Nora McDougall-Collins - I Can Do That
- 1. “I can do that!” Can get you in trouble Or, Who Broke the Project?
- 2. A bad client takes away the emotional energy you need for the good clients. ~ Client Jeri Mae Rowley
- 3. Amazing Client 1 Goosebay Sawmill and Lumber • Lydia Malstad and Betty Burbank • Betty has Usher’s Syndrome. She is deaf and has tunnel vision. • Every week I train her by chat on how to develop in WordPress. She is learning CSS and PHP.
- 4. When “I can do that” turns into a bad project, it’s more complicated than “the client is bad” or “the developer is bad” Let’s look further into the causes
- 5. “I can do that” Project Killers 1. Unrealistic expectations 2. Outside Influences
- 6. Unrealistic Expectation 1 Client doesn’t understand work of web development Some Resulting Behaviors • “How hard can it be?” • Client makes poor decisions – “I want” is more important than what works • Client expects a website in a month
- 7. Unrealistic Expectation 2 Client doesn’t understand process of working with a contractor Some Resulting Behaviors • Attitude: I am the customer; you are the slave • Attitude: You are dying to take their project • Surprise that you can’t jump on their task immediately, even though they haven’t contacted you for a considerable amount of time or have kept you waiting.
- 8. Unrealistic Expectation 3 Client doesn’t understand either their involvement or their limitations Some Resulting behaviors • They don’t see how rude it is to make you wait for phone calls and for them to work with clients • Parts of the project have to be rebuilt because they threw something at you instead of thinking it through with you
- 9. Unrealistic Expectation 4 A website is a custom product like a steak is a custom product Some Resulting Behaviors • I can expect to have as many changes as I want or I’m not satisfied. • If 3rd party software doesn’t work, it’s your job to fix it.
- 10. Amazing Client 2 Missoula KOA • Employee Linda regularly updates her web skills and keeps all the content fresh • Their responsive site was not done correctly, so Linda came to Website HELP Wednesday week after week to work on correcting it
- 11. Outside Influences • Graphic Artists • My friend said … • Domains, hosts, software, search engines, etc
- 12. Outside Influences 1 Graphic Artists • A graphic artist who doesn’t understand web user interface can tank your project. • A graphic artist who doesn’t pay attention to the scope of your project budget can tank your project • The work process between the owner and the graphic artist can leave you with 2 weeks to complete 6 months worth of work.
- 13. Outside Influence 2 Cousins, Friends and Mystery Developers • “My friend said this can be fixed in 20 minutes” • “I’m sure you know about software XYZ” • “I’m going to have another guy do some work on the site. I gave him my passwords.” • We are going to have person X maintain our site content. (Person X is computer uncomfortable, but you have to train within the original budget.)
- 14. Outside Influence 3 Domains, hosts, software, search engines, etc • Clients sometimes don’t know the difference between your work and the work of other services. • Small businesses generally do not have a contingency plan, or funding, for things to go wrong. • The developer is the closest target for venting frustration.
- 15. Amazing Client 3 OhioWoodlands.com • They are using the web service 3D Cart, which has some “worst practices” issues. • The original custom theme is a table site, but every single element on the site is a new table, resulting in twice as much code as is needed. • The owner has had to be patient through the code clean up before a theme redesign could be totally implemented.
- 16. Start with your Process • Understand that the client often does not know what is needed • Understand that the client doesn’t know how to express what they need • Understand that the client doesn’t know anything about the process • Have an easy-to-understand, but comprehensive documentation system.
- 17. Actions • Provide high quality documentation • Have patience and tolerance • Provide training and background • As a last resort: Fire the client