A Letter To My Past Self: Client Relationships

Four score and … uh… MANY months ago I was a fresh face out of school, ready to tackle the industry head-on. What I didn’t know at the time was just how much I DIDN’T know about working for clients. Looking back, this is what I would have told young Past Nathan.

The true nature of the relationship #

Oh, sweet, naive Past Nathan… in the client services industry, clients take their business expertise (also, rather importantly, their money) and bring it together with your expertise and skill. It’s a beautiful symbiotic relationship. But this is not like the working relationships you’ve had before. It’s not like the co-ownership of working with your peers or coming up with your own ideas for assignments. These things you’re creating? These beautiful pieces of art and code? All the wonderful ideas you are working hard to come up with…

They’re not yours. They’re the client's. (And the users, for whom you are an advocate—but that's a letter for another day!)

The client will always have the deepest stake in a project because they initiated it, they funded it, and they have to live with it after you move on. It’s ultimately theirs.

You must move from an ‘owner’ mindset to an ‘accelerator’ or ‘catalyst’ mindset. You’re working to help make THEIR goal happen. The key currency here is trust—they came to you to help them achieve their goals and they need to be able to trust that you understand, that you hear them, and that what you’re doing will ultimately help them succeed (even if it’s not exactly how they thought it would go at first).

Client relationships are typically not lost by one big mistake but by a thousand tiny cuts—missed deadlines, miscommunication, missing project requirements, bad attitudes, ignored feedback, and being talked down to all erode trust little by little. So be easy to work with. Become the valued partner who makes their job EASIER and helps them look good in front of THEIR bosses.

The power of presenting #

Oh silly, timid Past Nathan… you may have an aversion to public speaking, but the power of the presentation cannot be understated. This will be one of the primary ways you communicate your ideas to the client and being able to effectively frame your ideas will make working with your client even easier.

Here are a few tips that you can start using right away:

1. Coordinate with your team beforehand
2. Set expectations.
3. Briefly recap where the project is.
4. Set clear requirements on what is needed to keep going.

Coordinate beforehand #

The team should be aligned on what you’re going to show and who is doing the showing. Tag teaming is fine, but work it out ahead of time. Remember you’re working to inspire trust, so it should look like you took this seriously. Practice with the communication software tool you’ll be using if you need to. It’s not a circus performance, but this isn’t amateur hour either.

Set expectations #

The meeting's contents shouldn’t be a surprise. Ideally, the client should have had expectations set before the meeting, but it also never hurts to restate things up front.

Briefly recap #

You should bring everyone up to speed on where you are in the project. Clients will be popping in and out of the process and have their own jobs to do, so quickly orient them. Don’t be offended if they don’t remember—they have more important things to do than babysit your work.

Be clear about what’s needed #

It should also be clear what you need from the client to move forward. Whether it’s approval on a design or feedback about functionality, be SPECIFIC about what you’re looking for. Framing what you need will help the client be in the right mindset during the presentation.

Putting it together #

Here’s an example of an intro that combines what we’re talking about:

Hey there! Today we will look at designs for the checkout flow for the XYZ project. We’re currently in the first of two phases of design and we need to nail down which of these two approaches to take. We’ll spend the next phase expanding one of these directions.

Concise but informative! The client now knows they will see two possibilities they need to decide between and that there’s another (but just one) round of design edits pending to nail things down. They are better prepared to give you what you need.

This is also your chance to show the WHY behind your work. You can show that the button is there because research shows that THIS PARTICULAR placement will direct the user’s eye or that THIS STYLE of layout will highlight something specific.

Be confident. Even if you don’t feel it! Even after years of presenting, you'll still feel a little wiggly right before. It’s normal! Presenting to a client makes you feel vulnerable. You want the work to succeed, and you want the client to like it, but like is a bad measure. You may be tempted to pre-apologize with something like, “Sorry, we whipped this up last night…” to protected yourself from the judgment of your work—but don’t do it! You’re weakening the power of your decisions before they’ve even seen them!

And remember, for some clients this might be the most fun meeting they’ll have all day, especially if they’ve been in ‘capital B’ business meetings. So bring the energy and fun!

Receiving and responding to feedback #

Oh sensitive, defensive Past Nathan… you’ve learned a little about feedback from your art reviews, but you still have a lot to learn. Here are some guidelines when you’re receiving feedback from a client:

LISTEN #

These meetings make up a large part of the client's input into the direction. This is your chance to listen, understand the problem they’re trying to solve, and help them find a solution. You can’t be helpful if you’re not listening, so slow down and pay attention. When the client is talking, don’t try to prepare the next thing you’re going to say; just listen.

REFLECT #

If you’re not sure of what the client is asking you to do: reflect back what you’re hearing in your own words. For example:

“So when you say, ‘put some AI in it’ are you looking for smart sorting of the categories behind the scenes, or a type of direct input where a user can type commands?”

or

“So when you say, ‘make it swoopy’, are you looking for more organic shapes, possibly with ribbon-like illustrations?”

These are contrived examples, but two people can have wildly different conclusions from the exact same sentence. This is an opportunity to align and make sure you’re moving in the same direction.

CONFER #

There will be a strong temptation to please the client. It can be tough when asked direct questions you don’t know the answer to, or if it feels like you might be agreeing to something you didn’t mean to.

“When will I see the next rounds?” “Can we have X by next Tuesday?”

If you’re ever unsure about something, you ALWAYS have the option to confer with your teammates. Your Project Manager will likely be there to help you, but even if not, you can say:

“That’s a great question, let me talk to the team and get back to you later today”

You do not have to respond on the spot but do say when they can expect an answer. You DON’T want to accidentally agree to something you’ll have to walk back. The client will expect you to make good on what you say. Remember, trust is our relational currency. It’s better to not answer in the moment than to throw something flippant out.

LEVERS! #

If the client requests something that’s going to lead to a great deal more effort, rather than table-flipping or refusing outright, fall back on your three main levers in a project:

1. TIME
2. MONEY
3. SCOPE

“Yes, we can build that additional feature, but it will take an additional 3 weeks and an extra $50k. If you want to proceed… etc” (Increasing scope increases time and money)

“Yes we can tackle that before the launch, but we will need to push feature X to a post-launch item” (Keeping time and money but shuffling scope)

This is not something that you can typically do on the spot, but after conferring with the team. Your Project Manager will likely be the one to communicate this, but you need to be aware of the possibility of these statements in the moment.

When the project was started, there was an understanding of time and expense. It works both ways. The client doesn’t get free work and doesn’t get to pressure the team if that’s not what’s been agreed upon. Things change all the time, but it’s a give-and-take.

ADVISE (but be willing to compromise!) #

If the client's request will damage the integrity of the product, subvert other parts, or lead the project away from its goals, then it is your job to advise them of why this will be problematic and help find alternate solutions.

Sometimes the problem they’re trying to solve can be handled in a different way. If you can figure out the root problem, you can address it directly and avoid a problematic solution. This is why it’s important to listen and understand. If you’ve shown yourself to be a trustworthy partner, the client will be more willing to be led in a different direction.

But not everything warrants this. Protect the core of the project, but be willing to compromise on the fringes. You will want to protect the whole of your carefully considered concept, but be honest about whether the change will actually negatively impact the project. Remember, the client has visibility into a problem space you can’t see (their business operations, politics, or even their CEO’s least favorite color).

If you’ve made your case eloquently, addressed their problem, and provided alternate solutions, and the client STILL insists (and it falls within the project timeline and scope) then remember it’s their project, their money, and ultimately their decision.

So there you have it, Past Nathan. At further risk of a time paradox, here's some final advice: Keep going, even when you feel discouraged and worry that your work doesn’t matter — you will find this industry exciting and engaging for many years to come. Also, it was smart to drop Sequential Art as your major and the reason your car keeps shutting off is a faulty ignition coil, so… get that replaced… like pronto.