Project Manager's Business Guide Series 3: understanding customers (Agile development, passive and weak customers, understanding customers' eccentric behaviors, and how they like customers)

This is the third article in the Business Guide series of the Project Manager. (1) preface and project nature; (2) Recognition of responsibilities; (3) Understanding of customers; (4) Understanding of negotiations; (5) Understanding of project progress; (6) Understanding of remittance; (7: push the project to an unbeaten position)

Passive and weak customers

Customers are often regarded as active parties and can negotiate with Party B in an arrogant and hard manner, but this is not the case.

Most of Party A's Information Centers have signed several projects, but each software has only one chance to establish a project. This is the same as that we can develop software for multiple parties at the same time, the information is neither closed nor lacking in experience; Party B is knowledgeable about itself, both business and development, and cost, the other party often only knows the budget (in fact, they do not even know the budget). The most fatal point is that throughout the development process, the development progress is almost completely transparent to Party, the last point is that if the project fails, Party B will only lose money, and Party A will often cause irreparable losses (such as high-speed rail accidents ).

Therefore,The customer is completely in a "strong and strong" State. To understand this, you can understand the customer's various "weird, unreasonable, and tough actions".

Understanding the odd behavior of the customer

After understanding the real positions of the above customers, we can better understand the following strange actions (in fact, we also have such actions when buying things, especially when decorating the house ):

I want to buy things, but I don't know how much money I have (I'm afraid that I don't need that much. As the saying goes, I can't even tell the seller the price, how can buyers tell me)

To buy things, but not to mention the specific needs (customers in the mountains are often inferior to us to understand, even if we say less, we will not be able to do it unless we do so)

Review requirements, but do not sign for confirmation (originally I do not know how to analyze the needs, in case of signatures but nothing is missing, back to the responsibility)

Constantly changing, but never adding more money (it is difficult for customers to tell the difference between "change" and "refinement". They think I just want to describe the requirements in more detail, you are like adding money ?)

After the project is finished, it will not be accepted. (What should party B do if there are any defects or repairs in case of payment)

......

After understanding thisThe project should not be understood as the battlefield of confrontation and game, but be able to achieve a win-win situation by helping to resolve customers' doubts..

How can this problem be solved? There is no universal answer to the above questions, but if a correct method is established, each project and each customer, we can find a solution for it, even if it is not perfect.

In fact, many content in Agile development can solve or alleviate some of the above problems. However, many people only regard agile methods as internal management methods, which weakens their role.

Like customers

To put it bluntly, no matter how we understand the customer, the customer may not know that we are trying to win a win-win situation rather than fighting, so they are still arrogant, tough, and odd.

As a project manager evolved from a programmer, how can I "simply" like customers and think about them?

I used to work in a consulting company in Europe a few years ago and have been abroad in Europe for some time. I forgot all kinds of training content, but I still remember a senior sales with white hair who told us "selling XXX" (XXX is the name of our company ), his core idea is: "The most people who deal with customers are company consultants (who we are trained), not sales. Therefore, consultants must establish a sense of sales." This is very similar to the topic we are currently discussing:A project manager is not a salesperson but a project manager who deals with customers most. Therefore, a project manager must establish a sales awareness..

He cited this image in a PPT:

Originally, Europeans did not like the US President, but he asked usFrom this photo, we will find five good places to respect for this person, instead of watching him with colored glasses....... As a result, more than five items were found, including "well dressed, straightforward, humorous" and other unexpected aspects.

Trying to find the advantages of the other party rather than staring at the disadvantages of the other party is a simple way to quickly like the customer's approach, many sales staff are using.

In fact, when a project manager is sitting with a customer who is "weak, Layman, passive, and in need of help", rather than sitting with a project manager, weird "when customers sit together, their mentality, thoughts, behaviors, and effects will be very different. In this regard,The mind has changed, and it is not difficult to understand the techniques..

 

No matter how much we like our customers, there will inevitably be a game. The next article will talk about the methods and techniques that should be held during negotiations.

 

 

Click to download the free agile development textbook: Martian agile development manual