Tag Archives: Customer Satisfaction

Customer Satisfaction Archive

Help Me Understand What I am Seeing Here

– May 26, 2010Posted in: Project Management

Responsibility Matrix Things seemed to get a little heated in the meeting yesterday. Upon reviewing the vendor-supplied PowerPoint deck, we noticed graphs illustrating the quantity of issues found and when the vendor planned to fix them. So, we flipped back a few slides and noticed a table detailing the quantity of requirements that passed or failed, during the last build. What we didn’t get was something that illustrated the relationship between the two. Since it wasn’t included in the packet, we wanted an explanation.

Never ask a question in an accusatory manner. Don’t be condescending. Make sure the other party hears what you say and understands. I started with something like this

So help me understand what I’m seeing here.
I see…. …Is that what you see?

I’m looking for the relationship between the issues found and the work you were authorized to complete. Can you help me with this?

What was missing here was a Requirements Traceability Matrix. It would have answered everything. During this build, only work pertaining to agreed upon requirements should have been done. Only work pertaining to agreed upon requirements should have been tested. Therefore, we should have known immediately which requirements had passed and which failed. That didn’t happen.

It doesn’t matter if you’re using user stories or requirements. There are documented expectations that need to be met. User acceptance criteria should be known.

Any questions?

Listen to your Customer on her Birthday

Derek Huether

– May 25, 2010Posted in: Project Management

In celebration of my wife’s birthday, I figured I would make her a homemade birthday cake. I haven’t done that since before we got married 5+ years ago. This time, however, I actually asked her what she wanted. That’s right. The first birthday cake that I made for her, I didn’t even ask what she would like. If you were the customer, wouldn’t that kind of tick you off? Thanks for the cake but… I don’t like that kind.

Getting input (and listening) to your customer goes a long way.

Sure, I could have ordered a cake from the local (and now famous) Charm City Cakes but she didn’t ask for that. She wanted a chocolate cake with butter cream frosting. So, last night, our 4-year-old son and I made her a chocolate cake with butter cream frosting. We even cleaned up the mess after! But, it wasn’t completely uneventful. All I can say is I’m glad there were well documented instructions.

Me: Are we a pair of knuckleheads or what?
My son: I think we’re a pair of clowns, Daddy.

Here is my Project Management Spin

Find out what your customer wants.
Deliver what your customer wants, not what you want.
You’ll spend more money if you want a chef to bake and decorate your cake.
You’ll save more time if you want a chef to bake and decorate your cake.
Even a pair of clowns can bake and decorate a cake (if instructions are good).
You should expect lower quality from a pair of clowns.

Product Delivery

Both cake and frosting passed unit testing. (Mmmmmm)
We did a little beta testing last night before the final build.
The final build was successful.
We delivered on time.
We delivered below budget.
The good news is, I’m pretty sure we’ll pass user acceptance testing.

Happy Birthday to my beautiful and wonderful wife!

My Caffeine Fueled Rant

Derek Huether

– May 16, 2010Posted in: Project Management

People who know me know that I drink a lot of coffee. I’ll drink it hot. I’ll drink it cold. I’ll drink it from the pot, 9 days old. OK, not 9 days old. That’s just gross. One of the places I like to drink coffee is a diner. 9 out of 10 times, diner coffee is good. It’s simple, it’s basic, and…did I say it was good? Don’t tell me it’s organic, fertilized with bat guano from El Salvador. I really don’t care. The other think I like? It’s usually $1 for endless refills, printed with pride on the menu.

This post isn’t about cheap coffee. It’s about a pet peeve of mine. It applies to me ordering drinks at a restaurant. Here comes the rant.

Today, my family and went out for lunch. At the restaurant, I plainly saw the prices for everything on the menu but one thing. Beverages. Yes, drinks. Where the hell are the prices for the drinks? Is this some kind of trick or tactic? Am I to be embarrassed by the fact that I am unwilling to pay $3.00 for a fountain soda or $8 for a beer? Chances are, if you don’t post the prices for your drinks, I’m going to order plain old tap water. Screw you and your clever lack of information. It’s not my job to ask you how much my drink is going to cost. You are providing me with a service and that includes prices for the food and drink I’m willing to have with my meal.

If you leave the post at that, I think it stands on it’s own. If you want me to put a project management spin on it, here goes. If you are a vendor, and you’re doing contracted work, don’t make your customer ask. I hate the big reveal. If you’re going to do contracted work, and you fail to inform your customer what the cost is going to be, you should eat it. Yep, eat the cost. Why? Did you promise to throw in a pair of Ginsu knives when you delivered that product? I’m going to go out on a limb and say no. Then why would you expect a customer to give you more money for services rendered or product delivered?

I know there are always exceptions. What if you, as a vendor, don’t know how much it’s going to cost? That’s fine. Communicate with your customer. Treat them like the intelligent beings they are. They were smart enough to hire you, right? Then keep them informed and guide them through the options. Don’t sneak that $5 cup of coffee onto the final bill and expect a 20% tip.

Takeaway?
Vendors: Keep your customers informed and don’t make them ask.
Customers: Don’t let vendors get away with the big reveal. It will just leave you feeling short-changed.

Never forget moms are stakeholders

Derek Huether

– May 10, 2010Posted in: Project Management

I think it is only fitting to write a post about the most important stakeholder on the planet, Mom. When giving gifts on Mother’s Day, as children, we did simple things like made a card by hand, offered breakfast in bed, or picked flowers from the yard. Our goal, from my perspective, was we tried to deliver what we thought our moms (stakeholders) wanted. As a father of a 4-year-old, my perspective of Mother’s Day has now changed, though my son views the gifts (deliverables) as I did many years ago.

This year, I thought my wife would enjoy some kind of gadget. Perhaps she would enjoy a day at the spa or some other complicated gift. What my wife did this year was very apropos. She proactively said she did not want any gadgets this year, notably a camera, iPad, or something I would like. Our son, clever as he is, sang her a song and made her a necklace. Taking his lead, I took the three of us to my wife’s favorite place to eat and tried to give her some alone time later in the day.

So, where am I going with this? Find out what is valuable to your stakeholders and customers. What you think has the greatest value may not be the same thing. I know, I sound like a broken record. But it’s true! Listen to what they say; deliver on what they want or need!

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Tags: Customer Satisfaction

Refine Your Process If You Must Deviate From It

Derek Huether

– January 29, 2010Posted in: Agile, Application Development, Project Management, Scrum

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, Seeing Value From The Customer Perspective, if you think you need to deviate from a documented or understood process, rewrite or refine your process to account for the deviations. Merriam-Webster defines process as a series of actions or operations conducing to an end. If you are unwilling to modify your process, the deviation is unworthy of being done.

I’ve had a vendor tell me they didn’t need to document their processes because they were agile. (Notice the lack of an uppercase A in Agile). Leveraging Agile concepts does not mean a lack of documented process. IF the customer tells me they see the greatest value in delivering documentation, what is this vendor going to respond with? Sorry, we won’t deliver value? If you use Waterfall, you may be used to generating more paper. You have to consider documentation on a case by case basis. Some customers have legitimate needs for documentation and other have wants. Now go back and read that last sentence again. Needs…Wants…

I personally like to go light on documentation. What I need and what the customer needs are usually two different things. That being said, I like to understand the rules (governance) before I start anything. The Microsoft Visio document I included in my last post was a good example of a high level governance (functional flowchart) document. After completing the flowchart, I then detail each activity in a separate document. What is the input and output? Is there a formal deliverable associated with the activity? The idea behind the separate document is you won’t need the flowchart to describe the process. For those who have successfully navigated a SOX audit, you know what I’m talking about. But I digress. The flowchart activities I documented are not groundbreaking. The process in this case is an Agile Scrum process with a few defined quality assurance decisions points. You do not need to go into the Nth degree to understand this process. Identify some touch points where the vendor and customer interface. Identity some decision points. That’s it!

I’ve done these flowcharts for several customers. I’ve created them for both Waterfall and Agile development approaches. If you’re looking for a free Microsoft Visio template, which you can edit at will, you can download it here. I zipped it to make downloading easier. If you’re looking for other free templates or worksheets to use on your project or program, you can download them there.

What do you think? To document or not document. That is the question. I welcome your comments or feedback.

Regards,

Derek