Anything For You All: INSTANT MBA: You Need To Be Able To Identify The Problem, Because Sometimes Clients Can't

Kamis, 06 September 2012

INSTANT MBA: You Need To Be Able To Identify The Problem, Because Sometimes Clients Can't

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Thursday, September 6, 2012

Today's advice comes from our interview with Melinda Chang, Program Director at Community Corps, a non-profit that connects corporate volunteers to non-profits that need IT assistance:

“We deal with many different types of users. We deal with non-profit users who work very differently from volunteers, who are very different from Corporate IT leaders. We talk to very different people and personalities and the most important thing to keep in mind is you need to understand things from their perspective.”

On a daily basis Chang works to establish a better way of helping non-profits articulate the technology assistance they are looking for so their business can run more efficiently. Sometimes a non-profit knows that they need technology assistance but do not know what their main problem is.

Chang helps to nail down the problem and establish the project. She says that it's essential to have a human element behind any business or web site in order to cater to what motivates the people behind the projects.

“You really need to tailor your message to all three types of groups. You need to have a different mindset when talking to each user to understand what their motivation is because once you understand what drives them, what they’re looking to do, and what benefits them, it makes the conversation so much easier.”

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