Despite the current economic turmoil, many people are warning that the technology market is falling foul of another bubble. I’ve been following the discussion with fascination, and last week this article from TNW debunking the theory really caught my eye. This is not another technology bubble, this is natural economic growth resulting from the real world adoption of new technologies that is (finally) starting to occur.

As e-commerce took off in the mid-to-late 90s the tech industry got a glimpse of the future: everyone and everything would be online, all the time. Suddenly the potential value of Internet real estate became clear and investors all happily jumped on the bandwagon. What no-one seemed to grasp at that time (and still don’t) is that the rush of early adopters was not an indicator of how quickly new online technology was going to be adopted by the mainstream (where the real money is).

A classic case of supply and demand going horribly wrong.

Companies and VCs everywhere were investing unbelievable figures to get ready to supply what they expected would be enormous demand for their services, but the huge rush of demand never came. Even today, 10 years later, there are only a few online services which really, truly permeate the average day of an average person, Facebook being the prime example. Twitter, the service that I love and use the most, is something that the majority of people have heard of, and maybe even have an account on, but they aren’t using it yet.

The average person is only just starting to use Facebook (sometimes), shop online (mostly at Christmas), and use Google to find stuff out (when they remember Google exists). However, as some parts of the Internet are finally starting to saturate the mainstream of the market, we are beginning to get real world data indicating the true value of potential revenue streams that can be derived online. This means that investors can part with their money with confidence again.

20 years of the FTSE100

FTSE100 Month Close Figures 1990-2011

The last 20 years of the FTSE100 tell an interesting tale. Whilst the markets are climbing back rapidly from the impending-recession related crash in 2009, there’s no sign that the markets are significantly strong at the moment. It appears that we’re just about where we should be.

Someone somewhere is always predicting the next big thing, or conducting a PR campaign about how the Internet/e-commerce/the mobile web has finally arrived. I’m not saying the Internet has finally arrived, or that this is the year the mobile web goes truly mainstream, or anything like that. Slowly but surely Internet usage is increasing as well as adoption, and the average user is more than just connected, they’re becoming involved. As this continues I believe we will see increased confidence in the markets, massive valuations and buy-outs of tech companies will continue, and perhaps finally, 10 years on, this is sustainable.

Maybe if things had been different, we would have seen steady (but increasing) growth starting in the mid 90s and still ongoing today. Instead everyone jumped aboard a little too quickly and the whole thing went under. That’s why I don’t believe the current markets and valuations indicate another bubble… I think we’re just getting back on course.

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Two months on and I’m still reeling from my single day experience of the Future of Web Design Conference. I shared a ticket with colleague and so attended the party & second day of the conference, having the chance to meet some awesome people and learn a great deal. I highly recommend attending the FOWD conference and these are my reasons why.

The benefits of attending FOWD

When I left University and started working full time as a web developer a little less than 2 years ago, I had a strong academic background in computer science and business. The first 15 months of work were spent learning how all my know-how applied in the real world where great theory and best practice often get sidelined to make the realities work in practice (and in budget). Back in May, when the conference was held, I had just started working with my colleagues to develop better working practices and improve the services we offer.

I spent my day at the Future of Web Design London 2010 listening to top class individuals share their experiences of how to make things work in the real world, how to be more efficient and more importantly improve the services and end product that clients receive. Whilst I listened, I reflected on my own experiences and was also reminded of the theories and best practices I’d learnt at University before the real world kicked in. I was also given the opportunity to talk to highly experience professionals about their experiences and share my own ideas of how to better manage and improve relationships with clients.

In essence I was able to review all that I had learned and come up with better ways to do what we do. I realised that my job is NOT about just delivering what’s possible for the client’s budget but about selling the bigger and better ideas to clients. This may be another theoretical idealism but there are two key points to achieving this goal.

Firstly, iterate. Break a project down in to manageable steps (for development and for budget) and continuously iterate and improve a project as budget, time, and technology constraints allow. Secondly, be data driven. Be proactive, source out new ways to develop & improve, and use analytical data as evidence to support new ideas. By breaking down projects into bite-sized, evidenced steps, clients are more likely to buy-in to your ideas and as the ROI builds hopefully so will their willingness to try new things.

So here I am, two months after the conference and still feeling completely re-inspired. I’ve found a direction and a clear picture of what I want to be doing in 5 years. I’ve found a new passion in Analytics and I’ve fallen back in love with my job. I’m pretty sure all of these things are worth far more than the cost of a one day FOWD pass.

Top tips for conference attending

If you are thinking about attending an event like FOWD, or sending some of your staff to a conference I do recommend the following:

• It’s only worth attending with an open mind and a willingness to learn.
• Don’t bother taking notes. Everything is available online afterwards so spend your time absorbing and reflecting. You’ll come away with far more insights.
• Take the opportunity to talk to your peers and your heroes. Don’t waste time being shy, you will learn far more by engaging with the people you respect.
• If you are sending staff, make them aware they will have an opportunity to feedback their findings afterwards – this will give them more purpose.
• Go with the intention to have a lot of fun, and don’t feel guilty for it!

My top 3 FOWD London 2010 talks

1. Brett Welch – Rethink Your Job (and Earn More Money)
2. Dan Rubin – Blending Usability Testing with Interface Design, Prototyping and Rapid Iteration
3. Niamh Phelan – Google Analytics Masterclass

UPDATE: You can still get the FOWD London 2010 video pass to watch these talks.

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Nightmare clients: We’ve all had them.
They come in all shapes & sizes: needy ones, demanding ones, ones that know too much, ones that know too little, ones that don’t call, ones that don’t pay, and all making our lives a more difficult that we’d like them to be. Using “Transactional Analysis” I’m going to help you figure out what’s going wrong and perhaps set things straight with those problematic client relationships.

The phrase “problematic client relationship” was chosen very carefully. I don’t doubt for a second that your nightmare client is being difficult, but I also believe that it’s far harder to change their behaviour than it is to change your own. More importantly, the key is to realise that the problem between you and your client lies in the relationship between you and your client. By changing the relationship, you can resolve your differences without ever having to directly confront them.

Transactional Analysis

Before you close the page because of the scary psycho-babble term, WAIT! It’s just a posh name for a really clever, yet simple premise that WILL MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER. Please bear with me whilst I attempt to explain it in as few words as possible then I’ll cut to the fun stuff with examples.

Transactional Analysis (TA) theory says that when ever two people communicate, they do so whilst acting in one of three roles: parent, adult or child. These aren’t actual parents, adults and children, they are concepts: e.g. a parent assumes authority & takes a lot of responsibility, a child accepts the authority of others and takes very little responsibility and an adult is the “grown-up” happy middle ground. A parent and child can successfully communicate (although it’s not always appropriate) and so can two adults, but any other pairing would likely result in communication breakdown.

Most communication should be done adult to adult. When one person starts out or inadvertantly slips from adult into the parent or child role, it causes communication to become strained, or worse can force the other person to reactively slip into the opposite role. This can be a source of major frustration and difficulty for either party.

TA‘s core principle is that whenever there is a breakdown in communication, it can always be attributed to one or the other parties acting in an inappropriate role for the situation. Applying this to the service provider – client relationship, communication should always be adult to adult. Each party on equal terms, consulting and working together to achieve a common goal. With that in mind, let’s analyse some typical scenarios.

Classic Clients

Have a read through these classic client scenarios and see if you can figure out what the cause of the breakdown in communication is according to TA. I explain my thoughts below, but they’re all open to interpretation!

Classic Client 1: You get an email from a client, containing a vague brief for a 5 page website. After asking for some more detail, they reply they aren’t too sure, can they pay you to sort it all out? After all you’re the professional! You take on the job, hire a copywriter & are really enjoying having the freedom to express yourself on a project. 2 weeks before launch , you receive and email from the client saying: “We’re really sorry, but we’ve changed our minds, we don’t like the website any more. It just really isn’t what we had in mind.”

Classic Client 2: You get an email from a client, containing a detailed brief for a new website. You agree to work with them and set about designing the site. You show the client what is your best design yet, you’re really happy with it and they are too, only they want to make a few minor amends. You concede, after all it’s only a few tiny changes. You start the build stage, and receive a couple of requests for further “5 minute amends”, again they’re only small so you oblige. A few weeks before launch the client sees a near-complete working example and provides some feedback: “In my head the latest news block was going to scroll, oh and can we change the headers to be large, bold, red, and comic sans?”.

“…whenever there is a breakdown in communication, it can always be attributed to one or the other parties acting in an inappropriate role for the situation.”

My thoughts

Classic Client 1: This client is clearly not willing to take on any responsibility or authority for their project i.e. acting in the “child” role. I’d guess that their initial decision to be uninvolved made them feel less able to communicate their own thoughts later on, only communicating when it became obvious that they were going to have to pay for something that didn’t meet their expectations. The service provider was almost tricked into assuming responsibility, I mean who wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to have free reign over a project?

Classic Client 2: Slowly over the course of the project, this client has grown accustomed to getting their own way, to being the “parent” or “authority”. Now they expect changes they request to be carried out and the service provider is feeling unable to communicate their objections. This gradual change of roles is really hard to detect & is a great example of the frustation that is felt by the “child”.

In Conclusion…

So what have we learnt from this exercise? Using TA we have an excellent tool for analysing our relationships and determining the root cause of a communication problem. However determining the cause is only half the story – we can also infer from TA how to go about resolving communication breakdowns.

If the problem is caused by slipping out of the appropriate “adult” role then clearly the resolution is to retake the correct role. In the same way that one party adopting the parent role can force the other to react in the child role, it should be possible to maintain the adult role and coerce your client to respond in kind. This principle should guide your actions but does require skill and good judgement.

It is far harder to apply the principles of TA “after the fact” – what it is better at, is prevention. Educating your clients throughout your relationship as to what should be expected from each of you is a great way to help ensure your client holds up their end of the bargain. I tend to find that life is full of little slips, where one or other person in a communication slips into the wrong role temporarily. TA allows us to identify and recover from these slips much more quickly, averting disaster.

Client: “You need to learn how to run a business. You fucking kids don’t know anything, and just want to rip all us honest business people off.” Clients from Hell

Finally, there is just no accounting for some people (I recommend a visit to the Clients from Hell blog). Sometimes we have to execute disaster avoidance – if a new client approaches you acting as parent or child, and one or two carefully worded communications doesn’t resolve the problem, then cut your losses or resolve yourself to a nightmare project. Some client relationships are best solved by not having them at all.

Relevant & Related Writings

• Avoiding nightmare clients – John O’Nolan
• Educating Clients to say Yes – Boag World
• Educating your client on web development successfully. – Smashing Magazine
• The importance of teaching your clients and being the boss – Sam Brown

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