Generation Y

Last week we had a quarterly meeting at Info Support. One of the presentations warned us about a new generation of people entering our workforce, and the workforce of our clients.

Generation Y is a term used for people born between the late 1970’s  and the late 1990’s. They typically make a lot of use of, and are very familiar with communications, media, and digital technologies. They’ve been called “self-absorbed, entitled or even narcissistic”.

Lindsey Pollak is not that pessimistic. She concludes “Yes, those Gen Y-ers are a little different than the rest of us. But I assure you the benefits of having one (or more) by your side are well worth the difference.”
Read her post on five reasons why she loves her Gen Y Assistant.

As Requirements Specifiers It is good to take a look at the list as Lindsey concludes:

– They bring up things that never occured to other people (that might be good news, and it might introduce some new risks in your project)
– They are techier (very familiar with the latest technologies and trends, so they might expect that kind of functionality in the system you’re specifying)
– They understand personal branding (and thereby they might more than other stakeholders wish to have there name connected to your project, or not)
– They are not really into 9 to 5 (so they answer there emails at midnight, and might appreciate you doing the same)
– They have a lot of energy (and all of you know what a good product champion can do for your project)

In the light of agile development with the customer on your side, I expect it will be great fun pairing with a Gen Y customer !