balancing with clients

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Balancing with Clients

prepared for balanced team summit 2015

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Balancing with Clients


(a love story)

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Sales Process

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The Opportunity

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Which of our offerings interest you?

balancing with clients


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Can you loan us a few devs? We have a tight deadline.

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We’re interested in learning more about Lean Branding…

Can you loan us a few devs? We have a tight deadline.

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What is the problem you are trying to solve?



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People in my country need a place that can print out

their photos, arrange them in an album, then deliver it

to their homes

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High school students often babysit or tutor to earn money, but many don’t know how to run their

business professionally

People in my country need a place that can print out

their photos, arrange them in an album, then deliver it

to their homes

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We can discuss after you sign our NDA

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What do you hope our engagement will accomplish?



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I want to make the site visually attractive and add

some new features

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We want to increase our visitor-to-beta-signup

conversion rate

I want to make the site visually attractive and add

some new features

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Who are your users?

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Women aged 18–46 who shop online

Who are your users?

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We have 200 people signed up, but we don’t really know

Women aged 18–46 who shop online

Who are your users?

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Who else on your team will be involved?

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It’s just me, but I will be available to give you feedback nights and

weekends.


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Danny the Product Manager will be the lead and Jessica is our designer and front-

end developer.

It’s just me, but I will be available to give you feedback nights and

weekends.


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“Research”



Photo: Josh McGinn https://www.flickr.com/photos/svenstorm/5006262443

https://www.flickr.com/photos/svenstorm/5006262443

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What we look for

• Evidence of domain expertise

• Product Manager, Designers, or Developers on staff

• Reasonable technology fit

• Some operating history / experimentation

• Financial backing

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• No legal entity for the company

• Part-time Product Owner

• Negative press, lawsuits, etc.

• Can’t find them at all

Warning signs

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Internet “Research”



Photo: Chris Goldberg https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisgold/15405305459

https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisgold/15405305459

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Breaking Up



Photo: Unknown, probably via Tumblr

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Contracts



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The Contract is a Marriage



Photo: John Morton https://www.flickr.com/photos/jwm_angrymonkey/3274597464

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jwm_angrymonkey/3274597464

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The purpose of this letter (“Agreement”) is to outline the basic terms of our engagement, including the anticipated scope of our services as well as the billing policies and practices that will apply. We look forward to a collaborative working relationship; accordingly, we will collectively refer to <Client Name> and Philosophie as “The Team.”



From our contract:

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From time to time, The Team may agree to specify a budget or other details for a specific project. Such information may be attached to this document as a Statement of Work (“SOW”).



From our contract:

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(Minimum Viable Marriage)



Photo: Unknown, via http://swsweetnam.wordpress.com

http://swsweetnam.wordpress.com

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Getting Started



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Workshops



Design Spike4-Week MVPProduct Team

Venture Investment

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Workshops



Design Spike

4-Week MVP

Product Team

Venture Investment

Com

mitm

ent

Time

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What we look for

• Good client attendance (the right people)

• Engaged clients

• Clients who are excited about collaborative design

• Clients who ask for homework

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• Cancellation

• Incomplete attendance

• Poor preparation

Warning signs

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Project Ops



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Same Team



Photo: Simon Shaw / Glen Durrell https://www.flickr.com/photos/simonshawca/2451425972/in/photostream/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/simonshawca/2451425972/in/photostream/

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Traditional Digital Agency

Account Manager Executive Stakeholder

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Producer / PM

Project Team

Client PMExecutive Stakeholder

Account Manager

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Producer / PM

Project Team

Client PM

Marketing

Executive StakeholderAccount Manager

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Producer / PM

Project Team

Client PM

Marketing

Mystery Stakeholder

Executive StakeholderAccount Manager

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“Same Team” Model

Product Strategist

Designer

Product Owner

Engineer Engineer

Designer

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What we look for

• Team continuity (including through sales process)

• Client-side “Lean Champion”

• Diverse skill sets and perspectives

• Client-side SME

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• Client PM who wants to micromanage

• People missing meetings

• Timelines keep getting pushed

• Mystery Stakeholders

Warning signs

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Continuous Communication



Photo: JF Sebastian https://www.flickr.com/photos/jf-sebastian/1278672897/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jf-sebastian/1278672897/

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What we look for

• Frequent office visits

• Working, not meeting

• Omnipresence on digital collaboration tools

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• Client is never in Slack

• Slow response times

• Client wants us to “just do it”

Warning signs

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“Collaboration Coefficient”



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Artwork: G. C. Katz http://mythicalcreaturelair.deviantart.com/art/Space-Unicorn-403413384

http://mythicalcreaturelair.deviantart.com/art/Space-Unicorn-403413384

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Share values. Rally around a problem.

Minimize “handoffs.” Do things with the client.



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Thoughts?



@skotcarruth [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

balancing with clients

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