Is that what you want or what you need?

All companies try to align their strategies to what their clients demand. So it is usual to have a bunch of people thinking about clients' current and future requirements.

Thinking about my limited world, there are many sources that show what banks want to do in the future: in-house innovation but collaborating with start-ups, disruption without being disrupted, cost cutting but increasing development velocity, outsourcing but retaining intellectual property, big transformation programs but showing quick results, etc.

In the era of over-information, the analysis of client needs can be overwhelming. So the critical task is not to gather information but to prioritize it. I think that it is worth investing time in a proper client’s requirement qualification: 

A) Client wants it
B) Client needs it
C) Client f*ck**g needs it

If you belong to a humongous company you might afford to go for all categories. But if you have resource constraints this categorization might become critical. All clients want many good things. But they will probably only go for A) if the whole universe is aligned towards it. Therefore we should ensure that we can cover C) for our clients before investing too much on the other categories. Otherwise we will get the best meetings, while our competitors take the best revenues.

I would like to share a short video that talks about this: everybody wants organic soap if you ask them. But (OMG!) only a few of them finally buy it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtjeHSWCDRM

Everybody wants a good day. So have a nice day,

Miquel Febrer