Sounds familiar? Then you might want to read on…

Are you a techie supplier – IT Project Manager, Digital Agency, Web Developer or Web Designer – who finds your non-techie clients a tad frustrating? Do you sometimes think “I’m the creative expert here – why can’t they just let me do my job!”? Or say to them “I am sorry but that’s not possible – coding isn’t really magic”? Or think to yourself as you bite your lip “I can’t possibly put my name against THAT!”?

Or are you the client – the end user – who feels frustrated with your IT support or your web designer because they just don’t get what you’re asking them to do? Do you feel utterly clueless when they start explaining the reasons why you can’t have that cute button you REALLY want? And do you dread the day when they’ll be fed up with your zillionth question and will tell you that ALL you’ll ever need to know is in the online user guide?

WARNING: If you are reading this and laughing – or crying – then you are standing dangerously close to the edge of one deep and wide communication gap.

ON THE EDGES

THE APPLES

Technical creatives are passionate about making the most intricate products look, work, and run smoothly and are very serious about their work adhering to the best coding and designing practice.

In fact it’s a matter of personal and professional pride.

And it’s their genius.

THE ORANGES

The non-techie end users, on the other hand, typically only understand – and care – about the beautiful, fast and easy-to-use front-end interface.

In fact, they can get overwhelmed trying to understand what the developer needs from them to make that happen.

Not really surprising. After all, their only expertise is how user-friendly a product is.

So, even though the two camps want the same things – a high quality product offering great user experience – this shared objective is often lost because they use different languages to communicate it:

Technical language and Sensory language.

But the language difference is only a symptom pointing to a much deeper gap.

The cultural gap.

“So, how do I close it?” you ask.

Good question, yet there’s no one-solution-fits-all answer. There are far too many variables to consider before the gap can be bridged.

But I can give you six tips that will start you off in the right direction:

TIP 1 GET REALLY CURIOUS ABOUT THE RESPONSE YOU GET. AIM TO UNDERSTAND IT, NOT FIX IT.

TIP 2 PUT YOURSELF IN THEIR SHOES. BUT DO IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT.

TIP 3 FIRST LISTEN, THEN ASK A QUESTION. THEN LISTEN AGAIN.

TIP 4 INSTEAD OF MEETINGS HAVE THERAPEUTIC CONVERSATIONS. 

TIP 5 ASK WHAT THE OTHER NEEDS FROM YOU. THEN ASK “WHAT ELSE?”

TIP 6 HIRE ME TO HELP YOU WITH ALL OF THE ABOVE. AND MORE.

SOUNDS INTERESTING?

LET’S TALK.