Business: I’ve got the ideas, you’ve got the know how. I’ve got a unique value proposition here. All I need is to get the development done and that’s what I need you for.

Developer: Absolutely, we’re willing to share our experiences with you and what we’ve learned about solving them. We’ve been on the front lines of development for years working for companies of all sizes. Our jobs have been all about receiving requests, reports of problems, finding solutions, implementing the solutions, then repeatedly fixing and maintaining these solutions. Rinse and repeat.

Business: Now look here, I’ve been dealing with these development problems myself. We need an agile development team because things are changing all the time. And I don’t need to be telling someone what to do all the time! Time is money!

Developer: You’re fighting fires all day, every day. Ever feel like the sands of time are slipping through your fingers, trying to sift for gold? Project management often leaves a lot to be desired. No matter what your sprints or timelines or backlogs look like you’re feeling stuck in a development cycle that has no end.

Business: I know what we’ve got here works. What I need are motivated and experienced people to increase our velocity, I’ve gotten rid of a few lazy people myself. Using offshore development is effective, cheaper and they just work harder.

Developer: Maybe you’re dealing with an XY problem. You’re trying to solve X but what you really need is a solution for Y. You want your development to be cheaper and faster but what you need is to stop developing altogether and make a different business decision. You’re trying to improve your work culture by hiring and replacing people but what you really need are negotiation skills to handle high pressure talks. You want to reduce your stress but what you really need is stress management. You want to make more money but what you need is financial education.

Business: I’m thinking outside the box here.

Developer: Ever tried to solve the nine dot problem? You might have heard advice like “think outside the box”. This is useless because until you have answers that work, thinking “outside the box” gets you no closer to an answer. The devil is in the details.

Business: I’m talking about value-adds and synergies. I’m looking to leverage our resources to maximize our bandwidth for increased value. Optimize our processes, enhance our agile methodologies to drive efficiencies and increase our bottom line. We’re in a hyper-competitive landscape, so it’s all about scalability and resilience.

Developer: What you need to get out of this perpetual cycle, this trap of stimulus and response, is to short circuit some of these embedded, habitual assumptions about how solving all of the problems will lead you to your desired outcome. Enhance your decision making, change the inputs you’re recieving, work on yourself in the many dimensions of your health. Personal changes drive growth. We’re striving for self actualization.

Inspired by Simon Sinek’s talk - Start with why