March 17, 2011 at 09:26Signs of a complex project
Ideas are thrown by the trainer on work with clients.
His name is Sergey Serova. For contacts to me.
Why does the studio work? In my opinion, this is profit , reputation and pleasure .
It’s wonderful when all at once: they pay well, a bright project, wonderful people.
However, it is always impossible to get everything. There are projects for status, there are money, but uninteresting and not giving reason to be proud, there is just for the soul.
But it may happen that the project does not give the studio anything . A reasonable question arises: why such a project ? How to justify the forces and nerves spent on him?
Is that a long relationship with the client.
In many cases, it is better to politely and with mutual respect to give up work, to "technically merge" the project, than to get into a situation where the project gives nothing. In this case, the customer should in no case think that you have refused it.
Such a refusal will save you a profit, a reputation and bring pleasure.
You can even consider such a project ideal.
The question is how to identify future difficulties at the very beginning.
If there are one or two symptoms, everything can be corrected by well-constructed negotiations.
If already at the stage of discussion of more than two alarming factors, then everything will appear during the project, be prepared for this.
1. Draw me a kunguru!
The purpose of the project is formulated so that it does not apply to your area of responsibility (sales growth by XX%, victory in the competition, "better than Vasya Krivoy").
The goal is unclear and often changes.
2. Inventor
The customer does not understand the web and is trying to reinvent it. Vertical headers, breadcrumbs in the middle of the screen, animated mouse cursors, authorization through a flash game, layout by triangles.
3. The collective mind.
The customer is represented by several people without a clear leader with different opinions. As an option - the whole team makes any decision. Until everyone gathers, there is no progress. If there are more than 4 participants, there will certainly not be someone at each meeting.
4. There is no time, start already!
Your letter is read more than a week or the meeting is postponed more than 2 times, despite the fact that the deadlines are on. It’s dangerous, because often in this case they announce or even make a generous payment
5. Expensive!
Regardless of the price you call, they try to bring it down 2 times. Offer to work for a share in profits.
As a rule, a client likes you if he is persistently trading with you and has money. It’s just an attempt to pay a little, but to get a lot. This is normal if it turns out and if goods are sold. In services, starting with an attempt to firmly push a partner through this means creating an appropriate atmosphere in the future.
You have dozens of competitors who can work at customer prices or with his manners. If you normally conduct price negotiations, this will save money and sound relations, regardless of whether the project will be or not.
6. A bore.
Careful attention to detail (especially scary in combination with paragraphs 2 and 3).
Reconciling layout to pixels may not be so bad, but usually such attention means distrust of you and rejection of separation of responsibilities. You will adjust the colors on the monitor to the attached business card and use cases not according to Rosenthal, but according to corporate standards.
7. Hasty jelly.
Inattention to the project manager and already completed stages, inconsistency in the plans. Information is constantly provided in small portions, the client continues to actively think and change conditions, simultaneously asking why they have already lost so much time.
It’s normal that a client comes to consult. It's normal that he is not competent on the web - otherwise he would not have come.
It’s bad when this is combined with a cunning (or stupid) attempt to give information in parts to fix the price in case of uncertain work.
It is bad when the goals, requirements and guidelines change after signing the documents where they are written.
8. No, let's do it differently. Not
accepting a negotiation or cooperation scheme.
Each industry has its own established rules, rarely obvious and necessary for the client. The house begins with a project, business automation with a pre-project survey, advertising with market research.
Surely you have a scheme of work that you think is right. Respect yourself, do not let this scheme break on one knee simply because the client wants it differently. This is not a reason to be a stubborn bore and not to compromise, just feel what is real and what is not. Unreal - do not. Do not experiment with the customer. In reality, you will do it at your own expense, having lost time, pleasure, and reputation.
9. Of course, the general will decide, but you will never see him.
The decision maker is inaccessible even at key moments. You work with an intermediary. The consequences are obvious. There are a number of effective tricks to get around this, but it is important to understand that organizational barriers exist and will continue. The logo will be with the brand manager, who in another city, vacation and died.
10. You are creative, come up with! I’m paying you money, do it!
High or low expectations.
Extremely difficult moment. You have a reputation, perhaps the client has his own understanding of what you are doing and how, what you are responsible for.
There are two polar situations.
High expectations at the first stage make it possible to conclude a contract. The client believes, does not bargain, does not argue, he is confident that there will be a masterpiece. It turns out well, but the client does not consider this a masterpiece. And the game begins with fonts and “give me a couple more options.”
Lowered expectations are even worse. You are perceived exclusively as Photoshop operators, hourly programmers or a BTL agency with payment for orders. If you are ready to work this way or pay with gold - please, but you almost never manage to share the responsibility.
Or the client says WHAT he wants and you are responsible for HOW.
Either the client dictates HOW, then you will either have to subtly advise and still bear responsibility, or wave your hand and chop cabbage.
Worst of all, in this case there may not be cabbage.
11. “I am making a project for myself.”
Requiring a special attitude towards myself, ignoring standards and established positions. When the client does everything for himself, the project manager loses the basis for arguments. You can’t say it: it’s not beautiful, it doesn’t work, it’s expensive to support. After all, the client wants a project for himself.
12. “Experiment and solve”
Get ready for endless work for the final payment. The issue of limiting experiments is a key issue in outsourcing development. It seems that the answer lies in the field of respect for the professionalism of the performer and the division of responsibility.
13. In a month!
Timing is less than real by more than 2 times.
A project is rarely needed right away. This may mean that you are not respected, they think that you deliberately pull the deadlines, and simply twist your organs. Under this, there may be a requirement to start without TK, design, payment.
Ask yourself, skipping key steps will really shorten the development time? If you are ready to speed up twice, why aren’t you doing all the projects twice as fast, because it will increase your revenue?
1. Re-educate the client.
You can behave extremely harshly and break the client under your scheme. Out of ten you will break two, but quarrel with the rest.
It is possible to re-educate gently only with personal contact, for a long time, and only if the client himself is soft enough.
2. Increase the cost of work.
This is unlikely to go unnoticed and does not add peace to the relationship. In addition, most likely even doubled prices will not bring money.
3. Refuse to work on the result (website, design, banner) and switch to time-based payment.
This path is in conflict from the first second. It will be unclear what you have been doing so much time, there will be claims to the result. Timely, you can work only in front of the client or with complete trust.
4. Get away from cooperation, preserving relationships, reputation, money.
I did not call this article “10 signs of a bad customer.” This is not a review of the Hellish Customers site.
It seems to me that it is extremely important to understand the scheme in which you work effectively, and not to take on the futile.
It is possible that a freelancer Mitya from a neighboring house will satisfy your problematic client by 200% and will buy his maybach after a year of work. Why bother them?
His name is Sergey Serova. For contacts to me.
Why does the studio work? In my opinion, this is profit , reputation and pleasure .
It’s wonderful when all at once: they pay well, a bright project, wonderful people.
However, it is always impossible to get everything. There are projects for status, there are money, but uninteresting and not giving reason to be proud, there is just for the soul.
But it may happen that the project does not give the studio anything . A reasonable question arises: why such a project ? How to justify the forces and nerves spent on him?
Is that a long relationship with the client.
In many cases, it is better to politely and with mutual respect to give up work, to "technically merge" the project, than to get into a situation where the project gives nothing. In this case, the customer should in no case think that you have refused it.
Such a refusal will save you a profit, a reputation and bring pleasure.
You can even consider such a project ideal.
The question is how to identify future difficulties at the very beginning.
Symptom List
If there are one or two symptoms, everything can be corrected by well-constructed negotiations.
If already at the stage of discussion of more than two alarming factors, then everything will appear during the project, be prepared for this.
1. Draw me a kunguru!
The purpose of the project is formulated so that it does not apply to your area of responsibility (sales growth by XX%, victory in the competition, "better than Vasya Krivoy").
The goal is unclear and often changes.
2. Inventor
The customer does not understand the web and is trying to reinvent it. Vertical headers, breadcrumbs in the middle of the screen, animated mouse cursors, authorization through a flash game, layout by triangles.
3. The collective mind.
The customer is represented by several people without a clear leader with different opinions. As an option - the whole team makes any decision. Until everyone gathers, there is no progress. If there are more than 4 participants, there will certainly not be someone at each meeting.
4. There is no time, start already!
Your letter is read more than a week or the meeting is postponed more than 2 times, despite the fact that the deadlines are on. It’s dangerous, because often in this case they announce or even make a generous payment
5. Expensive!
Regardless of the price you call, they try to bring it down 2 times. Offer to work for a share in profits.
As a rule, a client likes you if he is persistently trading with you and has money. It’s just an attempt to pay a little, but to get a lot. This is normal if it turns out and if goods are sold. In services, starting with an attempt to firmly push a partner through this means creating an appropriate atmosphere in the future.
You have dozens of competitors who can work at customer prices or with his manners. If you normally conduct price negotiations, this will save money and sound relations, regardless of whether the project will be or not.
6. A bore.
Careful attention to detail (especially scary in combination with paragraphs 2 and 3).
Reconciling layout to pixels may not be so bad, but usually such attention means distrust of you and rejection of separation of responsibilities. You will adjust the colors on the monitor to the attached business card and use cases not according to Rosenthal, but according to corporate standards.
7. Hasty jelly.
Inattention to the project manager and already completed stages, inconsistency in the plans. Information is constantly provided in small portions, the client continues to actively think and change conditions, simultaneously asking why they have already lost so much time.
It’s normal that a client comes to consult. It's normal that he is not competent on the web - otherwise he would not have come.
It’s bad when this is combined with a cunning (or stupid) attempt to give information in parts to fix the price in case of uncertain work.
It is bad when the goals, requirements and guidelines change after signing the documents where they are written.
8. No, let's do it differently. Not
accepting a negotiation or cooperation scheme.
Each industry has its own established rules, rarely obvious and necessary for the client. The house begins with a project, business automation with a pre-project survey, advertising with market research.
Surely you have a scheme of work that you think is right. Respect yourself, do not let this scheme break on one knee simply because the client wants it differently. This is not a reason to be a stubborn bore and not to compromise, just feel what is real and what is not. Unreal - do not. Do not experiment with the customer. In reality, you will do it at your own expense, having lost time, pleasure, and reputation.
9. Of course, the general will decide, but you will never see him.
The decision maker is inaccessible even at key moments. You work with an intermediary. The consequences are obvious. There are a number of effective tricks to get around this, but it is important to understand that organizational barriers exist and will continue. The logo will be with the brand manager, who in another city, vacation and died.
10. You are creative, come up with! I’m paying you money, do it!
High or low expectations.
Extremely difficult moment. You have a reputation, perhaps the client has his own understanding of what you are doing and how, what you are responsible for.
There are two polar situations.
High expectations at the first stage make it possible to conclude a contract. The client believes, does not bargain, does not argue, he is confident that there will be a masterpiece. It turns out well, but the client does not consider this a masterpiece. And the game begins with fonts and “give me a couple more options.”
Lowered expectations are even worse. You are perceived exclusively as Photoshop operators, hourly programmers or a BTL agency with payment for orders. If you are ready to work this way or pay with gold - please, but you almost never manage to share the responsibility.
Or the client says WHAT he wants and you are responsible for HOW.
Either the client dictates HOW, then you will either have to subtly advise and still bear responsibility, or wave your hand and chop cabbage.
Worst of all, in this case there may not be cabbage.
11. “I am making a project for myself.”
Requiring a special attitude towards myself, ignoring standards and established positions. When the client does everything for himself, the project manager loses the basis for arguments. You can’t say it: it’s not beautiful, it doesn’t work, it’s expensive to support. After all, the client wants a project for himself.
12. “Experiment and solve”
Get ready for endless work for the final payment. The issue of limiting experiments is a key issue in outsourcing development. It seems that the answer lies in the field of respect for the professionalism of the performer and the division of responsibility.
13. In a month!
Timing is less than real by more than 2 times.
A project is rarely needed right away. This may mean that you are not respected, they think that you deliberately pull the deadlines, and simply twist your organs. Under this, there may be a requirement to start without TK, design, payment.
Ask yourself, skipping key steps will really shorten the development time? If you are ready to speed up twice, why aren’t you doing all the projects twice as fast, because it will increase your revenue?
What to do if there are a lot of signs?
1. Re-educate the client.
You can behave extremely harshly and break the client under your scheme. Out of ten you will break two, but quarrel with the rest.
It is possible to re-educate gently only with personal contact, for a long time, and only if the client himself is soft enough.
2. Increase the cost of work.
This is unlikely to go unnoticed and does not add peace to the relationship. In addition, most likely even doubled prices will not bring money.
3. Refuse to work on the result (website, design, banner) and switch to time-based payment.
This path is in conflict from the first second. It will be unclear what you have been doing so much time, there will be claims to the result. Timely, you can work only in front of the client or with complete trust.
4. Get away from cooperation, preserving relationships, reputation, money.
I did not call this article “10 signs of a bad customer.” This is not a review of the Hellish Customers site.
It seems to me that it is extremely important to understand the scheme in which you work effectively, and not to take on the futile.
It is possible that a freelancer Mitya from a neighboring house will satisfy your problematic client by 200% and will buy his maybach after a year of work. Why bother them?