Your clients are almost always wrong and always right. All at the same time
When they come to you self diagnosed and ask for specific deliverables. “I want these features. And this website. And this look. This logo bigger. 10 pieces of content.” You get the idea.
They’ve come to these conclusions based on their research (that might be shallow or inexperienced). Or someone told them to do this. They might be wrong. Or right. You will only know when you ask the right questions and dig deeper.
Here are 3 questions (Jonathan Stark’s Why Conversation) that’ll help you start:
Your responsibility is to probe and find out if they’re right and what they want is what will lead them to where they want to be.
You just don’t perform an open-heart surgery because a patient tells you they have a heart disease that needs to be operated now. It might just be heartburn. Or a fart. 🤷♂️
When they come to you, they have a desired state in mind. They want not only a solution, but a way to thrive. In that, they’re absolutely right.
Your responsibility is to probe and articulate what that desired state is. Because how you get them there might not have anything to do with the things they wanted… or the time they think it might take (a.k.a. deliverables).
Your job is to delight them. 🙂
