That is all. The BOM I work with always asks me, “What’s the deliverable?” Is this a new B School Buzz word that wasn’t around back when I went?
Well, I guess that’s another entry to the list of “things hated by CFAvsMBA”: 1. Duckface 2. “In this economy” 3. The ghetto 4. Congress 5. transferPricingCFA/soppi 6. Hard work 7. Democrats 8. ???
^ respect. I have no probelm with the ghetto, I just don’t like ghetto folks. If pro is the opposit of con, what is the opposit of congress? Hard work, ha! I work hard, but I would love to hang it all up. I don’t need HCB like Frankie does. I’m happy killing OE800 and eating KFC. Dems and repubs, dey all the same. I’m an honest conservative. Less is more. I should stop using AF as my anger outlet.
I needed a simple favor of Fx spot rates for a variety of currencies while I zip off to a satelitte office. I get a email to my BBerry asking “What’s the deliverable?” I was about to say “Etch A Sketch it and have a courier deliver it without fugging it up!”, but I didn’t. Just get the fuggin fx rates and email them to me. Kids these days.
Maybe you shouldn’t talk in jive when you’re asking people for things. What’s the deliverable is just a nice way of saying “what exactly do you want because your email makes no effing sense.”
Let’s form a thought committee, find some synergies, and come up with some action items.
I dislike most bizspeak, but “deliverable” is one of the better terms. It means “please define what I need to give you to make you shut up and be satisfied.” If you can’t make I concrete, then the guy you’re asking it from doesn’t really have something to do.
That’s so funny. I just had my resume written and she put, “Ensures deliverables meet expectations”. I was wondering what that ish meant, I guess its the new slang. Kinda like, “That shit cray.”
I always thought it was a consulting term, but maybe not. But the deliverable from that perspective is basically what we are presenting to the client (e.g,. report, presentation, flowchart, etc.).
Deliverable is certainly not a new bizspeak word. It’s been around at least 15 years.
It is.
Some words or phrases are just intrinsically douchey. “Deliverable” is just one of those made up words that some people think is trendy, but that got annoying after a while. You could easily use a different word, or even better, say exactly what you want: “what should we present to the client?”, rather than use some synthetic douche… uh “biz” speak that was probably coined by some NYU professor in a moment of unusually high self satisfaction.
I think it’s good to have a single word that means “this is the thing that you need to produce and/or do and give to the client by a particular date/time.” Deliverable is that word.
I agree, though, that it sounds awfully jargony. Like saying “hematoma” instead of “bruise.” I like having the word, but I wouldn’t mind at all finding a different one that functions in its place.
I’m with Ohai. If one of my colleagues wants something, I just say “what EXACTLY do you want”
Also, I don’t think hematoma and bruise are technically the same thing. But none of us here are medical doctors, so that’s neither here nor there.
How is “What do you need?” and “What is the deliverable?” different?
I don’t think I should have to dumb myself done when speaking to colleagues. Not sure how anyone can think the word “deliverable” is high brow? I mean we’re not a bunch of construction guys swinging hammers whistling at hot soccer moms.
^ No but some of us are Canadian BSD CFAs who holla at Hot Classy Babes.
Rant over. I use AF as my anger outet too much.
What is the difference between “this year, I was quite profitable” and " this year, I made it rain"? One is just worse.
Q: What do you need?
A: I need someone to hold me tight at night and make me feel everything is going to be alright.
Q: I’m busy. What’s the deliverable?
A: A couple of strippers should do the trick.
The advantage of “deliverable” is that deliverable needs to be defined, and there’s an implicit contract that says that the transaction is over when the deliverable is delivered (and payment made or obligation canceled). To get something more requires negotiating a different deliverable.
“What do you need” is more amorphous, and it doesn’t demand definition. In consulting, it’s very important to define the deliverable, because otherwise the client is going to keep falling back on what they need, and their needs are never satisfied. Each time you define a deliverable, you define a contract and a payment. If you stick with needs, your work may never end, but your payment stream might, because needs don’t end, while budgets do. If you stick with deliverables, your payment stream and your workloads are more firmly connected.
It’s fine to say “What do you need,” instead of “What’s the deliverable” as long as both parties turn the need into a concrete task that, once delivered, means the transaction was a success, or at least completed.
BChad, as long as the person on the other end subscribes to your contractual definition of “deliverable” I think that is a fine point. Otherwise, I recommend you draw up a contract and/or at least put it in writing, anyway.
Usually people are looking for something specific. If we have a prospect that I’m pitching I will never say “what is the deliverable”, I will say “what is the prospect looking to do?” Deliverable is not a high-brow word. If you say “interpolate” or “positive roll yield” or some other technical or GRE-ready term, fine. Deliverable just smacks of bureaucracy.