Trent asked a great question last week that outlined his fears on digging too deep for the pain behind a project:
I can’t just keep asking, “Why?” Eventually I’ll reach the issue they don’t want to talk about – their point of shame – and the prospect will get uncomfortable and the conversation is over.
How does one get the prospect to say (and this isn’t my space, it’s just an example), “I went on a diet because I got out of the shower and saw myself in the mirror and it was gross. My kids want to go to the beach, but I don’t want to take them because I don’t want to take my shirt off. I feel like I’m letting them down”
That’s the real conversation, not “I wanted to lose weight.” Nobody cares about losing weight; there’s a REASON they want to lose that weight. How to get there without just digging at the wound?
I’ve talked about “proxy pains” quite a bit over the last few months. The idea is that projects are never commissioned in a vacuum… behind each website, app, or whatever you might be hired for, there’s a business problem that needs to be solved.