How Is Cooking Like Doing Discovery and Demos?

Because cooking (successfully, that is!) requires methodology. Wait… Cooking is a methodology?

Most definitely!

Cooking successfully requires you to know what to do, how to do it, and when to do it.

Simple example? Let’s fry an egg!

What: Crack an egg into a buttered hot pan. Cook until done.

How: Heat the pan until the butter bubbles but doesn’t quite brown. Crack the egg into the pan carefully so that the yolk doesn’t break. Cook until the white is just browning…

When: Macro? Breakfast (for many, but definitely not all folks). Micro? How long do you heat the pan? How long do you cook the egg? Etc.

Note that the descriptions above are still insufficient for a novice. What kind of pan? How much butter? Does the size of the egg matter? Do you want it “over easy” or “sunny side up”? What degree of doneness do you want? How do you flip the egg for “over easy” without the yolk breaking? And that’s just a starter set!

And what happens if you miss a step, do things wrong, or in the wrong order? (Provide your own awful outcomes in the comments!)

Now contemplate cooking a meal that includes a main, starch, and vegetable, all of which need to be prepped, cooked, and plated such that they can all be served at once. Methodology is what makes it possible!

Knowing what to do, how to do it, and when to do it.

Successful discovery requires a methodology! Successful demos requires a methodology! Most customer-facing teams focus on the “What” and pay too little attention to “How” and “When”. Training can address this.

In cooking, if you ruin a fried egg, you can try again, cheaply. For software vendors, the stakes (ahem) are much higher!