How To Study

One of the best ways to study customers is by using ethnological techniques. Ethnological studies consist of looking what people do (behaviors), what they say (language), what they really do, what they make, and what they use (artifacts). Too often what people say they do is not what they really do, and what they say they need to do their jobs is not what they really use. It is important for the software developer to determine the real problem and the solution for the customers. Those software development organizations that are successful go to their customer jungle. They follow their customers around trying to figure out how they actually work and what type of information is needed to complete the work. They actually watch how their customers use the current applications. They do not just rely on feedback they receive from user satisfaction surveys.

I practice what I preach. Whenever I get a new client, I start to learn as much about their business domain as possible. Since every industry has its own set of magazines, journals, organizations, and conferences, I start to subscribe to all these things in hopes of learning something about the business of my new client. This is a common practice for an industrial designer.

Not long ago, I started consulting with a company specializing in the health care industry. I subscribed to a series of free magazines such as Health Care Information Technology, Radiology Today, and Health Management Technology. I also requested conference brochures. I am sure my mailman hates me because I get magazines and conference brochures from just about every industry now. I read over these magazines and conference brochures to begin to learn about health care industry trends. Back in the early 1980’s John Naisbitt wrote a bestseller book called Megatrends. In his book he outlines in great detail how to study trends and I use many of his ideas.

I learn the names of my client’s competitors. I review annual reports, read articles and press releases. I make a list of my client’s competitors, a list of the top 5 trends, and a list of people I know in that industry. Before I arrive at a client’s worksite I have a working knowledge of that industry. My background research is only a starting point for me. Next I spend time at a client’s site studying them.

One of the metrics I collect is the percentage of time spent in meetings. There are a couple of ways to gather this information. Time reporting systems are not reliable because too often people do not record that they were in a meeting. Instead, I go to the person scheduling and ask to see the conference room schedule. From this it is easy for me to calculate conference room capacity.

I was visiting a client site and I walked by a conference room where a presentation/meeting was taking place. I paused and looked around the room; this is what I saw: a group of twelve individuals were in a conference room. Six of the individuals had laptops, and I could tell they were doing email. Another three individuals had PDA’s in their hands, and I could not tell what they were doing. Of the twelve individuals in this meeting, it looked as if only three individuals were mentally there. Keep in mind, one of these two individuals was making the presentation. All the conference rooms were full, and this same behavior was repeated over and over again. What a waste of time! I continued my work for a few hours, and then went around the office area again. The conference rooms were full with different people in different meetings and they were all emailing and texting.

Later that day, I was having lunch with one of the IT executives. I told her, “It appears your conference rooms are at full capacity.” She responded in a very affirmative voice, “Yes, we are aware of this, and we are building additional conference rooms.” Building more conference rooms would have probably made the situation worse. In all fairness to the executive, I need to finish this story. I explained to her my observations, and she was a bit shocked. After lunch we walked around together, and I showed her conference room after conference room. At the next meeting she attended she told everyone to put away all electronic devices and give the meeting their undivided attention. She realized this was a bad organizational behavior, and she informed me she was as guilty as everyone else. The problem was not a lack of conference rooms; it was too many meetings due to a lack of focus in meetings.

The point to this story is that organizations and people often do not understand their problem. Too often solutions are implemented that actually make problems worse. In this case, I did not rely on my customer to tell me what was wrong. I went to their worksite and observed this behavior first hand.