A few months ago, we asked our support staff (which is made up of project managers, and developers, and others) to focus on one word: delight. Ultimately, we feel like making customers happy is the most important thing we can do as a company. So we reminded the crew that delight was important, and encouraged them to find a way to watch that.

Through our help desk software, we’re able to ask our customers how we’re doing as we close out tickets. This was an interruption that we didn’t want to impose on our customers, but it’s pretty light, and it’s pretty important, so we went ahead with it. The data from this feedback shows up on our big board in our gathering room constantly. In a competitive office (OK, I’m competitive), scoreboards help us know how we’re doing.

Of late, I’ve heard a few of the folks who work on support walking around muttering about “getting one more happy face”. Why the muttering?

This is our scoreboard. Every time someone answers the question, “How did we do?” it adds a new face to the top of the queue, and pushes one off the bottom. And now you, too, can see why the obsession is cranked up right now. The team is on the verge of pushing their approval rating from 98% to 99%. 

Speaking generally, SCORM professionals are probably as beloved as say, tax professionals. People don’t usually get happy about SCORM. But our support crew (which includes most of the people who work here in one way or another) is killing it. 

So, thanks to Joe, and Jena, and Troy, and the Thomases, and all of the other folks who work with tickets for being obsessed enough to push from 98% to 99%, even though 98% would be good enough. Thanks for being delightful.

Oh, and thanks to the 100 people who have rated our support since my last ticket was rated. The blame for keeping us at 97% for a while was crushing me.

Brought to you by SCORM.com, the e-learning standards experts.

We’re hiring a Juggler. No, we don’t need circus skills, but we do need somebody who can keep a lot of balls in the air.

Project Tin Can is generating an enormous amount of opportunity and we need somebody to help us keep moving it forward. The job involves bits of product management, project management, sales, marketing and entrepreneurship.

We’re also looking for one or two more developers.

Start here if you’re interested.

Brought to you by SCORM.com, the e-learning standards experts.

I answer a lot of SCORM questions ranging from the basic to the extravagant, and I actually like it.  A huge part of what I do is teaching about SCORM.

Sometimes, though, I get questions that make me laugh.  Today, I feel like I need to share this one because it isn’t the first time I’ve gotten a question like this one.

What is Scorm Compliance?

OK, good question.  I get this one a lot, so I have a sense of where it’s headed.  My answer:

Is this what you’re looking for?  The distinction between compliance and conformance?  Or something more like this, a basic description of SCORM?

The response (slightly rephrased):

Yes both are good.  There is a training specialist job interview question? ”Which of the following best describes your experience with Scorm Compliance?” (Then # years and months choice) So what does experience with Scorm Compliance mean in this context?

Let’s cut to the chase.  The answer is none.  You have no experience if you don’t know what it is.

Funny, yes.  Uncommon?  Not entirely.  People think, or more accurately hope, that their products are SCORM conformant.  Let me put it simply… if you haven’t tried, or worked at it, your product simply is not SCORM conformant, or IMS BLTI compliant, or AICC conformant.  These things take effort.  And so does acquiring SCORM experience as an individual.

Brought to you by SCORM.com, the e-learning standards experts.

We write about working here more often than we ever post that we’re hiring. Small company, only so many slots to fill, yada, yada, yada. Seriously, when you have a great place to work, who wants to leave?

So now’s your chance. We’re hiring. Developer types. All sizes. Bonus points if you can beat Tim at ping pong.

• Why you want to work here. (Well most of why. It doesn’t mention the cookies.)
• How to make it happen
• Some background on how we look at hiring.

Brought to you by SCORM.com, the e-learning standards experts.

The morning started out like any other.  David decided to unwrap a package of Orbit gum.  We’ve been headed down a path toward implementing a bit of BLTI from IMS (Basic Learning Tools Interoperability), and so we have a copy of Dr. Chuck’s book on our island.  (Dr. Chuck’s tattoo has been admired many times, but today, we noticed the back of the bookjacket.)

Well, we really started wondering why Chuck was yelling the whole time.  We decided that we would take the opportunity to reenact this important moment.  And if we were going to have that moment, we might as well video it, so that we could share it with you, instead of just the guy who rode by on his bike.

Enjoy.

Brought to you by SCORM.com, the e-learning standards experts.

Back-to-back. For the second year in a row, the Nashville Business Journal thinks we are one of the best places in town to work. I’m not normally driven by ego, awards or praise, but this is an award I hope to never lose.

There aren’t enough companies in this world that trust their employees, that treat them like adults and that let them live their lives outside the office. This is one area where I am proud to be different.

Brought to you by SCORM.com, the e-learning standards experts.

If you read this blog, you probably noticed we’ve been interviewing folks to help us with some of the non-technical aspects of our business. We talked to a lot of really smart people and two weeks ago four of them showed up at the office to start work.

Meet the Fab Four:

Tammy Rutherford – Customer Steward [Super Power: Iron Man Triathlons]

If you use our products, you’ll soon be getting to know Tammy. We have about 300 customers now and we don’t always stay in touch with you like we should. Tammy is here to change that.

Jeffrey Horne – Web Marketing Scientist [Super Power: Mad Drum Skillz]

scorm.com has become a pretty popular destination. About 30,000 people visit every month and 500 of them sign up to use SCORM Cloud. We’re flattered by the following and we want to live up to our reputation. Our website doesn’t always do a good job of getting people to where they need to be and its content has fallen behind where SCORM and Rustici Software are today. Jeff is here to fix that.

eLearning Cartographers:
Chris Tompkins [Super Power: Surviving Extreme Sports]
Jena Lawing [Super Power: Redefining the High Five]

In a few days, we’re going to announce an exciting new project called the eLearning Atlas. Chris and Jena are driving it forward. If your company sells an e-learning product, be it an LMS, LCMS, authoring tool or off-the-shelf content library, expect to hear from them over the next few months. Stay tuned.

Brought to you by SCORM.com, the e-learning standards experts.

Have you heard we’re hiring?  ’Cause we are, and I think you might want to work here.

In the process of our interviews and the emails I exchange with people, I’ve tried to give a short explanation of our benefits, and I’ve failed every time.  So, instead, I’m going to lay out our current benefits, as of January 2011, and just send a link to people!  Also, I thought y’all might like to see that there are companies out there that really do have good benefits…

Note: I’m going to post this publicly, at which point the people who work here will read it and tell me what I’ve misstated.  Please don’t take this as gospel.  But I think it’s pretty close.

• Health Care
  
  • Our primary plan is an HSA.  We really like the concept of an HSA, and the fact that the lower cost allows us to offer some of the other benefits.  I’ll lay out some key points for you, but you’re welcome to ask for details if you like.
    • Our plan is through Blue Cross Blue Shield of TN, and is the P plan.
    • For single people, doubles, or families, we pay the full premium for the HSA.
    • The deductible (which has to be high for an HSA) is $2500 (max) per individual and $5000 for a family.
    • We contribute $125 every month to each employee’s HSA account.
    • If any employee exceeds $1500 in insurable expenses during the year, we have an HRA that kicks in for the next $1000.  That means that a single person has a $0 exposure in a year that they work here full time.
    • The max exposure for a family is $2500 out of pocket, and there are plenty of occasions where they come out well ahead of this.  (In 2010, my family came out ~$750 ahead.)
  • This year, we offered an alternate plan wherein families that were uncomfortable with the HSA setup could opt for a more traditional PPO plan.  The premiums we pay for the HSA plan were simply applied across to the PPO and the remaining cost was passed on to the family.
• Dental
  • We pay for dental care for families that want it.  Our coverage is through Guardian, and it’s called DentalGuard Preferred.
  • It doesn’t include orthodontia, but remember, you can pay for your kids’ braces out of your HSA.
• Vision
  • We pay for vision care for families as well.  Our coverage is again through Guardian, and it’s called the Davis Vision plan.
  • I’m told that you can get glasses or contacts through it, but you have to be sure to go to the right place and stuff.  Never tried it though.
• Disability
  • We pay for this too.  You get 60% of your monthly income, provided you meet the requirements found in the big pile of paper.
• Accidental Death and Dismemberment
  • Yes.  We provide $25,000 worth, and there are piles of paper that explain the parameters.
• Life Insurance
  • See AD&D above.  $25,000 worth, and even more paper.
• 401k/Retirement
  • Yes, even though we’re a small company, we do offer 401k benefits.
  • Both traditional and ROTH options are available, with a collection of investment options.
  • We do match, at 100% up to 4% of you salary.
• Vacation
  • It’s pretty loose, honestly.  We don’t count the days you’re here.  If you’re taking so much vacation that we notice, you probably aren’t the right person for the job.
  • If you’re the kind of person who likes parameters and guidelines, 5 weeks out of the office over the course of the year might seem about right, but that would include the partial days, the full days, whatever you’re doing.
  • Again, though, I don’t count days, and I won’t count days.  Be awesome, be part of what we’re doing, and we’ll never notice.
• “Profit Sharing”
  • Yup, we share in the profits.  Of late, we’ve been taking 20 – 25% of the profits and distributing them amongst the people who work here based on the quality of their work.
  • [Note: Added this bullet after publication when Jean yelled at me.] This is not a formal profit sharing plan (or so our HR department/office mom tells me).  We give bonuses, and they are based on our profitability and the respective performance of the people who work here.
  • This serves as all the more reason to be awesome.

These things are subject to change, of course.  So, if you’re reading this post in 2014 assuming it’s all fact, be sure to ask.

Brought to you by SCORM.com, the e-learning standards experts.

Editor’s Note: April 8: We found the people we’re looking for in this version of the hiring journey.  If you think you’re the perfect fit, you’re still welcome to send us a note.  Frankly, we’ll always read a message from a prospective employee, whether we’re “hiring” or not.  

2010 was good to us.  We’ve built a great team of technical people, and they’ve built a great set of products.  In fact, we’ve built so many cool products, we feel like we’re not doing a great job of telling the world about them.  It’s time to fix that, so we’re ready to hire.

Mind you, when we go looking for new people, we aren’t just looking for someone who’s done this before.  In fact, that might be a bad thing.  What we always want is simple… brilliance.  We want someone who can do this job at an exceptional level.

We believe that great people will all fit the following mold:

• Highly energetic and creative.  Don’t just skip past this and assume you are.  We actually care.
• Well written and well spoken.  You’ll be representing the company publicly.  We care a lot about how you do that.  You need to be able to express complicated things simply.  Language and other forms of communication need to come easily to you, so that you can add a layer of flair and humor on top of them.
• Obsessed with finishing.  Tasks must be completed, and projects must be completed.  Not almost.  Just like our developers have to ship great products that are complete, you’ll have to ship great work all the time.  Finished work.
• More than willing to learn… The opportunity to take on new tasks and learn our approach to them while injecting your own flavor.
• Web and tech aware.  We can’t be spending all of our time explaining Twitter to you, or what a web server is.  We need you to know some things, and to care enough that you’ll go figure out the things you don’t know.
• Smart.  No, really, if you don’t feel like you can keep up in any conversation, you’re probably not the right person.  We want you to have a lot of mental horsepower and believe in yourself and your ideas.

This time around, we’re looking for two slightly different people, and their highly technical, very precise descriptions look like this:

1. Evangelist. Communicator-in-chief.  ”Marketer”. Preacher.  We need this person to tell the world-writ-large about what we’re doing and why it’s useful to them.  It is, frankly, a challenge of communication.  The right person will be able to speak clearly about complicated things.
2. Seller.  Hunter.  Educator.  Pursuer.  We don’t sell like other organizations, and we don’t want to.  But we want to make sure that everyone who would benefit from the use of our products knows about them personally.

If you are a seriously energetic and persistent person who finishes things, please get in touch and tell us why you want this job.  Please take the time to understand what we do and how we do it.  Understand how selling and marketing on our behalf might be different from selling cars or marketing a law firm.  And be prepared to demonstrate your level of competence and interest to us.

You can reach us at jobs+blog@scorm.com right now.  If you just forward a resume to me, I’ll forward it to my trash can.  Make me notice you

Tim

PS I’ve included longer form descriptions of the work you’ll be doing here below, in case you’re interested in knowing just a bit more.

Evangelist and Communicator-In-Chief

Can you explain Twitter to your grandparents? If so, we want to talk to you.

We’re looking for somebody to explain our uber-nerdy products to the merely somewhat geeky.

Rustici Software develops products that help companies adhere to a niche software standard called SCORM. You’ve probably never heard of us, but our little industry holds us in the highest regard.

As we continue to expand our product offerings, we need somebody who can explain them to the world faster than our world-class development team can turn them out. This position is something like a marketer, social media coordinator, product evangelist, or perhaps tweeter-in-chief.

We’re not hung up on a particular education or level of experience, but some thing we are looking for include:

• Energy and creativity
• Communication skills (written and spoken) – Can you clearly explain technical concepts in an accessible way and with some personality? Are you engaging, intelligent and insightful?
• Tone – The tone and personality of our communication is just as important as the content. Spend a few minutes on our website and you’ll see what we mean.
• Intelligence, talent, adaptability, intuition, persistence – basically the raw ability to excel at whatever you do.
• “Web awareness” – Are you a bit of a geek at heart? Do you keep up with the latest advances in technology and how they affect how people access information? Can you navigate social networks and make virtual friends?
• Marketing strategy and technique – We don’t require marketing experience out of the gate, but you’re going to have to learn quickly. You’ll probably want to become familiar with things like SEO, funnels, inbound marketing, Google Analytics and Google AdWords.

Seller.  Educator.  Pursuer.

In our niche, people call us wanting to buy our products.  We don’t go out knocking on doors.  We don’t cold call people.  They, literally, call us.  This is a great place to be, and we’re succeeding, but we believe that we could do more.  We could sell more, but we need some help in order to do it right.

We think that there are companies, and even industries, that could make great use of our software, but they don’t know how or what to ask for.  We’re looking for someone who can seek out those companies, and thosepeople, and teach them about what we do in such a way that they want to work with us.

You will be asked to find the right set of people to reach out to, and to craft the right kind of message, and to determine if the people you talk to are the right kind of people for Rustici Software to work with.  You’ll be asked to act intelligently on behalf of the company as a whole, not simply on behalf of a quota.

We don’t care about eduction or experience per se.  The perfect fit will be:

• Creative and energetic
• Willing to learn and do things differently
• Smart
• Technically competent… selling our stuff requires an understanding of the technical details of what we do.  You don’t have to know SCORM on day 1, but you have to be willing to fight to learn it.
• Persistent.  You won’t make a sale your first day.  You’ll probably try the wrong things.  Your first idea may well get shot down.  But you have to keep firing away.  And learning.

Brought to you by SCORM.com, the e-learning standards experts.

It all started with Albert Haynesworth. Albert Haynesworth, you see, is a NFL defensive tackle, a big man who used to play his football at the University of Tennessee and for the Tennessee Titans. A year ago, he left the Titans via free agency to play for the Washington Redskins. He was given a massive contract, and he had a mediocre year.

This year, he came back to camp, and the coach wanted him to prove that he was in shape. He failed.

So yesterday, we caught wind of a couple of folks who had tried the challenge themselves. Mike Golic of “Mike & Mike in the Morning” on ESPN tried it… but he’s a former NFL player. Some of the employees at The Virginian-Pilot tried it with varying degrees of success.

Frankly, this struck me as just my kind of stupid. And so I brought the stopwatch to work today. And invited all comers to join in the fun. And the smack talk.

From one David Ells:

And so the fun begins:

• David Ells, 27 years young: Shuttle 1: 66 seconds, Shuttle 2: 83 seconds. #fail
• Troy Foster, 34 years: Shuttle 1: 64 seconds, Shuttle 2: 68 seconds. #pass
• Joe Donnelly, 37 years: Shuttle 1: 75 seconds, Shuttle 2: 77 seconds. #fail, but Joe could keep up this pace forever
• Mike Rustici, 33 years: Shuttle 1: 70 seconds, Shuttle 2: 73 seconds. #pass. And let me tell you, I have respect for someone who does just the right amount.
• Tim Martin, 35 years: Shuttle 1: 64 seconds, Shuttle 2: 69 seconds. #pass

I came away for the experience with two conclusions.

1. That Ells kid got what he deserved.
2. This is exactly the kind of thing every single workplace needs more of.

Truthfully, Rustici Software is pretty good at doing fun stuff. We play disc golf, we have a ping pong table, our office environment is exceptionally casual. But we often fall into the same trap that so many offices do. One day simply can’t be distinguished from another.

Today is a day of work that I’ll remember. I’ll remember it because what we did was stupid (no, really, the heat index was over 100… the HR department is not happy.) I’ll remember it because it was different. I’ll remember it because we abused ourselves and each other.

Note to self: Do more of this kind of stuff. Give yourself and others a way to mark the days at work… not just wander through them. Work is way too big a part of our lives to plod through day after day.

Brought to you by SCORM.com, the e-learning standards experts.