MuleSoft Centre 4 Enablement — Evangelisation
When you do a good job and you have something to offer to your organisation then you should shout about it. In general, I have found that people do not talk enough about their successes, we need to celebrate success and evangelise the work we have done and the capability we have developed to all who will listen and also, importantly, to those who are resistant to the message.
In my previous article I talked about what I consider to be one of the main responsibilities of the MuleSoft Centre 4 Enablement (C4E) and that is the evangelisation of the work that has been done, the successes it has delivered and the potential that the C4E has to increase the integration capabilities of the organisation, drive the reuse of data in a reliable and consistent way and to support innovation within the business.
In a large and geographically diverse organisation there is an increased chance that without evangelisation there will be parts of the organisation that do not know that the C4E exists, doesn’t understand what it does and, in some cases, will not know what API’s are, what integration technologies can provide and how they go about interacting with the C4E and the wider integration team. So, what messages do we need to get out there and how do we go about it?
Understand the audience.
A lesson that I learned very quickly is that you can’t make assumptions about the level of knowledge that your audience has in regard to API’s. For some audiences, even though people may not admit to it, they may not fully understand the concepts, mechanics or applications of API’s and therefore it is worth either seeking to find details about the audience and individuals within the audience or start the presentation or communication with a very basic introduction to API’s. In my view it’s much better to do this than loose the audience right at the beginning. I made this mistake and now you shouldn’t have to.
For non-technical audiences, or the non-technical people in an audience, it’s always good to give some brief real-world analogies to the use of API’s and you can find some great examples in the MuleSoft documentation or on YouTube. However you go about this you will reap the rewards later on in the communications process.
Obviously for people familiar with integration technology you need to pitch the message at a different level and starting with the information suggested above will be a waste of time and some may even find it to be insulting. Each presentation will be different even though the material may be the same. Always leave time at the end of the presentation for questions emphasising that there are no such thing as stupid questions. If appropriate leave time at the end of the session to address individuals outside of the formal presentation setting. People may feel more comfortable asking questions on a one-to-one basis away from their peers.
Forms of communication
While the above relates primarily to the presentation of material to an active audience it is also important to get the message out via other forms of communication which allow for a more diverse content for consumers to explore in their own time and at the level which is appropriate to their level of expertise. An excellent way of doing this is via a Centre 4 Enablement website that can contain material in a number of different formats targeted at many different levels of expertise. A website will also allow linking to external materials, where allowed, and up to date examples of the use of API’s developed by the organisation by either internal or external customers.
Read, View, Listen and Do
It is always useful to remember that people learn in different ways and therefore, whilst some people are happy to read long articles with deep technical content, other prefer short ‘bursts’ of material which they can consume on a repeated basis whilst addressing particular tasks in their work context.
Of course, there are other groups of people that prefer visual learning and will do much better with ‘YouTube’ type visual content and these can, and should, be included in any website content either within the narrative of the website or in a special video library available to access through the website.
The third main grouping for learning content is people that prefer to ‘do’ rather than to read or watch. While some people would like to be able to write API’s this is a different context to the evangelisation I am addressing here. The ‘learning by using’ I am addressing here is the use of the API’s delivered by the Centre 4 Enablement. To this end, when producing the content to be evangelised, consideration should be given to the technology used within the organisation. For example, in an organisation that is using Microsoft Power BI some examples, in the form of video’s, could be given showing a BI development using a call to one or more API’s. Day to day use of API’s in a real-world use cases can be useful but it is also worth attempting to drive innovation where the use of API’s either currently existing, or which could be requested, will allow the organisation to move into areas of business not previously possible.
On another note, it should be remembered that some people that you are trying to communicate with may be blind or visually impaired. In this case assistance will have been provided by the organisation to allow them to do their work so audible rendition of articles should be put in place for these colleagues.
Channels of communication
The MuleSoft Catalyst in itself does not talk about the forms of communication and the content of that communication but rather addresses the channels of communication and specifically three channels which are worth exploring individually.
Internal Communication
Every organisation will have its own established internal communication channels. These can take many forms some of which may be:
o Targeted email distribution lists
o Organisation wide email communication
o Monthly, quarterly or periodic on-line presentations
o Newsletters delivered via email or on a company website.
o Team meetings
o Special interest groups
The Centre 4 Enablement should review all of these different communication channels and attempt to identify how API’s could provide business benefit to each target audience. Initially, the communication may need to be of a general nature about what API’s are, what benefit they could provide and how they can be used. It is also important to generate a feedback loop from these communications to allow the audience to ask questions and request new API’s. After some time the communication could become more specific to inform communities of the new API’s that have been delivered since the last communication and to address any specific business challenges that have been raised through the feedback loops.
It is important to address any feedback that is received to promote ongoing communications and engagement. Failure to do so could be costly in the future.
Forums
Forums can be a more focussed form of communication as they will tend to address either specific areas of technical development such as Microsoft PowerApps / BI etc, IT development or innovation. Communications for these forums can be tailored to each individual forum and, as they tend to be smaller groups, can allow more time for feedback either at the time of meeting or after. It may be worth considering specific lines of communications for these forums to allow them access to the API’s developers to discuss specific issues, problems or API development requests.
Dedicated events / presentations
While there should always be the desire to communicate capability and success across the wider organisation there may be from time-to-time requests to set up and deliver dedicated sessions to specific audience either internal to the organisation or specific industry-based partners or customers. These sessions need to be given a specific purpose in order that the material can be dedicated as well. Whilst the material should do everything possible to promote the Centre 4 Enablement it must consider, especially if the audience is an external customer or industry partner, the limit of the information it can provide. Two particular areas to think about are security and sensitivity of data. These areas should always be in mind when preparing communication, especially so, when people from outside the organisation may be present.
Centre 4 Enablement Clinics
This area is not mentioned in the MuleSoft Catalyst but is one are that I personally have found to be of great use within my organisation. The format is very simple but very effective. Our website allows our customers from across the whole organisation to select a date when they would like to attend the Centre 4 Enablement clinic. These are held once a week at a predefined time which is the same every week. On this day, and for one hour, all members of the Centre 4 Enablement come on to a Microsoft Teams call to answer any question from anyone attending with no subject or level of question being off limits. Questions we have seen so far have covered issues from common development patterns and standards, specific development and MuleSoft questions, architecture and design through to development and deployment of API’s and costs involved in developing and using API’s.
I would recommend this approach to anyone operating a MuleSoft Centre 4 Enablement.
Preparation of materials
There is one final area to address which is not included in the MuleSoft Catalyst documentation and that is who and how are the communication materials created. I think it is safe to assume that the Centre 4 Enablement staff are not experts in communications. Whilst the material that needs to be presented is important and must be factual and accurate the way in which the material is presented and distributed is of at least equal importance. I would certainly recommend that you employ the services of a dedicated communication specialist. The Centre 4 Enablement and the Communications Specialist need to work together to ensure the material is technically accurate, is presented well, is appropriate to the audience and promotes use and reuse of API’s as well as driving innovation in the organisation and wider industry if appropriate.
