Kevin Pashuk

7 years ago · 2 min. reading time · 0 ·

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Eating your own dog food.

Eating your own dog food.


Being a lifelong learner, sometimes it takes me a lifetime to learn some things.  This was one of them.

Every so often I say something that completely derails the conversation. All the momentum of the bright, brilliant dialogue comes to a screeching halt, and my conversation partner is sitting there with a puzzled look on their face.

After several uncomfortable occurrences, a pattern started to form. I have a habit of trying to compress a whole thought into one pithy, witty maxim (or a short blog) and will use phrases like "We NEED to eat our own dog food!"  In retrospect, it was clear why I was losing people when they had no context.

But enough of the communication lesson... We NEED to eat our own dog food!  And let me explain...

Long ago an advertising firm met around the boardroom table to discuss why the sales of their client's dog food were not doing well.

"I don't understand it!" the CEO boomed, "We have the best packaging, the best advertising campaign, the best placement in the supermarkets and pet stores! Why aren't we selling more?!"

One of the people around the table meekly put up her hand.  "WHAT??!!" said the CEO.

"Well sir," said the analyst, "It turns out the dogs don't like it."

The IT department in most organizations are notorious for rolling out complex systems - ERP, BI, CRM, CMS and a litany of other acronyms that our user's have no choice about using. While we are adept at making them work, many of us in IT leadership have never had to approach it from the user's perspective.

This lesson was driven home to me here at Appleby College, where I not only work, but I had a son who attended.  I had to go through all the processes that we put our parents through to apply, then register a student, then stay on top of all the other bits of information that flows in a technologically enhanced environment like Appleby.

Let's just say that enhancing the user experience became a significant priority.  I would never appreciate it as much had I not gone through the experience.

Keep this in mind when you implement the next "I don't have a choice but to use this" system. Make sure you get feedback from a real user, who will be living with your choices for a long time.

Live the life of your users. After a while the dog food will start tasting quite reasonable.

_____________________________________________________

Image: MS Office Imagebank

A version of this post has previously appeared on LinkedIn

About the Author:

I'm the Chief Information Officer for Appleby College, in Oakville, Ontario Canada, where my team is transforming the delivery of education through innovative application of technology.

I'm convinced that IT leadership needs to dramatically change how IT is delivered rather than being relegated to a costly overhead department.

In addition to transforming IT in my role as CIO, I look for every opportunity to talk about this... writing, speaking and now blogging on BeBee, LinkedIn (https://ca.linkedin.com/in/kpashuk), ITWorld Canada, or at TurningTechInvisible.com.

I'm also an avid amateur musician and photographer (but not at the same time).  Check out my photostream on Flickr  or on beBee hive: serious-amateur-photographers



"
#ERP #IT #LinkedIn #CEO #Appleby College
Comments

Phil Friedman

7 years ago #10

Terrific insight. Unlike what appears to be the predominating viewpoint, customer relations, for example, involves more than simply communicating with strokes and pats; it involves actually delivering the product or service for which payment has been accepted, at a level of quality as represented prior to, and during the sale. It seems a point that escapes the architects of CRM systems. Cheers!

Kevin Pashuk

7 years ago #9

#12
Thanks for your comment Vincent Andrew. I hang around a lot of teachers so I know your students are better learners if the teacher thinks like you do.

Kevin Pashuk

7 years ago #8

#10
A great anecdote to go with the post Anees Zaidi!

Kevin Pashuk

7 years ago #7

#8
Thanks for visiting and commenting CityVP Manjit. One of the greatest compliments I have received in my life was from a journalist reviewing a software package I had developed. He described it as "Elegant in its simplicity". That has been the standard I have strived for since. Simplicity doesn't just happen.

CityVP Manjit

7 years ago #6

A reminder that simplicity is not simple and what on paper is very simple, especially where value is readily discernible where we are lost inside creating our own version of the world. At the same time pioneers may have a simplicity on the inside that is not simple for outside world to see, and here the greatest change agents appear and when they do, we never go back to the way we used to do things, since we realize the simple things that we have learned to see, that we did not see, that may have been simple.

Kevin Pashuk

7 years ago #5

#5
I've heard that adage Don Kerr described as: Before you are angry with someone, walk a mile in their moccasins. If you are still angry, at least you are a mile away from them, and you have their moccasins.

don kerr

7 years ago #4

Puts me in mind of the great observation that if you don't know where you're going any road will get you there. Years ago, at my summer camp (Camp Mazinaw) we were encouraged to walk a mile in someone else's mocassins before rushing to judgement. Like so many areas of life, the lessons we were taught in childhood remain relevant even at my advanced age! Nicely done Kevin Pashuk

Kevin Pashuk

7 years ago #3

#2
I do agree Paul \ that this concept applies to several areas. I write to IT leaders in particular for a couple of reasons. First, I am a peer and can 'speak from the trenches'. Secondly, and don't tell them I told you this, they are some of the most change resistant people on the planet... moreso than doctors or academics, even though their main role is to force, er, bring change into other people's lives.

Kevin Pashuk

7 years ago #2

#1
A wise colleague once told me "We don't know what we don't know". As such we tend to be blind to things, not willfully, but because we haven't learned them yet. Thanks for commenting Ali Anani.

Ali Anani

7 years ago #1

When we are blind to simple facts things go wrong. A lovely post to read and learn from

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