The CIO Is Not The Customer

The CIO Is Not The Customer

I remember, and I may be dating myself here, when software developers or engineers would actually speak with customers and get their input and feedback on a product. You know, plain ordinary folks, the workers on the shop floor or the accountants in operations – the actual people who would use the stuff that engineers designed and made.

And, then something strange happened. I don’t know when it happened. Slowly, we stopped doing that. It was too difficult, you actually had to listen. Or, it took too long as you had to actually go and talk to someone face to face. (Remember face to face, f2f, live?)

And, that’s when the machines took over… no, wait, that was a movie…. Well, here’s what really happened:

Engineer # 1: “Hey, I’m tired of speaking to real people. All they want is things made easy”.

Engineer #2: “Yeah, I had a guy the other day actually say he wanted less features. What’s wrong with people?”

Engineer #1: “Hey, wait a minute. I’ve got it. Oh, you’ll love this. Let’s just make it harder to use. That way everyone wins. We’ll get paid more because it takes longer to make really complex code and stuff. We’ll use up lots more materials so everyone in the supply chain makes more money. It’s so complex that users will have to get more education, so all the schools will make more money. Then all the users get paid more ‘cause they have fancy degrees and have to do more complex tasks. And, this is the best part: the CIO absolutely loves it ‘cause the more complex it is the more job security and higher pay they get. Everyone wins!

Engineer #2: “Oh, you’ve outdone yourself. That is frigging brilliant!” [Jumps up and down with pure joy]

Engineer #1: [Locks arms with Engineer #2 and dances around and around. Music swells…]

Isn’t it about time we started speaking to users again?

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