With so many products available out there for collaboration
and huddle spaces that could be considered “off the shelf” one would have to
ask themselves why a consultant and/or design engineer needs to be in the mix
at all. In this article I will discuss some of the considerations a design
engineer and consultant take when working together so solve the collaboration
conundrum for their customers.
I attended a sales training this week with some friends and
the topic was something like “Asking Dumb Questions.” The gist was that to
provide solutions to clients, salespeople must be able to simply ask, “why do
you do things this way?” I stayed quiet since I was a guest in the session, but
my thought was the training was way too simplistic for my taste and in my
estimation, for the other attendees. This training was being delivered to a
team of salespeople who solve multi-million-dollar problems on a regular basis
and if they needed to be told to dumb things down, there are worse problems
afoot than a need to teach them to play dumb. I say this because I believe the
more important lesson is one that is contrary to this and one that Henry Ford
uncovered for us. He stated something to the effect of: If I delivered what the
customer asked for, all I would make is faster horses. Henry Ford knew that he
could deliver services and products far beyond what his customers could imagine
and that is what they needed. That is where consultants and designers for AV/IT
come into play for collaborative systems. Sometimes customers don’t know what
they don’t know and the consultant’s (consultative salesperson’s) job is teach
them to dream bigger.
When looking at a potential collaborative communications
space a designer must understand first how the space is intended to be used and
how it is currently used (maybe that training I attended address this part).
This is sometimes best done with a covert study (watching the user when they
don’t know they are being watched.) This study should be done while keeping in
mind the Hawthorne Effect (anything studied changes its behavior). It is best
to do the study when the subject does not know it is being studied so as to not
affect the outcome. Here is where I believe designers and consultants
(consultative sales people) can take it farther, the next step is to gather
data and provide analysis on how the space is intended to be used. This includes
facilitated discussions and stakeholder meetings. It also includes setting
expectations, teaching some lessons on what can be done and a complete
understanding of the business. AV/IT design consultants need to be a hybrid of
business professionals and technologists (taking it FAR beyond “asking dumb
questions”. A lot of times it is best to have these types of specification and
analysis done by a third party who can delineate between what is needed and
what is wanted and what is possible. This is where INTELLIGENT questions come
into play where a knowledgeable person asks questions that allow the study to
take a direction that allows them to solve complex problems that are based on
explicit and implicit needs as well as ones that delve much deeper into the
space, technology and the business model.
An AV/IT design consultant knows more about human factors,
usage models, technology, technology implementation and several other details
than the typical IT support person or a standard IT integrator. Having an IT
integrator to simply hang an interactive display on the wall and running wires
is already taking them outside their core competencies. There is so much more
to creating truly collaborative environments. A consultant and design engineer
look at the usage models, technologies, business models, social aspects and
business policies to begin to develop a system that will enable full
collaboration.
Even with just looking at human factors Design Consultants
and Engineers determine the proper viewing angles to make sure every
participant will see the screen from every seat. With a proper design, the
least favorable seat in the room and the closest seat in the room will be able
to view the content in a comfortable way without creating viewer fatigue is a
simple answer to why one should use a consultant or designer, but there is so
much more.
When you look at the list to the right, you can see that
there are so many considerations to be taken when designing a full
collaborative space, you can see that there is so much more to collaborative
systems than “off the shelf” can do. I jokingly say that a consultant is
someone who borrows your watch to charge you to tell you what time it is. In
all seriousness, consultants and consultative sales people take all of their
knowledge and experience and solve your problems with the appropriate
resources. As Henry Ford taught, they may even solve problems you didn’t even
know you had.
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