5 Lessons From The Most Difficult Client Project I Have Ever Had

For the last few months I've been working on a client project that has tested me to the limit. I struggled with everything from project management, project complexity and managing expectations. We are now in the final stages of the project and as much as there were times during this project where I felt completely overwhelmed and stressed out, I'm also really grateful I've had this experience because it has taught me tonnes about myself - what I'm good at (and not), where I need to improve and what I now know for future client projects.

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Before I share all this, it's important to say that often when people are talking about difficult projects, they explain everything that's wrong with their client. I've heard people say things like ‘My client wasn’t clear what they wanted, my client was disrespectful, my client was arrogant and thought their way was better.’ I've also been guilty of this in the past. Of course, there are clients that are easier to work with than others. A client that has a clear vision with clear brand guidelines and goals may well be easier to work with than a client that has none of those. However, I now strongly believe that although their may be clients that are easier to work with than others, difficult clients are often difficult because they are a reflection of how you have guided them through the freelancing process. A client’s behaviour is shaped by your systems and processes (or lack of) that they are following. As Thorir Runarrson mentions in episode 34 of the podcast, it may be helpful to do a project post mortem to really understand how a project went and where you can improve.

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I hope this provides some inspiration for you or, if nothing else, a reason to feel smug about how much better your freelancing ability is than mine! With all that being said, here is my post mortem:

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1) Not asking enough questions!

If you don’t understand precisely what the client wants you to do vs what they are going to do before signing a contract, I personally think you haven’t asked enough questions to hammer out the details. Here are some questions I wish I delved in to more than I did (or asked and didn’t dig deep enough).

Is the goal of the project clear? WHY is that the goal of the project? Is that really the goal of the project?

How does the website fit in to the broader business goals?

What is the current communication strategy with clients? Who is managing that?

Do you know what success looks like from the project and working together?

Are there team members that will work with you on the project or not (eg. marketing managers, graphic designers?

Is the scope clearly defined?

Are there custom elements that you can’t do and will need to either hire people for or get paid extra to do within the scope?

Are you doing the brand identity or are they doing the brand identity?

What does a brand refresh mean to the client?

These are just some of the questions I wish I dug deeper in to. This helps with my second lesson.

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2) Clear Contract

Without knowing the precise details, it’s hard to write a contract which sets clear boundaries which you can point to when there is scope creep or the goal posts keep moving as to what success is for the client.

As Max Joles said in his recent webflail interview (coming out in late May if you’re reading this before), make sure what you do vs they do is clearly defined.

By clearly knowing which team members are involved, you know who is responsible for copy, images, brand identity, strategy, project management etc etc. This then needs to be put in a contract.

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3) Brand Refresh

One specific part of a webdesign + development project that I think is important to highlight is a brand refresh.

I have been involved in a couple of projects where the phrase “a brand refresh,” is used and what it turns out to mean is a re-brand. Even by just changing a font, which completely changes the look and feel of a brand and should be carefully considered anyway, it’s never just a font.

I think it’s important to say that a brand identity changing requires new brand guidelines before starting a web design project. This is because it affects all marketing assets and more! Changing a brand identity even by just changing a font (which it almost never is just a font) changes so many elements across a brand → any downloadables, any thumbnails, any images with the old brand identity need to be re-done.

So when a founder says can we include the brand refresh within the web design, I think it’s important to carefully consider saying yes before blindly taking on a hell of a lot of work to ensure consistency across a brand.

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4) Ask Why And Say No More

Why? Why do you want to add a new colour to the colour palette? Why do you need an about page with 3000 words? Why does this page even exist?

But asking questions to your client, you can deeper understand why they are telling you to make changes. They might give you clear instructions to solve problems that are not even real or there is a far better solution that you would recommend if you understood the problem they were trying to solve.

More dialogue = more share understanding = more team work.

In order to please the client, I found I was saying yes too much. Yes, I can change that. Yes, I we can build that. Yes, we can move in a different direction.

But sometimes, I found I said yes to things I didn’t know how to do. This overpromising and then underdelivering frustrated the client and made me lose their trust.

It’s important to not try to please the client at the expense of setting realistic expectations for you and them.

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5) Project Management

I found the tighter I managed the project, the smoother it went.

Things that helped:

• Overcommunicating - write notes after meetings and send them to the client. If you don’t communicate enough, the client may get worried!
• Make a massive spreadsheet and update it daily - Matt Evans helped me with this because I was not good enough at project management. Hugely important to stay on track with doing what you need to do on a daily basis to get through the project. This also helps the client stay accountable to send you what you need by whenever you need it.
• Organising meetings in advance - if you can book in regular meetings with your client, this will help you have regular conversations to stay aligned and on track

Hope these help you avoid the same mistakes I did!