This is my first post on the Gartner blog network. It feels a little odd to be posting after nearly 3 months away – my old blog at www.itmarketstrategy.com was a frequently updated place. I hope to make this one the same. Why the lag?
It turns out that there is a great deal of prior art to deal with when you’re a Gartner analyst. This is no small matter – with over 700 other analysts publishing regularly, I want to be sure that I’m aware of “Gartner positions” on key issues. Not because I won’t be willing to take a contrary view – but if so, I need to be respectful and explain why I differ. And as a courtesy, it’s appropriate to have a dialogue with the author of that position. Not to do so would not only be disrespectful, but it would confuse our readers, Gartner clients or not.
Another issue to consider is priorities. Managing my time begins with client inquiry response. I’ve been stunned by the volume of inquiry I’ve had since I “went live” on internal systems here. It helps to be in such a hot space – data, big, small, batch or interactive, structured or not, appliance or cloud….there are so many questions our clients have, and I’m routinely handling several inquiries every day that I’m available. It’s a fantastic source of input for me to understand what people are concerned about, investing in, or deploying. My perspective is shifting steadily based on that input – the last few years were very vendor-centric for me, and that skews your point of view. Processing those changes, and doing the grunt work of digging in to answer questions about issues I haven’t been close to for a while, has taken some time.
Finally, there is another question of priorities: publishing Gartner research is at the top of the list. As I’ve gotten ramped up, trained, handled inquiries, and kept my usual ear to the ground via events and briefings, I’ve been slow to start the writing process. All of the above things not only felt prerequisite, they competed for my time. But now, I feel up to speed, and I’ve implemented a scheduling model that will let me carve out the time I need to do the writing well.
For those wondering where I’ve been, I’m back. I’ve been learning the ropes. But I’m not tied up anymore. Watch this space!
