Opinions Matter, Share Yours

I am sitting in my Boss's Boss's office with 10 people that I don't know very well. Not yet at least. I'm wondering why I have been included in this meeting, We're discussing whether or not the organization's new ticketing system will work for our little branch. I'm not an expert in ticketing systems. Not yet. I don't even know that they are referred to as IT Service Management (ITSM) systems. Not yet... You see this is May of 2010 and I've only been working as a help desk analyst since January. Fresh after graduation. This job has already lasted longer than I expected. The Broadband USA help desk was only setup to support grant writers for 60 day. Then me and the other temp workers were going to be released. However, I had apparently done better than expected because I was promoted to a Tier 2 agent within a couple of weeks. Once I began working other tickets, I decided to share my process notes with all the other agents to improve consistency across the desk. Unbeknownst to me, another of the Tier 2 agents, Peter who had more experience than me, had already been assigned training on the org's new ticketing system to determine what impacts it might have on our branch. But since the project was expected to be so short he found a position with another company. Suddenly, because of my initiative in writing up process documentation, I was handed Peter's notes and asked to spend an hour out of each day testing the new system and writing up an instruction manual for our agents. So, after a month working in both systems, here I am, in an office full of seasoned professionals discussing the fate of the new ticketing system. Myself and a few others present feedback on the new system and it's expected impact on our Branch's help desk. Mostly, it's what you would expect out of a ticket system, but there is one major sticking point, the team implementing the new system has decided to only allow employees and contractors to be the only "customers" that can be related to a ticket. You see, the Org's ticketing system was intended to support the internal-only help desk... and as eliminating support for our entirely public-facing help desk. For the next 60 minutes we discuss the virtues and shortcomings of both the existing and future systems. We brainstorm potential solutions and workarounds, such as developing our own ticketing system or simply entering the customer's name into the description field. We complain about the audacity of the project team, how could they fail to think of our use case. We establish a solid understanding of the situation, but come to no consensus on the 'Go'/'No-Go' question. As I sit there, still wondering what value my manager could have possibly thought I might've been able to contribute to this meeting full of seasoned professionals, Bob, my Boss's Boss, states what seems obvious to me, "We haven't really come to a clear consensus. Let's take a quick survey before we end. I'm going to go around the room and ask each of you to for your recommendation, 'Go' or 'No-Go'." I am sitting right next to Bob, so I formulate my answer in an instant! But thankfully, he starts around the room in the other direction. So I get to hear everyone else's answers before I have to speak up. A funny thing happens. An unexpected consensus develops! I get a crystal clear insight into the minds of others. I am stunned as person after person responds with variations on "It's up to you, Bob," "It's your call, Bob," and "Whatever you think, Bob." There are some explanations and posturing, but nothing that might be confused with 'picking a side'. I begin to question my prepared answer. I have almost zero experience working in an environment like this... If these seasoned professionals are refraining from giving a clear answer, there must be a good reason for it... I watch Bob. Bob is a great leader; he knows it's up to him. Even I can see that this advice is not what he's looking for. He doesn't need to be reassured that he is in charge. He KNOWS he's responsible for this decision. He simply wants to get a clear understanding of how this decision will impact his team. Not one person made their opinion clear. Then I was my turn. "I'm a NO-GO. The Customer issue is too big of a hurdle for our team to deal with on a daily basis. If the new system can be re-worked to easily work with public customers, then it would be fine. Until then, I can't recommend it. We would be better off creating a fully customized ticketing system for our branch than to deal with the daily hassle of working around the customer issue." In that instant I know that I had made the right call. What I don't realize is how much this moment will define my entire career. In the weeks after that meeting, a new project was spun up to build that customized ticketing system for our help desk. A Technical Writer position was created specifically for me. And I got to know those 10 people very well as we built out that ticketing system into a powerhouse of a tool that served the entire organization. I've now spent 15 years designing and developing ITSM systems for large organizations. At this point, I am comfortable in saying that I am now an expert in "ticketing systems". That expertise started with one vocalized opinion. An opinion that this expert would still give today.