Why The Grumpiest Person Is Your Best Friend

"Who is your grumpiest, most irritable, most frustratingly difficult IT guy?""Can you introduce me to him?"

Sounds crazy, but let me tell you why I wanted to meet this person so much.

I was running a software development team at the time.We were building a data visualization software for a government client--which posed a number of challenges.They were using old technology, which meant that a lot of the cool new features we wanted to add wouldn't work. We had to do things very differently if we wanted to get our customer these new features.They were also prone to a lot of needs for approvals, which meant it was slow to implement anything new.We also were up against personalities and politics, so we needed to make sure that the decision-makers were on our side.

So how do you get this new technology past an IT department so furiously vigilant to foreign antibodies?

You call the IT department and you ask for the most irritable, most frustratingly difficult IT guy who could possibly say "no" to your project.I'm dead serious--I've done this.

You ask for that person and you review your concept with them.

The point is that by winning over a decision-maker (or a decision-influencer) like this, you've done 90% of the work up-front. You didn't build out any code, but you solved a ton of problems before they happened.Make them your best friend and you will have a much better chance of success.On a single phone call, you have now increased outcome quality, decreased cost, and dramatically increased speed-to-market.

2 Minute Action

A call like this probably won't take 2 minutes, but that doesn't mean it won't take 2 minutes to schedule it.Who is someone who could say no to your project? How early on can you get them into your process?If it's not a person, what will happen at the last second that will prevent you from achieving your goal? Budget? Timeline?Take 2 minutes to call that out into the light and schedule the meeting, call, or workshop to address this head-on.By frontloading the work you get to solve problems before they happen.You will have a happier team, a lower cost, and higher quality output.

The Most Common Excuses People Make (And How To Get Past a Them)

It helps if you know what to do.

It helps if you know when to do it.

It also helps if you have the skills, abilities, and resources to do it.

Of course, the reality is that you need none of these things to start.

Here is a list of common excuses that many of us constantly use to delay action:

“I don’t have a team.”

“I don’t have the time.”

“I don’t have the capital.”

“I don’t have the expertise.”

“I don’t have the motivation.”

“I don’t know if now is the best time.”

If you’ve ever said these to yourself, now is a good time to look hard and long at those statements.

Fight back.

Make each excuse prove itself why it’s true—because the real truth is that you can figure it out how to get past it.

You don’t have to be a genius and you don’t have to billionaire and you don’t have to be an expert with 20 years of field experience to start.

You just have to prioritize your work, be deliberate about how you spend your time, live within your means, and keep rebounding after you mess up.

That’s it.

Instead of designing your logo and buying the domain for your website, call potential clients.

Instead of browsing Banana Republic’s last sales email, set up a Gmail filter to hide emails like those and go talk to a customer.

Instead of raising money and giving away all your equity, put together a PowerPoint that looks like what the software will look like and get your first customer. (Customers pat you today and you never have to pay them back. Investors will own your business and decisions until you buy them out.)

2 Minute Action

Write a Facebook or LinkedIn post asking your network if they know any experts you’d like to talk to.

Look at your calendar and cut out a little time on one or two days of your week to work on this project. You may have to give up social or TV time.

Define the 3 features of your MVP “minimum viable product.” This is the bare minimum you need to make a sale or get a user. This is derived from Eric Ries’ “Lean Startup.”

Send an email asking your students, clients, patients or customers for feedback.

This App You’re Using Is No Better Than CDROM

Have you seen this one in every hotel?

Control this TV with your phone

The benefit of the app can’t be that it replaces the remote. The remote works just fine. Why do we need to replace it?

If we’re going to build an app, it should be doing more than the remote. It should beat the remote.

The magic of an app can’t be that the same capabilities of the remote are now on a shiny screen!

We already went through that!

That was CDROM in the 90s!

How is that better?

A lot of resources go into technology products and if we’re developing with a lean mindset, this product really needs to justify why it exists.

That product really needs to justify why it took so many developer hours and venture capital.

There are a few times it’s okay to invest in something to achieve “feature parity.”

Feature parity just means that the new thing has the same capabilities or features as the old version.

This can be okay but only under certain conditions, like when it enables you to build more or better future features at less cost or more stability or by using less computer processing hours.

That’s an investment. That’s justified.

Having a lean mindset means that tasks, features, and innovations are all fighting for their lives to stay on your task list.

2 Minute Action

You have a list of things to do?

Great.

Spend 2 minutes right now, going top to bottom.

Everything must fight for its life to stay on the list.

Good questions to ask:

What might happen if I put this off?

What might happen if I never finish this?