Saturday, February 28, 2015

7 years of Lenovo Community Collaboration - 'DO' happens right here

7 years ago, I was just another ordinary user,  searching the internet to check for a solution of my PC problems. What I found on this very day is something which will cherish for a long time to come, not only because I was able to expand my technical horizons with the broader set of global audience, it also presented with a perfect opportunity to work with a number of customers like me around the world. Some of them who later became "Super users" . People who had a lot of passion, to reach out and help others in need.

This experience also gives you the opportunity to know about new cultures, build relationships with returning customers for help, who in turn are inspired to help others. The flow of knowledge in this way is only possible because, Lenovo has built the community from ground up, envisioned by Mark Hopkins, and with the help of other seasoned super users from various communities.

So what have I observed since the past 7 years?


1) When ever I login here, there is a sense of happening, be it the super users working together to keep spam away, looking out for major technical issues that could impact a broad range of customers or banning socket  puppets.

2) It is a privilege to be a part of this  group, which has industry leading experts on subjects like Security and Malware. I can't imagine if I could have gotten the opportunity to interact and learn from such folks, had I not been here.

3) The community runs 24x7 ,365 days of the year.  The moderator group is so diverse, that I can always find at least some of them online, making sure that things work like a well oiled machine. Folks from US,Australia,Turkey,India,Europe, Russia and other Spanish countries make the core group of superusers.

Newly Launched Russian Community 


4)What started as an English community in 2007 has now being expanded to help customers from non english speaking geographies. This only shows that Lenovo is serious about reaching out to its customers.There is also a sense of commitment from the employees and the super user group - something which inturn keeps me inspired to 'DO'  things.

5) There were only a bunch of Moderators and Gurus when I first joined the forums, what I see now is another super set of users jumping in.Be it Microsoft MVP's, technology partners and others. This indicates that the  folks who started the community are always looking for newer vistas which could benefit the customers in one form or another.

6) I also feel lucky to be a part of various Advocacy groups in Lenovo since 2009 apart from the community, which has helped me to have hand's on experience the latest and the greatest . Run by the marketing,I have been invited to international platforms like the CES in LasVegas and the Mobile World congress in Barcelona. This is also another channel for funneling feedback to the company because you get the opportunity to meet top level executives from the company.

One of Lenovo's advocacy groups circa 2011


It has a been a wild ride so far, and I heartily   thank Mark Hopkins for keeping his faith in me, and mentoring me for all these years along with other amazing people like Jane,Andreas,Erik,Dave,Aryeh, Linda,Andy ,Cleo,Serene and many others. You guys are just amazing and I only hope we 'DO' more good things together in the forthcoming future.