Weekend in SF

Last weekend I went to SF with Dave to see Alcatraz, ride bikes over the Golden Gate Bridge, and go to the Raiders/Chargers football game (yes, I survived to tell about it!)

The ferry ride over to Alcatraz was about 20 minutes, and we got some great photos of the Bay Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, and the island. We learned Alcatraz was a penitentiary until 1963 when it closed and then became a museum for the public (and the star of "The Rock"). One of the famous inmates was Machine Gun Kelly - I don't remember much about him, but hey, his name was Kelly - cool! I also learned that the guards' families lived on the island with them, and that the children grew up playing on a cement playground facing the city. They interviewed some of these children, and they said they actually loved growing up on Alcatraz.

After getting back to SF, we had lunch in the Wharf (chowda and shrimp) then rented bikes to ride over the Golden Gate Bridge. We rode about an hour to the bridge, taking tons of pictures along the way (along with getting sweaty and dirty!) I never knew there was such a nice park under the bridge, with a beach and large beautiful grassy areas for bbq's and birthday parties.

In order to try and make a ferry back to the Wharf, Dave and I raced across the bridge in an attempt to make it to Sausalito by 4:30. With ten minutes left to make it there, we took a wrong turn down hill at 40 mph, and quickly realized we weren't going to be getting back to the Wharf on that ferry! As they say, if you're 1 minute late to the ferry, you're 59 minutes early for the next one :-)

So, as Dave said, we "turned lemons into lemonade," and rode all the way back to the Wharf. As an aside, the wind was never at our backs, and I swear it was uphill both ways!

Saturday night I met Dave's college friend Jeff and his fiance Molly, who let us stay at their place near Coit Tower. We had the best dinner - crab and Caeser salad with garlic bread, and then I enjoyed the rest of the night getting to know his friends.

Sunday we went to Oakland to meet up with Dave's friend's sister and brother-in-law (you follow that?) who had hooked us up with 2 tickets to the Raiders/Chargers game. Let's just say after 8 Raider themed Harley Davidsons in the parking lot and thousands of crazy pirate looking fans, we found our seats in McAfee stadium. I can't believe we ended up winning that game after the 0-15 first half - we didn't wear Bolt clothing, but it was still apparent we were Chargers fans....I'm just glad we made it out of there alive!

This was a great way to spend my last weekend in the Bay Area!

My last week in CCRP

Well my time away at CCRP is coming to a close......Saturday is my last day in the Bay Area, before I fly home to San Diego to resume my role in Procurement. Today was round 2 of our report-out to the QB Online leaders, sharing our experiences and learnings in the program. This presentation was incredible! In the spirit of rapid piloting, we took all the feedback from last Friday's report-out and improved the presentation for today. Afterwards, our QBO program leader passed out awards highlighting many of the CCRP-ers! I was so excited to be awarded "Best Overall Performer!" Wahoo!

Before the presentation, members of Corporate Strategy and the Global Business Division spoke on their roles at Intuit. The best takeaway I got was this: in order to be a great leader and performer, you must be receptive to feedback. This is something I know I struggle with, as I'm sure others do to. I think it's natural to feel somewhat "offended" when you receive feedback/criticisms. The real learning here to understand that this feedback truly helps you improve your work, processes, etc. Even if the feedback is "looks good," I learned to still solicit feedback and opportunities to improve.

Tomorrow we are going to be discussing the book "Strengthsfinder 2.0." My five strength themes were: Focus, Learner, Restorative, Significance, & Competition. Now that I've identified my strength themes, I'm going to work on incorporating these into my goal setting process.

4 days until my departure!

"Rice-A-Roni, a San Francisco treat!"

This weekend my parents flew in from Portland, and we celebrated my mom's birthday in San Fran style! The weekend began with driving around the SJ airport trying to figure out where Alaska baggage claim was. In my haste to get my parents out of the confusing catastrophe that is the airport, I broke the heel of my favorite shoes by slamming my foot in the car door! (Yeah, smooth move I know!)

My mom really wanted to ride the Trolley Car, so on Saturday we drove up to SF and spent the day sight-seeing. We started with taking the Powell-Mason trolley to Fisherman's Wharf. When we got there we had lunch at Tarantino's. We sat on the 2nd floor and looked out on the wharf and the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance, eating "chowda," crab, and fish n chips. We checked out ships at the Hyde St. Pier and then walked to Ghirardelli Square. Then we caught a cab back to Powell and drove to Golden Gate Park and the Presidio. We walked through the Japanese Tea Garden and walked past the new California Academy of the Sciences with a "living roof." At the Presidio, we checked out the spectacular view of the Golden Gate Bridge, from artillery structures that used to house cannons. After that we decided to drive back, and grabbed some dinner in downtown San Jose at this Italien place called Spiedo.

Today we watched the US battle Europe for the Ryder Cup, and had some lunch at the Westfield foodcourt (hit the mall to replace those shoes!) before dropping off mom and dad at the airport. Now I'm watching Season 4 of "Friends"...I have 2 more weeks to get through the next 6 seasons before I have to return the DVDs to Alli!

P.S. I added the photos from Monterey and the 17-mile-drive with Dave, and the SF weekend with my parents, to my slideshow. Check it out!

4:30 Wake up call

I'm rounding out week 5 of CCRP, and performing the support agent role on chat. The 6am shift requires getting up at 4:30....but it also means getting out at 3 in the afternoon! Earlier in the week we attended a career coaching event, where we learned about senior leaders' journey lines, forming your work around your skills and value system, and the importance of networking. My big takeway about networking was that the way you know you become masterful at it, is when you not only gain connections through a network, but you can foster those connections for other people.

I can't believe CCRP is almost over for me! These 5 weeks have gone by so quickly, and I have really valued the ability to meet and connect with our leaders, as well as broaden my network with the friendships I've made here. 2 more weeks left!

Last two days on the phone

These are my last couple days speaking with customers on the phone, and then I'll be transitioning to support via IM chatting. My shift starts at 6am, so anyone that knows me, knows I'll be pounding a couple lattes beforehand!

This weekend I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and drove the 17-mile-drive from Monterey to Carmel. I tried to snap a few photos of the golf courses (spyglass and pebble beach I think) and will post those soon. I finished the night with dinner in Santa Cruz and I saw the lighthouse at Steamer Lane. There were a couple guys surfing near the cliffs at Steamer Lane, with only the moonlight to see!

Yesterday I went to a local sports bar on Lafayette (C & J's) to watch the Chargers - Broncos game. I'm still getting over that game.....allow me to momentarily get on my soap box: that game really shows how a couple bad calls from the refs can throw an entire game!

This weekend my parents are coming to visit and we are going to do more San Francisco sight-seeing...which means more photos to post!

I'll always remember where I was on 9/11

I've been thinking about this date a lot this week, contemplating the events of that day, where I was when it happened, how all of America felt when we watched horrified as thousands of people suffered. I read this article on CNN this morning ("Rumsfeld, Bush speak at Pentagon 9/11 ceremony"), noting the moments of silence being observed throughout the morning, flags at half-staff, and victims' relatives reading their names at Ground Zero. Mayor Bloomberg quoted an Irish proverb: "Death leaves a heartache no one can heal. Love leaves a memory no one can steal."

I will never forget where I was that morning. It was my first week as a freshman at USD, and I woke up to the sound of my dorm neighbor pounding on my door. Coincidentally the night before, that same neighbor had told me this elaborate (and untrue) story about how WWIII was starting, so she didn't really have much credibility at resiting world facts. When I woke up to her knocking on the door and she told me planes had just struck the World Trade Center, I didn't believe her. I almost went back to sleep because I thought it was the same antics as the night before...

It only took a few seconds to process the emotion in her face and realize these events were true. USD cancelled classes that day, and I spent the morning in my PJs watching CNN on the TV in the game room.

One week later, the Chargers' stadium (Qualcomm) filled up with thousands of San Diegans who united to read the names of the victims. I still remember the photos of Qualcomm Stadium- which has the largest parking lot in America - filled to capacity with mourners.

Some people remember where they were when Kennedy was shot. I could never relate until 9/11. I will never forget that day, nor will the rest of America.

San Diego Super Chargers!

I went home to SD this weekend to watch the Chargers take on the Panthers. Yes, my jaw dropped as did the jaws of the other millions of people who watched in dismay as the Panthers scored in the last 2 seconds of the game to win. But, regardless of the loss, I had a great weekend. Friday night I got my Thai fix satisfied at Bali Thai (normally a great little hole in the wall place, but that night our dinner took an hour to be served!). Saturday I had lunch at Milton's in Del Mar with Dave and his mom, and that night we hosted a game night with our buddies. Turkey burgers, margaritas, and many cupcakes later we watched a movie and got our beauty sleep as we prepared for the opening Charger game.

The Queue

I've been working the queue of customer cases for about an hour now, and the team has demolished it down to zero - so I have some free time.

Yesterday was a little rusty coming back from the weekend in SD, but the morning went surprisingly well on the phones. Little did I know the afternoon would be tremendously more difficult. I'm learning to IM/chat with fellow support agents for assistance, at the same time as guiding the phone conversation with the customer. It's like learning to walk and chew at the same time. Eventually it will become second nature, but for now it is challenging!

I'm learning to eat a lot of "humble pie" and not take it personally when the customer gets frustrated with me. I've been able to have this perspective mostly from putting myself in there shoes: I would be frustrated just like them if I was having an issue with a product!

Getting to rotate with CCRP has allowed me to walk a mile in the shoes of both the customer support agents as well as the customer. I have a completely new appreciation for both stakeholders!

Can you hear me now?

I'm sitting at the airport getting ready to fly home to San Diego for the weekend, and the guy sitting next to me is doing the best Verizon guy imitation on a conference call: "Can you hear me now?"

The Chargers' opening game is Sunday against the Panthers, and of course I will be cheering for the home team at Qualcomm stadium. Apparently the Chargers will be wearing the white jerseys instead of their blues due to the expected sunny San Diego weather.

This afternoon the CCRP-ers had a laser tag offsite. My code name was "Cheetah," and I was anything BUT the name-sake. By the third game my last-resort strategy became running into the opposing team's base and just yelling crazy enough to make them laugh so hard I could shoot at them and actually hit their vest targets. In the first game I only scored an embarassing 59 points, but not as bad as my good friend Megan's dismal 30 points!

Yesterday was our first official day speaking with customers on the phone taking support cases. I was definitely feeling some stress/anxiety at the idea of getting a pained customer on the phone, only to make them wait long while I desperately tried to resolve their issue! Yesterday was pretty rough, but I have to say today's cases were either significantly easier, or I was handling the calls a lot better because I didn't feel as frustrated. Next week I will continue to handle support cases over the phone, and the following week I will begin "talking" to customers over online chat.

Well I think we're probably boarding the plane soon, so now is as good as time as ever to sign off. Over and out!

Learning

"It's only when the tide goes out that you learn who's been swimming naked" - Warren Buffett

So we have just begun week 3 in CCRP.....and the clear theme of this program is to never stop learning. Last week the GM of Quicken met with CCRP and left that very message. She said the two key things to being successful are: (1) always continue to learn, no matter what role you are in, no matter how much you already know, just always keep trying to discover something new & (2) to be thankful for the things others have taught/done for you along the way and to show that appreciation.

Yesterday we took our first official customer cases, and I was a little nervous! We worked in a large group of about 20 to research the answer in the knowledge base before calling back the customer.

It has been a little slow going through the training process, but in the words of some really smart person many years ago, "you have to go slow, to go fast."

Sneak peak on next post: Kelly goes to San Fran!

Ugly Green Tool

I completed day 2 of QuickBooks Online (QBO) training! Although we've already used the product in a few different business simulations, today was a little different because we practiced taking customer "cases" (issues submitted online via email/chat) and trying to solve them. We are working in a test environment of UGT (Ugly Green Tool - named by the developers who created it!) which is the tool that the support agents use to process cases.

Basically when a customer case is submitted, it is routed to UGT. Support agents with varying levels of experience/expertise have specific "rights" in UGT that allow them to see cases with a level of difficulty/urgency that matches their experience level. When we get a case, we research the answer in the knowledge base as well as chat with other agents who may already know the answer to that case. Depending on whether the answer is technical in nature, requires a long explanation/instruction, etc., the support agent either calls or emails the customer with a response.

The lack of accounting knowledge is really killing me, but I'm hoping I'll rapidly pick up the debits/credits in the next couple days. We begin interfacing with customers next week, but we will have an experienced agent shadowing us so I'm not too scared about messing up!

The Growth Leader of QBO spoke to CCRP today. I loved her message because it was refreshing to hear how she measures the success of her team. She told a story about a Sales Agent who in his first month, made 70 sales. In the second month he mades 100 sales, then 120 sales in the third month. When this agent had a 1:1 with her, he said his goal in month 4 was to make 150 sales. She told this agent not to make 150 sales. She said "I want you to only make 100 sales, and bring your team up with you to also make 100 sales." She said she valued a team member instilling their success in others a lot more than increasing their own success alone.

Ok, signing out for today but more to come on QBO!

First blog post ever, here goes nothing!

(Drum roll please....) Welcome to my blog! I decided to start a blog in order to capture ideas, random thoughts, funny memories, cool videos - really anything! I just started working in the Customer Connection Rotation Program (CCRP) at Intuit and have a lot of memories already in my first week:

• Brad Smith (Intuit CEO) met with CCRP participants. Brad shared a lot about Intuit's vision to go "social, mobile, global" to transform the lives of our customers.
• I visited 3 retail stores to view Intuit product displays (Target, Costco, Office Max)
• I went on a "Follow-me-home" to meet a QuickBooks user, who showed us how she uses QB in her 3-person business for servicing restaurant equipment.
• The QuickBooks Online Challenge presented each CCRP participant with a fake business to setup on QuickBooks. It's been 5 years since my last accounting course - and boy did it show! Those darn long-term-liabilities...
• CCRP Hoe-Down! (I'll leave it at that - let's just say there were cowboy hats, bandanas, and ribs).
• Rounded out the week with the Business Challenge - where we pretended to be land developers building "Somerset Village" - a student family housing project for Intuit University. Teams worked cross-functionally with a marketer, developer, finance analyst, customer support agent, and project manager. I was the project manager!

This week we kicked off our training on QuickBooks Online to prepare for customer call-backs, the online community, live chat, and email interaction with the customer. Stay tuned for more to come!