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With artificial intelligence, machine learning, the Internet of Things, and more, the pressure is on to innovate and keep your standing with your customers. Look at it another way: No matter your industry, you’ve got a golden opportunity to create new services. Your goal? To engage, win, and keep customers.
But innovating can be challenging. Whether your company is large or small, staying innovative while still meeting the demands of current customers is a balancing act. Innovation requires research, resources, planning, and focus. Without these important pieces, you might risk spreading yourself too thin or missing the mark on what’s important to your customers.
How do AppExchange partners discover trends and continue to innovate around them? Learn from these eight partner Trailblazers from FormAssembly, Skuid, SpringCM, Screen-Magic, Phoneburner, Conga, Fonteva, and Nintex.
Nearly all of the partner Trailblazers we asked stated that reading was crucial to staying tapped in. “I learn by reading, first and foremost. I read a lot of blog posts and news,” shared Cedric Savarese, CEO of FormAssembly.
But what type of blog posts and news outlets? Mike Duensing, Chief Technology Officer of Skuid stated, “The investment capital communities and their respective trade publications; and the industry analysts...I look at the broader context of world economies.”
Here’s a look at some more of the recommended reads by these partner Trailblazers:
The news can barely keep up with the pace of innovation, so it’s not the only way to go. Partner Trailblazers say that communication with colleagues is key. “I talk to co-workers, clients, and partners to see what they find interesting,” shared Savarese.
A jam-packed, fast way to learn from others is to attend conferences. “[SaaStr] has great events and interviews for us to model and see what other people are doing,” noted Henry Evans, VP of Channel Sales at Phoneburner. Bob DeSantis, COO of Conga added, “I was lucky to attend Dreamforce. That’s a very important part of how I keep in touch with what’s happening. I spend my time with the new and innovative technology companies. They’re solving problems that the bigger players may be missing.”
Innovation can take you in many exciting directions; however, it’s important to focus your innovation plans on a goal or set of goals. For Nintex, the focus is their customers’ growth. “We want to help our customers grow their businesses, and we learn about their challenges to see how we can help solve them.” stated Vincent Cabral, VP of Product at Nintex. Conga agrees. “[Customers] guide our innovation because they’re the ones whose business problems we’re trying to solve,” said DeSantis.
Phoneburner and Nintex added to the importance of customers guiding innovation. “We engage with our customers. We listen to their needs and ask how we can improve their sales process. These conversations drive innovation,” said Evans. For Nintex, “About 90% of what we add to the product is from customer feedback,” said Cabral.
Along with talking to customers, partners recommended seeking feedback from others. Nitin Seth, CEO of Screen-Magic, added that employees are important to tap. “It’s important to double check with the salesperson (who is actually interacting with the customer) about whether we are interpreting information correctly.”
Partner Trailblazers recommended seeking feedback for innovation from:
A great ecosystem can spur innovation as well. “Innovation doesn’t all have to be done by our engineering or product teams, talented though they may be,” said Erik Severinghaus, Chief Strategy Officer at SpringCM. “We can incorporate more and more of the innovation that’s happening out in the ecosystem, and we can use that to drive our platform forward.”
Partner Trailblazers are learning from their employees; however, doing that successfully takes great hiring. “We try to hire great people who are doing much more than I do, are likely to stay in touch, and have their fingers on the pulse of new trends,” stated DeSantis. FormAssembly agreed when it comes to learning from within. “It takes the efforts and the contributions of everyone in the organization to surface issues and opportunities we can use to drive innovation,” said Savarese.
Severinghaus’s approach of classical thinking and learning historical trends aligned with other partners’ great ways to unlock inspiration. Fonteva uses an idea board. “When we consider things from our product initiatives, we focus on where we want to go for that individual user [with an idea board]. Is this going to make their life better, easier, and so on?” shared Jake Fabbri, VP of Marketing at Fonteva.
“Salesforce is always pushing the limits. Years ago, it was mobile; from there, it’s Lightning, this new experience for the end user. This year, it’s AI. I keep in touch with Salesforce, because they’re on the edge of helping businesses improve how they’re doing work today,” stated Cabral.
Partners also source their own research and data to make conclusions about tech trends. “We look at how messaging apps are evolving across different parts of the industry, including Google Play or the Apple App Store downloads, and the usage trends for those apps,” stated Nitin Seth. You can hone in on your area’s specific trends with this approach, and according to Severinghaus, it keeps you focused, not “swept up in the hype.” Instead, Severinghaus recommends grounding yourself in classical thoughts around historical trends. “Learn how history inspires interesting or counterintuitive ways of thinking for the future.”
The takeaway? Stay up to date with technology trends from a variety of sources, including trade and national publications, events, and your customers. Also, do your own research. Learn more from these partner Trailblazers in the AppExchange ebook, 15 Experts on Tech Trends and Innovation.
