How to Explain Your Production Process to Clients
Creative freelancers are, by nature, a rebellious lot. Just look at this FreelanceSwitch blog. The descriptions of our former jobs read like jail sentences. Now, far be it from me to say that we shouldn’t be happy in our work. After all, I’m writing this from the United States of America, where we have certain unalienable rights – life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Note the wording of the third right – it’s the pursuit of happiness. You have to chase after it. And there’s nothing that says that happiness won’t be wearing its lucky socks. Which means that happiness breaks the finish line tape well ahead of you.
And there you are, gasping for breath while happiness basks in all the glory. I’m going to offer a tip that could improve the odds in the next You vs. Freelancing Happiness footrace. It’s a two-word tip:
Production Process
As in, you need to develop one for what you do. Yes, I know. You’re not manufacturing cars or building houses.
But being able to define your production process comes in handy when you’re dealing with an important group of people. They’re the people who have the audacity to ask such questions as, “What am I paying you for?”
Giving your clients a good answer will go a long way toward boosting their happiness with your work. It also will work wonders for your happiness as a freelancer.
So, how do you figure out what your production process is? Simple. When you’re working on a project, take notes. If you’re creating a website for a client, you may start out by prototyping the design in Photoshop. Or maybe you prefer to go straight to mockups in CSS and XHTML.
Then you present your design to the client, and there’s usually some back-and-forth on what the ultimate design should look like. Once you’ve both agreed on the design, you build the website, test it to ensure that it works, then launch it on the client’s server space.
Putting the above into a production process, we have:
- Design prototyping
- Present design to client
- Making client-requested changes
- Client approves design after changes
- Build website
- Test website
- Launch website
I’ve found that clients like to see more detail than what I just outlined. And they especially want to see it in my proposals.
For example, for Step 6, my proposal might say something like this: “Beta-testing in the the latest versions of the Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari browsers. Validation to XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS Level 2.”
The beauty of production processes is that you don’t have to limit them to what clients pay you for. You can use them to keep you on track when doing things like:
- Creating, distributing, and tracking readership of your studio’s monthly e-mail newsletter
- Doing your monthly financial statements
- Seeking new vendors or subcontractors
Keep in mind that production processes aren’t just for your internal use or for sharing with your existing clients. You can also share them with potential clients.
For example, my field, Web design, has more than a little bit of “black box” mystique associated with it. And people are curious about what happens when they contact someone like me.
So, I’ve created an explanatory Web page that includes seven steps, starting with the initial discussion of project requirements and ending with the launch of the client’s newly designed or redesigned website.
We’ve reached the end of this discussion of production processes. The takeaways:
- Start documenting what you do as you’re doing it.
- Share those processes with others.
Nice post. I was actually just talking to someone about this yesterday. The fact that clients are wanting a service (I’m also in the design/web field) and they really don’t know what they want or what they’re paying for. Best way, as you explained, is to give them a process; a breakdown. I still need to actually finalize my process on paper so I have something physical to give clients, but I find I quite often will explain it to them when we meet the first time. Try to comfort them in a way and make the process understandable and painless for the “new client” who really doesn’t know much.
I have seen numerous sites with their process located on its own page. I like that idea and hope to eventually incorporate one myself. My guess is that it might help eliminate some questions by the client and possibly make the whole process of the project that much smoother. They understand before hand what they are paying for and what to expect.
The biggest thing I think clients might be interested in are deadlines. Included in the process of your projects, adding deadlines and/or any invoice payments required (for a check point in your “race”). The more the client knows upfront (but not everything) the smoother I think a project will go, they will feel more at rest knowing what they are paying for and feel included as they understand what is going to happen.
Great post, a topic I will continue push myself to finish!
Loved the article. Great Tips! Love this site also. Keep up the good work people!
Outlining your process in quotes is important for certain freelance jobs like web design. It’s not necessary for others, such as writing or illustration.
However, if you are charging by the hour then it’s important to have a clear breakdown of what is being done, for how long, so the client knows exactly what they are paying for. You should also work in time for revisions covered under the initial contract, and state upfront how much additional revisions will cost (per hour, per change, etc) should they exceed the initial scope of work.
Great ideas here. A production standard keeps us accountable, both to ourselves and our clients!
Great post! A great way to look at it and get a feel of it would be to think of buying a service, one that you are not specialized in, and try to figure how much detail, and in what form, would you like to receive from your service provider about their production process.
Putting yourself into your clients’ shoes, or at least giving it a try helps a great deal!
Very useful points! I’ve been subconsciously doing this since i started but a little help in structure goes a long way!
Another nice angle for handling client specs accurately. Allow me to add another aspect. You have mentioned about the break down of production process for the ease and understanding of teh client. I believe most of the times the clients are looking forward to something similar in terms of prices so they ll be clear as in what they would be paying for…
Regards,
Amy Dyslex
Being a web dev myself – there’s a bit of confusion amongst clients about whether we are selling a product or a service.
A product costs $xxx amount. A service costs $xxx per hour.
A definition process like this is important as long as the customer knows where the project ends and understands that requesting 100 “little” changes and tweaks at the end of the production process is outside of scope.
This is good advice. It is certainly worth sticking to the process with every project. It helps to give structure to your work, and more importantly ensure smooth and efficient running of your projects. I am not a freelancer, but I still manage all aspects of my web projects, and doing things out of order from the planned process can cost you time and money.
Great article!
The detailed brief results in me getting the design done faster, and thus spendig/wasting time unnessasary time on the project, and the client to save money in the end. 
I’ve just done this progress-documentation for my logo-design on my website. I offer a price for the prototype-design and an hourly rate from there on… In that way, the client can see the potential in giving me the most detailed brief in the beginning.
I made this process-description after doing a logo for way too little money!
And now I’m in the process of doing the same on a webdesign… But After I make the webdesign – I’ll be able to make a process-description, that ads up to the factual process!
So you’ve read my mind!
Very useful. Thank you.
Good stuff. I did an outline of my production process for the first time and the client was very appreciative. It gave her more confidence about the project and with her decision to use me. I’m going to expand it and use it from now on.
I’d recommend the book “Web Redesign 2.0: Workflow that Works” to any web designers here looking to develop a process.
Also, “The E-Myth Revisited” is a classic business book describing how to use processes to build a business, the idea being that once you have a business that is built around a reliable system it will run like clockwork and you’ll be able to delegate most of the actual work to employees, leaving you free to focus on building a business.
I’ve found the biggest secret to keeping clients happy is setting proper expectations. If they can know what to expect (process, features, etc) from the beginning, they’re usually much happier with the result.
This is great idea….
I want to share it on my blog soon….
I created a similar process for a company that I use to work for. With a little inspiration from another process design, I came up with this http://www.flickr.com/photos/nick-brewer/3656484527/
Argh, I wish I found this yesterday! Had a “high level” new client asking for the process to be documented and spent a few hours tearing my hair out! Anyway, this is filed for later reference – thanks!
The process you’ve outlined is asking for trouble.
It assumes website production is a linear, step-by-step process that goes from A to B to C to D (for “Done”!). This is known as the “waterfall” methodology (i.e. moves one way, like falling water).
The problem is, the web design process rarely (if ever) actually works this way. There’s no accounting for going back, sideways, or even in circles. If you don’t account for these possibilities, you’re setting yourself to promise a process you cannot deliver.
A better approach is to present your process as goal-oriented agile development, based on iterative delivery. You define goals, prioritize them (“must have” vs “nice to have”), and then simply choose which goals to deliver in the next iteration. Rinse, repeat. Bill accordingly.
This allows natural scope creep and last-minute revisions to be rolled into later iterations, while ensuing you don’t get screwed out of being paid for the additional work because you already “promised” it in your waterfall spec. In fact, it’s great if the job gets bigger — more revenue for you!
please if you don’t mind show me how to explain the production process of a new product.
i wish i found this imformation long before i had this homework