Analogies for defining deeper processes

Steve - Business is like a pirate ship - (who is the crew, are they good/bad, who is doing what)

Kelly - Business is like a body - (what is your tool to get to your goals)

- Goals and sub goals to get to the bigger goal. Adilas is just a tool. The people who use it are the ones making the goals.

- Talk is great, but we need to work on some implementations (getting out there and doing it).

- How do we implement the tool... this drives customer satisfaction.

- Adilas is so flexible that sometimes that is a problem

- Kelly was not saying don't be flexible... but we need a standard starting place

- There are new things that get launched all the time... without any training - this keeps deepening the need for good reps and consultants

- Unintended consequences

- Pressure and pain drives the current development cycle

- Everyone looks to a system to be "The" solution - systems can do a lot of things, but they can't save you from yourself

- Good physical control of the system is a huge key - stick to the plan and then go from there

- Many of the business owners don't even know what they are doing and then that translates to their business processes

- Helping to setup mini goals for the client... miniature options for success

- Addressing the physical before jumping into a digital realm

- Sometimes, a companies leadership will drive things right into a ditch

- Kelly has been doing some research on what other developers and companies do to help standardize things

- A good setup will make or break the whole deal... from there forward (what milestones are set and achieved and was there a good handoff between the software company and the rep/consultant)

- Accountability practices

- When a client has a question, have tech support use the user guide as their answer. As a side note, Shannon and Brandon are working on the adilas user guide.

- On numbering... instead of using a straight 1, 2, 3, 4... system (single numbers). Maybe think more along hundreds 100, 200, 300, 400... (lots of room to add and subtract as needed)

- Sub attributes - Kelly doesn't think that piece is fully "strong", yet we are building upon it. Steve thinks the concepts are pretty good. We just need to fix some of the coding pieces to help get reports, searches, and exports more up to speed.

- Steve was talking about the complexity of even servers - we had a meeting this morning that just dealt with servers (hours and hours). So many moving pieces and working with somewhat limited funding and talent options.

- Due to our current size, we almost have to say - in order to setup clients, you will need to setup an adilas specialist (in your company) and we will help train them. They will then help push that ball forward.

- Some of our squeeze points deal with persons who have the skills, talents, and time. We have masters like Steve, Brandon, Kelly, Daniel, etc.

- Start by defining the language that we are speaking - adilas is its own language - A good starting point - how do we communicate things, as a company

- People want organization and structure - being too thinly spread can be a big problem

- Allowing dreaming and custom options - we love it but that could be a problem - we may get in trouble by giving them too much or too many options.

- Maybe have them run with the standard options for 6 months and then talk about going into the custom realm - we have seen problems with people going into full on custom too quickly.

- Like an airplane - put the oxygen on yourself first and then help others around you - you end up selling what you do

- Setting clear expectations

- Maybe have some tools and education (training materials) about how to run a business and how to use the tools - Steve has had the ideas of putting on basic business seminars across the country. We could use the adilas tool as the backbone of the basic business training sections.

- We are seeing a bigger and bigger need for training, guided training, and even self training. This could be checked and/or quality assurance based on skills, tests, scenarios, sign-off's, etc. In traditional learning environments, there is standardization, testing, feedback, etc.

- What about using elements of time to help monitor the virtual checklist of what has been done and to what level?

- We do need a team, but at what level do we need to get to? That gets tough. People resources are always tough to manage.

- More training sessions - pros and cons to our current model - people want to learn in privacy - some of the training sessions get out of control (high jacked).

- Vocabulary and what things do and what we call things is a big part of the puzzle

- Some people don't want to know the why (that takes time)... they often just want to know how (show me quickly so I can do it)

- Education from gaming - 2 minutes or less - quick YouTube type mentality

- What kind of users are you? Do you like to self train? Do you want the easy button? Do you shoot from the hip (all the time) or are you a detailed oriented person who likes to organize and manage things? Great questions... help pre-qualify them in a way. The adilas system works best if the users want to put the things into the system (feed it) and play the whole game.

- Sadly, we can't fix everything... sometimes, we have to just go to the next person

- AI (artificial intelligence) and where things are going - automating setups and then automating tech support - keep going where things are going (skate to where the puck is going)

- Working on your company vs working in your company - focus on working on it and making it better

- What is the low hanging fruit and where can we start?

- How many touch points are needed to get someone setup? Who setups up the quote? Who turns things on? Who setups up things? Who does logos and watermarks? Who does labels? etc. - you get the idea - try to automate as much as possible.

- Somewhat of an internal bulletin board - who is doing what and what changes are going on in those shifts

- Just adding bodies doesn't always help things - events happen, how do you deal with that - there has to be an internal training process to take care of those things. It comes down to core things that are needed. Who is going to do those things (virtual checklist of what is needed)? Light talks about templates.

- Function vs fashion - where do you spend your time? We may not be able to solve everything but we can try to take the edge off of things. We want to show them what is possible. We want to present a nice package. We also want to make sure that things work (functionality) for them.

- Steve and I are trying to get out of the way. We are trying to fully get the process all setup and dialed in. Sometimes, if we are a pivotal part of the puzzle, it just doesn't happen, we are maxed out.

- Going back to consistency... We know we need it, we are trying to work through it and then actually using it. What can you expect every time? We also need a timing of those events... when should we do things, not just what should be done. There is a difference.

- Sustainability - We need to keep doing this (our business) for years to come... let's set ourselves up for success.

- Building our own processes to help with project management, task management, and to do list checkboxes before doing x (fill in the blank). Templates and automation processes. Help share the load.

- Things are changing super fast... nobody knows everything - we are currently letting different parties run with what they think needs to be done vs having one person giving orders and then getting a good return and report type process. Currently, it is somewhat of a community type effort.

- Why are we doing it and should we do it? Check this out before you jump in. Think of the consequences first.

- Kelly is going to help get a group together to help bring up the structure level and get the oars (some driving and direction) into Kelly's hands. We need a good driver who won't run us aground. We are going to let Kelly run with some things on the core management side of things.

- We are going to be starting at the very beginning and then going from there. A great place to start.