Dialogue Two: Determining How Do You Know What You Know?

Dialogue Two: Determining How Do You Know What You Know?

Researchers have uncovered evidence that people are overconfident about causal relationships.

We have more than a few instances of organizations plagued with project management problems. Projects are typically late and or over-budget or do not deliver the expected outcome. To address this, many organizations have adopted a project management tool (MS-Project, perhaps) to help "manage projects."

What they found after implementing this software is that projects were late and over-budget. This is a clear indicator their solution did not address the cause of the problem.

Similarly, we have seen decisions made to use technology to improve customer service, without talking to the customer. Assumptions are made about what the customer wants. Moreover, it is assumed that improving customer service will lead to more sales or more customers.

The dialogue should focus on how one would get the evidence to answer questions like these:

What is the cause of the problem we are experiencing? Can you demonstrate or simulate it?
What evidence points to this cause?
Where or from whom did you get this evidence?
What value do others (our customers, for example) place on this improvement or innovation?
How do we know this to be true?

Also, consider:

I once was asked to sit in on a meeting where a participant made the statement, "Our product is the best product of its kind on the market. When customers think of this product, they think of ours. We are becoming what Jell-O is to the gelatin industry." (He actually said, "we are becoming like Jell-O," but I wasn't sure you would get the right meaning!)

It was asked, "How do you know this?" After much indignation and spu-spu-spu-sputtering, it was agreed to conduct a customer survey. The results, I am sure you can guess, revealed a different story. A full one-third of the respondents could not even identify what product this company made (even though some of them used the product), nearly 50% ranked this company's product third or lower when it came to "best." This doesn't have anything to do with technology, but it makes the point.

Bottom line: When discussing things with I/T, it may be wise to pretend you are from Missouri. Always ask of them (and yourself), "How do you know what you know? Show me."

Introduction | Previous Dialogue | Next Dialogue

ENKI, Inc. offers IT solutions: Computer training and consulting on site or at our site, customized to meet our clients requirements. Our IT training and consulting services include: Project Management, Systems Analysis and Development, Web to Client Server Application Development, Database Design and Development, and Desktop Applications. Enki, Inc. is located in Baltimore Maryland.