Closer To The Ideal

Darren Hoyt has a great post up about “the empty handed client“:

But what happens when a client has nothing to submit — no photos, no taglines, no logos, no text, no identity? …Obviously a project can begin without all the materials, but it’s far from ideal. In the absence of photos and text, you can help the process along by quizzing the client about their industry, business philosophy or desired audience. In this sense, you’re getting a feel for “content” even without materials.

In response to it, I posted a comment about classic mistakes that clients make. I’m reposting my comment here:

If my client is empty-handed, unsure even of the idea of their site, then I feel the best option is to talk to them, to help them clarify their thoughts. Sometimes I feel like a therapist, listening as the client pours out their hopes and dreams and fears and worries.

We’ve acquired 3 new clients this summer. In all 3 cases, I was brought in at an extremely early phase, before the basic idea of the site was decided. I do not mind sitting in on brainstorming sessions. So long as the client can pay me for the time I spend at meetings, I enjoy helping them avoid mistakes.

For instance, one mistake is the behavior pattern I would describe as “too much brainstorming”. If I’m in meeting with the client for the 3rd time and the meeting is still a pure brainstorming session, I warn the client that they are at risk of wasting a lot of money on simply trying to figure out what they should do. I once saw a substantial fortune wasted on what turned out to be a 2 year long brainstorming session.

I’m sympathetic to the argument that the opposite is also true: it is crazy to risk a vast fortune on an idea that you have not thought about carefully, so a prolonged period of testing the permutations of an idea can certainly be justified if the project seems likely to be huge. So, as I said, I don’t mind sitting in on the brainstorming sessions, so long as the client can pay me. I feel especially helpful when the client suggests something that I know, from previous experience, is a terrible idea. Certain thought patterns are traps, they always fail, yet they are quite common among clients considering their first web project. Among those traps:

1.) If I (the client) build it they will come (also know as, “If I have a clever idea, I won’t need a marketing budget, because the site will get mentioned on TechCrunch/Newsweek/The New York Times”).

2.) Feature-itis: “If I add in all the good features from all the popular sites, then my site will be as popular as all those other sites combined.”

3.) I can/should be all things to all people.

4.) If one person offers a single piece of off-hand, poorly thought-out, casual feedback, we will immediately re-design the entire site to comply with their feedback. And then tomorrow, when someone else offers some casual, poorly thought-out feedback, we will do the same. And then the next day…

5.) Flash is more dazzling than anything that HTML can offer, therefore our whole site should be built in Flash.

6.) Things that move or blink grab my attention, therefore if everything on the page moves or blinks, we will have a truly attention getting site.

7.) Text is boring.

8.) Images are always better than text.

9.) I (the client) am over the age of 35/40/45/50 therefore people will think I’m out-of-date and too old to be starting a web business. I will prove my youthfulness by only using the most bleeding-edge technologies.

10.) Bleeding edge technologies are always more interesting than older technologies such as text.

11.) Users prefer cutting-edge technologies over older technologies such as text.

12.) The more creative/unusual the interface, the more interested people will be.

13.) If my site starts off with a narrow focus, then its prospects for growth will be limited. People will pigeon-hole it and I won’t be able to add new content channels later.

14.) I can spend my money at an unsustainable rate because 6 months from now my site will be bringing in a profit.

15.) I have a lot of money right now, therefore I am a genius web entrepreneur (the money may have come from inheritance, good luck selling a house at the peak of the housing boom, or perhaps thrift at a younger age - none of which confers the business skills needed to run a business, online or off).

I could go on. I’ve seen many mistakes, and I’ve seen a few successes, or, at least, glimpses of successes. When a client comes at me empty-handed, I talk to them until an idea takes shape and seems concrete enough that construction can begin.

I do think it is wise to try to get to something concrete as fast possible (as per 37Signals). It might be impossible to get the whole idea mapped out quickly, but sometimes small parts of it can be made solid. I think it is wise to have the graphic designer try to put visuals on anything that can be agreed upon as unlikely to change.

I also liked an earlier post that you (Darren) wrote, over at Sitepoint, about working toward a single mockup for the front page (rather than offering 3 different versions of the front page). I do think that getting the front page into a concrete form greatly helps getting the whole project solid.