Patty’s Pioneers met in Boston May 16th and 17th. And it was one of our best meetings yet! I believe this was our 18th spring meeting (since our group started in 1994). Early members were technology architects who were pioneering in distributed object computing. There is something truly amazing about evolving a shared mental model over a couple of decades about what’s going on in technology and how that affects our business strategies.
What I notice is that each of us has a way in which we view the world—a set of filters and lenses that is persistent. Each time we meet (every six months), we observe some new patterns or amass some evidence that contradicts what we might have thought to be “true.” These emerging patterns either challenge or reinforce our collective sense-making apparatus. What makes us long-time colleagues is that, despite the fact that we fall on very different ends of the political spectrum and range in age from our 40s to our 80s, our nervous systems are all “wired” in similar ways.
Calling for the Next Generation of Pioneers. As one of our younger members pointed out, we are now in danger of becoming curmudgeons. (In fact, at least two of our members already consider themselves both curmudgeons and renegades). So, we’re now at the point where we’re looking for the next generation of thoughtful, insightful pioneers. We want their fresh perspective, but we also don’t want to abandon or neglect our love of recursion and pattern-matching over time. Everything new that happens in technology tends to be a replay of patterns we’ve seen before. We believe that historical context is probably valuable to the current group of really smart technology pioneers. So, if, after reading my public notes from our last meeting, you think you’d fit right in, and particularly if you are under 40, please ping me! (pseybold at customers.com).
What’s Happening in IT and What’s on Our Radar?
Observations and Trends from Patty’s Pioneers’ Spring Meeting
By Patricia B. Seybold and Patty’s Pioneers, May 24, 2012
Monster.com was originally designed as a Help Wanted/Need a Job matching site. It’s one of the many such sites that have dramatically impacted the employment services industry. Monster was one of the first job-hunting sites and one of the most successful in both fulfilling its mission and in remaining at the top of the heap. One of the things that distinguished Monster.com from the outset was its unremitting focus on the end-customer—the person seeking a job. The original founder, Jeff Taylor, knew that if Monster didn’t cater to job-seekers, they wouldn’t have any qualified candidates to offer to their paying customers—companies’ HR departments and head hunters. Monster.com provides a classic case of designing an online business for multiple audiences/customer bases—some of whom are paying customers and some of whom use the site’s services for free. Catering to multiple audiences means that there lots of areas that are ripe for conflict: head hunters contact job seekers to offer their services (taking Monster’s commissions), yet those same head hunters pay Monster for the privilege. Many job seekers don’t want their employers to know they’re looking, yet they want to throw their hats in the ring. 
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