BY JIM SAWYER – CHIEF SCIENTIST
I recently watched a stirring and inspiring conference session. Trust me when I say this: it is worth your time. It’s over an hour, but it might be an hour that shapes how you think about what you do.
Mike Monteiro is the founder and principal of Mule Design based in San Francisco, speaking at Interaction15. He is addressing a crowd of designers, largely user experience designers I assume, which isn’t exactly Elicit’s industry. However, I immediately drew the analogy to the services that we provide for our clients on a day-to-day basis. It’s applicable. It resonates. It strikes a chord.
He starts with two principles he says should drive every type of project-based work:
- Do good work
- Persuade others that the work is good
Every designer, Monteiro says, needs to hone both of these skills, and use them together to drive a successful project—to make your clients successful. After all, they hired you for your unique and specific expertise in your field to help them solve a business problem. You owe it to them to not only go solve that problem using your expertise—that’s a minimum requirement—but also to prove to them that your solution works and addresses their needs. You want to make them feel like they were justified in hiring you to solve that problem in the first place. Quite simply, great work in and of itself is not enough.
This makes a whole lot of pragmatic sense and what struck me is that this applies not just to designers, but also to marketing strategists, data scientists, and consultants across the board. Here are a few teasers of Monteiro’s speech.
On hiring a team:
“A designer that can do pretty good work, and then persuade the client that the work is right, is worth more to me than a designer who can do amazing work and can’t for the life of them sell it.”
On the importance of projecting confidence:
“Every interaction with the client is an opportunity to reaffirm the client’s decision to hire you… It’s about showing them that that big check they wrote had the right name on it.”
On why building client trust is critical:
“The more that they trust you, the less they will interfere with how you do your job, and the more they’re going to trust your decisions.”
On presenting:
“You need to present on point and [correctly]. Because presenting is the life force of staying in business.”
On meetings:
“You have gathered all of these busy and important people together—they probably have other things to do. So let them know why they’re here. Let them know why they’re a necessary and important part of this conversation. People love feeling needed and they hate having their time wasted.”
On knowing when to stop talking:
“Everybody’s favorite part of a meeting is the end. Let them know what it will take to get there. Once you have gotten what you need, shut the f*** up. Everything beyond that threatens to unravel the victory that you just got.”
On how stories drive decisions:
“While every decision that you made on that [project] should have been made with the benefit of data and good research, people are irrational creatures. And [your clients] don’t make decisions based on data and research… they make their decisions based on good storytelling, with data that backs up the storytelling—but if the storytelling isn’t there, you’re f****d! So find your story and tell it.”
On not getting defensive:
“When a client is giving you feedback, it is a great time to keep your mouth shut. Collect it, listen to it, think about it. A quick reply always looks defensive.”
On soliciting the right kind of client feedback:
“Keep the feedback questions to things that they are subject matter experts in. I have absolutely no doubt that they’re going to go ahead and give you feedback on color, on type, on all sorts of s*** you don’t want their feedback on. But you shouldn’t ask for it. And take it with a grain of salt…. Be explicit about what you need and you are more inclined to get it.”
On why the single worst question to ask a client is “Do you like it?”:
“People didn’t hire you to be their friend. People didn’t hire you to make something they like, and something they like may not be the thing that leads to their success. We are professionals, service professionals… we were hired to solve problems—problems that we have the unique skillset to solve… If you want to make clients happy, make them successful.”
All in all, it was pretty inspiring to me personally. How about you? How might these principles apply to your day-to-day work?
Persuade Me
BY JIM SAWYER – CHIEF SCIENTIST
I recently watched a stirring and inspiring conference session. Trust me when I say this: it is worth your time. It’s over an hour, but it might be an hour that shapes how you think about what you do.
Mike Monteiro is the founder and principal of Mule Design based in San Francisco, speaking at Interaction15. He is addressing a crowd of designers, largely user experience designers I assume, which isn’t exactly Elicit’s industry. However, I immediately drew the analogy to the services that we provide for our clients on a day-to-day basis. It’s applicable. It resonates. It strikes a chord.
He starts with two principles he says should drive every type of project-based work:
Every designer, Monteiro says, needs to hone both of these skills, and use them together to drive a successful project—to make your clients successful. After all, they hired you for your unique and specific expertise in your field to help them solve a business problem. You owe it to them to not only go solve that problem using your expertise—that’s a minimum requirement—but also to prove to them that your solution works and addresses their needs. You want to make them feel like they were justified in hiring you to solve that problem in the first place. Quite simply, great work in and of itself is not enough[1]But it’s a heck of a starting point..
This makes a whole lot of pragmatic sense and what struck me is that this applies not just to designers, but also to marketing strategists, data scientists, and consultants across the board[2]Except for you, of course. You’re the One. Your work in and of itself is so magically awe-inspiring that its incomparable brilliance will be immediately obvious and incontrovertible to all who are fortunate enough to bask in its presence. In fact, the world should rightfully shower you with lavish gifts and effusive praise for deeming us worthy enough to be exposed to it. But for the rest of us, we’re gonna need to be able to persuade others.. Here are a few teasers of Monteiro’s speech.
On hiring a team:
“A designer that can do pretty good work, and then persuade the client that the work is right, is worth more to me than a designer who can do amazing work and can’t for the life of them sell it.”
On the importance of projecting confidence:
“Every interaction with the client is an opportunity to reaffirm the client’s decision to hire you… It’s about showing them that that big check they wrote had the right name on it.”
On why building client trust is critical:
“The more that they trust you, the less they will interfere with how you do your job, and the more they’re going to trust your decisions.”
On presenting:
“You need to present on point and [correctly]. Because presenting is the life force of staying in business.”
On meetings:
“You have gathered all of these busy and important people together—they probably have other things to do. So let them know why they’re here. Let them know why they’re a necessary and important part of this conversation. People love feeling needed and they hate having their time wasted.”
On knowing when to stop talking:
“Everybody’s favorite part of a meeting is the end. Let them know what it will take to get there. Once you have gotten what you need, shut the f*** up. Everything beyond that threatens to unravel the victory that you just got.”
On how stories drive decisions[3]Monteiro’s slide at this part of the talk said simply: “Work like a scientist. Present like a snake charmer.”:
“While every decision that you made on that [project] should have been made with the benefit of data and good research, people are irrational creatures. And [your clients] don’t make decisions based on data and research… they make their decisions based on good storytelling, with data that backs up the storytelling—but if the storytelling isn’t there, you’re f****d! So find your story and tell it.”
On not getting defensive:
“When a client is giving you feedback, it is a great time to keep your mouth shut. Collect it, listen to it, think about it. A quick reply always looks defensive.”
On soliciting the right kind of client feedback:
“Keep the feedback questions to things that they are subject matter experts in. I have absolutely no doubt that they’re going to go ahead and give you feedback on color, on type, on all sorts of s*** you don’t want their feedback on. But you shouldn’t ask for it. And take it with a grain of salt…. Be explicit about what you need and you are more inclined to get it.”
On why the single worst question to ask a client is “Do you like it?”:
“People didn’t hire you to be their friend. People didn’t hire you to make something they like, and something they like may not be the thing that leads to their success. We are professionals, service professionals… we were hired to solve problems—problems that we have the unique skillset to solve… If you want to make clients happy, make them successful.”
All in all, it was pretty inspiring to me personally[4]In fact, I kind of watched it twice in a row. Is that bad?. How about you? How might these principles apply to your day-to-day work?
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