Imagine you are doing a major remodel of your house and you
are in a discussion with the architect about new house design – what should you
consider?
There are two sets of items: “inside the fence” and “beyond the
fence”. Most people focus their
attention on the “inside the fence” items, such as the new layout, fixtures,
trim, appliances, paint color, etc.
This thought process is similar to what many sales teams
address when doing Discovery with their customers – the sales team focuses on
the items that are closely related to the features and functions of their
software – existing vs. desired workflow, pain points in the current process,
missing capabilities, etc. That’s good,
but we can do better…!
A great architect asks questions about the remodel
customer’s “beyond the fence” items: E.g.,
neighborhood and general look of the neighborhood, weather, prevailing wind and
storm conditions, local traffic and typical flow, noise sources, sun arc and
hours, streetlights, schools, crime, specific neighbors (and their
pets/livestock), etc. A great sales team
similarly asks questions that go “beyond the fence” from typical product-specific
thinking with doing Discovery.
What are example questions you might ask “beyond the fence”
for your offerings? (You might consider adding these to any existing "Discovery Documents" you already use...)
