Winning with fixed-price, fixed-scope clients

padlock on metal gate during daytime

A new client walks through your door with a big pot of money and no plans for how to spend it. A rare creature indeed.

More likely, the client will share some details about what they see a project creating and the reason for their business needing it.

You might call these initial details sandcastles. The plans may look well-defined and considered, but it’s not ready to be a forever thing. 

They may have been planned without any evidence that it will actually work. It could be lacking input from people with the right experience. It might be too simple or too complex. There are plenty of opportunities to discuss making changes to the plan or even starting again.

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Defining and Achieving Client Value in Projects: Essential Insights

How can we deliver Value to a client unless we share an understanding of what Value means for the project?

We’ve all heard of “Good Value for money” and that something can itself be valuable. But how does the language fit into our project delivery and client management approach?

Projects start in different ways, but they all need to have one thing in common. Whether the client brings you a simple vision for the work, or they hand over a detailed 200-page specification, you still want to understand how to return the most value you can in the time available.

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On Medium: You know what Agency Clients love? Certainty.

The article—posted to my Medium account—reflects on the challenges that Agile-first agencies face when they acquire new clients who often have a preference for traditional, Waterfall project management.

When we’re accustomed to agility and flexibility, we must adapt to provide the certainty and structured approach desired by a new client, balancing the innate human need for both certainty and excitement.

This adaptation involves documenting a delivery approach and being less agile about Agile.

But does changing our approach mean we’re no longer Agile?

Read ‘You know what Agency Clients love? Certainty.’ on Medium.

Less-Aligned Stakeholders: How to Carve Out Success

black and white street sign

Once your client induction process is complete, you’ll need to make a decision on whether their next project has a key stakeholder that’s going to be high-impact. With those two key stages in the bank, it’s time to evalute the best way to move forward.

The options below are not intended to be a definitive list. Indeed I can imagine a rewrite of this article or addition of other options in the future. What you will be able to take from reading these thoughts however is the number of ways you could move forward (or not) with a client who isn’t ready to—or won’t—consider your purely Agile delivery approach.

Right, let’s dive into some less-Agile options!

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