It’s conference proposal season, and I have recently had a proposal rejected from XP 2009 entitled “Your Agile Sales Approach Sucks”. The tutorial focuses on the difference between a simple and complex sale, with the thesis that one must sell any kind of agile transition or practice adoption as a complex sale, whereas most people continue to try to sell it as a simple sale. One of the reviewers labeled the title as “uselessly provocative” and, while he didn’t reject on that basis, might have rated the proposal down due to the title. Another organization asked us to change the title before we presented it at their user group.

Now I chose the title as an homage to the book Your Marketing Sucks, whose author calls his approach “extreme marketing”. I thought our society generally accepted “sucks” in a way they didn’t 15-20 years ago. Perhaps I have that wrong. I’d like your help to find out.

Please leave a comment to help me understand how people react to a tutorial or user group session entitled “Your Agile Sales Approach Sucks”, focusing on the word “sucks”.