Performance Support Should Be “Amazon.com” Smart

Last month’s articleintroduced the performance support spectrum. The intent of the spectrum is to show the range ofperformance support (PS) solutions that organizations are producing today andto make the point that business benefit varies depending upon where a solutionfits along that spectrum.

A reader of that article, Spence, left a comment and suggested thatthere might be a “further dimension” within the spectrum where a PS solution“can be more than Just In Time and Just Enough, it can seem like and feellike it’s engineered ‘Just for Me.’”

Performance support that pays off—by design

Spence … that’s exactly what “smart” performance support does—it observesperformers’ behaviors, generalizes to best practices, and automatically adjuststo individual needs. Although this is an emerging capability in the realm of performancesupport, it is a proven practice in the world of Internet marketing.

If you want to learn how a performance support solution can be “Justfor Me”-smart, look at how Amazon helps you buy a book. Suppose you had aspecific book you wanted to purchase. You find the book on the website, clickon it, and there on the screen along with the picture, price, book specs, and bookreviews is “Frequently Bought Together” and “Customers Who Bought This ItemAlso Bought.” Behind the scenes, the Amazon sales engine is “smartly” observingthe buying patterns of others and offering up purchasing recommendations.

Amazon becomes even smarter if you have an account and a history ofpurchasing items from them. Then it observesyour specific buying behaviors, finds others who have similar purchasingpatterns, and recommends additional products based upon those comparisons. Italso takes into consideration the product satisfaction ratings from similarbuyers.

The “smartness” ofAmazon doesn’t end in the book section. When you access Amazon’s homepage, ittailors its entire product offering to you. Amazon would use the knowledge it’sgained from your book purchases and create a personalized purchasing dashboard.The entire screen would be filled with all things for you. “Items Related toWhat You’ve Viewed,” “Items Inspired by Your Browsing History,” “New for You,”and of course “Give Yourself a Little Something.” The more you shop, the moretailored and focused the site becomes for you!

Amazon has evenfigured out how to continue to market to you when you’re not on the site (throughtargeted product emails, social media, and search engine ads, etc.). YourAmazon homepage constantly adapts based upon what you and others like you aredoing.

Welcome to thetransformational level (5) of the spectrum! Amazon’s sales help isn’t justdeeply embedded, it’s also broadlyembedded. It’s contextual in the sense that it is observing and evolving. Andeven though a person may not be seeking support, the system is trackingbehavior and actions to be proactive and anticipate moments of need (possiblyin places where peers have needed such support).

This capacity to offerrelevant, related, and potentially helpful information based upon itsobservation of individual and collective performance patterns is at the heartof what makes a performance support solution smart.

I once ate at arestaurant where the chef actually visited my table, asked me some questionsabout where I was from, the kinds of food I enjoyed eating, and how I liked itprepared. She recommended a dinner menu tailored specifically for me andpromised me a few surprises based upon what other customers had enjoyed. Themeal was wonderful. I became a loyal customer.

Not every restaurant can affordto send a chef to the table to provide a tailored menu offering; it’s a priceymodel. The same is true with the current costs for developing the level of “smart”performance support described here. Hence this “smartness” isn’t as pervasive todayas it needs to be. However, this is a critical emerging capacity that we needto pursue.

Fortunately, we’reseeing these capabilities on the development roadmaps of leading EPSS authoringsoftware systems. This bodes well for the future. It means the entry fee fordeveloping and maintaining smart performance-support solutions is going to dropdramatically. As this happens, organizations will more readily move up the performancesupport spectrum to develop transformational performance support that’s “smart”in the way it enables immediate, consistently effective performance without wastedeffort or expense. And it will do this in a way that “can seem like and feel like it’s engineered ‘Justfor Me.’”

Join us at the Performance Support Symposium!

Discover how you can optimize investments in training, eLearning, and mLearning by integrating performance support across your organization!

The Performance Support Symposium: September 9 & 10, 2013 in Boston, MA