prerequisites, prompts, and checklists
Friday, 27 April 2007 @ 10:30What type of information do you require from a client before beginning a project? What methods have you found most effective for extracting the critical details necessary to produce a product that they are pleased with and satisfies their needs? Do you use standard prerequisite forms or checklists?
I threw a quick one together a while back for web applications after another frustrating project of trying to read the clients mind and have been considering making a few other for identity development and other design projects. What works for you?
I need to do one of these. For in-house work we’ve tried creative briefs and all sorts of other documents and they never work. We had a written form, and email form and an online form and they all failed due ti people not using them.
But for freelance, this seems absolutely necessary.
this is a skill i need to perfect. usually instructions are not a problem and i can establish time frame, budget limitations, and any other design specifications without a problem.
on some rare occasions they are (as i was just blogging about it today on my site). there seem to be some clients that don’t know what they want… send them specific questions and you get an ‘i don’t know’ kind of response. send them a form, they get offended. despite that, it’s difficult to turn down freelance sometimes, and i hope to hit the mark for the client as best i can, beginning with a series of first drafts and going from there.
I love that we all have the same thought…”yeah, good question. I’ve been meaning to do that, too.” That’s exactly my response. I put something together at one point. About 10 questions. But projects vary so much I found they were rarely relevant.
I’ve been working independently for 6 years now (aka freelance) and while posts have mentioned that it seems most necessary in that case, I find that past experience and instincts are the most reliable source of questions/checklists. Big help, eh? I’m a form and organization freak though, so if someone comes up with something great, I want a copy. :)
I won’t even address challenging clients here. That’s it’s own subject. If you smell a bad one, run like the wind.