“Let’s take technology out of the room”

I sometimes say this when I am with the sponsor / senior stakeholder when I am trying to understand what the requirements are and what outcomes are identified.

Working out what is really needed, without trying to guess what solution you are probably going to go for (my good friend Frank McGeady used to call it “solutioneering”), is a good technique for both parties to start a conversation and really understand what the actual problem is and why you want to solve it.

Only then can you start devising the ‘who’, ‘how’, ‘where’ and ‘when’.

Has anyone else tried this, and if so, how did you get on?