129 - Handling Conflict

What this episode covers

How do you handle conflict in a design project? Subscribe: ITUNES | ANDROID | STITCHER | RSS FEED   Music and links from this episode Zapomnieç by Nonima Viscous by FRAIL Perfect Match by Kilyo Line-by-line notes Every designer has worked on frustrating projects Most design projects have little bumps in the road But sometimes, they turn into full on car crashes At some point in every designer’s career They’re going to have to handle conflict This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess MUSIC Design projects can go wrong in a thousand ways If you’re really unlucky, they’ll go wrong in a thousand ways all at once The client can be wrong, the designer can be wrong, the research can be wrong Deadlines might get missed, emails might get missed, meetings might get missed People easily misunderstand things Seriously, there’s so much that can go wrong It’s no wonder then that experienced designers have to become conflict resolution experts Let’s talk about one of the most common ways conflict arises in a project A client making lots of changes to a design You’ve been working with a client You’ve been designing them a new logo But you just can’t seem to get it completed Every time you think you’re nearly there The client makes another change And most of the changes the client is making seem pointless What do you do? When a client is making lots of changes to any kind of design work There’s something deeper going wrong It could be the designer isn’t good enough and the client feels like they need to improve it It could be that the client is being polite and that they don’t really like the design but they’re trying to improve it stealthily Finally, it could be the client thinks they’re the designer And they merely see you as a facilitator of their ideas Whenever a design goes through more than a couple of changes And you don’t feel like you’re getting anywhere with the project You can’t keep going and not saying anything At some point, for everybody’s sanity, a conversation needs to be had The air needs to be cleared In a situation like this You need to ideally get to the problem before everybody gets pissed off Which is sometimes easier said than done, because people can be excellent at hiding when they’re annoyed Then that conversation needs to be had These kind of conversations aren’t easy for anybody Nobody likes talking about negative stuff Unless you’re some kind of monster, or you’re used to that kind of thing Lay out the problem or issue clearly to your client “It seems like we’re struggling to get this piece of design work signed off” “Why do you think that is?” “What’s stopping us from getting this work signed off from your end?” Then let them talk When you’re trying to resolve a conflict, you need to encourage your client to talk You need to get every last bit out of them Every last annoyance and hangup about you needs to come out And even though that could be uncomfortable to hear Don’t be tempted to go on the offensive Don’t be tempted to elevate the situation to start to argue or fight back Let your client talk and explain the situation Once they’ve explained their entire situation, then you have the time to talk Explain your point of view, but don’t blame anybody Be polite and friendly Because at the end of the day Everybody wants the same thing The designer wants to do a good job and make the best possible thing for their client that they can and the client wants the designer to make the best possible thing they can Sometimes though, things get muddled a little bit And tensions can build up Make sure you iron them out as soon as you can And keep your projects running smoothly and stress free MUSIC This was AADA and I’m Craig Burgess I had to reuse music from episode 86 today, as Free Music Archive was down I featured: Zapomnieç by Nonima Viscous by FRAIL Perfect Match by Kilyo For a line by line rundown of this episode go over to...