Interview Transcript & Reports

I have locked all topics except this and "general discussion" to avoid any confusion about where to put things.
Hope you don't mind. I will post my own perceptions of the interview with Tim using our original objectives. That is my personal choice. I look forward to seeing the transcript of interview and your individual reports. Cheers, Gert.

1. Understand / outline of the business organisation. (Staff structure/ staff rolls/ outsourcing/ hierarchy/ who will we be dealing with.)

Informal organisation at this point in time. Roles divided into: admin/sales, design/production and manufacture.
Decisions are made on the spot by the people in each area, though I expect major decisions will be made jointly.

2. To understand how things are presently done. (Main processes/ how they deal with customers/ surfboard design process/ sales process.)

Standard designs are purchased off the shelf. With custom design boards there are many parameters and the sales process may take 2 weeks or more – this is a major concern. Actual production takes 3-4 days. There is no web presence.

3. Identify current documentation. (eg brochures/ forms/ written policies and procedures.)

There is a brochure with a logo but no other documentation. Design programs/software is not used at all.

4. Identify users of the system and how they interact with the system. (Target audience/ demographic/ how do they make contact/ time spent with customers)

Currently most referrals are word of mouth with some result from advertising in trade magazines. Sending out brochures takes 20%+ of administration time and costs $400/month but turn into 30-40% orders. Factory tours are by appointment as needed. These tours help increase sales.

5. What is in and out of scope? (budget/ hardware & software/ network topography.)

The business has one computer and an internet connection. They are unsure if they have in-house skills to maintain a website. Some training in the use of a Content Management System may be possible.
The budget for improvements is $15,000.

6. Identify current problems and inefficiencies as perceived by management. (current online identity – eg Ebay & Facebook?/ brochures – time & cost/ enquiries – how?/ factory tours – photos?/ surfboard design – process?.)

The time it takes with customers to produce a custom board is a major concern.
They also wish to improve their marketing effort on the national level.
Enquiries are dealt with by whoever is available and they feel they need a better system.
Sending out brochures is taking too many resources. The system is not time or cost effective.

7. To identify what they NEED (as opposed to what they WANT). (What are the Urgent problems.)

The company needs a better way to negotiate with clients over complex designs. In the absence of any programs/software it is difficult to see how this can be achieved in the short term. Possibly using server side scripts.
An online presence is required so potential customers can access information on the product and take pressure off the admin staff.

8. To understand what they WANT (as opposed to what they NEED). (What do they see as improvements?)

They want a website/online store but have not yet progressed along this path.
They also want to improve the marketing of the business at a national level and increase sales by 20%

9. Identify future opportunities for the business. (Expanding product range/ have they considered a website?)

They are definitely considering the website but not an expanded product line.

10. Understand how the system should look in the future. (How do you see your business evolving in the short and long term?)

The business hopes that increased efficiencies and marketing will lead to a 20% increase in business within 12 months. They have the infrastructure to cope with this.

11. To identify if all relevant information has been disclosed. (to check that there isn’t something we’ve missed – that we now know ALL relevant information.)

We missed asking about a time-line. Apart from that – OK.

If anyone is willing, this could probably be ran through an Aussie Word Processor to clean up my spelling errors.
I will add my own meeting notes after this.


Meeting Transcription-

Tim - black

Michelle - blue

Gert – orange

E.J. – green

Tahlia – red

Tavis – brownish

-Begin-

Just in a few words could you tell us a little bit about your business?

Okay, there are five people employed in the business, all equal owners. My role is partly administration and sales. The four others are in design and production. We manufacture surf boards. We have two major ranges. We’ve got an off the shelf range, classically the only customization possible really is on the graphics of the board. And a Custom design range which requires much more input as far as design is concerned and production. And also, consequently the cost is higher to the customer. That a bit of what we are about.

You have already told us about the individual roles in your business. How are formal decisions made? Is there someone in particular that is in charge of making decisions?

Well it depends on what the decision is. If it is a production issue then the 2 major guys who are responsible for production will probably make that decision or run it past the rest of us as well, if it is an administration decision, then it is probably my decision. But again it would be afterwards.

So there is not one person who has got a higher sort of say over all things?

Not at the moment.

No worries. Could you briefly walk us through the process of an order from an inquiry to the point of sale basically, once you have manufactured the boards?

It depends on which range you are talking about. If you are talking about the off the self range, it is pretty much a walk in off the street, this is the boards I want, with these graphics.

So, it’s pretty straight forward?

Yup, it’s pretty straight forward.

And that’s a fairly short time span?

Yup, we could probably have it done in 24 hours if we needed to. The custom design range is much more complex, in that, all the design parameters are up to the customer to change. In consultation with our design specialist who would obviously recommend, if they have gone beyond what they think is reasonable they would come back and say we need to look at this again. And turn around for that could anything up to 2 weeks, maybe even longer if it is fairly complex.

I guess, you sort of broadly mentioned that say for a couple of custom design that it could be about a 2 week turn around. Could we break that down and look at how much time is spent individually on each step?

Okay, yep. If we take it from the back to the front the production side, we can do that within about 3-4 days. Once everything is decided. So from that it’s obvious that the major time taken up is in the toing and froing in the design right. And that is probably our major area of concern right at the moment. The time table to do that process.

To do the design process?

Yep that’s right. That’s very inefficient at the moment.

And what sort of methods are you using with the toing and frowing is it just email or phone?

Could be email, could be come in off the street, could be phone, could be all 3 of them. Which takes people off the production side, which is what they should be doing. So, that is probably a major issue at the moment, we need to address that why I’ve asked you to come in, one of the major reasons I’ve asked you to come in to look at our system to see if you can improve that process.

Tours. Just a rough time about how long it takes to do a tour.

Usually, depends on how many there are, about an hour, there abouts. And that’s something we would like to address. We offer it because the customers will be spending a fair bit of money with us, so they can come and look what we do. But if we can address that issue in some way, to reduce that time or eliminate it possible then that would also be a bonus for us, to achieve that.

I guess you have probably already mentioned this already but, the next question is what areas are you currently having trouble with. Is there anything in addition to what you have already mentioned?

Ya, the other problem area we’ve got is the time and cost involved in sending out, mainly in our marketing, having to send out newsletters to our customers that’s very labor intensive and quite costly to do. We could improve that.

And you all do that yourselves?

Yes. We do that ourselves. I think the whole marketing effort could be improved significantly.

Who would you say is your target audience and how would you say they find out about the business? Is it only through the flyers that you hand out or are there other methods?

We do some advertising in the trade magazines. Our major contacts are essentially word of mouth at the moment. But that tends to be fairly local. We would like to expand the business out to the national level within the next 3 years or so if we could.

When you say local, is that like a few suburbs or within the state?

Within the State.

What do you believe is your most effective marketing strategy so far? I know you said you are not happy with them, but is there something that is working better?

Well certainly word of mouth works well for us at the moment. But that’s fairly limited obviously. That’s not going to address our issue of expansion we would like to undertake. So yes that is certainly working okay, but as you say, I think we could do the rest of it much more efficiently than we are at the moment, as far as cost and time are concerned.

Just regarding all of the enquiries that you take. Is there a system in place for recording the enquiries or is it just that they come in and you answer them and that’s it?

They just come in and we answer them as we can.

Okay, is this something that you think that your company might benefit from like some sort of recording system?

I think we certainly could, yep. Make sure none of them fall through the cracks and we miss people. That would be certainly worth looking at.

What would you sort of guess, what percentage of these enquires actually turn into orders? Is there any figures on that? Or what would you guess?

We think roughly between 30-40 percent. There abouts. We don’t really know is probably the chance. But, we think, gut feeling is about that figure.

With the tours, you said they can take about an hour, do you have set tour times? Or it just when someone wants to come it?

It’s pretty much by point, when we’ve got people available. We will set a time, we don’t have any set time.

And do you find that by giving someone a tour that is more likely to turn into an order?

It certainly does.

Okay, so a much higher percentage.

Ya, it is worth keeping in some form, but if we could stream line that in some way, that would be a benefit to us.

You have pretty much already answered the next question as to whether or not your method of handling enquires is time and cost effective. Pretty much thinking that it is not.

Probably not, no, that’s right.

Now you have talked a bit about your brochures as well, that it is a time and costly activity, how much time to you think is spent on developing the brochures and sending them off? Is there a sort of rough guide to that.

Probably about 20 percent of my time, I suspect, there abouts.

Are you the only person that works on them, the brochures?

Pretty much, ya, the others might lend a hand occasionally, but it is pretty much my responsibility.

And what sort of money would you spend on sending out on brochures, I assume you post them out and go and get a stamp and do all that?

It’s probably costing us about 400 dollars a month at the moment, to do it, as far as postage is concerned. That doesn’t include printing, and what that is, that is probably another 300 dollars a month. Or there abouts, roughly. So it is quite an expensive process. And that’s really not costing my time in it as well, probably.

Yep. In regards to having a presence on the web, you have mentioned something about ebay, I know you said something about ebay in the information that we received earlier, but have you considered a website or an online store at this point?

Ya, I don’t think there is anything about ebay, but..

Wasn’t there something? Am I the only one that recalls..

Ya no, I remember there was something about a couple of surf boards that were sold on ebay.

Yes, that is the only mention of a website.

I don’t know where that is but…

Ah well, anyway, anyway, we can forget about that. So have you considered a web site or online store?

Yes, we certainly have.

You have considered it. And where has that gone? Is it just a thought process?

That’s one of the reasons we have asked you to come and have a look.

Okay, so you haven’t actually, progressed with it, it is just something that you have discussed.

Ya, I know our competitors certainly have a web presence.

Yep. I think you have answered this in the email that we sent to you about documentation for the company, but, you obviously have got brochures. Are there anything else? Even to the point, are there business cards? Are there any forms at all that you use? Like how do you record an order that has come in?

We have got an order form that we normally use.

Yep, so there is an order form. And do you have like an invoicing system?

We have got an accounting package.

So this would probably be something you would want to incorporate into the web site?

Yep.

I’m assuming that there are no policies or procedures about anything that is done, you guys just do it.

Yep.

Is that something you might want help with like documenting some of that sort or stuff or not interested at this point?

At our account size and standard development it is probably not necessary at this point. We might have to look at it later on if things expand perhaps, but at this stage probably no.

Just on the issue or point of expanding, you want to expand your customer base do you also thing you might want to expand your staffing?

Possibly. If we work more efficiently we could probably stand a 20 percent growth with our current staff. Beyond that we would probably need to look at taking on some extra staff on the production side and may need to hire on administration as well, I suspect.

We have kind of assumed amongst ourselves that you would have your own graphic profile being in the design industry, do you have like a logo or a something along those lines that we could use on the website.

Ya we do. Yep.

Do you have a budget that amounts that you can put towards new systems and processes?

We budgeted at least for this stage of the process, we budgeted 15,000 dollars.

Okay, have you got that money, sort of allocated towards particular areas of the project or are you sort of leaving that to us?

We need to find out what is possible and cost involved and we would look at how to allocate that.

Okay. In terms of looking to the future and obviously wanting to expand, does that include wanting to expand the product range as well or are you just happy doing the surf boards that you are doing.

I think we are probably happy doing what we are doing at the moment. We might further down the track look at some clothing ranges and wet suites perhaps. But that’s a bit further down the track than where we are at the moment.

Not something you are interested in at the moment.

Not at the moment no.

And you have already mentioned about growth rate, sort of 12 months from now you wanted to go national and you are probably thinking that about 20% growth rate would be about right.

Uh-huh (agreeing)

Alright so that sums that up. Well is that anything else you think we should know that might help?

You have missed a few questions.

Ah, it printed the wrong way. Sorry about that. Take a step back. I was wondering about that question.

Do you currently have a computer that you use daily?

Yah, we have one computer, we use it for our accounting and our email and that’s about it.

So there is no specific software that anything like that, that you using, like to do with your designing or anything like that?

No.

So you have obviously got an internet connection.

Yes.

Okay, Is it in, I suppose with the budget, you might be able to include anything to do with the computer and upgrading and things like that if necessary?

Possibly. We need to look at that.

So you wouldn’t discount that, at this stage.

No.

The next question actually answers it, it’s the same question. Would it be yourself to handle the date management of an online system. Is that something that you see yourself being able to do, you know, once we were to get something up and running.

Oh well, I don’t know, we would need to look at that. That is a whole set of other issues that we haven’t thought about yet.

In terms of staffing?

In terms of running, if it’s a website, we don’t have any house expertise on doing that.

Okay.

We would need to look into how that is managed.

Okay so you would be happy for us to possible look into some training once the system is up and running?

Possibly.

Do you have a wish list of improvements that you would like to see, some point in the future, you know, if we could put money issues aside, and things like that, is there a wish list for your business?

Well being able to address our current issues, we see as very important to us, and flying from that I suspect we could do our national marketing much more efficiently as well. I suspect that would be a major area we would want to look at.

No worries. Can I go to the last question now?

The design process. The major concern is the design and given the to and fro that you have to go through with the client. I would like to find out a little more about that process. You said you had complex designs, I was wondering if you had some software that users could interact at the moment that could be adapted to …

No not at the moment. It’s all done by hand. By hand and by Eye, which is probably not satisfactory, because obviously it’s very hard to put on to some sort of website, but that is how we currently do it. Whether that is possible to incorporate that in to some sort of web site I’m not sure. That would be your job to do for us.

It would help with the communication with the client.

Yep, that’s right.

So yeah, is there anything else that we haven’t discussed that is relevant, that you believe is relevant?

Eh, I don’t think so, you guys probably covered pretty well.

Are we able to contact you by email if we have missed anything?

Yes.

Has anybody else got any questions?

I don’t.

Okay.

Alright, Thanks for your time.

Okay.

Thanks Tim.

There is one important question you missed….

-End- 17:54

The purpose of this report is to update members of ‘The Team from Booming Businesses!’ and our client “Bad Designs’ on progress made towards achieving project objectives (scope of the project) that meet the needs of our clients.


Members from the surfboard design and manufacturing business ‘Bad Designs’ contacted ‘The Team from Booming Businesses!’ to consider and propose a solution to a problem they have in dealing with clients and inquiries in a time and cost effective manner.

‘The Team from Booming Businesses!’ contacted ‘Bad Designs’ via email on Thursday 11th August requesting a time and date to meet. We also requested copies of policies/ procedures, brochures/ flyers, enquiry or other forms in order to prepare for the meeting.

Consequently a meeting was arranged for Monday 5th September at 2.00pm.

Using company background information and the Problem/Opportunity Statement, interview objectives were established and a questionnaire prepared. This proposed questionnaire was supplied to deleted of ’Bad Designs’ prior to the meeting.


‘BAD Designs’ is a new business starting up. 5 friends from school started building and spraying surfboards, they made their own boards and made some for friends, a couple have been sold on Ebay. They have developed a good reputation as builders and sprayers in their local market, but inquiries are now coming from the other side of town, interstate and even overseas. The current manufacturing environment is a garage/shed.

One of the founding members was the runner up in the Auzzy Grommet Surf Championship.

Just recently they have had an influx of requests for the designs of surfboards, however it is taking a long time to design the boards, and not so many have turned into orders. In addition the costs associated with printing and postage of brochures is becoming overwhelming, they seem to be sending lots out but getting very few orders.

Their reputation is spreading but the team is not well known outside their local area, they seem to spend a lot of time on the phone describing their manufacturing processes, or taking uncertain clients on factory tours.

Generally there are a lot more inquiries coming through, but only a few more orders.


'BAD Designs' cannot efficiently handle the quantity of general enquiries that are arriving on a daily basis. They need a means that enables prospective clients to self service themselves in the area of surfboard design and brochure/info distribution.


1. Understand / outline of the business organisation. (Staff structure/ staff roles/ outsourcing/ hierarchy/ who will we be dealing with.)
2. To understand how things are presently done. (Main processes/ how they deal with customers/ surfboard design process/ sales process.)
3. Identify current documentation. (eg brochures/ forms/ written policies and procedures.)
4. Identify users of the system and how they interact with the system. (Target audience/ demographic/ how do they make contact/ time spent with customers)
5. What is in and out of scope? (budget/ hardware & software/ network topography.)
6. Identify current problems and inefficiencies as perceived by management. (current online identity – eg Ebay & Facebook?/ brochures – time & cost/ enquiries – how?/ factory tours – photos?/ surfboard design – process?.)
7. To identify what they NEED (as opposed to what they WANT). (What are the Urgent problems.)
8. To understand what they WANT (as opposed to what they NEED). (What do they see as improvements?)
9. Identify future opportunities for the business. (Expanding product range/ have they considered a website?)
10. Understand how the system should look in the future. (How do you see your business evolving in the short and long term?)
11. To identify if all relevant information has been disclosed. (to check that there isn’t something we’ve missed – that we now know ALL relevant information.)


The full complement of members from ‘The Team from Booming Businesses!’ met with deleted who is the main administrative person at ‘Bad Designs’. As a result we have a somewhat better idea of the scope of the project. There are however still areas that need clarification.

A transcript of the interview is available. (see Appendix)


Reduce the time it takes to negotiate with customers on the design of a custom board.
Development of internal documentation, Deemed unnecessary at this stage.
Improve the marketing of the business at a national level and increase sales by 20%,
Expanding the product line. Not at this time. Further down the track.
Improve the system for supplying brochures The system is not time or cost effective,
Develop a website/invoicing/online store.
Improve the system of dealing with inquiries because it’s taking people of production.
Reduce, streamline or eliminate the time it takes to do factory tours.
Eliminate the need to send newsletters.
Develop a system to record enquiries.
Investigate incorporating the board selection and design process into an online system.


Informal organisation at this point in time. 5 equal owners. Roles divided into: admin/sales, design and manufacture.

Decisions are made on the spot by the people in each area, then passed by the others though I expect major decisions will be made jointly.

Standard designs are purchased off the shelf with selected graphics. With custom design boards there are many parameters and the sales process may take 2 weeks or more – this is a major concern. Actual production takes 3-4 days. There is no web presence.

Currently most referrals are word of mouth with some result from advertising in trade magazines. Sending out brochures takes 20%+ of administration time and costs $400/month but turn into 30-40% orders. Factory tours are by appointment as needed. These tours help increase sales.

The time it takes with customers to produce a custom board is a major concern. The company needs a better way to negotiate with clients over complex designs.

Enquiries are dealt with by whoever is available and they feel they need a better system.

They also wish to improve their marketing effort on the national level..


There is a brochure with a logo but no other documentation. Design programs/software is not used at all in the production of boards.

The business has one computer and an internet connection. They are unsure if they have in-house skills to maintain a website.

The business hopes that increased efficiencies and better marketing will lead to a 20% increase in business within 12 months. They have the infrastructure to cope with this.


Clarification is required in some aspects of the design brief.

Firstly, ‘Bad Designs’ have expressed a desire for “clients to self service themselves in the area of surfboard design”. However, there is no documentation/software program used in the production of standard or complex design of the boards. The professional development of self-service design software would be a major budget component of the project. Any e-commerce implementation will also depend on such developments. Unfortunately, there was little discussion about these requirements. Therefore further discussion with ‘Bad Designs’ will be needed.

Secondly, it is unclear if a ‘Bad Designs’ team member will be available to assist in the design process or to acquire the skills to maintain the system in the future. These decisions will impact on the costs of the project.

Lastly, we have no indication of the client expectations on a timeline for this project. Pending further clarification of requirements and a feasibility study we should in any case not commit to a timeframe for completion.


Key Personnel and Contact Details:

deleted

Scheduling Requirements: Not known at this stage. (We need more information from a feasibility study and about our client’s expectations.)

Budget: ‘Bad Designs’ has allocated $15,000 towards the project but they need more information on what is possible.

The Questionnaire: see separate document”<refer deleted>”

Transcript of Interview: see separate document “<refer deleted>”

Just read through the report, good work gert nothing i can think to add!