[Sigia-l] The power of anonymity on forums

[Listera]

Jonathan Baker-bates:

> Quite a lot of design constraints come from lawyers in my experience,

In the U.S. financial industry you have 3 layers: lawyers, compliance
officers and consultants (former lawyers or compliance officers :-) that
they both rely on. In the U.S., there is codified law/regulation/precedence,
SEC "guidelines" and common sense. If you want to see how utterly absurd the
notion of "best practices" has become, then there's no better place to
plunge into than the ridiculously murky waters of constraints/compliance in
the financial industry. I'd better stop right here. :-)

> and when they charge about 10 times more than you do per hour...

Funny you should say that. I usually come in to lead a project after
internal and external teams have failed to solve some fundamental problems.
After we discuss what the project is all about, the client says, "So how
much will you charge?" My answer has always been, "How much would your
lawyer charge to get you out of this kind of a mess?" The first thing the
client does is laugh nervously and then do a quick calculation in their
head. I end up charging 100-75% what their lawyers would have. As a
consultant, I almost never make less than their in-house lawyers.

I bring this up because I frequently use lawyers as a pivot point to explain
to clients the value of design as business strategy. If I'm successful in
framing it as such, then they rarely complain about what I charge. Indeed,
this puts them at a different frame of mind with respect to design, what I
do and what they must do to not waste what they pay me. It fosters a sense
of urgency. So long live the lawyers. :-)

----
Ziya

"Innovate as a last resort."