Getting into the Customer’s Shoes

I was trying to save space in my disk and requested my system to compress the files. It started the job and the below is the screen-shot of the progress (it needs to be stated that the disk in question had only 20 GB worth of files):

I need to wait 97 years for this process to complete!!

For any given software work there are two solutions – technical solution which determines the right algorithm, integrates the code with the rest of the system etc and then the business solution which ensures that the code works fine in the business domain. You will not be able to achieve customer delight without taking care of both these challenges. And IMHO the business solution can be conquered only by getting into the shoes of the customer. The team needs to ask the question – what does the customer actually want – both stated and implied needs – and how can we meet and beat his expectations? Only those deliverable that consider this question can stand a chance of being able to delight the customer.

If the programmer who did the coding for the above GUI understood the end user needs, he would have ensured that the customer is given some other option instead of starting a job that will take 97 years to complete. The above screen-shot would not have been possible if the team that developed the above piece of code got into the shoes of the customer. The problem is that the person who does the actual coding (and to a major extent the team around him) is more interested in the technical challenge to the extent of paying zero attention to the customer needs. They only pay attention to the needs of the code or the report or the server etc and not to the needs of the end user.

In my experience, the team as a whole stands to gather loads of customer satisfaction when everyone understands the bigger picture and knows what role his/her actions play in the customers world. And this credo needs to reach even the youngest fresher who joined the team just a month back (If every member in the offshore team understands the needs of the onsite team, I would say that the job is half done).

Believe me – this does not come by just verbal reiteration. The team leadership needs to ensure that the team understands the bigger picture. For every deliverable (made to the customer or to the onsite team or to the team down the aisle) the team leadership will need to ask the question – did you understand what this means to the user? to the end user? to our customer? Easier said than done!!