From before Craftosphere. Between 2013 and 2019 our founder built and maintained custom systems for small companies. This story is from that work. It's anonymized: no names, no sector where it would identify anyone, and details changed where they don't matter to the lesson.

Stories Earlier work, 2015

Lost in translation

A project management system built in full and approved at every demo, when a to-do list was the need

An office asked for a project management system. We met with them first to find out what they needed, built it step by step, and showed it at every step. Every time, it looked good. At the final demo they said it was too complicated and they couldn't see the task lists.

To them, project management meant sophisticated to-do lists: who does what, who sees what (nobody sees what they shouldn't), and who takes over when a colleague is on vacation. The system was delivered. It wasn't what they needed.

Asked for
a project management system
Delivered
one, in full, approved at every demo
Needed
a to-do list with cover for vacations and sick days

What they asked for

They wanted a project management system. When we met to find out what they needed, we talked about the things a project management system has: task lists, Gantt charts, milestones, subtasks.

They added two requirements of their own. Nobody saw a task unless they needed to, because the content was sensitive client material, so roles and responsibilities had to be strict. And when somebody was on vacation or out sick, a colleague had to be able to take over their work for that period, and only for that period, seeing their tasks on top of their own.

Those two requirements were the real need. Nobody on our side heard them that way, including me.

What was built

I delivered a full project management system: milestones, tasks, subtasks, roles, delegation for a period of time, all of it working. We built it in small steps and showed each step, and at every demo they told us it looked good.

At the final demo they said it was too complicated. They couldn't see the task lists. Everything they had asked for was there, and the thing they had actually wanted was buried under it.

What happened

They didn't want to continue. We delivered working software that nobody used. We didn't charge for it, and we lost the client.

Two things went wrong:

  1. Our product owner didn't capture the real need. The words "project management system" were taken at face value, and the two odd requirements were treated as features instead of the point.
  2. The client didn't say at the earlier demos that what they saw wasn't what they were looking for, because a demo of working software is hard to object to. "Looks good" is what people say when they don't yet know what they're looking at.

What I do differently

I start with paper. Hand-drawn screens the client can hold and reject in an afternoon. The mismatch between "project management" and "to-do list" would have surfaced in the first meeting, while it cost nothing.

I work in examples. Not "the system supports delegation" but "when Anna is on vacation from Monday to Friday, Barbara sees Anna's tasks and nobody else does, and on Saturday she doesn't." An abstraction is vague so everybody interprets it their own way. An example is specific and means the same for everybody.

That's why the first step with me is half a day with the people who do the work, and a written evaluation of what's worth building, before anything is built. Sometimes the evaluation says: a to-do list.

Not sure what you need yet? Good.

We start with how you work now, not with the solution. You leave with a straight answer on whether it's worth fixing, which may be no.

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