Working with Clients

Information flow. It’s a problem we experience every day, and all too often in this line of work. When information flow is halted, it is as if you’ve jumbled your index cards before a big presentation and now you don’t know exactly what you have to focus on to keep things moving. The path to an efficient workflow and timely completion has experienced a slight disconnect. In this case, you have to fumble through your information and possibly come off looking poorly to your client, which nobody ever wants to do.

So how can you manage information better? As a project begins, the information flow is reasonable; you ask questions and get answers to help you develop the project scope. Email is a great resource because you are given a digital paper trail; however, a lot of time can be spent on the phone gathering information. How do you keep that portion straight? This is where I used to jot notes on scraps of paper and text files, but ended up getting the information jumbled at some point, which usually left me with egg on my face.

When I started following the David Allen methods of “Getting Things Done,” I realized that I had to start controlling my information flow a whole lot better. Today, my methods still utilize notes on paper and a few spread out files in a project folder; however, after I have gathered some information via phone or face-to-face conversation, I sum up the information and email it to the client. That gives them the opportunity to tell me if I have a full understanding of what they’re looking to achieve. And, I have a concise trail that I can refer back to if I get stumped on a portion of the project (or if the client questions the direction). This has turned me from the “Absent Minded Developer” to “Dr. Development” so to speak.

I have been focusing on website work lately will explain a good portion of my initial information gathering requests as seen by my clients. But I think this method can be tailored to meet any type of project needs.

PROJECT – WebsiteXYZ

SECTION:Homepage

• What you need this section to do
• Why you need this section to do that
• What you hope to accomplish in this section

SECTION:Register

• What you need this section to do
• Why you need this section to do that
• And so on and so forth

I know, it’s dead simple methodology. The point is: I have found it to be quite successful when working with new clients. When you ask, “What do you need me to do?” you leave the door wide open to a wealth of potentially unhelpful information or even unrealistic expectations. By asking specific questions, tracking answers and reporting back to the client, you begin to manage expectations and create an open information flow that protects you both in the end. Create and follow a method for each project you get involved with. It will help your sanity and efficiency ten fold.