
Emails from a CEO Who Just Has a Few Changes to the Website - zavulon
https://medium.com/slackjaw/emails-from-a-ceo-who-just-has-a-few-changes-to-the-website-43ccb7b31709
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anotherarray
Many colleagues would disagree, but I find the micromanaging attitude of CEOs
to be extremely negative.

If you did your job right, you have people that are much more experienced than
yourself. The only smart move is to coordinate them and, at best, give your
opinion.

I don't really google "what's the best suturing technique" and demand my
doctor to follow those exact instructions.

~~~
aytekin
The problem with that is that as a CEO, you are responsible for the results.
So you cannot ignore the problems just because one of your employees says it
is the correct way.

My approach is to hold myself from telling the designers what to do, and
instead tell them what the problem is and let them come up with a solution.

~~~
anotherarray
You're responsible for results, but that means recognizing your team is often
giving their best.

I agree with your second point. Still, there's a very thin line between
"telling them what the problem is" and burning out your best employees.

I guess experience and empathy do help us get such balance.

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j-hernandez
The Oatmeal and Clients From Hell have been mentioned. I'd submit 27bslash6[0]
(of "Missing Missy" fame) as a drier take on the meme. Quite entertaining if
the email chain is your thing.

[0] [http://27bslash6.com/p2p2.html](http://27bslash6.com/p2p2.html) (I
believe this one touches on a similar theme)

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colanderman
I think The Oatmeal better exemplified this particular meme here:
[http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell](http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell)

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Exuma
Is anyone else tired of the mega cliche fumbling boss who makes the designer
do extra work by changing his mind? Honestly this type of stuff irritates me
because it shows you don't especially know what you're doing, because you
can't get the other person to see your vision. Part of the job is learning to
work with people who can't quite "see" it and need your help. In 10+ years of
designing and programming sites for clients, I've never once had a situation
like this. If someone is stuck on a bit, I help them, or discover and piece
out what they really want by talking with them, finding many examples of what
they do like, explaining the UI/UX choices from a usability point of view,
etc.

~~~
zcdziura
In Corporate America, this sort of interaction is completely routine,
especially when talking with a single business analyst who's supposed to be
representing a whole team. Much of the time, the BA imposes their own requests
on-top of their team's. While that's fine, much of the time that is spent on
the requirements gets wasted because, after showing off the project to the
rest of the business team, they have their own requests that refute what the
BA wanted in the first place!

While this would all be solved if requirements were decided as a team, much of
the time that's not the case. Alas.

~~~
patmcguire
Yeah. You can do pretty well if it's just one boss, but when you have to
somehow answer to everyone, and every meeting leads to two meetings with new
people recursively until the end of time, there's not a whole lot you can do.

------
mladenkovacevic
This from an earlier post made me laugh:

 _It’s important for the brand to look and feel human. We’re a tech company.
Tech is the opposite of human, so we have to make the brand human. Humans
attract humans. I’ve got some human ideas. What if our website is just covered
in skin? Please, someone mock up the skin site. Play around with it. Make sure
these humans know how human we are.

-D. CEO & Founder, Spunk Labs._

~~~
mladenkovacevic
And then the culmination:

 _So, for the logo. What if it’s something random? Something unexpected? Hear
me out. What’s minimal, human, wordless, and edgy? I’ll tell you what…a toe.
Exactly, it’s brilliant. I’ve mocked up a few designs myself. I’ve attached
them to this email, and I have to say, they’re pretty damn good. I’d love to
see 20 more options for the toe by EOD, but we’ll probably go with one of
mine, but do it anyway.

d. CEO & Founder, Spunk Labs._

------
theandrewbailey
Reminds me of Clients From Hell. Stuff like this is a dime a dozen, along with
clients who won't pay.

[http://clientsfromhell.net/](http://clientsfromhell.net/) (newsletter popup
alert)

Edit: the good ones are where the client asks for a slight change,
acknowledges it but doesn't want it to be quite so much, then is happy, but
the designer didn't do a thing for any of it, aside from maybe changing a
filename.

~~~
josephcooney
Ooops, I see you beat me to it.

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hbosch
_[Int. CEO, at least 2 VPs, Creative Director, Designer. In all glass
conference room huddled behind a designer, looking at his screen. Everyone in
the open plan office shifty eyes, trying to eavesdrop.]_

CEO: Who approved that?

Designer: You did...

CD: ...at the last review.

CEO: I did? Well ...it needs to change. I was thinking...

 _[1 month later, 48 hrs to launch.]_

CEO: When did we change that?

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melicerte
Who went to see [http://dumply.com](http://dumply.com) ? I did ...

~~~
zquestz
I definitely did. That was the best part of this article.

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josh_carterPDX
Man, if this guy had Slack imagine how much more that Design Team would have
been pestered.

~~~
pc86
I set our team's Slack to have no notifications 8PM-4:30AM (we are open
5:30a-7p).

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bshimmin
I really enjoyed "EOM (end of morning)". I think I used to have this guy as a
client!

~~~
daveloyall
Yep.

 _" I know I said I loved it yesterday, but looking at it now, I hate it."_

I usually ignore this kind of humor, but wow, there is a non-zero chance that
this is an accidentally verbatim quote of an old boss of mine.

(Before you think I am talking about you, ask yourself: has your interest
level in the Transformers franchise ever exceeded healthy levels for a grown
man by two sigmas? Well there is your answer.)

------
tacon
Jonathan Stark on The Freelancers Show podcast has been harping on the answer
to this issue for multiple episodes. He figures out the intended result of the
project and makes a fixed price bid, paid in advance. If the client wants to
change something, they have to answer "How does this increase the conversions
that is the desired result of the project?", or whatever. And if they really
want it changed, then project 1 is put on ice, and an entirely new project 2
is spun up with a new fixed price bid, paid in advance. Of course, Stark
refuses to work with many clients where he can't get a sufficient level of
trust before project start. These ideas are spread over many episodes, but
here is a recent one with relevant show notes:

[https://devchat.tv/freelancers/191-fs-establishing-trust-
wit...](https://devchat.tv/freelancers/191-fs-establishing-trust-with-your-
clients)

------
r2dnb
"White wall it" damn this one made my day.

I think CEOs where companies are versatile and skillful in the core operations
of the business (think Bill Gates, Satya Nadella) will always have a huge
advantage over companies led by people only proficient general purpose
management and general purpose operations research.

The ideal role of a CEO is "Head of Operations + Chief Architect". His
workflow should be top-down (market assessment) => bottom-up (product design)
=> top-down (operations management) => bottom-up (operations) reloop.

The more distance he is able to travel between the bottom and the top, and the
faster he can do it, the greater the competitive advantage of the company is.

The CEO of this satire seems to be rather on top of his business ;)

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dlandis
Sometimes you just have to "white wall" it in order to move forward. Everyone
knows that.

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littletinman
I used to work at a two design/web agencies and left the design agency (as a
developer) because of emails and discussions like this. For about 3 years I
kept wondering "Is this every developer job? Turning accordion into dropdown,
then into a grid, then into an endless scroll FAQ?" Finally I got a job
working backend on enterprise software and have never looked back.

This thread is the first thing to remind me of all the stress I endured just a
few years back.

My question is, how do we change this? That work was fun, but the high stress
from either directors or CEOs or clients constantly changing their mind was
overwhelming.

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bigB
While this isn't new it always makes me laugh.

~~~
protomyth
I did report design (now call Business Intelligence) for a while and it makes
me have bad flashbacks.

~~~
zwerdlds
Oh god. Oracle? _shudders_

~~~
protomyth
uhm, no, sorry - the field is now called Business Intelligence according to
all the job postings I keep seeing when it used to just be Report Writer (who
could do his/her own stored procedures / queries).

I once spent 8 holes on a golf course taking sh*t from some farmers because my
Dad pointed out I had done one of the documents they got. I felt triplely
damned.

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CalRobert
"Date: May 14th, 2016 at 2:45:08 AM PST"

Uggg. I know this is a lost cause but in May this would be PDT, not PST.

~~~
jlgaddis
Hint: along with the times and timezones, most of this post is also fictitious
(although the premise is very real!).

~~~
CalRobert
I realize that, but the PST/PDT thing (along with GMT/BST) is incredibly
common and incredibly annoying.

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esthermun
F'ing hilarious and sounds just like my ex-boss from hell.

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josephcooney
clientsfromhell is filled with stories like this
[http://clientsfromhell.net/](http://clientsfromhell.net/)

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adeel4
This sounds like my life right now. On the receiving end.

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Wellshit
Seems accurate.

