Recently I had the pleasure of having lunch with the executive team from an NFP organisation we have been working with for nearly five years. The reason for the catch up primarily being to get together informally and talk about the previous twelve months, gauge how well we have been performing and to talk about the business and any big plans for the next year or so. Over the course of the lunch we discussed recently delivered projects and work in progress as well as deeper issues relating to how the organisation can become better at decision making when it comes to investing in digital.

Here are three key take-aways from the discussions and some thoughts on how to address them:

1. Rethink existing processes before digitising them

NFP's who have been around a while, and even newer businesses that grow quickly often start out doing things using non-digital, offline processes. We know from experience that simply taking non-digital processes and replicating them online never works very well. If a process is cumbersome and time consuming in the offline world there is no reason why just simply translating it into a digital process is going to solve the problem. In fact we have seen the reverse where processes can actually becomes more complex and time consuming once technology gets involved.

The challenge here for both the organisation and the agency is to work to gather to re-think the old ways of doing things and design new processes that take advantage of latest digital technologies. A word of caution here - sometimes this work can lead to tough decisions for the business, particularly when it involves staff restructures or changes to ancient workflows. It can be a case of one step back and two steps forward, buts its worth it if you’re client's goal is measurable success.

2. Talk to users about how they want to consume your content

As is the case with most successful NFP’s; passionate and informed people can be found behind everything they do. With organisations that do a lot of research to inform the programs and initiatives they produce, the focus tends to be very much on content - and quite rightly so given the social value of much of the work NFP's do. However, while informative and rich content can often be in an abundance, when it comes to digital content delivery, the biggest issue facing these types or organisations is getting content into a shape that will work in a digital context. All too often we see content that is written and organised for publishing in print get replicated verbatim on web pages. And who wants to read reams of dense text on screen? Not me.

When this situation arises what is needed is some dialogue with users to find out exactly how they would like to access content and in what formats they prefer to consume it. By taking a user centred approach, incorrect assumptions can be avoided and content can be reworked to satisfy real world user needs. The best time to do this is before any plans for the digital project are finalised. This ensures any decisions around information architecture and content are based on real world user needs and not assumptions. Over time, as deeper understanding develops around the needs of an online audience it may then be possible to innovate around the process of developing content for both on and offline publishing, so that further production efficiencies may be achieved.

3. Its ok to say no

If after taking a brief from a valued NFP client you feel that rethinking a set of processes is the better way to go than simply replicating them online, politely tell them so. Its what you are there for. Remind yourself that you have a duty of responsibility to work with your client to ensure they are not wasting their time and money in creating a system that will more of a beast than a beauty - so be bold. It may be tough trying to convince them that there are better alternatives. So don't go in cold. Be prepared. Your client will ultimately thank you and your relationship will be stronger for it

Fixed price quoting. Lets be honest, it's a killer. In fact, its probably one of the 'biggest' issues facing small web design businesses in a highly competitive market. For many small web design businesses it can be a viscous cycle that seems impossible to break out of.  You get asked to do a redesign of a website and perhaps some technical development, you ask as many questions as you can in an attempt to get a clear idea of the scope of work required and you politely ask the client if they have a budget in mind for the project and they tell you they have 'no idea how much these things cost' and that they want you to give them your 'best price' for the whole bag. You then you go away and prepare a fixed price quote. What happens next is your new client either loves your quote and signs up and you begin work, or they tell you its too much and want to put the squeeze on.

In my opinion, either way, having provided a fixed price your relationship with your client is already in trouble and your project is destined to fail. Here's why.

You just don't know enough at the outset
Even with the most clearly written brief provided by the customer, it is impossible to know everything you need to know about a web design or development project. So how can you accurately quote on something you don't really understand yet?

Unforeseen things will come up... they always do, its inevitable
Things always come up during technical development that need additional thinking. Its natural that as development is going on that both your client and your team are going to be learning a lot about how the new site features and functions should work. Its during development that real opportunities exist to prototype, test and review features and functions with your client and to explore options that could lead to better outcomes. The catch is that working in this way usually requires more time and flexibility. Two things that fixed quotes that have stuffed full of features don't usually have going for them.

With fixed price quoting your locked into trying to deliver an agreed amount of stuff for a fixed amount of money, and if you've allowed yourself to be squeezed on budget there is usually very little room for exploring options and collaborating with your client in this way.

It shouldn't be you versus your client... but it'll end up that way
There is an expectation by your client that you will deliver the project with all the bells and whistles that you promised in your quote. Lets say your developer discovers that connecting the website to the client's intranet database is going to be a little (or a lot!) harder than first thought, or the client reveals midstream some crucial information concerning how they need that new reporting module to work. Some things might be small and easy to absorb, others may have broader more significant implications for the project.

In the first case, you are going to have to wear it because you probably should have been a bit more thorough when scoping that feature out at the beginning. It's a bummer because it will costs you time and money.

In the second case you might feel that the client needs to fork out additional budget or perhaps drop a low priority feature in order to accommodate the new requirement within the original budget. So you go to the well and negotiate with you client who will understandably be disappointed because they believed you knew what you were doing and now they are going to have to find more cash which they say they don't have. The client will argue they thought something was in the scope, you will argue that it was never mentioned, emails get checked, people get frustrated, the project stalls — just writing about this type of scenarios is stressful.

Now your in a tug of war over money and time and the biggest loser is going to be you, because ultimately it's your businesses reputation for getting things done that is on the line.

Here's the solution...
Don't do fixed price quoting on technical projects, or any project if you can avoid it. Instead, try offering a fixed price to run a discovery session with your client to identify, flesh out and prioritise all the features and functions that will be required by the projects users in the first release. Bring your developer along and anyone else from your team who you think will benefit. Pull together a document that communicates all of this in plain jargon free language and provide it to your client for their approval.

Now that you have a detailed understanding of the project scope, you've minimised the risk of unforeseen things emerging midstream and you're in a much better position to provide a more accurate costing. The discovery work you have done will enable you to confidently break your costing down into individual features and functions so your client can see clearly where their budget is going. It helps in budget negotiations if the client can easily see what they can have for a certain dollar value. Having a detailed list of features and functions also means they can easily choose to drop a feature should a new requirement of similar value be identified midstream.

Finally, and most importantly, make it clear that investigating new features and functions midstream takes time and that additional budget to do this has to come from somewhere. If, after talking through the benefits of quoting and working this way, your client still insists on full upfront fixed price quoting - stick to your guns, so no thanks and let it go. There will be other opportunities.

The best thing about saying goodbye to upfront fixed price quoting is knowing that your client relationships will be happier and more enjoyable ones. And happy people make better stuff which is good for business.