Bamboo Online Operations Year in Review with Steve Gaitten

Published 12/17 courtesy of Bamboo Solutions Community

Editor's note: Last year we introduced the Bamboo Year in Review feature, kicking off with a note from the desk of the CEO and including in-depth Q&As with each of the Bamboo department heads. In keeping with the Bamboo commitment to transparency, we're going to make the Year in Review feature an annual Bamboo Nation tradition. In this installment, we chat with Steve Gaitten, who heads up the Bamboo Online Operations group.

Your responsibilities expanded in 2009 to include overseeing Marketing at Bamboo, with Lily Griffin's team merging with your Online Operations group. Why the change? How's it going?

Yes, our CEO approached me in the spring of 2009 with a proposal that I take on oversight of Marketing for Bamboo in addition to leading our Online Operations group. I was willing to do anything asked of me to help Bamboo continue growing, but honestly this was an unexpected challenge. I started my career in sales, spent a couple of years as a developer, did a stint in project management, and even held a largely editorial role for some time. However I have always seen myself as a "product guy." I loved working as a product manager, and leading a product organization. What's funny to me is that I majored in marketing at Lehigh, and now I've finally landed in a marketing role.

Marketing at Bamboo had been led exclusively by Lily Griffin for many years. Lily is the auteur behind the Bamboo brand, and the marketing strategist who grew the business to where it is today. Ultimately though, we realized that marketing operations at Bamboo had to scale quickly. With the continuous growth of our product portfolio (now over 60 individual products), and completely new product lines on the horizon (e.g., hosted applications) the team was going to have to get bigger, and become more deeply integrated with our product management organization. Asking Lily to focus on scaling the organization would have prevented her from focusing on creative and execution, her demonstrated strengths.

Lily and I have formed an amazing partnership. We complement each other in so many ways. I think together we have taken marketing at Bamboo to an entirely new level. We really hit our stride developing Bamboo's presence at the SharePoint Conference 2009 in Vegas. Lily's execution of our SharePoint Evolution campaign was fun, exciting and seemed to really help people understand Bamboo's growing value proposition heading into the SharePoint 2010 product cycle.

In any case, I am really enjoying the new role. It has been especially fun to work closely with team members Nate Sullivan and Mayline Wu. Both are young, rising stars at Bamboo, and have delivered some amazing work over the course of 2009.

Bamboo Nation, Bamboo's community site, continued to see explosive growth in traffic and activity in 2009. To what do you attribute this success? How do you plan to continue growing the site, and serve the needs of the growing SharePoint community in 2010?

Bamboo Nation is a phenomenon. Traffic to Bamboo's SharePoint community site continues to exceed everyone's expectations. Monthly visits to the site are now approaching 150K per month. Monthly unique visitors to the community are well over 100K.

Many people, both within the SharePoint community and outside it ask me how Bamboo has been so successful with social media. I am happy to share the formula, it goes something like this:

Dedicated Resources - The most common mistake people make trying to leverage social media is imagining that community-building is something that can be done in your spare time. Bamboo Nation is successful because we have two very high profile resources fully dedicated to the effort. John Anderson, our Managing Editor is one of the most prolific and productive writers I know. Chris Dooley, our Community Manager and editor of SharePoint Daily, applies incredibly consistent effort to ensuring a positive experience for site visitors. Personally, I have not had the luxury of engaging in the community experience nearly as much as I did in 2008. The site continues to gain popularity under the steady management of Chris & John.
Honesty & Transparency - These values flow from our founder, Lam Le, and they go well beyond the bounds of our community operations. One of the first things Lam explained to me about Bamboo is that we will share with the world exactly what we are doing, and how we are doing it. Competitors are welcome to emulate our efforts, putting the pressure on us to work harder and execute better. These cultural values are the perfect foundation for an online community. There are virtually no limits to what we can talk about, and the result is a truly fascinating narrative about Bamboo, its people and its products. Bamboo Nation is authentic and real, we make an extremely conscious effort to keep it free of marketing bull.
A Serviceable Platform - Bamboo Nation currently runs on Telligent Community. It's a great platform and has served us well. Telligent is easy to use, and extremely well designed for maximum SEO benefits.
Teamwork - One thing that is extremely unique about the Bamboo approach to community is that we have such broad participation across the company. Everyone at Bamboo blogs, all the way up to our CEO. In the beginning this required a lot of begging and coaxing, but once people saw that it was working, everyone pitched in. I am fond of telling people, "If it's not worth blogging, it's not worth doing." I think this philosophy has worked itself into our DNA as a company. I am very grateful to everyone at Bamboo who makes a contribution. Hell, even some of our former employees continue to blog on Bamboo Nation (Thanks Nat!)

You mentioned this time last year how much you personally enjoy blogging. Did you personally blog for Bamboo Nation with greater or lesser frequency this year than in the previous year? What's the forecast for next year?

I truly love to write. As a kid, I kept a handwritten journal for years. Blogging is an especially enjoyable form of writing. First of all, you can get away with much less polished prose than other forms require. But blogging is particularly healthy for writers because of the requirement that you do it often. I credit former AOL colleague Stephanie Bergman with teaching me that, "if you don't blog every day, you aren't blogging". That's exactly right.

I was very active on the Bamboo Team Blog in the first half of 2009, and proud of the content I produced. However my participation in the blog fell off a cliff in mid-summer. Looking back, I would guess that my disappearance from the Team Blog coincided with the beginning of preparations for the SharePoint Conference in Vegas. Blogging is like exercise, once you get out of the habit, it can be really hard to get started again.

My increased responsibilities at Bamboo will definitely keep me from blogging with the frequency that I find personally satisfying. However, because it is a personal joy, you can count on me getting back on track and blogging regularly in 2010.

Which one of the blogs you authored were you most proud of this year? Would you share a personal top five favorite Bamboo Nation blogs written by others this year?

Looking back, I can proudly say that I wrote some really good stuff this year. I got the most attention for my competitive analysis of SharePoint and Google Wave. I enjoyed the attention, but that actually wasn't my favorite post. A Nerd's Dream Come True - My First Visit to Microsoft was one of the most personal things I published on Bamboo Nation in 2009. I Hope Bing Fails was my most aggressive tilting at Microsoft for the year, and I do love "keeping it real." But for pure enjoyment, my announcement of Bamboo's new jingle was absolutely unparalleled. That whole project was one of my personal highlights of the year.

I'm not going to offer a list of the "top five" blog posts for Bamboo in 2009. I will certainly forget or miss extremely worthy posts. But in the interest of surfacing some of our best content, I'll at least provide a list of five great posts:

Installing WSS 3.0 SP2 / MOSS SP2 on Windows 7 RC - Jonas Nilsson followed up last year's monster hit Installing WSS on Vista with some helpful hints on installing SharePoint on Windows 7. Our best content is stuff that helps make working with SharePoint easier for people, which is what Bamboo is all about.

WSS Custom Search - Mukta Sharma was a winner of the annual (internal) Bamboo blogging contest with this post about getting more out of WSS search.

As Sexy as a Sweater Vest, But Still Awesome: Announcing the Office to PDF Conversion Solution Accelerator 1.5 - Nobody at Bamboo is better at having fun with SharePoint than Product Marketing Manager Nate Sullivan.

"Hen Front Ends" and the Central Nervous Center of SharePoint 1910 - Bamboo's resident curmudgeon, technologist Arthur E. Callahan knocked our socks off with his remembrances of SharePoint 1910... a healthy reminder that the SharePoint platform has now been going strong for nearly a century.

PM Central or Project Server 2007 - What to Buy? - One of Bamboo's all time leading bloggers is PM Girl. PM Girl kept the hits coming in 2009 with posts like this comparison of Bamboo's SharePoint project management application and Project Server 2007.

Again, everyone at Bamboo blogs, and I'm extremely appreciative to every team member who made a contribution to the community in 2009.

With the great strides in Social features and functionality that SharePoint 2010 represents, will Bamboo Nation be doing more than "just" providing coverage of SharePoint 2010 in the coming year?

At the SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas, Bamboo unveiled a new blog and a new site section dedicated to coverage of SharePoint 2010. We worked closely with Microsoft on the next version of SharePoint throughout 2009 and we're eager to share everything we've learned along the way.

But as the question suggests, we plan to do a lot more than talk about SharePoint 2010, we're going to adopt it as the new platform for Bamboo Nation. The community about SharePoint must run on SharePoint, it's a moral imperative, and the next version of SharePoint truly has all of the features and tools we need to efficiently manage a Web-facing community site. Of everything we're going to do next year, this is the work I'm most looking forward to. Stand by for more details soon.

This year's SharePoint Conference (SPC) in Las Vegas was your second SPC, with the 2008 show having begun literally on your first day on the job with Bamboo. What was different at the 2009 SPC, both for you and for Bamboo? What remained the same?

It's a lot of fun reflecting on the differences between SharePoint Conference 2008 in Seattle, and this year's SharePoint Conference 2009 in Las Vegas. Where to begin?

Bill Gates delivered the keynote speech in Seattle in 2008. I remember it being something of a pleasant surprise that Bill was willing to stand up and champion the platform. It was a very different feeling seeing Ballmer on stage to promote SharePoint in Las Vegas this year. Of course the CEO of Microsoft would be present at this conference! SharePoint is now arguably Microsoft's most important product line. I think it's fair to say that in a little over a year, SharePoint has gone from being a promising platform to being a central pillar of Microsoft's entire product portfolio.

For me, remembering SharePoint Conference 2008 is kind of like thinking about early childhood. I knew so little about SharePoint and about Bamboo that I barely appreciated what was going on around me. I do have clear memories of Bamboo's booth being swarmed with appreciative customers. I remember how surprising it was to me that anyone had ever heard of Bamboo. Not only did people know us, but most of them liked us, and more than a few absolutely loved us.

At SharePoint Conference 2009, I had much higher expectations in terms of brand recognition. Still it was mind-blowing and surprising all over again to see people flood the booth to get their hands on a Bamboo t-shirt. It was so much more personally gratifying to have people come by the booth just to say thank you, especially those that offered praise for Bamboo Nation. In 2008, I thought Bamboo was the surprise darling of the conference. In 2009, it felt like Bamboo was a truly established pillar of the SharePoint community.

One notable constant between the two shows was Bamboo's unique and compelling booth and marketing presence. Lily Griffin, Bamboo's Director of Marketing, gets all the credit for both appearances. People absolutely loved Bamboo's Revolution campaign in 2008, and the 2009 sequel, SharePoint Evolution was just as well received. It will be a big challenge to top those exhibits in 2010, but I suspect that Lily is already generating ideas for our next appearance.

2009 saw the launch of Bamboo's User Group Community Project. What has the response been from User Groups?

Earlier in 2009, Bamboo announced the launch of the User Group Community project, essentially a program designed to provide free Bamboo software to SharePoint User Groups. I had big hopes for this program and imagined it would be a great way for Bamboo to support the incredibly active SharePoint user group community.

Unfortunately, I have to admit that the program has been a failure. To date, less than a dozen user groups have taken advantage of the offer. I've come to believe that I didn't really understand SharePoint user groups and that Bamboo software isn't really what they need most.

I had it in mind that most SharePoint user groups probably maintain fairly active SharePoint sites and that access to products like Bamboo's SharePoint Administration Suite would be extremely helpful and useful for them. The more dialogue that we've had with user groups, the less this seems to be the case.

Bamboo still loves SharePoint User Groups, and I want to find better ways for us to support them in 2010. I think the feedback that we've heard is what these groups really need is a little bit of cash to fund food and drinks at meetings, tchotchkes, speakers and presenters. If I'm getting this wrong, I would really love to hear more feedback. At the moment though, that's what I'm trying to budget for in 2010.

This time last year, you mentioned that you were actively investigating the notion of a Bamboo Marketplace, in which we'd open up our storefront to sell products from other third-party providers. Where does that initiative stand?

Bamboo continues to hear regular requests from companies and individuals who would like to sell Web Parts and SharePoint solutions on the Bamboo storefront. And of course Bamboo would love to become the iPhone App Store for SharePoint, we are as well positioned as anyone to create this kind of marketplace.

However we continue to struggle with the challenges associated with such an initiative. Honestly, the main challenge is figuring out how to test, license and provide technical support for third-party applications. I believe that people have very low expectations regarding quality and technical support when downloading free apps for their iPhone. I think enterprise buyers would have much higher expectations when buying functionality for their SharePoint portal.

It also appears that Microsoft will include an integrated marketplace in SharePoint 2010. Frankly, Microsoft is probably best positioned to create such a marketplace and has the resources to do it right.

That being said, we will continue to study the opportunity, and I welcome input from potential vendors and buyers on what Bamboo could do in this space.

What strategic partnerships with organizations and/or key individuals did your team forge or strengthen in 2009? Are there any organizations or individuals you'd especially like to establish relationships with in the coming year?

At the top of this list must be Dux Raymond Sy and the team at Innovative-e. In addition to Dux's contributions to our site section on SharePoint Project Management, Dux worked with the team at Bamboo to provide a series of free workshops on Project Management. Dux also joined us on stage at SharePoint Conference 2009 to present a vision for The Future of Project Management. Dux is an incredible individual, and a true rising star in the SharePoint community. We are humbly grateful for his friendship and the strong partnership with Innovative-e.

Few people did more for Bamboo in 2009 than our new friends at H3 Solutions. I predict that Mobile Entrée, H3's innovative platform for developing mobile SharePoint applications, will gain wide adoption next year. I am deeply grateful to H3 for working with us on the development of PMC Mobile, a mobile optimized interface for our project management solution. Thank you to all the Herres boys, Mike, Mick & Joe, as well as Jason & Lisa for your partnership and friendship.

Bamboo also continued to work closely with our friends at Mindsharp, particularly in supporting the Best Practices Conference series. I am eager to thank Bill English, Colleen Haviland, Mark Elgersma and the entire team at Mindsharp. We are proud to associate with these individuals, and continue to recommend Mindsharp to any organization seeking SharePoint training.

I would also like to personally thank Pat Esposito and the team at Impact Management. Impact Management is one of Bamboo's top Partners, and I strongly recommend them as a vendor to any organization looking for help deploying Bamboo products. When I was looking for a charitable donation to help Bamboo provide aid to the American Red Cross, Pat was first to open his checkbook and his heart. These are good people, and I can't wait to work more with them in 2010.

Bamboo Nation expanded our collaboration with Mark Miller and the team at End User SharePoint in 2009. Mark is a great guy, and EUSP is one of the most important sites in the SharePoint landscape. I hope we will have more opportunities to work with him next year as well.

One individual that I really fell in love with this year is Gustavo Velez. Gustavo has been quietly contributing to Bamboo Nation, primarily in Spanish all year long. He's one of the most interesting characters, and best writers in the SharePoint space. Gustavo has done more for us than we have for him, and I'm committed to changing the balance of the value exchange.

We didn't end up doing a whole lot with Joel Oleson in 2009, but whenever I had occasion to ask him for a favor, he was quick to accommodate. I'd like to see more of Joel in 2010, and perhaps get him write some new content for Bamboo Nation.

As to new friendships, I do have a short list of individuals that I would like to do more with in 2010. This list includes: Arno Nel, Kanwal Khipple, Jeremy Thake, David Mann, and Randy Williams. Guys, I'm a fan of your work, and I'd like to find ways we can collaborate in the future. Respect!

What are the primary goals for the Marketing and Online Operations team in the coming year? What do you foresee as being the primary challenge to achieving those goals?

At Bamboo, we think of Marketing & Online Operations ("MOOPs," as we refer to ourselves internally) as a single team. We meet together every week, and both groups formally report to me.

However as I think about the mission for both teams next year, I honestly see the two groups as having completely different missions.

Marketing's job is to drive awareness and sales. We are highly focused on growing top line revenue and communicating the value proposition of Bamboo's software and services.

The Online Operations team is tasked with sustaining a community and creating an informational resource for SharePoint users.

It's pretty important to me that those two missions are not mixed. While we will run advertising on Bamboo Nation, and talk a lot about ourselves and our products, the community is not a big ad for Bamboo. We care about providing free downloads and providing useful blog posts and articles. We cling fiercely to values like honesty, transparency and helpfulness. This team will never "sell out," and I believe that's why we will succeed.

The biggest challenge for my teams next year will be to keep pace with the new products and services that Bamboo will introduce throughout the year. I'm comfortable that people know and trust Bamboo as a provider of Web Parts, components and packaged solutions for SharePoint. We have a lot of history here, and people know us. But next year Bamboo is making a big move into SaaS, providing hosted SharePoint applications. We're also entering the workflow and business process automation space, another major new line of business. Just communicating the entire range of offerings at Bamboo will be a big job. I know we can do it, but we're going to have to work harder than ever.

Our 2009 Year in Review feature will conclude with this year's message from CEO Mike Tanner, but next up is our chat with Anh Le, who leads the Bamboo Research and Development group.

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