In my last post I described a serious problem that plagues
the A/E industry, but which you've probably never considered—project myopia.
This is the tendency of technical professionals to focus on the details of
project work to the neglect of seeing the big picture, including what matters
most to clients. Project myopia contributes to the commoditization of our
services because it diverts us from connecting our work to high-value business
results.
Because the evidence of this malady is so commonplace, we
hardly notice. Some will no doubt question whether it's a problem at all.
That's your opportunity. Once you have acknowledged that project myopia is a
significant concern, only then will you be able to tackle it head on. The cure
does not consist of the usual bromides about client focus and responsive
service, but a set of actionable steps to deliver true client success through
your project work:
Determine the project's strategic drivers. Why is the client
doing the project and what does it need to achieve? What constitutes success
from the client's perspective? Don't be too quick to make assumptions; there
are often deeper needs that are not so apparent. Make sure you understand the
client's goals and vision for project success.
I highly recommend uncovering needs at three levels—strategic, technical, and personal. Strategic needs have to do with the
overall success of the client organization. They typically relate to business,
financial, operational, regulatory, or other management objectives. Personal
needs account for human factors, both within the client organization and among
their stakeholders. Don't underestimate the importance of meeting personal
needs!
Clarify goals and critical success factors. Okay, perhaps
this is restating my first point, but it deserves extra emphasis. Most proposal
and project teams I work with have only a modest understanding of project goals
beyond scope, schedule, and budget. They equate successful scope completion with
a successful project, and that simply isn't true. The project must accomplish
the expected goals.
By the way, sometimes clients don't have a clear
understanding of project goals. That doesn't get you off the hook. You should
work with the client to clarify what the project needs to accomplish to be a
complete success. Fail to do this and you may well have an unhappy client who
fully realized the project goals only after you didn't achieve them!
Benchmark service expectations. Clients usually communicate
expectations about the project, but often don't share what they expect of the
working relationship. This includes matters such as communication, client
involvement, decision making, deliverable standards, invoicing, change
management, and client feedback. In my considerable experience troubleshooting
service breakdowns, the most prevalent cause has been the A/E firm's lack of
understanding about what the client really wanted.
Solving this problem is relatively simple, yet surprisingly
uncommon—you have to ask. Benchmarking service expectations is a process of
asking questions about the working relationship, with a goal of achieving a
mutual understanding. I've created a tool called the Client Service Planner to
facilitate this process, and you can download it here.
Learn to talk about business value. Discuss goals and
strategy with clients, not just scope, schedule, and budget. Make an effort to
become more familiar with your clients' business, if you're not already.
Describe how your work connects to business results—in client conversations,
sales calls, proposals, and marketing materials. In fact, a great exercise to
get you started might be rewriting your project descriptions to reflect the
business value you delivered.
And don't ignore making this a point of emphasis in internal
communications. Regularly discuss it in strategic planning meetings, project
team meetings, staff meetings, training workshops, and mentoring sessions. Most
A/E firms like to claim they help their clients be successful, but it's hard to
imagine doing something that you hardly even talk about.
Pursue clients, not just projects. Most sales activity in
our business is transactional; it's the pursuit of projects. But enduring
client relationships that produce revenue over the long term are far more
valuable. Why don't we give more emphasis to winning new clients? Why aren't we
more deliberate in growing client relationships?
I advise screening prospective clients for relationship
potential, not unlike popular matchmaking websites that provide criteria for
evaluating a couple's likely compatibility. What qualities are you looking for
in an ideal client? What characteristics do you want to avoid? Making this
evaluation should help inform your sales approach, whether it should be primarily
transactional or relational in nature.
Conduct regular third-party project reviews. This is a
strategy that PSMJ introduced to my former employer years ago, and I've been
advising my clients to do the same ever since. The primary advantage of these
reviews is to bring an outsider's perspective to an assessment of the project's
status and progress. By "outsider," I'm merely suggesting someone
who's not significantly involved in the project—so they can be more
objective—not necessarily someone outside your firm.
Ideally, this reviewer will be sensitive to client issues
(as well as the usual project performance matters), such as whether the project
drivers are clearly understood, whether expectations were benchmarked and how
well they are being met, how well the project manager is engaging the client,
etc. This process is admittedly better suited to larger projects, but these
also tend to be the ones where you have more at stake, making the reviews all
the more valuable.
Provide client skills training to your staff. If client
focus is one of your firm's core values (and what firm doesn't claim to
prioritize serving clients well?), then it's fair to ask: What are you doing to
improve how you serve your clients? Firms tend to spend far more on upgrading their
technical capabilities than their client skills. Isn't it time to balance the
investment a bit?
As hopefully I've sufficiently documented here, client focus
is not a natural trait for many technical professionals. They could use some
help, training in not only doing things differently, but seeing their work
differently. Better client skills start with a change in focus, moving beyond
project myopia to being more attentive to clients and business outcomes. This
transition is certainly within reach of the vast majority of technical
practitioners, but it likely won't come without some concerted effort.
So have I convinced you that project myopia is serious
problem deserving your attention? I'd love to hear your feedback!
