Why our studio does not make free concepts
Most of the approvals, discussions and holivars fall on the development of the main page of the site. And I would like the customer to participate in them. But if you make a free concept, then it is unlikely. For analytics is a long time, there are many studios, and the customer is one. Designers have to improvise, based on the wording of the documentation such as "expand your personal account" and "make the menu more interesting." The result is a useless spherical horse design in a vacuum.
The type of cooperation, when part of the work is performed free of charge, in order to show the customer his weakness with a small example and get a large order, came from the printing industry. From where analytics is not needed. Printed page - received an order for circulation. Profit!
')
You can defend the version of what to do free concepts - the tradition of developers, and who refuses to do this - do not know how to prepare them. But in the lamp-nineties, when the tradition began, there was no analytics either. The studio had one goal - like the main thing on the customer’s side. Nobody knew what he needed, so they prepared several options at once with blackjack and whores in the hope that at least something would go down.
The king ordered the archer to call: "Well, Fedot! You're doing great, the first in the team is an archer. You have served me one service - you get the golden horns of a deer; congregate another: go there — I don’t know where, bring it — I don’t know what! Remember: if you don’t bring it, then my sword is your head off your shoulders! ”
Russian folktale
A fairy tale is a lie, but in real life “I don’t know where” and “I don’t know what” also happen. This is about the meaning of a decent part of the tenders for the development of sites. The customer knows what the site wants. Which one Obviously, the best - so do it. And they really do.
To get involved in a tender with the development of a free concept is a good option for those who want to replenish their Behance portfolio with a beautiful project or entertain themselves with the idea that they work with a large company. That’s the pros of free concepts.
Of course, studios can pretend to be a victim and declare that such is the market - the customer has snicked up, the competition is high, and you need to do everything possible to get a big fish in your portfolio.
But the truly nasty and spoiled customers are not fish, but unicorns, just as rare.
If you meet a spoiled customer, do not approach in any way and let him continue to ride into the magic forest, where websites are done for free, for two days and immediately after one conversation with the secretary general's daughter.
The customer is ordinary - adequate, but scared. He does not know what it takes to make a website. He wonders why a freelance friend asks for 30,000 rubles for his project, and a studio for 300,000. For fear that his incompetence will be found and played around her, the customer panics and starts laying the straw. Organizes a tender with a bunch of performers and a minimum of information about the project.
What is required of the site, for whom it is, what budget - even the CEO does not always know it.
Due to vague tasks, the manager is getting dark in the eyes, and the designer convulsively googles interviews with the tender organizers to find out their favorite color. After 50 hours of suffering the studio and the painful inventing of "the best site", the customer in cold blood sends the concept to the trash. And he doesn’t care how many man hours was spent on it.
He can be understood even if he thinks that to draw a concept for a studio is a way to stretch the designer. After all, there are always those who want to come up with a free concept, and there are many.
The task of the studio is to explain to the client what to do sites is the work of several people lasting many hours, and there is no point in it if you do not conduct analytics with the customer in the early stages of development. If he understood you, he would change his mind to ask for a free concept. If not - alas, you do not match each other, so let everyone jump in their own way.
It happens that the manager on the part of the customer understood everything, and happily asks him to do “agile” and “scrum”, but his superiors promised to take the head off their shoulders if someone dares to return without a ready-made concept. In such a situation, if you cannot get to the tops yourself, it is better to forget about the project.
If the customer thinks that the studios are asleep and see how to make another free concept for him - there are two reasons for this: naivety or acute CSI. If the studio agrees to work with such a customer, this is her personalass responsibility. The studio can be understood: sometimes you want to do something cool, get contacts of an enviable client or tear everyone to pieces and win the tender. But free labor affects the market, and the value of studio work in the eyes of customers decreases.
If you still believe in tenders, read a cool article with six reasons why free concepts are evil.
To make the studio a project that is really needed, the customer must:
That is to be immersed in the development of the ears. This is the only way to make a website that he needs. Even if the customer had no idea what he needed before.
It happens that customers feel it. An example from our experience:
On the client, the client chose between two studios. Our account manager made estimates, communicated with the customer for a long time and meticulously, discussed the goals and objectives of the project, examples of thematic sites.
Another studio, without delving into the client’s needs, immediately developed several layouts to demonstrate its capabilities. And she didn’t get into expectations and goals - the customer needed a multifunctional site for real estate, and he was offered something too creative, but not usable.
The customer was terribly worried that he would not be heard, and several times brought too creative layouts as an anti-example, something like: "And here in no case do not do that."
As a result, we passed the layout of the main page with three edits: moved the menu to one line with the logo, expanded the content area and changed the color of several blocks to a more neutral one. All this thanks to analytics and a visual brief.
Since the studios agree on the terms of tenders and continue to multiply unviable concepts, the customer has the impression that all performers are not able to work goats. As a result, the impression of the web development market in general deteriorates.
Let's say your version won and you were allowed to the top manager, who finally told you what he wanted from the site. It turns out, not what you drew the concept. Together with the customer, conduct analytics, prototyping and a visual brief and finally understand that you will have to change the original concept.
Now say hello to two new problems: how to explain to the customer why concept number 2 is not similar to the one for which he hired you, and why he also has to pay for it.
But what am I all about bad. Happen in free work and happy ending. Win a tender after creating a free concept - perhaps there is no question. But it will take dofiga resources and time. Not the fact that the tender is not covered, but the concept does not have to be redone. It’s not a fact that the customer will understand the real cost of the service after receiving a heap of free layouts. I believe that without analytics and close communication with the client, it is impossible to make a high-quality concept.
So enough to corrupt the market and rivet design sake design. Appreciate your work.
The type of cooperation, when part of the work is performed free of charge, in order to show the customer his weakness with a small example and get a large order, came from the printing industry. From where analytics is not needed. Printed page - received an order for circulation. Profit!
')
You can defend the version of what to do free concepts - the tradition of developers, and who refuses to do this - do not know how to prepare them. But in the lamp-nineties, when the tradition began, there was no analytics either. The studio had one goal - like the main thing on the customer’s side. Nobody knew what he needed, so they prepared several options at once with blackjack and whores in the hope that at least something would go down.
As usual tender
The king ordered the archer to call: "Well, Fedot! You're doing great, the first in the team is an archer. You have served me one service - you get the golden horns of a deer; congregate another: go there — I don’t know where, bring it — I don’t know what! Remember: if you don’t bring it, then my sword is your head off your shoulders! ”
Russian folktale
A fairy tale is a lie, but in real life “I don’t know where” and “I don’t know what” also happen. This is about the meaning of a decent part of the tenders for the development of sites. The customer knows what the site wants. Which one Obviously, the best - so do it. And they really do.
To get involved in a tender with the development of a free concept is a good option for those who want to replenish their Behance portfolio with a beautiful project or entertain themselves with the idea that they work with a large company. That’s the pros of free concepts.
I don't know what
Of course, studios can pretend to be a victim and declare that such is the market - the customer has snicked up, the competition is high, and you need to do everything possible to get a big fish in your portfolio.
But the truly nasty and spoiled customers are not fish, but unicorns, just as rare.
If you meet a spoiled customer, do not approach in any way and let him continue to ride into the magic forest, where websites are done for free, for two days and immediately after one conversation with the secretary general's daughter.
The customer is ordinary - adequate, but scared. He does not know what it takes to make a website. He wonders why a freelance friend asks for 30,000 rubles for his project, and a studio for 300,000. For fear that his incompetence will be found and played around her, the customer panics and starts laying the straw. Organizes a tender with a bunch of performers and a minimum of information about the project.
What is required of the site, for whom it is, what budget - even the CEO does not always know it.
Due to vague tasks, the manager is getting dark in the eyes, and the designer convulsively googles interviews with the tender organizers to find out their favorite color. After 50 hours of suffering the studio and the painful inventing of "the best site", the customer in cold blood sends the concept to the trash. And he doesn’t care how many man hours was spent on it.
He can be understood even if he thinks that to draw a concept for a studio is a way to stretch the designer. After all, there are always those who want to come up with a free concept, and there are many.
The task of the studio is to explain to the client what to do sites is the work of several people lasting many hours, and there is no point in it if you do not conduct analytics with the customer in the early stages of development. If he understood you, he would change his mind to ask for a free concept. If not - alas, you do not match each other, so let everyone jump in their own way.
It happens that the manager on the part of the customer understood everything, and happily asks him to do “agile” and “scrum”, but his superiors promised to take the head off their shoulders if someone dares to return without a ready-made concept. In such a situation, if you cannot get to the tops yourself, it is better to forget about the project.
Send gold to this gentleman!
If the customer thinks that the studios are asleep and see how to make another free concept for him - there are two reasons for this: naivety or acute CSI. If the studio agrees to work with such a customer, this is her personal
If you still believe in tenders, read a cool article with six reasons why free concepts are evil.
To make the studio a project that is really needed, the customer must:
- participate in analytics
- discuss the prototype
- together with the designer to work on the visual brief.
That is to be immersed in the development of the ears. This is the only way to make a website that he needs. Even if the customer had no idea what he needed before.
It happens that customers feel it. An example from our experience:
On the client, the client chose between two studios. Our account manager made estimates, communicated with the customer for a long time and meticulously, discussed the goals and objectives of the project, examples of thematic sites.
Another studio, without delving into the client’s needs, immediately developed several layouts to demonstrate its capabilities. And she didn’t get into expectations and goals - the customer needed a multifunctional site for real estate, and he was offered something too creative, but not usable.
The customer was terribly worried that he would not be heard, and several times brought too creative layouts as an anti-example, something like: "And here in no case do not do that."
As a result, we passed the layout of the main page with three edits: moved the menu to one line with the logo, expanded the content area and changed the color of several blocks to a more neutral one. All this thanks to analytics and a visual brief.
Since the studios agree on the terms of tenders and continue to multiply unviable concepts, the customer has the impression that all performers are not able to work goats. As a result, the impression of the web development market in general deteriorates.
And they lived happily ever after
Let's say your version won and you were allowed to the top manager, who finally told you what he wanted from the site. It turns out, not what you drew the concept. Together with the customer, conduct analytics, prototyping and a visual brief and finally understand that you will have to change the original concept.
Now say hello to two new problems: how to explain to the customer why concept number 2 is not similar to the one for which he hired you, and why he also has to pay for it.
But what am I all about bad. Happen in free work and happy ending. Win a tender after creating a free concept - perhaps there is no question. But it will take dofiga resources and time. Not the fact that the tender is not covered, but the concept does not have to be redone. It’s not a fact that the customer will understand the real cost of the service after receiving a heap of free layouts. I believe that without analytics and close communication with the client, it is impossible to make a high-quality concept.
So enough to corrupt the market and rivet design sake design. Appreciate your work.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/280858/
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