{"id":5141,"date":"2013-11-21T11:26:58","date_gmt":"2013-11-21T17:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/?p=5141"},"modified":"2022-11-29T14:19:19","modified_gmt":"2022-11-29T20:19:19","slug":"good-business-cases-uncover-something-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/good-business-cases-uncover-something-better\/","title":{"rendered":"Be Careful what you Ask For: A Good Business Case May Uncover Something Better"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Whats<\/a>On the way home from the Building Business Capability (BBC) conference last week, my\u00a0wife Elizabeth and I stopped in at an electronics store in Las Vegas. We wanted to listen to an audio book on her new iPod, and the gizmo we have to play the iPod in the car has the traditional iPod connector used for many years.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately our new iPod has the smaller connector and the transmitter would not let us hear our audio book on the long drive home. Well, we just needed to buy a new gizmo, right? That\u2019s when we got the bright idea to buy one on the way home and we found a store near the conference hotel.<\/p>\n

I went into the store and told our sales associate I needed a new wireless car transmitter that would work with the new iPod. The plug name I used was the \u201cThunderbolt\u201d or something, not remembering the actual name. (Knowing me, I probably complained about Apple as I was doing so, but that was just letting off some steam.) As we walked to the iPod accessories, the clerk asked me a few questions, and without even seeing the components, she arrived at the most important question: \u201cAre you just trying to plug your iPod into the old adapter?\u201d After thinking a moment about it, I quickly said \u201cYes, that\u2019s it!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Whats<\/a>So, we quickly left the expensive transmitter section and went to the less-expensive adapter aisle, where she pointed to a \u201cLightning to 30-pin Adapter.\u201d This little component was exactly what I needed, since it let us keep what we had, and for half the cost the new iPod worked perfectly with the old wireless transmitter. They had one in stock and I was on my way (except the wait to check out was three times as long as the decision process, but that\u2019s the way with implementations, isn\u2019t it?)<\/p>\n

The clerk could have sold me a more expensive new transmitter, but the adapter was all I really needed. Plus, we can use it with any device that accepts the old 30-pin connector. Actually, until that day I had no idea that a) the name of the new plug was a \u201clightning\u201d and b) my old connector had 30 pins and even had a name! There is no way I could have walked into that store to ask for precisely what I needed when I didn’t know what it was I actually did need.<\/p>\n

The clerk was an excellent business analyst\/consultant in that she asked good questions and didn’t let me \u201cjump to a solution.\u201d Even though I told her what I wanted she skillfully advised me by asking need-related questions and we arrived at a better and cheaper solution than the one I came in with.<\/p>\n

This transaction is a great microcosm of what we project professionals can do for our stakeholders and business partners. When faced with a solution request, we need to:<\/p>\n