done more, but I didn’t want to rock the boat.” Hogwash! Only in very rare cases will doing more have deleterious effects. So I will say this: Ignore those images! Only you inherently know of what you’re capable, so use that as your guide. Listen to that other inner voice that pushes you to break away from the status quo.

Now that’s not to say that you trudge forth with a vengeance that is lacking in compassion, wreaking havoc with your friends and close relations; rather, you march forward with the conviction and determination that you are who you are as the result of your choices, and no one else’s; that no one else can be accountable for the progress you make in life but YOU. So I will say again, if YOU know you can do something phenomenally, don’t settle for just being good!

By Philip Carty, Vice President, Eastern Area, Canada and Latin America

We are all familiar with the popular children’s song, “Row, row, row your boat”:

Row, row, row your boat
gently down the stream,
merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
life is but a dream

Why do I begin my post with this? In this song, the Stream is consciousness and the Dream is our goal and our passion. In these times of challenge and bad weather it’s very easy to become less mindful, more distracted and to row furiously in no particular direction. In some cases, we’re not even in the boat.

So what are we to do?

At one of our recent company All Hands meetings, our CEO Lars asked me to take 5 minutes to share a story or insight about what we can do in times like these to be more mindful, more clear. This is a subject that I am passionate about, and I wanted to share it here on HappyFactors as well.

We all have to contend with a lot of noise these days. The papers – ugh! The news – ugh! The pundits – ugh! Recession, depression, foreclosure, job loss. Sir Allen, Thain, Geithner and Madoff. Yuck! In these times, we don’t know if we should plug in, tune out, turn off or just give up. What are we to do?

“Go gently, quietly, merrily down the stream….”

I have had the benefit of having some great teachers who turned me on to some great writers and speakers and leaders who taught me some great stuff. In particular, one who comes to mind for me these days is a guy named J. Krishnamurti. He said that meditation and mindfulness is not sitting cross legged on the floor, but rather a moment to moment thing all day long.

His view is that what comes at us, the external stimulus, is usually reacted to out of our memory. This works well with most of what we deal with every day. However, there are some things that come at us where the reaction out of memory is completely wrong. The external stimulus brings up a memory of pain, or fear, or anger or what have you. I believe a lot of what comes at us today brings up fear.

What Krishnamurti said was to “be mindful in the moment, see the reaction come up, go with it if it’s right, let it pass if it’s wrong, and if you let it pass – then act mindfully.” With quiet mind. Perhaps instead of fear, courage will come up.

Breathe deep and act mindfully in the moment. What this leads to these days is less stress, more effective communication and relationship and a knowledge that in the times of challenge great insights can be obtained, obstacles can be overcome, and our mettle is tested and affirmed. Necessity is the mother of invention; necessity can be the mother of invention – mindfully done.

I have worked for twenty years on this. It has led me to behave actively rather than reactively, most of the time. It has led me to enjoy the moments, most of the time.
This morning, I got up before dawn with my daughter and watched both the moon set and the sun rise– a great full orange moon followed by an amazing sun rise. Talk about a moment of connection both with my daughter and with the grander reality. Very inspiring and something I will carry with me all week.

I think that in these times we need to work at being mindful, at enjoying the moments and recognize our connection to each other and the grander world. I think the clearer we get, the bigger our dreams, the greater our chances are to be the outlier that wildly succeeds in this environment. Merrily, indeed, down the stream!

Good luck everyone.

Check out what Bil Harmer, VP of Security at SuccessFactors, had to say to ZDNet about his job here!

By Hilary Terrell, Associate Product Marketing Manager

Picture this…

You’re a 28 year old HR associate at a prestigious academic institution. You’re young and energetic, and eager to influence the people you work with in a positive way. You send out a friendly email thanking employees for turning in their timecards on time, because you appreciate their efforts and, well, what’s wrong with saying thank you. Your boss, however, does not appreciate your efforts. You get reprimanded for sending out an email that is outside of the standard bureaucratic emails that usually come from this HR department—a department that is very set in its ways and with employees that have been there for years, many for decades. “I can’t say thank you??” you think, “and try to boost people’s moral?” You are left baffled and frustrated by an institution and department that does not seem to embrace gratitude, change, or individuality.

This isn’t a fabricated example, but something that happened recently to a very close friend of mine. When she told me about it I thought it really touched upon two timely topics in the world of work—embracing change, and the clash of generations in the workplace.
The former is something I’ve seen numerous articles on recently, from NPR to BusinessWeek. As a recent BusinessWeek article put it,

“…every generation is different and shaped by the events of their formative years. Yet every generation is alike, as they all bring new energy, new ideas, and new beliefs about work and life in general. Historical and technological forces have always combined to bring the generations together in some ways and to draw them apart in others.”

“Generational” gaps are a natural occurrence in the workplace, but not something to be wary of or to apply an “us vs. them” mentality to. I believe it’s less of a clash between generations—a fuzzy generalization at best—and more of an issue of differing beliefs about work and the way things *should* be done on a day to day basis. In the example above, the older manager felt that the HR associate’s thank you email was not something that they, or the other employees of their experience level, would have sent out. So was the email flat out wrong to send, or did it rub the manager the wrong way because it was atypical?

Right or wrong, younger employees crave independence and creative thinking—and discouraging this at all turns will turn them off from a work environment. And when a younger employee is discouraged at work, they’re also of the mind to believe that other opportunities are within their grasp and won’t put up with a culture that stifles them. Right or wrong, younger employees crave feedback and constructive criticism, and a slap on the hand when you’re displeased with their work won’t do the trick. Perhaps in the story above, the manager could have acknowledged, even praised, the HR associate for doing something outside of the norm by personally thanking other employees. And if this was not protocol for the institution, aside from evaluating why this would be, perhaps the manager could have suggested what would be more appropriate in the future. Instead, she got a firm “don’t-color-outside-the-lines-again” warning and nothing more. Now she walks, and emails, on eggshells each day.

This leads to the second issue the story brings up—the unwillingness to embrace change. HR departments (the only department with word ‘human’ in it!) have the opportunity to be some of the pioneers of embracing change in a company, as they have their pulse on the kinds of employees the company is hiring and nurturing, the direction the company is generally headed in, and a direct hand in shaping a company’s culture. A company that fails to adapt to change at the HR level seems doomed to hire the same kinds of people over and over again until they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel, and doomed to do things the exact same way they’ve always done until someone at the C-level trickles down the necessary changes (or worse). HR departments have the ability to influence the corporate culture, the morale of current employees, the interest of potential employees, and much more, in a very powerful way. And doing things the way they’ve always been done just doesn’t seem to cut it anymore. The HR associate in the example wasn’t asking her manager to change the corporate communications policy—she was trying to connect with the employees she communicates with in a more human way than she had seen up until that point in her department. Change in that direction could be quite good.

I’m happy to say that this is something that would never happen here at SuccessFactors—quite the opposite. We are all lucky to work in a place that embraces individuality and doing something against the status quo, especially if it achieves great results. We aren’t the small startup we were 6+ years ago, as we now have hundreds of employees around the globe and sound business processes in place. But we’re still a company where doing something in a new way—whether it’s through email communication, marketing strategies, the design of the product, or the ways that we interact with our prospects and customers—is encouraged and rewarded. We’re coloring outside the lines and proud of it!

We are also a company where I have yet to see any clashing of generations in the workplace, and I believe this is in large part due to our open, collaborative culture. We have employees that range from fresh and green out of college to seasoned professionals, and are fortunate that everyone is able to learn from the range of people they work with each day, and that we can truly find the place where we fit best in this company—no trying to fit square pegs into round holes here. No matter you’re position, you’re going to work closely with employees with varied backgrounds and from across the organization, whether they sit right next to you or on the opposite coast. And with close connections fostered each day between employees—be it through our Employee Directory, or a cross-departmental project—we are all the more prepared to deal with change as it comes our way and ready to face the future as a cohesive SuccessFactors team. Q4, here we come!

Reply to this post—tell us how your organization is prepared for change and/or embracing generational gaps in the workplace!

By Chris Lozaga, SuccessFactors Research Analyst

It’s 8:15 in the morning. Half strained from a restless night, my eyes dart right to left and back again, pouring over pixels, as I sort through my inbox. The bitter aftertaste of bergamot and artificial sweetener are the only noticeable effects of my hastily made morning tea, which hasn’t kicked in yet. Outlook tells me that aside from the 30 plus legitimate messages waiting for my response that I have 11 junk e-mails - maybe I’ll peruse them later for a quick laugh. Finally, I get to “clickin.” This is what I call my two-handed method of speed sorting e-mail, one on the mouse, one on the keyboard. I am sure I could do it all with hotkeys, but once you learn something one way… 30 messages become 15 in no time. “What’s this?” My vision sharpens suddenly and I can feel my heart beat just a little bit faster. My morning caffeine actually working now? Maybe. More likely it is “the race.”

Someone needs help, sent an email out to the entire company - pretty rare in other workplaces, but it happens here every day (hey, I could peg the CEO in the back of the head with a paper airplane from my seat if I wanted to, we have an open culture here. Not that I would ever actually do that, or even think about it… ahem). This is how “the race” begins. Anywhere else, helping out this person would be the last thing on everyone’s priority list. At SuccessFactors, helping your coworkers is priority number one, well unless a customer needs something. In fact, being the first person to help is sort of a badge of honor. The race is on!

I do research at SuccessFactors, meaning I have folders full of PDFs, whitepapers, and research projects that I know could help. The trick to winning the race is making an impact. It is no good to be the first responder if you don’t actually help. Before I know it my previously tired eyes have read through six surveys, blood is coursing to my hands. I always like the mechanical clatter of a keyboard when you are going at it full bore. I can’t type more than 25 words per minute, but it feels good.

“Damn!”

You know that little bubble that pops up when you get an e-mail? Someone beat me to the finish line. I will finish my e-mail and send it anyway, I have unique insights into the problem that could also be helpful.

That’s the real difference of working at SuccessFactors. Helping your coworkers is addictive and everyone’s input is valued. Anywhere else, this level of communication would be considered noise. In this office, it’s the soundtrack to an exciting race to make a difference.

Well, I may have lost this one, but I will be ready for the next “race.” At least I am charged up and ready to work now. I’ll just take a minute to flex my fingers, stiffened up from maxing out my keyboarding skills, crack my knuckles, and start working my way through the rest of my morning e-mail.

By Elaine Wu, Product Marketing Intern, Summer 2008

Hello everyone! I’m Elaine Wu, a product marketing intern finishing up my last week here at SuccessFactors. Over the past two months, I have gotten to experience life as a SuccessFactors employee, and let me tell you–I’ve had an absolutely amazing time. This has been my first office job and I still can’t believe how lucky I am to have worked with such fun and hard-working people. I really hope that all SuccessFactors employees realize how great it is to be working here full-time! For my HappyFactors post, I wanted to highlight some of the many things I learned about this unique company during my time here…

It’s Not Easy being Green, but SuccessFactors is proving how easy it is!

Every UC Berkeley student knows about the lovely group of tree-sitters living atop our oak trees. Rain or shine, you can always find the squatters up in the trees. They have truly made the trees their home, setting up boards for beds and a system of pulleys to bring up food. Although I am not quite willing to forego my comfortable bed for the branch of a tree, I have been touched by the passion of the tree sitters. I believe that every little step someone can take to help the environment is something worth doing.

Kermit the Frog may not have thought that it was easy being green, but SuccessFactors has proven that it is. Our SaaS software does so much more than save our customers money on software maintenance and operation. The computerized performance reviews eliminate thousands of paper-based reviews each year. With every new customer we attain, we are doing our part to save trees.

SuccessFactors does even more for the environment–by supporting employees who wish to work from home, we are preventing unnecessary pollution too! It is great to know that our company supports our efforts to save gas and commute time when we just need a day at home to get work done. And of course working from home would not be possible without our company’s open communication and collaboration with other employees in the office or living overseas. This brings me to my next point:

SuccessFactors meets The Beatles: Come Together, With a Little Help from my Friends, We can Work it Out

SuccessFactors thrives on synergy. Working together with our fellow employees is essential to deliver the best products to our customers. Our open office, cubicle-free environment makes it ideal for team members to work with each other on a project or just get a fresh perspective on an idea. I have also found that it is much easier to stay motivated and concentrate on my work when I notice how hard everyone around me is working. Not only has this open environment kept me more motivated throughout the day, it also gave me a small break when I needed one. Sitting in a high-traffic area of the office has been entertaining! Sometimes I would just listen to all the conversations going on around me. It’s actually quite fascinating to hear how an engineer solved an issue or how a sales representative completed a sale. The random anecdotes and accomplishments I have heard every day keeps me excited about this company. Someone is always doing something worthwhile.

Kaizen-ian Rhapsody

Kaizen (“constant improvement”) is not just something that I heard about on my first day during orientation. It is something that is achieved every single day here. To continuously improve, everyone must question their work. How can I work more efficiently? How can I make our product useful? How can I satisfy our customers? How can I increase worldwide productivity?

I am proud to say that I’ve also experienced the power of Kaizen. I’ve been working on the Customer Community this summer, and it is the one place where both SuccessFactors employees and SuccessFactors customers can learn and grow together. Every Community member wants to make the Community beneficial. Our employees Kaizen the Community to keep our customers updated on all changes in the product as well as address any of the customers’ feedback and concerns. We also encourage our customers to continuously Kaizen by giving them many opportunities to learn and contribute to our product. Customers listen to OneVoice calls hosted by Product Managers, share product ideas in the IdeaFactory, get questions answered in the Discussion Forums, learn from the many training materials online and connect with other SuccessFactors customers through the Community Directory.

Being able to collaborate with our customers to create a product that we are all proud of has been the most satisfying experience. Work really becomes easy and fun when you know that your customers are helping you help them.

Fun, Fun, Fun

Happy workers can bring insurmountable success to any company. Everyone at SuccessFactors lets their creativity inspire the work that they are doing. The Product Marketing workspace area has recently been decorated with an inspiration wall. What inspires you, SuccessFactors?

It’s been so fun to cover the walls with items and pictures that can fire up our imaginations or just make us happy and motivated to work. I brought all the fortunes from fortune cookies that I’ve collected for the past 15 years. I hope that you can find one which inspires you to work harder and achieve any goal. It’s these little things that can make working in this office fun. (Another recent example—check out the photo from a recent team-building outing to race go-karts!)

SuccessFactors succeeds because it realizes that its workers are its most important asset— without happy workers, the company cannot succeed. Well, SuccessFactors has won me over. I have really been inspired by the company’s values as well as all the people I’ve met here. It’s been a great summer! I really hope that every SuccessFactors employee can appreciate the wonderful place where they work as much as I have. How sweet it is (to be loved by my company and to have worked at SuccessFactors!)

By Hilary Terrell, Associate Product Marketing Manager

Nothing beats a great group of motivated, friendly summer interns to liven up the office. This summer we had an exceptional group, including two Berkeley students who worked with the Product Marketing team, and a recent California State University, Fullerton, grad who works with the SMB Marketing team.

I sat down with Jason, the SMB Marketing intern, recently and got his thoughts on his internship experience thus far, and his perspective on SuccessFactors after being here for just two months. Fresh insight!

Hilary: So what attracted you to this internship and to SuccessFactors?

Jason: Well, being fresh out of school, I didn’t know about SuccessFactors until someone pointed them out to me. I did some homework on who they were and what it is they do. In my head I group a company as either a good guy or a bad guy… e.g. [bleeeeeep] or [bleeeeeep] would be a ‘bad guy’ in my mind.

Hilary: Readers will have to fill in the blanks on that one!

Jason: SuccessFactors seemed to be one of the good guys, providing a product that helped people be happier and more efficient on the job. As individuals we all have the ability to choose how much we invest in our work – emotionally, physically, and mentally. SuccessFacrtors is a company I could see myself supporting 100%.

Hilary: A+ on your homework.

Jason: So I came in for an interview and was hooked right from that moment because of the energy in the office, people buzzing around, and NO CUBICLES.

Hilary: [laughing] I made sure to put that in my internship posting—no cubicles!

Jason: It caught me off guard but once I thought about it, I realized that this sort of structure seemed to promote an atmosphere of real teamwork.

Hilary: So how does the day to day life here compare to that first impression?

Jason: I’d say my first impression was definitely reinforced once I met the marketing team. Everyone was welcoming and professional, and I assumed it would be a face-paced environment, which has turned out to be very true.

Hilary: You can say that again.

Jason: Clearly, this is a company with a lot of talented people who have a passion for the industry. The atmosphere is youthful, energetic, and positive which I have found motivates people even more. It’s like a synergistic chain reaction. This is something I had suspected, and now realize each day.

Hilary: How many months have you been on the team now?

Jason: Barely 2 months, I think it’s been 7 weeks. It’s been a blur, but in a good way.

Hilary: Has there been anything about our corporate culture that has stood out to you in your time here so far?

Jason: Lots of little things—people can do as they please as long as the job gets done. I enjoy listening to music on my headphones when I have my head buried in spreadsheets, or being able to take a lunch break 20 minutes earlier than the day before. I think my generation appreciates that kind of flexibility. Everyone chats online, which is a great way to stay connected and increase collaboration between co- workers.

Hilary: Especially since we have employees around the globe!

Jason: Right. Little things like that tell me that the company is gearing up for the future. So many companies are geared towards a rigid culture that is counterproductive to morale. Management is often out of touch with the workforce; walking around like you have a stick lodged somewhere it’s not supposed to be is never a positive attribute… you know? It’s a different kind of work force coming to the forefront now and SuccessFactors seems ahead of the game.

Hilary: I totally agree. The culture here definitely embraces forward-thinking ways of doing things, and I’m glad you’ve felt that firsthand. So…Ideally, what would you like to get out of this internship?

Jason: Well, a position here is one of my goals for sure. I’m done with school and ready to make a real difference. I feel like it’s a perfect fit in regards to corporate culture, and I believe morally in the product/service—a recipe for a good experience. But first and foremost, I’m here to learn as much as I can, whether within the marketing group or elsewhere in the company. And making some great friends along the way never hurts, right?

Hilary: That’s definitely one of the things that makes everyday enjoyable here—having a group of coworkers you truly enjoy being around and collaborating with. No more lunching in my cubicle like I did at my last job.

Jason: You definitely don’t see that around here too often!

Hilary: Cheers to that.

Pretty insightful after just two months here. Jason, thank you for sharing your fresh perspective on SuccessFactors!

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!

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!

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.