Movieclips Monday: Listen to the experts

Posted by: Chris Hediger

When projects get started, most people like to envision the best possible outcome — one that has all the bells and whistles wrapped up in a sleek design. But as the project proceeds, we come to realize that maybe what we wanted isn’t realistic. Worse, it could be detrimental to the true objectives of the project. There’s one surefire way to ensure that what you’re building meets the set goals: listen to the experts who advise us.

Our movie clip this week comes from Pixar’s “The Incredibles.” Bob envisions his new superhero outfit to include all the great things a superhero outfit should, including a cape. Edna Mode, the fashion consultant to the superheroes, knows better.



A few years ago we decided that we should survey our customers and contractors on a regular basis to understand how satisfied both audiences are with our services. We put together a few questions and used one of our existing tools to implement the process. I quickly discovered that surveying is not as simple as drafting questions and tracking answers. There is logic and a whole industry behind the tools used, the questions asked, the answers allowed, and the way data is analyzed. In this case, it was necessary to leverage some experts in the field and listen to what they had to say.

What resulted was a reliable tool that we regularly revisit, and it’s now specifically designed to give us a true picture of our success as an organization. Additionally, the survey provides us with input and ideas for how we can improve our services. If we went with our original vision, we would have never ended up with such a useful tool.

We improved our project and our results by listening to people within our organization and to external experts who live and breathe their specific industries. The outcome was not a compromise of our original intent, but rather a better version that avoided pitfalls and allowed for continuous improvements.