You're My Favorite Client

To get design’s full value, you need to hire a professional. You need a designer. Would you trust any other valuable part of your business to someone who wasn’t qualified to do it? Would you let your cousin’s best friend do your accounting because they had a calculator? Or let your neighbor reprogram your fuel injection system because they have thr

Challenging the designer’s work in the most productive way possible is the essence of being a client.

The only way out from unclear goals is to talk through them until you’ve achieved clarity of intention. (Pro tip: do this in a room with no windows and no chairs that also smells like eggs. You’ll cut your time in half.)

Your designer needs to set the stage for you. Remember my speech about hope in the last chapter? (Go back and reread it if you don’t.) Every design presentation should start with some form of: “Here’s what we need your feedback on today.” That may be followed by the helpful: “Here’s what we’re not ready to talk about yet.” If your designer doesn’t

If the project is big enough, you may have a couple of payments due at agreed-upon milestones, with a final payment on completion. I advise designers to define completion as something within their control. For example, if your designers are delivering front-end code for your internal team to implement, completion should be defined as the delivery o

When a designer puts something in front of you, especially if it’s technically tricky, evaluate the effect that piece of functionality has on your deadline. If you don’t know whether something is technically tricky, ask. Here’s a secret: they will always say no. But if it’s tricky, they’ll hesitate for a second before saying no. At which point, ask

So when you discuss pricing with your designer (and it should be a discussion), make sure they can stand behind their quote. Have them walk you through it and explain why they’re charging what they’re charging. You should get an itemized breakdown for the project’s major parts. Some designers and studios may even be willing to give you an hourly li

To any designers reading this book: I’m here to help you too. Many clients have never bought design services. Don’t assume your clients come to the table knowing what you need to make the process go well. Feel free to use this book to introduce new clients to the design process. The more your clients know what’s needed to make a project, the more s

We hire professionals because we can hold them accountable. If you get audited, you better believe you’re taking your accountant with you to the hearing. If the credit card processing system on your site goes down, you want to know that your engineering team is on it. You also want to be able to call them into your office and ask what happened. Whe

I’ll tell you a secret. I do most of my testing by grabbing people who’re on the way to the bathroom. I say, “Hey, can you look at this real quick?” They’re stressed out with a full bladder and don’t have time to putz around, which means they need to make a fast decision. They’re also less likely to be nice, because I’m keeping them from peeing