Client Collaborative Product Development During Customer Workgroups

Bowman Systems believes that client collaboration is an integral component of product development. An expression of this belief is the Customer Workgroup initiative. Workgroups consist of volunteering customers and Bowman Systems' staff who meet via web conference to discuss and review specific, client-generated topics of interest. Workgroup meetings are an opportunity for the customers to give ideas and feedback, while the staff has the opportunity to receive multiple viewpoints to refine the software and direct product development.

Bowman Systems strives to create workgroups that contain different implementation sizes, organization types, and user levels. This combination often makes for lively discussions, which result in well-designed and widely applicable solutions to various issues. Workgroup participant Liddy Hintz, The Salvation Army, Syracuse, NY, recalls her recent workgroup experience, “We brought in many different viewpoints,” said Liddy. The process fosters an open and truthful atmosphere among the participants. They are encouraged to speak honestly about ideas discussed during the meeting and their experience with the software, even though it may differ from other customers in the meeting. “It was always interesting to hear how other communities operate, not only with the software but also with programmatic differences” says workgroup participant Chelsea Cawley, Community Technology Alliance, San Jose, CA. New and innovative uses of the system are frequently brought to light. “During every workgroup meeting, I learn something new about how our users rely on our software in the real world,” says Daniel Darnell, Development Project Manager at Bowman Systems.

On average, a workgroup consists of about three customer meetings, depending on the depth of the reviewed topic. Bowman Systems’ staff does not take the customers’ volunteered time lightly: a tremendous amount of preparation time and discussion takes place internally before asking customers to participate. Workgroup member Chelsea Cawley says, “I think the Bowman Systems’ staff were very professional and thoughtful in how they led the discussions. Questions put to everyone had purpose and meaning.” The result of the preparation is targeted customer meetings on specific topics, maximizing the customers’ time spent in the meetings. “I felt the time I spent was very worthwhile,” says workgroup participant Don Larsen, Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, Providence, RI

During the workgroup meetings, the primary duty of Bowman Systems’ staff is to listen. “Not only do we take what we immediately gather during the workgroup meetings, but we re-listen to every meeting recording to ensure no comment or idea falls through without careful consideration. Listening is the most critical piece to this process,” says Katie Mayer, Business Development Associate at Bowman Systems. Collectively, staff members strive to discover the customers’ ideal solutions, determine how to most effectively utilize the development resources, and then work with the customer participants to find the most acceptable solution to all parties. To successfully do this, staff members from various departments, including Product Development, User Interface Design, Client Services, and Customer Support, participate in every workgroup, and each department brings a different perspective. “As a developer, it is easy to overlook certain aspects of the functionality that an actual system user would never miss, so the workgroup process is a critical component to ensuring that our software continually improves and delights our users,” says Darnell.

Workgroups often result in feature enhancements, work flow adjustments, and user interface design changes. Past workgroups have resulted in noteworthy changes to ServicePoint, including but not limited to adding a new Client Summary tab to client records within ClientPoint, increasing the ease of use of the Self-Sufficiency Outcomes Module, re-designing the Client Merge work flow and user interface, and adding new volunteer management capability to ActivityPoint. One current workgroup involves a work flow and interface re-design to Household Creation and Management processes within ServicePoint. More workgroup topics will be initiated throughout 2011.

How do you volunteer to participate in Bowman Systems’ Customer Workgroups?

It’s simple. Every few months, a workgroup participation application is sent out for one or more specific topics. When you receive the request, forward it to any user at your implementation who would be a good candidate for the listed topics. We encourage all user levels to volunteer, including system administrators, agency administrators, case managers, and data entry personnel. Anyone volunteering should fill out and submit the application with as much detail as possible; be sure to include any best practices or issues you may have for the topic. That’s it. Keep an eye out for workgroup participation requests throughout 2011!

Got a Workgroup topic suggestion? E-mail it to: CLOAKING

We look forward to Work(group)ing with you this year!