Captain’s log, stardate 20170301

“How can I guarantee an ROI when my clients don’t heed my advice?”

Sent by Jonathan Stark on March 1st, 2017

Yesterday, I got a three questions in Slack from UX Strategy Consultant David Parmelee.

David graciously agree to let me share them with you. I’ll start with this one:

I do UX strategy and research, not implementation. During development, some of my clients have cut the most important features from the users’ perspective. They haven’t consulted me for these because of budget. How can I guarantee an ROI when my clients don’t heed my advice?

Great question!

ROI comes in many forms, not just bottom line return. (i.e., what’s the ROI on a latte?)

If you do strategy, the ROI does not come at the end of the implementation. It is immediate.

It can come in various forms depending on why the client paid for the strategy work:

Decreased risk
Increased clarity
Organizational alignment (i.e., getting everyone “rowing in the same direction”)
Escape from analysis paralysis
etc

The bigger the client and the riskier the project, the more important - and therefore, valuable - the strategy.

Tomorrow, I’ll answer David’s second question:

> How can someone who can’t be on call 24/7 offer retainers that aren’t defined as a block of hours?

Stay tuned!

Yours,

—J

P.S. Would you like a full year of 24/7 access to me in Slack? Slack access is FREE when you buy a 1-on-1 coaching call: https://jonathanstark.com/call