Talk:Digital strategy/Archives/2012

Help checking sources?
Can someone help check these sources against WP:SOURCE?

I can't verify these two because of insufficient information:
 * Borg (2003): Enabling a Customer-Focused Organization: Thought Leadership Summit on Digital Strategies. Center for Digital Strategies at the Tuck School of Business and Cisco Systems
 * Bean (2001): The Application of Technology to Marketing: A Twenty Year Perspective,NewVantagePerspective.

These two look like Forrester reports. Anyone know if such reports are considered reliable sources? Can anyone verify that they actually support the topic of the article?
 * Kim (2006): Reinventing The Marketing Organization: Customer Groups Should Trump Channels, Products, Or Geography. Forrester.
 * Burns (2006): Leaders Take A Strategic Approach To Web Analytics . Forrester.

This last one looks like it's on a different, or wider subject:
 * Quinn (2006): Ready for the Digital Future?, Supply Chain Management Review.

Finally, we need someone without an obvious WP:COI to verify this (which I've removed per COI]]: --Ronz 16:40, 12 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Mulder and Yaar (2006): The User Is Always Right: A Practical Guide to Creating and Using Personas for the Web. New Riders Press ISBN 0-321-43453-6.

The following references were added to support the Personas section, without other changes to the section. Looks like another Forrester report and a boxesandarrows article. Again, help is needed to verify them. Boxesandarrows articles do not meet WP:SOURCE criteria from my perspective, being self-published: --Ronz 18:41, 12 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Manning (2006): Lessons From AD TECH Persona Panel, Forrester.
 * Hanna (2007): Customer Storytelling at the Heart of Business Success, boxesandarrows.

Role of personas in digital strategy
As of 2007, a trend in digital strategy is the use of personas as a framework for using customer information to prioritize online initiatives. Personas are character sketches which represent a typical member of one customer segment and highlights their needs, goals and behaviors. Because it is representative of a customer segment, it allows decision makers to prioritize various features based on the needs of the segment. Because it is a character sketch, it is sometimes easier for decision makers to internalize the key needs of the segment than it would be by reading reams and reams of data. A typical approach is to create the segment based on customer analysis such as customer interviews, ethnographic research, and statistical surveys. Then assemble key decision makers or stakeholders, present the findings of the personas, and use them to kick start a brainstorming session around different online initiatives which can meet the personas needs and goals.
 * The above has been moved from the article because the editor that contributed it is the author of the book and the information is derived solely from this book. --Ronz 16:47, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Addition of references to digital strategy
I've removed the concern|non-notable and added back the Role of personas in digital strategy to the article. In trying to improve the article based on all the helpful feedback I've received, I've added a number of references from highly reputable sources (Tuck School of Business, Forrester, etc.). To the article (including two additional references specifically to the personas section to support the existing one). Of course, much of the research in this area is being done 'in the field' rather than in academia, so there will be a larger emphasis on commercial sources and books versus academic one. But I think these are reasonable sources and as in-line with the Wikipedia standards. If people review the sources and disagree, I welcome any further advice and help.

One could argue now, that a fair complaint is that the article is not wonderfully referenced (better than before, but many sections lack reference). Certainly I agree and will continue to work on that. But my hope is that the non-notable issue is resolved (at least, once people check the references). --Zyaar 18:13, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

About the sources
Ronz, I cannot aid in the checking of the sources as you have requested (in fact, I only encountered this article because it had been prodded). However, I would like to comment on what I can. The Borg (2003) and Bean (2001) sources should have page numbers included, but the lack of page numbers does not automatically disqualify the sources. In regard to Kim (2006), Burns (2006), and Manning (2006), I have found no reason to suspect that Forrester reports are unreliable. "Forrester Research" is frequently cited in news articles and other research (see ). Quinn (2006) may be on a broader subject (based on the title), but that also doesn't disqualify it as a source (again, page numbers are highly desirable). Lastly, with regard to Hanna (2007), self-published sources are not automatically considered unreliable. Please see the two classes of exceptions at WP:SPS. -- Black Falcon 19:48, 12 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the help. That pretty much agrees with my own perspective. --Ronz 20:20, 12 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Sorry guys. I will see about adding page numbers (and links, to the public stuff) tomorrow (trying to juggle this and a fulltime job).  --Zyaar 00:28, 13 March 2007 (UTC)
 * I've added the links to all references (where applicable), as well as page numbers (again, where applicable, sometimes these are themes in the entire article). I've also added back the persona section with it's footnotes and links, so they can be verified.  If people don't have access to Forrester, I can see about working with Forrester to get copies of the applicable articles to people (Forrester has provided in these in the past, I'll probably need an email address from the editor and it CAN'T be distributed any further).--Zyaar 13:56, 13 March 2007 (UTC)