Proposal + Engagement = Marriage

I recently took the time to notice that the various terms we use in the early stages of a project closely resembles one of life’s greatest and scariest moments.

Marriage.

Marriage is truly one of the hardest jobs any two people can take upon themselves. It requires mutual attraction, love, respect, care, trust and honesty as well as a unified outlook and shared goals for both short and long term achievements. It also involves the creation of life, tragedy of death and everything in between.

I send out lots of proposals to various clients all the time. Clients engage us based on these proposals, yet when it comes to the marriage part there seems to be a lack of attention to the hard work it takes to foster a successful relationship. I believe that the terminology we use in this industry truly embodies the spirit in which the relationship should be based. The art of creation is one that houses emotions, thought, hard work, late nights and most of all care and responsibility. Many of the same attributes that is necessary for a successful marriage.

I sat and meditated on the words – proposal – engagement – marriage.

A website is something that is very finite in its nature. Most sites don’t last more than a year and are typically forgotten and buried amongst the many new sites that launch every single day. However in those few weeks/months that it takes to build a successful site there is an intense relationship between client and vendor that rivals most love affairs. Like many marriages things like schedule, money, attention, listening and speaking are all very important in order to produce something truly inspirational. The logistical day to day activities all lead up to the grand moment at launch when a project goes live and everyone is beaming with pride. However a production full of hiccups, misunderstandings, communication breakdowns and missed goals can end up making both client and vendor very unhappy and uncomfortable ultimately leading to divorce.

Let’s start off with the concept of the idea; the idea is that small spark of attraction that sets off the entire process. It is that romantic phase where everyone is in a daze daydreaming about the potential of the idea and its creation. When you discuss the idea, the small hairs on the back of your neck stand up and the potential of its implementation is endless. The wonderful color schemes, the intuitive navigation, the sexy animations, the serious content and most of all the traffic, oh the traffic!

Sounds like the beginning of most relationships, everything is ideal, the plans are drawn up, the dates are set and the engagement begins.

Having been married for quite some time now I can attest to all my comparisons and I am sure those of you who are also married will see them as well.

The onset of marriage is one of hope and love where both parties are full of giving, passion and commitment. When we kick off a project we exchange ideas, receive assets, money, comps and everyone is excited to see all the new pretty things that are presented during this stage. This is where the standard for the rest of the engagement must be set.

We all know how much goes into a pitch, the flirting and the enticing, the promises and the guarantees, everyone gets dressed up and we bring all kinds of charts and images and past work to prove that we are the best company for the job. What we see here is a level at which everyone hopes to attain during the entire duration of the project and is what will lead to working together successfully now and again in the future.

I may come off sounding too sentimental when it comes to creating interactive websites however when your passionate about what you do everything comes out a bit more dramatic.

Once the proposal is drawn up and all the lawyers and executives read through it a thousand times and that lovely signature is affixed to that popular thin line that is common on every document no matter who the company is, then the real challenge starts.

Let’s face it, no one is perfect and when you need to organize many people to deliver many things it can sometimes get a bit messy. So assets start to lag, the font they used wont work on a PC, the logo is not in its original format and the copy wont be in until the last day of the project. These are all typical things that reveal their evil head into every relationship and challenge it from the get go.

It is this first initial challenge that must be overcome by both parties in order to maintain that passion that existed only a few days ago when that contract was signed. Never let this first bump destroy the relationship and always anticipate and try to work together as to how it can be avoided from the very beginning.

I always try to clearly plan out and establish the exact deliverables for the client before the contract is signed so they know to start gathering up and preparing everything needed for the project. I consider it my job to help avoid this potential bump in the road and try to keep things running smooth from the very beginning.

Every relationship can be shaken no matter how wonderful it starts if the beginning is a bit rocky, so it is important to make sure that this early stage avoids any type of issues. Relationships require a confidence building period where both parties feel safe with one another and trust can be established from the get go.

The client is the woman, she needs to be nurtured and cared for. As the vendor it is our responsibility to listen closely not only to the words but the tone, what is behind the words and how things are being said, It is important to really understand where the client is coming from and how you can better serve them.

I find that many times the vendor will take things personally when it comes to dealing with early issues that may arise and then reflect that back onto the client forming an atmosphere of frustration, no one is here to make anyone’s life miserable so it is important to remember that as the development team you know more than the client and that is why they are paying the huge sums of money to have you complete their projects for them.

Their lack of understanding of the interactive world is not their fault and is the nature of being a specialty provider having to deal with intelligent people who may not fully understand how the online world works.

Once the creative has been signed off on and the client is anxious to now see it come to life, it is the responsibility of the development firm to make sure that expectations are met. Often times the client will see the creative coming to life in a much different way than the development team explains it and it is important to establish expectations early on.

I always make it a point to set a tone name or a theme name to a project so that the client gets an idea of what the motion and interactivity and overall experience will feel like based on its descriptive name.

As the development team you realize that you’re creating this “child”, this entity that will one day leave your hands (or maybe not, but even then you want something easily updateable) and will be fostered by the client in day to day updates, activity, additions, etc.

It’s very important that the site structure, backend, XML, admin tools, CMS, whatever, is clear and easy to use. Once you hand off the project the client definitely doesn’t want to have to come back every single time they need an update and pay for small chunks of time, as the developer you must take the care to make this site usable from an update point of view.

I have seen relationships go sour after a wonderful development period where everything was perfect and harmonious and the files were easily handed off and loaded on to a server then a critical update needed to be done and the XML was so sloppy that the client literally lost their mind trying to make the change. They will not be very happy calling you and having to have you explain why everything looked pretty but underneath it was a mess. No one wants to marry someone who is beautiful on the outside but a complete wreck inside, you get what I mean.

So we have explored the various aspects of the business and development side of an interactive project, compared it to marriage and discussed how to maintain the relationship throughout and hopefully past the project lifecycle.

Retaining your clients is probably the most important part of the business of being a vendor and to do that you literally need to treat the relationship as you would treat a marriage and that is with a lot of understanding, patients, care, responsibility and creativity.

Every step should be treated as if it was the most important and nothing should be overlooked or taken for granted. A relationship is only as strong as the person who wants it least so making sure that both you and client are happy is very important. From the first pitch or RFP to the kick off meeting throughout the development into launch and beyond a project must have the same level of attention and ownership from both sides.

The interactive shop is the key holder of all the knowledge, a professional interactive agency should be aware that they must educate the client along every step so that the client can share the appreciation to detail and complexity of developing the project.

Many developers will get frustrated at the clients lack of understanding, that lack is not the clients fault, it is the responsibility of the vendor to make sure communication and understanding is a top priority and that the client is fully aware of the scope of every phase.

Both sides of a relationship bring equally important things to the table. The client has the big ideas, the money and the brand that require work and the vendor has the resources to get it done.

So the next time you take on a project think about a marriage and how it needs to be treated, make sure your client knows how much you truly care about the relationship and put in the time and the love needed to make the relationship work.

Because divorce is not fun.