WEBVTT

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Blessing, thank you so much
for being here with us today.

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What does a successful customer project
look like to you?

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At Google Cloud consulting,

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we're in a very unique place within
Google Cloud.

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One of the things we like to say is we're
there for the first, the new,

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and the moments that matter,
which means that in a lot of cases we're

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not doing traditional run-of-the-mill
things with our customers.

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In a lot of cases,
you've seen some of the customer stories.

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Our customers are trying to figure out
what to do with AI,

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what to do with vast amounts of data and
metadata they have.

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And so a successful project,
I think the first thing is it's beyond

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the technical delivery.

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It's beyond the code,
it's beyond the architecture.

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It is understanding what the real problem
the customer is trying to solve is,

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what the intended business outcomes are,
and what those look like in the real world.

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And so one of the things that I say to my
team a lot is at the end of this project,

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what does the future
look like to the customer?

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And then connecting the technical
delivery to that.

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The second piece is I'm going beyond a
client vendor relationship to a true partnership.

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And that is really getting embedded into
the customer's way of thinking,

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the customer's way of working,
the customer's business,

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understanding their own end customers,
because it just makes the working

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relationship a lot better.

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And then the final piece to that would be
being flexible and adaptable.

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Digital transformation is never a
straight line.

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A lot of times the destination doesn't
look like we initially envisioned it.

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And so being able to adapt and stay agile
and stay flexible,

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I think of our customers
as always dynamic,

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always changing and evolving and being
able to roll with those punches.

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I think those three things will lead to a
successful outcome.

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What do the best teams do differently
when it comes to delivering for customers?

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A couple of things.

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I think the first thing is
customer empathy.

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And I know that's a word a lot of people use,

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but we're Google and at
Google we work differently.

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We have a different culture.

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We have a way of communicating.

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We use a ton of acronyms.

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And so it is understanding that a
customer is not Google and sometimes

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adapting the way we work in order to get
the customer where they need to be.

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And so really getting empathetic about
where the customer is coming from and

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where they're going.

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The second piece would be communication.

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Brené Brown, who I love, talks about,
you know, she has a phrase she uses,

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"clear is kind."

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I love that so much because, you know,
in program management or digital

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transformation work,
we say communicate early,

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communicate often.

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That's true.

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But communicate clearly is also important.

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And so it's not just early and often.

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Yes, and clearly.

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And that includes having difficult
conversations with a customer,

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that includes saying, hey,
you need to change the way you're doing

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this if you want this outcome.

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That includes bringing up not so good
news early on and pushing back where you

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need to.

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That would be,
I think the second thing and then the

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final thing is loving the challenge.

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A lot of the things that we're doing
today were not possible 18 months ago.

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And so that's a little bit of,
I don't know all the answers,

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but I'm going to figure it out.

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So being willing to kind of lean into the
discomfort and the ambiguity,

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I think those three things would, yeah,
make successful teams.

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Thank you so much for being here with us.

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You're welcome.