In 1849 came the cry: "There’s gold in them there hills," and the California gold rush was on. The Forty-Niners were a special breed—determined to do what it took to dig and uncover the gold they were told was there. Relentless in their determination, they were undaunted by any difficulty, hazard or the amount of time that stood in the way of achieving their goal. The persistence of the prospector was focused not on the task, but on the object they were mining. Some 150 years later, the cry can almost be the same: "There’s gold in that client’s mind!" Getting to this valuable information takes the same mindset of a prospector. The gold you mine from the depths of the clients’ minds is the requirements and expectations to achieve their vision. You start your task knowing that your success at mining this precious information will directly affect the success of the project.
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The digging for this priceless information must be well planned and executed, with a focus on detailing the client’s requirements, critical activities and expectations. You are mining a dream to make it a reality. The motherlode you are prospecting for is what the dream is composed of, not the how to make the dream. To make the dream reality, you must fully understand what the dream is. This process is slow, methodic and business-oriented.
The prospecting team consists of sales, project management and a business strategist who knows the client’s business and is also familiar with the overall technologies used by the business endeavor. The team objective is to acquire a solid understanding of how the client does business today and the change the client desires to make. Prospecting methods may vary, but they result in the identification of the client’s requirements and expectations. This data mining is a task that should not be rushed. It takes time, patience and persistence.
Time
Take the time to get to know your clients and for them to become comfortable with you. Gain their trust and confidence so they regard you as an extension of their staff who has a fresh look on the situation. Talk to them about their vision and why they need to go where they think they need to be. From my part of the country, they refer to this as "Gett’n on the porch and doing some sipp’n and rock’n." In due course, your clients will provide you a list of things they feel they need. When you review this list, remember that they have been thinking about this longer than you have. What they are providing is the result of some "blue sky" thinking. In most cases, their requirements and expectations are two different things. In reality, their list are "wants" (nice to have), not necessarily what they "need" (must have) to achieve their goal. It is your responsibility to make sure your clients do not get their needs and wants confused. List their needs in order of importance and relate them to achieving their goals. Do the same for their wants, providing a path of improvements to their initial vision.
Patience
Show concern and understanding about client situations. You are providing an opportunity for them to tell their story because you came to listen.
As clients unfold their tales of woes, be attentive and show empathy. This is your first exposure to the situation they have been living with for some time without a solution. Be patient as clients explain their situation, difficulties and business environment. Clients know what they want to say, but may find it difficult to articulate their thoughts. Be inquisitive and ask for clarification if you do not fully understand what the client is saying. There are many interview techniques that can help achieve full understanding. If you are discussing a process or format, draw a picture—after all, a picture can be worth a thousand words. Restate what you have heard. If appropriate, tie the current topic back to a related process or requirement that was previously discussed. You are prospecting, so don’t be too timid to dig.
Persistence
It will take infinite persistence to gain full understanding of your client’s business. Let your clients explain about what they do for a living, their products and their competition. Conducting some preliminary research on the business the client is pursuing and the current business environment will provide a good information base before you meet with the client. Be an eager student and absorb all you can about your client. In my article, Keep a Lid on It, I point out the effect of not completely understanding the client's business environment and how this misunderstanding can contribute to project cost overruns
.Gain a full and complete understanding of your client’s present situation. Discussion topics should include competition, product technology, market penetration, etc., how important these topics are to the client and how they affect the current situation. This will provide the framework to define the business issues the client wishes to resolve as well as your subsequent recommendations.
As you build your understanding of the client’s present situation, you’ll be able to identify the business issues involved. Discuss each issue in detail and relate it back to the business environment. This process will probably uncover other issues related to the initial issue, but should be addressed as individual issues. Again, take your time and be persistent.
Hitting the Motherlode
You have prospected, dug, analyzed and dug some more. Suddenly, the dark clouds of your endless search part as rays of light shine through. Is this a miracle? No, it is the result of your time, patience and persistence. You have navigated the twists and turns, and this often frustrating journey now uncovers precious nuggets of information. As you collect the results of your efforts, your task now takes on greater importance. You must take the various bits of data—large and small, general and specific—and craft a document that defines the project and provides it with a total value. Using the various data elements you have collected, you must produce a document that defines the project requirements and expectations and identifies major milestones and deliverables.
The project definition will document to your clients an organized presentation of the project’s overall objective, recommended course(s) of action, the pros and cons of available technology associated with each course of action, the impact on their business (if implemented), expected deliverables, resource requirements, timeline and risks. Jointly reviewing this project definition with your client and your team will yield a baseline project document that provides the project team, sponsor and stakeholders with a common understanding of the project and expectation about when the project should be completed. Finally, this document will serve as a common reference point throughout the project for its objective and supporting business case. You will have hit the project motherlode!
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"If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?" - Abraham Lincoln |
