Comments on: Whale Hunting as a Metaphor for Landing Large Accounts http://www.thematrixfiles.net/blog/whale-hunting/ a blog by Joanna Pineda, CEO, Matrix Group Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:21:41 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: Dudley Krutsch http://www.thematrixfiles.net/blog/whale-hunting/comment-page-1/#comment-3454 Dudley Krutsch Mon, 14 Jun 2010 08:09:15 +0000 http://www.thematrixfiles.net/?p=844#comment-3454 Great post, I will save this post in my Propeller account. Have a great evening. Great post, I will save this post in my Propeller account. Have a great evening.

]]> By: Matt Taylor http://www.thematrixfiles.net/blog/whale-hunting/comment-page-1/#comment-1380 Matt Taylor Thu, 21 May 2009 13:22:33 +0000 http://www.thematrixfiles.net/?p=844#comment-1380 Thanks for sharing the analogy Joanna. I can see my team psyching each other up before a new business pitch with cheers of "Who are we?!", "We're whale hunters!". Thanks for sharing the analogy Joanna. I can see my team psyching each other up before a new business pitch with cheers of “Who are we?!”, “We’re whale hunters!”.

]]> By: Tim Griesbach http://www.thematrixfiles.net/blog/whale-hunting/comment-page-1/#comment-1379 Tim Griesbach Thu, 21 May 2009 12:38:28 +0000 http://www.thematrixfiles.net/?p=844#comment-1379 Just be ready for a ride! Having been a part of several "whale hunting" expeditions from a exec position on technical side, have seen both good and bad (and there are alot of bads). First - you must be ready for the ride and know the end will not likely be what you expected at the start. This is not bad, unless you are one who is inflexible or fearful of change. Also what helps is having a "champion" within the customer who is almost a visionary. This is important because with a small company this person is more likely to be able to heavily influence the result than if they purchased from a larger corp. The negative is the high likelihood this will change the small businesses plan. It can be very hard for the small business to not give in to many demands/changes which come with all BIG projects. Also these "whales" tend to come with the legacy waterfall approach to development (we have 1000 reqs we need met, and expect you to meet them all by date NN). Overall, these can be hard decisions initially. No doubt the $ and customer name are hard to ignore (and in some cases should not be ignored). But for these same reasons these factors can cloud your vision and lead to poor overall decisions. Just be ready for a ride! Having been a part of several “whale hunting” expeditions from a exec position on technical side, have seen both good and bad (and there are alot of bads).

First - you must be ready for the ride and know the end will not likely be what you expected at the start. This is not bad, unless you are one who is inflexible or fearful of change. Also what helps is having a “champion” within the customer who is almost a visionary. This is important because with a small company this person is more likely to be able to heavily influence the result than if they purchased from a larger corp. The negative is the high likelihood this will change the small businesses plan. It can be very hard for the small business to not give in to many demands/changes which come with all BIG projects. Also these “whales” tend to come with the legacy waterfall approach to development (we have 1000 reqs we need met, and expect you to meet them all by date NN).

Overall, these can be hard decisions initially. No doubt the $ and customer name are hard to ignore (and in some cases should not be ignored). But for these same reasons these factors can cloud your vision and lead to poor overall decisions.

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