New Decade: What clients want - the quest for Beauty, Functionality or User Experience
Happy new year everyone, welcome to the new decade.
My career now sits at over a decade and a half old. I have done freelance and quite a bit of work for companies as full time developer. I have learned from some of the greats and had the privilege of working with some of them too.
I am still stumped by one of my greatest mysteries in my career. It's basically what the customer really want. I have found that to be the single biggest reasons for failure of a project. Failure to understand what the customer really want and to get them to agree to a single set of requirement.
Let me preface the paragraph above. It's not really their fault that they don't understand what they want. Software that does essentially the same thing works very differently in terms of user interface and user experience. Most common example of this is how gmail worked vs good old fashioned outlook. Essentially the same idea as far as email sending and receiving goes, but now you didn't need a special software installed locally, wait minutes to hours long depending on the computer. Yet for gmail just open the browser and you have access to your email. It still works this way for most users.
Take another example, good old computer vs mobile tablet or smartphone. It made watching videos on tiny screens an actual past-time. Now the world is in your corner pretty much everywhere you go. No wifi? that's ok my carrier provides X GB of data, I'm fine.
With all this going on, when a user runs into an issue where software isn't ready available, my job as a developer is kicked into action. However, unlike gmail, or any of the other softwares I mentioned above, this is where it goes into the "unknown". So the client sees this as "I don't know what I want, but can you make it?" Just like the mobile device (there is an app for that). Except no one knows what to do when "there is no app for that".
Therein lies the real dilemma. A customer needs something that will reduce the pain they are having and some are willing to pay for the app in order to allow that pain reduction. Real question remains is how do you quote and sell that project because money is also a pain for said customers. How does one find those customers that are willing to take the pain of spending money in order to reduce the pain of lack of software.
A business that's successful, this usually means they recognize that reduction of one of the pain is a good investment. It is because they can use the previously blocked up resources to grow the business.
Understanding the client doesn't always reduce your own pain point though. How in the world do you quote (as accurately as possible) such projects. How do you sell the project? How do you demo it? What skills do you need to learn (front end html/css for example) in order to do the project. What happens when things come up that takes more time? How do you keep the client happy during and after the project? How do you support it?
Lots of questions, unfortunately it's never the same answer. However, the key is empathy of the client's situation. As developers we tend to get into internal speech of "It's not my fault, the client doesn't know what they want" becomes the biggest challenge.
I prefer to let the client know that these hours are estimates and I might have to go over it. However, this isn't a perfect answer and doesn't always work with all clients. Some cases it costs the sale. Reality of the matter is how stressed do you want to be? If you don't need the client as your primary source of income, best not to get yourself too stressed out for nothing. Always take care of yourself.
However, if you have no choice but to take clients who will not understand, I would evaluate your options more closely for the future. Client will never know, but should be willing to at least work with you and give you time if it goes over in order to achieve the reduction of their pain point. If they aren't, then that client will cost you a lot more than extra hours of work that wasn't quoted for. It may cost you some of your sanity.
That being said, that's not been my experience with most clients, and thankfully I always have good options. So keep on keeping on devs. Coffee and keyboard, our best friends in the quest for the next best app.
My career now sits at over a decade and a half old. I have done freelance and quite a bit of work for companies as full time developer. I have learned from some of the greats and had the privilege of working with some of them too.
I am still stumped by one of my greatest mysteries in my career. It's basically what the customer really want. I have found that to be the single biggest reasons for failure of a project. Failure to understand what the customer really want and to get them to agree to a single set of requirement.
Let me preface the paragraph above. It's not really their fault that they don't understand what they want. Software that does essentially the same thing works very differently in terms of user interface and user experience. Most common example of this is how gmail worked vs good old fashioned outlook. Essentially the same idea as far as email sending and receiving goes, but now you didn't need a special software installed locally, wait minutes to hours long depending on the computer. Yet for gmail just open the browser and you have access to your email. It still works this way for most users.
Take another example, good old computer vs mobile tablet or smartphone. It made watching videos on tiny screens an actual past-time. Now the world is in your corner pretty much everywhere you go. No wifi? that's ok my carrier provides X GB of data, I'm fine.
With all this going on, when a user runs into an issue where software isn't ready available, my job as a developer is kicked into action. However, unlike gmail, or any of the other softwares I mentioned above, this is where it goes into the "unknown". So the client sees this as "I don't know what I want, but can you make it?" Just like the mobile device (there is an app for that). Except no one knows what to do when "there is no app for that".
Therein lies the real dilemma. A customer needs something that will reduce the pain they are having and some are willing to pay for the app in order to allow that pain reduction. Real question remains is how do you quote and sell that project because money is also a pain for said customers. How does one find those customers that are willing to take the pain of spending money in order to reduce the pain of lack of software.
A business that's successful, this usually means they recognize that reduction of one of the pain is a good investment. It is because they can use the previously blocked up resources to grow the business.
Understanding the client doesn't always reduce your own pain point though. How in the world do you quote (as accurately as possible) such projects. How do you sell the project? How do you demo it? What skills do you need to learn (front end html/css for example) in order to do the project. What happens when things come up that takes more time? How do you keep the client happy during and after the project? How do you support it?
Lots of questions, unfortunately it's never the same answer. However, the key is empathy of the client's situation. As developers we tend to get into internal speech of "It's not my fault, the client doesn't know what they want" becomes the biggest challenge.
I prefer to let the client know that these hours are estimates and I might have to go over it. However, this isn't a perfect answer and doesn't always work with all clients. Some cases it costs the sale. Reality of the matter is how stressed do you want to be? If you don't need the client as your primary source of income, best not to get yourself too stressed out for nothing. Always take care of yourself.
However, if you have no choice but to take clients who will not understand, I would evaluate your options more closely for the future. Client will never know, but should be willing to at least work with you and give you time if it goes over in order to achieve the reduction of their pain point. If they aren't, then that client will cost you a lot more than extra hours of work that wasn't quoted for. It may cost you some of your sanity.
That being said, that's not been my experience with most clients, and thankfully I always have good options. So keep on keeping on devs. Coffee and keyboard, our best friends in the quest for the next best app.
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