If you are running a B2B SaaS business you know that not all client problems are created equal. The same delivery issue can be a minor inconvenience or a project-ending crisis. Its value to the client drives the severity.
If during user acceptance testing the client notices that the user journey requires an extra step it can usually be mitigated by adding to the backlog to fix later. A medium or low priority item.
If the client insists that this will be fixed asap it usually means that expectations were not properly managed, leading to an unsatisfied client. A medium to high priority item.
If this is one of several similar issues, we have mishandled the discovery phase. A bigger problem.
If the client purchased the solution to overcome exactly these kinds of challenges. Houston, we have a problem.
Same issue, different context, different impact.
We need to get back to basics, and define before project kickoff the severity of types of issues that we will be facing. Some rules of thumb –
- Treat early misalignments as a potential snowball. If not put to bed early, documented, and signed off on, they will haunt us throughout the project. (some joke about snowballs and the UK heatwave…)
- Any capability directly linked to the reason the client bought the solution, or to the value that they see in it, should be treated with high priority and early.
- Respect voices of future users and focus on what they raise. Pay attention to the sentiment. Eventually these will be the people that will need to sign off and accept the system.
- And obviously – financial systems need to be precise and auditable, and regulations and compliance need to be on point.
- A final thought about severity – a typo in the UI, as an example, may be deemed low priority, but if the UI is riddled with typos the severity changes to very high (and developers don’t like to hear this)
What this means is that prioritisation of issues should be value-based, and with an empathy to the client. The delivery/implementation teams are the client ambassadors in internal meetings and should play a key part in the prioritisation activity.