Co-creation of Competency Models for Customer Success and Pricing Excellence

By Steven Forth

Co-Creation is one way that ‘open competency models’ are actually open!

Pricing Expertise and Customer Success are two of the key capabilities for growing companies. Ibbaka Talent is building open competency models for Pricing, Customer Success, Design Thinking and Adaptation to Climate Change. We are actively working with these communities of practice to build and evolve these models. Here is where we are so far:

For Pricing Expertise

we are designing for the following roles (subject to community input). Note that Roles are not the same as Jobs. Jobs are composed of Roles and a person in a non-pricing position, like a product manager or sales leader, could have a pricing role added to the job.

• Pricing AI Expert

• Pricing Analyst

• Pricing and Revenue Optimization Expert

• Pricing Coach

• Pricing Designer

• Pricing Strategist

• Pricing System Administrator

For Customer Success

we are thinking of supporting the following roles (also subject to community input).

• Customer Advisory Board Partner

• Customer Advocacy Expert

• Customer Experience Expert

• Product Expert

• Professional Services Member

• Value to Customer Expert

You may be wondering, “Just how are these models open?”

The direct answer is that they are being provided under a Creative Commons license and people will be able to use and modify these models with attribution. We make money when you want to use them on our platform as input into your own customized models.

The models are also open in that they are designed to evolve. They evolve in three ways.

1. They include skills bubbling up from users

2. Different models can be combined

3. Community insights and conversations can be applied

Skills bubbling up from users

Anyone can have a free profile on Ibbaka-TeamFit. As people develop their profiles, adding new skills, projects and roles, our system builds a skill graph that codes the relationships between skills. Skills associated with one of the open competency models (Design Thinking, Pricing Expertise, Customer Success, Adaptation to Climate Change) can be bubbled up into the model so that it evolves in response to the real skills used by the people with the competency.

Different models can be combined

No one model is or should be complete in itself and no one model is likely to describe actual jobs in a specific context (company, project, job, team). Models can be more powerful when combined. Sometimes the combination will enrich an existing model. Other times it will generate a whole new model, perhaps for a new discipline.

Community insights and conversations can be applied

One way we are doing this is through the co-creation session, one of many we will be having. We also reach out through surveys, conversations on social media, and welcome all feedback and insights.

For those interested in the larger, strategic, goals for talent optimization, and the role that skills and competencies play, read the our recap from the 5 Strategies to Transform HR.

Ibbaka Posts on Competency Models and Competency Frameworks

• Competency models as learning plans

• From user experience to competency model design - Margherita Bacigalupo and EntreComp

• Competency framework designers on competency framework design: Jeff Griffiths on transversal and vertical skills

• Competency framework designers on competency framework design: The chunkers and the slice and dicers

• Competency framework designers on competency framework design: Victoria Pazukha

• Two podcasts on competency model design from Vancouver

• The A in KSA is for Abilities or Attitudes or Attributes?

• Do competency frameworks need competency definitions?

• Should you have a personal competency model?

• Designing a skill competency model - the Ibbaka approach

• Design research - How do people approach the design of skill and competency models?

• Designing a blueprint for your competency model framework

• From competency model design to competency model generation

• The WEF on Building a Common Language for Skills at Work

• Aligning skill and competency models with microcredentials - a conversation between Don Presant and Kul Sharma

• Three Metaphors for Skills and Competencies

• The Skills for Career Mobility - Interview with Dennis Green

• Competencies or skills - what should you assess?

• Lessons Learned Launching and Scaling Capability Management Programs

• Designing a Competency Model for Innovation Coaches

• Talent Transformation - A Conversation with Eric Shepherd, Martin Belton and Steven Forth

• Who cares about skill and competency models

• Competency Model Definitions - the IEEE ups its game

• Competency Models Made Easy - Two Simple Spreadsheets to Build Your Own Competency Models

• Simple (very simple) skill and competency models

• Individual - Team - Organizational use cases for skill and competency management

• Design decisions for developing a competency framework

• What is skill management?

• Competency models are living documents and need curation

• Some key use cases for competency model adoption

• Designing the Open Competency Model Architecture

• A third skillscape

• Building skill and competency models together

• Getting past competency model PTSD

• Co-creation of Competency Models for Customer Success and Pricing Excellence (this post)

• Competencies for Adaptation to Climate Change – An Interview with Dr. Robin Cox

• Architecting the Competencies for Adaptation to Climate Change Open Competency Model

• Introducing open competency models

• Integrating Skills and Competencies in the Talent Management Ecosystem

• Organizational values and competency models – survey results

• Why your job architecture needs a competency model

• Are values part of your competency model?

• How to build competency models

• A skill name is just a word, isn’t it?

• Current trends in skill and competency management

• Enabling internal mobility - a design thinking approach