At the kickoff meeting of a new project I witnessed a depressingly common phenomenon. The useless business introduction. Since some of us didn’t know each other, we went around the room introducing ourselves.
“Frankie Bellomer, Marketing.”
“Jackie Bouillabaisse.”
“Alex Alexis, IT.”
etc…
This is next to useless. How about something about what you do, or what role you play in the project?
“I’m Frankie Bellomer. I’m going to driving the final look and feel of this, as well as aligning it with our other marketing pieces.”
“Jackie Bouillabaisse, Product. I’ll be figuring out exactly what this thing does, similar to project so-and-so.”
“Alex Alexis. My team will actually build the product, so I’m here to make sure the specs are technically possible.”
etc…
In a few of these meetings I’ve ignored convention and explained who I am, with the idea that someone who doesn’t know me might actually get some useful information. But since no one else does it, I mostly look like an egotistical blowhard.