

Ask HN: Do you have a responsibility to tell a client they are wasting money? - voodoomagicman

Doing freelance work, what responsibility do you have, if any, to let a client know they are going in the wrong direction and wasting their money?<p>If you are working on a project that seems to be going no-where, but is still paying you well, would you continue to work and get paid? Do you have a responsibility to give a client your honest opinion about problems with their project, even if they probably won't want to hear it?<p>I would guess that this situation is relatively common for people who do freelance coding, and I am interested to hear how you guys have handled it.
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patio11
I _routinely_ tell clients "I am happy to take your money for X, but I do not
believe doing so is in your best interest. Here's why: ..."

This can be anything from "Client believes they want X but X just isn't a good
idea." (not too uncommon in SEO) to "Client wants X and X is a great idea but
they could get X implemented for a fifth of the price if they weren't using
me."

People hire me because I'm trustworthy and give them the warm fuzzy feeling.
Those, and my own conscience, are much more important to me than squeezing an
extra couple thousand bucks off of a contract.

I'll also tell variants of this to clients when sizing up contracts. For
instance, smart people who like me routinely ask me to do pedestrian PHP
coding, because I'm reliable and they don't know how to find a reliable PHP
code monkey. (Canonical project description: "We have a site built on
Wordpress which needs a plugin that interfaces with $EXTERNAL_API. Can you
build it?" Yes, I could, but I _shouldn't_.)

I typically refer them to someone who I believe to be reliable, who charges
much less than I do. (Though he should raise his rates, since he's reliable,
and reliable is worth a premium -- as evidenced by people willing to pay $X00
an hour for PHP coding to get someone who will answer emails in a fairly
timely fashion.)

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hdragomir
It depends.

I'm sure the people building YouTube thought it was a pretty dumb and costly
idea.

You could tell your client you don't think their project would take off, but
you never know unless and until you try. Also, why not give some guidance
towards a small pivot in your perceived good project direction?

Crass ideas like when it's about a new OS or something of the like you
wouldn't take on anyway. Right?

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gs8
Tell: Maybe. Depends on my relationship with the client and the situation.
Responsibility: NO.

My general rule is I am not their business advisor or market analyst (unless
they hire me for those roles), something that looks crazy to me might be a
great business idea/wish. I don't want someone to shy away from their dream
because I can't view it from their perspective.

If I was giving advice and if New York times would have come to me for their
paywall, I would have said not a good idea, but than I would have lost a
$40million project and lost any credibility as a good business person because
I said no to a great business opportunity.

Although I have lots of business experience, when I am getting paid to be a
Developer or Designer that is where I should limit myself to.

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triviatise
People dont like being told things. They generally have to come to their own
conclusions. Rather than tell them they are wasting money, instead ask them
questions to try to better understand the value they think they are getting.
It may be that you dont fully understand the situation.

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jterce
True, in general--but not so much in this case. If a client is paying you to
be their expert, they will (usually) understand and expect that you know more
than they in this area. Part of what they should be paying you for is your
experience, advice and guidance.

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antoinevg
If I am experiencing problems or misgivings with the direction of a project I
will first attempt to (gently!) communicate this to my client.

When my client and I are able to engage each other in a process of solving the
problem then the relationship strengthens over time and everyone ends up
winning.

When we are unable to engage each other, usually because the problem is bigger
than both of us, then there is little more we can do for each other but work
towards an amicable parting of ways.

Learning to see it like this has been very difficult for me and I still
struggle to be better at practicing it!

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SabrinaDent
I always make the client prove the business case before I work with them. I
have zero interest in building toiletware.

That said, I had a conversation today with a client who has a fun, cool idea
that it is going to be very hard to build revenue on and very hard to market.
He's 46. He's been an employee all his life. He's poised for a mid-life
crisis. Guys like this either get a mistress or an MBA. What I told him is
that this is going to be cheaper than an MBA, so probably we should just build
the damn thing.

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michaelpinto
The devil is in the details: It's a good idea to say something before a
projects starts — but if you're doing QA and the project was due a few weeks
ago you might not be making any friends (even if they all agree with you).

If your project is going nowhere you can suggest options on how to get it
moving — but you have to be careful not to upset other parties that may be
involved, and phrase your opinion as a "what if we tried bla?"

