Archive for the ‘Clients’ Category

Save Clients from Themselves

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

I would love what I do more if it wasn’t for all these clients… What?!?

That’s not true… I feel that way at times, but it’s not true.

That feeling comes when I know I just let a client walk all over me. It’s not their fault you see… It’s mine. Sometimes I’m afraid to lose a client, so I will lie down and let them wipe their shoes on my back.

Again; it’s not their fault. They are just asking for things they think they need. And who can blame them. They have a goal to get more sales and all they are doing is trying to get this particular ad, or that particular sales page, or this particular web site in perfect shape to capture the most sales and leads they can.

But Mike, how come it seems like every time this happens it is always last minute rushed items that go against everything I know about design, user experience and overall business practices?

Good question campers… I’ll tell you why – Because you haven’t trained your clients.

Look, I know it’s easier said than done. There is a lot of competition out there for what we do. The last thing anyone wants to do is make a client, who is paying you with real money and everything, mad enough to leave you.

This thinking is silly. If you have clients that have been with you and have enjoyed the work that you do chances are they want to stay with you. If you have a client that hangs the “I might go somewhere else because they will do everything I say and they are cheaper” threat over your head you may want to evaluate that relationship to see if there is any benefit to having it. I know; I know… the whole paying with real money thing… Your time and skill set is worth more than that. You don’t need to take that kind of abuse.

So… what’s this whole “training my clients” thing all about? Another good question campers… you are very sharp today.

The way I want to discuss today is: you can make your client realize, beyond the shadow of doubt, that last minute changes and guessing is going to hurt their business. How do you do that? Charge them “rush fees” or “late fees.”

I can hear it… you’re saying “whoa, whoa, whoa there horsey… that is not going to go well.”

It can go well. You need to have a very open and honest conversation about what your time is worth with your client. Tell them what your rate is and tell them what your rate is when things are outside your normal agreed upon turnaround time. Show them some examples of work that was done with a reasonable turnaround and compare it to something that was done with a “drop it like it’s hot” timeline. Point out how much better the project could have gone if you had the proper time to execute. And most importantly… explain in detail what you personally gave up to get this project done on that timeline. You need to show your client that your personal time has a value to it and if a project needs to invade that time there will be a cost associated with it.

Chances are a good, conscientious client will look at that and say… “We won’t need to use the rush charges; we’ll have all our stuff hammered out in reasonable time.” That may not always be the case… life does move in mysterious ways and there may be a day that they will have to rush something.

Now… the flip side of that is you will inevitably get a client who doesn’t understand what you mean by “rush charges” and will feel the sting when they get the bill. It may take their breath away and you may even need to have a conversation about it. This will be your opportunity to reinforce and explain that the “rush charge” protects them and puts them at the top of the priority of all other work going on. You also can make sure they understand the value of your time once again.

A good client will grumble a bit, but they will understand in the long run and do their best not to have anymore “rush charges.” Good clients, over time, understand the value of your time and want the relationship to work because they see that it is mutually beneficial. A good client will appreciate the reminder that they have a part to play in this relationship.

Bad clients will do one of two things; they will either drop you because they think your rush charges are outrageous or they will keep giving you last minute projects because they don’t care about “rush charges.” This then, is your opportunity to evaluate the value of this client.

The bottom line is, if you make your clients aware of how awesome the project is going to turn out given the proper time to execute, how valuable your time is both professionally and personally, and how you are willing to help them out any way you can to make this mutually beneficial relationship work, you will have a happy client who will agree to the terms of your relationship and respect the value of your time and talent.

Saving your clients from themselves sometimes requires a little “tough love.” The sting of the “rush charge” can right the ship at times. It may even teach your clients to prepare better on their end and help you deliver an amazing product for them.

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Posted in Business, Clients | 1 Comment »

Proper Deadlines

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

The ideal project would not have a deadline for my taste. I would love to have all the time in the world to design and develop a website nirvana that all users could navigate through effortlessly. This utopia, however, is unrealistic. First and foremost, the client would like to have a web presence sometime this century. Secondly, they have a budget and can’t afford the bottomless well of development a project like that would have.

The flip side to this is having a deadline before the entire scope of the project is realized and before proper expectations are set. These types of projects are far more dangerous than the scenario above. These types of projects are rife with problems.

What does one of these deadline first projects look like? Follow me kids… I’ll show you. (I promise no Oompa-Loompas or a trippy boat rides. Gene Wilder rocks by the way… wow – tangent – sorry.)

Most likely these projects start out with a client who has a great idea. They have thought a lot about this idea and have put a lot into the business plan to make this new idea come to life. Secondly, they have identified that they need a web presence, and because they are far from experts in this area, they come to you.

They go through their business plan at a high level with you and tell you some of the objectives they have for their website. You walk them through a very thorough questionnaire (put together by a very smart design company :) ) and get as many answers as you can to provide a few mock-ups and a high level cost estimate.

What’s that noise… sounds like a loose wheel. Anyway, the client flips over one of the designs you made and wants to start immediately. You are excited, you won the work and you are moving into development.

So you create an outline and calendar to make sure you have the proper time built in to do an Information Architecture (IA) study, a card sorting activity and a wireframe of the rest of the site so you have a better handle of the scope of the project. You also want to make sure this new site is usable and helps your new client achieve their business objectives.

Before you have the ability to share this outline and calendar with your client they come to you and tell you that they shared your designs with their marketing team and they started creating campaigns around the new site. Whoa… did you feel that shimmy? What is that noise?!?

You start asking the client to participate in some of the IA studies you want to conduct and they tell you that there is a lot of things moving right now and there might not be time to do any IA studies at this time. “We can always get to that later. Why don’t you start building out the home page so we can see what it looks like in a browser.”

You start constructing your home page and you get a message from your client… “Good news we got our booth graphics done! Did I forget to tell you we are going to a trade show in 30 days and we need the site done before we leave?” OMG the wheels just fell off. Hold on this is going to be a messy ride!

Well… choice time… do you swing the door open, jump, tuck, and roll? Or do you press on and try to help your new client land this thing? (for the purposes of this post we are going with option B)

Now you are staring at a deadline that is going to take every waking minute of your time to reach. In order to get some reality around this news you just received, you set up a meeting with the client to see where you can shave some scope. This first meeting is what I like to call the denial meeting.

Your client will tell you that it is no big deal; there should be plenty of time to get this done by the show. You make some suggestions on where they can cut some scope – they are reluctant to do it because the site needs to be next to perfect for the show. Again, they tell you not to worry about it. They are going to get you help with content and they have a plan where they can get more.

Do you smell that? It smells like something is burning. So you press on. The work becomes a grind. Curve balls are coming at you left and right. Instead of shrinking scope, your client tries to increase it… “Can we hook the site up to a Content Management System?” “How about some Flash that streams our mission statement video?”

The work you are doing is now taking twice as long as expected because you client keeps changing their mind as you make your way to the trade show date. You promise yourself that all the short cuts and hacks you needed to put in will get fixed after the show is over (not really believing that will happen). You get this website mess to a point of acceptability for your client and you push it live. It doesn’t really work the way you wanted it, the information flow is a bit slap-dash, and there are some errors that still linger.

But it’s out there in time for the show. Your client is more happy that the website is out there when they needed it than what the result of the site is. They spin it to their partners that there is going to be a lot of improvements coming. They pat you on the back and say that after the show they want to talk about the next phase of the site. With a wink they say that big things are coming.

This, my friends, is not that far from actual events a lot of us in this field have experienced. These fire drill type projects zap the life out of any good UX-designers/developers. It is vitally important that you communicate the importance of realistic and proper deadlines. Sometimes it is difficult to explain the amount of time it takes to do something right. A lot of times your clients won’t understand what it takes to build an online presence that is usable and friendly to their customers. They most likely will try to minimize your role and effort to get what they want sooner and cheaper. They don’t understand that “someone else has done it so it can’t be that hard; you just put it there like that” is easier said than done.

Our jobs in these situations is to explain, in terms they will understand, what it takes to build their awesome website. We need to show them how the process of our job works. We also need to show our clients why proper deadlines help them out as well. We need to communicate what there role is going to be in the development of their website. We need to show them what deliverables they have on their plates and how the timeliness of those deliverables affect our progress. If you can, show your client an example of what happens to projects with rushed deadlines. Show them the original mock-ups and the finished result. Explain all the corners that were cut how those shortcuts effect the performance of that site.

Before you get headlong into a project set up some realistic time lines. Use a calender to show when deliverables are needed and when milestones are going to be met. This way your client has a visual timeline. You have the ability to show them what happens to that timeline when new scope is introduced or when new deadlines are introduced.

In the end, your client may not like what you are saying at the time, but they will appreciate it in the long run. And if they don’t, maybe they aren’t the type of client you want to work for.

Posted in Clients, Design | No Comments »

Think you’re ready for a website?

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

There are a lot of small businesses out there that believe they need a website; or an internet presence. Unfortunately they have no idea what to do with it… they just know they need it.

So what do they do?

They contact a company like Hello Goat and ask what it costs to make a website. They have no idea what they are asking for, they just know that they need a website and it’s going to cost them money.

So what does Hello Goat do?

We send them a list of questions we want them to answer before we start talking about how much this website is going to cost. We do this to prepare them for the reality of owning a website. We do this to prepare them for having an online presence.

The list of questions and categories looks like this:

General

  • What are the objectives you want your users to complete on this site?
  • If information gathering is a goal, what would you like your users to do with the information gathered?
  • What is the most important message you want your gateway page (home page) to communicate?
  • What is the overall visual tone you are looking for?
  • Who is your competition? What distinguishes your business from them?
  • Are there any urls that you feel communicate in a similar fashion that you what this site to communicate?

Audience

  • Why is the site needed?
  • Who is the audience? What is the major demographic of potential site visitors?
  • How will this major demographic use this site?
  • What are the key reasons users may have for visiting the site?
  • What should visitors of the site come away with?
  • What knowledge level of your products and services do your users come in with? Novice? Intermediate? Expert?

Content

  • What content will be needed for the site?
  • What sections and features will need to be included?
  • What already exists and what needs to be developed?
  • Is the content on your site an overview/marketing level or is more of a research/wiki level?

Communication

  • What should the site communicate?
  • What are the primary objectives and goals (long and short term) for the site?
  • Are there any actionable messages on your site? If so, what do you want your users do with them?
  • What methods do you see your users contacting you?

You will notice that some of the questions are asked more than once… we do that because we are trying to get at different parts of the same question. The questions themselves fall into different categories and require slightly different answers depending on the category.

Let’s take the cover off these questions to understand why we ask them.

General Questions – these questions are used to get you in the proper mindset about your new website.

What are the objectives you want your users to complete on this site?

Plain and simple… we need to understand what your users are suppose to be doing on your site so we can get the information architecture right.

If information gathering is a goal, what would you like your users to do with the information gathered?
What is the most important message you want your gateway page (home page) to communicate?

These two questions go hand-in-hand. We are looking to see if you have put any thought into what tone you want to strike with your audience and what first impression you want to give visitors of your site.

What is the overall visual tone you are looking for?

This question tries to uncover any visual direction you may have in your mind. It also is meant to spur some investigation on your part. We want to you to look at any creative you have for your company like, brochures, logos, product packaging, etc. We also want you to think of your audience when it comes to this question – what visuals will be helpful and appeal to them.

Who is your competition? What distinguishes your business from them?
Are there any urls that you feel communicate in a similar fashion that you what this site to communicate?

These two questions are very important for a new website. They are meant to get you to think about your competition, look at their sites – not from a design standpoint, but from an information standpoint. You need to look at and understand the level of content and the messaging they are providing to connect with their audiences. You can learn from them – good or bad… what to do and what not to do.

Audience Questions – these questions are specifically meant to get you to think about your audience and how successful you want them to be on your site. You want to make sure your visitors can accomplish their goals on your site in a easy and efficient manner.

Why is the site needed?
Who is the audience? What is the major demographic of potential site visitors?
How will this major demographic use this site?
What are the key reasons users may have for visiting the site?
What should visitors of the site come away with?
What knowledge level of your products and services do your users come in with? Novice? Intermediate? Expert?

All of these questions are related. We are really trying to get into your head and see how you see your audience. We need to understand how you segment your potential clients and visitors to understand how the information architecture works on the site. We re-ask some questions like “What should visitors of the site come away with?” We do that to make sure you are thinking in context of your audience.

Content Questions – these questions may seem redundant, but are very necessary to answer. These questions get at the heart of the messaging for the site. These questions are so we can understand why someone would come to your site and use it.

What content will be needed for the site?
What sections and features will need to be included?

These questions may feel like you have answered them already, but they are really meant to get you thinking about the structure of your site and the information flow. How will your users move though the site to accomplish their goals?

What already exists and what needs to be developed?
Is the content on your site an overview/marketing level or is more of a research/wiki level?

These questions are to get a sense of what materials you have or have in mind that will help you communicate to your audience or what will you need to produce in order to make a successful website.

Communication Questions – these questions really wrap up the vision of what you want to accomplish with this new site. What would make this site successful for your business?

What should the site communicate?

This question is the final question on what you want your site to do for you. This should be answered in context of everything you have answered so far.

What are the primary objectives and goals (long and short term) for the site?

This question gets to the overall vision of the site… Are you launching a marketing site to educate new users who you are and what services you provide? Is there a long term vision you have to turn this site from and informational site to a transactional site?

Are there any actionable messages on your site? If so, what do you want your users do with them?
What methods do you see your users contacting you?

These two questions really sum up what you want your users to come away with from your site and what are the next steps to retain these people as customers.

As you can see, there are very few questions that talk about the design… The reason is we know how to design a site, we know how to put together creative ideas that will appeal to you and your audience. What we want to do is to give you more than just a pretty design, we want to give you a website that you can use to help you sell your goods and services, educate your users or inform them of your mission.

Jeffery Zeldman said it best when he said, “Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it’s decoration.”

This is the tenant that Hello Goat lives by. You don’t just need a pretty design… you need a website that works.

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Posted in Clients, Content, Design | No Comments »

Ready, Fire, Aim!

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

Recently, Hello Goat Designs (HGD)  has been working with quite a few new clients and most of them share a few things in common. They all want web sites, they want them now and they are completely unsure what that will do to their workload.

It is most excellent that these companies are entering the digital age and realizing that they need a web presence to help promote their businesses, be another sales lead generator and help gain brand recognition and credibility. The problem that these companies are running into is that they want a website, but have no idea what it takes to get one. They see what they like in other companies’ sites, but don’t connect the dots and see how those companies got where they are.

They don’t realize that design can only take you so far; that good content makes a good website. They come up with all these ideas about look and feel and even navigation without having any plans for content. They can picture in their minds how awesome their website is going to look. They are overly excited when they see the first mock-ups of their new home page; greeked text and all. They completely believe they are ready to launch and call daily for progress reports.

We call this the “Ready, Fire, Aim!” syndrome. The excitement level and the anticipation of their first web presence  gets the best of them. They want to see it live now! So, when they see their sites for the first time in an “Alpha Environment” they usually see something that doesn’t look exactly like they pictured. Their exuberance is shattered into a million tiny pieces. They have a hundred questions that all sound the same. “How come it looks blank?” “I gave you our mission statement, why doesn’t it take up more space?” “Why is there so much white space?” “Where is all the content?”

So, to avoid this first crushing blow to our new clients excitement level, we here at HGD have been working  dilligently with these new clients to prepare them for what comes with owning a website and keeping it up and running. We have been talking a lot about some scary phrases like “content plan”, “information architecture”,  “website maintenance” and “content management.” We have been consulting these businesses on what they need out of their web site, how they should use their new online presence and what information they should consider displaying on their site to fit their overall online goal.

These converations can be painful at times for any business just starting to dip their toe into the online pool. In the long run it is better to have them up front then to have the crushing reality of a well designed/poory executed/non-performing website.

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Posted in Clients, Content, Design | 1 Comment »

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