A client of mine was recently at a crossroads.
As their Salesforce provider, our team recommended they start with a simple MVP. The first release would be a couple of small wins, and be for their employees.
Some of the staff of the client wanted to replace five of their existing web portals. This would be a huge release, not just for their staff but also for external users.
Following Salesforce’s “crawl, walk, run” approach to projects, we kept iterating the need to start simple. A big bang approach rarely works, and I’ve seen project’s stall more than they actually deliver.
While the client ultimately decided for the MVP, it was not an easy conversation. They felt there wasn’t much progress over the last few months. I disagreed.
I explained that both teams learned a lot from each other. The client started understanding how things work in Salesforce, and the main differences between it and their custom homemade solution. And our team learned how to communicate better to make progress.
My paraphrased words were, “I disagree. I think we’ve both learned much recently. We improved our communication and have essentially moved into the next phase of our relationship. This improved collaboration will help move faster in the future”.
The client agreed with my sentiment and expressed gratitude with our contibutions.
The takeaway
Some clients need more handholding than others. Some need time to digest the delivery process. While you may not be actually delivering much during this time, it’s definitely not time wasted. So long as you’re making progress with other elements of the engagement.