“Expert opinion comes highly priced and chiefly ignored” – The Long Dog 2009

On and off, I’ve been freelancing for a decade. In that time I’ve had some great clients and recruiters … and some not so great. So here are some observations and tips from my world.

Getting the gig – standing out from the recruiting hopefuls crowd.
Recruiters see hundreds of CVs (résumés) a week, so why are you special? Sadly most recruiters don’t care if you live or die (unless you can make them money). They also copy/paste your details into a database and whoever’s CV meets whatever they’re searching for gets the gig. Just like Google. Best bit of job application advice I got was from Nick at Zebrapeople – apply SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to my CV. What are the words and phrases recruiters searching for? ‘Experienced and accomplished consultant’? Or ‘IA,  UXD, interaction designer with 5 years experience’ / “Internal communications professional specialising in intranet and online communications”?

I’ve also asked previous clients to provide recommendations on my Linked In profile. When I send my CV to new recruiter or client, I also send a separate document with these recommendations copy/pasted in. Know what? They read them ever time and don’t have to be bothered to click on links to websites.

Expectations: How much should you lie to your clients?
‘Not at all’ is the simple answer.  Get found out – you get fired and a bullet hole in your reputation. “Under promise and over achieve” is a maxim I’ve often heard. People are constantly surprised by your ability to cough up the goods faster than was imagined. It works fine. Until, that is, some smart arse promises more and still delivers. And yes, I’ve been that smart arse. What did it get me? Extensions to a contract that lasted nearly 18 months. Nice.

Just be realistic, make sure you can deliver what you promise, actually deliver it and when it’s needed put some extra work in. But make sure your client realises this. When I was 20 I worked in a department store, on the management training scheme *snore*. I was a little too modest (no, really) and my manager / mentor would say “When you’ve done something  good tell me! If you don’t tell me, someone else will show me what they’ve done and why should I think you’re any better?”. Doesn’t mean show off, just make sure people realise when you’ve done something good for them and they’ll appreciate it.

Win battles, don’t fight wars.
If you’re a freelancer or consultant, you’re not the Director in charge. You’re paid to provide expert knowledge and to argue the case if necessary. If your client chooses to ignore your advice because they know better (and a lot think they do), then you’ll have to decided whether to fight your corner or let them send in the Light Brigade and see what happens. I’ve had to present my feeling on a  real shocker of a project. I wrote a polite, but honest one page report which was presented to the board, considered and then ignored. I wasn’t happy, but there’s a point where your opinion becomes a problem. May I refer you to the recent sacking of drugs advisor to the UK government because of his unpopular opinion? Ok … so … find the balance between your integrity and your desire for the continuation of employment and don’t let pride get in the way.  Or move on – that’s the joy of freelancing.

Be nice: People like nice people … and re-employ them
I had an odd conversation with a colleague once who angrily complained that “it seems to be the people who are all smiles and ‘nicey nicey’ who get listened to round here”. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that despite his academic qualifications and that he’d run his own 2 man agency, he was aggressive in meetings and no one was listening to what he said because they were too busy worrying about him.

We all like nice people so, without being fake, be nice. It’ll make it easier for you to communicate with your client and if something goes bad, they’ll see you as a human being, not just a resource. Being nice – much underrated. Just think: Who would you prefer to be working with?

The rest? Work it out for yourself – that’s why you get write “experienced” on your applciations.

The Long Dog

Question: I’ve heard a lot about User Experience Design (UXD) recently, so in 3 words define the role of a User Experience Designer

Jason: Sure … just after some initial waffle first.

I still suffer under other people’s misapprehension that I’m the IT guy who’s come to sort out their technical solution. Of course, if you happen to be one of the IT guys or gals who really HAVE come to sort out the technical solution, I’m the woolly-brained consultant who doesn’t know how to deliver and implement a technical solution.

So, apart from sitting on my sofa and churning out ranty blog posts, what actually do I do as a UXD – a User Experience Designer?

I’m going to answer this in two ways – firstly as a analogy, and then in the true spirit of online social sharing, I’m going to send you to someone else’s blog – rather than just rip it off and try and claim the glory, before being inevitably found out, and my reputation, what little there is left, dragged through the digital streets and be pelted with virtual fruit for my plagiarism.

Building a digital presence (that’s websites, mobile sites and intranets, to thee and me) is like building a house and the UXD is the architect. Graphic designers may be the interior designers and the IT crowd can be thought of as the skilled builders, plumbers, electricians.

I, the UXD/architect am responsible for understanding the needs of the business and its users / future home owners, creating concepts and designs based on these and translating those designs into plans that the IT crowd/builders can comment on and ultimately make happen, with the graphic designers / interior designers creating beautiful visual metaphors … and other lovely stuff.

The real skill of the UXD comes in finding creative and valuable answers to questions and being able to communicate these concepts and plans to the other ‘construction’ parties, and being able to articulate the benefits of their ideas to influence their stakeholders.

So … it’s analyst, inventor and promoter (hmmm … must use this again), but what are the actual outputs?

For this, I hand you over to author and UXD extraordinaire, Peter Morville, and his excellent article User Experience Deliverables.

Ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba-dee-ba … That’s all folks.

The Long Dog (with thanks to Mel Blanc)

“Since the start of Facebook real conversations are down 10% and real poking is down 40%” Mark Watson, comedian

Comedy aside, it’s understandable to think that expertise is enough to get and hold onto a job or contract, but sadly it ain’t necessarily so.

Someone recently said to my friend “You’re just as good at your job as [your colleague], the difference is no one knows who you are”. And while the buzz words du jour are social media, making sure you don’t underestimate your online social capital is only half the story. Employers and clients are looking for individuals who can communicate their expertise and change hearts and minds in organisations, using their inherent real-life social skills.

Trouble with being a professional specialist is you’re often far down the food chain or at least brought in late in decision processes, to ‘make it happen’. I often find myself in positions where clients ask me for something I know is fundamentally wrong. I either have to grin and produce unworkable rubbish, wasting their money and tarnishing my reputation, or find ways to politely tell them they’ve got it wrong while not embarrassing them and giving compelling arguments for why my way is better and reassurances it’ll all be alright in the end.

Nick Cochrane is MD of digital recruitment agency Zebra People , has found that as well as professional knowledge, his clients are increasingly demanding candidates with ‘influencing’ abilities, following this very real trend for real-space social skills. To be able to show our professional peacock feathers or communicate our potentially controversial opinions, we have to consistently communicate and engage a variety of audiences.

“When you present, you’ll be trying to persuade someone to alter their behaviour, or attitude. ‘Influence’ is a pretty constant feature of everyday life and work. We’re more emotionally aware than we used to be, and as people become more aware, the dark arts of persuasion need to keep up, like an arms race.” Rob Archer, Bloom Psychology.

The moral of the story is, keep Tweeting, blogging and interacting online for a wide reach, maintain distant connections and build personal brand, but also do the other social things we hairless monkeys are so good at …

- Make sure your interpersonal skills are up to scratch (remember, “Presentation is a skill not a human right”)
-  Capitalise on your strong points and improve your weak points in social interaction – you might want to do one of the many personality profiling tests to help you identify these
- Remember that everyone you deal with is firstly human, then many things after: parent / sibling / carer / manager / director / customer
- Collaborate and share to engender good will, showcase your knowledge and create new relationships
- Stand up and be counted, or the blabber mouthed numpties will climb over you and stupidity will prevail
- Be natural and treat everyone with the same level of respect from the CEO to the cleaner

Be Human.

Er … The Long Dog