The Customer is not always right you know!

January 21, 2011 | article by Ken Thompson in Think Differently (31)

Last night I asked my 12-year old son Jamie to design a logo for a new idea I had. He came up with a neat three cogs logo on the theme "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts". However the process was somewhat fraught.....

Three Cogs
I guess I was a bit casual in the way I communicated my requirements as version one of the logo also included the words "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts".

We went through a number of iterations after that. I think this was Jamies first experience of "customer prototyping" which I don't think he warmed to (he is more a "get it right first time stupid") kind of guy.

Jamie completed the job, emailed me the results and we agreed the price - yes I know - I should have agreed this before the job was done (I guess I assumed it was free) - another lesson!

This morning when I opened up the email from Jamie this is what it said:

-------------------------------------------
From: Jamie Thompson
To: ken thompson
Subject: you whining

Stop whining.
I cannot change the colour.
And I never will be able to.
-------------------------------------------

So perhaps some lessons here for both of us in how to work effectively when the customer and the supplier are in the same family!

About Ken Thompson

Ken Thompson delivers keynote conference speeches, workshop facilitation and in-house consultancy in four key business areas:

Creating High Performing Teams in enterprises including Virtual and Mobile Teams (based on the Bioteams Book)
Establishing effective Collaborative Business Networks enabling companies to co-operate effectively in areas such as sales and product development (based on the book - The Networked Enterprise)
How to use the latest social media technologies including blogging and online communities to promote enterprises, brand, organisation or event (click here for more details )
Development of graphical on-line interactive Business Dashboards and What-if Simulators for organisations to support Strategy Development, Measurement Programmes and Team Learning. (click here for more details)

Tags: communication

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Agreeing the price after? He saw you coming! He has said what we all feel when someone goes back to you about all those iterations! :p

Posted by: Scott | January 21, 2011 11:29 AM

I should point out that the above comment is from an alternative service supplier (also within the family) and should be understood in that light (ie a somewhat one-sided view)!

Posted by:

Ken | January 21, 2011 12:19 PM

I think when you want to do something like this you have to hire an creative designer which is really well skilled in this and also to explain to him your ideas so he can understand you and create the best logo for your project.

Posted by: Oferte Sinaia | December 8, 2011 2:21 PM

Bioteams Books Reviews

Animal Instincts in the office

May 29, 2006 | article by Ken Thompson in Book Reviews (37)

Just because we might have selfish genes it does not mean we have to behave selfishly; nature knows when to be nice as well as nasty and nepotism occurs in the biological world too with equal destructiveness as our world. This is according to Richard Conniff author of The Ape in the Corner Office and reviewed in the UK Guardian Newspaper (27 May).

Buy it now from:
Amazon.Com
Amazon.Co.UK

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Click here to check all Bioteams book reviews

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