I have a client who sends me an email every time they chat with someone else about the project. They introduce new thoughts, new changes, new perspectives. As you’d expect, some of the ideas are interesting food for thought and some are terrible. That’s okay – separating the signal from the noise is what we do. But no feedback is helpful if it comes in dribs and drabs over the course of a week.
It makes no sense for us to begin revisions after a presentation until we have all your comments. Otherwise, we’ll just be waist-deep in a reactive and inefficient two-steps-forward-one-step-back process. Deliverers of piecemeal feedback appear indecisive or undiscriminating or both. It’s pretty clear to us that they aren’t thinking that much about what they are sending along. They certainly aren’t comparing new comments to previous ones to see if they contradict each other or even support the same goal. Which unintentionally leaves the decision up to us.
It will be much better to tell us it will take you a week to gather feedback from each of the stakeholders and then put it all in writing for your own review. Then you can be sure that all points are valid and there are no contradicting directions. You then weigh all the opinions and decide which are worth our consideration. This is no small responsibility. One tossed-off comment that you didn’t even feel so strongly about can mean days of work for us. On the other hand, if it’s a serious comment with a real possibility, it will be well worth the exploration.
Here’s another pitfall: The greater the number of emails we have to field, the greater the chance of something important getting lost in the shuffle. (I know you know what I mean.) If instead we have one email to work from, not only can we use it as kind of a checklist, but it will also give us a chance to consider how all of the comments will work together, and propose thoughtful solutions about our next steps.
My favourite way to receive feedback is a combination of a phone call and a follow-up with a written list, from you or us. The call is necessary because we get to be heard and have the opportunity to ask questions and make comments. The list is crucial because it summarises what was discussed on the call and what we think was agreed upon. You don’t want to rely on any one person’s memory of a call because sometimes people walk away with different conclusions.
I tell all my designers to follow my feedback precisely and then also do what they think is right based on how the work is shaping up. We do the same in turn with clients. Maybe you really want us to add a floral element, but when we do it, we know it isn’t working. We’ll show you what you asked for, and then show you what we think could work better, keeping your desired effect in mind.
Another difficult situation is when clients change their mind after giving a go-ahead. Think of it like a construction project. After the ground has been broken, it is expensive (and wasteful of time and energy) to go backward, reconsidering what has already been built. It also messes with our heads and throws the possibility of a single-vision creation out the window.
That said, it can and does happen even with all the best intentions in place. If you preface a change of direction with an acknowledgement of the emotional toll of the change, whatever follows will go down easier.
Adapted from the book Dear Client: This Book Will Teach You How to Get What You Want from Creative People by Bonnie Siegler.
