You are presented with a common business problem. One technique that has always helped me to define the problem space is to invert the problem, take it to an extreme to explore the continuum of your domain. Let's imagine that we want to redesign our software support department at MegaSoft Corporation. Applying our inversion principle we will leave our MegaSoft support as is, and instead we will design the competitors support group. It's going to stink, people are going to hate to even call them, their people will be arrogant techies with no human compassion - they will actually hire with those skills required. Let's pause and give this company a name... TechHard sounds great.
Who's time is most valuable? At TechHard the support engineers time is very valuable, so we will have process that time how long a support tech. is on the call with a customer so that our process gurus can optimize for the use of this most valuable resource. A typical call from a director or VP in our internal support operation should be logged by an administrative receptionist (maybe even automated system) and then the support techs time can be queued up with return call tickets. We will return the VPs call when it is convenient for our tech. The tech can validate that the VP is authorized to access the system, and will confirm that they are still experiencing the problem by walking through a standard checklist. Being efficiently minded the tech may skip over some simple question like power plug, on/off, reset/reboot, logout/in again if they feel the user is competent.
Answering the basic question of who's time is most valuable via the design of the competition's process is enlightening. Which is it? The support person's time - or the customer's time.
How are support systems designed? Has anyone ever heard of a company that used Design Thinking or High-Tech Anthropology to create a customer centered support group?
Is this Conway's Law at work - are we truly designing the support function of our products/services - or are we just reacting?
Give me an example of great design for support: Nest Thermostat and Fire Alarm Installation
Have you installed a Nest product? Their installation and configuration process is well designed. I don't know about their support department - but my expectations are set very high, if I have a problem.
History will repeat
In the 1980s universities started teaching about design for manufacturing (robots would make the parts).
Are you designing your business departments for it's function?
Speaking of support tools - your going to want a great issue tracking system. Why not look to a market leader that has all the features your people can put on a check list? Let's buy Jira - or should we look at the competition's product?
See Also:
Cable Internet provider Frontier's support group struggles with the corporate infrastructure that can not resolve customer problems.
The Tenth Man Principle how the Israeli PM combats institutional group think to save the nation. - by Patrick Anderson
Who's time is most valuable? At TechHard the support engineers time is very valuable, so we will have process that time how long a support tech. is on the call with a customer so that our process gurus can optimize for the use of this most valuable resource. A typical call from a director or VP in our internal support operation should be logged by an administrative receptionist (maybe even automated system) and then the support techs time can be queued up with return call tickets. We will return the VPs call when it is convenient for our tech. The tech can validate that the VP is authorized to access the system, and will confirm that they are still experiencing the problem by walking through a standard checklist. Being efficiently minded the tech may skip over some simple question like power plug, on/off, reset/reboot, logout/in again if they feel the user is competent.
Answering the basic question of who's time is most valuable via the design of the competition's process is enlightening. Which is it? The support person's time - or the customer's time.
How are support systems designed? Has anyone ever heard of a company that used Design Thinking or High-Tech Anthropology to create a customer centered support group?
Is this Conway's Law at work - are we truly designing the support function of our products/services - or are we just reacting?
Give me an example of great design for support: Nest Thermostat and Fire Alarm Installation
Have you installed a Nest product? Their installation and configuration process is well designed. I don't know about their support department - but my expectations are set very high, if I have a problem.
History will repeat
In the 1980s universities started teaching about design for manufacturing (robots would make the parts).
Are you designing your business departments for it's function?
Speaking of support tools - your going to want a great issue tracking system. Why not look to a market leader that has all the features your people can put on a check list? Let's buy Jira - or should we look at the competition's product?
See Also:
Cable Internet provider Frontier's support group struggles with the corporate infrastructure that can not resolve customer problems.The Tenth Man Principle how the Israeli PM combats institutional group think to save the nation. - by Patrick Anderson
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