Feb 15th, 2022
Clientek Methodology
Part 1: The Experience
Written by: Dino DeAntoni, Director of Technology
Our clients often have pre-existing expectations from years of experience working with traditional consulting companies. They hire consultants, follow their existing internal project methodology, and assimilated those new resources into their organizational structure.
At Clientek, we deliver solutions a little differently. While we have the utmost interest in our client’s organizational structure and processes, we place a large focus on maintaining our own project methodologies. Although this commonly requires a short adjustment period, it tends to get flushed out at the beginning of any project during our Inception and Alignment Sprints.
The Inception Sprint is focused on defining the opportunity, value, and solution. The Alignment Sprint on the other hand, establishes the team and familiarizes them with the solution design while executing the initial set of stories. In general, the Inception and Alignment Sprints span a three-week period with a small gap between phases to allow the customer to digest the proposed solution and make any final adjustments to priority.
More often than not, the experience during the Inception Sprint allows both organizations to work together in a manner that gives both cultures and processes the opportunity to flourish. Sometimes, it may take that additional alignment sprint to gain that familiarity, however, once that alignment sprint is complete, the feedback we get is typically “Wow! You really do what you say!”.
At Clientek, our word is our bond. We say what we mean and do what we say. It goes back to our foundation, which is centered on integrity. If we commit to a scope of work within a sprint, we deliver that scope of work within that sprint. When unforeseen learnings cause us to extend a sprint within a defined scope of work, those learnings are on us, and they provide us with the opportunity to show our clients that we stand by our word. It does not happen very often because of our incredibly talented and trusted team members, but when it does it allows us to build a stronger relationship with our client. A relationship built on transparency, trust, respect, and candor.
As we execute a project, we learn from every sprint how to maximize value and communication with our client. We believe strongly that all news is good news, and we will not hold back from communicating problems and opportunities as they occur. We bring the client into our process, “they get the see firsthand how the sausage is made” (Shane Oswald, Directory of Delivery). Our clients see every ingredient that goes into their solution. This allows them to provide immediate feedback on the value they’re receiving and when opportunities present themselves, we can pivot and adjust.
Our customers and our teams are incredibly engaged because we are all involved at the same level bringing creative solutions and understandings to the table. Everyone’s thoughts are valued and given time to be understood. We often get the same feedback from our employees that we do from our clients. “Wow! We really do mean and do what we say!” Yup, because it works!