Gummball’s BodyBlog

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After about six weeks of development, v1 of reviews.bodybuilding.com is here!  Finally, users have a centralized source of product ratings and reviews where users, both registered BodySpace members and not, can easily find out what the community at large thinks about various supplements.  Users have had the ability to review products for some time, but it wasn’t until recently that a centralized source was developed to display those reviews (in the past, you had to go to an individual’s BodySpace page to view his/her supplement reviews).

What is available now is the first iteration of this project, and we presently have FOUR iterative improvements and feature additions planned for release over the course of 2009.  Stay tuned for enhancements to this and other exciting features around Bodybuilding.com!

Check out the new reviews portal at http://reviews.bodybuilding.com.  Also check back to this blog, http://blog.bodybuilding.com/Gummball for exciting updates about ways Bodybuilding.com is actively working to help you reach your health & fitness goals!
::Bryan Gumm

::Chief Strategy Officer, Bodybuilding.com

I finished this book weeks ago, and I’ve been struggling to get started on the book report.  Sure, I can crank out a few pages regurgitating paraphrased snippets of what I’ve read, examples of tribal leadership I’ve seen in my life, or whatever, but that’s so boring to me (and I’d imagine it would be to you too).  You read the book already; you know what it says.  I think book reports should be just as useful for the person reading them as the person writing them, so droning on about specific examples of what I’ve seen in my past when I worked in restaurants, attended college, etc. (which I’ll probably never see again, and I know most who read this will never see at all) wasn’t sitting well with me.  Then, this past Friday, I was hit with a useful, relevant, real-world application of tribal leadership, thanks to an e-mail from Kelly.  The intersection of Agile development with Tribal Leadership:  A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, or a Pig Dressed Up in Chicken Drag – however you’d like to look at it.

As we implement Agile development in our organization, we are naturally experiencing some growing pains, as would be expected any time a major process overhaul is being adopted.  These are confounded with the effects of a solid but still relatively new staff, lingering communication issues within and between functional teams (namely Developers and Product Owners), and the ever-present naysayers who arguably think, through actions (not admissions), that Agile won’t work.  In the history of organizations using Agile approaches to develop products, software, or anything else, one constant seems to shine true:  Agile only works if it is followed to the letter.  In light of that, the team of Scrum Masters, whose primary goal is ensuring the process of Agile itself is impeccable, recently proposed us, the Product Owners, with a proposition.  In the traditional Agile model, the Product Owners act as a resource to the team rather than an integral member of the team, meaning specifically that Product Owners are present in the Daily Scrums only to listen to the team and to clarify any issues they have, but Product Owners are “chickens” in that we aren’t committed to daily tasks and, therefore, shouldn’t be proactively speaking in our Daily Scrums (brief, 15-minute status meetings for the team).

As I was reading through the original e-mail, I immediately began thinking of the implications to the organization as a whole.  That’s when the idea for this report hit me.  We are an organization which believes strongly in empowering employees to do the best job possible, and much of that empowerment comes from the sharing of information.  The leaders which “naturally emerge,” as coined in Tribal Leadership, seem to be those who do just that – share information freely for the greater good of the team, often forsaking personal acclamation in the process (at least on the surface).  These leaders, which the book obviously refers to as Stage IV (or V) leaders, are those under which true progress and innovation will be experienced:  “We are great, and they are not.”  They are markedly different from those at Stage III, who tend to be the information-hoarders, communication blockers, and “I” mode operators, often seeking personal victories:  “I am great, and you are not.”

The other key difference in Stage III and Stage IV / V individuals is the manner in which relationships are formed.  I won’t go into tremendous detail, since the book explains it far better than I could, but suffice it to say that Stage III leaders concentrate on creating one-to-one, or dyadic, relationships, whereas Stage IV leaders concentrate on more group relationships (defined as having 3 or more members).  The key difference is that the Stage III individual manages relationships that way so that s/he can be the “expert,” the one with the contacts, and the hub for all communication which will need to take place between team members (so as to always be in the know, in the power, so to speak).  The Stage IV leader, on the other hand, matches people together so they can help one another.  S/he is, by definition, more effective, as decisions can be made without the Stage IV leader’s OK (since empowerment was given).

The “traditional” Agile development model, which has been proven time and time again to dramatically increase production efficiency, tries to break down communication between the Product Owner and the team of Developers, indicating the proper communication channel should the Product Owner need to communicate something to the team (on a daily basis) is to communicate those needs to the Scrum Master, who will then disseminate the information.  In Agile terms, the Product Owner is a “chicken,” since s/he is not “committed” (to use another Agile term) to the process itself, and the Scrum Master and Developers are the “pigs.”  Under that model, the Product Owner and Scrum Master have a Stage III relationship, with the PO having the opportunity to release or withhold information as s/he sees fit and the Scrum Master having the same opportunity (not saying that would ever happen in our organization, but it is possible).  The Product Owner also has little or no relationship or rapport with the Developers themselves.  After continuing this dyadic relationship daily for long enough, it is very likely that a Stage IV Scrum Master or Product Owner will regress into a Stage III mindset, where “I have all of the information,”  “I have the sole and absolute power to control this group,”  and “If they want anything done, they have to come to me” (obviously mixing some Scrum Master and Product Owner mentalities together there).

The alternative approach to Agile, which is presently up for debate at Bodybuilding.com, is to integrate the Product Owner into the team WITH the Scrum Master and Developers, allowing open communication and free sharing of information.  This allows the Product Owner to interact directly and proactively with the Developers, both in the Daily Scrums and at any point throughout the day, without the filter of a Scrum Master (though the Product Owner is still not responsible for the daily direction of the team).  In Agile terms, the Product Owner now becomes “committed,” or is a “pig” on the team, which makes sense since it’s the Product Owner’s neck if the team doesn’t accomplish that to which they’ve committed.  The liberal sharing of information and the manner in which relationships are constructed (teams vs. dyads) indicate this is a more Stage-IV-friendly approach to Agile.

So what is the problem?  Put the keyboard down, quit-yer-bitchin, and just do the latter?  Not so fast.  Recall the earlier statement – “Agile only works if it is followed to the letter.”  To deviate from Agile, even in a simple way, runs the risk of the entire Agile system’s failure.  Another consideration (from Tribal Leadership) is the progression of individuals through the stages.  Recall Stage II – “My life sucks because . . .”  These individuals are bound by grief, do the minimum to get by, and are always seeking out excuses.  An individual can’t leapfrog Stage III.  In order for a Stage II individual to get to Stage IV, s/he must first go through the third stage, believing s/he is great and everyone else is not.  How can you think “we” are great, when “we” includes “you,” if you don’t think “you” are great?  You can’t, reinforcing the natural progression through the stages.  I have not yet worked with the teams enough to identify where I think each team member is in terms of tribal stages, but I would imagine there is a possibility of a few lingering Stage II’s.  If that’s the case, maybe the first approach, though potentially dangerous, is the more reasonable one.

In the end, all we can do is evaluate everyone on our teams.  Off the cuff, I really don’t believe we have any Scrum Masters or Product Owners who are at Stage II.  If we identify some Stage II Developers, we have one of two choices.  We can go with Option #1 (PO=Chicken), but we MUST ensure both the Product Owner and Scrum Master are strong enough as Stage IV leaders to not regress back to Stage III.  Otherwise, the entire business will suffer.  The alternative is to go with Option #2 (PO=Pig).  The probability of this approach failing rises with the level of “comfort” and depth of the individuals being at Stage II, reiterating the need for us to carefully evaluate all team members to determine where each is in his/her tribal progression.

An alternative which hasn’t been discussed is a hybrid of the two, namely that the PO remains involved as a Stage IV leader (or a “Pig”), but that those individuals on the team identified as being Stage II are given personal attention, probably by the Scrum Master, and slowly elevated to the Stage III status.  This is, of course, assuming we have Stage II people on the Sprint teams, which is still unknown (yet doubtful).  All possibilities must be considered, though.

In closing, nobody wants failure.  Bodybuilding.com doesn’t discourage individual greatness, but it does encourage group greatness even more.  One thing is for certain.  No process, regardless of how much it improves efficiency, throughput, or any other workbook metric I could throw out there, is worth changing our core values and working as a Stage IV organization aspiring continually to be at Stage V.  I feel safe saying, without asking my comrades,  that we as Bodybuilding.com leaders would all agree with that.  I can say that with such certainty because we DO have such open, transparent communication, and everyone knows the values of everyone else.  We are truly a Stage IV organization.

We’ve been working collaboratively across Sprint teams (Commerce, Community, and Operations alike) to finally begin bringing personalized content to our users!  As our user base, amount of articles, and number of products have grown over the years, we have identified an opportunity to be the catalyst to get people the right content to help them reach their goals and to do it on a one-to-one basis.  After all, that’s what Bodybuilding.com is all about:  "To help our visitors reach their health, fitness, and appearance goals through information, motivation, and supplementation."  By undertaking some fairly aggressive personalization programs, it’s our sincere hope that people will more easily get the tools they need, whether it’s motivation from the BodySpace community, information about nutrition and exercise, or direction to the "right" supplements.

We’ve done the research, evaluated the field of vendors, and identified the core competencies we have on staff, the end result of which is a comprehensive yet fluid strategy for making it easier for everyone to really use the tools we are offering (all for free, of course).  It’s an incredibly exciting time to be at Bodybuilding.com, and check back for more information on what new personalization gadget is coming next!

Customer Satisfaction is Worthless; Customer Loyalty is Priceless by Jeffrey Gitomer

So I’m sitting in my seat as my Northwest Airlines flight from Boise to Minneapolis is boarding, reading Chapter 14 of Gitomer which talks all about removing negative language and signage from your business, when what do I hear? A female flight attendant coming up the aisle from the back repeating, like a broken record, "No more rollerbags, period. No more rollerbags, period. We’re full. No more rollerbags, period." A woman with a "rollerbag" full of camera equipment says "I really can’t check this; it’s camera equipment that’s extremely fragile." What does the flight attendant say? "Let me see what I can do to help?" Of course not, because it’s Northwest Airlines, and every last one of the 150 people on here are lucky to get to fly Northwest. More like "Well it’s not my problem; the overhead bins are full."

Thankfully, a guy in first class said “wait, I can put my bag up there under the seat in front of me.” He did, and the woman was able to place her bag in the overhead bin. She very sincerely thanked the kind stranger repeatedly, told him she was a photographer and her whole life was in that bag, and kept thanking him over and over.

How hard would it have been for the flight attendant to facilitate that, to say “let me see what I can do for you” and ask passengers politely if they would mind storing some bags or items in the empty space right in front of their feet to be “fair to everyone?”

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Sigh… Time to turn the PDA off until we get to 10,000 feet… Do electronic devices really emit different waves at 10,000 feet which make them interfere less with communications equipment than at ground level? Oh well… It’s their “policy” . . . GOD I hate that word after reading this book! More to come at 10,000

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Now that I’m at 10,000 feet and I know my typing this won’t cause the death and destruction of everyone on this plane, I can continue =) At least the AC blackout gave me time to finish the book!

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Anyway, what I love about this book, aside from being full of good advice, is that once again, it reiterates that our business is on the right track. We want our community, which is FILLED with those kind and helpful first-class strangers, to support one another in reaching their goals, whether it’s losing ten pounds or not risking destroying their “life” by having to check a fragile rollerbag full of it. The key difference between us and self-serving, spreadsheet-managed companies like Northwest Airlines is that we genuinely care about being the catalyst to make it happen.

I promised myself I wouldn’t turn this posting into an endless tirade about the airline industry, and for everyone who knows me, you know that’s a MAJOR commitment! However, I think there are a few relevant points left to make.

Number One - this particular problem wouldn’t be an issue if NWA didn’t charge $15 for every checked bag (managing by spreadsheet instead of by what’s best for the customer). Would we ever lower our shipping prices by 50% across-the-board but then tell our customers they had to pay $5 extra if they wanted the Bodybuilding.com box in which the products are shipped? I think not… Seems silly, right? Fundamentally, how different is it from what these airlines are doing?

Number Two - this particular problem wouldn’t be an issue if NWA spent the time developing and training it’s staff to remain positive and always put the customer first, even in the light of having done something to annoy it’s customers at the start of the transaction (i.e when bags are checked). So FedEx doesn’t ship to Spain, but a Spanish customer (until recently) was allowed to select FedEx as a shipping option for $9.99, even though FedEx to Spain is not actually available. Would we ever call that customer and say "I’m sorry, but it looks like your shipping will actually be $29.99 for International Express. Sorry!" No!! Instead, we develop our customer service staff to deal with these customers, and we actively work towards clarifying shipping guidelines to the customer vis-a-vis in-cart shipping restrictions (which, by the way, the Commerce team has just deployed).

Number Three - this particular problem WOULD be an even BIGGER issue, especially for this one, distraught woman (and to some extent, everyone within earshot), if it had been accompanied by a shunning, unsupportive community. If someone said to us "I’m morbidly obese, and my life literally depends on me losing 150 pounds," do you think we’d say "Sorry, the servers can’t handle any more users" (sound a little like "Sorry, the bins are full?") and HOPE someone from the community steps up? HELL no… We’d proactively work at fixing the problem.

The good news - we don’t work for a company like NWA or any of the other in the 98%+ of American companies which think it’s ok and sustainable to treat their customers like this (after all, there’s always "the price of fuel" to blame it on).

The better news - we are actively seeking out ways to make people like this photographer say "Bodybuilding.com connected me with this person, these articles, and these products which totally helped me reach my goals!" instead of "my experience was OK. Thank God there was this really nice person I just happened to randomly find (no thanks to NWA)…"

The best news - we couldn’t beg to have a better team in place to make it happen.

Right now, I sometimes feel as though we aren’t doing enough for our customers, meaning we’re not getting stuff out to them fast enough (in terms of development and deployment, not order fulfillment!). My comfort comes from seeing every day the dedication of EVERYONE in EVERY department working diligently to do more for the customer. In Marketing, programs are being evaluated and restructured so we can allocate spend where the CUSTOMER will be served the best. On the Sprint teams, everyone is working more productively than ever to get these tools out to the customer. In Finance, diligent efforts being placed into ensuring we have the capital and efficiency to make it happen. EVERY department is customer-focused, whether its employees realize it or not. We are living this book in our every day lives, and it truly is amazing to see.

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