How This BizDev Manager's Backbone Saved a Failing Project from Disaster

OK, uh, we had, I had this time where, where, uh, we sold a a software to um, to, um, to a customer, but for some. Administrative issues the the the company that was working with us in order to to build part of that code, they, they have a fight with the administrative guys so they didn't deliver the code so we were on issues we had that issue and we needed to deliver to our customers in 15 days. The situation was that we didn't have the proper resources, we didn't have the code to deliver in 15 days. So what my customer, my, well, my customer, what my boss said um along with the architecture guy responsible of, of the external agencies and the developers in the internal developers, they said, you know what, let's, I can deliver, we assess the situation. First of all, we assess the, we, we, we try to review what can we deliver. Can we deliver? And they, they told me we can deliver uh the software with the a section with add features but the customer won't be able to to change anything and delete anything. Uh, which I told them, you know what, that's not a good thing because, uh, the testing part is gonna start the next day we deliver, so everything is going to be failed, and, uh, the customer is going to raise, uh, uh, an issue, a problem with us, so it's going to be a complaint. So I told them I'm not agree with this, it will be better for us, have an issue?

text this guy,

It's OK. Do you want me to,

OK, um, and, and what I tell them is, you know what, it's going to be better if we get back to the customer, set the situation that we have, not properly telling, letting them, letting them know that we have, uh, an external agency issue, but that we have an an internal issue in order to, to deliver the software, uh, it'll be better and, and asking for more time to deliver being, um. Regarding the entire project because as an overall, it's gonna be more complicated to the customer. We're gonna have a complaint because the project is, is, has more components with it, so it's gonna be quite complicated. Our part was just the software then it's going to be the, what's going to work the, the infrastructure company and then it's going to work on another uh application company that was going to work, that's going to use that portal and that in the second infrastructure. So I, I gave my boss and, and the architecture guy a couple of reasons uh and, and a plan that says if we go now we might deliver in, in, in 10 more days by having a, a Uh, a full agreement with the internal developers, uh, adding a couple of external developers, freelancers mostly, uh, in order to deliver the, the main project, uh, talk to the customer, ask him for that time and give him some sort of credits that they can change with us because of the situation. That way we can have under control, to me, under control the situation and the next day they will have the, the product as they needed and with the proper features so that test is, the, the, the test that they needed to execute were, were uh being executed smoothly. If not, what we're gonna have is gonna be a, a A partial of the product and not, not really the full product that they, that they're requesting and we're going to have uh a, a 2, to the 2nd day a complaint because they, they needed to, they couldn't execute the, the test properly. Uh, the result was,

Uh, the conflict was that they, they try to, to get this idea of it's better to do something than nothing. And, and I, I, I was trying to, to talk to him, to talk to, to, uh, I, I tried to talk to him and, and let him know that, that a project plan it's not nothing. A, a plan in order to, to fix the solution, it's not nothing. To him, those actions weren't properly actions because we weren't delivering anything and what I, what I, what I was proposing it's uh um Uh, and strategy, a strategy to, to have that, yes, with the first complaint with the, with the customer, but a, a situation controlled and with proper dates, with proper resources to fix it uh by the root cause. Uh, and he, he was trying to stand on, under the, under the situation of let's deliver this. Have the second complaint and then let let the customer know when are we going to fix the portal but as a new thing even though, even though we knew that like 5 days before so this is why I try I was trying to to uh find my boss and the architecture guy because they they were trying to believe it even though that wasn't what was requested. And I was proposing, uh, um, to me an entire proposal in order to control the situation. Is that clear?

Uh, first, sure, I mean, sure. Uh, I, I, I, I think I told you, uh, um, a couple of questions earlier, um. Being able of of putting the customer first on every single decision is is the is the best thing that we can do. I truly believe that customer satisfaction is, is what we needed in order to deliver better the projects and to have not just this project but having the 2nd, the 3rd, the 4th projects if. I have a complaint with that customer. Now uh uh uh at that moment I, I was going to be working on communication relationships and, and different stuff that I didn't have at that time. So I'm I was going to break the communication with the customer when it was a good communication. Um, this is why I, I was strongly suggesting that we needed to do this part in a different way because I was trying to avoid that our customer has, uh, um, were upset with us because of this situation. I was trying to put on my customer feed well how to say. OK,

Unfortunately, uh, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't win this one. They decided to deliver the portal as, as it has just add features, not, not remote features, delete features, and, and change features, uh, not anything regarding the, the rest of the features that the portal, uh, supposed, supposedly to do, um. Even, uh, even though I, I wasn't agree with that, well, I, I, I, I'm part of the same company, part of the same team. I did have it did happen what what I told them uh I received every single complaint from the customer because um I'm the customer face in that regard the architecture guy wasn't not neither his team. Uh, needed my boss, so I, I took that complaints and executed at the end of the day, executed part of the, the plan that I built before, but, and I needed to, to create a second plan in order to, to smooth that customer relation uh situation that I had, so I needed to, to stay on their decision.

Mm. Uh, I, I honestly wasn't comfortable with the decision, um, what, what I, what I told them to the team is, um. I, I did explain him you know what this is not the best solution that we can come to to to to the customer with the customer this is not the best way that we can fix something I truly think that we can change and enhance everything the the the next time, uh, the way that. You might say that, that the way that I was comfortable with at the end of the day is let us take some actions internally in order to, to have better Better outcomes the next time and that should be, uh, let's change just a little bit, take more risk regarding what can we internally do and what can we internally commit with without any with any fear because I, I truly believe that the decision that was made, it was based on some sort of fear because we We've, as far as I remember, we haven't had that situation before, that kind of situation before, so what, what I, the way I felt comfortable, I, I think is let us, let us put some sort of communications, um, process of communication in order to have more, to take more risk as a company, to take more risk as an area in order to deliver properly to the customer service and, and Well, I think that that'll be. That'll be the way I felt comfortable with my, with my boss regarding that situation.