Whether you are designing a new payroll system, web site or a point-of-sale system for a new cash register, as a high-tech careerist you will have to face one issue again and again. Too often high-tech projects are instituted and managed by those people who will use it the least. If you want to develop truly useful products and systems, you have to dig down into a company's structure and find out what the workers really need, not what management thinks they need.

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Getting started

Most high-tech projects, whether developed internally or by an outside consultant, start with upper management. They have seen a need to collect better information, better manage workflow or provide better service. These same managers will probably develop a basic project plan based on their needs and their interpretation of their employees needs. While this provides a good starting point, it is up to you to delve deeper into the issues and develop a solution that meets the true needs of everyone concerned.

When you are starting a new project make sure that there is some way to gain input from the employees or customers who will be using the system once it is operating. In some cases, you might face some resistance from management, but if you want your project to succeed, this input is critical. Too often, management believes it has all the answers when, in reality, they only see a small portion of the picture. Too many times I have watched projects developed to increase productivity fail because the extra work needed to use the system takes up more of the workers time, not less. It sounds like an obvious problem, but people miss it again and again.

Roll up your sleeves

Regardless of the type of project you are developing, spend time "in the trenches." This might mean looking at an existing web site from the viewpoint of a customer, watching people use an existing system or even spending some time on the shop floor or warehouse learning how materials are moved from one process to another. Whatever the situation, you must immerse yourself in the environment in order to truly understand the needs of those involved.

There are a couple important items to remember, though, when you are doing your research. First, listen more, talk less. You can and should ask questions, but you want to avoid offering solutions or concepts at this stage. You want to spend your time taking in information that you will later process to develop your plans. Be casual about your note-taking and observations. Don't make people feel they are being analyzed every moment of their working day.

Respect the work and the worker. Don't act dismissive about the work you are observing. Every job in every company is important to the profitability of the company. If the shipping department doesn't get the product out, no one makes money. Pitch in and lend a hand if you can. I find that you sometimes get your best ideas when you are actually involved in the work you will be automating.

Finally, ask people for their ideas. Letting people know that their concerns and comments have been heard goes a long way towards building acceptance of whatever project you are developing. Too many times I have seen a system languish because there are too many "if they had only asked me" problems. Issues that could have been resolved up-front become a constant annoyance to the user of the system and cause them to look for further reasons to ignore it, if not actively campaign for it to be abandoned.

The best way to approach any new project is to first figure out the question or problem that it is meant to address. Too often we start developing solutions before we truly know the nature of the problem. People are your greatest resource and you should make use of that resource as much as possible. By talking to employees and customers, observing the nature of the work and reserving your decisions until this research is gathered, you can help to insure that your projects will be helpful long into the future. This, to me, defines true success in the high-tech world.

A special segment by Steve Holden from Tech News Radio follows the column in the podcast.

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