The Ringtail

I’ve been thinking about a quote I picked up from John Gruber:

“The head of Black and Decker once said, folks don’t buy our products because they want one inch drills, they buy our stuff because they want one inch holes.”

I’ve often felt, as a project manager, that I get called in to help people buy drills, and my real job is to help them understand that they need holes. Trouble is that a famous quote from Einstein is also true:

“Problems cannot be solved by thinking within the framework within which they were created.”

Unless your client understands the truth of this, they are never going to be in the market for holes and you should leave them alone to get on and buy the drills.