Introverted Freelancer’s Guide to Writing a Winning Proposal — Part 2
The Discovery Process
There is nothing New and Woo about the Discovery Process. During the post-war era, Edwards Deming introduced the Discovery process
into the Quality Management Systems that helped rebuild the Japanese manufacturing base. His work was “rediscovered” by American manufacturers in the 80’s when Japan was kicking the American industrial powers in the butt. The Total Quality Management movement became the management system gospel, for any company that wanted to focus on producing a good (profitable) product and customer -centric service.
into the Quality Management Systems that helped rebuild the Japanese manufacturing base. His work was “rediscovered” by American manufacturers in the 80’s when Japan was kicking the American industrial powers in the butt. The Total Quality Management movement became the management system gospel, for any company that wanted to focus on producing a good (profitable) product and customer -centric service.During the late 80’s and early 90’s, Nick and I were both very active in the Quality movement and worked to integrate quality system processes into publishing products and services. We have until recently included, at no additional cost, a Discovery session when first working with a potential client. As has happened to every Freelance developer or designer, a certain percentage of those potential tire-kicking clients take what you have given them for free, and wandered off to do business with someone else.
Our company now charges for Discovery — Period — Full Stop.
Our experience has shown that clients value what they pay for. I currently have two pages on our site, Pleiades Publishing Discovery Process and Why Does Pleiades Require a Discovery Session which describes what a paid website discovery process is the product of the client discovery session, and our current pricing for Discovery sessions. You can read, adapt and apply the details to fit your freelance practice.
The Why of Discovery
The top takeaways about Discovery:
1. Detailed project /client discovery is necessary to develop an accurate Scope of Work that allows the developer/designer/content strategist to give a reliable time and cost estimate for the project.
2. Our business and WordPress experience adds value to the process — Clients don’t know what they don’t know.
3. The process identifies inaccurate assumptions and improves communication.
4. Gets to the real motivations, agendas, drivers, expectations, goals on the table at the beginning, instead of being surprised by time-released, headaches throughout the project — when expectations are clear on both sides, implementation is less stressful for everyone.
The How of Discovery
Do your homework before the meeting —
- Review Client’s Intake Questionnaire
- Review Client’s Site
- Do a Google search both the client and the market space
- Review their current site and marketing materials
- Review their competitors’ sites
- Do a basic brand analysis
All of this research will help you manage the meeting and enhance your position as a valued project consultant.
One week before the Discovery Meeting
- Based on your research and client input, set the Meeting Agenda
- Identify the decision makers and confirm they are attending the Discovery Session
- Set the time for the meeting:
- Send a meeting agenda to the participants
- Remind client contact that ALL identified stakeholders and the decision maker(s) must be in attendance, or the meeting will be rescheduled
How to manage a productive Discovery Session
As the Discovery meeting moderator, your job is to ask questions, listen carefully, and ask more questions.
- If key personnel are not in attendance, cancel the meeting — it will be waste of everyone’s time
- Avoid excessive small talk, start talking about their business as quickly as you naturally can
- Follow the agenda
- Have the meeting notes recorded or bring a dedicated scribe
- Your job is to ask questions and clarify the answers until everyone is in agreement as to what the site looks like, the content it should contain, and how the end-users will find and use the site
- Talk about the client’s goals and problems — get to the root of the issue the client needs to solve for the project to be successful
- Don’t focus on technological problem solving — the how we do it is not as important as carefully listening to what the client is saying
- Resist the natural temptation to try and solve their problem on the spot
Types of questions you might ask during Discovery Session
Use questions to spark creativity and get everyone motivated and involved in the project.
Conduct a group brain-dump — anything and everything that site stakeholders have ever wanted on their site.
Sort answers into 3 columns
- Needed
- Nice to have
- Great idea— but not just now
As participants become more engaged — drill down to specifics
- Who is the client’s target audience?
- What problem do they want to solve?
- Has the client’s team defined site-user personas?
- What would be the specific site use patterns of those users?
- Look at site use patterns from all angles — the client’s staff, the current site visitors, and the client’s target customer
- Example:
- “As a <role>, I want <goal/desire> so that <benefit>”
- “As a support rep, I want to search for our client’s by their first and last name to find and serve them faster.”
- What risks is the client most afraid of?
- From the client’s viewpoint — what is worst case scenario(s)?
At the end of a Discovery session you should have covered:
- Project goals
- Competitor analysis
- Positioning research
- Target audience
- Users stories
- Look and feel of site
- Basic content strategy
- high-level content audit
- Additional content strategy requirements
The Product of Your Discovery Session — The Creative Brief
A few days after the Discovery Session (never less than 2-working days) deliver the Creative Brief to your client. This is a visual mind map of all the project’s goals and a plan for achieving them. It includes information from the client questionnaire, initial meetings, Discovery interviews, team discussions, and site content strategy sessions.
The Creative Brief describes how users will interact with the site content and include:
- the analytical data collected
- a site map
- a prototyped web design
- proposed production plan to achieve your goals
How the Creative Brief guides your proposal and work throughout the project
The Statement of Work in the Creative Brief is the structure for your proposal, project timeline, and pricing.
One of the biggest challenges for we tech-types is to describe and present client-benefit solutions. Our go-to happy place is to dive right into our technical-whiz-bang-tech solution. We are usually mystified when a confused and overwhelmed client takes a pass on the perfect solution we described.
The client doesn’t speak or hear tech. They only hear and recognize a solution stated in “the problem, the fix, the result, talk.” To build a successful proposal you must present the value and benefit to the client, preferably in their own words.
A successful freelancer understands that there are only two reasons a business invest in a website project:
- Solve a problem
- Reach a business objective
Understanding the Job of a Proposal
The Freelance WordPress consultant must learn how to consistently propose clear and obvious solutions to your client’s problems, with a clear and obvious path forward to help them achieve their objectives. You client came to you because they perceived you to be smart professional. They will stay with you because you understand them, and can communicate with them so they are comfortable taking specific action steps, that get them to their desired solution.
What you should Include you in your proposal
- An Executive Summary of the Business (no more than two paragraphs)
- The business needs
- The target audience needs
- Propose your solution
- Project timeline
- Investment
- FAQs
- Next steps
The great advantage of using the client’s own words in the Discovery Creative Brief and in the proposal is that the proposal then becomes more a ‘Letter of Engagement between colleagues — a mutual agreement. It becomes less about if you are right for the job and more about you and the client agreeing to work together on the project as partners with the same goal.
What assumptions trip a WordPress Consultant / Freelancer on the way to a successful, on-time deliverable?
BEWARE THIS WAY BE DRAGONS!
- My client will provide high-quality videos in a timely fashion.
- My client will provide high-quality photos in a timely fashion.
- My client will provide carefully crafted descriptions for products as promised.
- My client will provide feedback on layout designs in a timely fashion.
Oh yes…and both my client and I wish for World Peace…
After a successful Discovery meeting you should have gleaned all the information needed to build a reliable time/cost project proposal — however, there needs to be a mutual understanding and recognition of the client’s responsibilities and how they contribute towards the successful completion of the project.
Put your expectations and requirements in writing…
Your project contract must be very clear about the consequences of the client missing a delivery or review deadline.
The whole project timeframe and delivery date will be pushed back – no exceptions.
If the client is more than a week late, the project may lose their actual scheduled production time, the project stopped, rescheduled and possibly may be re-bid.
A successful WordPress Freelance Consultant can’t let one non-responsive client negatively impact the project of another client.
Dominoes is more than a game — in is a project manager’s life lesson.
Beware of Scope Creep…
Be very clear about what will be part of the Statement of Work, and what is out of the agreed scope.
Most WordPress Freelancers I know have a ‘Servant’s Heart’ — hardwired to help folks. Our greatest challenge as service providers is to say no to a request.
So I will once again quote the advice given to me years ago by my friend and mentor, Pat Ramsey.
When you have a client that is calling you with ‘new and improved’ ideas, that are out of the agreed to scope, say:
“Wow, that is a great idea. I can’t wait to work on it in phase two after we go live with phase one!”
Then dutifully write it down in the Client Project Evernote record and include the ideas in the post-project report to be considered for the next phase of the project, or as part of a monthly care program. The ‘Great Ideas’ are also a great topic for post project, client- follow up emails.
In our proposals, Pleiades Publishing Services provides thirty days (30) for the client to review and test the site. For those 30-days we will fix any linking issues or coding issues WITHIN THE ORIGINAL SCOPE OF WORK. This 30-day post launch support is to adjust anything that is not working as planned. It is not to add new tweaks, twists or new ideas. If the client has additions or changes that will not negatively impact our existing schedule (another client’s work) then our project manager will look at the request, produce a mini-scope of work send a Letter of Agreement that includes the fee and delivery schedule to the client. With the client’s signed LOA and the deposit, work on the additional feature will begin.
OK — That is everything we covered at this month’s WPATX Introverted Freelancer Deep Dive Discussion, and a little bit I wanted to talked about before we ran out of time.
Resources we referenced:
https://www.rev.com/ (Transcription Service)
Nick and I are working on adding new resources to the Hands-On WordPress Free library every week, so check in often. For a free copy of the freelance resources and places to find freelance projects go to https://handsonwp.com/join-library/
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