Paco Underhill and His Silver Bullet Technology

Having recently read Paco Underhill’s fascinating book, Why We Buy, I’d like to share a story he cites about "computer programmers". To me, the story is quite educational and funny.

Over the years, we’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars and countless frustrating hours with computer programmers, trying to come up with a database that could handle the kind of work we do. The big problem is that while we crunch the same numbers in the same ways from job to job, each project usually requires us to do something a little differently—to collect different kinds of data or to devise new comparisons of facts we just uncovered.

We’ve hired fancy consultants who spend six months at a crack with us, trying to build a computer system. They ask us to list everything we want our program to do, but every week we add six new things to the list that negate all their work from the previous month. And, of course, our turnaround time has to be swift, so there’s no time to change the system completely for each job—we may need to do one new comparison for a project today and then not have to perform that function again for seven months.

So what was the ultimate solution, the killer app that solved their business problem? Wait for it. Wait…

In the early 90’s, Microsoft Excel came along. Where had it been all my life? It was designed as a spreadsheet program, intended for accountants to do the relatively simple calculations they require. […] Today, while we still use Excel, we’ve moved on to other programs like Access and SPSS—but for years, Excel made out work possible.

I’m sure, the said programmers and consultants pitched the latest, shiniest toys. I’ve seen a similar drama unfold far too many times to think otherwise.

But it all came down to Excel. Ironic, isn’t it?