January 31, 2008

How What You Know Can Kill a Business and Thanks for Listening When I Call

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 6:59 am

Once You’re Inside . . .

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We all do it. We misfire on a key point that shoots us in the foot every time. It’s a major disconnect that I see almost everywhere.

We think we can be the business and still represent the customer. As a result, we end up only thinking that we’re delivering on what the customer wants or needs. The reality is

We can’t be the business and the customer at the same time.

A certain kind of thinking goes into building a product or service. Decisions are made about how the offer works and why it works as it does. When it comes time to judge the value of the finished offer, those who did the thinking can’t forget what they know about how it was made.

It’s impossible to participate in the thinking that builds something and then to respond as if you don’t know what that thinking is.

Unfortunately, businesses everywhere — from entrepreneurs to corporations — try to do exactly that. What happens then is that we offer our customers, clients, readers a flawed product or service assuming that they know why we made it as we did.

I reviewed an interactive site where, four clicks inside I was lost in “helpful” information. I was unable able to find navigational signs to get to the content that was past the “lessons” up front.

Their intentions had been excellent service, but the result had the opposite. The developers didn’t know about the barriers . . . because they knew why each “lesson” was there.

That’s how what you know can kill a business. It’s hard to not to know what you already know. It’s hard to see the disconnects from inside the system.

So if you’re one of the folks that I call to talk about what I’m working on . . . thank you so much! The questions you ask really help to keep me on track.

Have you bumped into products that offer you plenty of extra “stuff,” but not the one thing that you want?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

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12 Comments to “How What You Know Can Kill a Business and Thanks for Listening When I Call”

  1. January 31st, 2008 at 7:23 am
    Karin H. said

    Hi Liz

    I call it the ‘obvious’ factor. Because we have the knowledge (of the how, why and where) we forget our own road to discovery, every little step of it, because now we know it is so obvious!

    It is hard to forget about the ‘obvious’ factor, and yes, we all do it. But knowing about the ‘obvious’ factor is in fact a little brake on it, because once aware it’s ‘obvious’ what we forgot in our message ;-)

    (But still hard)

    Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

  2. January 31st, 2008 at 7:41 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Karin!
    Yep, that’s it exactly. That “Obvious” factor is the reason that we’re exponentially stronger when we talk to each other — we can lend insight to what we’re thinking.

    Yeah, it’s hard to do that alone.

  3. January 31st, 2008 at 10:25 am
    Chris said

    Very good points!

    This is one of the reasons why as a small company or entrepreneur it is a good idea to have an adviser group of colleagues outside of your company that will be honest with you about your new products or services.

    It is interesting though that sometimes people have others telling them about changes, or even that a new product won’t work but because it is their pet project they proceed anyway, too bad.

    I am a strong believer in doing some good quality research.

  4. January 31st, 2008 at 10:26 am
    Mike DeWitt said

    Liz,

    I think a certain venture by the Clarks suffers from this. Great content, but difficult to make sense of for several folks I’ve talked to.

    Of course, I’m a serial ‘assumptionist’ myself. As you said, it’s very difficult to ‘unknow’ what you already have learned, which gives you blind spots to other people’s challenges.

    Great post!

    Mike

  5. January 31st, 2008 at 10:36 am
    Karin H. said

    This is one of the reasons why as a small company or entrepreneur it is a good idea to have an adviser group of colleagues outside of your company

    Synchronicity again? Just published a post on ‘team building outside your company’ covering roughly the same subject.
    I thrive on cooperation like that!

    Karin H.

  6. January 31st, 2008 at 11:20 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Chris!
    Yeah, that’s the problem. We think we know because were just like the person we’re building for. The trick is to know what feedback to keep and what feedback is only one person talking. :)

  7. January 31st, 2008 at 11:27 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Mike!
    We all need someone outside the thinking in order to see the disconnects. It’s like trying to read your own copy . . . we don’t notice the missing words. :)

  8. January 31st, 2008 at 11:37 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Karin!
    I swear we’re all thinking the same thing at the same time in here. :)

  9. January 31st, 2008 at 11:54 am
    Scot Herrick said

    In my blog, I write about career management for people that work in cubes. I’ve been doing this for so long that I just naturally assume people know certain things about career management, the different types of people working and their needs, and what things people do that enhance their career.

    So when I had a manager who was in a meeting and fretted about what the big deal was with careers and Gen Y employees, I verbally listed five reasons why Gen Y people tend to have different specific needs than other generations right off the top of my head.

    You’d have thought I was from Mars. That incident fully presented the “obvious” factor that Karin H. notes in the first comment.

    Other people looking at what you are doing help a great deal. But, the critical factor is being open to customer feedback, not taking it personally, and making changes to what you are doing to directly address what customers are telling you.

    You create community by doing this and your community will help you.

    It’s really not easy to do because we’re all so close to to what we do. But, the rewards of being open, making adjustments to what is being done and then listening again are well worth it.

  10. January 31st, 2008 at 12:09 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Scot,
    Some folks shy away from that, not because they fear being wrong, but because the change itself means uncertainty. The budget, the plan, the vision were made with certain ideas in place . . . to change them means — well, who knows?

    And in fact, some changes really mean that we ought to go back to rest all of the premises and some are just little tweaks. Telling those apart and from the ones that are even worth talking about can be an art in itself. :)

  11. January 31st, 2008 at 3:40 pm
    Kathy said

    Liz,

    Ah, changing course mid stream… an ESSENTIAL business building skill they didn’t teach at my college!

    Last year, I launched a new business… and since it wasn’t my first business launch, this time I was going to do “things right” (as opposed to the “enjoyable hobby gone horribly awry” manner in which I launched my initial business).

    THIS TIME, I wasn’t going to get sucked into “support” issues. I was going to “plan ahead” and provide “support” via online videos.

    The problem? THOSE DARNED CLIENTS!!!! They didn’t WANT online videos walking them through the process. Some wanted to hear my voice while others wanted “boring” printable files that they could print out and lay on their lap as they “followed along”.

    I thought I was thinking like them… but in the end I was just thinking like me.

  12. January 31st, 2008 at 5:27 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Kathy!
    Great to see you!
    Where I used to work we had a saying, “We just can’t get those customers to behave!”

    What you said here

    I thought I was thinking like them… but in the end I was just thinking like me.

    is wisdom

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