I’ve played with Google Wave (OBM) and toyed with PBWorks. I tried wikis and intranets, I implemented networks and created complicated Excel spreadsheets. I have used at least five different time trackers and even more wireframing tools.

None of those things ever helped get the work completed quicker, more efficiently or better in any way.

I have largely learnt my lesson from this and mostly stick to the processes I know.

So, when a client recently asked me to create a software solution to a clearly inefficient business process I panicked and told them the first idea that came to mind. That idea was a complicated online spreadsheet and I am yet to implement it because I fear it’s just another distraction.

I’ve never found anything in web technologies as efficient or simple for managing workflow as a well-planned whiteboard.

My favourite whiteboard is the one in Homicide: Life on the Streets. It sits up on the wall in the homicide office and features the names of the detectives and the cases they’re working on. An unsolved case is written in red marker and when it is solved it’s rewritten in black.

Red and black. That’s all. It’s easy to look at the board and instantly see where everything is up to.

There are, however, two problems with a whiteboard:
1) It is, to an extent, transient. There’s no permanent or historical record to refer to.
2) There is no way for people to refer to it remotely. People might need to access the information while “on-site”.

These problems/requirements complicate the issue. It’s quite easy to have an elegantly simple solution to a simple problem but this is not a simple problem.

It’s a problem that many businesses face. The person who started the business has a lot of information in her head. She has also tracked jobs and written notes in a series of notebooks. It made perfect sense to her when the business was just her and her business partner but then her business grew. Over time more and more people needed to access that information.

I’ve worked for people who would ponder on a problem for a frustratingly long time. They would sit and reject idea after idea until they ran out of time to act. I’m often the opposite and I’ll jump on a solution, try it and then discard it a while later. Neither is good for business.

What I keep forgetting, though, is that the excellent whiteboard in Homicide probably wasn’t the first system they tried in that office filled with detectives. There must have been a time when the Baltimore police department didn’t have an elegantly simple solution for keeping score of investigations.

The key is to ask at every step, “Is this leading to a simpler way?” My client’s problem started as a simple process and was complicated over time. My job is not to make it more complicated.

We may have been able to fudge it. Call us stupid, but we don’t think ‘fudging it’ is the way to keep clients happy or maintain a low client turnover.

In this situation there are two options:

1. Quote ludicrously high with the aim of missing out on the job. In the event the quote is accepted, the job can be outsourced with a tidy profit.
2. Tell the truth and decline the work

We chose the latter option and used the opportunity to explain our areas of expertise. Selling the company, not the lie.

The natural fear is the potential client will storm out of the meeting, muttering obscenities under their breath.

What actually happens is the potential client realises their current project – or at least the original part of their current project – is a bad fit. They also realise they’re not dealing with sleazy salesmen willing to say anything to get a job and deal with the consequences later.

The second realisation sells a company. It’s something that can be used to convert a single project into a long term relationship.

Ludicrously high quoting, lies or fudging a task may get you more clients but getting clients isn’t the aim, the real aim is to keep them.

So who got it wrong and how did it end up so completely out of proportion?

It takes us a lot of work and time to come up with an accurate quote for a client. We put a lot of thought into every project and make sure we quote something that actually meets their requirements.

We learnt a valuable lesson: always ask a client for a ball-park figure for their budget before quoting. Maybe, if it makes them feel more comfortable, we could give them a minimum amount we expect it to cost before giving a detailed quote. Even if we told them a range that the price is likely to fall between the client would have been a lot more willing to tell us not to worry about it.

At a previous place of employ, my boss used to always talk about “managing the client’s expectations”. That’s impossible to do if their expectations aren’t actually stated.

Service businesses, like ours, also have expectations of our clients. Part of the mindfulness of dealing with providers and clients alike is being honest about what is required from each party as early as possible.

Everybody’s time is valuable. The client could have found out immediately that they did not have the funds for what they wanted. That extra time could be used to think of other solutions for their needs.

We could have saved time and done work for other clients or on our ever increasing list of things we need to continue strengthening our fledgeling business.

Also, “managing the client’s expectations” is the wrong way to look at it. It sounds manipulative – probably because it is. Expectations, much like prices, are a matter of negotiation. If everybody involved has an understanding of their responsibilities and those of their partners in the project, even if it’s just the very start of the relationship, there is accountability on all sides and things will move forward much more smoothly.