Author: Rob Broadhead

  • Thank You For Your Business – Customer Appreciation Tips

    Thank You For Your Business – Customer Appreciation Tips

    Each year we enter a season of giving and thankfulness as it winds down.  One of the things that come out of this is a sort of season of customer appreciation.  The challenge in this attitude is finding the best way to show our appreciation without coming off too sappy.  We want to thank our customers and build loyalty, not overwhelm them with more selling.

    To Brand or Not To Brand

    The first decision to make with this customer appreciation “gifts” is whether we slap a logo or other brand label on them.  Do we give our customers a notebook with our logo on it? A nice drinking glass with our motto? Or some other knick-knack that is a glaring reminder of who gave it?  I think the answer to this question can be found in our other seasonal gifts.

    Do you buy your relatives a gift stamped with your name?  Do those gifts you give, scream the source of them?  No, you often give something that is about the recipient instead.  Now, there is a consideration of how to handle gift-giving from a company.  When you stamp your label on an item, it can be filed under marketing.  I think this is understood by most people, so it is not seen negatively.  Therefore, if you want to put a logo on an item, try to make it subtle.  There are good examples of this all over where a typical logo is replaced with one for marketing purposes.  You can fall back on the golden rule (sort of) in this situation.  Ask yourself if the emblem is unobtrusive or subtle enough that you would use the gift in public without feeling “odd.”

    Does Size Matter?

    The size or value of the gifts is always part of the consideration as well.  There are industries where limits are placed on gifts, and that makes it easy.  However, I find it far more common to be in a sort of Wild West of gift valuation.  In these situations, I think it is a heart decision.  How generous do you want to be?

    It is easy to use some sort of percentage of profits from a customer as a rule of thumb.  For example, take five percent of the profits earned and use that as a measure of what to give.  That feels a bit cold and calculated though.  I think you will find a better response when you focus on utility first and then find a value that fits.  A personal example was a gift of laptop bags for customers.  It started with the idea of those backpacks being desirable.  Heck, I even got one for myself that I use daily.  Then I looked at options that fit my rough budget.  The focus was the gift, not the sales appeal or monetary valuation of it.  This approach helps build a rapport as it shows thoughtfulness instead of simply a business relationship.  Customers like to be appreciated for more than just their wallet.

    The Moment of Truth

    The last facet of gift-giving I want to visit is the delivery.  I think we all agree that hand-delivering the gifts is always best.  It is a personal touch and a chance to show our sincerity.  You might also see it as a chance to sell to your customers.  I have seen this a lot from consulting companies.  The gift then becomes an excuse to get a few minutes of time from decision makers.  I recommend you avoid this at all costs.  You will get a lot more loyalty out of giving a gift with no strings (or sales) attached than one more shot at a sale.

    Business and personal life often coincide in the modern world.  The season of giving is no different.  Just make sure you come at it with the right attitude.

  • Setting Expectations and Project Success – Three Easy Steps for Improvement

    Setting Expectations and Project Success – Three Easy Steps for Improvement

    We all can use more ways to achieve project success or at least increase its likelihood.  Of course, there are many steps we can take in this effort.  However, few provide the impact of setting expectations and managing them throughout the process.  Here are some ways to help you do precisely that in your next project.

    Concrete Over Vision

    The most significant variance in expectations in my experience comes down to vision.  The end product you envision is not what your customer sees.  Since both of these visions are in someone’s head, we need to get those out and compare notes.  Guessing and assumptions are prime culprits in expectations that are out of sync.

    This is why prototypes, wireframes, and user stories are so important in project success.  These tools give us a way to put down on paper the vision in our heads and resolve any differences.  It can seem redundant to write down something all parties appear to agree on, but that does help avoid assumptions and other communication issues.  I have found that we do not always have the clarification of communication that we think we do.  Putting thought into concrete form helps to alleviate that weakness.

    The Devil in the Details

    I once heard it suggested that software architects get in the habit of asking “and then what?”  This is an excellent approach to drilling down to the required level of detail for setting expectations.  The step to put our vision in a concrete form can lead us to think we have more detail than we do.  I have come across far too many customers that point to a page or application and say that is what they want.  However, as we dig into that example, we find that there are features they want that are not on the screen or assumptions made that are not stated.

    An example of this sort of error is easily seen in the assumptions about how a page works.  There will be menu items and other controls that imply action.  When the result is not adequately shown and defined, then it can lead to mismatched expectations.  The “make it look like this” is a good start.  However, it is only a start.  This starting point needs to be followed up with questions to clarify how every piece of the screen works.  This includes menu items, buttons, tab orders, notifications, validations, and more.  A picture is worth a thousand words and may also hide a thousand function points.

    Avoid Drift

    The third item we need to address is potential drift from our starting point.  A well thought out and thorough design up front can help us set and maintain expectations.  Nevertheless, there are surprises and holes that become apparent in any implementation that can impact that initial design.  These bumps can cause drift and even derail the direction that implementation is headed in.

    This problem is easily solved with regular meetings and updates.  Progress and bumps are addressed in each session along with discussions of variance from the original design.  The end product of this process is that expectations are “tweaked” along the way in concert with design adjustments.  Although there are other reasons to take this approach, I think managing expectations provides the most substantial payoff.

    There are thousands (or more) variables that go into project success.  Fortunately, a lot of what determines that success is how the solution is perceived.  Therefore, the better we are at setting and managing expectations the more likely our odds of success.

  • Coding While Impaired – A Reason For Project Failure Rates

    Coding While Impaired – A Reason For Project Failure Rates

    Every so often you will come across a comparison of drunk driving to trying the same action while sleep deprived.  This usually is surprising to spectators when the lack of sleep is shown to be as bad as consuming a lot of alcohol.  Although developers tend to be comfortable drinking and drinking alcohol, they are far more known for long hours and lack of sleep.  Maybe this correlation can also be extended to the larger than average project failure rates.

    The Caffeine Culture

    I have met very few developers over the years that are not proud of their caffeine consumption.  It is a badge of honor to walk into a late night session with six packs of energy drinks.  This becomes their standard approach to the long hours regularly required of those that chose to code as a career.  The problem is that the long hours are inflicted as much as they are elected.  I have experienced a countless number of projects where the approach to hitting target dates is to cancel time off and extend hours to seventy or more per week.

    The typical attitude is to grab some energy drinks and pour more hours into a project to get it on track.  I have no problem with this approach.  However, I do question those that are surprised by lower quality after these pushes.  You can design and test all you want.  However, a team that is comprised primarily of sleep-deprived members is roughly the equivalent of those same people after an evening of adult beverages.

    Mental Work

    When you consider how much more mental coding is (as compared to driving) the problems become apparent.  You have people that are not at their best mentally doing tasks that require concentration and complex thinking.  Once I started down this road, it seemed evident that these projects would have high amounts of errors and thus failure rates.  The worst part of all this is that those increased errors cause more time to be needed to get tasks done.  That leads to less rest and sleep, which leads to more errors.  Thus, a death march is born.

    The amusing thing is that many companies have policies that go as far as terminating those that show up for work inebriated.  Yet, they have no problem demanding the long hours that can lead to the same mental state.

    A Different Path

    There are some instances where the long hours come from poor planning or management.  Unfortunately, many of the situations arise from heavy competition, low budgets, and the related tight deadlines.  You may argue that means that team leaders are left with no choice.  I would say otherwise.

    When you look at productivity curves for the average human, you see a drop off as the day gets “too long.” Studies show the length of a comfortable (and productive) workday varies from worker to worker.  Nevertheless, we can work with averages and observation.

    I recommend that adding hours and pushing for longer work weeks be done in an incremental way.  Ease your way into it earlier in a project if it looks like it will be needed.  You can then closely observe the developers and bug rates to see how things deteriorate.  At some point, there will be a diminishing return that makes long hours not only useless but detrimental.  Once you have that hard limit, you are better served to add resources or accepting slipped dates.

    Developers may like to be “edgy” by embracing sleep loss and long hours.  However, this is not a productive approach to software.  Maybe treating them as imperfect humans will help improve project failure rates.