The client wasn’t happy. We’d worked with her for a number of weeks now, and this was the second time she felt we “just didn’t get it” and she was getting frustrated. We felt we “got it”, but each time we met with her our presentation didn’t live up to her expectations.
“She’s difficult,” we said to one another while working on the project. As the next meeting approached a growing sense of dread loomed over us, curdling our creativity and eroding our confidence. When the day came to present, the design fell flat. She compared our work to a “doodle on a napkin”. Discouraged, we left feeling like we’d put forth our best creative efforts only to have them tossed aside. It’s a day I’ll never forget.
Making Everyone Happy
Does this scenario sound painfully familiar? Well, you can’t make everyone happy, right?
Wrong. Dead wrong. Close-the-doors-and-give-up-now-if-you-don’t-believe-me wrong. You CAN make everyone happy with a simple process I’m going to outline today. For those of you in a hurry, here’s the pseudo-code:
- Ask your client the “important” questions.
- Listen to what they say, and write it down
- Think about what they said.
- Present the client with a written summary of what they said, asking if you got it right.
Oh, and this process has a name: Discovery.
Discovery and a Smile
The purpose of Discovery is for your team to learn about the client’s goals, values, customers and competitors. The client already knows these things, but you don’t. Oh, and when you go back to the client with your results from Step 4, you almost always get a smile. You see, you took all their rambling and hand-waving and turned it into a coherent document. You did all the hard work to “get it”, and that says you really care. Your document should have, at the minimum:
- Key goals for the project
- Key measurements for each goal
- Key business marketing messages
- Key customer segments and values
Let’s recap: they spoke, you listened; you summarized, they smiled. 😉
Oh, and did I mention you get to CHARGE MONEY FOR THESE EFFORTS? This is important because Discovery is as important to the project as writing HTML, coding JavaScript, or all the other stuff you used to *think* the client hired you to do.
In fact, the client hired you to solve a business problem. They didn’t hire you to write HTML. They don’t care about HTML/CSS/JS/blah/blah/blah. They don’t care about AJAX, Validating XHTML, or any of the other things you care about. If you talk to them about how cool your new Drupal module is, you really don’t get it. But now, because you clearly understand their business goals, you “get it”. And “getting it” is a wonderful way to start a relationship.
Oh, and my client who hated our designs? In time she came around. In fact, she was one of the first we tried our new Discovery phase with, and you know what? When we were done she smiled and paid us.
That’s also a day I’ll never forget.
One of the best ‘web design’ posts I’ve read. That’s effective.
Hey Josh,
thanks for posting. Is this an approach you guys at Elias are integrating into client relations? I would love to hear how this transforms the way in which you interact with your clients. Nice ideas from this post and different from the common belief that states you can’t please everyone. I look forward to hearing more about this in the future and whether or not pleasing everyone really can be a reality. Thanks for posting!
@Parke We are working to integrate this line of thinking into how we interact with clients. It’s really easy as a software company to get sucked into the technical side of things and forget that there is an underlying business need that needs to be addressed.
You can’t please everyone on earth, but you should be able to please your customers. I think a lot of companies (admittedly even Elias) have used the mindset “you can’t please everyone” as a cop-out for really listening and responding to clients on a business need level. Ok, you want WordPress or Magento or a red progress bar (inside joke). Why? What impact are you looking for within your company. What happens if you don’t change anything? How will this impact sales, your product, customer relationships, competitive advantage?
People don’t buy software. They buy the ability to sell online or raise awareness for a worthwhile cause (like you do so well) or attract new potential customers.
Josh
Great point. I think a lot of times the belief that we cannot please everyone really does become a cop-out for true, in depth listening to the needs of our customers, readers, friends, spouses, etc. I’m glad you brought it up because it caused me to reflect on the times I have simply pushed people aside or given up on certain groups, simply writing them off as “unpleasable.” Thanks for sharing your insights on this as it pertains to your software business. I can imagine it’s very easy to fall into the details trap and lose site of the relationship. However, I know that you and the rest of Elias are so relational and really thrive at taking care of the needs of those around you. So, I am confident that this line of thought will be a seemingly natural transition for you guys. It’s like implementing what you love to do with what you do.
I would take great confidence in a company willing to place me as an individual above me as a software consumer, and I have that confidence in Elias because I know these guys and why they work so hard for their clients.