CIPS-GH Talk: Create Successful Projects by Listening to Customers
Time:
Wednesday, November 28, 2012 – 6-8pm
Location:
McMaster Innovation Park (MIP) – http://www.mcmasterinnovationpark.ca
Room 2, 175 Longwood Road S., Hamilton, ON L8P 0A1
View map & directions – http://www.mcmasterinnovationpark.ca/directions-to-the-mip
Topic:
Create Successful Projects by Listening to Customers
You have a great project plan! What you are going to build is great! But will it be what your customer wants? Will it solve their problems? Getting to the bottom of this question has been a problem for anyone involved in high tech – software development, IT infrastructure, design of goods. The importance of understanding what customers desire helps drive customers to buy your product, make users happy, and have them compliment your skills and team. We shall discuss methods to improve that relationship, with personal examples taken from my time at RIM and Mabel’s Labels.
Presenter:
Anand Sinha – IT Manager at Mabel’s Labels – http://www.mabelslabels.com/
Anand Sinha joined Mabel’s Labels as IT Manager in August 2010. At Mabel’s Labels, Anand has fostered an atmosphere of creativity and collaboration between the IT department and internal customers. His “can-do” attitude is reflected in the entire IT team, everyone working towards solving complex problems in a timely fashion. Under his leadership, the IT department has grown from 3 fulltime members to 8.
Prior to joining Mabel’s Labels, Anand worked at RIM for 18 years. During his time there, he pioneered many wireless enablement products (wireless AT command set, wireless X.28 command set, wireless sockets implementation) all focused on seamless integration of wired applications to the wireless space. He was a member of the team that invented and implemented the BlackBerry Handheld device. He led a team that developed the BlackBerry Enterprise Server to enable wireless email and calendar synchronization between a corporate system and a BlackBerry. While working on the Enterprise Server, Anand became keenly aware of the separation between end-user and developer and the many layers/voices that stand between the two groups. As he strove to close that gap, he became an “end-user advocate” within RIM, striving to understand not only what a customer believes they want (“I need this fixed”) to what they do not yet know they need, but will want it (“What is it? I want it!”). He very successfully bridged the Enterprise customer to the development team (resulting in promotion to Director). He then took his experience and knowledge to the BlackBerry Handheld development team to close the customer loop. As part of this initiative Anand formed many teams working in automated testing, field tool development, automatic provisioning and upgrade of BlackBerrys, statistical analysis of software failure rates, and represented the Software Development team to all major carriers worldwide as part of the BlackBerry Quality Improvement initiatives. He forged ties between Software Development, Repair Services, Customer Service, Field Engineering, Hardware Maintenance Engineering and Product Quality Improvement teams, driving overall plans to improve quality of BlackBerry Handhelds. During his time at RIM, Anand co-authored several papers on “Just-in Time Software Quality”, and had 4 software patents submitted in the USA and Europe (2 granted, 2 still pending).
From 1990-1992 Anand worked as a research Engineer at the Communications Research Lab at McMaster University on an iceberg detection radar system under Simon Haykin. Prior to this, Anand worked in the Computer Information Systems Group at McMaster as the System Administrator for the VAX/DEC systems used by the scientific research staff at McMaster, while he worked part-time on his Master’s Degree in Computer Engineering on the use of Neural Networks to control the water vapour pressure in a nuclear reactor.
Anand graduated from McMaster University in 1985 with a B.Eng in Computer Engineering. His first job out of university was at Johnson Controls in Toronto, working in the software development department. His two-year stint in Toronto convinced him to return to Hamilton, where he has lived for all but 5 years of his life. Hamilton is a great city that offers a lot to high tech workers who wish to live with green space, affordable living and grow a family with a nice home.
Evening Format:
Peer Networking 18:00 – 18:45
Presentation & Discussion 18:45 – 20:00
Cost:
CIPS Members: $0
CIPS Guests: $10
(cash or cheque payable to CIPS Golden Horseshoe)
Students: FREE with current student ID card
Reservations required to attend.
Space is limited – reserve a seat now; please make reservations by
Tuesday November 27, 5:00pm.
Register here