24

Feb

2008

Who's on first?

We've just had an interesting week, with a lot of deadline pressures.  Dealing with these gave me some interesting insights.

We were having some frustrating conversations with one client in particular.  By that I mean it was frustrating for both parties.  On our end we couldn't work out why the customer was fixating on seemingly trivial details, while the customer was probably wondering why we  seemed so incapable of following simple instructions.

Communication was hopelessly compromised.  We were speaking the same language but totally failing to understand each other.  We were arguing over technology and design points that just weren't critical, mostly because each side had no idea what the other was saying.  Positions threatened to become entrenched.

It took me asking a really simple question to break the deadlock.

“What do you need?”

The answer came back: “I need this website ready by Tuesday”. Suddenly we were operating on common ground again.  We were dealing with the real issues.

And I thought, what a great question – what an important question. How many times is that question going to be useful in the future?

Because it allowed us to get back to what was truly happening in the moment. Some really honest communication.

This sort of question is really important for marketing and sales as well. Asking your customers what they need, rather than guessing (or worse yet, simply presuming) makes the complex simple.  Once again we are trying to cut through the detail.

Very few customers are going to tell us “We want a website with a user friendly content management system, capacity to publish content that demonstrates our capability in areas x, y and z, clean standard compliant HTML, key word optimisation for search engines, interactive forms for automating processes a,b,c and clean design that supports our business image etc etc”.

What they really mean is, “I want a website that is simple, compelling, profitable”.

At least that's our current thinking.  If we keep asking these questions maybe we will make the message even clearer.

Who's on first

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