Focus on the Birdhouse…
I had the pleasure of speaking at the SPTechCon in Boston this week. Look no further than the hallways and conference rooms of an event like this to know that the SharePoint community is only getting bigger and stronger.
In my requirements gathering session, I used a slide that I have leveraged in other presentations that talks to the fact that there is an accountability that comes with SharePoint. My argument is that the success/failure of a SharePoint deployment is ultimately much more in the hands of implementers and users than in the capabilities of the technology. I illustrate this in a slide where I take a comment (which I have heard many times!) that states:
“My portal project was a failure. I think SharePoint is a great product, but it still needs a lot of refinement. There are a lot of features that just are not there yet. It is not feature rich enough to be truly usable. I am hoping the next version will improve all these areas.”
As a point of argument, I replace a few words to take the same statement and present:
“My birdhouse project was a failure. I think this hammer is a great product, but it still needs a lot of refinement. There are a lot of features that just are not there yet. It is not feature rich enough to be truly usable. I am hoping the next version will improve all these areas.”
Not as compelling, is it? Always remember that SharePoint is, first and foremost, a tool…
A friend of mine, Nick Bisciotti, who has heard me make this statement many times attended some of the activities at SPTechCon and commented that while it was incredible to see all the fantastic experts and 3rd party products that support and extend SharePoint at the end of the day he needed to remind himself to focus more on the birdhouse and less on the hammer. Wow, what a great concept!
For those of you who have left SPTechCon educated and inspired and will return to your desks and colleagues on Monday morning take Nick’s words to heart. This is NOT Microsoft SharePoint that you grow and support; it is YOUR SharePoint. Focus more on the birdhouse and success will be yours…