Brandon Muramatsu

Projects and Clients: Learning Lessons from Web Freelancers

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Lessons Learned

Photo Credit: Sweetknez23/flickr, cc-by-nc-nd

Lessons Learned

I read an article on WebWorkerDaily that summarized two other articles (“Getting to No” and “4 Signs That Your Potential Clients Aren’t Interested (and What to Do About It)“) about selecting and working with clients that are applicable to our work at OEIT. Well, with a little translation.

OEIT

OEIT takes on projects dealing with educational innovation and technology. We’re supposed to work to either scale up interesting projects that have been prototyped by faculty/researchers or explore innovative technologies with the potential for broad adoption at MIT and beyond. And what I believe really makes us different is a view to connecting the dots and scaling up. We may choose to work on some fairly narrowly defined projects for individual faculty, but we do so with an eye to what we can leverage more broadly.

So, OEIT is a bit different from the target audience of WebWorkerDaily, which focuses on freelancers and consultants. But we’re also similar. We have the choice as to which projects to take on, how to integrate those projects with a greater whole, and how to accomplish the goals of the project.

Nevertheless, I think we can learn a lot from the two posts, and some of these items I’ve already tried to nudge us toward.

Warning Signs

I’m going to build upon the WebWorkerDaily summary of the two posts, and for completeness I’ll list the two summary bullet lists and then say how it might apply to OEIT.

From Red Flags: When to Say “No” to a Potential Client:

  • The never-ending contract revisionist. Beware the prospect that keeps making revisions to the contract — it’s likely they will show similar goal post-moving tendencies during the project.

    [/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][For OEIT: We don’t usually ask for a contract, we typically work internally with other individuals and organizations within the university. Nevertheless, it’s probably worthwhile for us to agree to an internal contract for why we’re working on a project and what we intend to get out of it. And we should probably do the same thing with the client. If we can’t clearly state our goals and the scope, we shouldn’t enter into the agreement. (I hope to expand upon this more later.)]

  • The giant project team. Large project teams can lead to extended timelines and compromised results.

    [For OEIT: This one can be a challenge in a large organization that works by consensus. Nevertheless if we want to get something done, it’s critical to have a small, focused project team. Design by committee seems to rarely result in a good nor even satisfying project/product.]

  • Mr. or Mrs. Vague. If the prospect can’t provide a detailed description of what it is they’re after, they’re likely not engaged enough to produce a good result.

    [For OEIT: Amen, this has been a root cause of many of our problems. We’ve let clients meander about and take us away from why we got involved in the first place. We’ve become general purpose developers, and have gotten away from our “internal contract”–working on the part of the project that meets our mission and goals. Thus having that “internal contract” and a client contract are important, and regularly checking progress against those is even more important.]

  • The prospect with ants in their pants. If the client is proposing unreasonable project deadlines, you need to understand why that is.

    [For OEIT: Absolutely! This goes to our lesson learned: Speak with the Actual Client.]

  • The vanishing boss. You don’t want to have the boss disappear while you’re working on the project, then suddenly appear later on to tell you that what you’re doing is wrong.

    [For OEIT: ’nuff said, this is probably always the case.]

WebWorkerDaily. (2009, October 21). “Red Flags: When to Say “No” to a Potential Client. Retrieved on October 24, 2009 from WebWorkerDaily Website: http://webworkerdaily.com/2009/10/21/red-flags-when-to-say-no-to-a-potential-client/

From 4 Signs That Your Potential Clients Aren’t Interested (and What to Do About It):

  • It’s been a week since their last email.

    [For OEIT: This is something that is often misinterpreted as a blessing. But, one of the things that is within our control is good communication.]

  • They keep asking for more of your previous work.

    [For OEIT: This is something we don’t usually face.]

  • They ask you to make “samples.”

    [For OEIT: This can either mean it’s a fishing expedition, or their looking for pro-bono work. In the first case, ask questions as to why, in the second remind the client we do the majority of our work through our base funding to support educational innovation in undergraduate education at MIT.]

  • The project is all talk and no action.

    [For OEIT: I sometimes feel we get stuck in this situation too often, and also cause it too often. Nothing concrete, just a gut feel. Something we need to be aware of and take steps to address and mitigate.]

WebWorkerDaily. (2009, June 23). “Red Flags: When to Say “No” to a Potential Client. Retrieved on October 24, 2009 from WebWorkerDaily Website: http://webworkerdaily.com/2009/06/23/4-signs-that-your-potential-clients-arent-interested-and-what-to-do-about-it/

Conclusions

Too early to tell. I can only work hard to try and prevent what Santayana cautioned against…

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Santayana, G. (1905-1906). Life of Reason, ‘Reason in Common Sense,’ ch. 12

(Often misquoted and used out of context. I just learned a little bit about the actual context, and I think I’ve been using it if not in context, at least closer to the original context. I’ve know the actual quote since AP U.S. History in high school–aka over twenty years now.)

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