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I completely concur with you. On all the points, including, so lessons learned are documented. BUT, blogging should not be misunderstood as documentation. yo

I completely concur with you. On all the points, including, so lessons learned are documented. BUT, blogging should not be misunderstood as documentation. you do not put all your learnings in the public view.. (well, may be in the social web 2.0 view of business, but not in a traditional business). You create an internal repository of documents (designs/requirements/deals/legal etc.), and go back to them, when the need arises.

mrschwabe 16y ago
Exactly. There's a distinction between information you want public and info that should be kept internal.
turoczy 16y ago
Great distinction. I totally agree. You're right that there are internal documents that the business is required to develop. Or ones that are necessary for the business to function. Those may or may not be proprietary. I was thinking more along the lines of the ethereal thought process of the entrepreneur or maybe providing context for public decisions. Thanks for making this distinction.
jdp23 16y ago
> you do not put all your learnings in the public view.. why not?
- shadowfox 16y ago
  I am not a business person. So none of this may be valid. But I can think of a few possibilities: * Some of the lessons learned are highly specific to your project/team. They may not translate well to other teams/projects. Such things, while valuable, may not make sense on a blog. * Perfect transparency may be at odds with building brand confidence. Letting your customers see every one of your mistakes (in the guise of lessons learned) may work either way with regards to customer confidence.
  - jdp23 16y ago
    Agreed that it might not make sense on a blog; I was just reacting to the general trasparency question. In terms of building brand confidence, my experience is that being honest about mistakes and what you're doing to cut down the chance they'll happen in the future is great from a customer relations point if you do it well.
  - modoc 16y ago
    It also depends on your model. Our business hinges on our domain knowledge and expertise. We share some but not all. We want to give to the community, but still maintain a competitive advantage.
    - jdp23 16y ago
      Agreed. I wasn't arguing for absolute transparency. However it's almost always possible to phrase your learnings in such a way that they don't reveal your secret sauce or proprietary secrets.

mrschwabe 16y ago

Exactly. There's a distinction between information you want public and info that should be kept internal.

turoczy 16y ago

Great distinction. I totally agree. You're right that there are internal documents that the business is required to develop. Or ones that are necessary for the business to function. Those may or may not be proprietary. I was thinking more along the lines of the ethereal thought process of the entrepreneur or maybe providing context for public decisions. Thanks for making this distinction.

jdp23 16y ago

> you do not put all your learnings in the public view.. why not?

shadowfox 16y ago
I am not a business person. So none of this may be valid. But I can think of a few possibilities: * Some of the lessons learned are highly specific to your project/team. They may not translate well to other teams/projects. Such things, while valuable, may not make sense on a blog. * Perfect transparency may be at odds with building brand confidence. Letting your customers see every one of your mistakes (in the guise of lessons learned) may work either way with regards to customer confidence.
- jdp23 16y ago
  Agreed that it might not make sense on a blog; I was just reacting to the general trasparency question. In terms of building brand confidence, my experience is that being honest about mistakes and what you're doing to cut down the chance they'll happen in the future is great from a customer relations point if you do it well.
- modoc 16y ago
  It also depends on your model. Our business hinges on our domain knowledge and expertise. We share some but not all. We want to give to the community, but still maintain a competitive advantage.
  - jdp23 16y ago
    Agreed. I wasn't arguing for absolute transparency. However it's almost always possible to phrase your learnings in such a way that they don't reveal your secret sauce or proprietary secrets.