Procurement

Hi folks, this is all things product with Petra Villa and Theresa course. And we're so happy. your hair Teresa I'm by the look of you face again already tell you cranky. So what happened today that you in such a mood?

I heard it has something to do with procurement processes. I'm tired. i really want to like give up and just retire. That's where am at Today Don't.

Please don't! Yeah, I think i'm talking to seven different companies about a one-hour speaking engagement. One of them has been delightful. they Didn't require vendor setup.

They put my fee on a credit card. we scheduled it for two weeks out. I'm giving the talk. It's amazing.

Six of them. It's been like a full time job Like...one of them..I am not exaggerating wanted me to sign an eighty page ethics policy For a one-hour engagement not to mention they all have like forty page master service agreements.

And here's what I hate. Like someone reaches out to me and they're like, hey will you give it talk? And i'm like yeah before I quote you at price Let's talk about what you need from me. Yeah Am I showing up in giving a one hour talk or is there more to it than that?

It's like when company was like no we just want you to show Up and Give A One Hour Talk. I go great. so then I send them a proposal. It goes to legal for four weeks.

We're now like a week before the talk, I still don't have assigned agreement. I haven't invoiced, I require upfront payment. Nothing's done because their legal team has been stuck with it. then they come back and their vendor process takes forever And basically i'm just like...

I can't do this. we are going to cancel the event. And then they think that I'm. the problem like this is what drives me nuts Is like, I'm in the prima donna because I won't do twenty hours of work for a one-hour engagement Okay.

And they don't want to pay you for the twenty hours prep work, right? Otherwise it would be okay maybe. and then here's no cuz I Don't want this to my life. like yeah Read legal documents and read your company's ESG policy which I great.

that's great for your company. Like i'm giving a one-hour event It's virtual. there is no ESG impact whatsoever Right! Um...

like its just getting absurd And I don't, want to do it anymore. Like companies now reach out and ask me for a speaking engagement? My reaction is that if we use my paperwork so you literally sign my agreement... and pay by credit card.

then there's no vendor set up! They lie about what they want from you. Like I'm really clear, like a one hour talk. so on this day i am going to show up for an hour and then go.

well we will need half-an-hour early to make sure your tech works okay? We need seven minutes to make my tech work. yes One Then two! They want me record a promo video that can share it with everyone.

Okay thats fairly easy Im happy to do that. Then they want in half-and-hours meet & greet where just tell them about their company which I don't get, like your company's big. It gets well-known and i know about. you're a company that'll do my homework on the professional.

then they want Like A run of show a week beforehand where literally give them talk for tech event people. Okay now are... You just wanted me to show up in an hour turned into three hours Where two of those hours are a colossal waste time! I am gonna quit.

That is all right Matt? I'm going to quit But Can I, what do you see here Teresa? So does that mention a little cranky today. Yeah You did.

the thing is i'm observing the exact same things so only if people are wondering If it's only Teresa. now It's not. i'm stuck in procurement processes as well. i currently have one where i Have to fill out twelve open word document forms Which were i am filling In the exact Same information and each one of these documents and I can see why they're exposing the old structure.

One is for Procurement Department, another is for Legal Department." And then always like okay AI's just around a corner to save us all... and companies still live in late nineties with their procurement processes. so that's reality.

we are exposed too. but what i wanted to highlight this thing might be helpful people that are currently listening to. So if you're wondering why your company is not doing such things, like bringing in an expert and having this training sessions or having an internal product community of practice? That might be the root cause.

so your procurement processes might be hindering. If you work at a company where you were told I was coming to speak and it got canceled last minute. I'm gonna tell you, its because your legal team couldn't review my contract in time for the speaking of it. And this is wild right?

On the other hand what really drives me crazy about that is in product. we design Experiences right. we design the user experience and a customer experience of course with the help Of all our amazing colleagues. cross-functional blah, blah.

Blah you know the drill It's not only to product person. So it's not about roles here but in general somebody does design Processes and experiences And I think We should consider all processes and experiments experiences that the company basically Delivers and that includes vendor experience, because all of that has brand impact for example. So I think that is the learning for product people here. consider these even procurement processes that you're having?

Because maybe you currently don't want to resuspeak at your organization but i bet you purchasing...I don't know AI subscriptions or whatever it actually is and that might take ages as well with the procurement process that you got. Okay, you brought up AI so I'm gonna go there too. I'm talking to another company where they want to use our AI coaches but To get approved for AI tools They have to go through their security team.

Oh, okay? I get it security as a nightmare. I fully respect these teams and they need to understand their exposure. Mm-hmm completely willing to play along.

Ok i cannot express how much i am not exaggerating. I received a word doc that has about eight hundred security questions. Now, what's worse is their repetitive? I think i was asked seventeen times on the forum whether or not use MFA in different tools.

they could have just ask me Is there any tool where MFA isn't being used? but no you had to ask it seventeen time sometimes even as for this same too right like. But are we looking at AI slop Questions already? maybe I don't think because nobody can get a review process.

Okay, so like I go back and forth for six weeks over email apparently my answers to their eight hundred questions are adequate. So there's a lot of things on. they're that like i didn't do it good job answering. i will be totally up front about that.

And thats cuz im not security expert. when you ask me questions What's the encryption algorithm being used by AWS on a DynoDB table? It turns out I don't know. But, i can tell you that it is encrypted by default at rest and that seems like its dyno db is an aws service well known which should be good enough.

but they needed me to google the exact algorithm. so... So then we go, really I just ask Claude. We think were close.

so you have two outstanding items and the two outstanding item are monitoring and penetration testing. okay great here's what i can do. for monitoring. I'll turn on guard duty.

that is AWS' monitoring service. I got penetration test like total deal breaker small company don't a lot of exposure. I'm not collecting sensitive data. they're ok.

let us to call. So we get on the call and I'm expecting that. We're going to talk about penetration testing mm-hmm. That is not what he talked about.

The guy was totally unprepared. He's looking at this eight hundred question paper, but it has printed out And he goes. i just have a couple questions for you. i go okay?

He goes do use mfa. i Go on which account? like You've already asked me This question forty times And he Goes On Your aws admin Account And I'm like, can i look through the paper you're looking at and point where? I've answered that seven times already.

I felt Like it was in the office space that stupid movie like hedgehog day. not believe I could Not believe. That's what we got on a call for because I had already Answered It like seventeen Times. and then his next question Was do You recycle your password every ninety Four days?

and I said no he goes. well that's our company policy. and I Said I understand don't work At Your Company He Goes. okay.

I guess i'll have to note that as a security risk. Like, That was it! We never talked about monitoring. we never talked About penetration testing.

For some reason this company is like super focused on MFA and recycled passwords And me answering that question Seventeen times in a google doc wasn't adequate...we had To get on the call. This my life..and I hate It....

I am literally going to quit. I'm not gonna do any work with companies ever again. When people want to know why, it's because of this. That is by the way where I think startups were so successful at first place that they didn't care and just moved quickly.

So some companies will be outperformed. Yeah! If you wanna hire me on a credit card then there are no paperwork whatsoever. otherwise i'm gonna enjoy my outdoor lifestyle here in Bend Oregon.

Yeah, I loved it. I have two price tiers for companies were expect and by the way It has nothing to do with a size of the organization. i Have big corporate clients where its basically handshake deals. somebody looks you in The eye And say like we're doing this?

And then You're doing This and they paying it. so there is Nothing going sideways. it's Just easy peasy lemon squeezy. And then you have mid-sized companies where you think like, okay this will be a piece of cake and it's not because they have all the procurement and acceptance gates.

So I don't necessarily think that has to do with the size of the company but big corporates who have these processes are the ones always using corporate culture as an excuse. But that is not the case! Not a problem at all. They set up really as an organism, so smaller teams can actually do things and make holds and hold budgets."

This is like bureaucracy - like the definition of bureaucracy - and I kind understand how companies get here. Adverse events happen. they add little more process something else happens. it had a little more progress uh...

I get. but also i'll tell you about another company in working with that contacted us three weeks ago. They have their pants on fire, urgent for training. They want us to come do a training in person and then they're gonna follow-on coaching."

And I said okay all of this is great but we require upfront payment to travel. We will not incur risks if getting paid If were spending out of pocket. Can you get that done? This is giant company!

He's like yes my CEO was onboard with the training. he'll get it through. So they have all these procurement processes in place that normally, the only pay net ninety. It takes like four months to get through their legal review process.

we're getting it done in ten days because of CEOs on board and so what I'm learning is this also tells me how much poll does my contact having no organization? How important Is This To The Organization? And if you want Like How Much Impact Is My Talk Gonna Have? Or How Much impact Does This Training Gonna Have?

I also am just at the point where i don't know how much i care anymore. Like, this can't be my life and some people listening might be like well why don't you hire somebody? It doesn't work that way! We all tried it multiple times.

every system is unique. everything breaks in its own unique way. deal with negotiating a contract. I'm certainly not paying a lawyer seven hundred dollars an hour to negotiate these contracts, like...

I just will say no to the work." Yeah and that is sad because people could use your help Teresa but yeah- And they totally get mad! I totally agree with you. it's Balox Do how many of them go?

what? You don't want this. we wanna pay you. We wanna hire ya'.

I am like. No you dont really Ya You wanna pay me for one. fourtyth my engagement Ya Ya No Can't do that And it is getting increasingly worse. This is a giant rant and I apologize for that, but...

It's funny! i don't usually have like seven contracts in process at the same time. Everybody wants speaking engagements right now For whatever reason. That Is, I'm not sure why that is.

Um..and I Have A Whole Bunch In Like Six Of The Seven Are Hainists. um....And I think I just want to quit- And Im Not Quite Quitting, I'M Very Vocally Quitting.

Yeah No, quite quitting is not our thing. I love it! Thanks to Risa for sharing your run and perspective...I think its still valuable!