On the Ground

Week nine, March 8 (2018). This week I took advantage of a work trip to Brazil and managed to schedule a couple of meetings with the client.

When I first knew I had to come, I tried to factor it into the Capstone schedule and planned the meetings. Despite the delays in getting some of the data for the project last month, I managed to make-up for part of it, also with the support of the client. This not only helped me prepare for the meetings but also helped focus both my updates to the client and a couple of additional requests to the sales and support teams, in the first conversation we had.

Curiously, part of the research that involved more focused interviews with different teams within the client, some current customers and a few former customers was also delayed due to Carnaval and the many different activities the client is going through, given its continuing explosive growth. But the meetings over the past week made it possible for that work to be completed. Unfortunately, a few important members of the client were not available for the interviews, and several of the interviews that were carried out by the sales team among customers and colleagues did not follow the specified script and instructions.

But all in all, the data collected was enough to gather multiple perspectives, have the current representativeness of the client’s customer population contemplated in the sample and draw multiple insights.

With a little less than a month for the final delivery of the Capstone, I believe now things are back on track. It’s time to focus on putting together all the pieces of this puzzle in the shape of the Capstone report and presentation for the client and the school.