Careers: Interviews Nestor J. Portillo: Regional Manager,
Americas Region MVP Worldwide, Microsoft Corporation
This week, Stephen Ibaraki, FCIPS, I.S.P., DF/NPA, MVP, CNP has an exclusive interview with Nestor Portillo.
Nestor Portillo is the Americas Regional Manager of the CSS Communities and MVP Program at Microsoft Corporation. The CSS Communities and MVP Program is primarily responsible for the relationship
management of key community influencers in Canada, US and Latin America awarded
Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) by Microsoft.
Mr. Portillo began his career at Microsoft in 1997 as an account manager, and has worked for
different market segments: Industry, Financial Services, E-Commerce and
Certified Partners. Most recently, he served as Developer Support Program
Manager for Latin America Region based in the Global Technical Support Center
in Las Colinas, TX within the Product Support Services Division. Prior to that,
he was the Public Sector Sales Manager for the Microsoft Branch in Caracas,
Venezuela.
Prior to joining Microsoft, Mr.Portillo worked for IBM and Siemens and was a graduated student
in Marketing Management at the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas. He
holds a Master's in Business Administration from Metropolitan University,
Venezuela (1996) and a Bachelor of Systems Engineering from Antonio J. Sucre
University, Venezuela (1989). Mr.Portillo is married and has no children. The latest blog on the interview can be found the week of June 12-16, 2006 in the Canadian IT Managers (CIM) forum where you can provide your comments in an interactive dialogue.
http://blogs.technet.com/cdnitmanagers/
Discussion:
Opening Comment: Nestor, we thank you for taking the time to share your deep insights and passion about the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) program with our audience.
A) Thank you for the opportunity to speak to the community in this
forum.
Q1: Prior to your current role, please share
your career milestones and what specific lessons you learned that would be of
value to IT managers and professionals.
A) Working for Microsoft, IBM and Siemens
Nixdorf and interacting with IT managers and professionals in different Latin
America countries, I learned along my career that for IT managers and
professionals the value equation has been progressively evolving from the traditional
model, (Technical Product Innovation versus price), into a new and very
comprehensive equation where additional factors such as: inclusion, company
reputation, cost of use and support now play an important role in their value
perception of products and technologies.
Today IT managers and professionals pay
more attention to these other factors because they are key for their business
in terms of service availability, scalability, competitive advantage and business
alignment factors, which are part of their agendas. This transition is not
isolated, IT companies are also changing; today IT companies are articulating
their value proposition around holistic concepts such as: trustworthy
computing, business impact, competitive advantage, productivity, connection
with customers and people, etc and are also moving their relationship model
from traditional suppliers into partnerships.
Microsoft is leading this arena, for the
past several years our company has been making key investments not only in
traditional areas such as R&D, people and innovation, but also by investing
in resources and people to develop the new generation of tools and technologies
oriented to deliver, not only the state of the art, but also �Software that
works the way you work�. If you take a look over our current offer, we are
ahead of our competitors by delivering software that helps people to realize
their potential. No one has this in their DNA like our company does. Q2: Describe how the MVP program has
evolved since its inception and which external influences triggered the program
changes? A) Community is a very complex and vibrant entity
under a constant evolution and this is one the facts that is triggering part of
the program changes. Today the MVP program is evolving almost at the same pace as
the community does especially in terms of new spaces inclusion. People in our program are constantly
monitoring new spaces in order to understand their dynamics and identify
behaviors and trends. Our approach is to become a participant in these community
spaces.
In terms of evolution, this program has taken
an interesting path since the few Compuserve lists at the early stage to the
public newsgroups era. The MVP program has evolved into a worldwide program. In
the past three to four years the program started to embrace the whole community
neighborhood not only in terms of participation spaces (offline versus the
traditional online approach) but also in its geographic approach and technology
myriad. The MVP program actually has direct presence in more than 95 countries
around the world and covers almost all Microsoft technologies spectrum including:
MSN, Xbox, Visual Developer, Mobile, Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Office
Systems, etc. Q3: Can you describe your vision, mission,
and specific goals with the MVP program this year?
A) Program vision: Foster a vibrant community ecosystem where Microsoft and customers
learn about each other through valued ongoing relationships.
Program mission: At the MVP Program we foster satisfaction
and loyalty throughout the customer lifecycle through world class recognition
and relationship experiences that enrich our products, inspires business
innovation and positively impacts Microsoft customers.
Main goals this year:
- Continue to deliver a quality
of experience for our MVPs during the year of their award.
- Empower recognized, credible
and accessible �experts� who share a common passion for technology and demonstrates
willingness to share their experience with others in technical communities.
- Provide open and honest dialog globally by listening, sharing and responding.
Q4: What do you hope to accomplish in the next few years?
A) There are several goals but to summarize the most important:
- Continue to deliver a world class program that really enhances
the experience of this amazing group of individuals and expands to the
whole continent.
- Continue to listen to our MVPs in order to gather valuable
community feedback coming from this independent voice of� the world�s users
- Channel the feedback collected from our MVPs and communities to
drive innovation into our products and technologies that allow people to
achieve their potential.
- Continue to recognize people who deserve the recognition, especially
in countries/regions where there is a vibrant community, but where the
program does not yet have a presence.
- Empower our MVPs with knowledge and tools to contribute to the
technical community level ecosystem.
Q5: What are your biggest challenges and
their solutions?
A)
CHALLENGE 1: Enhance the experience
Solution: The MVP Program and its benefits are currently highly appreciated
by our MVPs; however the program is looking to enhance the program experience
by delivering more value to their members. To address this, we�ve enabled a
profile section where our MVPs provide information about their profile,
experience and interests. This allow us to understand their needs in terms of
content and knowledge and design enablement mechanisms to fulfill them.
CHALLENGE 2: Global but with a local touch
Solution: Although the MVP program and the overall experience is the same at
any region due to the worldwide nature of the program; we are working very hard
to understand each region and to include each community�s own particularities. The
MVP program and the people responsible for managing the relationship, (called
MVP Leads), work hard to incorporate these community particularities harmoniously
into the WW guidelines.�
CHALLENGE 3: Offline communities
Solution: There is a huge level of activity in the offline space that is not necessarily
easy to track or even identify. We recognize that these offline communities are
vibrant and provide value to customers and community members. We work very
closely with key user groups associations such as INETA and Culminis to
properly cover this important segment of the community and we are connecting
with our field units (Developer & Platform Evangelism and TechNet) to
gather information about other independent user groups existing in our region.
Q6: What key factors contribute to an
involved IT professional receiving the MVP award? A) The Microsoft Most Valuable Professional
(MVP) Program recognizes and thanks outstanding members of technical
communities for their community participation and willingness to help others.
The program celebrates the most active community members from around the world
who provide invaluable online and offline expertise that enriches the community
experience and makes a difference in technical communities featuring Microsoft
products.
Based on this principle: community
recognition, credibility and accessibility are the key factors that contribute
to an involved IT professional receiving the MVP award. Many of these factors
require time and continuous involvement because is not easy to gain leadership
and recognition without cultivating them.
Q7: How has the MVP selection process
evolved over the years?
A) The selection basis continues to be
driven mainly by expertise, community participation, recognition, credibility
and accessibility. We value those contributions oriented to enrich the
community experience and to make a difference in technical communities
featuring Microsoft products.
In terms of evolution, 3-4 years ago when
we started to embrace the community neighborhood, we enhanced the selection
mechanisms to award active people participating in offline activities and other
non traditional spaces such as User Groups (Ineta, Culminis, Independent user
Groups), Bloggers, Pod Casters, 3rd Party Websites, Active experts
(Authors, Speakers, Web Masters, etc).
The selection process is global; the
selection criteria are the same WW and are applied consistently along the
geographies currently covered by the program to ensure consistency and quality.
Q8: Together with technical communities
such as user groups, how do MVP awardees contribute to the business community?
A) MVPs makes an important contribution to
the business community not only by sharing their knowledge and experience but also
by driving product/technology innovation as a result of their interaction with
other community members and professionals. MVPs are able to provide valuable
product feedback back to Microsoft understand by catalyzing conversations at the
community level and by magnifying the voice of the world�s users in an
independent way. Q9: What does the MVP program mean to the
academic community? [How do they (awardees) contribute to education?]
A) The MVP program means the same to the
academic community as the professional community. Today the MVP program does
not make a specific distinction between the professional and the academic communities
because both are valuable for us and we recognize outstanding contributors in
the same way. In regards to awardees� contribution in this space - I would say
that it is very similar to the professional community because we award people who
are very actively sharing their knowledge and helping other community members
in a professional and courteous way. In the Americas we have an important
number of MVPs from the academic community.
Q10: When describing initiatives, it helps
to explain how it is differentiated and the value it provides. How does the MVP
program differentiate itself and what value does it provide?
A) The MVP program differentiates itself
from other programs through its maturity and technical nature. With more than
13 years of existence, the MVP award is highly recognized by the community and
the industry and is synonymous with high technical knowledge, expertise and
quality recognition. Answers provided by our MVPs are considered reliable and of
high quality. The value beyond the technical enablement provided to our MVPs is
the indirect participation at the local communities as another participant.
Q11: What are the biggest issues
facing MVPs in 2006, and in 2007? How can they be addressed?
A) I cannot see a specific situation relating
to the program important enough to be considered as an issue. Because the MVP
Award is an award-based program with criteria based on past contributions,
Microsoft has no expectations of MVPs beyond the expectations of courtesy,
professionalism, code of conduct and adherence to the community rules that we
ask of all Microsoft community members.
I would prefer to defer this question to any of our MVPs to have their thoughts about this.
Q12: What are the five biggest issues facing technical communities today and what are your recommendations for meeting
these challenges?
A) As an ecosystem, the technical communities
are facing different issues mainly related to its own growth, technology innovation,
competition with other communities� spaces and attractiveness. In my opinion
the five biggest issues are:
- Spam. Spammers and unsolicited advertisers
are invading popular online spaces including newsgroups, forums and web boards
with their unsolicited offers. Community members are afraid to be exposed to
these unpleasant practices. Access control and moderation minimizes the
negative impact that this practice has; today Microsoft enabled passport authentication
at their community spaces to avoid spam machines and to block spammers.
- Attractiveness. It is very well known
that if you visit a site or community space where the content is static there
is a high possibility that you will not visit it again. Valuable and updated
content is key for community survival and the challenge is how to get content
that matters in a timely manner. An interesting approach is identify a motivational
mechanism that encourages community members to provide it - there is a lot of
knowledge disseminated among the community members that with the appropriate motivation
they will proactively provide it.
- Competition. Every day new communities are
emerging that compete with the existing ones, not only in terms of content but also
in delivery channels. Technical communities need to be flexible enough to
quickly tackle new trends. If you take a look at our main community spaces
(MSDN or Technet) you will see that we are incorporating not only updated
content but we also include non traditional delivery mechanisms such as: Web
casts, video streaming, Pod Cast, etc.�
- Collaboration. Community participation
is worthwhile and rewarding for some individuals, (but demands time), and is a
valuable asset for almost everybody. Technical communities need to have and
articulate a strong value proposition that motivates their participants to
spend time helping and interacting with others instead of having ad-hoc or
opportunistic interactions, which drive frustration and does not help the
community to grow.
- Expertise availability. This is a
particular issue mainly present at the offline communities due to geographic
boundaries, time zone differences and size that have a direct impact in their
ability to gain access to specific expertise. Offline communities need to
incorporate online tools such as Live Meeting, Webcast, audio/video streaming,
etc into the agenda to compensate for the lack of local expertise by working to
access remote expertise. Another strategy is the enablement of speaker bureaus
to share local expertise among user groups. �
Q13: Provide your three predictions of
future trends and their implications to MVPs?
A) I cannot predict the future however
based on my experience working with MVPs in different geographies and dealing
with communities around the world I see the following trends:
Trend 1: Dynamic and collective Content
Implication: The demand for technical content is increasing year after year at the
community level. Today communities are not only defining the format (online/offline)
or the delivery channel (whitepapers, Webcasts, Podcasts, etc), but they are tending
to take more control over the quality and applicability. Collaborative
initiatives like wikipedia for example are gaining popularity because the
content generated is enhanced by experience, real usage scenarios, comments and
the most important written by users in a simple language (including slang).
MVPs will need to move their knowledge sharing approach from the traditional
Question → Answer schema where the MVP has all the knowledge into Question → advice model where the advice includes the answer plus knowledge
sharing via collaborative content.
Trend 2: Shared product development
Implication: Microsoft and other few technology suppliers are currently providing
early access to the product�s bits/builds with the idea of drive more
innovation by offering the opportunity to the community to work with the
product/technology prior to its release. The MVP role will evolve to an
innovation role because they will be able to translate the community feedback
and channel it through product specifications and features that will enhance
product/technology functionality.
Trend 3: Accessibility
Implication: A special characteristic that distinguishes MVPs is its
accessibility- today one of their strength is that they are accessible to the
community members. With the growth of the community neighborhood and the apparition
of new participation spaces, I can see MVPs carefully selecting their participation
spaces because they will be attracted to those that will allow them to continue
driving high impact/reach. My opinion is that federated communities will become
the natural targets because these will offer the opportunity to leverage their
contributions to more and more people, thanks to the federation model.
Q14: Which are your top five recommended resources?
A) Microsoft offers a comprehensive set of
resources oriented to help communities and customers to take the most of our
products and technologies. The resources provided fulfill �Break-fix� and
�How-to� needs and are available in different formats such as: White-papers,
code samples, multimedia, etc. To mention some that I have top of mind:
- http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx
- http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx
- http://support.microsoft.com/newsgroups/default.aspx
- http://support.microsoft.com/search
- http://www.windowsitpro.com/
FINAL COMMENT: We will continue to follow your fine work and
the contributions of MVPs. Thank you for taking the time to do this interview.
We wish you much continued success for the future.
A) Thank you for the opportunity to speak
with you and share with your audience detailed information about the Microsoft
Most Valuable Professional Program. I would like to invite them to visit http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
for further information.
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