Comments on: Focus on the Goal, not the Mechanics

By: Ads on Napkins, Becoming a Consultant, and Get $1,000 to Quit « Brett’s Blog

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 18:54:54 +0000

[...] Focus on the Goal, Not the Mechanics. If you’re requesting the help of a designer or other creative service, don’t micro-manage the process. You obviously aren’t an authority to begin with, or you wouldn’t be asking for help. Be the champion of the end-goal, make it clear to your partners, and let them, the messengers, craft their message. As Jay Moonah is quoted in the article: “If you are working with an agency, what you need to help your agency partners understand is WHAT you want to accomplish, not HOW they should do it.” [...]

By: Jay Moonah

Jay Moonah — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:38:31 +0000

And of course the irony is that you often eat up MORE hours trying to backward engineer an overly-specific into something that actually works. (As in “they said they wanted this but it doesn’t work… what do you think they actually MEANT?)

By: Eric Eggertson

Eric Eggertson — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:55:01 +0000

Jay:

I think in some cases it comes down to mistrust.

Some agencies get so good at generating billable hours that clients start to view the agency relationship as a parasitic one, rather than a partnership.

If you can get past the distrust that those two assistants at the meeting are just there to pad the billings, you can start to focus on identifying your objectives and creating a plan for achieving them.

Establishing and maintaining trust is key, for both parties.

By: Geoff Livingston

Geoff Livingston — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:37:14 +0000

Right on! How many initiatives have we suggested that have been turned down. One month later, “Why didn’t the press release work?” A self fulfilling nightmare.

By: Jay Moonah from Media Driving

Jay Moonah from Media Driving — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 13:42:53 +0000

Eric, thanks for the props. I think it’s a natural inclination for people to jump to tactics because it’s our instinct to DO something! That’s certainly not a unique characteristic of people on the client side by any means, and I know it’s something I’ve been guilty of as well. But I do think everything has to back-up to the WHY.

I also believe one of the potential benefits of having well-defined goals is that it’s that much easer to measure success. Metrics is a hot topic these days, but if you don’t know what it was you were trying to accomplish, how do you know if you succeeded?!?