Idealistic vs Pragmatic

In a consulting project, do clients bring in consultants to make an idealistic solution to the problem or a pragmatic one? The answer is ‘it depends” and often in between. The clients almost always look for fresh perspectives from the engagement. In the initial stages, as a consultant, we spend most of our time understanding the client’s vision, mission, and short-term goals. Consultants also gauge the strengths and weaknesses of their clients. The better the understanding more practical the solutions are. The aim is to make the client progress in the right direction and set them on their path to achieving goals with better processes and tools in place.

As one of the top goals of the engagement, we brought users onto the platform. This exercise was more educative than anticipated, as is often the case in field research (user research). Though the goal was a quantity-based target, I personally wanted to ensure quality gets priority. This thought led me to interact with groups of varied backgrounds, demographics, and geography. Few of such surprise learnings for example. A group of climate enthusiasts already working on climate change and executing ideas to drive more investment towards UNSDG or raise awareness on SDGs were looking for investment support. It became evident that our platform attracts such brilliant minds. However, it also indicated a need for building such a feature for investors and other enthusiasts to support ideas. Another surprising learning was from reaching social work groups in Argentina. It made me realize that the platform was not multi-lingual. I could not bring many young minds who could only speak Spanish. It shed light on the gap which never seemed to exist. A seamless multi-lingual platform will be an equitable solution.

Since all the user personas interacted during the onboarding exercise were relevant, it presented many options. Numerous personas are possible for the platform, and it was hard to narrow down, but going back to the pragmatic approach, knowing the client and their strengths makes the decision easier. The recommendation took its shape with a base ideal persona. Our group analyzed and listed the features we saw are absolutely required to take the platform to the next level.

During onboarding, one of the most common feedback was about registration. There were also many drop-offs in user onboarding. Though we have yet to get the numbers from our client’s backend team, I will not be surprised to see unusually high drop-off rates in the registration process. Though it was not in the initial plan, when I proposed an alternate option for the platform to the client, it was immediately accepted. Even though we were mid-way through the project, it was evident that it was a quintessential step. Ideally, with our research, we could have presented the recommendations and business plan and hoped our client manages the implementation path. Given the current stage of the platform, the existing registration process could be a roadblock to scaling. Pragmatic solutions emphasize short-term results and incremental improvements, prioritizing practicality, and implementation efficiency. So, it made sense to recommend a pragmatic solution, that the client can implement quickly, effectively, and at minimal cost.

Now, the solution we provide as a team does not have to be shelved, it can also be implemented readily and could result in potential cost savings from the current implementation and increase the ROI significantly. Tapping the minds of our cohorts in class gave rise to a string of phenomenal ideas, from marketing, communications, performance, user journey, usability, and business plan to reported bugs found on the platform. It has further strengthened our thoughts that this can indeed be a successful platform and grow beyond the original vision. The potential is enormous and there is so much scope for work.

Problem-solving in comprehensive and applicable ways, as a consultant, feels like a successful engagement with the client. We recommended our client do a platform switch to scale the platform and enrich the features. We also recommended using analytical tools so that with data they find barriers that do not even know exists. This can be an effective tool to effectively apply interventions when needed. Such inputs are essentially a crucial step in client engagement. This encourages the client to follow the repeatable processes and use effective tools. In a consulting engagement, this is quintessential for long-term success.