M V P - S T Y L E P R O G R A M S
F O R F U N & P R O F I T
J O H N M A R K T R O Y E R , C E O T E C H R E C K O N I N G
CommuniCon 2015, Oct 6 2015
@jtroyer
jtroyer@techreckoning.com

W H AT I S “ M V P - S T Y L E " ?

Y O U T H E
R E A L M V P
• 1993: Microsoft creates
MVP award to recognize
community contribution
(CompuServe)
• … time passes …
• 2009: VMware creates
vExpert Program to
recognize community
contribution (forums, blogs,
user groups)

P R O S P E C T S
I N F L U E N C E R S
B R A N D A D V O C AT E S
A M B A S S A D O R S ,
A D V O C AT E S , A N D
B E A R S ! O H M Y !
• Ecosystem of partners &
customers
• Betting on you
• Willing to be advocates
• And helping each other
E M P L O Y E E
A M B A S S A D O R S
M V P - S T Y L E
P R O G R A M S :
E VA N G E L I S T S
C H A M P I O N S

V M WA R E ' S D I L E M M A : 2 0 0 9
• Main competitor: Microsoft
• Advantages:
• Product love:
• Healthy (but smaller) community forums, blogs
• Goals:
• Recognize & deepen relationships with community leaders
• More More More!
“ I H AV E S E E N
T H E FA C E O F G O D ,
A N D I T I S V M WA R E ”

B E N E F I T S O F A N M V P -
S T Y L E P R O G R A M

1 . A WA R D P R O G R A M

2 . E N A B L E M E N T P R O G R A M

3 . F E E D B A C K P R O G R A M

4 . M A R K E T I N G P R O G R A M
P R O D U C T L A U N C H :
7 4 V E X P E RT B L O G P O S T S
O N D AY 1

5 . C A R E E R V I S I B I L I T Y P R O G R A M
V E X P E RT D I R E C T O RY
B L O G A G G R E G AT O R

6 . N E T W O R K I N G P R O G R A M
G E T T H E I N T E R E S T I N G P E O P L E I N T H E R O O M

V M WA R E V E X P E R T P R O G R A M 2 0 0 9 - 2 0 1 5
• Hundreds of books
• Tens of thousands of
blog posts
• Hundreds of thousands
of forum threads
• Global user group >100K
members
0
275
550
825
1100
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
V E X P E RT S H AV E
P R O D U C E D :
}

V E X P E R T S T R AT E G I C I M PA C T
• (Hopefully) involved in every Google search involving VMware
• Involved in online community forum
• Involved in every product launch and beta program
• Involved in corporate conferences
• Involved with every product group and the Office of the CTO
• Involved in the user group program, customer reference program, customer
advisory program, focus groups
• Involved when the sh*t hit the fan: 2011 pricing change
I N V O LV E D I N E V E RY PA RT O F
T H E S A L E S F U N N E L A N D C U S T O M E R J O U R N E Y

M V P - S T Y L E P R O G R A M
T I P S

1 . U S E T H E A R M Y Y O U H AV E
F I N D Y O U R T R I B E , R E G A R D L E S S O F E M P L O Y E R

2 . W H AT ' S I N I T F O R T H E M ?
H T T P S : / / F L I C . K R / P / M J 4 S
D O N ’ T M A K E I T J U S T A P R O G R A M F O R
R O B O T B L O G G I N G / T W E E T I N G

3 . Y O U K N O W I T W H E N Y O U S E E I T
C H I C K E N S E X I N G
“ G I V I N G B A C K T O T H E C O M M U N I T Y ”
“ G O I N G A B O V E A N D B E Y O N D Y O U R J O B ”

4 . G I V E I T A N A M E
I N S I D E A C O M PA N Y, N A M E S A R E M A G I C
• Microsoft MVP
• Citrix Technology
Professional
• SAP Mentors
• VMware vExpert
• EMC Elect
• Cisco Champions
• SplunkTrust
• OpenStack Ambassadors
• DataStax Cassandra MVPs
• Veeam Vanguard
• PernixData Pros
• IBM #CloudMinds

5 . O N L I N E - O F F L I N E S Y N E R G I E S

6 . E M P H A S I Z E H E L P I N G O T H E R S
C U LT U R E O F G I V I N G B A C K
O n e o f t h e f i r s t t h i n g s I n o t i c e d a b o u t V M w a re w a s t h e i n c re d i b l e
l e v e l o f e n g a g e m e n t b y e x t re m e l y re a s o n a b l e p e o p l e w h o w e re
e x p e r t i n i t .
F ro m b a s i c u s e r s t o a u t h o r s , t o V M w a re s t a ff e r s , I w a s i m p re s s e d
b y t h e i n t e l l i g e n t re s p o n s e s I g o t t o e v e n t h e m o s t n 0 0 b i s h o f
q u e s t i o n s .
M y q u e s t i o n s f o r h e l p t o h i m w e re a n s w e re d p ro m p t l y, a n d a c a l l
f o r re a d i n g m a t e r i a l s w a s s i m i l a r l y d e a l t w i t h ; s a i d re q u e s t
c u l m i n a t i n g w i t h a Tw i t t e r s h o u t o u t t h a t I b e l i e v e re c e i v e d n o l e s s
t h a n 7 5 i m m e d i a t e re c o m m e n d a t i o n s , a n d a b o u t a s i m i l a r a m o u n t
o v e r a t w o - w e e k p e r i o d .
S u ff i c e i t t o s a y, I w a s i m p re s s e d . A s 2 0 1 0 m o v e d a l o n g , … I c a l l e d
f o r a p i l o t p ro g r a m t o d e t e r m i n e j u s t t h a t , a n d t h e re s u l t s w e re
p o s i t i v e . J O H N O B E T O
M I C R O S O F T M V P, C E O L O G I C W O R X
B L O G G E R , A B S O L U T E LY W I N D O W S

- N O T PA U L D R U C K E R
“You can’t manage what you can’t measure”

- PA U L D R U C K E R
“Your first role . . . is the personal one. It is the
relationship with people, the development of
mutual confidence, the identification of people,
the creation of a community. This is something only
you can do. … It cannot be measured or easily
defined. But it is not only a key function. It is one
only you can perform.”

T H A N K S !
• John Mark Troyer,
CEO TechReckoning
• @jtroyer jtroyer@techreckoning.com
• Weekly Dispatch Newsletter:
• http://techreckoning.com
• The Reckoning 2015 Conference:
• https://www.youtube.com/c/
TechReckoning
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