Hear me out! I go to my gym to workout at least 3 times a week. I go at different times each visit so I do not have the pleasure of getting to know the staff that well because of the changing shifts. Each time I go to pick up my membership card when getting ready to leave I give the front desk staff my last name in the following manner, "Kupersmith with a 'K'." Kupersmith is pronounced Coopersmith. 9 out of 10 times the person starts looking in the Cs for my card. Or they look in the Ss and say Mr. Smith your card is not here. I then repeat, "it's Kupersmith , all one word, with a K." They quickly find my card and I leave. I am supposed to leave refreshed and stress free, right? Well this just gets me fired up. It is obvious what happens. They hear Kupersmith as Coopersmith or Smith and stop listening as I am saying "with a K." Now this is a simple issue that gets resolved in a matter of seconds, but it is still frustrating.
This got me thinking how frustrating it is for our stakeholders when we as BAs to do not listen. In my gym story the two main reasons I am not being heard is distractions and assumptions. The staff is getting bombarded with phone calls and walk up requests. When they hear my name they are making an assumption of the spelling and stop listening.
As BAs we need to multi-task with the best of them and having business and technical knowledge is needed. But, when you are eliciting requirements focus on the task at hand and listen to the stakeholder. Even with your knowledge of the application, process, business opportunity, etc., let the stakeholder finish their thought before you assume what they mean.
This is not an easy task. We need to constantly improve in this area. Now stop listening to me and get back to work!!!
April 14th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Another way to look at this is that perhaps we’re not understanding the user’s actual needs. They need to know your last name, and find the card that matches it. Thus they need to know the first letter of your last name. Perhaps you could try something like “K for Kupersmith”, as then when the (possibly natural) human response of stopping listening kicks in, they have the info they need.
Then you run the risk of course that they think your last name is something like “Kayfor”, but I wonder if this might work? It also is significantly different than the normal response in terms of ordering, cadence, etc that perhaps it would make them stop and think about what you’re saying before searching. A verbal way of introducing dissonance, such that their brain needs to engage?
April 14th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
I’ll try the “Kayfor” approach next time. Another quality we need as BAs is flexibility and persistance. We need to find different ways to attack a situation.
Thanks Kirk!
April 16th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Very nice post mr. Kupersmith, I have a similar problem with my last name (Kerber) because itīs german and here people are more used to portuguese last names. I always complained about that without thinking that I might be doing the same in my work.
I believe that the root cause for this behavior is that it really works fine in 95% of the times, 95% of people in Brazil (except south) have last names like Silva, Sousa, Pereira, Costa, etc, and I donīt believe they have my problem.
When you are eliciting requirements we can assume that 95% of what you hear is not new, really well known and if you loose those 5% it would be acceptable.
But itīs not, because if you mean only 5% for the gym guy, he means 100% for you when it comes to gym, and you are paying.
We have being trained to assume the idea that in communication, the source is responsible for the message, but when it comes to us eliciting requirements, well, it changes a lot.
Well, for me, I wrote KERBER in a “post it” and placed it inside my wallet, when people donīt get it, I quickly open it and show the name. Adaptation… Saved me a log of Kayfors.
Another issue, I was born on Christmas, does anyone have any suggestion of how to avoid those same questions Iīve been hearing for the last 30 years every time people learn about it? Maybe a F.A.Q.?
April 16th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
When asked for my last name (Fitzpatrick), people often mis-hear me and think I’ve said “It’s Patrick.” I’ve taken to paraphrasing their question in my response: “My last name is [short pause] Fitzpatrick.” You might want to try saying, “Look under K — the last name is Kupersmith.” Give the listener a cue that will help direct them to WHERE to look, and hopefully their focus will be on the K bin rather than trying to envision how “Coopersmith” could be spelled with a K.
April 20th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
My first name is Preeti and when I spell it for someone over the phone, they invariably hear Tweety!!!! Tweety!!??
April 21st, 2008 at 10:25 am
Hey Tweety (Preeti),
That is hilarious. I’m glad we are all having fun with this one!!! I am headed to the gym shortly, so I’m going to try out some of the suggestions above from Mr. Patrick and Kerber who was born on Christmas. So Kerber, do you get one present from people or two?
April 21st, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Just got back from the gym. I used Mr. Fitzpatrick’s solution. I went with “Under the K’s - for Kupersmith”. It worked! Thanks!
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:36 am
Well Kupe, you gave a perfect example of the kind of question people have been asking me for the last 30 years: “do you get one present from people or two?”.
The answer would be: “two from my parents, the rest of my relatives only gave one, I believe they really liked the idea.”
But the best is this “Why arenīt you called Noel (Santa), Natal (Christmas) or Jesus?”.
The answer is: “Because they loved me.” heheheh!