So you want to climb a mountain…

Let’s say that you get it in your head to do something big, something complex, something that has a fair level of risk… such as climbing a mountain (or starting a professional organization). You stand at the bottom of the mountain saying, “I want to be up there.” Declaring the goal is easy; figuring out how to do it – and then making sure that everything is goes well – is the hard work of planning. So then how to build an effective plan?

In my day job at Salesforce, we use a technique called V2MOM to plan and to get alignment across organizations, teams and individuals; and I have brought this technique to IDPro. The V2MOM tool has been used at Salesforce since the very beginning; it is part of our culture and it is part of our corporate practice. Marc Benioff, Salesforce co-founder and co-CEO, has written about how he built the V2MOM mechanism, and shares Salesforce’s original V2MOM. 

So what the heck is V2MOM? It’s an abbreviation that standards for:

• Vision: Defines what you want to do or achieve. 
• Values: Principles and beliefs that help you pursue the vision. 
• Methods: Actions and steps to take to get the job done. 
• Obstacles: The challenges, problems, issues you have to overcome to achieve the vision. 
• Measures: Measurable results you aim to achieve. 

Not only does a V2MOM provide a way to plan realistically and to set priorities, but it also helps the evaluation process of taking on new work. You can use the V2MOM to measure progress, re-evaluate priority, and keep yourself honest as you do.  It’s important to remember that, although the V2MOM helps to ground activities in the day-to-day reality necessary to make constructive process, it’s also intended to be aspirational.

With that, I want to share with you IDPro’s V2MOM for 2019 which the board agreed in December. First up our Vision and Values. You’ll notice that our Vision is a bit of a combination of what the Board foresees for the organization and our industry as well.

Vision

• The various disciplines of digital identity are globally seen as vital and vibrant counterparts to privacy and information security, and fundamental to good business practice 
• Digital identities are created, managed, and used professionally and ethically, through secure, privacy-protecting, and reliable practices that produce high value digital services.
• Practitioners just beginning their digital identity career can learn quickly from a curated body of knowledge and from a supportive and inclusive community
• Practitioners can interact with one another in a professional and mutually supportive fashion to share best practices and to find useful approaches to real world challenges.
• Digital identity professionals are supported in all aspects of their professional development.

Values

• Respect: We recognize that diversity of background and of opinion is a strength; we promote healthy discourse; and we strive to resolve dissent professionally and courteously 
• Responsiveness: We take account of the rapidly evolving digital identity landscape and adapt effectively and efficiently to stay relevant to our members and our colleagues
• Open: We promote through action operational transparency whilst respecting individual privacy
• Inspiring: We deliver world-class professional leadership for our industry and our members and our colleagues
• Inclusive: We welcome digital identity professionals from all backgrounds

Next is our Methods – these are the means that the Board has identified to help achieve our Vision. Methods have owners who are responsible for reporting progress to the Board and for arranging resources to achieve the Measures in their Method. If you want to help work on one of these Methods or have any questions about them I highly encourage you to reach out to the owner. 

Methods

• M1 Body of Knowledge and Certification
  • Build a body of knowledge in support of a certification program
  • Owner: George Dobbs
• M2 Membership
  • Grow membership in a supportable way to sustain the organization. To grow the membership IDPro must establish market awareness of the organization, its members, and its goals. This also includes providing meaningful value at industry events.
  • Owner: Ian Glazer
• M3 Services
  • Provide meaningful services to membership. These services should help members grow professionally and technically.
  • Owner: Sarah Squire
• M4 Industry Alliances
  • Establish supportable relationships with other members of the Identity industry to provide membership with value. Develop relationships with organizations in adjacent industries, such as security and privacy, to foster cross-industry awareness, collaboration, and professional development
  • Owner: Allan Foster

For each Method, there are Measures – individual items that we believe help achieve the Method. At Salesforce we try and write Measures that are SMART:

• Specific: Clearly define your focus and what you’re going to do.
• Measurable: Quantify an indicator of progress, such as percentages, numbers, targets. 
• Achievable: Set the bar high, yet make it achievable. 
• Relevant: Ensure that the Measure supports the organization’s Methods.
• Timely: Set a specific and reasonable time frame for completion. 

To be honest, not every Measure is written in this format but it’s a good goal.

Measures

M1 Body of Knowledge and Certification

1. Deliver a “beta” version of the BoK by Identiverse 2019
2. Acquire staff and volunteers and organize work for the selected approach, specifically a chief editor
3. Deliver a plan with specific milestones, tasks and resource levels needed for selected approach

M2 Membership

1. Grow membership to 900 individual members, at least 15% outside North America
2. Establish a Member outreach program so that the membership can meet and interact with more of the IDPro Board
3. Attain 20 enterprise/group members, representing 400% growth
4. Attain 40 corporate members, representing 180% growth
5. Establish routine metrics to measure progress
6. In support of the organization’s need to grow members, establish a Marketing Committee
   1. Produce base-level marketing collateral for new prospects, onboarding process, and member retention/renewal
   2. Establish social media presence
   3. Hold meetup at RSA
   4. Hold meetup at EIC
   5. Have a major presence at Identiverse including a “Identity 101” workshop, plenary, and ID Professionals track
   6. “Launch” BoK work (if progress has been made)
7. Increase membership engagement with Board Committees and other community functions.

M3 Services

1. Continue to publish member newsletter on a regular cadence – including complete submissions & editorial process
2. Deliver a new collaboration vehicle that has email and forum capabilities
3. Enhance events calendar to include submission process and subscriber capabilities
4. Build a speaker bureau function to help conference organizers find diverse professionals for speaking engagements
5. Establish sustainable model by which Industry Analysts can contribute their research
6. Publish board meeting minutes and yearly budgets.

M4 Industries Alliances

1. Programmatize alliances function and establish metrics and other means of evaluating the value of IDPro’s relationships with other organizations and our mutual progress towards a share set of goals
2. Formalize relationship with DIACC for the purposes of bringing a practitioner’s insight to support Canadian identity efforts
3. Formalize relationship with Women in Identity to support shared diversity and equality goals
4. Formalize relationship with Women in Security and Privacy to support shared diversity and equality and cross-industry collaboration
5. Formalize relationship with IDSA for the purposes of member education
6. Formalize relationship with FIDO for the purposes of member education
7. Formalize relationship with the OpenID Foundation for the purposes of member education
8. Formalize relationship with IAPP for the purposes of cross-industry collaboration in support of shared member grow and education goals.

Last but by no means least, our Obstacles. When I write my V2MOM at work, I often have Obstacles per Method and sometimes I don’t… no need to be too hidebound on this one. Writing the Obstacles section is akin to naming your fears; it forces you to express your doubts, concerns, and potential traps. 

Obstacles

• Financial constraints
  • The BoK will require ongoing funding for creation and maintenance. It is expected that we need $100k in additional funding
  • Irregular cash flow leads to potential crunches throughout the year
• People constraints
  • An all-volunteers Board and membership cannot deliver all of the services IDPro wants to deliver in 2019
• Infrastructure: using personal IT services puts IDPro at risk
• Attrition becomes a larger risk as membership begins to feel like they are not involved and not receiving value.

The IDPro Board will use this V2MOM throughout the year to evaluate our progress and  re-evaluate priorities. As we update it, we will let membership know – and we value your feedback, as always. After this edition of the Newsletter goes out, we will publish the V2MOM on the website for all to see. And using this V2MOM we will climb the mountain together.

(BTW, if you want to learn a little more about the V2MOM process, you can check out Salesforce’s Trailhead module on it.)

Ian Glazer
President, IDPro