Real Influence

So, Facebook has deleted more than a quarter of their users' accounts. These were deleted because they were deemed to be fake accounts.

In related news, Klout, the major social media scoring system company, will be shutting down on May 25th.

Marketers in the new world of social media try to maximize their reach and impact. The influence they attempt to generate or control is worth big money. According to Statista, this spend was almost 31 billion in 2016, which was a rise of almost a third from the previous year.

I know many social media marketing partners that struggled with their Klout score competitiveness. There were certain strata that people fell in, and for some reason, many were unable to really take off to those really great scores. But, as with Facebook, Klout had to try to calculate for non-real influence. For instance, we hear millions of Instagram followers have been faked for certain accounts. Many of the most successful marketing partners had these inflated numbers, which resulted in high Klout scores. However, they actually weren't reaching real people.

Real influence, which is being focused on more and more, is about connections. It is about connecting with real people. The mommy blogger with 300 *real* followers on various social media outlets has a real connection with her followers. They know her. They know her family. Her story. The followers are invested.

This goes back to the concept of the Human Scale. Fewer real connections are more likely more influential in the long term than many fake and loose connections. Invest in what is real.

Aggregating data in useful ways

This really interesting image shows an aggregation of many famous starships in fiction, shown to scale for comparison.

Every Sci-Fi Starship Ever (not really, but close enough)

While fascinating, it also brings up that personal weakness of mine- taking the time to manually aggregate data.  If a report is not one-click away, then I avoid it.  However, I really shouldn't, as data good for assessing quality is usually hard to get.  Many of the tools we use are created with project management or development in mind, NOT QA.  (See Rally, JIRA)

I have to block time off in my calendar to go mining for data.  It takes discipline, but it is worth it.

Now- taking that data and presenting it in a meaningful way... that's a whole other bucket of beans.

Kudos to the person who put this Starship comparison chart together.  It took a lot of manual work, I'm sure, but it can be appreciated by many, and tells a story.

On "managing" perception

In the rare instances I am able to corner a customer, executive, or business partner, I like to ask them what the current buzz is.  Are people generally asking for more features, or better quality?  This admittedly un-scientific and ambiguous question has value for me, as a leader in test engineering.  The answer to this question matters for a few reasons:

First, to get just a bit of an idea of what our pipeline is looking like... a push for more features or a focus on improving quality.

Second, to show them we care about what is being thought and said.

Third, and most importantly, to get an idea of how the perception of our products is trending.

As a test engineer, perception is just as important as reality.  If your products are perceived as being of poor quality, then people will more readily notice and magnify the smaller defects that exist.  In the same way, when you, as a tester, are seen as being incapable, disinterested, or ineffective, people will focus on all of your flaws and mistakes.  Furthermore, they will distrust all work you do, effectively rendering you useless to the organization.

In "managing perception", I recommend the following:

1. Communicate the context
2. Be honest
3. Be open
4. Communicate frequently

All too often, people manage it this way:

1. Report numbers without context
2. Ignore it
3. Obfuscate
4. Delay

To make it simple, don't worry about managing perception- just focus on proactively reporting reality in proper context.

Leadership note:  Remember to manage the perceptions of team (capability), project (status), and product (health).

Does anyone have horror stories relating to perception in testing?