Mike McDerment podcast – we have much to learn

by admin on August 10, 2006

Following my discussion with Mike McDerment CEO of Freshbooks, I pinged Tom Raftery, suggesting he do a podcast with the fella. Tom duly followed up and the resulting show is here.

It’s about 30 minutes in length but if you follow Tom’s show notes, you can skip across the bits that are not of interest to you by moving the podcast slider.

I didn’t learn a great deal about the app itself but I learned a heck of a lot about what it means to be in a clients shoes looking at new ways of working. By his own admission, Tom:

‘Couldn’t balance a cheque, let alone the books.’

How many clients do we know like that? I found the show to be truly refreshing because Tom asked all the right questions from the client’s perspective. For instance, he dealt with security extremely well – an issue I know vexes many people.

I am always saying to professionals that listening to clients is crucial to delivering good service. Having listened to the show, the question I was left with was: Do we know the right questions to ask? I’m not so sure any longer But maybe that’s just me..

Technorati Tags:

  • http://tomrafteryit.net/ Tom Raftery

    Wow Dennis – who knew my lack of knowledge could be such an advantage?

    I can see whole new vistas opening up. There must be hundreds of jobs about which I know absolutely nothing (brain surgery, astrophysics, IT (oops!)).

    I could brand it as The Clueless Manifesto! – “Need a guy who knows absolutely nothing, Tom’s yer only man!”

  • http://www.accmanpro.com Dennis Howlett

    Maybe I wasn’t clear. What you demonstrated was that being inside a profession isn’t always helpful. Sometimes we have to get ourselves out of our own thinking to really understand the other person’s point of view or perception of the world.

    Clueless Manifesto sounds good to me ;)

  • http://tomrafteryit.net/ Tom Raftery

    Not to worry Dennis – you were perfectly clear.

    I was just having a bit of a laugh at myself this morning – must turn that into a post on my own blog later.

    Cheers,

    Tom.

Previous post:

Next post: