Real Life Story #02: Empathy in the Computer Room
We were 6 in a small room barely big enough to host 4 people. Conveniently situated along the aisles of the open space floor, these glass-walled meeting rooms were perfect for informal chats or impromptu meetings. And indeed, according to the organizer, this meeting was supposed to last only a few minutes; a telling introduction, considering one of the topics was: do we need to say anything to 2,000 employees of the company before we replace their desktop computer?
A regular pre-launch meeting
The project manager had gathered all the team leads of the project… and me. In fact, he didn’t really invite me. He had been told to have me in the room as an observer. At that time, I was conducting an assignment for the CIO to identify why the business developed such a bad image of the IT department while they objectively had a very good IT environment, performant, secure and efficient. The next step was to find ways to solve the issues.
The meeting went well and concluded with a simple question asked to each of the people around the table: will the switch to a new desktop computer impact the user? The answer was unanimous: no impact at all. The operating system remains the same so no issue; the hardware is of the same vendor and just a newer version so no issue there either; all the data is stored in the datacentre and local machines are in fact empty “remote access points” so no risk of anyone losing data; security rules are not modified and passwords remain the same, so nothing to fear on that front.
And this is when I ruined it
Albeit an observer, I could not refrain from asking someone to help me – “for my understanding” – imagine the first few minutes of one of the users arriving at their desk on a Monday morning after the replacement. I just wanted to highlight the fact that the painlessness of the switch was irrelevant; that people forge a personal relationship with their work environment and that seeing it modified without warning and without communication is likely to create all sorts of bad feelings. I did not expect what happened next.
– When the users approach their desk, do they see a very different machine? was my first question
– No, not much really, replied the facilities lead; it’s a bit bigger and the on/off switch is on the back rather than in the front.
– Don’t you think, did I ask with a badly hidden surprised look on my face, that some of them, maybe the less tech savvy, might not find the new switch? – and then flood the help desk with frustrated calls?
– Yes, maybe, we could put a post-it on the machine with an arrow pointing to the new switch location…
– Good idea…
At this point in the conversation, I was starting to feel there was more to uncover.
– Now they flipped the switch. Do they see the same screen or the same succession of screens?
– Almost! Offered the operating systems lead
– What do you mean?
– Well, the first few screens are managed by the hardware system and since it is a new one, they don’t look exactly the same. But the users have no interaction with these screens. They just have to wait.
– Ok – I suppose they can live with that but then, is there a difference when they get to the screen they need to interact with?
– Oh! We’ve simplified it a lot! did he proudly proclaimed. And without any further question from me he explained: the first screen used to be the login for the machine and then they needed to select their department and then enter another login for the department server. Now we’ve linked the two passwords and they are presented directly with the second login screen. They had been asking it for months!
So far, “no impact at all” translated the presence of a very different box on your desk, the fact that the on-off switch had been hidden on the back of the machine, new messages appearing on the screen and a totally different login procedure that risked putting a good part of the business on its knees. I was on a roll…
– So, pushed by the force of habit, we could imagine that many users might just unknowingly enter their “first” credentials on the “second” login page?
– Yes, said a reluctant security lead from the other side of the table after a few long seconds of silence.
– And what might be the consequence of that?
– If they try it three times, it locks them out of the system.
– And then?
– They will need to call the help desk who will need to unlock them and probably explain the new login procedure.
I knew I had made my point when I heard the project manager suggest that we should probably leave a document on the desk with the new machine; and mainly when the application lead asked around: do you think we should talk about the new keyboard shortcuts in this document?
Not only did this experience provide a clear answer to the question why the business was feeling frustrated but it could actually have proven a deadly blow to the little goodwill the IT department still enjoyed. On the plus side, this project ended up being the pilot implementation of a brand new approach of the IT department to delivering services to the business. One that uses empathy and acts upon it.
Lesson number one: always try to imagine the clients / users when they discover or use your product or service; do not list features but describe usage. For complex interactions, you might even want to play their role and feel first-hand what happens.
Lesson number two: discussing client impact between experts might not work as you might overlook the complexity of some aspects for regular people; introducing laypersons in the conversation is often a good way to address that.
Lesson number three: be ready to ask a lot of open questions; the more open the questions, the more possibilities it offers other people in the room to reflect on the subject from various angles.
As Henry Ford said: “If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from his angle as well as your own”.