Customers and wishes.
I just read the Freelance Freedom comic strip of today, and it amused me a lot.
Didn’t we all have customers already who want to have speciality#1, 2, 3, and later we found out that they actually wanted normal feature#1+2 only? Most people cannot say what they really want before they see the result. It’s so much easier to criticize something that’s already happening or existing as a text or drawing than if it’s only in your imagination.
How to work around this divergence between wishes and real wants? I prefer rapid prototyping. Start quickly with the project and make clear that you’re creating a first level for your customer - and demand feedback on this draft! Customers who are unwilling to have a look at your intermediate results should be taken with caution; they are likely to be unhappy with the final result. Working on a project is a two-way-experience, and any customer who sets you on the track with a “see you at the end” didn’t get that important point.
So start the work week with communication and have fun!