Injecting Extreme Customer Intimacy Into Your Project Team

Ken Whitaker of Leading Software Maniacs (LSM) has more than 25 years of software development executive leadership and training experience in a variety of technology roles and industries. He has led commercial software teams at Software Publishing (remember Harvard Graphics?), Data General, embedded systems software companies, and enterprise software suppliers. Ken is an active PMI member, Project Management Professional (PMP) certified, and a Certified ScrumMaster (CSM). Sources for LSM's material come from case studies, personal leadership experience, the PMI Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) and Ken's leadership books: Managing Software Maniacs, Principles of Software Development Leadership and I'm Not God, I'm Just a Project Manager.

  Agile   CRM   Stakeholder Management  

Have you noticed any hints that your company isn’t customer intimate? Companies and their supportive corporate culture sometimes say one thing and yet practice another. Take, for example, the four core values of a leading energy company that was etched in stone and echoed in annual reports:

• Communication
• Respect
• Integrity
• Excellence

The company was Enron. As Daniel Denison of Denison Consulting states in his YouTube video, “Just because they state [corporate values], it doesn’t mean they live by them.” Recently there was a discussion on LinkedIn entitled “Does anyone else share my frustration with Company X Support?” (I use “Company X” to shield the actual company referenced.) The onslaught from angry customers echoing horror stories of dealing with Company X technical support was relentless. Here are some examples:

• “I love Company X software, but I am AT WAR with any and all companies who have the arrogance to offer pathetic support.”
• “Long story short, I was transferred to five different people, lost the connection twice, was put on hold twice, had to download some stuff and reinstall it, etc.”
• “Years and years ago, I remember getting help when I needed to call. The last time was no help whatsoever. I don't even bother any more.”

…

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.