A Decision For Our Future

I'm happy to announce that I've made the decision to join the team at Yammer. I'll be joining them as a Customer Success Manager (CSM). Essentially, I'll help Yammer customers most effectively leverage their investment in Yammer to achieve their business goals. I'll still be based in Minneapolis, but more on that later.

For those of you that don't know about Yammer, they are a software company based in San Francisco that is helping to deliver enterprise social networking to the organizations you work. Yammer has been around since 2008 and since that time has already amassed over 4 million corporate users. In 2008, Yammer was the winner of TechCrunch50. Since that time, the company has skyrocketed and more than 80% of the Fortune 500 are already using Yammer. Among their leadership is CEO David Sacks who played a large role in starting PayPal. In addition, on the Board of Directors is Sean Parker. You might know Parker as Shawn Fanning's partner in crime at Napster. Parker, who was portrayed by Justin Timberlake in "The Social Network", also partnered with Mark Zuckerberg to launch Facebook. Aside from the company profile, there were many other reasons I chose Yammer.

So why did I choose Yammer?

First of all, I have a passion for social media, social technology, enterprise 2.0, social business, or whatever you want to call it. It's clear to me that the way we communicate, both in our personal and professional lives, is changing. Yammer is at the forefront of transforming digital communications in the companies in which you work. The prospect of joining one of the industry leaders in this segment and helping to revolutionize this change in the way people work was a natural fit. In talking with the people at Yammer, I felt comfortable with the direction that Yammer was moving and confident in their ability to execute their strategy. This past September, they received a round of funding to the tune of $17M and there are rumors of more funding on the way. Clearly this shows financial backing and stability for a young company. For those of you who are fans of the TV series "The Wire", then you know to "follow the money".

As I mentioned earlier, I'll still be based in Minneapolis where I'll be one of the CSMs covering the midwest region. I'll be able to work from my home which affords some other hidden benefits. Of course, there are some drawbacks like not having daily coworkers to see face-to-face or simply having a reason to get out of the house. But the flexibility of being able to work from home had more benefits than anything else.

Working at home means I can work virtually from anywhere, whether that's a coffee shop, the library, a customer location, or thousands of miles away from my home office. Working from home means everyday is jeans day, or sweat pants day, or pajama day if I choose. This change in the way I work, is core to understanding how Yammer believes the environment in which we all work is changing. Let me explain further.

I should point out that Yammer's has an UNLIMITED vacation policy. That's right. Take vacation when you need it and don't worry about tracking it. Aside from the clear benefit of having "unlimited" vacation, this says a lot about Yammer itself. It tells me that they are much more focused on the results and outputs of their employees rather than focusing on minutia like whether I took a half day from work to spend time with my kids. Being able to work from home combined with the vacation policy means that Yammer shows trust in me to accomplish my work how and when I need to get it done. So, no longer am I working in an environment where "face time" is the measure for success, but instead I'm measured on real performance and real results.

Another reason I chose Yammer was because of the small company, startup feel. Everyone I've spoken to at Yammer is hungry to succeed. It's almost an underdog mentality. It's almost a cliche to say it, but they work hard and play hard too. I mean, c'mon. What other company would inspire one of their customers to organize a 3-city flash mob to launch their product?

Working in a smaller company, I felt like I had a much greater opportunity to affect change than at a bigger company. Often times, I'd sit around with colleagues and discuss some of the deficiencies of various social platforms (riveting I know). Admittedly, there are areas for improvement in Yammer's product. The beauty is now I don't have to just sit around just talking about it. There are teams of talented engineers that are energized and excited to help me solve those problems.

Last, there was one moment during the interview process that had a particularly poignant affect on me. I was talking with my future manager and he gave me some insight into how the team communicates. He told me about when an employee wanted to take some time off and there was a new release coming. He agreed to give the person time away, but asked that person to keep their phone handy in case they were "@mentioned". For those of you that know what that means, you'll understand the impact that statement had on me. Again, this was further commentary of how Yammer recognizes the change in the way people communicate and are leading the charge. He didn't say, "Keep your phone handy in case someone emails you," or "Keep your phone handy in case someone calls you." He said, "Keep your phone handy in case someone @mentions you"! For those of you that have no idea what this paragraph means, one day it will all make sense to you.

I'm excited about my new adventure at Yammer. It's an opportunity for me to work in a fast paced, results oriented company. I look forward to being presented with my company issue Macbook Pro, joining my new team, working with some great customers, and being part of the social business revolution.

PS. In my new role, I plan to make blogging about social business a regular part of my job. Whether that's a space provided by Yammer or someplace else is still up in the air. I'll be sure to provide a link via the numerous channels there are to keep in touch with me. In the meantime, feel free to follow me on Twitter @espnguyen.