February 8, 2017
“hey, this is cool, but you gotta pay me more”
Today in one of my Slack rooms, I got into a thread with a developer friend about how to manage a client who was overstepping their bounds on a fixed price engagement.
It’s a little long but I’m pretty sure you’ll find it useful.
NOTE: For some mysterious reason, my friend asked to be referred to in this message as Justin Timberlake. Regretably, I’m not actually in a chat room with JT :-(
Yours,
—J
Justin Timberlake
So, I have this project I’m working on (development project), and I did not anticipate the client’s desired frequency and duration of phone calls. Like, we’ll have had three this week with me, client, and two other outside contractors, all running at least 2 hours. Which is fine, but… it’s sucking up all of my focus.
I need to come up with a good way to say “hey, this is cool, but you gotta pay me more”
like yeah, as part of hiring me for development, I’ll give you some advice… but this is becoming too much
Anybody been in that situation/have language they’ve used?
Jonathan Stark
re long frequent calls: what is the nature of the engagement? i.e., what were you hired to do?
Justin Timberlake
development
hired b/c I’m the expert
so I don’t mind offering a decent amount of strategic input, but… damn
Jonathan Stark
that’s two different things :troll:
Justin Timberlake
yes I realize that
Jonathan Stark
how are you being paid?
hourly or fixed?
Justin Timberlake
flat fee
Jonathan Stark
nod nod
Justin Timberlake
if it was hourly I’d ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Jonathan Stark
do you feel like you’re adding value in the meetings or is it a waste of time to sit in on them?
Justin Timberlake
adding value
there’s some “let’s come back to the path, we’re waaaay in the weeds here”
but that’s just the nature of things
Jonathan Stark
it sounds like a lot of meeting time. what would you say is the cause of that?
Justin Timberlake
1) lots of things to be figured out 2) lots of indecision/anxiety on the part of the client
he needs reassurance
Jonathan Stark
re #2 oof
Justin Timberlake
I mean, that’s ok to some extent; I get it
there’s a feeling of “we have to get this right” b/c it could be huge
but he’s too far on the side of “start with perfect” vs iterate to perfect
Jonathan Stark
how are you deciding what’s “right?”
Justin Timberlake
what I know from experience, and inputs from him on what his community is like
I’m not the only party, though
there’s another outside person who is mainly marketing
Jonathan Stark
so, lots of time spent deciding “how big to make the logo?”
Justin Timberlake
oh no no
actual real more important things
like “what discussion forum/group platform do we use to best build a real sense of community”
Jonathan Stark
gotcha
Justin Timberlake
what content do we launch with, how is it sold, etc.
Real Decisions™
Jonathan Stark
sounds like the kind of stuff that coulda/shoulda been decided before the dev project. would that have been possible?
Justin Timberlake
yeah - I thought they had more of this stuff figured out before coming to me :slightly_smiling_face:
which, again - fine, but
Jonathan Stark
(btw, i’m not being critical, just trying to get the context)
Justin Timberlake
for sure
like, this is great, it’s an opportunity for me to help drive decisions
Jonathan Stark
only great if you’re getting paid equitably :slightly_smiling_face:
Justin Timberlake
yep
Jonathan Stark
what is the overall objective for the project?
Justin Timberlake
help tens/hundreds of thousands of people in [REDACTED]
Jonathan Stark
is it a pro bono site?
Justin Timberlake
nope
$18/month
~$100/year launch promo, probably
Jonathan Stark
mkay, so semantics, but helping those people is not the objective it’s the mission (which is bigger than just this project, probably)
what’s the specific objective for this project?
how will success be measured?
Justin Timberlake
number of members
Jonathan Stark
perfect
Justin Timberlake
(keep it coming - this gets into the part of VBF I struggle with, but let’s go through it)
Jonathan Stark
is there anything you can do to measure progress toward that goal prior to launching?
Justin Timberlake
not as planned
Jonathan Stark
which means youre shooting in the dark and taking a lot of time to aim
Justin Timberlake
yep, exactly
Jonathan Stark
k, we’re on the same page
two options:
- Decrease the amount of time spent in meetings by pointing out that as a team you’re spending too much time making decisions based on not enough data. This is not just a waste of everyone’s time, but significantly increases the risk of failure.
- Change the nature of your engagement by saying that you were under the impression that you were hired to do development but in reality it’s at least half a strategic engagement. He can either pay you for the strategy sessions, or you can opt out of some or all of the meetings and just do as you’re told.
I much prefer #1
2a is my second fave (i.e., increase your rate)
2b is the worst option (i.e., do as you’re told)
Justin Timberlake
roger that
yeah, think that makes sense
agree 2b is turrible
Jonathan Stark
agreeing as a team to some progress metrics would perhaps go a long way toward calming his nerves
Justin Timberlake
mm, yeah
Jonathan Stark
Option 1 is a bit of a tough sell since the plane is already in flight, but IMHO it’s the most humane option for the client
keeps him on budget, increases chances of success, and decreases the amount of time wasted in meetings
Justin Timberlake
yeah, can’t let it continue as-is b/c it’ll end with me table-flipping
thanks for the guidance!
Jonathan Stark
YW! I should maybe do this for a living ;-)
Thanks for reading! See you tomorrow.
—J