Whether or not an organisation has a Chief Customer Officer, it’s crucial that someone is responsible for championing the ‘voice of the customer’. This needs to be considered in just about every aspect of the organisation at just about every time... When considering changes, great questions to ask can include “Who is the customer here?”, What would our customers say about what we’re about to do?” and “Does what we’re about to do mean we’re appealing to new (or different) customers?” - Adrian Reed
Years later, studies show that projects are not doing much better. Why? Kevin says it’s because business value lies outside the project. It comes before the project – in deciding why to make an investment – and after the project – in helping transition project implementations into operations - Laura Brandenburg
How many projects are initiated in response to the acute pain of a “burning platform” where the only option seems to be both drastic and urgent? Yet if the organisation is in pain, has it inadvertently opted for an invasive procedure that might not even be necessary? Knee-jerk reactions lead to unnecessary surgery on our processes, systems and IT; surgery that might even make the problem worse. An extracted tooth will never grow back - Adrian Reed
On the Importance of communication
Project and organisational change can be scary for some stakeholders — particularly if they think they might be negatively impacted. When there’s no communication, people (completely understandably) fill that void with informed guesses, rumour and suggestions. They draw conclusions based on what they can observe. Inadequate communication on the other hand, can be just as damaging. The communication has to be appropriate for the audience whilst also being appropriately timed - Adrian Reed
Oftentimes we get so excited about our own ideas and those of our customer that we forget to get the implementation team involved early enough. So by the time we’ve got it all worked out, they feel like all the intellectual challenge is gone. They push back because it’s easy to find issues with another person’s solutions when you have no ownership in them - Laura Brandenburg
Oftentimes we get so excited about our own ideas and those of our customer that we forget to get the implementation team involved early enough. So, by the time we’ve got it all worked out, they feel like all the intellectual challenge is gone. They push back because it’s easy to find issues with another person’s solutions when you have no ownership in them - Laura Brandenburg
