Chapter 1: What is the purpose of the NetApp A-Team's ETL meeting?
This week on the Tech on Tap podcast, we recap the NetApp A-teams week in RTP for their annual meetup, the ETL. Welcome to the Tech on Tap podcast. Hello and welcome to the Tech on Tap podcast. My name is Justin Parisi and in the studio with me today is the distracted Glenn Sizemore. Put my phone on airplane mode, man. That's good.
It won't buzz on the table and make a sound like everyone else's does when they come in here. Yeah, trying to. How you doing, JP? Doing great. We are here at the RTP version of the ETL.
Yes, sir.
We'll talk about what that is in a second here. But yeah, welcome. We're just here doing the podcast this week. Last week I couldn't do it. I was in the hospital bed. We've covered. How are you doing? I want to get more sympathy. Will you please shower me? You want more hugs? How much physical contact do you require? I don't know. How much does it need to grow my appendix back?
You are creeping into high maintenance. Okay. I'm done now. All right, so with us today is the queen bee of the NetApp A team, Sam Moulton. Hi, Sam. Hi, Justin. Hi. Glad to be here. Long time no see. I know. How long has it been? Five minutes? Not even, because we've been in the room the entire time. Right, right. Wasn't sure what you wanted there. Nothing. Okay.
This whole thing is just, you know, I like it to be a train wreck. It makes me comfortable. It's actually truth. Like, if we're too on track, he'll just grab that wheel and yank as hard as he can. I'm an agent of chaos, so. I like his appendix. He'll throw it from the holding train. Well, he makes life fun. you know, for me in Slack. So, you know, I appreciate it. That's good. That's good.
So, Sam, tell us what you do here at NetApp and how we get in touch with you on social media. And tell us a little bit about the A-Team, if you could. I am the person who kind of herds the cats, if you will. Cat herder? Can I get that title? Or the children, depending on how you look at it. I label myself the champion of the NetApp A team. I have probably one of the best jobs in the world.
I work with all these great customers and partners who really dig NetApp, and they let us know that by tweeting and blogging and being really, really vocal and opinionated when we do things like the ETL. And how do we get in touch with you on social media? At Sam Moulton. All right. And what's the NetApp A-Team handle? At NetApp18. Wow, that's a creative handle. I like that. Easy, easy.
So we're talking social media, and we couldn't really mention social media without invoking the name ComsNinja, who is also in the studio with us today. I come with my own sound effects.
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Chapter 2: What roles do Sam Moulton and other A-Team members play?
I'll just giggle a little. For those people who do not know who Amy Lewis is. Oh, brother. Is there anyone who doesn't know who Amy Lewis is? There's probably somebody out there that doesn't know. Billions of great people. Literally dozens. Literally. Those are the happy people. So let's educate them. Who is Amy Lewis and what do you do here at NetApp?
Hi, I'm Amy Lewis, and I am fortunate to work with Sam and a number of other folks on what we call Team Influence. So it's not just social media. It is community influencers like the A-Team, advocates, influencers, and also the forums. So the social platform we own. So would you say that people who work for you are under the influence? Often. Yeah, exactly. After they've met me, for sure.
There's a little bit of job description in there. We fly under hashtag real talks. Yes, we do. People think we're kidding, and then they realize we're not. Let's talk a little bit more about the NetApp A team. Let's go through the history. How long ago did this start up, Sam? Well, we did our first ETL in 2014 in Boston. Wow. And we branched out from there to Sunnyvale.
So this has been, this is our fourth ETL. Wait, hold up, hold up. Did I do it wrong? No, what's an ETL? Oh, ehoo. I should have covered that. Edel. Yeah, well, okay. So we initially called these events Tech Field Days, but, you know, in respect for Stephen Foskett's thing. Trademark. Yes. Well, okay. I don't know if you can trademark Tech Field Day. It probably is. All right.
Knowing Foskett, it's probably trademarked. We did it out of respect and politeness and professional courtesy, that kind of thing. So anyway, I put it to the guys. All right, well, what do we call this thing if we shouldn't call it the Tech Field Day? And Dave Marrera came up with the term ETL, which stands for extract. Transform Load, and it's a database thing of some kind.
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Chapter 3: How does the A-Team provide feedback to NetApp?
So, yeah, that's where it came from. Wow, that is really nerdy. Well, what do you think happens when you ask, like, the top 1% of our advocacy and field partners to name an event? I'll be honest. I wouldn't expect that much nerd out of Dave Marrero. Okay. I don't know. Good point. Well, okay. I don't know about that. Can we add a nerd-o-meter to the budget because I'd be so in? Yes.
Oh, that would be great. Is it like Harry Potter where you just stones drop in and it becomes like – Yeah, or a divining rod. Yeah. Just find the nerds. Yeah, I think that would be awesome. So let's talk about numbers. Okay. So we started out with how many members would you say? Oh, gosh. One? Literally. All right. OK, no, I don't count myself as a member per se.
So we had a couple of people who had already shown interest. So when we did a reception for the A-Team at Insight. In 2013, a lot of people that had learned just a little bit about the program stopped by, ate the chocolate-covered bacon. And, you know, I had to use a little more elbow grease back then to convince people it was a fun thing to do because, you know, what was the A-team, right?
In fact, we didn't even call it that back then. It was the Net-Up Advocate Program. Boring, boring, boring. So we started with a core group, and we've grown now to 25 members. Sometimes it's a little more, but our intention is to keep it very small because the community or the sense of collaboration among the guys we think is a lot stronger because it's a smaller group.
Yeah, if you get too big, you kind of get drowned out a little bit. You kind of get a little intimidated. It's super VIP. It is. So if you're one of the 25, you're getting the full Sam Moulton A-Team treatment. Sully's the bouncer of the NetApp A-Team VIP party. Right, right, because I think it's important to mention that we do have—
Great support from many of the NetApp SME subject matter experts like yourselves to help us kind of respond to the questions that the A-team members have, steer us in the right direction, help us put things like this ETL together. Yeah, absolutely, Sam. I didn't know that the first one was in Boston. Yes, it was. I did not know about that. That makes sense, though. It's probably in her house.
All good things start at Boston. Everything's adding up now. That's debatable. I don't want to get too controversial on this show. We have a very wide, diverse audience here that we don't want to anger them with Boston culture.
As someone who spent a formidable amount of time in Massachusetts, they're all wrong.
I'm sorry. Deal with it. I am neither agreeing nor disagreeing, but continue. It made sense because I'm based out of Maine. That neither being here nor there, I will say that over the years, the one thing that the A-team absolutely has grown to be and something that we always were hopeful that it would be, is an unfiltered feedback loop. We have a lot of feedback and we get a lot of feedback.
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Chapter 4: What changes have occurred in the A-Team over the years?
We've got our first year class already established. So we're going to be doing, we've met, had the little meet and greet virtually. We're going to be looking toward monthly briefings. So definitely watch the hashtag NetApp United to see what's going on. We'll keep you posted. We're going to have some more information posted about how you can get involved.
Next year, again, we want to know who you are. I know it's a year in advance, but plan ahead. And that's kind of the cycle for that. So we're listening for all voices. The A team has a more complicated structure, and it's basically beware Sam Moulton. She is stalking you.
She does know who you are. She knows how you write.
Sam is always watching. Yeah. She's read your blogs. She's up on your tweet stream. She has reviewed your LinkedIn picture. She knows more about you than probably your spouse or significant other. She's gone through your tweet history and seen if you've said bad things. Pretty much. In a lot of ways, Sam just reaching out and being like, hey, you want to be on the A team?
That is the equivalent of someone swooping in being like, you've been doing great work for the past couple of years. It's time for you to get recognized for that. That's right. It is. Yep. So as far as the United and that sort of thing goes, is it how is it different or similar to programs like the expert or Cisco champions?
Because, Amy, you were involved pretty heavily with Cisco champions at one point. So can you give us an idea of how United differs from the or is the same as those programs? I think, you know, that could take me down a real rat hole because that's a thing I like to talk about on my home podcast, as I call it on the Geek Whispers. And literally is at her house. She puts the sheets over her head.
Kitchen table. Home studio. Closets. Closets are great for that. I think a lot of these programs have very similar missions, which is it's an exciting time, actually, to be in our business. Because it used to, there were only a couple of these programs where folks who were interested technologists could really engage and learn more. So I would say NetApp United is one.
Very similar in a lot of ways to a lot of those programs. They all differ a little bit in size and in scope and in mission. So not just to make it all about NetApp United or the A-Team, we would encourage folks, go out there and do your research. Learn about the program before you join. Know your commitment level.
Know the level that you're going to get back from the company you're going to be working with. Um, but if anybody who's listening isn't involved in one or more of these programs, I would say go out and do some research, find out what's out there. Um, they, they all, like I said, they have some similarities.
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Chapter 5: What changes are being made to NetApp's blogs and news?
I had the best words. Oh, my gosh. I'm going to get back on track. Newsroom. So we've done an awesome thing, and we have given our blogs and our news its own kind of space to live on. We really wanted to pull that out. Give it its own face. So we just put that out there, and we're doing tweaks to it daily. And, yeah, you'll see all those changes made soon.
I really like what you guys did there, right down to the URL, splitting it out. So when you see it come across Twitter now, you instantly know what you're looking at. Is this a forum?
Chapter 6: How is leadership impacting the social media strategy at NetApp?
Is this a blog? Is this someone trying to talk to me? What's going on? It's really clarified both internally and externally what's going on as stuff starts to come out. Yeah. This is happening. We have strong leadership now in a space where maybe it wasn't the attention wasn't placed on the social aspect, the blogging aspect.
And when Amy and team have which the team she's put together, Alyssa is on that team. She has really given strong vision there. And that's coming from Jean and George. That's it's being driven straight from the top. And that's why we're getting so much done in such a short amount of time. That's one of the things that continues to be surprising about what our own team is that we're talking about.
We've accomplished things in months. Yeah. Right. That took years. of just beating your head against the wall.
Chapter 7: What insights do A-Team members share about the ETL experience?
And now in just a few months with this team in place, Alyssa has been able to, this community has come forward. And that's why you don't even have to be coy because by the time this podcast even gets published, it'll probably some of this stuff will start to go live. So the social aspect is interesting because I've been kind of on the forefront of, like, doing the social thing just in general.
Like, I just do it on my own. And what I've noticed about NetApp was there's a shift in how they took—how seriously they took social media. Because before, it felt like it was like, oh, social is just a hobby, you know? Nobody wants to listen to people talk. It was personal. It was, right? It was just— Yeah. And now they're starting to realize the value and the amplification.
And we joked about making America great again, but the election was a good example of what happens when you use social media effectively. I was recruited to the company five years ago to work with our vice chairman, Tom Mendoza, specifically. And I have Tom on camera saying I will never be on Twitter. I will never be on LinkedIn. And yet now if you follow him on Twitter—
I was at VMworld and watched Pete Fletcher teach that man how to tweet.
Yes. And so Tom and I worked together, and I worked with him to get him on Twitter and then to get him on LinkedIn. And he had that aha moment. He started to say, I am having conversations with people I would have never talked to before. And that man knows how to talk. He is out there meeting people.
Well, when you start at that level, I mean, we're talking about a man who's been in the industry for a very long time.
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Chapter 8: What are the key takeaways from the ETL sessions?
And then that starts to trickle down as new leadership comes in and they have a new approach and attitude about that. And this is a campaign on my side with executives who I have gone from them trying for me trying to convince them. to them saying, help me, please. When they find me, pulling me in saying, need me help.
And we joke about the election, but what it demonstrated was for good or bad, social is an incredibly powerful platform to affect change. If you're the CEO of United, you might want to learn how to get on social before you have a crisis. But if you want to run for president, there you go. All you need to have is a Twitter account. Hashtag real talk. What happened to United?
You could stay inside tech, right? I mean, Satya Nadella has been killing it since he took over Microsoft. He goes directly to his users when he wants to really move the needle. Dave Wright, a conversation recently came out in the register about some stuff that Dave's done, and he just put out one tweet and a story.
And that was because he had a reputation of being out there talking already with a reputation and an audience. And that's the key, is that with our executives, the strategy is... Social becomes a training ground for the opportunities. There are going to be opportunities in the market. Dell is going to make mistakes and stumble. Our competitors are going to make mistakes and stumble.
And our executives are going to be poised, and already we're seeing that change, to take advantage of that because they will be out there authentically in the conversation with our customers, our partners, and other vendors. What are you going to say? I was just going to say that I think even for me, to be very honest, I did not use Twitter until... Like last week, right?
No, it was... It said April 2017 was you got on Twitter. Is that what it... She went in kicking and screaming, too. She said, I'm not doing that. I'm not. I really was. Actually, I'm not even going to try and fight that because that was absolutely true. But I think I felt kind of pressured to get on Twitter and to be more social. And, you know, I was kind of told, like, it's really not that hard.
You just share your thoughts, right? And I think it's breaking that barrier but also kind of – seeing executives and people at NetApp start talking about stuff going on and it's, I just want to join the conversation. I think as I did, I got more comfortable with it and it's, it's great.
You get to build your community of people and like, um, someone was saying earlier, part of the A team, you know, it's great to finally put faces and names together. So that's awesome. Yeah, with social media, you kind of get to curate how people see you, right? You do. Yeah, the good and bad that comes with that, too. Well, you have to be very careful if you want to be curated properly.
That's true. Some people don't care about how they are curated. Well, that's beneficial for me because I have five daughters, and I track their boyfriends on social and stalk them quite extensively. Wow. Yes, and so they're not careful, and so it's been great insights, yeah. Bliss is kind of crazy. Yeah, I'm a little nuts. I feel like... Like, the hashtag for this week has been real talk.
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