The Downfall of a Working Relationship

I had a few topics I wanted to write about, but I’m getting tired of complaining so here’s a synopsis of all of them.

The Big Picture

This is a term we heard a lot from one of our clients last year. In all our meetings and correspondance they kept refering to “the big picture” and how we needed to have a vision for that. From our perspective it was pretty clear that they didn’t have a solid grasp on what their big picture actually was, and whenever we tried to pry into it, to challenge it, or to provide some necessary critical feedback to help guide the project they resisted – with a vengeance.

We’ve learned a few good things from having dealt with poor clients over the years, but this one takes the cake. The client had a pretty rough vision for what they wanted, but they didn’t want to take the time to outline a clear description of that vision. Any attempt to bring this to their attention basically turned the conversation to one where they accused us of not seeing the bigger picture. It was a very weird circular thing they were doing.

One thing for sure they were clear about: they “knew” they were right and if anyone else can’t see that then they obviously weren’t on board or didn’t understand the vision for the company.

The End of a Terrible Friendship

We had gone into a really intense project and were nearing the end of the initial contract. In all, we were exhausted, overly stressed, unimpressed with the leadership of the company we were working for, and had allowed ourselves to be driven into a corner where we knew that no matter what we produced it “wouldn’t be right” in our client’s mind.

It was a very difficult position for us to be in, and it was clear that we had to end our relationship with this client. So we tidied up our end of the agreement, tied it off and let them know that we weren’t going to sign another contract with them. This was an easy decision for us, but a difficult one to deliver. At first, it felt really good to have unburdened ourselves from the client, but later on we realized that not signing another contract wasn’t the end of our dealings with them.

It was a shame, actually. There was so much promise at the beginning of the project that everyone was really excited to work together and produce a new and innovative product. We had taken on the project with high hopes but the whole thing took a turn for the worse not soon afterwards.

It’s tough, being a small business and having to drop a big client. You want to keep them on because there’s revenue, reliability, and security. However, when those three things are completely outweighed by stress, pressure, incomprehensible leadership, you have to seriously consider why you got into the project in the first place because it might not actually align with your core business values – and if it doesn’t then you’re just doing bitch work.

Furthermore, if your client is putting you into a position where they’re not taking your professional advice then they’re not letting you do your job. If they’re not letting you do your job then you have a major problem, one that could potentially bite you in the ass.

If you get into a situation where they disregard your advice and start to blame you for something going wrong when you clearly told them to do something else then you’re fucked.

We got into this position with a client and had to let them go. We tried to do this gracefully, but they kicked and screamed as they started to go down without us.

Watching the Hindenburgh Go Down

In one form or another, the whole point of doing good work is to make sure that there’s success at the end of the day. You certainly don’t want to see your projects and your clients’ businesses tank. So, when this starts it’s really not a good feeling you get from having to sit back and watch it happen. But, that’s life I guess.

We don’t have much connection or insight into our ex-client’s business, but it’s pretty clear that the management problems we were facing never went away. It seems to us that there were problems at the top of the organization since they incorporated, ones that were absolutely clear to us but apparently not to anyone else.

Anyways… They’re done. We moved on.

Finally

If you’re starting a design firm – if you’re a designer – read Mike Monteiro’s book Design is a Job and do exactly what he says:

get a fucking lawyer