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Geeks: How to get credit for your great work

August 7, 2015 by Tom Leave a Comment

Fellow geeks:

Have you ever been in a situation where you’ve been given too little time, a tiny budget, insufficient tools and you’ve managed to turn out something really cool in spite of that?

Has it ever happened that you leveraged your creativity and talent to deliver something amazing and had your customer not even notice? You didn’t even get credit?

I just watched that happen this week. I’ll tell you what happened, and how you can make sure that you get credit (and support for future projects) when you’ve done a great job.

Google Fiber is coming to my town!

A few months ago I was thrilled to learn that Google had chosen Charlotte as one of the next cities where they will roll out Google fiber. Even though I live outside the city, and there’s zero chance that Google fiber will provide service, I was still excited.

One of the benefits of competition is that it shakes up the marketplace and challenges the status quo. Given the fact that internet service providers in the US are consistently rated the lowest in customer satisfaction, shaking up the status quo is a good thing.

Almost immediately after Google announced that it would be launching a residential 1Gbps service at $75/month, AT&T and Time Warner responded with promises of improved speeds.

Having worked in the telecom industry, one thing that I know about cable and phone companies is that they are VERY technology driven.

There are a large number of very smart geeks working there whose job it is to combine an ever-changing set of technologies into product offerings that support their customer needs. They frequently do it with short deadlines, insufficient funding and little organizational support.

Which brings me to today’s story:

After months of having my Time Warner internet service run without maintenance or attention, I was having some challenges. I restarted my router. I restarted my cable modem, and all was working. A few days later, the problem recurred. At this point I decided it was worth some investigation.

When I signed up for service, the sales people and I went back and forth over “bundles” and “features” and “options” and of course prices. We settled on a 30Mbps download/5Mbps upload service. They offered speeds as high as 50Mbps, but we settled on 30.

When I began to troubleshoot my issues with my cable connection, I ran a speed test and discovered that I was getting almost 120Mbps! I figured something was wrong with their bandwidth throttle, and it would get fixed soon.

A few days later I checked again, and was still getting that kind of speed. I decided to call tech support. I said “I appreciate higher speeds, but I think that your throttling algorithm is not working properly. I don’t want to pay more, so I thought I’d let you know.

The tech told me “Oh yeah. We upgraded everyone in your area. You now get 200Mbps download, 20Mbps upload.”

Wait. What?

Here’s the thing. Cable providers are consistently low scoring in customer satisfaction.

In the 2015 ACSI survey, Time Warner Cable had a score of 51 out of 100. (The average company surveyed was around 75.)

In this case, they upgraded my speed – giving me almost 7x the performance AT THE SAME PRICE – but didn’t even tell me about it.

What might happen to their customer satisfaction score if they advertise the fact that they are giving me more and not raising the price?

These geeks did something great. Something that I’m really happy about. something I might have been willing to pay more for. (I did go buy a faster cable modem today because my old one could only deliver 100Mbps, and they have provisioned DOUBLE that.)

Why didn’t they TELL ME ABOUT IT?

All marketers are liars

At least that’s what Seth Godin said in the book of the same name.

Now I know that “marketing” and “sales” are dirty words when it comes to most geeks. There’s a geek joke that goes “How can you tell when a technology sales person is lying? When their lips are moving.” Too many times geeks have been burned by promises made in the sales process that never materialized in the implementation process.

As a result, we tend to be skeptics and to disregard the “sales-y” stuff we read.

What if the TWC geeks had done something different? They have my physical and email address. They know exactly what equipment I have provisioned at the house. All of that geeky data is in a database they already have.

What if they had taken the time to identify all of the affected customers and send a series of emails like:

“Something cool is about to happen, and it won’t cost you a thing.“
“We’ve noticed that your cable modem can handle more speed, but if you want the MOST speed let’s help you get upgraded to a faster one.” Here’s a guide. (Or, call our specialists to help schedule a tech to come install a new one for only $175 plus rental fee.)
“Here’s a list of stuff you can do with 200Mbps that you COULDN’T do before.“
“Great news: we’ve gone live. Your internet connection is blazing fast!”

Let’s learn a lesson from Time Warner.

Take some time to think about how to tell customers about the cool stuff you’re doing.
Think about what matters to them.
Think about the words that they would use.

Then say it out loud.

Remember Steve Jobs? Back when the iPod launched, all of the competing MP3 players were marketed by storage capacity: 64MB, 128MB, etc.

Steve Jobs came out in his black turtleneck and bluejeans, slid a sleek white and chrome box out of his pocket and said “1,000 songs in your pocket.“

Craft a few messages. Yes, it takes a little time, but if your customers understand and appreciate the cool stuff you’re doing for them, you’ll get the tools, resources, budget and team to do even more great work.

I wish that TWC had thought of this. And I’m enjoying my higher internet speed.

Oh – and to the geeks at TWC who made my faster internet connection possible: THANK YOU!

Geeks: What Business Are You In?

July 15, 2015 by Tom Leave a Comment

This morning I sat down with a practice manager of a successful IT professional services firm.

Our time sheet system stinks!

During our discussion she happened to mention that the timesheet system they were using is terribly antiquated.

She told me that there were problems with ASP and supported versions of IE and more.
She also mentioned that she really wasn’t able to leverage the data in the system because the reports did not work in ways that were helpful.

She needs new timesheet software, right?

What does she need?

Yes, she does, but that is not what she wants to buy. She has a business problem: she can’t get the right information out of her current system to make good business decisions. She can’t use current browsers so she has to spend time trying to figure out how to put data into the current system. This is wasteful.

It’s about her business problem

Does she want to buy software? No she wants a business problem solved. She wants it to be faster to enter information and she wants quality reports to help her make good business decisions.

There is no doubt that the only way she can get what she wants is by hiring smart geeks to write good code to solve those problems.

Your work as a geek is necessary, but not sufficient. You see, customers don’t buy tech. They buy the things that technology will give them.

She is ready to buy something that will give her more time, and give her better information fast.

How much does it cost?

She doesn’t care how hard it is for you to do it.
She doesn’t care how expensive it is for you to create it.

She has a business problem and a budget to solve that business problem.

If you can solve her problem within her budget, she will be a happy customer.

But platform X is the best!

We all know that some technology platforms are better than others. Some are far better at tackling specific problems than others.

This customer couldn’t care less which platform your technology uses.

Even if you love that platform.
Even if it is the best platform in the universe.

Do you want more resources for your project?

Want more resources? Go solve problems. Make customers happy by solving THEIR problems.

You are not in the technology business. You are in the business of solving problems for customers.

Do that, and your customer will be smiling like this:

And here’s the thing: When you start thinking like a business person and solving problems the business people understand they have, your projects will get better budgets.

You will find the support that you need from management.

You will finally have the resources you need to do the great work you want to do.

Go do it!

Email Etiquette STOP! Don’t reply to that email

July 1, 2015 by Tom Leave a Comment

Email Etiquette

Today I want to share a couple of quick email etiquette tips.

The “No Second Reply” rule

Years ago I had a boss institute the “No 2nd reply” rule of email.

If you send an email to someone, and they reply – but there are unanswered questions or details, you’ve hit the limit. We were not allowed to reply to the email. We had to call the person or better yet, go visit the person to clarify, answer questions, or resolve the issue.

When to pick up the phone

Today I was emailing back-and-forth with a geek. We were having a conflict. I was unable to reach him via phone.

When he emailed me, I replied and said (twice) “I want to speak with you about this.”

Rather than call me, he sent me another email.

When someone emails you and says

“I want to speak with you” or
“we should talk about this” or
“let’s cover this during our next meeting”

DO NOT REPLY TO THE EMAIL! Pick up the phone and talk to them – or go visit them (if it’s feasible.)

You will save yourself and the other person a huge amount of emotional energy.

Not only that, but you’ll find that it’s MUCH faster than the email back-and-forth. After you’ve come to an agreement, feel free to type up a quick summary and email that to them.

It’s well worth it. Trust me.

Priorities – How to Get Your Most Important Work Done

June 18, 2015 by Tom Leave a Comment

Are You Working On The Most Important Stuff This Week?

Stephen Covey said in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” that we experience stress when our “circle of concern” is BIGGER than our “circle of influence.”

Ever Get Frustrated By All The Problems At Work?

Many years ago I worked as a hands-on technologist and frankly I was pretty frustrated. I could see lots of things that were “broken” around me, and I wanted to fix them. Unfortunately I didn’t have the formal power or budget to tackle them, and I found myself blocked at every turn from REALLY making a difference at work. That bugged me. A lot.

Joe’s Story

I was reminded of my experience as I sat down with a client this week.

Joe is in his early thirties, has done some solid work in his career, and now finds himself in charge of a team of geeks.

On top of the typical day-to-day challenges in his job, Joe sees that there are fundamental disconnects between what the organization SAYS it wants, and how it behaves.

Joe is struggling with how to really make a difference.
He’s passionate.
He’s hardworking.
He cares about the company.
And Joe’s on the road to burnout.

Joe’s Big Challenge

Joe sees problems that he does not have the budget, staff or political support to tackle.
Joe feels overwhelmed by the fact that he wants to fix ALL the problems.
On his own he simply can’t make it happen.
Joe’s been losing sleep over the frustrations, pain and failed projects.

Joe’s circle of concern is FAR larger than his circle of influence. In some ways, that’s good – he wants to help the company win, not just himself or even his department.

Concern is a good thing.

What Can Joe Do?

Should Joe stop caring? NO!

Joe needs to adjust his circle of concern to be closer – FAR closer – to his circle of influence.

I advised him to sit down with his boss and pick 2 or 3 areas (no more than 3) where he and his team can commit to REALLY moving the needle in the next 90 days.

When he’s picking which things to work on, Joe and his team will heavily prioritize these projects over the other areas.

When management refuses to fund (or see) a problem area, Joe will keep a log of issues.

Once he’s put it in his log – or mentioned it once – he will have to stop thinking about it. That’s someone else’s problem – and Joe needs to let it be that way.

What Happens If Your Circles Don’t Match?

I used to work with Steven. Steven is a very smart guy who knew Windows XP inside and out. He was passionate, hard working, and committed to excellence in his engineering work.

Steven filed more bug reports that subsequently became Microsoft KB articles than anyone else I’ve ever heard of.

The problem? The company didn’t really care about having a perfect desktop OS.

Steven’s circle of concern was big enough to include all of the users whose machines might not wake up when they went to sleep, or machines that might blue screen when they plugged in a new device.

Steven didn’t want HIS name on any helpdesk tickets caused because he didn’t find the problem before the customer.

Because the company didn’t care, it refused to hire a team large enough to do the level of work that Steven demanded of himself.

Steven worked long hours – he skipped vacation. He worked weekends to make sure that the system was as good as he could make it. In spite of this, he missed things.

Customers complained of problems. Steven took their complaints personally. He vowed to work harder. He was burning out.

Steven’s Performance Review

When it came time for Steven’s annual review, the company gave him an average raise. AVERAGE?!?!?!?!? he roared? Average? Didn’t they know how hard he had worked? Didn’t they see all he had sacrificed? Didn’t they appreciate what he had done for the company? For the customers?

Actually, no. They hadn’t noticed. They were not measuring that. It was not personal – it was that they had other priorities, other investments.

His bosses thought it was good that Steven did good work, but his “above and beyond” effort had zero effect on his compensation.

What Happened to Steven?

Steven became frustrated and bitter.
He worked hard, but was harder to work with because of his latent anger. Promotions? Not for the grumpy guy.
Who wants to work with an angry person?
Who wants to listen to someone who takes every opportunity to vent about how the company is stupid and makes bad decisions?

I felt bad for him. The last contact I had with Steven was about 8 years ago. I just looked him up on LinkedIn. He’s doing the same job today that he was doing then. I’d bet he’s still unhappy.

Action Point

What can you do right now to “right size” your circles of concern and influence? How can you set priorities that matter to your boss and to your company?

What 2-3 things can you and your team deliver over the next 90 days?

What’s your plan to under-promise and then over deliver on all of them?

Getting important things done will make you and your boss a LOT happier.

Communication: Do you see the indicator lights?

June 2, 2015 by Tom Leave a Comment

How’s your engine?

A friend once was on a road trip and her car’s temperature gauge kept climbing. As she kept driving, the needle pointed to the red zone. Eventually a light came on, and she kept driving. As you might imagine, shortly after that, she needed to buy a new car. She missed the indicators, and it had a big consequence.

Do you see the lights?

I recently met with a client who was in trouble. She told me that her boss said she was doing a terrible job of communicating.

My boss says it’s my tone and word choice, but I really don’t know what he means. Why can’t he be more specific?

Just like warning lights on your cars dashboard, people give you indicators. Not specific warning lights, but just as useful. She was missing the indicators.

dashboard indicator warning lights scion

What do they look like?

At another firm, I worked with the senior leadership team.

One of the lead guys is a hard core scientist-type. As we talked about communication challenges on the leadership team, he sat with his arms folded across his chest.

One of the other leaders said “Why are you so opposed to this? You’ve been sitting there with your arms folded the whole time!”

His response? “What? You’re looking at nonverbal communication? Seriously?”

In the leader’s case above, he did not MEAN to send a negative message – he was comfortable with his arms folded. He was not aware (or didn’t care) that this had a negative effect on others.

Here are some indicators you might want to look for when you’re talking.

Does the other person:

Sigh?
Glance at their watch repeatedly?
Looking at phone/computer instead of looking at you?
Fold their arms when you bring up ideas?
Fail to make eye contact?
Lean away from you when you’re talking?
Change the subject after you start talking?

Now what?

Now that you know what to look for – what do you do when you see it?

When my friend was driving and the temperature indicator showed increasing temperature – it was a warning. If she had understood the meaning of it, she could have made different choices.

When you see the warning signs, it’s a good opportunity to say

I think I see a warning light. I’m guessing that we’re not connecting. What information do you need? Is there something that I need to know?

Then be quiet and LISTEN.

You might find out that your engine is overheating!

Geek communication: “Your word salad needs more gibberish”

May 5, 2015 by Tom 1 Comment

Do people understand what you’re saying?

“Hi. My name is Tom, and I’m a geek.”

I figured I should get that out of the way at the top of this post.

The other day I was reminded of this fact when I dashed off a quick note to a colleague.

I needed to put something in the postal mail to him, but I didn’t have a street address for him.

What are you talking about?

My email said something like “Can you please send me your snail mail address?”
It didn’t occur to me that this was not perfectly clear. I didn’t hesitate – even for a second – before sending it.

A little bit later, my colleague wrote back “forgive me, but what’s a snail mail address?”

Am I communicating?

Wow. I was surprised. Then I spent a few minutes laughing at myself. It’s only communication if the OTHER PERSON knows what you mean!

Do people understand you when you “communicate” with them?
In what ways are you using jargon, lingo, acronyms or short cuts in your speech or writing?
Are you SURE that those listening to you know what you’re talking about?

It happens all the time, especially to those of us in technical fields – we are experts who get used to talking with other experts – perhaps we’re reaching them, perhaps not!

Bonus – can you decipher this jargon?

BTW – IMHO YMMV. FYI the ETA is TBD. WYSIWYG. TTYL. CU. (If so, re-read this post before sending your next message!)

Tom