ISV Kaizen

Have you ever thought about establishing a certification program for users of your software?
If your software is quite sophisticated and requires training then you can build a community of professionals around your product through the system of personal certificates. Offer your users to pass a series of on-line tests and award them with personal certificates like e.g. Microsoft does. “Certified Professional” sounds cool, doesn’t it?

You should follow the key principles to make your certification program really valuable for users:

• Make exams hard to pass without good knowledge of your software. People must feel that they are true professionals. This will make them really proud to have your certificate.
• Send paper certificates with your seal and signature on them. So people could hang them on the wall in their offices. At least give a file which they can print out themselves.
• It must be easy for everyone to validate someone’s certificate on your web site. This will prevent fraud certificates.
• Offer real benefits for the certified users: high priority support, free subscriptions for training stuff, access to private sections on product forum, participation in beta testing, invitation to off-line meetings and road shows, discounts, gifts, etc…

What will the certification give to users:

• People like to be “certified professionals”. It’s like a membership in a private elite club.
• The certificate will add points to their CV and maybe some dollars to their salary.
• They will receive extra benefits (see above).

What will the certification give to you:

• People will learn and test your product more thoroughly while preparing for tests. You will receive more valuable feedback from users.
• When the certificate is hanging on the wall or is mentioned in someone’s CV it will work like advertisement of your software brand.
• The certification program will make your product and company looking more serious and professional itself. This is a good way to differentiate from competitors and to make your software an industry standard.
• You will create the professional community that will be spreading the words of mouth about your product. The certified professionals will help you with developing ideas and will evangelize your software among other industry professionals. They will lead many new customers to you and they will educate them themselves. If the certification program is done right then it will be a kind of religion.

Of course, not any software is suitable for establishing the certification program.

• The software must be complex. There must be a real difference between professionals and average users.
• The software must be expensive enough. Maintaining the certification program requires time and money from you.
• The software must be business oriented. People must be proud to show the certificate to their colleagues, customers, or employers.

If you’re looking for new ways to promote your product then consider this idea about certification. If you already have a certification program for your users then I’d be glad to hear (read) about your experience with it.

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