Wes's Weekly Wisdom Archives

Don’t forget, your staff have day jobs… The vast majority of my work is finite project work (e.g., system selection or implementation). It’s literally my full time job. But for most of my clients, selecting and implementing a new AMS, or implementing a new website, or executing pretty much any other major technology project is […]

Beware the automated “How did we do?” trap! One of the downsides of technology is that automation can be so easy that we wind up annoying our members and customers rather than helping them. Case in point: I recently purchased tickets for a Broadway show via StubHub. The day after attending the show, I got […]

Hindsight is 20/20 I’m currently working with a client that is moving from their legacy AMS to a new system. Their legacy system is a completely custom build that has been used for nearly 30 years. As a result, the system contains a very large amount of data and data fields that the association no longer […]

Cheaper now; costlier later. Most of my clients are very cost-conscious, understandably. After all, who among us has an unlimited budget? But over the years, I’ve run into many situations that I would describe as “Cheaper now, costlier later.” Here are just a few examples: Developing software internally rather than purchasing off-the-shelf software or using […]

The unified shopping cart: Dreams vs. reality One of the more common requests I hear from my clients is “We want a unified online shopping experience. We want our members to be able to renew their membership, register for an event, buy a booth, buy sponsorship items, buy products, buy anything, all in the same e-commerce […]

Don’t forget to celebrate! Truth be told, I’m not a big celebrator. (Maybe it’s because I grew up with eight siblings and birthdays were so common!) But we really should celebrate wins when we can, especially if they are big wins, like the go-live of a new AMS, a new website, or some other major […]

Three thoughts on duplicate records Duplicate records are a reality in any database of any size, so as database managers, we always have to deal with them (or should deal with them!). So here are three thoughts on managing duplicate records: Duplicate records will always exist. Always. Unless you’re managing only a tiny number of records, you […]

Please don’t do this… I’ve noticed a trend among online retailers that I want to warn associations away from. That trend is emailing me incessantly (as in, daily) shortly after I purchase something from the retailer. We’re coming upon Christmas so I’ve made purchases from retailers that I don’t usually shop with (think clothing and housewares for […]

AI is perpetually patient My friend and colleague Noel Shatananda of fusionSpan was providing me some tips about using AI. During that discussion, he pointed out that one of the keys to using AI tools like ChatGPT successfully is to continue to ask it questions to refine its work. As he put it, “AI is perpetually patient.” […]

User adoption is (almost) all that matters… I was speaking with an association recently about their needs for a new AMS. They had already tried and failed with two systems, and they were wondering if I could be helpful in getting them into yet another AMS, this time successfully! In the course of the conversation, it […]

When “overcommunicating” becomes overwhelming There is a common belief in project management and general business management that overcommunicating is better than undercommunicating. And that can be true in marketing, as well. In my experience, it’s not unusual for members to actually know very little about what their association does, beyond the meetings they’ve actually participated in. So in […]

Communicating when there is a major technology change For those of you who are ASAE members, you may be aware that ASAE recently when through a major technology infrastructure change, which had a direct impact on the member experience online. For example, because of these changes, anyone with a previous login had to update their password […]

Everything works, until it doesn’t. “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” – Stein’s Law I was talking with a client recently and we were discussing how certain pieces of their system that had once worked well, no longer seem to work well, if at all. I replied: “Everything works, until it doesn’t.” The […]

Some things are unknowable One of the most challenging aspects of moving to a new system and vendor is “not knowing.” There are some questions that just aren’t answerable in the moment. Here are some examples of questions my clients will ask that are really unknowable: “How much work will staff have to do during implementation?” Vendors […]

Do we have access to that data? When I work with my clients on a data management projects, there are frequently conversations about querying and reporting on data. I’ll hear things like “We want to query for people who have attended previous meetings and are also volunteers, but we’re not able to pull that information.” […]

The three “buckets” of contact data Broadly speaking, when collecting data on contacts (individuals or organizations), there are three “buckets” of data being collected: Contact information (name, address, phone, email) Transactional information (stuff they’ve purchased) Demographic data (information about the individual or organization, e.g., lines of business, areas of interest, professional status, etc.). Of these three, the most […]

Balancing what is possible with what is realistic When I work with clients on technology projects, I’ll tell them “These are blue sky discussions. Nothing is off the table.” I’ll usually follow that up with “But just because we discuss something doesn’t mean you’ll actually get that something.” Because even if what is being discussed […]

“Humans want to be surrounded by beauty.” “Humans want to be surrounded by beauty.” – Susan Cain Susan Cain was a keynote speaker at ASAE’s Annual Meeting this past August, and when she uttered these words, I immediately thought of data management systems (stick with me here…). One of the most common complaints I hear from […]

Data managers vs data consumers When I work with clients on any data management project, I’ll often point out that there are two broad audiences on staff when it comes to the AMS: data managers (those who frequently use the system for processing data and financial transactions, querying, etc.) and data consumers (those who only […]

Another universal truth There are many universal truths in data management. Some examples: You will always have duplicate records. Your business rules are the easiest thing to change to improve data management. Reporting and querying is always a challenge. In a recent conversation with a client, I was reminded of another universal truth: No matter […]