Cut Short - Literally

I went to a new barber this weekend. I was as nervous as if I were sitting for an exam - because there’s uncertainty, and you have to live with the outcome.

I tried giving very specific instructions about how I wanted my hair cut and how I wanted to look. But as I was doing that, the barber scolded me - apparently, what I said wasn’t coherent with how he had planned to cut my hair.

That was a first. Every other time, I had to just give a rough idea, and the barber would do his best to make it work.

That’s what the service industry is about, right? Serving your customers to the best of your ability, understanding their needs, and figuring out what’s best for them.

In today’s world, you can call that being user-first.

Since transitioning to a new role, I’ve been trying to learn this - how to be user-first, how to empathize. The user may not communicate well, may be aggressive, or may be incoherent. But as the one serving them, it’s your job to understand them and their pain points-not to correct them to fit within the scope of your current services and solutions.