It's funny, I've been covering Findability-related topics for 8 years now, and sometimes it is just very difficult to return to the "beginner mind" and remember what it's like to not be immersed in all of the guts of Findability. What works, what doesn't, how it works, how it doesn't...
This is a reason I like to trot out Geoffrey Moore's "Crossing the Chasm" idea - it helps to reinforce that ideas don't just pop up out of nowhere and reach complete saturation. Education, Awareness, Adoption, Success, Improvement - it all just takes time (and effort) to seep in.
Case in point - 
I've been a Netflix subscriber for a few years now, and at the time, I felt I was late to the game. Apparently not! Most of our survey respondents have no experience at all with Netflix.
That's truly unfortunate, as they have great Findability (and usability), from where I sit.
A few items to be aware of - type-ahead search. Some would argue this is a waste, but if the performance hit isn't too much for you (as an implementer OR a user), it's awfully handy.
Here, I was typing in "star" and up came:
Improved my chances right off the bat that I would get to THE search result with one action.
Any guess what I was searching for?
That's right...
Star Wars, or more specifically, Star Wars IV: A New Hope (the original - which makes no sense at first glance, but presumably you're all sci-fi geeks too, right?)
And of course the search results show not just the two most likely candidates (the original and a digitally enhanced version), but related genres and collections (egads, those are taxonomies on the right!), and related titles I could watch instantly (Netflix has expanded outside of DVD rentals. Sadly they don't support Macs - but I won't go into Microsoft and their platform-specific DRM scheme just now).
The point of this entire Findability experience? Of course it's to MAKE MONEY.
And that is a point to keep in mind in the enterprise experience. Why does Findability suffer in the Enterprise? It's not magic, folks! Without attention, time, investment, a known set of reasons why Findability is failing, and what would make it better, well, NOTHING is going to be improved.
Create an account on Netflix and poke around. How you can take their approaches to increasing Findability and bring them to YOUR enterprise experience (or heck, your consumer-facing experience)?
And if you've pursued this at all, please, weigh in and tell us how it went. Painful to implement? Easy as 1-2-3? Expensive? Cheap? What benchmarks for cost reduction, time reduction, revenue increase, etc. did you find? Are your facets unfindable? Fragile?
Lastly - for more on our coverage of Findability, sign up to listen in (and ask questions) in our free public webinar on Findability (providing a peek into our Market IQ on Findability), this Thursday, June 26th at 2pm EDT (-5 GMT). I'll be there - will you? Let's find out...
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