Web Operations

Communities of Interest and Practice

Operations should be a community of practice. Blogs, conferences, and books such as this one help to build the community. As people share their experiences, approaches, and solutions with each other, a community of practice grows a vocabulary and ethos. As jargon develops, people in the community use it to both communicate more effectively and identify each other.

Development is another community, as are sales, marketing, testing, and design, each with their own jargon and ethos. Each group speaks a different language and values different things. Some organizations have "walls of confusion" between each of these communities of practice, potentially starting with the executives. These walls create turbulence as each group tries to protect its interests from the perceived interests of the others.

I recently had a conversation with an executive consultant who believed it was critical for a CTO to have some background in marketing and sales so that she could understand the needs of the business. After further discussion, I concluded that the ability to communicate with all the personas in their own language was the difference maker. (Perhaps sales and marketing at a tech company need a background in technology? Hmm?) The consultant's key point was that sorting out perspective and vocabulary in every communication is expensive and potentially problematic, whereas the solution is an overlap in understanding and language to bridge the communities.

What ...