Fun at work? For me, it's making stuff customers need.

I admit that I have long been a skeptic of the "Fun at Work" movement. It's not that I don't like to have fun at work, but "the movement" seemed so shamelessly upbeat and forced. Thisfunwas not natural for me. I was vigorously nodding my head when thisNew York Timeseditorial appeared. I identified as a curmudgeon with regard to "Fun at Work."

However, I do find it fun to create products that solve real business problems or answer customer questions. It's fun to hear from partners and customers that we did something useful, or even that we missed the mark or didn't do enough - especially before we launch a product or feature. Really.

Taking hard feedback, realizing that it's right, and going back to the drawing board. Painful as it can be, it energizes me to improve. It often takes someone outside the lab to provide perspective and the reality of how people will really use something.

For the past year or so, I have been working with Cisco's Customer Care development teams to invest and innovate with cloud-based customer care. We're having a lot of fun in the process. We're building, experimenting, and sharing what we do with product and feature launches, partner trials, storyboards, and customer interviews. We're taking the knowledge that we have from 20+ years of delivering products to explore new ways to help you prepare for next 20 years. Many things are the same, but some significant things are different. For instance: How should we treat persistent messaging in a customer care environment?

 If you are interested in hearing more about cloud customer care from Cisco and the fun that we are having, please join me, Gary Olmsted, and Brent Rindal at Cisco Live US, for the "Cloud Customer Care" session.

Our goal is to present what is available now, what we are working on, and where we are going next. We are also planning to incorporate some audience participation (but only for those who volunteer, so you quieter folks are safe to attend too).

We'll fill the session with Cisco Spark Call and Care demonstrations ,where you can ask questions and get answers, like:

• Can I set up a small internal help group if I have deployed Spark Message?
• Can I access the experts in my organization using Spark Message without making them Contact Center Enterprise or Express agents?
• Can I set up a call flow that directs and informs customers of things like my open hours if I have deployed Spark Call?

Yes, you can do all of these things -and more (of course). Come to this session to find out how.

We will also demonstrate what is coming next, including integration between Facebook Messenger and Care Assistant, a feature of Spark Message. And you'll find out how you can get more engaged in our product direction and development practice.

Bring on the Cisco logo-ed beach balls, the Nerf guns, the hoverboards, and indoor mini-golf. Let's have some fun.