This month I had the privilege to be chosen as a speaker for WordCamp Orlando. The subject of my talk was geared towards users and newer folks in the WordPress community. I was worried it was going to be too basic but the feedback I received affirmed to me that there is a need for someone to communicate on the ‘house rules,' so to speak, when dealing with different scenarios and their fellow WordPressers. What I learned most from this talk was not from it's recipients or the expanse of information while researching my topic (although I did gain fodder for a few more talks!), but from the process by which I arrived at my chosen topic.
My primary role within WP Valet is a business one.
While I can chat about anything from design, to plugins, to budgets on a daily basis, the majority of what I do is focused on the client experience and the company's inner workings. I am tasked with making sure that our client experience is reverse-engineered. I ensure that our tools and processes are effective and instill in our clients a feeling of security, among other things. This reverse-engineering has become habit and is the means by which I decided on a topic for my WordCamp Presentation.
As professionals and top-tier contributors to the giant WordPress echosphere, we often comment on the ecosystem of the business, commiserate over our consultancy woes, debate the value and cost of what we do as a group. I've seen many blog posts, facebook threads, articles, etc about the topics I've just listed over the last year. While I agree with many of the sentiments being expressed there, I can't help but notice something critical in the plans to “Increase the value of what we do” – no one is talking to the people that all these changes will impact.
Let's apply the idea of reverse-engineering a client experience.
While oversimplified, these steps point out that the path to getting folks on board with you often starts with you sitting in their chairs.
This leads me to ask the question:
When you are talking about the things you as a business need, we as a group of business people seek from our community, having discussions on code, pricing, value of work – who is taking that discussion to the people who will be paying that price? Contracting the work?
I don't mean to imply that you should give them any say-so in your decision, but just make sure let them know what's going on so they can see the real value of any changes that affect them.
