PM Quote of the Day — Theodore Levitt

Kodak sells film, but they don’t advertise film. They advertise memories. 

It has been a while since I used film in a camera.  But sure enough, Kodak still advertises memories  not JPGs.  So it should be for our projects and programs.  Too often we get caught up in describing the impact of our initiatives in the wrong order:

• First, all the work that we and our team is doing.
• Second, all the great things that we’re building.
• Third, how many more resources we really need to build it right.
• Fourth… fifth…
• And finally, if we ever get around to it, we admit there may be some benefits to the project.

Of course, this approach will give audiences the wrong memories.  When pitching something, one wants to draw the audience in with an enticing vision of the final destination.  They don’t care so much about what it took to get there.

A more subtle problem is that focusing on work, technology, and obstacles makes one sounds self-centered  The message comes across as — look at all the work I’m doing, what I’m building, how I’m suffering — as if no one else is doing the same.

A project should be advertising dreams, not drudgery!