[{"_1":2,"_67":-5,"_68":-5},"loaderData",{"_3":4,"_37":38,"_65":-5,"_66":-5},"root",{"_5":-5,"_6":-5,"_7":8,"_22":-5,"_23":24,"_25":26,"_29":30,"_35":36},"user","shoppingCartId","shoppingCart",{"_9":10,"_11":12,"_13":14,"_15":16,"_17":18,"_19":20,"_21":14},"id","no-cart","count",0,"free",true,"updatedAt","2026-01-27T10:45:03.856Z","paymentGateway","STRIPE","cartItems",[],"loading","toast","locale","en","constants",{"_27":28},"paypalClientId","AX53Cwz8jR6rVVzzZiZNWWXl0dGagi-GZrjG-S3Ua14E5nrKMn7DxDQ730O4R8LusLPp49ALn6aRVaEy","publishers",{"_31":32,"_33":34},"companies",[],"universities",[],"needsLocaleCookieSync",false,"routes/_store+/_readers+/email_author.$slug/route",{"_39":40,"_64":-5},"book",{"_9":41,"_42":43,"_44":45,"_46":47,"_48":49,"_50":51},"Z2lkOi8vbGVhbnB1Yi9TdG9yZTo6Qm9va1Byb2R1Y3QvNzM4MQ","title","The Unknown Unknowns","state","unpublished","contactAuthorMethod","email","aboutText","

\"What do you want?\" the suited and booted consultant asked again, with a hint of annoyance creeping into his tone.

\"We dont know...\" muttered a few of the stakeholders nervously from behind the solid oak boardroom table.

The consultant sighed, it was a sigh he had emitted far too many times in his career.

He dimmed the boardroom lights with one of the plethora of gadgets laid out before him and with a deft flick of a switch the projector screen slid slowly and ominously down from the ceiling behind me. Despite the subdued lighting he could see clearly the fog of requirements despair engulfing the minds of the attendees; the attendees that had gathered here today to talk about the requirements for their new IT solution. The problem they were trying to solve was clear to everyone present, but that was where the clarity ended.

The consultants desktop appeared at the front of the room on the huge projector screen, it was in glorious Technicolor; several virtual machines could imperceptibly be heard whirring into life as the consultant started up his demo screen.

It was difficult for any of the attendees to really fathom what happened in the next hour; the consultant proceeded to show them exactly what they thought they wanted, but that we now know they really didn't need.

An hour later and they had bought it all, every last shiny feature that the consultant showed them transformed into a business requirement that their organisation would depend upon for its success…

Three months later pretty much all the features they had so desperately wanted lay unused within the desolate confines of their would-be perfect solution that no-one really wanted…

This scenario is played out every day in organisations of every size in every sector across the globe, led by expensive consultants or internal IT teams and across countless technologies…

…and it pisses me off, it’s got to stop!

Why the hell do we waste so much time and effort delivering technically brilliant crap [solutions] that no-one actually wants?

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