My first ‘aha’ learning of my career
“How can stakeholders be so clueless!”
“Have you prepped for the meeting tomorrow?”, my manager asked me referring to the upcoming elicitation session the following day.
The year is 2004. I’m a couple of years into my career, and my first time onsite at the customer location.
This conversation with my manager gave me my first ‘aha’ learning of my career. So here goes…
“Yes.”, I replied proudly, “I’ve sent out the meeting invite. I am prepared with a voice recorder to record the session. I will also take furious notes.” I tried in vain to appear nonchalant. I was just too impressed with myself. 😌
“Great. Lemme hear the questions you’re going to ask the stakeholders.”, quizzed my manager.
“Questions! What questions?”, 😕 I asked nervously. “All I plan to ask is what their needs are.”
My manager smiled, as though he had predicted this, “ 🙂 I thought so. It doesn’t work that way.”
He then let me in on the open secret about customers.
He said, “Stakeholders generally don’t know what they want or need. The sponsor and some senior stakeholders may have some idea. They may know at a high-level, but not wide or deep enough. Definitely not all stakeholders.”
He continued, “Your job is to ask them probing questions that will get them to think. Remember, in their eyes, you are the expert. They expect you to know what they need.”
“But…but,”, I protested, “it is their organisation, right? 🤔 They’re facing the problem. How can they not know what they want? 🙄”
“Let’s see.”, my manager said as he cogitated something, and continued, “Imagine you have a plot of land, and decide to construct a house there…your dream house.”
“Okay.”
“You enlist an architect to help you design your dream house, right?”
“Sure.”
“What do you expect the architect to do for you? I don’t mean what output you need them to produce…not the blueprint, plan. That they will for sure. But, really, what do you expect them to do?”, my manager probed.
“Well, I look forward for the architect to understand my taste and needs, and develop a plan for my house that reflects me and my family.”, I said.
“Great. But what if the architect just sits there with a paper and pen, and asks you, ‘go on…tell me what you need.’ Would you be able to articulate all that you would need in your house? It is your dream house, remember. Given your logic, you ought to know everything you need, right?”, my manager posed a thinker of a question to me.
“Well, no. Not really. I don’t know much of what is possible. The architect is the expert. So I expect them to help me out.”, I retorted.
“Exactly. That is exactly how our stakeholders think of us. Experts. And they expect us to help them out.
It is your responsibility to open them up, inspire them to think and give you the answers you’re looking for.
And for doing that, you got to prepare well, prepare in advance.”, said my manager, resting his case.
That was among the first ‘a-ha’ moments for me in my professional life.
It dawned on me that it would be terribly stupid and inconsiderate of me to quip, “I can’t believe the stakeholders are so clueless. How can they not know anything about what they want?”
That day, I realised that it is I, who must be in control of my elicitation sessions. I have to direct my conversations in a way that is productive for the assignment that I’ve set out to execute.
Thanks for reading folks! Follow Product Fundas for more stories. If you like what you read, do share it on Twitter or LinkedIn or wherever your network resides.
Also, do check out the following stories.👇🏻
So long! Have a great rest of the week!
