Nokia Beta Labs Innovator of the Month, August 2007: Stefan Constantinescu
Seth Godin just proposed that companies should try nominating a Customer of the Month.
Heck, let’s try this.
Hereby, I nominate the Nokia Beta Labs Innovator of the Month, August 2007: Stefan Constantinescu.
Hooray!!! Hooray!!! Hooray!!!
Justification: extraordinarily insightful feedback for improving Nokia Beta Labs concept and website. The first version of our new concept was drafted in our 1h brainstorming session.
Prize: my warm recommendations for Nokia to finally hire him (I can send a good word about you when you apply to some position). And a beer of your choice, with yours truly, at beer house Kaisla, Helsinki. Just say when.
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Seth says:
The hardest part is getting over the fear that you’ll alienate all your other great customers. Give it a try, it’s probably worth the risk.
I hope recognizing “top contributors” doesn’t alienate other beta users. Or what do you think, does it?
Not at all - I think this is very well deserved. I never understood why some people seem to think adding praise to someone else takes away praise from them.
Personally, I prefer not using these rigid time scales and terms. In my opinion, a big and well-deserved thank you to people like Stefan is just as good - the intention behind it, for me, does not require a dedicated name or award.
Also, I would like to give that praise whenever I want to, not just every month. What happens if you suddenly want to thank more people? Do you create an innovator of the week, and the innovator of the month is worth 4 times the innovator of the week?
But maybe that aversion is just because in my mind, I involuntarily see a picture of a cheap gold-color-painted frame with the employee picture in a fast food restaurant…
Either way, I think it’s a great idea to give thanks to those who do a great job and to let it be heard.
Comment by jennifr — September 20, 2007 @ 6:10 pm
I like the idea, and I agree that in Stefan’s case it is well deserved…I immediately thought of the excellent suggestions he made about S60.com way back in the “RingNokia” days.
Now you’ve got me thinking, Tommi, maybe an “Ambassador of the Week” to recognize the best and most active Ambassadors in our California campaign…
Comment by dshugrue — September 20, 2007 @ 6:31 pm
Ciao,
well deserved!
Alessandro
Comment by Alessandro — September 20, 2007 @ 8:13 pm
I completely agree with jennifr’s thoughts. I see no reason customers should feel slighted when a fellow Nokia user gets recognition. Furthermore, I feel your first nomination is quite well deserving of the nod.
Go Stefan. Cheers!
PS, I GREATLY miss RingNokia.com.
Comment by PseudoFinn — September 20, 2007 @ 8:16 pm
I am absolutely touched. Weekend is coming up, shall we have a beer Friday night or during a nice Saturday afternoon? Your call!
As for which job I would like to get, how about anything that lets me get my foot in the door. That is what Nokians tell me, once you’re in it is much easier to move around. I applied for the MOSH position, “Russell” as it was listed on the Jobs page, so I’m crossing my fingers for that. Ideally however I would like to let Nokia learn about what else is out there on the market to help them remain competitive and this position http://www.nokia.com/A4126298 as a Business Analyst sounds absolutley perfect for that. Haven’t applied for it yet.
Tommi you’re a great guy, thank you, seriously.
Comment by Stefan Constantinescu — September 20, 2007 @ 8:31 pm
Actually I just applied for that position Tommi, the Business Analyst.
Comment by Stefan Constantinescu — September 20, 2007 @ 8:52 pm
Nice idea. Great work should be credited properly.
Comment by alsiladka — September 20, 2007 @ 9:34 pm
I think this idea is great, but it should have some connection to last months happenings. Don’t make it a another site just for introducing people around S60 blogs.
Congratulations Stefan! Definitely deserved.
Comment by Heikki — September 20, 2007 @ 11:26 pm
hey, he’s not a customer, he gets all his phones for free
seriously though, i +1 this - stefan’s already provided some valuable contributions to us in corporate strategy. keep up the good work.
Comment by Stephen — September 21, 2007 @ 1:36 am
Which one of the Business analysts jobs was it?
Yes it’s a good idea to “get your foot in the door”.
Comment by Jukka Eklund — September 21, 2007 @ 10:45 am
Yup, we should give credit to great contributions whenever that happens. But still, I think we should make this a tradition - systematically looking back after each month, and asking from the Beta Labs R&D teams, about who has been the most valuable contributor during that particular month.
We don’t have a promotional budget yet, so we need to be innovative in prizes, at least now in the beginning.
Comment by Tommi Vilkamo — September 21, 2007 @ 4:48 pm
I agree and disagree.
I agree in making it a tradition. People like Stefan should be rewarded and as I said sometimes are inspiring. To me at least. He’s getting what i’d like to have if i could.
Making it a tradition will make people thinking more about the labs (among other things) and improve the whole thing. At least I’ll be certainly paying more atention to it.
I disagree that praising someone will make the others feel bad. If they do than it’s not about the praising it’s about something wrong with them. If someone gets praised (and deserves it) should only make others try hard and work harder to (eventually) get there some day.
Cheers for this!
Comment by Alexandr3 — September 21, 2007 @ 5:58 pm
Hello Tommi,
I think it is a great motivator to choose an inovator of the month! I would like to congratulate Stefan also!
It was a big relief for me that you picked him as it was his blog about the PC-suit which freaked me out the most. Seeing him helping you out feels like a resolution to me.
Best regards:
Aron
Comment by Aron — September 23, 2007 @ 2:57 pm