Captain’s log, stardate 20161203
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“Are you okay with this hinge?”
Sent by Jonathan Stark on December 3rd, 2016
Yesterday I mentioned that behaving like an expert requires that you make decisions on your client’s behalf.
Here’s a hilarious clip from Seinfeld that demonstrates the exact opposite behavior:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vvWlZUYVOM
Check it out (it’s only 56 seconds long) and then ask yourself...
“Do I sometimes do the exact same thing?” by asking questions like:
- Which of these fonts do you prefer?
- What color do you want the error messages to be?
- How big do you want the buttons in the checkout flow?
Your clients don’t want to be involved in every decision you face during a project.
But if you ask them for an opinion, they’re going to give you one.
And then they’re going to expect you to follow through on their opinion.
This is a big source of scope creep and failed projects.
Stop asking.
Yours,
—J