"Rabbit, Rabbit!" - Podcast Ep 06 - POCs - Are You Positioned for Business Value?

"Rabbit, Rabbit!" - a superstition found in Britain and North America wherein a person says or repeats the words "rabbit", "rabbits" and/or "white rabbits" aloud upon waking on the first day of a month, to ensure good luck for the rest of it.

Delivered on the first day of the month, this podcast series dives into various Database Performance topics.  Enjoy!

RR Episode 06  - POCs - Are You Positioned for Business Value?

In this Episode, Quest Senior Consultants, Dave Orlandi and Amit Parikh, discuss the most important elements of a POC and how vendors and customers alike can best position themselves for business value.

Into the Rabbit Hole (related resources) -

A Leadership Vision of Data-Driven Enterprises | Ep. 1 | Accelerate: A NoSQL Original Series - https://youtu.be/TBRMAg4TC94

Transcript

RR Ep 6:  POCs – Are You Positioned for Business Value? 

Amit: Rabbit, Rabbit 

Dave: Rabbit, Rabbit 

Hi everyone…I’m Dave Orlandi and with me is Amit Parikh.  Amit and I are Senior Consultants with Quest Software and we offer up this podcast delivered the first of every month (hence the name) and discuss topics relevant to the IT industry…with an emphasis around Database Performance. 

Amit: Hi Dave.  

Dave: It’s great speaking with you again, Amit. 

Amit: Same here, and as we anticipated, we are seeing things pick up a bit. What’s keeping you busy? 

Dave: 100% ...POCs! 

Amit: ahh POCs, they do take the lion’s share of our time these days.  In many ways, the topic of POCs dovetails nicely from our previous podcast…in that customers often times face important considerations around a solution they intend to implement and inevitably, there becomes a decision-point that sits in front of them which includes questions like….,  

Do you do it yourself or get something tailor made?   

Is this solution viable? 

Will it produce a desirable outcome?  

Is the impact quantifiable? 

Dave: Yes, those are all important questions, but I think the all-encompassing question would be...Are you positioned to find business value for your next POC?…. 

Let’s extend the conversation and assume that we are in a situation where the organization decides BUY….and consider several third-party vendors for a solution. 

For evaluators, it may not be easy to take that leap of faith and they’ll want to make sure they are making the right decision.  If one needs to go to management for budget dollars, they need to be darn sure that it meets their needs.  It is natural to perhaps have some trepidation…  They are likely consumed with the notion that…I don’t want to buy this solution only to find out that it doesn’t do something important like say, email notifications…or a particular integration. 

Amit: Mmm-Hmm, but before we go further I think this might be a good time to take a quick pause and define what a POC is…our listeners may have different preconceived notions or are simply unfamiliar with the acronym. 

Dave: Well, Merriam Webster defines a POC or Proof of Concept as…..something that demonstrates the feasibility of a concept such as a product or business plan… 

As one engages in a POC…. 

…a question that must be answered by the organization is, what happens if we do nothing? How often do we invest weeks on a POC and the organization then says….”well, we’ve decided to stick with the status quo.” 

Amit: Absolutely!  What is needed upfront for any POC is an established commitment….in other words, make an agreement …that if the desired outcome is reached via a POC, there is a willingness to change. 

Dave: So, let’s discuss a checklist of sorts, the process…the responsibilities on both sides. 

And understanding this, it helps establish mutual transparency and trust for the POC.   

Furthermore, I really think it creates a natural willingness to define criteria…ones that are quantifiable and measurable…to see the value. 

Amit: Yes….it helps both parties. 

So first…in a POC, it is critical to assess readiness.  

By readiness, I mean ... the organization has given full consideration to both the timeframe for implementing a new solution, but also if/when such an initiative can be budgeted.   

There is a vendor perspective for readiness too... 

Can we, the vendor, deliver the desired outcomes? 

If the timeline and/or budget are too far out, the POC probably makes less sense to engage in now.   

Similarly, vendors ought to keep in mind...does the solution to be evaluated have the potential of meeting the evaluators needs and expectations? If not, we must promptly communicate that this particular solution may not be the best fit. 

Dave: We need to respect balance too. Admittedly, I think vendors can come in guns a-blazing and expect that the evaluating organization can have everything completed in two weeks.  We want a mutual commitment for a reasonable POC timeframe, but we also know that there is a balance in terms of what the customer can spend in terms of time and effort given they have other responsibilities....their day to day activities.  We must be sure we don’t have those vendor blinders on if you will. 

Another important consideration is Scope. Having discussions and documenting the Need to have vs Nice to have helps. It keeps the POC on track...and avoids that ‘scope creep’ that we discussed in our previous podcast. It also eases the temptation with trying to ‘boil the ocean’. 

For example, a particular POC is being conducted by a certain team within the organization. Perhaps that DBA team is only concerned with SQL Server. There may be other database platforms deployed ‘somewhere’...but that’s not this group’s responsibility or concern....so maybe support for monitoring those 2 MongoDB Clusters in Development can be placed in the Nice to Have bucket. 

Amit: And that segues nicely to another important element of a POC....which is... identifying all key players. Who are the influencers? Who are the ultimate decision-makers for the defined and desired outcome?   

By understanding who the decision makers are, it raises awareness to the net impact of an attained solution. This usually relates to the business of lowering costs and increasing revenues....something tangible and actionable.   

And...not to be overlooked, it also sheds light to the intricacies of how a decision is made within that particular organization.   

Dave Precisely, Amit. Your last point can be extended..... And that is...identify potential landmines. What I mean by that is...maybe there are some politics going on...different POC participants have different angles and place more importance on different things... 

Maybe a subset of evaluators involved in the POC are content with the current solution or... a team lead is solely motivated by cost. That is important information to be shared and understood. 

Amit: Absolutely. This brings me to another very important aspect of the POC and that’s understanding the criteria for acceptance; or success.  The POC requires proof of a concept or value.  By understanding what the desired outcomes are and creating focus around particular Metrics, it makes it quantifiable and can likely have some economic impact.  Furthermore, additional attributes can be documented for each of the desired outcomes. That way, both vendors and evaluators have agreed upon items in the form of a pass/fail and/or priority level.  

Actual testimony from the organization is probably the most important piece of feedback.  In the end, it is in the best interest of both parties to be able to assess and measure how the solution impacts what the POC participants are trying to change or improve upon. 

Dave: And really, there are going to be times where we don’t always get the affirmation.  It may be important to talk about the potential for the organization to conclude a no decision or a thumbs down. In these latter scenarios, the POC isn’t quite over. I think it is critical to review why a no decision or a no is decided upon. Maybe a particular use case of the evaluators wasn’t addressed...but perhaps it will be in an upcoming release of the software. Maybe budget was pulled at the last minute and they simply can’t buy for that reason. It is important to know these reasons behind the no-decision or a no....to learn from the experience as well as identify possible opportunities to reengage down the road. 

Well, I think this was a great conversation, Amit. I hope it helped our listeners. And actually, I think it even helped you and I to organize our thoughts about how to best approach a POC.  

As a matter of fact, I will be jumping back into one here shortly.... 

Amit:   Definitely.  It also reminds me of what Chet Kapoor, who is the CEO of Datastax, said in his Leadership Vision for Data-Driven Enterprises.  He said many organizations miss having a clear strategy and successful projects; or a successful platform over time.  It is a combination of those two that actually make the journey very rewarding going forward.  It's something we wholeheartedly agree with. 

Dave: Yes! Well, here’s to productive and successful POCs!  Thanks for joining everyone. If you found our conversation interesting or useful, please be sure to like and subscribe to the Rabbit, Rabbit Podcast series.