For those who are unfamiliar with the format, Property Ladder is a long-running British television programme in which property expert and online dating magnate Sarah Beeny attempts to guide novice developers through the process of renovating a dilapidated home for profit.
A typical show will feature a couple who have recently purchased a promising but run-down house which they plan to rebuild, refurbish and sell on at a healthy markup. They stand against a backdrop of peeling plaster and outline their vision for the property, while Ms Beeny listens politely. When they’re finished she will ask them about their proposed budget and timescale, both of which are invariably wildly optimistic.
What’s interesting is what Ms Beeny then does not do. She doesn’t simply note down the couple’s ideas, do some drawings, go off and talk to some tradesmen and then come back with a quote, asking the couple what they wish to reconsider.
Instead she probes the couple’s real motivators – do they want to rent out the property or sell it? Might they live in it themselves? What logic lies behind their original plan? She then uses her experience as a developer to suggest better solutions which maximise the potential of the property – enlarging boxrooms to create bedrooms, controlling expenditure on bathrooms and kitchens, choosing decor tailored towards the target market for that type of dwelling.
If you’re involved in the world of software product development then you may have already spotted the parallels here. As a profession we are regularly faced with clients or colleagues whose vision matches neither their available resources nor their true business needs. We are not helping them if we simply accept their ‘requirements’, passively note them down and then pass them on for estimation, before coming back to talk about ‘descoping’. Instead we should try to understand their fundamental problems and use our knowledge and experience to help them find more affordable and appropriate solutions.
Of course the most entertaining aspect of the show is that the property owners often ignore Ms Beeny’s sage advice, falling in love with Italian marble floors, plate glass walls, cast iron baths and other dazzling architectural innovations not necessarily compatible with turning around a terraced property in Rotherham within two months before unloading it onto a cash-conscious young family. During the long property boom of the noughties the rising market had a frustrating habit of rescuing the budding real estate tycoons, but latterly the financial consequences of building the wrong thing have become more perilous. In other types of development they almost invariably are.
Posted on May 1, 2011
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