How our MSFT-X team learned to read between the lines

One habit has stayed with me through every role change since my days in the Admin team as an Architect: arriving before 8 a.m. That quiet time allows me, even now in the Services team, to review the emails and requests coming in each day. I'm not simply reading what customers want. I'm looking for the reason behind the request, the challenge they're trying to solve, and the need they may not have articulated yet.

The drill and the hole in the wall

There's an analogy I keep coming back to. When you go to a hardware store to buy a drill, you don't actually want the drill. You want the hole in the wall so you can hang your frames. It's the same with our customers. It's not the deck they want; it's what they want to achieve with it. Maybe they want to recognise their team members and make people feel special. Maybe they want to impress their bosses. When we understand that, we can help them achieve it in the best way possible, so that when they buy something from us, they buy a better version of themselves to present.

In our team, a small group of us is intentionally looking for these opportunities: myself, Marlene, Anji, Meban, Mahesh, Synshar and Pynshkem. We have a huddle at 9:30. We screenshot the emails that feel important and bring them to the discussion. We look at which team and department the customer belongs to. If they deal with an external audience, maybe video or interactive slides are the right way to get the message across. If something worked with a similar team, we try it again; if it didn't, we try something else. Then we either execute it ourselves or bring in the POC.

Three ways we think about value

• Better execution: doing what the customer asked, and doing it to the best. That's expected, so we don't count it as new value.

• Better solution: the customer asks for one thing, but we think another approach would work better. One customer usually announced their yearly awards through emails. We turned it into a video with the nominees and winners, where colleagues could react and comment. They liked it.

• New opportunity: seeing a need the customer didn't mention. One customer asked for a flyer but was clearly struggling with the content, so we offered content support too. They didn't go ahead, but we tried.

This framework has helped us stop focusing on the requested deliverable and start focusing on the desired outcome. We choose the method based on what the customer is trying to achieve, not a favourite tool