Have you managed projects where you never meet the customer?

Hello Sante,

I agree with Rami. Meeting the end customer at least once will help to build rapport and make the project go smoother (even if it's just lunch).

Dear Sante
There are techniques that allow us to get end customer feedback among them:
- Focus group
- Questionnaires to a representative sample of the universe
- Interviews

Of course, collecting and processing information has an associated cost.
May not be foreseen under the project
But it's worth having end-user feedback

Conducting such studies may result in cost savings to the project sponsor.

Yes and unfortunately the customer is the most important feedback in any project rollout and testing phase but is the stakeholder that time and time again is overlooked. In Government based projects the motivation is normal pollical, partially to do with pressure groups and the response is normally "get a solution in place, yesterday". That means often only some of the requirements of the customers are satisfied and implemented. In the private sector, this is normal the direct opposite as customer engagement equals increased revenue, either through increased sales, improvements in efficient or reduction in headcount. Sadly this does not looking like changing anytime soon so the intended beneficiary of the projects implementations is the least involved of all the project actors.

Hi Andrew, it becomes an interesting situation when something goes wrong. Contracts may be in place for those representatives to capture what the customers want/need, but often it's a gray area who is responsible when things go wrong. Do you find that is sometimes the case?

No, not really. There are roles in place with the responsibility to be the voice of the customer. The contracts in place incorporate that premise, as in the validation is from the basis of the client, not the customer.

Hi Sante, I do not have exactly the same experience but definitely feel the spotlight here is about your end customers and any ex-servicemen/women - they are NO-ordinary!
Tough to put emotions aside, I cannot wait for you to share the rest of your journey with the community here!

Agreed, but interpretation is not defined in contracts, and that is where a lot of issues arise ;-)

Those interpretations, assuming you are referring to the ‘actual customer’ would be outside the scope of the contract. The contract is in place to satisfy the needs of the organization, whether or not that includes direct or indirect, perceived or not, customer needs.