In the last couple of columns, I’ve been discussing work in process (WIP), the size of tasks, how we complete certain types of tasks, and who or what might interrupt us. Perhaps it’s time to understand the consumers of our tasks: our customers.

Whenever we do something, even if it’s simply relaxing, there is a potential beneficiary of that task. We do things. Those things we loosely call “work.” Work has a “work product.” Work products should have some value for somebody. That somebody is the customer.

Customers can include:
• Those paying money for the work (the traditional customer)
• Our bosses (corporate hierarchy)
• Colleagues, co-workers, and partners (corporate culture)
• Regulators or agents of an authority (bureaucracy)
• Family
• Friends and neighbors (society)
• Ourselves

And there are likely other customers and subdivisions of these customers. If you’re doing things that have no value to anyone, why are you doing them? To limit our WIP, we need to make sure we’re doing the right thing. But even if we know it’s the right task, are we doing it right? 

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