It’s a hell of a ride — that’s how I can put my recent consultancy experience. In the last few years, I have delivered cutting-edge data products to my clients from all sorts of sectors like Manufacturing, Publishing, Events, Healthcare, and more. Most of them were big players within their sectors with some using old-school ways of working and others trying to innovate fast using a hybrid Agile cum Waterfall approach.
The beginning wasn’t as easy for me. Coming from a mindset of rapid prototyping, writing code for pre-defined JIRA tickets, and spending most of the time behind the screen I never felt the actual impact of things I used to build.
Consulting took me a step closer to actualising the importance of tech, data, and innovation. A simple solution that might not put stars on my Software Engineering CV, would sometimes result in impactful outcomes for my clients.
In a nutshell, this was the time when I felt closer to the sun, the heat of promises, and the sweat of SOWs (Statement of Work). This article is to reflect on the key 5 most valuable things I picked from this experience. These are not just useful from a consultant’s perspective, they can be applied from start-up building to product innovation and nevertheless for recent graduates to be prepared for the real wars.
Hone The Art Of Communication
“When dealing with people remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion. — Dale Carnegie”
Movie actors are great communicators. Even though the dialogs are pre-written for them, they put emphasis on the dialog delivery which makes everything magical. The delivery of certain dialogs makes us feel unrealistic things and puts us inside the movies in an unconscious manner. Coming to the real world, making sure when to talk and in what context is very important.
In consultancy you might have to deal with clients who are not well versed in tech and ultimately they are your customers, paying you to build something amazing for their business. Even though you are a great software engineer but if you do not know how to explain your solution to your non-technical customer, you will face a lot of friction.
From start-up pitches to interviews for graduate roles, the art of communication stays at the top. You can be good at talking to people in general but talking effectively is the key here. In short, saying less by using an effective set of words in a precise manner with the correct tone is the real art.
Know the Difference Between Your Customer and User(s)
Customer is the King — Who’s paying for your solution and who is actually using it? There is a difference between your customer and the user(s).
Looking at it from a start-up point of view, you might get busy in making the best platform to make your users happy and serve them a great user experience ever but without drawing a clear line between your user and the customer things can get tricky as you grow. Having a healthy source of revenue for your business is sometimes as important as making sure your users are happy.
For example, a company like Uber might see drivers as its users and ride-hailers (who book Uber) as customers. Uber delaying a fancy feature to charm the drivers might not have any relative impact on the business but a minor glitch in existing features on the ride-hailer’s app can have a dramatic impact on the revenues.
When consulting a huge enterprise the people you interact with day to day might not be the direct users of your solution. Once you have a clear understanding of the line between the customer and the user you will be able to effectively tailor your communications and priorities.
Plan before you attack, it may help you to win with minimal resources and effort.
Don’t Give Too Much Too Soon
Managing expectations is the key — A commander might have the best plan in the world to win a war. Hence, he/she may go all into the field to do full damage as soon as possible, burns out resources quickly, and get destroyed by the enemy’s backup plan.
The analogy might not fit with everyone but the point I am trying to put across here is to step back and focus on the bigger picture before building or advising anything. Allowing yourself a good piece of time to understand, ask questions and research will help in improving the quality of your deliveries, ultimately.
In certain situations giving too much too soon can also affect what clients and/or stakeholders expect from you.
Think, analyse and suggest solutions where you can gain more business value with relatively minimal effort.
“The key is to set realistic customer expectations, and then not to just meet them, but to exceed them — preferably in unexpected and helpful ways — Sir Richard Branson”
Show How It’s Done
“Perhaps there is more sense in our nonsense and more nonsense in our ‘sense’ than we would care to believe — David Bohm”
People love diagrams!
Either you are dealing with a technical stakeholder or a non-technical one, do not assume that they will be able to interpret your findings exactly the way you see them. Try to find a middle ground to meet with them, an equilibrium if you can.
UMLs, flow diagrams, state diagrams, etc there are many existing frameworks out there for you to use but you don’t have to stick to them all the time. Be creative and try to illustrate your ideas in the best way possible so anyone could understand them regardless of the complexities under the bonnet.
In general, talking is always easier than doing. Perhaps, a small demo or working example can help in gaining the trust of your client as well as building confidence within your team.
IMPORTANT! Do Not Neglect The Importance Of Good Ethics
Be human first, a good human being!
Why are you doing what you’re doing? Have a purpose, a vision, or a cause behind your gig.
As a consultant, you can keep on rolling the invoices to meet what’s agreed on the SOW (Statement of Work), line by line. But is this ethical or even sustainable?
Together, we are shaping the tomorrow, the tomorrow we are going to live in, the tomorrow the next generation is going to grow in, so let’s be mindful of the why behind everything we do and with culture-shifting to WFH it is more important than ever because we are all humans after all.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit — Aristotle”
