This is really funny but...

This is really funny: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell and so is this http://www.27bslash6.com/p2p.html but you probably wouldn't be laughing the 9th or 10th time it happened to you. And if it happens to you 20 or 30 times, there's a good chance that you won't be in business.

Moaning very humorously about the problems that you have with your clients is great (unless perhaps your clients see it). But what are you going to do then. If you continue to get your ass kicked in exactly the same way time and time again then who's fault is it still?

It's your job to come up with solutions to the problems that arise again and again in your job.

And the only way that you're going to get solutions is by being prepared to try lots of things that don't work

One way of understanding this is something called "The Principle of Requisite Variety". It says that if you want to control something, you have to have as many "moves" as the thing that you're trying to control. Think of it in Bruce Lee terms (as I often do). If you want to control the bad guys (win the fight) you have to have at least as many moves as the bad guys. If you've got more moves than the bad guys, then you'll probably win. If all you've got is that jumping up and down on a wooden pole move you learned from Karate Kid, you're probably not going to win many fights. Some moves you might try:

• Ignore it. See if it goes away.
• Do it, but do it so bad that even they won't like it
• Tell them, flat out that in your professional judgement that that wouldn't be a good thing to do.
• If all else fails, if you really don't want to do this, fire them as a client.
• (perhaps the smarter move) Get rid of such foolishness with pricing. Have a pricing structure that goes like this:
  
  • Initial design £750 (initial %25 discount) for 2 days
  • Amendments to initial design £1000 pounds for 2 days
  • Fucking about and adding kittens, talking to your mother, £100 pounds per minute.

I think one way to phrase this last point might be: "Now we've decided to work together, let me just tell you a bit about the way I work. I'll do an initial design. That should give you an idea about whether I'm any good. If at that point, you don't like what you see, we can part company for a minimal fee (or you might say, even free).

If you DO think I'm good enough, we'll go on,

and the next treatments will be charged at £1000. But one thing I have to say, is that in my experience, there isn't a lot of value going past 3 or 4 versions without actually showing it to users, getting it live on the site and getting the reaction of your customers. Also, lots of little minor changes like that late in the process,

although they don't seem like much, they actually take me a lot of time.

So at that point I do charge by the hour." In my upcoming course - Building the Lean Web Development Team - we deal with the real world problems that web developers and their managers face. Sign up to attend on 20th January 2010 in central London. For further information, contact mark.stringer@gmail.com (07736 807 604)