The Client is Not Broken
Have you ever come across something so forward-thinking you read it several times and said “Wow” after each read? Maybe it’s the caffiene or lack of sleep talking, but I came across this post, titled The User is Not Broken: A Meme Masquerading as a Manifesto, from K.G. Schneider on Free Range Librarian that hit that spot for me.
I’m cherry-picking the best ones (OK, almost all of them), but they are all that good. If you are not a librarian, and I know many of you aren’t, I’ve taken the liberty of replacing “librarian, library, and user” with “lawyer, law firm, and client.”
All technologies evolve and die. Every technology you learned about in [law] school will be dead someday.
You fear loss of control, but that has already happened. Ride the wave.
The [client] is not broken.
Your system is broken until proven otherwise.
That vendor who just sold you the million-dollar system …doesn't have a clue what he's talking about, and his system is broken, too.
Most of your most passionate [clients] will never meet you face to face.
Most of your most alienated [clients] will never meet you face to face.
Your website is your ambassador to tomorrow's [clients]. They will meet the website long before they see your building, your physical resources, or your people.
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than to find a [law firm] website that is usable and friendly and provides services rather than talking about them in weird [legal] jargon.
Information flows down the path of least resistance. If you block a tool the [clients] want, users will go elsewhere to find it.
You cannot change the [client], but you can transform the [client] experience to meet the [client].
Meet people where they are--not where you want them to be.
The [client] is not "remote." You, the [lawyer], are remote, and it is your job to close that gap.
The average [law firm] decision about implementing new technologies takes longer than the average life cycle for new technologies.
If you are reading about it in Time and Newsweek and your [law firm] isn't adapted for it or offering it, you're behind.
Stop moaning about the good old days. The card catalog sucked, and you thought so at the time, too.
If we continue fetishizing the format and ignoring the [client], we will be tomorrow's cobblers.
Your ignorance will not protect you.
This kind of work is what’s so amazes me about the Blogosphere. K.G. Schneider is a writer and librarian. As I sit here today, this “Meme Masquerading as a Manifesto” is at least as good (and frankly, IMHO, much, much better) as anything I’ve seen Tom Peters or Seth Godin write this year. I’m looking forward to reading what she has to say next. Your thoughts?