Measuring developer productivity has always been a hot topic in the tech world. From outdated metrics like lines of code written to the introduction of Generative AI (GenAI) tools, the conversation has continually evolved. Forrester’s report, Your Focus On Developer Productivity Is Killing You explores the complexities of developer productivity and its impact on innovation, offering insights into aligning metrics with business value and fostering long-term success.

Perficient’s Inclusion in Forrester’s Recent Report

Perficient is proud to announce that two of our experts, Jonathan Crockett and Elisha Goldman, were quoted in Forrester’s report, sharing their expertise on how organizations can rethink their approach to measuring and improving developer productivity. The report challenges traditional productivity metrics and emphasizes creating environments that encourage innovation and meaningful alignment with business objectives.

Jonathan Crockett, managing director of product development at Perficient, highlights the importance of a problem-solving mindset and its role in driving innovation. He stated, “We’re not order takers; we’re problem solvers, and we’re going to seek out how to solve those underlying problems. And that’s really the mindset that drives our teams forward with confidence and purpose.”

Elisha Goldman, delivery and product director at Perficient, focused on how understanding and leveraging metrics can drive success for clients. In the report, she shared, “At Perficient, folks are responsible for understanding what metrics are there, what their clients are looking for, and trying to figure out a way that they can (improve). How can we use that to think about longer-term roadmaps and visions?”

Addressing Developer Productivity in the Age of GenAI

The rise of Generative AI tools has sparked a renewed focus on developer productivity. While these tools hold immense potential, the report emphasizes the risks of relying on flawed or superficial metrics. As Jonathan and Elisha’s quotes suggest, the key to unlocking true innovation lies in aligning teams around meaningful goals and providing developers with the autonomy and clarity to solve real-world problems.

Organizations must look beyond surface-level measures and adopt strategies that prioritize collaboration, creativity, and long-term value. By doing so, they can enable their engineering teams to deliver impactful results that resonate with both business leaders and end users.

Learn More

Forrester’s report offers a fresh perspective on developer productivity, challenging conventional wisdom and highlighting innovative approaches to aligning business objectives with engineering efforts.

Discover how Perficient’s experts are helping organizations navigate the evolving landscape of developer productivity and innovation by reading the full report: Your Focus On Developer Productivity Is Killing You. Available to Forrester subscribers or for purchase.

Empower Your Engineering Teams with Perficient

Our team of experts is committed to guiding organizations toward meaningful transformation, helping them adopt forward-thinking strategies that align engineering efforts with business goals. Interested in learning more? Contact us to explore how we can help you achieve your digital transformation objectives today.

Justin Racine, Principal of Unified Commerce Strategy, has written about some of the most gripping commerce and retail topics this year. In 2024, he’s decoded how Elon’s new Justin’s expertise and passion for cutting-edge technology transforming the commerce landscape brings great depth and nuance to his articles. In addition, his coverage of and poignant reflections on the conferences he attends sent his thought leadership to the top of featured article and must-read lists.  Therefore, it is no surprise that Justin has been named CMSWire’s Contributor of the Year for the third year in a row.

We sat down with Justin before he jets off for his next conference – NRF 2025 – to get some much-needed answers to the most asked commerce and retail questions we’ve received at Perficient.

What are the growing trends that you see shaping the future of ecommerce, and how are you helping brands to stay competitive in those areas?

Our entire world is going to become “phygital.” In other words, physical and digital experiences will continue to blend into a perfectly crafted shopping journey that delights and surprises customers. While the concept of phygital will start to take shape in the form of augmented reality, product visualizers, and digital twins – it’s more likely that brands will first start with expanding their presence into new ecommerce channels, like social media.

According to eMarketer – social commerce revenue will pass $100B in 2025, a staggering 22% growth path from their last modeling in 2023. While some social channels’ futures are unknown, like TikTok – many other channels continue to surge. You’ll start to see the entrance of product placement and buying opportunities within YouTube – and eventually other streaming platforms like Netflix will start to adopt the ability to shop within your favorite shows.

Additionally, we’ll start to see large brands build out customer community efforts to compete with smaller, scrappier niche brands. Consumers are human beings, and human beings love to interact with others who share similar mindsets, values, and traits. The onset of these new digital communities will spawn enhanced elements of anthropomorphism between customer and brand, helping to create elevated levels of connection and ultimately, will drive increased ecommerce revenues.

What is the trajectory of AI’s impact on hyper-personalized customer experiences that brands should incorporate into an effective unified commerce strategy?

The world of hyper personalization will start to become more humanized as well as more predictive. Assisted shopping and autonomous shopping would then be the next logical step. This is where AI will start to intimately begin understanding your buying patterns, preferences, and previous decisions. It will start ordering products for you without a given prompt.

From there, AI will start to move into something akin to ‘empathetic personalization’ – where AI can start to understand sentiment, tone, and emotion. AI models will recommend products or services that are based upon how we feel or act within that specific day or environment.

Eventually, we all will have our own personalized shopping AI buddies who will help us with everything. They’ll assist in everything from scheduling the kids’ summer activities to buying and booking travel for spring break. AI personal assistants will become the future way to do anything and everything.

How about when you incorporate the advancements in connected products and robotics as digital and physical retail environments are beginning to blend (phygital)?

An example might be that you’re walking down the street, and you see a pair of shoes that you absolutely love.  Thankfully you happen to be wearing your Meta Ray-Ban sunglasses that cue up a blended augmented view of the shoes, where you can see exactly where you can purchase them, and also what they would look like on your feet by simply looking down. That will be the future of retail.

Additionally we’re going to see retail become more connected and unified than ever before. Brands will invest to leverage a 360 view of customer activity to personalize across the channel continuum. Once in-store beacon technology starts to take off, retailers will be able to personalize the entire shopping experience based upon where a customer is standing in the store, what they previously browsed through on that store’s website, and what they previously purchased.

In previous blogs, we’ve covered conversational commerce and the anthropomorphism of brands. What strategies would you recommend for companies looking to humanize their approach without losing scale during peak shopping seasons?

Humanizing at scale really just comes down to understanding your consumer and knowing what type of humanized touchpoints will resonate the most. I talked a little about this above, but once all of us have our own personal shopping assistants, the world of commerce becomes much more centralized and unified.

Think of the times where you consciously recognized that you needed to go to the store to buy this or that. Now with personal shopping agents, they will be there to help build shopping lists, remind you of what you need to purchase, and at times, purchase without your intervention. Taking it a step further, AI will start to have visibility into elements like product stock status and availability – giving you options and nudging you to make a purchase so that you receive the products in time. For example, “Hi Justin, reminder, your calendar shows you have holiday party next Thursday. If you want to order your Santa costume and have it before then, please order today. Would you like me to place that order for you?” Thus, ensuring you get what you want, when you want it, and that’s the future that I foresee.

Remember, connectivity strategies are only as good as the channel in which you provide them. Be sure to understand what channels your customers are active in first, then determine which stories you want to tell – and always, ALWAYS do the best you can to track the results to offer up pivots and lessons learned.

How do you think shoppers will initially react to such cutting-edge technology transforming their shopping experience?

I’m interested to see how consumers react to the idea of AI technology knowing more about us than we know about ourselves. In my mind, it can go one of two ways. First, consumers could reject this idea and choose to push back against the onset of AI technology being so intimately tied to our every action, every move, and every purchase. Or alternatively and more likely in my mind, is that consumers will start to adopt AI technology willingly. They will become dependent on its insights, its understanding, and ultimately, its goal to give us the best possible cross-channel, unified experiences. Will we be as reliant on AI as we are on our smartphones? Most likely. Will AI become the dominant race on this planet and take over the world? Only time will tell.

Be on the lookout for Justin’s next article covering his attendance at NRF: Retail’s Big Show coming up in the beginning of January. We’ll have live coverage of the first few days of the conference, and if you’re planning on attending, be sure to schedule a meeting with him and the rest of our experts.

Visit our site for more commerce and retail expertise!

Performance Oriented Culture 

A performance-oriented culture in a software development company focuses on achieving high productivity, quality, and speed in delivering software. This culture emphasizes continuous improvement, innovation, and excellence throughout the development process.

One way to cultivate this kind of culture is by aiming for a generative culture, as defined by Dr. Ron Westrum. A sociologist who studied safety-critical complex systems in aviation and healthcare. Dr. Westrum describes a generative culture as one that fosters cooperation, information flow, and innovation. according to him, there are three levels of organizational culture: 

Westrum’s Three Levels of Culture 

Pathological (Power-Oriented) Culture: 

Characteristics: Low cooperation, hidden information, shirked responsibilities, discouraged bridging, punished failure, and crushed novelty. 

Behavior: Organizations at this level focus on personal power, respond to failure with blame, and maintain an atmosphere of fear and secrecy. 

Bureaucratic (Rule-Oriented) Culture: 

Characteristics: Modest cooperation, neglected information, compartmentalized responsibilities, allowed but discouraged bridging, justice-focused failure response, and problematic novelty. 

Behavior: Bureaucratic cultures prioritize adherence to rules and procedures over outcomes. Information flow is restricted by formal channels, and failures prompt a search for responsible individuals rather than systemic improvement. 

Generative (Performance-Oriented) Culture: 

Characteristics: High cooperation actively sought information, shared responsibilities, encouraged bridging, inquiry-focused failure response, and implemented novelty. 

Behavior: Generative cultures emphasize performance and continuous improvement. Information is openly shared, collaboration is the norm, and failures are analyzed to learn and improve. 

Achieving a Generative Culture 

To cultivate a generative culture, organizations should focus on: 

Encouraging Open Communication 

Promote a safe environment where team members feel comfortable sharing ideas and feedback. 

Example: Google’s “Project Aristotle” found that psychological safety is the key factor in high-performing teams. Google promotes open communication through various channels, ensuring team members feel safe speaking up. 

Empowering Teams 

Give teams the authority and resources to make decisions and take ownership of their work. 

Example: At Amazon, the “two-pizza team” rule ensures that teams are small and autonomous, with the power to make decisions quickly. This structure promotes ownership and accountability. 

Fostering Collaboration 

Break down silos and encourage cross-functional teamwork to solve problems and innovate. 

Example: Spotify’s “squad” model organizes teams into small, cross-functional units that work on specific features or projects. This promotes collaboration and agility. 

Embracing Failure as Learning 

View failures as opportunities to learn and improve, rather than assigning blame. 

Example: Etsy conducts blameless postmortems to analyze failures and learn from them. This practice helps build a culture of trust and continuous improvement.

Seeking Continuous Improvement 

Encourage a mindset of ongoing improvement and adaptation to changing circumstances. 

Example: Teams at Atlassian use the playbook to conduct regular retrospectives, improve their workflows, and address any collaboration challenges. By following the playbook, teams can build stronger relationships and work more effectively together, leading to higher performance and job satisfaction. 

Conclusion 

A performance-oriented culture is essential for achieving high productivity, quality, and speed in software development. Organizations can foster an environment of collaboration, continuous learning, and innovation by implementing strategies to create a generative culture. Encouraging open communication, empowering teams, fostering collaboration, embracing failure as learning, and investing in professional development are key to building a high-performing and resilient organization. 

Perficient promotes a high-performance culture through its Growth for Everyone program, which emphasizes continuous learning, empowerment with essential tools and resources, and leadership development at all levels. By offering structured development pathways like the Consultant Curriculum, Learning to Lead, and Leading with Impact, along with comprehensive toolkits and the Perficient Academy, the company ensures employees have what they need to succeed. This commitment to a people-first, collaborative culture, backed by data-driven decision-making, aligns with the principles of a Performance Oriented Culture showcasing Perficient’s dedication to fostering an environment where every employee can thrive. 

How do You Assess your Company or Project? 

• High Cooperation.​
• Good information Flow.​
• Experimentation embraced or encouraged.​
• Failures are opportunities to improve.​
• Root cause analysis is objective.​
• Responsibilities are discussed in terms of overall risk.​
• Risks are Shared among teams.

Cultural Capabilities Series

• How to Create a Continuous Learning Culture?
• Effective Team Collaboration: Strategies for High Performance and Success
• How Job Satisfaction Boosts Employee Engagement?
• Unlock the Power of Transformational Leadership

References 

• Forsgren, N., Humble, J., & Kim, G. (2018). Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations. IT Revolution Press. 
• Westrum, R. (2014). “A Typology of Organizational Cultures.” Quality & Safety in Health Care, 13(Suppl 2), ii22-ii27. 
• Barr, A. (2020). Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire. Dey Street Books. 
• “Atlassian Team Playbook” – Atlassian 
• “Project Aristotle.” Google Re:Work. 
• “Spotify’s Squad Model.” Spotify Engineering Blog. 
• “Etsy’s Blameless Postmortems.” Blameless Blog.

MORE ON GROWTH FOR EVERYONE 

Perficient continually looks for ways to champion and challenge our workforce, encourage personal and professional growth, and celebrate the unique culture created by the ambitious, brilliant, people-oriented team we have cultivated. These are their stories. 

Learn more about what it’s like to work at Perficient on our Careers page. Connect with us on LinkedIn here. 

Honoring Perficient’s Efforts to Enable Colleague Career Growth  

We’re thrilled to share that the St. Louis Business Journal recently recognized Perficient with an Innovation in HR Award for our Growth for Everyone program. Kathy Leijon, director, Talent Development, accepted the award on behalf of Perficient and our Talent Development team during an awards banquet on Thursday, May 16.  Announced annually, the HR Awards honor individuals and organizations for the incredible work they do to make a difference in the field of human resources.  

Each recipient made positive contributions to improve workforce efficiency, enhance recruitment strategy, and further the colleague experience. As mentioned by the St. Louis Business Journal, the 2024 elected winners include a Lifetime Achievement winner, Innovation in HR winner, and eight HR honorees. 

The Innovation in HR Award pays tribute to Perficient and our highly skilled Talent Development team’s effort to provide colleagues enhanced resources through Growth for Everyone. 

“Building a culture and employee experience that values every voice is a primary focal point for Perficient,” said Kathy. “It’s an incredible honor to be recognized with the 2024 Innovation in HR Award, and I’m proud of what we have accomplished since launching Growth for Everyone. Our success would not be possible without the leadership of our executive sponsor, Santhosh Nair, and my team; Hannah Kim, Wendy LaBenne, and Chelsey Hundley.” 

Taking The Professional Development of Our Colleagues to the Next Level 

An integral facet of Perficient’s People Promise is Growth for Everyone, a system of professional development resources, training programs, and tools aimed at guiding every colleague on their own transformational career journey.

Through our Talent Development team’s strategic planning and vision, Perficient has expanded existing programming to include a new, holistic approach that empowers all people – no matter their experience level – to excel in their roles.

In the last year, Perficient created three curated learning pathways for colleagues to continue honing their skillset:

• Consultant Curriculum: specifically created for Technical and Business Consultants and consists of self-paced programming designed to help build important skills for professional growth. 
• Learning to Lead: a professional development program designed for individual contributors interested in exploring career growth in people leadership.  
• Leading with Impact: Perficient’s flagship program for new/newer global people leaders, which includes curriculum focused on building leadership capabilities and fostering relationships with direct reports.  

Our colleagues also have access to Leadership Corner, which offers helpful advice through informational videos and articles that can be applied to everyday routines – in 15 minutes or less! 

To further advance our colleagues’ professional capabilities, Perficient has developed both formal and self-guided resources. These include Career Paths, a tool with materials outlining the steps for career progression, a Career Development Toolkit and Leadership Toolkit, and Perficient Academy, a one-stop shop for career growth with on-demand training materials.  

“We recognize that Perficient can provide the tools to help those colleagues understand the possibilities, and our leaders need to be equipped to confidently have candid, effective career conversations with their team members,” said Kathy. “To me, that’s what Growth for Everyone is all about: helping our colleagues to confidently navigate their own careers.” 

Learn More: Championing the Personal Achievements and Success of Our Colleagues  

Celebrating Our People-First Culture  

Perficient has made a commitment to challenge, champion, and celebrate its people – and that is more than just a promise. We have the brightest colleagues who give their time and talent each day to drive our global business forward. With Growth for Everyone, we’re empowering everyone at Perficient to grow their careers by learning new topics and advancing their knowledge. 

Here are some key highlights from 2023: 

• 91 colleagues completed the Learning to Lead program 
• 177 global leaders graduated from the Leading with Impact program 
• 330 business and technical consultants are actively enrolled in the Consultant Curriculum program.  
• 90% of Perficient colleagues said in our annual Employee Engagement Survey that they have the tools they need for success at Perficient. 

Through our Talent Development team’s commitment to creating a collaborative and people-first employee experience, Perficient colleagues now have access to a volume of leadership and career development resources that place them on the path to success!  

We’re proud to continue making a difference for our colleagues, and our efforts to enhance Perficient’s Growth for Everyone offerings could not be possible without the thought leadership of our Talent Development team.

Congratulations to the 2024 HR Awards recipients! 

MORE ON GROWTH FOR EVERYONE 

Perficient continually looks for ways to champion and challenge our workforce, encourage personal and professional growth, and celebrate the unique culture created by the ambitious, brilliant, people-oriented team we have cultivated. These are their stories. 

Learn more about what it’s like to work at Perficient on our Careers page. Connect with us on LinkedIn here. 

Perficient’s award-winning culture values the employee experience and embraces growth. Mike Willis, director of our Organizational Change Management (OCM) practice, joined Perficient six years ago. Since the beginning, he’s been driven by watching others around him grow – both clients and colleagues.

OCM as a group helps people become ready, willing, and able to change. Mike embodies the characteristics to naturally encourage clients and colleagues alike to grow and seek positive change. Keep reading to learn more about Mike, his role at Perficient, our work in OCM, and how he collaborates to advocate for growth.

What is your role? Describe a typical day in the life.

My role as a director in our OCM practice entails a few different things. I’d say up to half of my time is on billable client work. Sometimes I play a strategic role with clients providing oversight, other times, I’m tactically creating training materials, job aids, or whatever the client may need.

Another 25% of my time is working to bring in leads, representing the OCM team, working with clients to understand how OCM can solve problems, and creating proposals. The remainder of my time is spent providing leadership to the OCM team with regular meetings to collaborate and help one another stay sharp, while also promoting teamwork to build and maintain a positive culture.

We’ve been in a handful of analyst reports related to OCM. How do you think these report mentions have helped advance Perficient’s business?

In my mind, being included in these reports helps to show that Perficient is making a name for itself in the industry. We’re someone clients can come to if they’re not getting the results they want and encourages them to talk to us to see if we can help. I believe the name recognition establishes us as a thought leader, and also shows that we understand resistance to change at a deeper level.

Our OCM practice helps Perficient stand out because we have a team of experts in the field, all with 10 to 15 years of experience specifically around organizational psychology – the science behind how people absorb change – and knowledge of how to tap into those motives. Perficient’s OCM practice is discussed in nearly every engagement we have with industry analysts. It’s an integral part of telling our Perficient story [on analyst briefings], and it helps differentiate us. Beyond analyst engagements, we bring all of this knowledge to the work we do, which I believe sets us apart from solely focusing on the technology as we follow a robust methodology.

READ MORE: Perficient Quoted in Forrester Report, The Realities Of Change Resistance To Digital Transformation

In your opinion, what does it mean to you that we’ve been included in these reports?

It’s validating to be included and to know we’re showing up alongside some of the biggest names in the industry. I believe we’re proving that we’re agile and work with clients just as well, if not better, and part of what makes us stand out to clients is that we’re able to be so adaptive and flexible.

I hope to see Perficient in more analyst reports to continue making Perficient a more recognizable name. We’re known for a lot of tech solutions, but this helps get our name out as an OCM leader.

READ MORE: Perficient Listed in Forrester’s Organizational Change Management Landscape

How do you overcome resistance associated with change?

It starts at a leadership level in organizations. To start a case for change, it’s important to understand the clients’ vision of where they are today, where they’d like to be, and how it will benefit them. Creating a case and presenting it to leadership to give them a common language is important to ensure consistency and conciseness. The best way to overcome resistance is to get the people who will be affected by the change involved. Allow them to understand the vision and purpose and include them in the delivery and development.

At a project level, it’s important to have strong executive sponsorship. You have to have support from the top down to reiterate the vision. Beyond that, simply having the authority, budget, and resources to bring people in to give the project validity is crucial.

Resistance isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but if you don’t take the time upfront to involve and listen to people, and work through initial resistance before moving forward, resistance will eventually come to the surface after the change is implemented. Addressing resistance afterward makes things more expensive and time-consuming.

Why did you choose Perficient? What keeps you here?

Before I came to Perficient, I worked for several consulting firms. A friend I worked with came to Perficient, and there happened to be an open position. What sold me was the leader of Perficient’s OCM group. I felt that he was sincerely interested in me, our team, and had a great vision of the impact we could make. I’ve seen us go through a lot of changes, but the reason I stay is because of our great people and exciting clients.

How do you make a difference for our clients and teams?

I try to make a difference by working directly with the client to truly understand what they need and provide it in a very customized way. We don’t do a one-size-fits-all approach, we understand the uniqueness of each client and their culture to consistently deliver excellent work. At a team level, I strive to have a good relationship with my colleagues to understand what motivates them individually and work to help them have job satisfaction and bring their fullest selves to the job every day.

What motivates you in your daily work?

I love getting new clients, a new piece of work signed, or extensions on current projects. It’s very rewarding when clients or colleagues reach out letting me know they’re impressed and happy with our team and our work. Seeing people grow and stretch themselves to do things they didn’t know they were capable of is invigorating. It’s exciting to watch my team members step outside of their comfort zone to grow in their roles, build confidence, and learn something new. I try to find something good out of every day, but seeing my teammates grow and succeed is priceless.

If you had to define yourself using one Perficient value, which would it be and why?

I would choose collaboration. At an OCM level, collaborating and sharing our knowledge as a team opens a larger perspective. Having trust and confidence in one another helps us bring our best and allows us to go above and beyond to deliver unique solutions.

Why are you Proudly Perficient?

I’m Proudly Perficient because this company believes in me and our people and supports us to reach success. Perficient gives us the tools we need, presents opportunities, and trusts us to make good decisions, do good work, and deliver excellence to our clients.

SEE MORE PEOPLE OF PERFICIENT

It’s no secret our success is because of our people. No matter the technology or time zone, our colleagues are committed to delivering innovative, end-to-end digital solutions for the world’s biggest brands, and we bring a collaborative spirit to every interaction. We’re always seeking the best and brightest to work with us. Join our team and experience a culture that challenges, champions, and celebrates our people.

Learn more about what it’s like to work at Perficient on our Careers page. See open jobs or join our talent community for career tips, job openings, company updates, and more!

Go inside Life at Perficient and connect with us on LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.

A colleague recently reached out to me asking for advice on growing skills and obtaining certifications to meet their goals of being given the role of leader.  Our conversation ended up focusing on how certifications and skills are essential, but it’s practicing key skills and taking initiative that benefit you more.  While the title may take time to reach, the opportunity to earn recognition as a leader may be closer than one might expect!

So what’s the secret?

Showing leadership without having authority.

You can do many things to show leadership without having an official title that makes you a leader.  You can show leadership both within your team and show thought leadership within your company.  Be a good role model of the skills and characteristics you feel an excellent leader embodies

You don’t have to step in and run the team; it’s about stepping up and helping the team move forward and improve. This could include:

• Sharing ideas – freely share your ideas with your team members but hold them lightly.  Not every idea will work well for the team, so don’t let one rejection stop you from sharing ideas in the future.
• Listening to others – be a person your team knows will always be willing to listen.  You don’t have to have all the answers, even as a leader, and you just have to be willing to listen.
• Step up when there are challenges – be selfless.  When your team is having a problem, step up and help.  Lead the charge to solve the issue.
• Take initiative – if you see something that needs to be done, do it.  You don’t have to make a big deal about it because people will notice.  If the official project leader is going to be away, volunteer to take on some of their responsibilities while they are out.  It’s a great way to learn.
• Offer help and knowledge – help your team members when they need it.  Share the knowledge that you have for the betterment of the team, not just yourself.

Showing thought leadership within the company is also a great way to show you are learning what it takes to be a great leader.  Some ideas might include:

• Participate in internal projects – look for opportunities to be part of internal projects outside of your regular project work.  These allow you to try new things, practice leadership skills, and increase your visibility.
• Share your knowledge – does your company have internal groups or communities of practice, like Perficient’s Agile Community?  Do they have periodic lightning talks or lunch and learns?  Volunteer to give a speech!  It is excellent practice and gives you more credibility on your topics of interest.  In addition, teaching others is a great way to validate your own understanding of a topic.
• Write a blog post – if your company has a blog, internal or external, take advantage of it!  Practice your writing skills, articulating your ideas clearly, and use it to help build your thought leadership credentials.

Practicing leadership without authority or title is a great way to build your leadership skills and your reputation.  When new challenges or projects arise, people will think of your name.  You’ll find yourself with increased opportunities, helping you become the leader you want to be and advance towards the title you want.

How do you show leadership in your team or organization?

An organization’s thought leadership – blog posts, whitepapers, case studies, and other informative content demonstrating industry and subject matter expertise – typically spreads across several website categories separate from product and services pages. Culling that thought leadership content for infographics, comparison charts, checklists, and other visually expressive assets, and identifying and tagging insightful snippets, provides an opportunity to enhance the user journey on product and services pages with contextually relevant content.
Imagine each product and service page having a small but conspicuous space where content authors are challenged to place a contextually relevant illustration or video, captioned for perspective, or a call-out snippet that grabs attention and moves a user to scroll or link for more content. If creative and relevant, the additional content will further engage site visitors and inspire their confidence that you are providing information and solutions to guide their research and decision-making.
In a previous post, “Organize the Organization for Thought Leadership,” I summarized four steps for shaping a site-wide content strategy to maximize thought leadership content. The four steps span content assessment, content guidelines, CMS optimization, and content governance and prepare an organization to multipurpose its thought leadership assets. For starters, it is quite likely that your organization already has plenty of assets to draw from for contextually relevant content to insert at points or pages in the user journey. You can begin there to evolve a content-authoring process where each piece of content is structured for multiple uses.
Strategic thought leadership for page-level, contextually relevant content is encompassed within four interrelated activities:

Content Modeling

A content model describes formats for the types of contextually relevant, structured content, so that components can be developed and applied to a page layout. The content model can apply to existing or new pages, including pages dynamically assembled based on the user’s profile and behaviors. Ideally, the content model should have few and repeatable components for ease of use and management.

Multipurpose Content Authoring

Consider the purpose of each new piece of content, where it will reside on the site, and what information it provides that is especially valuable to support a product or service. Develop a modular approach in which key snippets can be repurposed with engaging headlines or annotations that brief the user and that may entice them to scroll or link to the larger article.

Taxonomy and Tagging

Tag and index modules of content for easy association with a product or service for any webpage. Snippets can be delivered to the page to reside in the component defined in the content model.

Content Delivery

Your CMS or an API is crucial for turning strategy into action, using the taxonomy and tagging to deliver contextually relevant content into the component defined by the content model and onto the page where the user will find it and be delighted with the depth of relevant information your organization provides.
Once you begin delivering page-level, contextually relevant content, analytics will indicate the types of assets and presentations you employ that users find most appealing. That valuable data will help you determine the content best suited for your product and services pages. In turn, you will gain insights about assets that might make your whitepapers, blog posts, and other thought leadership content more engaging and better servicing your users.

Leveraging your brand’s subject matter expertise is like herding cats if your organization lacks a cohesive web content strategy. Web pages, blog posts, whitepapers, case studies, guides, interviews, webinars, or other informative and solution-oriented content spreads across several categories and formats, often residing in multiple repositories.
Scattered content complicates your ability to deliver useful information and solutions to your audience based on their interests and challenges. In addition, your organization might be missing opportunities to demonstrate thought leadership, including detailed product and services information, reports on successes, and best practices, and insights on industry trends. As a Marketing Insiders Group article reminds us, “Thought Leadership can come from any source—executives, customers, product managers, designers, customer service reps, sales people,” which can mean lots of cats to round up.
Admitting you have a problem begins a road to improvement: “Only 12% of respondents feel successful in their current efforts to strategically manage content,” reported The Content Marketing Institute in their 2018 Content Management & Strategy Survey. A holistic approach to reviewing and renewing your content strategy can begin with a few high-level activities that involve collaboration across the enterprise. That kind of collaboration has the desired effect of helping socialize and then reinforce content guidelines and governance necessary for a cohesive content strategy.

Purposeful Content

Reviewing and revising content guidelines will better position your organization for delivering the right content at the right time and promoting thought leadership. A page-level audit with analytics is a strong starting point for assessing current content. You can begin identifying a critical mass of current content that performs well and continues to be purposeful.
The assessment is an opportunity as well to review content guidelines for format and structure. Guides for web writing have long advised articles and posts comprised of small sections of text spaced with informative headlines and enlivened with images. That modular approach offers an opportunity for content managers to identify key content snippets that can be delivered at critical points of need in the user journey. Your review of current content will also help shape a cohesive strategy for content creation moving forward.

Your content management system is crucial for turning strategy into action. Newly established guidelines should focus on optimizing your CMS capabilities, taxonomy, and strategies for indexing and tagging. Additionally, content guidelines that promote modularity can ensure portions of content are tagged for multipurpose use.
Your content strategy will remain incomplete and vulnerable without a plan for enforcing and evolving content guidelines, policies, tone, and SEO. Without governance and plans for enforcing it, your organization risks falling back into the same processes and habits that led to disorganization. Knowledge sharing by executives, customers, product managers, designers, customer service reps, sales people, and others adds up to lots of cats to round up.

Perficient is the preferred partner for brands thinking about implementing Salesforce for several reasons.

We have an incredible wealth of knowledge, a passionately dedicated team, and the history and experience needed to be the true enterprise innovation leader.

But keeping up with all the awesome things we’re doing can be hard!

To make it easy, we outlined a few key steps our fans should take to stay connected with the latest and greatest news from our team.

Enjoy an Abundance of Thought Leadership for Salesforce, CRM, and Cloud

Dive into our Salesforce thought leadership guides

Our experts go in-depth on different Salesforce topics and share ways Salesforce can improve your business. Get the guides

Watch our Salesforce webinars

From implementing Financial Services Cloud to creating content for a customer community and everything in between, Perficient’s webinars should not be missed. View Perficient’s webinars

Peruse all our Salesforce blogs

We have fresh content going out every week to keep you updated on all the latest and greatest with everything Salesforce. See Perficient’s Salesforce blogs

Get blogs delivered to you

Make sure to not miss out on any of the Salesforce fun that Perficient is having! Sign up for our weekly Salesforce blog digest

Sign up for other Perficient blog digests

Our expertise ranges from strategic and thought-provoking to deeply technical and granular on a variety of topics and industries. You are sure to find something of interest. See other Perficient blogs

Watch & Learn, Trailblazers

See all the Perficient YouTube videos and check out the Salesforce YouTube playlist.

Innovating Organizations One Industry at a Time

Delve into our Financial Services industry capabilities

Companies in banking, asset and wealth management, capital markets, and insurance turn to us to help solve their most complex business and technology challenges. See Perficient’s Financial Services resources

Examine our Healthcare and Life Sciences industry capabilities

We’ll ensure you have integrated, innovative solutions that streamline internal processes and maximize the experience at every consumer touch point. See Perficient’s Healthcare resources and Life Sciences resources

Explore all Perficient’s industry capabilities

From manufacturing to high-tech, we have the players that are shaping the game. Find your industry here

See Our Experts in Action

See our Salesforce client work

Companies trust Perficient’s experience and aptitude when evaluating their CRM options, with experts dedicated to different technologies. See a sample of our Salesforce work

Dig into Perficient’s Management Consulting and Organizational Change Management practices

Uncover insights about productivity, scale, capital spending, labor deployment, logistics, customer preferences, optimal marketing campaigns, product profitability, and other critical levers within your business. See more about Perficient’s Management Consulting practice and Perficient’s Organizational Change Management practice

Delve into insights from our Chief Strategist

Our Chief Strategists are experts who help our teams flawlessly deliver impactful solutions for the long-term. Meet the Chief Strategists of Perficient

Backed by top-ranked Digital Agency

From strategy to UX design, our digital agency lives up to its 2019 Forrester label of “Top B2B Agency.” Learn more about Perficient Digital

Perficient’s Culture is Everything

From our Salesforce team and across the whole company, we are dedicated to a set of values that are the foundation of everything we do.

• Follow @PRFTSalesforce on Twitter for Salesforce news
• Follow @Perficient on Twitter for company news
• Follow Perficient on LinkedIn — over 60,000 other people do
• Check out our culture on Facebook and Instagram

What have we missed? Let us know what you would like to see in the comments below or connect with us online.

I received a letter in the mail a few weeks ago. That’s right. A personal, handwritten letter. It was from a 5^th grader whom I’m sponsoring in a classroom reading program. It was so fun to get something personal in my mailbox—and feel connected to a young person and an important project—that I read it at least seven times! Over 60% of the class had never written a letter or addressed an envelope before the program started.

By the time tweens reach their teens, 95% of them have access to a smartphone, and 45% are online almost constantly. They’re well on target to meet or beat the current pace of the average American adult. We’re constantly checking our phones—every 12 minutes on average. That’s 80 times a day.
In our insanely fast-paced, online world intermingled with social media, people are craving connectedness and looking for depth. They want interesting, truthful information when they seek it. Long-form content marketing provides an opportunity for both you and your customer. It’s long-term win-win, not just a quick sale.

What is long-form content marketing?

Whether you want to promote products, services, or your business, you can create any type of long-form content—including blog posts, online articles, e-books, and video—to connect and build relationships with people.
There’s no definitive word count or time length. A 15-minute video is considered long. Deliverables in written form are usually 1,200 to 2,000 words, but those numbers are slowly increasing. The new standard is working its way toward 3,000 to 10,000 words so search engines can deliver results with the highest possible quality content.

What are the benefits of long-form marketing?

When you create engaging long-form content that satisfies an emotional or knowledge-based need, you connect with and build long-term relationships with potential, new and long-time clients. Here are five great benefits of long-form content marketing:

• Increases organic traffic. Search engines like Google are changing their algorithms to deliver results with more complete content to better satisfy users’ searches.
• Gets more shares on social media. It may be surprising, but on average, long-form content gets shared more on social media than short-form content. A case study by OkDork analyzed 100 million articles on the web and revealed that those with content lengths ranging from 3,000 to 10,000 words got the most shares:

Source: OkDork.com

• Gets higher ranking in search results. If you want to appear in the top 10 of search results when someone is looking for a solution to their problem or for a product to satisfy their need, long-form content can boost your rankings. A study by serpIQ discovered that the average content length of the top 10 search results was over 2,000 words.
• Increases the amount of time people spend on site. The longer people are engaged with the content on your site the better. It reflects they’re getting what they came for—high quality, helpful information.
• Positions you as an industry leader. With time and consistency, you’re the expert people turn to. The more knowledge you share that’s of value to consumers, the more trust you build.

Long-form content marketing can create connections, and build and maintain business relationships. It can fulfill people’s needs, yet leave them looking forward to more. Much like how I’m excited about receiving my next handwritten letter in the mail.
Sources:
https://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2017/33190/how-to-build-a-long-form-marketing-video-people-will-actually-watch-and-why-you-should
https://neilpatel.com/blog/create-long-form-content/
https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/05/05/longform-content
https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/long-form-content-vs.-short-form-content

Did you know Perficient has a healthcare blog weekly eDigest?
We understand how busy you are and how it can be a challenge to keep up so we have produced a weekly eDigest that delivers a snapshot of our best content right to your inbox every Sunday evening. To sign up all you have to do is provide us with your email address at the bottom of this post. Not sure you want to receive this email? Here are 4 reasons why you should give it a shot:

Stay Updated Even On The Go
Our Perficient healthcare team produces and delivers healthcare thought leadership and industry trends content in a variety of formats including webinars (both live and on-demand), white papers and guides, infographics and blog posts and more. We understand how tough it can be to keep track of it all. Sign up (at the bottom of this post) for the weekly eDigest to stay informed and you get everything you need to know in a concise and easy-to-read digest on Sunday evening, via email.

Talk The Talk
The healthcare industry can be very dizzying and it is hard to keep up on the latest trends, topics and happenings. Whether your colleagues want to talk about connected health, business intelligence and analytics, operational performance or other healthcare-related topics we have you covered. Sign up (at the bottom of this post) for our weekly eDigest and we will arm you with plenty to talk about.

A Little Bit of This. A Little Bit of That.
Whether you prefer more visual content like infographics or a more detailed and longer-form of content like our white papers and guides we provide a variety of formats to fit your preferences. Best of all our content is complimentary and quick to get your hands on.

Nothing To Lose
We will be shocked if you don’t find our content to be relevant, timely and valuable. However, if by the slim chance you don’t find value in our content you can easily opt-out of our weekly eDigest.

So what are you waiting for? Sign-up today!

As we wrap up 2014, I wanted to share with you Perficient’s top 10 healthcare thought leadership assets from 2014. Visit the Thought Leadership section of our website to discover additional complimentary resources and to register for upcoming webinars on trends and topics within healthcare IT.

#1. Gearing Up for 2015 – 10 Trends Impacting Healthcare
Guide: Multiple Contributors

#2. Top 10 Connected Health Trends, What You Need to Know
White Paper: Written by: Melody Smith Jones

#3. Implementing a SOA Strategy to Improve Healthcare Interoperability
Perspective: An Interview with Terie McClintock

#4. Improve Quality of Care and Business Outcomes through Enterprise Information Management
Perspective: An Interview with Juliet Silver

#5. The Connected Healthcare Enterprise
White Paper: Written by: Jaclyn Layton and Melody Smith Jones

#6. How Cloud Computing Delivers Scale, Security, Compliance and Social in Healthcare
Perspective by: Joan Rothman

#7. Healthcare Enterprise Data Model: The Buy vs Build Debate
Webinar: Presented by: David Meintel

#8. Learn How ProHealth Care is Innovating Population Health Management with Clinically Integrated Insights
Webinar: Presented by: Juliet Silver and Christine Bessler

#9. Align Patient Outcomes with Financial Data – A Formula for Correlating Cost and Quality
White Paper: Written by: Lesli Adams and Terie McClintock

#10. The Health Plan Transformation: Improving Customer Experience with CRM Solutions
Perspective: An Interview with Andrew O’Driscoll

For more than 15 years, Perficient has delivered a variety of high-quality and cost-effective solutions and services to help healthcare organizations adapt to the ever-changing healthcare market. Our deep domain expertise, strategic partnerships with the world’s leading technology vendors, dedicated healthcare industry expertise, and a broad portfolio differentiates us from the competition.

At Perficient, building long-lasting relationships with our clients is a priority. In each of the past four years, approximately 85% of our revenue was derived from repeat business. This reflects our commitment to quality consulting and speaks to the long-term partnerships we build with our clients.