Today I'm really excited to share this interview with Phyllis Sa, a brand and web designer for small businesses, organisations and creative individuals.
When Phyllis moved to San Diego, she wasn't quite sure what she wanted to do with her design career. So she decided to start freelancing and then became a creative entrepreneur, which she has found incredibly liberating.
Listen to her story below!
So you wish your clients would give you clear, organized feedback on their designs. But all you’re getting is one-word or one-sentence answers and unclear feedback like, “could you make the design pop more?” or “it doesn’t quite feel right”.
Sometimes, getting high-quality feedback on your designs is like searching for a unicorn.
Today, I’m going to break down how you can get top quality client feedback.
I have a question for you: what is the worst or most unhelpful feedback you’ve received?
Someone asked this question in my Facebook group, The Designer Collective, and the unhelpful feedback designers were receiving was:
“I totally trust your design eye, but…”
“I don’t know what I want, but I’ll know when I see it.”
“I want something quirkier.”
Feedback like this isn’t helpful because it doesn’t help us as designers understand what the client truly wants, it’s too vague.
Vague client feedback either leads you to complete revision after revision and still not get the design right, or leads you to ask question after question to squeeze clearer feedback from them, which can take days.
Why do some clients provide vague feedback like this?
As freelance web and graphic designers, it’s our job to listen to client feedback and complete revisions, ‘aka, design changes so the client is happier.
But sometimes, clients can take advantage of that. It can be on purpose, but often not.
What happens is clients request more revisions and they ask for one tiny favour then another. Before you know it, your project is weeks over deadline and you’ve put in HOURS more than you thought. Hours you haven’t been paid for.
Watch the video below or read on to learn the five key ways you can control scope creep and cut down on revisions.
