Questions

Life is full of questions. From "why is there a hole in the bic biro" and "why is the milka cow lilac" to "why can't management find their arse with both hands and a map" and "why can't project managers manage projects".

I'm happy with the first two questions, something to do with air/ink flow and marketing respectively, the third question is an utter mystery as we all know but I think I have the answer to the last one.

It's because none of our project managers actually talk to our customers.

Now I realise this is quite radical but actually talking to the customer does not cause the end of the world or cause the sky to fall in on our heads. No,no,no. On the contrary, in my experience, talking to the customer avoids mistakes. Customers like to give their input. They know stuff that we don't and they, ultimately, hold all the cash so in general, being nice to them can be a good thing.

Obviously there are lots of customers who are complete James Blunt's, but only because no-body ever spoke to them to find out what they needed. Imagine if we hadn't expended all that time and energy actively avoiding them but had spent a 10th of it having a quick chat.

But no, project managers are scared of customers. "Can you just ask the customer this please Daisy?" Yeah, right. I'll add it to the list of things that are actually the responsibility of other people but that they can't actually be arsed to do.