What makes Personify stand out is the culture of encouragement and responsiveness; we foster a culture where we support each other’s ideas and welcome the innovation of individuals.

Can you describe your career progression at Personify over the last 13 years?

I was originally part of A2Z Events, and then, we were acquired by Personify. In that time, I’ve held roles as a business analyst, product manager and project manager. I’ve led teams and started business units. I was always on the lookout for something new, keeping up with changes and challenges and identifying potential benefits to the business. My focus area was to look into what I could do to make an impact on a broader organizational level; moving in and out of different areas and learning as I went. In addition, I was continuously building relationships and expanding my network to ensure I was connecting with senior leadership and colleagues outside of my team, which greatly benefited me in growing my reach and securing my future.

I bring a solution-oriented approach, a deeper understanding of business issues, the ability to create traction through data, and the determination to do whatever it takes to get things done. That ability to overcome obstacles and go above and beyond is critical to accelerating your career here or anywhere. What makes Personify stand out is the culture of encouragement and responsiveness; we foster a culture where we support each other’s ideas and welcome the innovation of individuals.

What’s your elevator pitch for why someone in sales should join your team?

It’s always fun to be in the forefront, see where the business is growing, and pinpoint how I can contribute to our broader success. One thing that excites us as a team is understanding the client, not just from one department’s view, but looking into the data and processes to gain an enterprise-level perspective of an organization. I enjoy working with different teams across the organization, from go-to-market to finance, to client success, customer success, professional services, and strategy. I see our role as a Sales team as one that leverages information and insights to make a difference for the people at an organization.

How would you describe yourself as a leader?

I like to focus on two aspects of team leadership: individual development and team impact. I work with team members on how they want to grow personally and professionally. I want to empower them with the skills and knowledge they require to go out in the world and not just be competent but to thrive. As a team, we contribute to the success of the company; so I want to nurture a culture of collaboration, where together we are better than we are as individuals. The three principles that tie to Personify values, which drive my approach to my own career and leadership, are curiosity, accountability and forgiveness. If you are motivated to figure things out, inspired to get things done, and open to learning from mistakes, you will find deep professional satisfaction here. 

What do you like to do for fun outside work?  

I listen to the podcast Hidden Brain about how our brain functions and how we perceive things. It’s one of the four podcasts I always try to listen to. 

For fun, this summer, we have been very active as a family. I have two boys, and this was the first time we tried camping. They enjoyed it, so we went on a few overnight trips this summer.

Are there any insights or words of advice you would like to share?

As a people manager, I want to know: how can I alleviate the problems you are facing? What barriers can I remove, relationships can I leverage, and deliverables can I take on for you to do your best work? As a leader, if I can free up their time, I will because I know it helps them perform better on deals they nurture. It may not always be possible, but I do what I can. 

As an individual performer, I want to encourage others to get in front their leaders and the people their managers report to. Increasing your visibility and demonstrating how you contribute is the most straightforward path to career advancement. At the same time, a profound understanding of the culture and values, with a focus on the team goals, is also essential.

People of Personify

The “People of Personify” is a multi-part series featuring profiles and interviews with leaders and talented team members at Personify who are driving innovation for professional associations and event management partners.

The post People of Personify: Get to Know Ashish Jain appeared first on Personify.

One of Personify’s eight company values is service. It’s hard to find a colleague who embodies service more than John Rosa, a Principal Business Analyst at Personify and a Staff Sergeant for the National Guard. In honor of Veterans Day 2022, we salute John for his service to our country and our clients.

Why did you choose Personify?

Eight years ago, I was seeking an organization where I could grow my career. I didn’t have a technology or business analyst background but as a family-focused individual, a former elementary school band teacher and coach, and as an active Reservist –  I’m a member of the US Army and have been for 14 years – I had a broad range of skills. Personify was able to see my potential and chose to bring me on, train and mentor me. It’s a very unglamorous story; but at the same time, also one of the reasons I think Personify is an incredible place to work. This is a company that saw my ability to work hard, solve problems, achieve goals and take calculated risks. 

What do you get to do in your role that is unique?

I’ve been working exclusively with the Alzheimer’s Association for six years as a dedicated Business Analyst. I’ve been helping them build out a piece of software, gathering requirements and interacting with the entire Alzheimer’s Association, from Marketing and Finance to Business and Technology. My role is to ensure that what we’re customizing is going to work across the entire board. It’s a huge project, and I spend more time with the Alzheimer’s Association than I do with other Personify colleagues. They’re a massive client of about 1,500 employees who all have a stake in what they’re doing as an organization – it’s inspiring to be a very small part of that. 

How is the impact of the project you’re working on at Personify motivating? 

Alzheimer’s is a terrible, debilitating disease. I love that I get to work with an association that is making such a profound impact. 

Two years ago, I lost my dad to cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). If you’re familiar with the disease, one of the leading thoughts is that these proteins called amyloids build up in the brain. While my father didn’t have full-blown dementia or Alzheimer’s when he passed, these proteins caused little micro tears. So, one day he was fine and then passed the next very unexpectedly. It’s a very real reminder to pause and remember that the work I’m doing is helping further the Alzheimer’s Project which is so much bigger than the little things that might throw off my day.

What’s something you or your team have accomplished this year that you’re proud of?

I really consider my team to be the Alzheimer’s Project team. We have a few offshore developers, two technical consultants, a project manager and two analysts, including myself. We’ve built this product out for Alzheimer’s over the last six years, and we are on the cusp of going live in February. Everyone is incredibly excited to have accomplished such an amazing feat, having put so much effort, energy and time into this for so long. It’s a little terrifying at the same time.

If you had to pick a book that related to your experience at Personify, what would it be?

Make Your Bed by four star Admiral William McRaven. He gave a speech at the University of Texas that went viral. The whole premise of Make Your Bed is to get up every morning and make your bed and know that you’ve accomplished your first task of the day. From there, you build on that small but significant accomplishment, getting things done. And, even if some of these tasks are unpleasant or go terribly wrong, you have the comfort of coming home and climbing into your bed that is made and ready for you. 

What I draw from this book is the importance of focusing on the fundamentals to work through this six-year long project that I’ve been a part of. It’s about one deliverable at a time and the impact each one can make.

People of Personify

The “People of Personify” is a multi-part series featuring profiles and interviews with leaders and talented team members at Personify who are driving innovation for professional associations and event management partners.

The post People of Personify: Get to Know John Rosa appeared first on Personify.

What was it like, transitioning from a small company to Personify? 

Small World Labs operated like a small bootstrap team, so we were all excited and cautiously optimistic about the potential more stability and money would bring. And when everything finally came together, the progress on the platform’s functionality and infrastructure was evident.  

What are projects or initiatives you get to work on that you find rewarding Personify?

I’ve had several different roles here; the opportunity to work on multiple aspects of the client experience and be involved in the evolution of the product from different angles is one of the reasons I stay.

When I first started, one of the areas that I enjoyed being a part of was the client success team on the CommUnity platform. The chance to work directly with clients and help them think strategically about how to leverage our tools was fun. I was able to draw on my background in nonprofit work when having conversations with Community Managers looking for innovative ways to support volunteers. 

In my new role, I’m the Manager of Product Marketing. It’s a fantastic opportunity to apply all of my direct and indirect knowledge from pre-sales market analysis, solutions consulting, and post-sales customer experience. It’s a very customer-centric role and, at the same time, product-centric; with the challenge of creating effective and meaningful messaging that helps people understand what our products can do for them in relatable, practical language. I’m really excited, because it’s allowing me to open up a better communication track between product and customers; create visibility into where we’re going in terms of new initiatives that can further their success – and ours.

What was it like being one of the first to work remotely at Personify? 

I had been in a consultative position for two and a half years, working closely with clients everywhere. There wasn’t an actual need for my having to go into the Austin office. So, I wrote a case demonstrating how my commitment and productivity wouldn’t be affected by transitioning to a remote role – and it was approved. Not only that, it didn’t hold me back from the next move here, which was as a team manager for an onsite group.

When we became a company of remote workers due to Covid, I had an advantage in several years of finding work balance, learning how to focus and turning off the screens. So, I leaned into onboarding people to the remote work world, encouraging them to maintain open communications, know their limits and be aware of their family’s needs and mental health during such a stressful, unknown time. Personify was a great company to be part of during this time, with a fantastic paid-time-off policy and newly implemented wellness days.

What are your passions in life, and do you get to bring any of your influences to your role?

I am deeply committed to helping people, particularly those in the nonprofit world, solve everyday problems or growth challenges. For example, I was in the Peace Corps in West Africa, building communities and relationships for further development and serving on the board of directors, as well as other leadership roles for several nonprofits. 

I want to have influence, to see the difference I’m making and Personify has allowed me to do so. We are absolutely a fast-moving technology company; but we are also a services company. I can draw on my consulting abilities, my love of connecting with people and channel my empathy and curiosity to innovate solutions. It’s a very rewarding position to be in, where I can learn about different initiatives, the challenges our clients are running into and be able to offer solutions that I’ve seen work in the past. Right now, I’m able to connect the dots between past use cases and new technical features, and carve these clear paths to success for not just one client at a time but whole sectors. 

If you had to pick a song, book, or movie title that represented your experience here, what would it be?

There’s a historical drama called, A Little Bit of Chaos. It’s about building the gardens at Versailles. To me, working here, while we have clear direction and strategy from our leadership, there’s always a little bit of excitement, a small dose of the unknown, that fosters our creativity. Not everything is always perfectly in place. The kind of people who thrive here are the ones that enjoy the opportunity to shift a little one way or the other, to come up with something fun or something structured depending on the need. We have the stability of this bigger company, but we’re still able to retain the best parts of being a responsive smaller product company. 

Why should someone join Personify?

It’s truly an exciting time right now, at Personify, with a new leadership team fostering an energetic, highly collaborative space. As people who work directly with our clients – with the communities, having your voice heard, and your opinions taken into consideration, that just furthers the level of professional satisfaction you feel here. Knowing that we continue to innovate new products and scale our services, creates a career path of opportunities for anyone who joins us – and I’m excited to see what we are going to do next, how we are going to help and empower our clients further.

People of Personify

The “People of Personify” is a multi-part series featuring profiles and interviews with leaders and talented team members at Personify who are driving innovation for professional associations and event management partners.

The post People of Personify: Get to Know Benjamin Morton appeared first on Personify.

This time of the year marks the upcoming change of the season, kids going back to school, and for many associations and nonprofits, strategic planning is just around the corner.  

And a hot topic that comes up during a lot of strategic planning conversations is around the tools and technology that keep our organizations running and our missions moving forward.  

Conversations about tech can be difficult because not everyone on staff or the board works with tech, and because talk about tech often turns into a conversation about resources, which have become stretched thin for many organizations over the past few years.  

But new tech can also be invigorating as new tools emerge that could mean more benefits for your members, more efficiency for your staff and, ultimately, more visibility into and growth for your organization.  

Taking into account both sides of the tech conversation, we invited Rebecca Achurch, Founder of Achurch Consulting with over 20 years in the association and IT leadership, and Janna Knapp, Senior Director of Professional Services with Personify, who has been leading tech clients and professional services for about 10 years, to talk about their top tips for planning for new technology…and how associations and nonprofits can save some time and costs along the way.  

The Top Moments in “Planning for New Tech & Tools”  

1. “Pre-Planning” is the new planning stage. 

When people think about properly planning for new tech and tools, they think about meeting with their board and staff to develop a budget, timeline, team, etc. But Rebecca likes to talk about a very important, but often neglected, “pre-planning” stage.  

Pre-planning is all about determining what the expectations for the overall strategy will be, looking at what the organization really needs so prioritization comes easier and looking at the type of support that will be needed.  

“Don’t set a budget or timeline during this stage,” Rebecca stresses.

Janna agrees and goes further in saying that the pre-planning stage is served by getting as specific as possible. This can mean getting as detailed as examining individual staff members’ goals and priorities. If, for example, you know that your teammate, Susan, will oversee parts of the tech implementation, but her biggest event is in the fall, you’ll want to consider that in your timeline.  

2. Biggest “red flag” when choosing a tech partner 

Depending on an organization’s goals, size and resources, an association may choose to partner with a consulting firm or an association management company to help them select, implement and/or manage their technology on an ongoing basis.  

These types of partners can be lifesavers if there’s a gap in expertise or simply not enough time to coordinate their technology, but like any partnership, there are things you want to watch out for when choosing a tech partner.  

When asked if there are any “red flags” organizations should watch for as they’re planning for new tools, Rebecca warned against choosing a “yes, partner!” She says that if a partner is consistently answering all your requests with a resounding “yes” without any qualifying statement or follow-up questions, it can indicate unrealistic expectations and result in missed timelines and objectives.  

Speaking of missed timelines, Janna also stressed that if your partner is missing deadlines, especially in the early stages of implementation, it’s important to address them straight away.  

3. Setting your biggest priorities during your tech implementation 

Something that Rebecca and Janna agreed can make or break your tech implementation is the ability to set the right expectations and priorities.  

Admittedly, setting priorities is often a difficult task when you have competing deadlines, big goals and are up against limited resources. To help prioritize certain strategies and timelines, Janna said that you definitely can and should prioritize anything related to financials.  

In other words, if you can’t collect fees, that should be a huge priority. And Rebecca and Janna wrapped up the conversation about prioritization saying that another problem you should always prioritize solving is anything that produces bad data. Data has become one of the most reliable ways to understand member behavior and make strategic decisions for the organization, so it must be as clean and true as possible. 

Get more insights by streaming the webcast 

We could fill a few blog posts with more great insights and advice Rebecca and Janna shared with us regarding tech budgets, timelines, bylaws, and more, but we’ll let you enjoy the webinar at your leisure. After watching the webcast, feel free to reach out with any of your questions about association technology and tools. It’s our favorite topic.  

The post 3 Highlights from “Planning for New Tech & Tools”  appeared first on Personify.

I’m excited because this is my first NTC Conference and only my second visit to Portland. If you will also be in attendance at this conference, please stop by and visit the Personify team at booth #725.

Here are some of the sessions that I’m most looking forward to attending:

Put a Cat Gif on It: Linking Storytelling and Social to Donations

Wednesday, 3:15-4:30 PM

Yes, that’s the actual session title. In this session, Ann Nguyen will look at how Lung Cancer Foundation of America went from an April Fool’s idea, #CatsAgainstLungCancer, to a digital engagement campaign with clear and measurable results to show for it.

Participants will learn how to identify concrete actions for users to take in a campaign and how those align with key performance indicators of moving their mission forward. Nguyen will also look beyond April 1 to see how the unexpected bright spots of LCFA’s website can still drive meaningful action — and help lung cancer research.

The Future of Work: Looking Through Nonprofit Tech Lenses

Thursday, 10:30-11:45 AM

In this session, Katherine Lagana, Rachel Paris and Arjun Reddy will explore how the future of work trends will impact nonprofit internal tech operations and the digital expression of each mission. When considering the evolution of Digital Ethics & Privacy, the Gig Economy and Augmented Analytics – how might these change the speed and method by which board pitches occur or the means by which donors are engaged? With this session, the speakers will don three trendy sets of specs – some with the bifocal of speed to explore the future of work.

Dirty Data? Clean It Up.

Thursday, 3-4:15 PM

Shameless plug: My colleague Maggie Cameron, Director of Enterprise Products at Personify, and our client Michael Fiaschetti, Senior Director of System Integration & Business Intelligence/IT at the Alzheimer’s Association, will share how poor data hygiene can have a massive impact on every aspect of your organization.

These impacts range from not being able to accurately report on your donors and advocates, to missing the chance to connect with them in an efficient and effective way. Join Maggie and Michael to discuss the challenges that bad data creates and how you can use tools and best practices to overcome them in your organization.

Storytelling for Impact: Helping Donors Understand the Value of Their Dollar

Friday, 10:30-11:45 AM

In this session, Andrew Buck and Becca Montjoy will share that if you want your donors to give more than once, you have to turn them into investors in—and not merely supporters of—your mission. Donors want to feel the impact of their gift. They want to see the concrete outcomes of their dollars. And they crave evidence that your organization is using their gift to make the world a better, fairer, safer, and happier place.

Storytelling compels your donors to stay engaged—and to donate again. Learn how to tell a story that cuts through the noise, and to transform data into real, specific, human stories.

The post What We’re Looking Forward to at NTC appeared first on Personify.