"The New Guy"

I recently started a new assignment with a new client in a new state and it got me thinking about what it means to be the new guy and how to make the most of a new situation. As a consultant it is a necessary and “normal” part of the job to often be “the new guy”.  After a while we get pretty used to it.

I should start by saying that everyone I work with has been great about welcoming me and getting me up to speed. We’ve tackled the paperwork to get me a badge; we’ve dealt with network access and a brief overview of policies the client expects us to follow. They were also very forthcoming with office “culture”; who the pranksters are, who to avoid before 10am, who to see when you need an answer 5 minutes ago, etc. The team has really been wonderful. And yet, despite the lunches and the dinners, the meetings, the late nights, it inevitably takes a while to completely fit in. You’re on the outside of inside jokes. You can’t relate to problems or successes from earlier. You don’t know colleagues who have already left the project. Eventually, obviously, this will all pass as you take part in new triumphs, develop your own jokes, and live your own stories. The time it takes to completely fit in (until people stop saying “have you met Tom”) varies from client to client and team to team, but there are concrete steps you can take to speed the process.

1) Engage: It is just my natural tendency to observe and study a new environment before engaging.  This is a terrible idea! I have to constantly fight the urge to sit back and watch. You learn so much faster by engaging, talking, debating (politely – you are still “the new guy”) than you do by observing. Speak up in meetings, proactively engage people in the hallways and at around the coffee machine, leverage experiences from past projects, etc. It should be a goal to make a real impact on a decision within your first day. It doesn't need to be a earth shattering decision, but something. This helps you focus and get into the weeds.

2) Be on time and “Present”: Perhaps your last client had a habit of starting meeting 5 minutes later than scheduled or maybe it was the kind of company where meeting attendees spent the meeting buried in their laptops “multi-tasking”. When you’re new to a client or company be sure to show up on time (or, even better, a couple minutes early to meet new people). If, over time, you realize that meetings do, in fact, start late then feel free to fall in with the crowd if you so please (personally, I hate meetings that don’t start and end on time…but that’s for a different post). Also, leave your laptop at your desk (unless explicitly needed for the meeting), leave your blackberry or iPhone (or Droid) in your pocket and pay attention. Bring an old fashioned notebook (I use these) and take old fashioned notes.  By being 100% focused on the current meeting you will more quickly learn the client’s business and your role in their success.

3) Ask Questions: This is sort of a corollary to numbers 1 and 2, but I think it is important enough to warrant its own bullet point. Ray Bradbury wrote in Fahrenheit 451, “If you hide your ignorance no one will hit you and you’ll never learn”. Often times consultants are reluctant to ask a lot of questions (after all, we are paid for what we know and to answer questions, not ask them). A much better approach is to ask as many questions as you have (luckily, in Corporate America, we are rarely hit for our ignorance…). It’s much better to ask questions in your first couple of weeks than it is to pretend you understand everything and then have to go back and ask basic questions. Keep in mind that the client will ALWAYS know their current business better than you will. Your job is to learn as much as you can and then implement solutions to improve the business going forward.

4) Have Fun: Yes, it’s a cliché. But why not have fun? You’re going to spend 60-80 hours a week with the people in your office. Take the opportunity to learn about them. Have conversations that extend beyond the walls of your cubicle or office. If you’re in a new city, explore local restaurants (not national chains, please). On my last project we regularly used this to blow off steam. You’ll be a lot more successful if you make it a point to have fun whenever possible, plus it never hurts to be known as someone who’s fun to be around. You never know when you’ll cross paths with these people again.

I'd love to hear additional suggestions. What other tips do you have?

Do Clients Know What They Want?

I was reading Ben Casnocha's excellent blog tonight when I stumbled upon the following:

Given that customers lie, sometimes we have to extract information indirectly. Instead of asking customers how much they would pay for a hypothetical product, ask them how much they're currently paying for however it is they're solving the problem that you are trying to solve. (Please read the full post here)

Ben was talking about product development and marketing for startups specifically, but it got me thinking: How often do my clients really know what they want? Are they capable of communicating that effectively? What processes must we use to extract that information?

I know I spend a good deal of my time in workshops, demos and interviews trying to determine exactly what the client is looking for. In the end, however, we make lots of changes toward the end as the system comes together and differences in understanding get resolved.

What processes/systems/tools do you use to get at exactly what your clients and customers want? I'd love to hear some ideas.

Good Talk,

Tom