Agnieszka Amborska

Our client, our partnerhow to build a healthy relationship with your clients

TRANSPARENCY

• What did we want to achieve?

• What did we do well?

• What could have been done better?

• What should we do in the future to avoid the failure?

• More at Does failure always mean we failed?

AAR/After-Action Review

TRUST & ASSERTIVENESS

Q: Kate will try to finish this feature today

BTL: Kate is not very experienced and we are not sure if she can make it.

I: Kate will focus on this feature today

BTL: Kate is smart and by focusing she can deliver most value.

Communication

Q: Maybe we could move from Jira to Pivotal…

BTL: We don’t really know but maybe it’ll help.

I: We recommend to move the project from Jira to Pivotal as this will improve…

BTL: We have experience with both and found Pivotal to be better because… You need to trust our judgment.

Communication

Q: Is it enough if Kate joins the meeting, or should John join as well?

BTL: You are “the boss” and you know best how to manage this project.

I: We recommend that Kate joins this meeting. We can skip John & Mark as they are involved in other part of the project. Let me know if that suits you guys.

BTL: We are a professional consulting company that has PM skills and experience in thing like that.

Communication

Q: Would it be possible to grant root access for John?

BTL: Can you trust us? We’ll be good.

I: We recommend that John has direct root access. This is important because…

BTL: We know what we are doing.

Communication

Q: Can we talk today about this issue? Will you find some time today?

BTL: You are busy and important. I don’t mind waiting - whatever works for you.

I: We’d like to go through issue. Can we schedule a call for 3pm CET today?

BTL: We have important issues that we need to discuss. Please make time for us.

Communication

Q: I'd like to inform you, that I found out from our operation manager, that the travel costs are added to the client's invoice.

BTL: I’m kind of new here and this is the first time I’m doing this, someone told me to do something so I need to do this.

I: As per our contract the travel expenses are added to the invoice. Please let me know if you have any questions regarding this.

BTL: It’s something we do often, we know how to professionally manage this and you are responsible for the costs.

Communication

Q: Sorry we weren't able to work on it yesterday - John had some hardware issues.

BTL: He is not very smart and can’t work “hardware” very well.

I: Due to hardware issues John was not able to work on this problem yesterday.

BTL: Those were very hard issues but he managed to fix them in one day only ;)

Communication

[after a call missed by a client] Q: sorry I have other calls and tbh I am quite busy today

BTL: I’m pissed and you are less important that my other tasks today. It’s your fault.

I: Unfortunately I have other commitments till the end of the day. Can we please have a call tomorrow morning (Tue, 9am CET)?

BTL: I’m upset & busy, but you are an important client so I want to make this work.

Communication

PARTNERSHIP

Thank you!

Agnieszka Amborska