Consumer driven development

One of the things that makes me passionate about agile is the way that it places the customer at the heart of everything we do. The trouble is “the customer” is often wrong. For me, the customer is the person whose life is transformed by the software they use. This is not the person who is writing the cheque, nor is it the person who is defining the requirement. In consultancy speak, they are the client. The “users” are the customer. I don’t like the use of the word “user” because it implies a choice to use the software has already been made. I’m probably going to have to accept that “customer” is never going to change, so why don’t we call our users (my customers) “consumers”.

So enough about semantics. The team are building an on-line banking product. The team ask the customer (client) what she wants. She bases her requirement around what she knows. Often this will be swayed by the development team talking about implementation detail. (Few things make me as uncomfortable as a customer (client) from the business (product owner) talking about APIs).

So the requirement is to log-in. The customer is comfortable with customers (consumers) having system IDs; a unique n digit number that identifies the customer on the legacy database. It has, after all, always been this way. She asks whether the customer’s credit card number could be used, but the developers tell her (via the BA) that these often change (customers loose their cards) and it would be hard to do. She nods her head in agreement (she’s put on the spot by the BA – the iteration is due to start next week…) And the requirement is manifest on the login screen (“please enter your 16 digit customer number”).

In reality, the “customer” bases the requirement on her experience with the organisation and what she knows about it. The consumer (if they were to be invited into the conversation) wouldn’t come to the problem with any of that baggage. She needs a simple login. She needs a user name that is accessible or memorable. She does not want a 16 digit number.

It may take a little longer to listen to the consumers’ need (we need to find consumers to talk to them). It may mean a little up front analysis (I’d suggest pre-project analysis, doing due-diligence if you like). But it will pay dividends downstream. In the login example above, the developers have swayed a simple and cost-effective solution in the short term, but have failed to consider the down-stream costs. How will the customer find their 16 digit number? Do we have to post it out (cost) on a card (cost) and have a support team (cost) and process (cost) for letting customers know their number if they’ve forgotten it?

As agile grows up, I’d ask for us to spend more time thinking about the real customer, the consumer, the person whose life will be changed by what we build. The inconvenience we may incur during development may be nothing compared to the pain we will experience after we have “delivered”.

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