Operational Infrastructure Clients
Clients – Who are They? What do they know? What do they NOT know?
Understanding how operations can either propel or torpedo your growth plans.
Every startup has a skeleton — the operational infrastructure that lies within. The only question is whether it will be a source of strength and stability that propels the organization to new heights, or a constant distraction from the core mission that torpedoes growth plans.
This is the second in a series of articles that explores how to successfully develop a start-up’s operational infrastructure. By closely evaluating several key themes, I will identify the start-up’s needs and differentiate them from established organizations. As any successful founder will tell you, the right infrastructure should not only be able to quickly help you achieve scale, but it should also be able to pivot with you when the need arises.
In this article, we explore the “clients” of a start-up’s operational infrastructure. After defining them, we will investigate when they provide useful insight and when their perspective might be less helpful. The objective is straightforward; to develop and maintain happy clients. The challenge is understanding the difference between what they say they want and what they really desire.
Although we will continue to focus on a start-up’s operational infrastructure clients, the ideas discussed below are equally applicable to clients in the more traditional sense of the term.
Operational infrastructure clients: Who are they?
A useful definition of the term client, in the context of operational infrastructure, is the consumer of your product or service. It can be an internal consumer (your manager, the team or a co-worker), a service provider (accountants, lawyers, consultants, landlord, etc.) or a more traditional external consumer (investor in the firm, user of the firm’s products, etc.). By expanding the definition to include both internal and external parties, every individual within the firm will be able to identify their own set of clients.
After identifying who the clients are, it is also important to understand the symbiotic relationship that can be developed between you and the client. A successful relationship is one in which you will be constantly asking how can I help them succeed.
How can I make their job more efficient, more rewarding, or more successful? What information can I share that will improve their understanding? How can I deliver information in a more easily digestible manner?
Although this goal appears to be fully altruistic, when properly implemented, it can also generate a self-improving feedback loop. While adding to other’s success, your actions should also be geared toward improving your skillset. This flywheel effect – where you look to assist others which in turn makes you better at your job – creates its own virtuous circle. Once you experience this in action, you will become an advocate. Once your team/firm experiences this in action you will be well positioned to pursue scale.
Now for the hard part, achieving the flywheel effect requires discipline. There is a fine line between contributing to others success and doing their job for them. In an earlier article we discussed the concept of helping by doing versus helping by contributing. It is important to review the definitions here:
Helping by Doing is the process of redistributing the work activity. Moving responsibilities from one area or person to another. There are times when this is essential. Particularly when the activity is related to a short-lived spike event (an all-hands on deck situation). However, doing as a form of helping can also be detrimental. Not only could it prevent a problem from being found, but it could also disenfranchise the team or individual receiving the assistance.
Helping by Contributing is the process of empowering the original person or team by providing perspective, insight, and support; but stopping well shy of doing the task or taking responsibility for the outcome. The focus here is on sharing relevant information and experiences while simultaneously staying in your own lane. High functioning teams thrive when they allow for the free flow of expertise between areas and empower each individual team to solve their own challenges.
To develop a successful flywheel relationship with your client, you need to focus on combining doing (your own work in a manner that is helpful to your client) and contributing (your insights and experiences to support your client).
Adam Grant, the author of Give and Take, applies this same principal to developing your professional network. Grant postulates, and I agree, that we should be willing to freely give “the 5-minute favor” to almost anyone as a way to help others at minimal cost to ourselves. Over time, this pay-it-forward mentality has shown to reap significant dividends as your expanded network contributes to your career. The key to success is to become a generous 5-minute favor giver within a network of likeminded professionals.
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When thinking about operational infrastructure clients and Grant’s 5-minute favor, it can be helpful to focus on continuous incremental improvements. The goal is not to undertake their job, but rather to evaluate how you can do your job better/differently as a means to contribute positively to their success. Little things can go a long way – improving the title of an email, delivering a report early, improving transparency, responding more thoroughly, providing feedback, being more organized, etc. Over time, these incremental steps add up to an improved institutional process. Each team member within the organization is contributing to the ongoing success of the rest of team and more broadly to all stakeholders of the firm.
Operational infrastructure clients: What do they know? What do they NOT know?
The customer is always right, is a common presumption among seasoned professionals. Although it includes elements of truth, I would advocate that it also under-appreciates the limitation of the client’s current mindset. Each of us has an experience set that contributes to and limits our expectations. How can a customer articulate the best answer if that choice does not fall within their experience set?
Clayton Christensen studies this issue deeply in The Innovator’s Dilemma. He uses the term value set to describe a customer’s sphere of understanding. Innovations that extend a customer’s currently visible value set are referred to as incremental innovations. Basically, these innovations improve upon an existing process or product. Innovations that fall outside a customer’s currently visible value set are called disruptive innovations. These innovations result in a change to the underlying customer’s value set and open-up new possibilities. When disruptive innovations appear in the marketplace, your client is ill-prepared to alert you to the change.
A bit of folklore will add clarity to this description. Henry Ford was famously (and inaccurately) credited for stating, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses”. The point here is that the client could not have identified an automobile because there were no automobiles within their existing value set. Their frame of reference was limited to the horse, therefore they concluded that the trip would be better if the horse were faster.
So, what do clients actually know and when are they right? As it turns out, clients are good at describing pain, enjoyment, fears, and aspirations. They are incapable of describing new machines or processes (broadly defined as disruptive innovations). Another way to describe this is that they are good at adjectives but not necessarily nouns. If the client were to ask for a faster horse, keep the adjective (faster) and broaden the definition of the noun (means of transportation) to become a faster means of transportation (automobile). If the client were to ask for a smaller, lighter computer, keep the adjectives (smaller, lighter) and broaden the definition of the noun (device) to become a smaller, lighter, device (tablet).
The most meaningful insights from clients will likely come from the adjectives they use – smaller, larger, faster, lighter, stronger, cheaper, etc. The nouns they use will be constrained by their existing value set. Disruptive innovations can directly address a pain point or desire while also being unconstrained by their existing value set.
Within the context of operational infrastructure clients, the goal is to focus on the adjectives and be on the lookout for disruptive innovations. Listen to their pain point, what they enjoy, what they want and what they fear. Focus on redesigning your actions to more thoroughly address their concerns. Remain vigilant with respect to disruptive new process/machine.
As the Chief Operating Officer for multiple start-ups/scale-ups, I have had the opportunity to wear many operational hats (finance, human resources, operations, compliance, etc.) which came with a broad and diverse array of clients. In my personal attempt to help them succeed I tend to focus on three areas:
By reorienting your approach to contribute to your client’s success, you will progress toward the goal of developing and retaining happy clients.?
Future articles in the series will include:
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3 年Clients are good at adjectives (faster, lighter, brighter, easier-to-use) but not necessarily nouns. Interesting.
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3 年Very interesting and in depth. Your years of experience in these areas is clear. Looking forward to the next one.