If you’re like me, you love solving problems. And you’re probably pretty confident that you can solve just about any problem. And that level of confidence is a good thing. But, where we often make a mistake is assuming that just because someone puts a so called problem in front of us, that it’s worth solving. It’s just as easy…
Month: April 2015
What your customer isn’t telling you: tick tock
Have you ever had a plumber fix a clogged drain? Have you ever hired a cleaning service to get your house in order? Have you ever taken your car to the mechanic for a repair? In all of these situations you were likely to have paid for a service by the hour. Did you ask upfront about what it would…
I’ve got your back coaching with a fixed price
One of the things I love the most about being a consultant is that I’m free to tailor the value I contribute to what each customer desires. To what each customer finds valuable. I’ve had a few projects lately where I’ve offered what I like to think of as I’ve got your back coaching. I structure these projects such that…
Business doesn’t change every two weeks
Iterative development processes that champion prioritizing work and deciding what to do every two weeks can be just as disastrous as planning a year of work in advance. Sure, a business landscape can change in a year, but it rarely changes meaningfully in the span of two weeks. Set your objectives based on what’s worthwhile before you dive into a…
Timing can be revealing
Time is an often neglected aspect of project planning. Probably because too many people are used to hearing: “We need this yesterday.” When in reality that couldn’t be further from the truth. Perhaps, someone wants this, as of yesterday. But want is not need. It’s ok to start out with a simple question like when should we start. But never…
Chairs
Take a moment and scribble down on a piece of paper, define what characterizes a high quality chair. When it comes to an office chair, I like chairs that aren’t pleasant to sit in for long periods of time. I like a modest level of comfort for a short duration. I tend to not want comfortable arm rests either. To…
The subjectivity of judgement
What do all of these have in common? Valuable Quality Fair/equal/equitable/just versus unfair/inequality/unjust Moral/ethical/right/acceptable versus immoral/unethical/wrong/unacceptable Useful Normal versus abnormal Broken, needs to be repaired, needs to be fixed Pleasing versus disgusting When’s the last time you found yourself saying something like: I have no idea why someone would buy that, that’s worthless. That chair was really poor quality. I’ve…
Direction or speed?
Speed can only come after direction, and even then it’s usually inconsequential.
Direct communication isn’t what it seems
We’ve all played the game telephone as kids. We know when a messages is passed around a circle it comes out different, sometimes drastically different. It’s not hard to understand that indirect communication distorts a message. But where does that distortion come from? Indirect communication is nothing but a series of direct communications. Which means the problems with indirect communication…
The cheapest way possible is to understand the outcome
If someone asks me to perform a task, as cheaply as possible, there’s no way for me to be cheap. It’s going to cost whatever I decide I want for the task. If however, they describe a desired outcome, I’m free to chose the cheapest task possible to get there. Likewise if they want to maximize value, I can find…