Common Client Issues

Some Client Types

The Busy Client

Symptoms

  • Takes days to respond to emails
  • Frequently late reviewing deliverables
  • Slow to provide critical app content
  • But cares a lot about the app

Dangers

  • Little or no weekly progress
  • Low morale

Careful: an unengaged client often claims to be busy.

Try

The Unengaged Client

Symptoms

  • Takes days to respond to emails
  • Frequently late reviewing deliverables
  • Slow to provide critical app content
  • Isn't that invested in the app

Dangers

  • Little or no weekly progress
  • Little or no user testing by client
  • Low morale

Try

The Overprepared Client

Symptoms

  • Has a pile of screen designs to implement
  • Has a long backlog of must-have features

Dangers

  • Overwhelmed team
  • Unrealistic expectations
  • Hard to see highest priority goals

Try

The Underprepared Client

Symptoms

  • Has a partially formed idea of what they want
  • Has a very short backlog of features

Dangers

  • New requirements can arise unpredictably
  • Unfocused iteration planning meetings
  • Vague goals, weak progress, low morale

Try

Things to Try

Have a full plate

At iteration planning:

  • Get a minimum of three non-trivial stories with UI design and acceptance test example.
  • Work on second or third story when top story is waiting for client input.

Multiple choice questions with defaults

When emailing:

  • Instead of "what should we do?", ask "should we do A, B, C, or something else?
    • This is simpler to respond to.
  • Instead of a deadline, say "To keep things moving, we will start doing A unless we hear otherwise by ...".
    • This emphasizes collaboration rather than control.

Talk about it

When meeting:

  • As soon as you sense the client is unhappy or disengaged, ask about it.
    • "Are you not seeing something you wanted?"
    • "Should we be doing something differently?"
  • Don't be afraid to pivot. "Is there another idea we should explore instead?"

Delighter-driven design

When iteration planning:

  • Ask the client to say again what the neat new part of the app is.
  • Then say "we'd like to focus on that part first so you can test it out".

Delighter-driven design

When iteration planning:

  • If there's a part of the app that you are not sure you can do, let them know up front.
  • Then say "we'd like to focus that part first so we can be sure we can do it, or can find an alternative".

Visualize scope

Every iteration:

  • Provide burn-up charts to create a visual image of the size of the project and what velocity predicts.
  • Emphasize that de-scoping is the safest way to get maximum value in the time available.

Parking lot

When iteration planning:

  • Keep a parking lot document open during planning for ideas not for the current iteration.
  • Say "let's save that so we can explore it after the meeting."
    • Keep planning on track while acknowledging the idea.

Scenario walkthroughs

When iteration planning:

  • Role-play using the app in various scenarios to generate additional user stories to add to the backlog.

Use-case Diagrams

When iteration planning:

Draw a use case diagram to articulate different user roles to generate additional user stories to add to the backlog.

example use case diagram
By Kishorekumar 62, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link