Bobby

03/12/2012

there's a saying that goes sell like you're byiung. I've always seen that as If I were them what would put me off and what would I like. When I buy something I go look at the features, skip the marketing splurb and the go hunt for the bad reviews in order to make an informed decision. So I guess the same goes for when I try convince someone to buy in. I try and anticipate the shortcomings and be transparent about it from the start which people appreciate and it also makes them feel part of the solution because they have input all the time. They don't feel like I'm telling them what to do but rather start seeing the whole process as something collaborative. Also, from the start of each project I sort of do a little guerrilla inquiry by basically trying to figure out who's who preferences they have personalities, the interpersonal behavior and who's really calling the shots. I try to pick up on previous projects and most of all what their personal experiences were why they didn't like things or what went wrong. I make notes of these and then decide on a strategy of how I'm going to best achieve what I want to by targeting or engineering for the people I know will have the biggest influence on the project. A lot of the time the boss is not the biggest obstacle. The dynamics on any project are driven by the people in the team and by truly understanding the people and designing your own service around who they are and what they want make things go a lot smoother. With every presentation I do, I try to work up personas of the people that's going to be listening to my presentation these influence time, language, domain topics and content, what they're trying to get from my talk (on a personal level and not just professional) anybody in the presentation I know of that will be more resistant or influential and if so I want to focus more on that person whilst not alienating the rest. Nobody else sees my personas, so quick little notes and stickies which I add to my project folder and refer to throughout.

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