[Sigia-l] love thy client (was Re: [Sigia-l] "Study: Content Management Tools Fail")

[christina wodtke]

> 1) Client - Most clients have a vague (really vague) idea about what
> they need to solve the problem.

This is an arrogant and shocking statement, and I would never hire a
consultant that I suspected thought this.

In my experience when I was on the other side of the table was that the
client had a very deep understanding of the problem. They weren't always
great at communicating it succinctly, since they had been soaking in it for
a long time. But they knew not only the problem, but all the ramifications
of it (and btw, "the" client is usually a dozen people.. you also have to
figure out who beyond your contact holds the knowledge you need). It may
seem vague because the client knows a bit too much.

Meanwhile the consultant usually brings the table a sense of process as well
as potential domain expertise.. though not always the second. The
consultant's first job then is to assist in articulating succinctly what the
client knows to drive the design/selection/etc. if that's what needed. I've
seen consultants ignore what the client said and plow forward with what they
thought was right. Later, they wondered why their "excellent" solution
wasn't implemented.

I recently hired some consultants (actually, some folks from a couple design
companies) to help with a major redesign and I'll tell you I hired folks
that came to the table with their skills, listened to what we know, and
formed a partnership to work together. Any consultant who tried to pull this
nonsense "We'll tell you what to do, you hired us to be the experts"
bullhockey I crossed off the list.

Perhaps that's just one client speaking, but perhaps I represent a few
others....