STOP and Listen to the B*TCHING!

How listening to End Users can transform your business

Working with end users can be frustrating, listening to “I wish the system could do this”, or “Well this doesn’t work like I want it to”, or “Wouldn’t it be nice if…”.  The response you may want to give is something along the lines of what a little league coach once said to the worst player who asked to play short stop in the tournament game, “Well Timmy, I would like to fly fighter jets, but that’s not happening today either”.

What if we stopped writing off all the grumbling and instead listened for nuggets of problems we can solve?  Software technology evolves rapidly, and there are often solutions that exist today that were not available six months ago.  Are you leaving space in your work to keep your implementation up to date with what the software is capable of?

Not every problem or idea has a solution, but making room for “little wins” allows end users to stay engaged, stay aligned to objectives, and most importantly, help your processes operate efficiently.  By making room for an “idea box” or a quarterly end user “lunch and share”, you can find ways to solve the nagging issues they face.

How to get started:

1. Open the dialogue with end users. Online forums are easy and less time consuming, but many issues can be unearthed by setting aside time to bring users together and allow them to openly discuss challenges they are facing.
2. Set expectations for ideas that are shared – they will be evaluated, scoped and put in a backlog users can track. Transparency is key so users know they are not forgotten.
3. Ideas that have larger impact with lower amount of effort will be prioritized.
4. Identify areas where there are just plain gaps in understanding, are these training opportunities?
5. KEEP IN TOUCH WITH YOUR MANAGED SERVICES TEAM — they know what’s new, what other clients in the industry are doing. Use their brains to search for solutions you may not be aware of yet.

There is enough complaining on a workday, but by harnessing the power of problem solving, everyone wins.