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Hello everyone, welcome to the Five Minutes Podcast. What does good? What is bad or What is it expensive? What is cheap? And why these words are so dangerous. And this is the topic of this episode. Any Assessment is irrelevant without the frame of reference.
Many times we go to a project, and we say we are late, but what do you mean by late? What does the real meaning of being late? What is the real meaning of that KPI or that OKR?. And the problem is, is that many times, we make these assessments without a green or without sharing? What is the reference we are talking about? When we talk about a car, for example, and let's suppose I ask you to tell me which is a better car, a Ferrari or a cargo car.
There is a risk. And of course, in this podcast, you will never say that, but there is a risk in real life that you would say, oh, a Ferrari as much better because it's more expensive is fancier. But what is good if you have a farm and you need to, for example, carry livestock, probably a Ferrari is not a good idea at all. So you need to understand what it is the frame of reference you're talking about. Many times, I see people saying we are late. Okay, if you are one second after your deadline, you're late, but if you were 10 days after our deadline, you are late too. And there is a good difference in many cases between one second late and 10 days late or a hundred days late. So what is important? Every single time you were working with your stakeholders, your team, your supplier, it's very important to make clear what is a reference you are talking about. For example, what is a good supplier or what is a good restaurant, or what is a good material? It depends on the use; it depends on the intend; it depends on your level of tolerance. For example, when people do a risk analysis, people say, oh, it's a high-risk; of what do we mean by high risk? High risk is a tsunami that could kill 200,000 people, or high risk is something being late, and you lose 10 days in your project?
Did you see it? They are very different! It's very important that you understand that this reference, because without that, it's very complex for you to share the right idea, to share the right impression, and to make the right move. Without that, you're guessing that the other side has absolutely the same frame of reference. And when we work today, diversity plays a key role in diversity brings a massive level of creativity. But diversity brings you the challenge of understanding what the actual reference is? What is a reference when you are talking with that group of very diverse people? What do you need to do? You need to say, look, my friends, I don't care, what is your cultural aspect of what your cultural aspect is? An expensive meal is $10, a cheap meal is like, and $10. Or maybe you may say an expensive meal is $50 less than that is good or a thousand, I don't care, but what is important is that you share with people, imagine, okay? Just out of illustration here, imagine that Bill Gates works for you. And then you say to Bill Gates, okay, we will reimburse in the project, reasonable expenses. And then Bill Gates will take a private jet and traveled somewhere. And then we submit an expense report, and I'm talking good faith, okay. What will you do? Because maybe for him, it's reasonable for you in your project is not, this is why it's important to have a reference. It's absolutely critical for you to have a clear reference. So you need to agree on rules.
It's impossible for you to play a football match if you don't agree with the rules. And this is why, for example, we see so many people making assessments and saying the project is good, the project is bad without even knowing what the reference is.
For example, when I talk about the software, those who are listening and, and to this podcast and work in the IT sector software development, How do you build a reference for your assessment? If your software is good or not, or if it's easy or not, you use the concept of personas, right? Do you use personas in what a persona is? A persona is simple, like a typical user. You want the test because maybe it's excellent for me, but it's bad for my daughter, and it’s bad for my mother. I'm not saying it's an age where that matters. But you know, it's very important, you understand what the persona is? What is the reference we are talking about? I'm writing a new song. What is the reference for me? What is the public? I really want to touch that music. Oh, you cannot say, oh, I want to touch everyone every, yeah! These are hard tasks. This is a heart task. Do you want to open a restaurant? For example, your project is to open a restaurant, you need to have a frame of reference. What is the persona, or what does the public exactly you were aiming to expect?
Because for example, maybe if you're going on a date, maybe, please, I'm just using as an example, McDonald, it may not be a nice option, right? For example, if you want to go on a date and say, oh, let's go to McDonald's. However, if you're in a hurry during lunchtime and you want to do to grab something to eat with good reliability, maybe McDonald's is an excellent option, right? Because you will not even have time to wait for everything in a fancy restaurant.
So this is why it is so important. So my advice to all of you is that every time you are developing a new project, a new product, try to make clear what it is the reference we are talking about, what is it a good celebrate? What is a good timeline? What is a good product? What is a good computer? What's, is a good car? Do you know? What is expensive. What is cheap, what is late? What is a high risk, what is low risk? Don't work with the assumption that everybody thinks the same in the past; maybe we use to have probably in the past and far more homogeneous society, but today, no, it's very, very different. And people will understand wrongly and will execute actions and tasks in a way that you don't expect them to do. So think all is about that. Any Assessment becomes absolutely irrelevant., if you do not provide the right reference.
I hope you enjoyed this podcast, and until next week with another five Minutes Podcast.
