Getting More Information
Hi class. When we were last together, I explained
how you can start collecting data and analyzing it
like a qualitative researcher. The advice is to
find out what you can, and then start collecting
information.
Early November
Alex must be done with the Streamline project.Today Alex and I
drove over to Millards for our kick-off meeting. We actually met
with Ben Millard himself.
The whole day was stressful. I met Alex at the office to drive to
Millards together around 7:30 this morning. When I climbed into
her car she didn’t wait two seconds before using her ‘ I'm the
boss’ voice, telling me what to expect and how to act. No “How
are you?” or anything of a friendly nature. She just jumped right
in saying,
“Let me do the talking. You should have worn a suit or something
less casual . Millard has more going on than you’d suspect.
Basically, he’s testing us. He’s not happy with his current vendor.”
“How do you know so much?” I asked.
“Bolt prepped me.” She said hurridly. “We need to have a design
document trail that is easy to follow-up on in case someone gets
sick or leaves the company, so you basically need to follow it,since
you haven't seen it yet, I'm going to take the lead. “
I thought that was weird. I had just spent weeks working on
nothing and all along there has been a design document that I was
supposed to follow? Where was it? I keep getting that feeling
that I'm being cut out of things.
The actual meeting with Millard took place rather quickly. Millard
gave me a business handshake unlike any I’ve had before. My palm
was curled inward for at least twenty minutes. He was very
cordial though.
We talked about the overall focus of the training. Millard wants
training for treating the elderly with more respect. He mentioned
a decline in sales to the elderly population (over 60 years).
I have to admit, I was impressed with Alex though. She looked
and acted very polished and exuded confidence that I certainly
didn’t feel. Her clothes were amazing, not wrinkles, no lint, how
did she accomplish that with a dark, natural fiber, suit?
She had a friendly manner with Millard and did ask really good
questions like:
“ How would you describe the type of training product you would
like to see us produce?” When Mr. Millard looked a bit caught off
guard she jumped in with
“It might help to think of format, like instructor led training, or,
self paced instruction?. How much time do want it to take? That
sort of information.”
Mr. Millard mentioned that instructor led training was out of the
question. He wanted his employees to be able to complete the
instruction when they had time in their work schedules, perhaps
during the slow times of the day. With Alex’s prompting, we left
knowing that he wanted a 15 – 20 minute computer-based training
unit. He wanted us to make it really simple.
Alex also asked “What do you think is critically important to
cover in the training?”
Millard wants some emphasis on the history of how the elderly
are treated now as compared to the past. He kept mentioning
that the elderly person used to be an honored member of society.
He wanted his sales people to reflect on that somewhat! It wasn’t
really something I would have thought of, but I did like the idea,
especially since that Gerontology professor had given me some
information about that!
Alex also slipped in the drafting (prototyping) process we’d use.
“When would you like to run a quick, informal, test of an initial
prototype?”
When Mr Millard looked a bit confused she added “We like to use
the process of testing an idea out before we go too far into
creating the product. We do that by creating a quick draft. Down
the road it saves a lot of time and money when we test the idea
and direction out before we get too far along with our ideas.”
Millard said “I’d like it in a couple of days. Just put some content
together pretty quickly. We’ll use this as a way to get good
information out of the sales manager, I think he’d be the best
person to involve. I’d like you to show it to him first.”
Yikes! A couple of days! I can’t possibly do that in a couple of
days!
Suddenly Alex was busy with the Streamline project again. I did
score a victory though! Mr. Millard mentioned that the security
guard (that store detective) had mentioned my initiative in
learning more. He was really impressed. I think he gave me an
extra warm smile, I can’t be sure, but I think he did.
Stop Reading Now
There are some learning points from the story.
First, Alex looked professional and showed confidence when
she met with her client. While wearing a suit is probably
overkill in many situations, and in some cases would make
things too formal and awkward, it is nice to think about
your appearance before you meet with someone. It never
hurts to do a last minute check in the car mirror or
elsewhere to make sure you don’t have strange things on
your face or clothing that could detract from your meeting.
The same goes with email communications; double check your
writing and spelling.
Second, Alex asked questions that always gave the client,
Mr. Millard, a way out of an awkward situation. She would
not ask yes or no questions, instead she asked for
descriptions. She also provided options or prompts that
helped Mr. Millard answer the questions in a way that did
not put him on the spot.
Third, Alex mentioned the prototype, which made it easy to
set expectations. She communicates
that a) we start with a prototype, and b) we use that
prototype as part of our data collection. She doesn’t leave
much of an option in there for not using a prototype.
You’ll notice that Millard doesn’t question the idea, he
just suggests a somewhat unreasonable deadline.