Kyle Wiebers

Decision by committee is every freelancers worst nightmare.  Many nights, I’ve woken up in a cold pale sweat dreaming about a group of stakeholders completely changing my initial vision.   Using the four techniques outlined below will help combat decision by committee and get rid of these nightmares for good.

Hold Separate Stakeholder Interviews

Separating stakeholders prevents initial decisions from being made with a domino effect.  This provides lots of help for you in the long run.  Let me give you an example how not separating stakeholders for interviews can be hurtful for you.

I once knew this print designer, let’s call him Phillip.  Well one day, Phillip decided to take on business with a company that had terrible politics throughout the office.  Phillip held design reviews for all of his work with a group of five key stakeholders.  Within this group of five, there was a strongly opinionated individual who “understood” design which the group would tend to follow in these sessions.  After these meetings Phillip would be working and then concerns would be raised privately by the other four stakeholders.  This left Phillip in the position to play office politician just to get his work done, which was not worth the final pay check.

Separating the stakeholders out would have proved beneficial to Phillip, even if only initially.  The extra time spent interviewing will be rewarded with a better understanding of company politics and build a relationship with all your stakeholders.

Define Vision

Doing this before the majority of work begins for an engagement will save you headaches in the future.  A clear vision statement should state the objectives, requirements and a timeframe for completion.  This will set clear expectations for you and the customer up front providing traceability for objectives to refer back to if problems with scope should arise.

Establish Yourself as the Expert

Establishing yourself as the expert in the situation is crucial for young freelancers.  When I first started, I was focused on customer service and the client always knew what’s best.  That’s a surefire way to get dominated in a business relationship.  It’s key to understand that a freelance engagement is a business relationship and should be treated as such.  Your client came to you because you provide expertise in a specific subject matter, be sure to be the expert they sought out.

There will be multiple scenarios in your freelancing career where a client will request that you do something to make them happy, but will reduce the quality or value of the end product.  A recent example of this for me is a client that asked me to double the size of their logo on their new web design to build brand identity. I handled this by thinking through the cost-benefits of the decision.  In this example, increasing the size of the logo would help them with building brand identity, but at the cost of reducing the amount of space to communicate services and having room for content or navigation.  Thinking through the costs for the changes clients request will lead to a logical discussion of this decision and set a precedent for decisions going forward.

Document All Decisions

Written approval statements for all freelance work that will have multiple deliverables is crucial to ensure previous work does not get revisited due to client unhappiness.  If a verbal agreement was made, follow up with your client with an email just clarifying that the component has been approved.  This workflow has been improved by multiple web apps for web designers such as GetSignOff made by the guys at Headscape and ProofHQ.

The Goods

As freelancers, you will encounter a variety of problems none of which will be more painful then decision by committee.  By using the four techniques outline; holding separate stakeholder interviews, defining vision, establishing yourself as the expert and documenting all decision – you’ll have little trouble combating this problem.  Let me know of the worst decision by committee experience you’ve had below in the comments.