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User Experience (Usability)
309 hits
Oct 03, 2003 6:02 am |
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re: Winning the small battles... |
Rebecca St. Martin
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Kyle,
I used to beat my head against the wall, too. (Okay, sometimes, I still do.) But prevailing all has become my desire to make a satisfied client vs. trying to be right.
This doesn't mean you have to sacrifice your own values -- but to remember that relationships are more important than lots of other things in the world. When you place the relationship over the idea you're fighting for, you give the client the chance to settle into that place where they'll understand you better. Without the relationship, that will never happen.
There are also times that clients do what seem to be absolutely and utterly asinine things. Of course, we want to keep them from jumping off the proverbial bridge. But like parents with children, we eventually need to let them go on their own. It's their life (business) they are building. We can only act as their guides. These are the spiritual shifts I make.
From a practical sense, there are two things that have been helpful to me:
If the client's direction is too much to bear, I delegate the work to someone else and oversee that it's done in the spirit it was requested.
If I'm not in a position to delegate, I do the best I can and make sure to play racquetball or lift weights when the work day is done. This project, too, will pass. And hopefully, on the next project, they will have moved to a place closer to trust.
Hope this helps. Let me know how everything turns out, okay?
Private Reply to Rebecca St. Martin (new win) |
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