Setting expectations with clients (part 2)

Post written by Steve J, Project Manager at Ideaca

Setting Expectations with Clients Part 2 is a two part blog series on managing client expectations. See here to read part 1.

In my previous blog post, I told a story about a project I was involved in that required expectations to be managed and the project to be pivoted. In this blog post, I will discuss four key factors in managing expectations that I have learned throughout my career.

1. Communication is a key factor when working with clients. No two clients are the same, some will hire a team to complete a specific task, while others will want to be fully engaged. Learning how and when to communicate with these different groups is crucial to project success. Fully engaged clients may require daily or even hourly updates on project status while more removed clients may only want occasional updates. Knowing your client and making decisions on when and how to communicate is an important way to manage expectations. Some of the effective communication mechanisms that we use on projects can include: daily stand-up meetings with the entire project team (including the client), weekly status reports with all items completed that week, any issues or decisions that arouse, and a budget burn down showing progress. Email is a very handy tool for communication, however if a portal (SharePoint or something similar) is available, this technology will allow for much tighter control over issues, questions, and decisions on the project, without the issues with email branching off into numerous threads and side conversations.

2. Building a relationship on honesty is necessary. Right from the first meeting, the client should understand what you can and cannot do for them. As much as we wish we could offer solutions to every problem, the reality is we can only do what is within scope and within our knowledge and skills. While digging into the details of what that desired end state will be, it is important to discuss what is possible and what is not. These discussions will affect the project and the decisions made will impact the deliverables, the timelines and especially the budget. The hope of this is to catch and identify any areas of the project that may lead to deliverables not being delivered, budgets and time frames expanding and missing expectations.

3. Deciding the roles and responsibilities for the project team (including the client team members as well) is a major task that should be completed at the start of the project. From the start of the project, setting up a project Governance is a great way to start. Project Governance will outline the relationships between all groups involved in the project, define the flow of information from the project to all key stakeholders, and ensure that there is appropriate reviews of all issues during the project. Another useful tool is to create a RACI Matrix. A RACI matrix describes the participation by various roles in completing tasks or deliverables for a project or business process. It is especially useful in clarifying roles and responsibilities in cross-functional/departmental projects and processes. Key contacts for the different areas of the project should be also defined. It’s important for everyone to know who to go to for questions and issues with certain aspects of the project and to keep these people consistent from kick off to go live. In projects I have been on, we start the project with an internal kick off meeting before we meet with the client. This ensures everyone is on the same page and has a shared understanding of the project and statement of work. On the first day of work with the client, we begin with a similar meeting. At this point we can assign the key contacts on my project team as well as the clients’ team. Everyone involved on both sides will have had chance to meet and put a name to the face and to their role.

 4. “When is the due date and when can we launch this project?” should be questions that are asked and answered early on. Making sure to develop a realistic project plan adds transparency to the project, shows when the milestones are due and provides everyone responsibilities and accountabilities. The project plan is a living document. It should exist to provide everyone an up to date snapshot of where things are in the project. If there are delays or changes made, the project plan should be updated and discussed with the client immediately. When it comes to managing expectations, establishing clear and consistent deadlines are a necessity. The sooner deadlines are set, the sooner the team can begin to work to ensure they meet them.

Every new project allows for lessons learned or growth, both for the team and the individual. Personally, I have learned so much about managing expectations from every project I have ever worked on. Every client is different and understanding how to work with them is part of having a successful project. Communications, honesty, assigning tasks and confirming deadlines are four key aspects of managing expectations that are part of my expectation management strategy for every project. Ultimately you want to start the project the same way that you finish it: with happy clients!