Always look for the MVP I first wrote about minimum viable product (MVP) just three years ago, but the term itself was coined over 20 years ago. But I’ve been thinking about this more and more with all of my new projects, for one significant reason: Even compared to five years ago, much less 20 […]
“Is this normal?” ne of the greatest parts about my job is that I get to work with so many different associations, which means I see all kinds of things that most of my clients never see. It also means I have a very deep perspective on how often something does or does not happen with associations
Customer vs. staff In a properly designed AMS, when the customer goes online to your website to do business with you (e.g., join, renew, register for an event, buy a product), the website is interacting directly with the AMS. In other words, any data changes being made by the customer are going directly to the database
Who is in control? Speaking with a client once about their database project, the client said something I found rather profound: “I want to feel like I control the database, not that the database is controlling me.” There’s a lot going on in that statement, and there are a lot of elements that affect whether
One of the best ways to analyze a given process (e.g., membership joins) is to flowchart it. Flowcharts can be very useful in identifying weak spots, redundancies, or exceptions. But another useful tool is to simply write down the process as a narrative. This could be bullet points or actual paragraphs. But writing down the process
One of my “standard” rules is, generally speaking, associations should not be in the business of developing their own software. I explain all my reasoning about that position here. But like pretty much every rule in life, there are certain exceptions. (Note here that “develop software” includes hiring a third party to build it; it doesn’t
Sometimes you DO have to develop your own software Read More »
My #1 Best Practice… A client recently asked me: “If you had to pick a single best practice for data management, what would it be?” Without thinking, I blurted out: “Don’t be stupid.” What I meant by that is too often we are our own worst enemies when it comes to data management. We make business rules that are
When’s the “least bad” time? When working with clients on a new project, especially a new system launch, the question is always asked, “What’s the best time to do this?” And after a long discussion about all the possible dates and how none of them will really work, I usually suggest “How about we find
Averages hide the extremes I can’t remember where I first heard it, but “averages hide the extremes” can be a really useful guide when thinking about how you manage data. Here’s a nice illustration from one of my clients: As they looked at their event registration they saw an average of 100 registrations per month
Try flowcharting your processes Working with a client recently on their membership join process reminded me of the tremendous value of putting your processes into a flowchart. In their case, a single membership join (organization) requires asking three questions before the correct “join path” is determined. Drawing a flowchart of this decision process will help provide them