1. eCommerce Disaster Zone

This wasn’t long after I turned my back on contracting and started to look for clients direct. I partnered up with a local marketing company. They’d got involved with something which was going to be big for them & so they needed somebody with a stronger dev background; in stepped muggins here.

My spider senses tingled from day 1 as there was a little bit too much “let’s get coding!” and not enough  ”ok, have we really understood the problem? Has this been specced out enough? Do w know what ‘x’ means?“. My gut feel at the time was that it was going to go wrong if we didn’t make sure that everyone (including the rather hot headed client) was on the same page.

Things moved ahead quickly. Perhaps I was being overly cautious? Maybe I was now in the ‘real world‘ (not the sheltered world of an agency) where the such precautions were frowned on?

I remember looking at the client’s requirement for some sort of product designing tool and thinking “are they kidding?!“. That device alone (done properly) would cost a fortune. But the people I was working with didn’t seemed to mind the gulf of uncertainly that had opened up between us and the client; perhaps that was how they usually operated?  In truth I think quite a lot of folks (perhaps accidentally) operate like this; offering an early, low price (based on a spec with more holes than a colander) and then having to ramp the price up when the going gets tough. Me? I couldn’t stand the stress of that.

The project fell out acrimoniously between the client and the people I was being hired by. No surprise.

I learnt a lot from that project. I learnt to trust my gut on a project which felt wrong and where the wrong decisions were being made. If those early decisions go South then it’s not going to get better from there. It’s hard to dig your heels in when you’re starting out though; confidence is paper thin and common sense is easily overridden by the pressing need to invoice. Be tough though.

2. The ‘Moon on a stick’ app

This project was about 12 months after previous one (and, luckily, a good 5 years ago now). This time around it was just me and the client (can’t blame a third party on this occasion). I was having a tough time. We’d had our first baby, and hell does that focus the mind! You want to be a good father, want to be a reliable bread winner and lurking in there is the worry that you’re just mucking around when you should get a ‘proper job‘.

The client had a huge list of requirements. I put a proposal in with what I thought was a fair price (I would quote probably 5 to 10 times that now) but the client pleaded a hard luck story and I ended up accepting to do it for half. The understanding was that because I was doing this for much less than I quoted, the client would go easy on the requirements and would not expect all the bells and whistles. Guess. what? It didn’t work out like that.

I tried my damnedest to write a bullet proof spec; there was meeting after meeting – I’m pretty sure that, on a basic day rate, I exhausted the total project fees on extensive speccing – before any code had been written.

I wrote code like the devil. The ego of the programmer always thinks that they can code themselves out of a corner; a few long nights here and there and it’ll be ok yeah? But there was just too much bespoke on this project; too much that couldn’t be anticipated. Too many corners were turned and something new cropped up which wasn’t in the spec (as no-one had considered it) but the client just expected that to be in there & included in the original price. The client wouldn’t back down (I thought they were meant to be reasonable because of the earlier compromise?) & I just didn’t have the negotiation skills to unravel the mess.

The website was a bespoke, database driven beast with lots of features. The underlaying idea was great and, in fairness, I got that bad boy working well (and it is to this day). On my insistence, myself and the client parted company pretty much straight after after the website had gone live. It was a bad marriage; we were both glad it was over.

This project taught me never, ever, ever to ignore my gut feel on a project again (gut feel my not be scientific but it is usually right). It also taught never, ever ever to take a big hit on price on the whim that you might be able to make the project work as x money is better than none; that’s just crazy talk. I probably put about 12+ weeks work in for £5K. Seriously. And during those 10 weeks, was I able to take on well paid, less stressful work? Nope. Because I was pulling my hair out on this nightmare project. That’s a nasty old Catch-22 right there.

The stress was terrible. I dreaded, absolutely dreaded receiving emails or phone calls  from the client – what would they ask of me now?! I was acutely aware of what an financial albatross the project and how it was affecting my family.

Work/Life

My brother and his family live in France and during the above project they came over for a visit. I hardly saw them – what with the long nights and weekends coding; no sooner had they arrived than I seemed to be taking them back to the airport. As I headed back to my car from the airport I can remember being upset; realising how much time I’d wasted on a project which was never going to be right when, instead, I should have spent the time with my friends and family. From that project forward I drew a big fat line under overworking myself – with rare exceptions, the weekends and evenings are now for me and my family.

Who’s fault is it anyway?

A key thing to take from this is that these are not clients from hell; these are partnerships from hell. It was my responsibility to manage the client and their expectations – and I failed; which meant the project spiralled out of control. Not that I think these projects could have been completed to my satisfaction (and with a financial reward to suit); no, that wasn’t going to happen. Therefore, these projects should never have been projects in the first place – they should never have got through the starting gate and been things when occupied my time.  Nowadays I’m very strict with who I work with; when the client is weighing me up, unbeknownst to them, I’m also weighing them up: “are we a good fit to work together? Do I like you? Will you listen?“. Trust your gut.

Plug: we’ve got a ‘Business of Web Design’ conference running in next July in Cardiff

Q. What were your nightmare projects? (and what did you learn?)

Joel

p.s. none of these sites are in my portfolio (before you go a-checkin’!)