Verizon at Home

[#1]

Since FiOS TV's inception in 2005, we have worked to develop the product in close collaboration with our customers.  It has always been my goal as the product director to spend as little time as possible on the white board and in the labs in favor of getting our teams into the real world with each of you.  While we aren’t perfect, I am confident that we’ve made major strides in the last five years, and we aren’t done yet. 

Today, we’re formally introducing our latest tool, the Verizon Idea Exchange, but first a little history:

Originally we started out with fairly traditional focus groups, surveys and usability testing.  These tools have their benefits, but never let us interact with a large number of you and they didn’t necessarily give us a picture of the real world. It is tough to give us feedback when you only get to play with something for less than an hour in a fake living room. 

In 2006 we introduced a new tool -- our beta test program.  This is perhaps my favorite as it lets you have access to the product in the real world fairly early in the development cycle.  As our beta test program matured, we launched Verizon Test Track, which provided a way for us to get even more of you engaged in beta testing as well as tools to funnel your feedback directly to our product managers and developers responsible for building the product.  At this point, we have nearly 10,000 customers who have volunteered to participate in Test Track.  The disadvantage of the beta program is that your involvement in the development of the product starts after we have defined it.  So in some cases we are not in a position to implement your feedback until version 2 of the product.

Starting in 2009 we began employing social networking and blogs that enabled you to interact with us earlier in the process.  Seven days a week I am on Twitter (http://twitter.com/fiostv)  

interacting with many of you, and it has been very useful for me, but many have told me that it is not as useful to all of you.

“Can we have a formal web site to submit bugs we encounter.  It would be nice to have it organized in such a way as to see what bugs others are submitting and (maybe the most important part) to know what bugs are being addressed in a future release.

Letting us submit bugs formally and letting us know what is being addressed formally will mitigate a lot of uncertainty as to what you know as opposed to what we know and your plans on addressing the issues we find.”

- Nascar on 3/29/10

“I agree with the previous user about a site to submit bugs/enhancement requests.”

- bdj615 on 3/31/10

“… I'd like to know how *I* can provide feedback to you/FiOS engineers…”

- angeloalberico on 8/20/10

We listened and have added another tool to our arsenal that we hope moves us another step closer to our goal of customer-centric product development – Verizon Idea Exchange (http://verizon.com/ideaexchange).  This tool not only enables exchanges between you and us, but also provides the opportunity for you to collaborate with each other.  Post an idea for improving FiOS TV and you’ll not only get responses about that idea from the product managers, but also get comments and votes from your fellow FiOS TV viewers.

There are three idea categories for FiOS TV:

• FiOS TV content:  If there is a channel that you want or maybe some On Demand content, this is your category for submitting the request and rallying your fellow FiOS TV viewers to vote for it.
• FiOS TV Widgets:  This is the category for ideas about TV applications that bring Internet content to your TV or ways to improve existing Widgets (e.g. some new capability for Facebook on your TV).
• FiOS TV:  Basically the place for all other ideas that are not about new content additions or widgets.

Once your idea is submitted, the product manager responsible for the category will review the submission with his/her technical partners and mark it as “Acknowledged.”  This status tells you that they are working on evaluating your suggestion.  In some cases, they may assign a status that requests more information (i.e. “Clarification Needed”), which is your cue to provide more details.  If the idea was already submitted, then your post will have its status marked as “Duplicate” and a link provided to the existing submission.  For more complex ideas, the product manager may have to perform deeper analysis, which means it will take several weeks before we can respond.  These ideas are assigned an “Under Review” status.

Every week the product managers will review their recommended responses with me and then post them back to the Idea Exchange.  The possible responses can include:

• Already exists:  we agreed it was a good idea and it is already part of FiOS TV.
• Not likely:  for business or technical reasons we are not going to be able to implement the idea.
• Maybe later:  it is a good idea but not something we can include in a near-term software release.
• In Progress:  once planning is done for your idea and we have begun development.
• Launched:  go to your TV and see your idea as part of high-fidelity FiOS TV.

However, it is important to understand that the Verizon Idea Exchange is not a place to get customer support (i.e. get immediate resolution to a problem).  You can use the Idea Exchange as a place to report a software issue and track its resolution in our software releases, but not as a means to report a problem you need fixed immediately.  For online support and immediate problem resolution, please use http://www22.verizon.com/content/ContactUs/.

We really appreciate the time FiOS TV viewers take to collaborate with us.  We value your input and we hope you see that in our actions.  After all, as much as we would like to take the credit, it was several of your ideas that were the catalyst for the Verizon Idea Exchange.     

Please take some time and check out the Idea Exchange.  Maybe submit a vote or two.  If you’re up for it, post that suggestion that’s been on your mind for the past few months.  But most importantly please keep the dialogue going.  We are ready to listen and respond.

[#2]

I really appreciate the time Joe and the rest of the FiOS TV team take to listen and try to implement our ideas.  It is clear to me that you do indeed value our input.  This forum gives us a way to help shape the future of FiOS TV.

A sincere thank you!

[#3]

My idea for FiOS is to bring it to my neighborhood.

Our current provider was created by the home builder as a supplimental business to provide telephone, cable, and internet to our community (and subsequently, other communities).

It would make an ideal acquisition for Verizon. Fibre is already laid to every house and is currently dark. The home builder is in financial trouble. The existing customer base is disappointed with the lack of content and the slowness to adop new technology. Thousands of new verizon customers are waiting to be signed up!

Please bring FiOS to Centennial in Westfield, IN by buying First Mile Technologies, a subsidiary of The Estridge Companies!

[#4]

SpoonsJTD,

Thank you for reaching out with your idea for bringing FiOS to your neighborhood, but we're unable to follow up because Verizon doesn't offer FiOS in Indiana.  We do offer FiOS in parts of 12 states and the District of Columbia, and we're continuing to make the service available to more customers in areas where we've been building our all-fiber network and already have cable franchises.  In addition to D.C., the markets where we offer FiOS  are in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas and Virginia.  Customers who live in Verizon's landline markets in these states can continue to check our website for FiOS availability:

https://www22.verizon.com/ForYourHome/GoFlow/NationalBundles/BundleQualify.aspx

Joe

[#5]

For NHL games on Center Ice, can you add to the guide if the feed is from the home team or away team?