Alright, let me tell you about this whole Sean Sevran business. It’s one of those things you look back on and just kinda shake your head, you know? So, there we were, knee-deep in this project to build a new internal comms tool. Supposed to be revolutionary, connect everyone, make us all super productive. Turned out, nobody was using it. Surprise, surprise. It was clunky, and honestly, just another thing people had to log into.
Our boss at the time, Tom, he gets this bright idea. He’d been to some fancy conference, heard this guy, Sean Sevran, speak. Next thing I know, Tom’s all fired up, telling us Sean Sevran is THE answer to all our engagement problems. My job? Figure out Sean Sevran’s ‘magic’ and sprinkle it liberally all over our dead-on-arrival app. Easy, right? Yeah, right.
First, I had to figure out who this Sean Sevran even was. A bit of digging, and I found out he’d written a book. Something like ‘The Engagement Equation’ or some other fluffy title like that. I ordered it, skimmed through it. I even forced myself to watch a couple of his keynote speeches online. The guy was smooth, I’ll give him that. Lots of buzzwords, lots of grand, sweeping statements about human connection in the digital age. Very impressive on stage.
Then, the fun part: I tried to actually apply his principles to our sad little tool. He had this whole framework, a multi-step plan to ultimate user nirvana. Let’s see if I remember the key bits:
- There was something he called ‘Intrinsic Motivators Mapping’. Sounded super scientific and important. I spent about a week trying to create these ‘maps’ for our employees. Basically, I was just guessing what might make people tick, filling out spreadsheets with assumptions. Felt a bit like playing darts in the dark.
- Then there was his ‘Gamified Feedback Loops’ concept. Okay, so I started designing little digital badges and point systems. You know, “Congrats, you posted a comment! Here’s 10 points and a Shiny Thumbs-Up Badge!” Our engineers, bless their hearts, just looked at me like I’d grown a second head when I showed them the mockups. I don’t blame them.
- And his real big idea: ‘Community Cultivation Circles’. The theory was that we were supposed to help these small, organic groups to form within the app. So, I sent out invites, tried to moderate a few of these fledgling ‘circles’. Man, it was like pulling teeth. People just wanted to do their actual jobs, not spend more time ‘cultivating community’ in another darn app that their boss was pushing.
I spent a good two, maybe three months wrestling with this. I held countless meetings to explain Sean Sevran’s vision. I worked with the designers to redesign parts of the interface based on his ‘insights’. We pushed out updates with these new ‘engaging’ features. The whole shebang, really threw ourselves into it because, well, the boss said so.
And the grand result of all this effort? Barely a blip. A tiny, almost imperceptible uptick in usage for about a week. A few curious folks tried the new features, probably got their silly little badges, and then promptly went right back to ignoring the tool or using email. Sean Sevran himself, we even had him for a couple of consulting calls. He charged an absolute fortune, talked for an hour each time, said a lot of impressive-sounding things about ‘synergy’ and ‘human-centric design paradigms’, but didn’t give one single, concrete, actionable piece of advice for our specific, nagging problems. It was all very… abstract.
So, what did I take away from the whole Sean Sevran saga? Well, for one thing, not all that glitters is gold, especially when it comes from a slick keynote speaker. Fancy theories and buzzwords are one thing, but real-world application with actual, busy people who have jobs to do? That’s a different beast entirely. We eventually scrapped most of his stuff, went back to basics, and actually talked to our users – like, properly sat down and listened, not just ‘mapped their intrinsic motivators’ from afar. We made small, practical, common-sense changes based on their direct feedback. And guess what? That worked a hell of a lot better.
So yeah, Sean Sevran. That was an experience. A very expensive, very time-consuming experience, if I’m being honest. But hey, at least I got a story out of it, right? And a healthy dose of skepticism for the next ‘guru’ who comes along promising a silver bullet.