Not all the clients are the same

Each project is somehow unique and I reckon it’s safe to affirm that each client (the person benefiting from the project’s outcome) is also unique even if is the same person that did another 10 projects with your team. This “rule” applies to almost all the projects in technical areas such as IT, web development, etc. because of the asymmetry of information between the developers and the clients.

It is important to know, as the developer/project manager, what kind of client you’re dealing with, in order to have a smooth client-development team communication:

1. The type that does not know and does not want/is not capable to learn. He just wants things to get done.
2. The type that does not know but does want to learn. He listens and welcomes your explanations.
3. The type that “thinks” he knows and does not want to learn. He knows that modifying that database table should take no more than 1h, so why are you telling him that it will affect the whole database structure and will have major impact on time and budget?
4. The type that knows what he wants but does not know how it can be done. He can tell you how the thing should work but not how to make it work that way.
5. The type that knows what he wants and knows how it can be done. He’s just a web developer like you.

Handling different types of clients

Identifying the type of client you’re dealing with its just the first step. What you do with that is up to you! Here are some “DoNot”s:

Don’t bother the #1 type with a lot of technical explanations about the project. You need to decide how things are to be done, so keep communication simple and to a minimum.

Don’t keep #2 in “the dark”. He finds the new information interesting and he wants to know more about the project

Don’t take type #3 clients … just kidding. Just make sure you can back up your arguments with the usual technical mambo-jambo, err, I mean scientific data.

Don’t confuse #4 with #1. Although they both don’t know about the technical part of the implementation, #4 knows exactly what needs to be implemented, so don’t go too creative with the features

Don’t try to fool the #5 type into agreeing to a bigger than “normal” budget and project time frame. He’ll smell inefficiency right away.

Do you know other types of clients and/or ways of handling them? Share with us!