{"id":871,"date":"2011-04-13T11:23:47","date_gmt":"2011-04-13T11:23:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.renando.com\/blog\/?p=871"},"modified":"2021-01-15T22:03:24","modified_gmt":"2021-01-15T22:03:24","slug":"coveys-seven-habits-for-a-digital-agency-habit-5-seek-first-to-understand-then-be-understood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sidewaysthoughts.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/coveys-seven-habits-for-a-digital-agency-habit-5-seek-first-to-understand-then-be-understood\/","title":{"rendered":"Covey\u2019s seven habits for a digital agency \u2013 Habit 5: Seek first to understand, then be understood (no one wants a web site)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was a ten years old when I first saw the tire swing diagram<\/a> hanging on the wall of the family printed circuit board manufacturing company.\u00a0 I wondered in my naivety how each party could get communication so wrong.\u00a0 Decades later, I have answered my question countless times through my own contribution to mismatched swings.<\/p>\n

My experiences have also developed my fundamental belief in Covey\u2019s fifth habit, articulated within the digital agency as: \u201cno one wants a website<\/em><\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Seek_first_to_understand_then_be_understood\"<\/p>\n

It started with manufacturing printed circuit boards<\/h2>\n

Two paradoxes are depicted by the tire swing diagram:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Clients don\u2019t necessarily want what they ask for, and<\/li>\n
  2. Your product or service is likely not what they actually want.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I first learned this lesson when selling printed circuit boards.\u00a0 I realised that the purchasing agent I was dealing with did not want a printed circuit board.\u00a0 I could think of no one, in fact, who would actually desire this thin green fibreglass wafer into which we put so much effort to produce.<\/p>\n

    \u201cWhy sell something no one wants?<\/em><\/strong>\u201d, I asked myself from my remote Texas home-office.\u00a0 I acted on this revelation and stopped selling printed circuit boards.\u00a0 Yet my title was \u201cBusiness Development Manager\u201d, I worked for a company that invested heavily in manufacturing these things, and felt I had better be responsible for the money my company was giving me.<\/p>\n

    This led me to my second discovery, that of the \u201cvalue proposition\u201d.\u00a0 Rather than decide myself, I let current and prospective customers tell me what I should sell.\u00a0 Through many miles, meetings, and meals, I gathered around a dozen statements that seemed to be common to various client types.<\/p>\n

    I was soon able to identify which value propositions mattered to which clients within a 15 minute conversation.\u00a0 These statements sounded like:<\/p>\n