I Felt Naked at a Client Site
I felt naked at a client site last week.
Not as naked as when I went to The Rocky Horror Picture Show as Frank-N-Furter. Trust me, you don't want to see the photo, it would scar you for life. If you do then you are very naughty.
Sometimes I think my mind lives in the gutter, anyway ...
I was on site troubleshooting a new client's issue that has been extremely frustrating to them for months and for the first time in my career I didn't have an admin login, just a standard user account.
I had to change my approach and really think about the problem in a different way so that I could instruct their remote support team into what logs to view and which configuration areas to check.
I didn't have my usual speed, as I couldn't remote into any of their servers. Normally I would have a heap of sessions open in parallel. However, this forced me to experience it exactly like the client.
Why do problems always seem to disappear just when the technician arrives? I ended up being on site for much longer than planned, but that allowed me to not only experience one of their issues but also capture a before and after snapshot which helped me to fix it.
There were also times where I extracted information that their support said was not possible using a standard account. One of the benefits of being my age, I've seen a lot of "security" in my time, and bypassed most.
Recurring issues that appear as one thing to the client often have multiple underlying causes. By embedding myself in the client's environment, watching, listening and talking to as many of the client's team as possible I built a map of what was really frustrating them.
I have found the most effective way to resolve complex issues is to start with the people, genuinely care about their frustrations, then understand their processes, last is the technology.
What started as a one-line problem statement turned into two site visits followed by a detailed recommendations report. I summarised each in a table, mapping to a category such as staff ease of use, security, operations and facilities. I described each with a risk level, impact and implementation steps to resolve. Lastly, as it was relevant, I mapped the most important findings to Australian healthcare compliance, such as APP, My Health Records Act, and RACGP standards. All within a week of the referral.
I have known the owner for several years but they didn't know of my IT and diagnostic experience just that I was a carer for my wife.
The referral came through my eldest child. The owner was sharing their frustration with them and asked if they knew any good IT people who could help.
Funny how these things work.
My tip is have more children so they can refer you when they are older.
If enough of you are naughty I may consider sharing the photo with a warning.
Read more: Andy the Muppit