Comment by Benjammer | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Benjammer | Hacker News Reader

R&D ML software dev --> Implementations Consultant seems like a pretty drastic change in roles. You're going from a very technical role to something that is very fundamentally soft-skills based. You'll be a communication pipeline between your company's sales and product teams, and your clients. You'll need to learn how to deeply investigate a client and figure out their needs, in a short amount of time, and then translate that foreign data into your internal company "language" and goals framework. You'll be dealing with two sets of politics at once, and be expected to move and translate seamlessly between the two. You're fundamentally a diplomat. Your technical background will help you establish authority for what you're talking about, and your problem-solving skills will be invaluable when investigating new clients.

(disclaimer: This is all assuming that "implementations" works the way it has at the several B2B software companies I've worked at as a developer. It sounds the same from the short description given, but you never know with a new employer.)

Really good points above. Having worked in SW Consulting for >9 years, the communications part is essential: you will need to 'translate' (see above) between two very different entities, acting as a conduit, and be able to switch context quickly.

Re: technical background, it will certainly give you authority, but a soft skill I lean on every day is you'll need to learn how to educate/explain in brief sentences, while still sounding enthusiastic and without any hint of eye-rolling or annoyance, even if it's a basic concept to the project or something you have a deep knowledge of.

Yes, it is indeed a huge shift for me. I do prefer still working on Computer Vision / ML / AI projects but my current job is not offering much in terms of growth or learning. Since I dont have that much experience in the domain of Data Science, its currently hard to land such a profile in a good company in my country.

I see this new job as a chance to explore more opportunities while building my AI/ML profile on the side.

What would be some tools or processes that would help me keep track of all the client's concerns and effectively communicate with the clients and make sure there is progress when it comes to implementations?

I've been in a similar position for close to a decade now. One of the most effective things I can tell you to do is make sure that you document and ask for verification of any deliverables or requirements. Send summary emails (either after each meeting/or weekly) to make sure that everyone agrees with your understanding in writing and that nothing is missing. I've had multiple clients say something along the lines of "We never agreed to that" but when I've been able to show them an email it helps change the mood of the discussion. Then it becomes a change to the project rather than something you initially missed and now have to finagle. "If it's not documented it didn't happen" is an effective phrase to live by when dealing with clients, even the nice ones. You don't have to be aggressive, always be polite but firm. You can see how the engagement progresses and change things up if the client is more laid back. Additionally, keep track of the overall schedule, and make sure to point out things that will take you away from delivering on the schedule. I've had multiple clients ask for 1 or 2 side things and then complain when schedules slip. If you ensure they understand what the implications of additional work are (in writing) then you'll save yourself some hassles down the road.

That makes sense, I will surely follow up with a summary of the discussions.

Also, do the dev teams listen to the feedback that you provide to them regarding the features that would be helpful / useful according to the client's suggestions?

Good teams do.

I employ a team of implementation specialists at a B2B SaaS company. We heavily rely on that team to help guide future product development. But you’ll likely need to be able to translate the ask from 1 customer to something applicable to many customers for the product team to really listen.

One other tip for you- our culture is one of transparency with customers. We encourage our implementation team to be on the lookout for “deal breakers”. It’s best to identify those early and get them a refund than to waste weeks/months only to find that one show stopper right before going live.

You’d think that would be the sales team’s job. I did too, until I hired sales people ;).

I would definitely second the suggestion of identifying "deal breakers" as early as possible. It's much easier to highlight a shortcoming and come up with a reasonable solution when a few hours/weeks have been committed vs 100/1000's of hours.

Sales people can greatly mis-state product capabilities so be on the lookout for where they let themselves get carried away with selling a solution. I've even worked with them before and gotten called down for correcting their "misunderstandings" in front of the potential customer.

Sales people live for the sale, you should be living to deliver the final solution to a happy/content client.

commending this post for some of the biggest callouts in the "Implementation consultant" role - notes, notes,m and more notes, diagrams whenever possible and sending them out after meetings. The general rule of that world is "silence means acceptance" - so if you send out notes and a diagram detailing how to proceed and nobody responds you are free to proceed in that direction. The only issue is the C-levels who wont read any notes, gather any data, and come in with preconceived notions of how things should proceed - all you can do is get on their good side and convince them your idea was their idea

When you need to push back against a client with that kind of "we talked about it, here's the documentation", what kind of language do you use... I guess when being "polite but firm"?

I try to take the stance that they simply forgot about the previous conversations or agreements. That generally has worked for me and keeps people from losing too much face which additionally helps keep everyone on the same side. Everyone forgets sometimes, sometimes its a genuine memory lapse and other times not so much. I've used variations of the following numerous times to decent result:

"Hi <so and so>, we talked about this matter last in <this email chain or that meeting>, I'm attaching the last <email/meeting summary>. If there's a need to readdress this <situation/decision>, please feel free to let me know and we can setup a meeting to further discuss."

That establishes what you consider to be the facts, based on whatever evidence you are attaching, and doesn't necessarily place you at odds with the client. You always need to figure out how to balance your client relationship with your project needs. Sometimes you may need to give a bit on the project needs to keep the client content but that is surprisingly less than most consultants think.

I've had several clients come back to me after an engagement has completed and mention that they were being intentionally difficult to see what else they could get but documentation helped prevent too much excess on my part. I've even been in the situation where I have acted as the client when dealing with vendor implementation teams and told specifically to be difficult to see what else we could get.

Interesting. Thanks for the insight and advice!

To reflect back what I'm seeing in your language use - to see if I've gotten the gist of it - your subtext / authoring attitude is "ah, you just forgot, let me simply re-inform" but you also don't bother mentioning any particular reason.

I'm not really an authority on expert implementations consulting, but off the top of my head:

>tools

A notebook. An excel/sheets spreadsheet. An open mind. People skills. A sense of humor.

>processes

Regular check-ins with stakeholders. Actually having a well-structured, end-to-end implementation plan at some point for any given client. Being willing to dramatically shift said plan on a dime in order to keep everyone happy and maintain the business relationship.

You can also work for a few years and then get a job at whatever client company you liked working with the most, pretty easily. I've seen that happen a lot.

You won't find the tools or processes for this in a downloadable form on a web site.

The things you'll need for this sort of job are things like:

* Clearly explaining highly technical facts and concepts in an easy to understand manner

* Reading people to understand their motivations, needs, and expectations

* Setting clear boundaries and communicating them early

* Connecting with the people you're working with and getting them to like you even if you don't really like them

* Consistently presenting an appearance of calm, control while simultaneously being excited and enthusiastic

* Learning the map of the organization and discovering who can help you, who is a waste of time, and who will actively oppose you

* Listening to bad ideas or ideas you fundamentally disagree with and handling them without being dismissive, possibly even going along with one because it gains you a position or relationship of value

All those things while being knowledgeable about your product or solution.

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