Archive for month: November, 2018

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CreativeBloq/~3/1n_I30hN8oI/the-best-photo-books-in-2018

Digital photography has completely changed how we deal with our photographs. In the good old days of film cameras you'd send your film off to be developed, get some printed snapshots back and then stick the best ones into a photo album that might take years to fill.

Today, though, even if you've got the best camera on the market, you're likely to have a big 'PICTURES' or 'PHOTOS' folder on your computer, stuffed with thousands of shots. And while you might upload a few of them to Facebook or photography websites, the vast majority of them will simply linger on your hard disk forever.

If you miss the tactile experience of physically flicking through a photo album, though, it's easy to get your best photos printed in a professional-looking photo book; here are the best options available right now.

The best photo books in the US

Mixbook isn't the cheapest option, but its software is wonderfully easy to use with simple but fully editable templates that make the whole business of collating your photos into a book an absolute joy. There are plenty of backgrounds and even stickers to work with if you want to customise your finished book, and the end results are great, with a professional finish.

Picaboo's print quality isn't the best, but it makes up for this with the options it gives you when you're putting your photo book together. Its software manages to be easy to use while giving you loads of options to play with, including searchable background and clip art to help you nail exactly the look you're after for your finished book, as well as the ability to polish your photos so that they match your backgrounds.

For a great all-round option it's hard to go wrong with Shutterfly. It provides simple and more involved tools to help you design your photo book, with loads of templates and backgrounds to choose from. But if you'd rather leave it to the experts, it also provides a Make My Book services. With this option, you choose a size and style and hand over up to 800 photos and any special instructions, and Shutterfly's designers will have your book ready for review in three days.

Snapfish won't design your book for you, but its process is almost as easy. It provides over 120 themes with a massive selection of backgrounds to work with, and once you've settled on your chosen style it'll guide you through the design process with a straightforward drag-and-drop interface. The end results aren't quite up to the quality of other services listed here, but you should be able to get a good deal on the price.

If you're on a Mac, perhaps the easiest way to turn your photos into a book is to use the Apple Photo book options. It's simple to use and follows Apple's minimal style, which will result in a clean design, but it might all feel a little limiting if you want more control over the end results. At the end of the process, you'll get a great-quality book with decent photo reproduction; not the best, but certainly not to be sniffed at.

The best photo books in the UK

If you're picky about end results, then you'll find it hard to go wrong with CEWE. It'll guide you through all the options on offer, and there are absolutely loads of them, with plenty of paper stock to choose from and luxury cover options for the perfect finish. For the most demanding print aficionados, there's even the option to add spot varnish and foil treatments. Obviously these extra options don't come cheap, but if you have the means, you'll find they're well worth the effort.

For ease of use, Whitewall's online book creator is a godsend; simply upload all your photos and it'll automatically arrange them for you throughout your book (up to 252 pages), leaving you to tweak the final layout if you want. Its default 170gsm paper is a little flimsy; we'd recommend paying a little extra for the 250gsm option, and the print quality's generally good, although skin tones are a little on the cold side. Best of all, you can expect your finished book to turn up in just a few days.

To really turn heads with your photo book, head to BobBooks and go for its Lustre Photographic option; it'll cost you more but the results are stunning, with heavyweight 300gsm paper stock and a lustre finish that can't help but show off your photos to best effect. BobBook's print process is similarly top-drawer, boasting vibrant, accurate colour reproduction and beautifully sharp images. The business of actually creating your book is also good and straightforward, with an easy-to-use online interface as well as desktop and iPad apps and even a pro design service.

Bonusprint's a venerable name in the photo business dating back to the 1960s, and while you may not go to it any more to get your film developed, it's a great place to get some excellent deals on photo books and much more. Its online and offline book design software is easy to use, and its smart assistant will select your best photos and lay them out for you, allowing you to edit the layouts and add extra images, clip art and text afterwards. As for the print quality, it's not quite up to BobBook's standards, but there's little to complain about.

Like Bonusprint, Photobox is another site that's liberal with the discount offers, so you'd have to go out of your way to pay full whack for your photo book. Its online book creation software's pretty slick with lots of layout, background and cropping options, and will give you a 3D preview of your finished book so you can be sure of what you're getting. Photobox's standard 170gsm stock is a little thin; we'd recommend upgrading to its premium 230gsm paper for best results, and even with that you'll find the print quality lacking in sharpness.

Related articles:

The best monitors for photo editing in 2018How to prepare a file for print45 best photo apps and photo editing software

Original Source: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/11/sharing-data-among-multiple-servers-through-aws-s3/

Sharing Data Among Multiple Servers Through AWS S3

Sharing Data Among Multiple Servers Through AWS S3

Leonardo Losoviz

2018-11-08T12:30:30+01:00
2018-11-09T10:44:31+00:00

When providing some functionality for processing a file uploaded by the user, the file must be available to the process throughout the execution. A simple upload and save operation presents no issues. However, if in addition the file must be manipulated before being saved, and the application is running on several servers behind a load balancer, then we need to make sure that the file is available to whichever server is running the process at each time.

For instance, a multi-step “Upload your user avatar” functionality may require the user to upload an avatar on step 1, crop it on step 2, and finally save it on step 3. After the file is uploaded to a server on step 1, the file must be available to whichever server handles the request for steps 2 and 3, which may or may not be the same one for step 1.

A naive approach would be to copy the uploaded file on step 1 to all other servers, so the file would be available on all of them. However, this approach is not just extremely complex but also unfeasible: for instance, if the site runs on hundreds of servers, from several regions, then it cannot be accomplished.

A possible solution is to enable “sticky sessions” on the load balancer, which will always assign the same server for a given session. Then, steps 1, 2 and 3 will be handled by the same server, and the file uploaded to this server on step 1 will still be there for steps 2 and 3. However, sticky sessions are not fully reliable: If in between steps 1 and 2 that server crashed, then the load balancer will have to assign a different server, disrupting the functionality and the user experience. Likewise, always assigning the same server for a session may, under special circumstances, lead to slower response times from an overburdened server.

A more proper solution is to keep a copy of the file on a repository accessible to all servers. Then, after the file is uploaded to the server on step 1, this server will upload it to the repository (or, alternatively, the file could be uploaded to the repository directly from the client, bypassing the server); the server handling step 2 will download the file from the repository, manipulate it, and upload it there again; and finally the server handling step 3 will download it from the repository and save it.

Getting workflow just right ain’t an easy task. So are proper estimates. Or alignment among different departments. That’s why we’ve set up “this-is-how-I-work”-sessions — with smart cookies sharing what works well for them. A part of the Smashing Membership, of course.

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In this article, I will describe this latter solution, based on a WordPress application storing files on Amazon Web Services (AWS) Simple Storage Service (S3) (a cloud object storage solution to store and retrieve data), operating through the AWS SDK.

Note 1: For a simple functionality such as cropping avatars, another solution would be to completely bypass the server, and implement it directly in the cloud through Lambda functions. But since this article is about connecting an application running on the server with AWS S3, we don’t consider this solution.

Note 2: In order to use AWS S3 (or any other of the AWS services) we will need to have a user account. Amazon offers a free tier here for 1 year, which is good enough for experimenting with their services.

Note 3: There are 3rd party plugins for uploading files from WordPress to S3. One such plugin is WP Media Offload (the lite version is available here), which provides a great feature: it seamlessly transfers files uploaded to the Media Library to an S3 bucket, which allows to decouple the contents of the site (such as everything under /wp-content/uploads) from the application code. By decoupling contents and code, we are able to deploy our WordPress application using Git (otherwise we cannot since user-uploaded content is not hosted on the Git repository), and host the application on multiple servers (otherwise, each server would need to keep a copy of all user-uploaded content.)

Creating The Bucket

When creating the bucket, we need to pay consideration to the bucket name: Each bucket name must be globally unique on the AWS network, so even though we would like to call our bucket something simple like “avatars”, that name may already be taken, then we may choose something more distinctive like “avatars-name-of-my-company”.

We will also need to select the region where the bucket is based (the region is the physical location where the data center is located, with locations all over the world.)

The region must be the same one as where our application is deployed, so that accessing S3 during the process execution is fast. Otherwise, the user may have to wait extra seconds from uploading/downloading an image to/from a distant location.

Note: It makes sense to use S3 as the cloud object storage solution only if we also use Amazon’s service for virtual servers on the cloud, EC2, for running the application. If instead, we rely on some other company for hosting the application, such as Microsoft Azure or DigitalOcean, then we should also use their cloud object storage services. Otherwise, our site will suffer an overhead from data traveling among different companies’ networks.

In the screenshots below we will see how to create the bucket where to upload the user avatars for cropping. We first head to the S3 dashboard and click on “Create bucket”:

S3 dashboard, showing all our existing buckets. (Large preview)

Then we type in the bucket name (in this case, “avatars-smashing”) and choose the region (“EU (Frankfurt)”):

Creating a bucket through in S3. (Large preview)

Only the bucket name and region are mandatory. For the following steps we can keep the default options, so we click on “Next” until finally clicking on “Create bucket”, and with that, we will have the bucket created.

Setting Up The User Permissions

When connecting to AWS through the SDK, we will be required to enter our user credentials (a pair of access key ID and secret access key), to validate that we have access to the requested services and objects. User permissions can be very general (an “admin” role can do everything) or very granular, just granting permission to the specific operations needed and nothing else.

As a general rule, the more specific our granted permissions, the better, as to avoid security issues. When creating the new user, we will need to create a policy, which is a simple JSON document listing the permissions to be granted to the user. In our case, our user permissions will grant access to S3, for bucket “avatars-smashing”, for the operations of “Put” (for uploading an object), “Get” (for downloading an object), and “List” (for listing all the objects in the bucket), resulting in the following policy:

{
“Version”: “2012-10-17”,
“Statement”: [
{
“Effect”: “Allow”,
“Action”: [
“s3:Put*”,
“s3:Get*”,
“s3:List*”
],
“Resource”: [
“arn:aws:s3:::avatars-smashing”,
“arn:aws:s3:::avatars-smashing/*”
]
}
]
}

In the screenshots below, we can see how to add user permissions. We must go to the Identity and Access Management (IAM) dashboard:

IAM dashboard, listing all the users we have created. (Large preview)

In the dashboard, we click on “Users” and immediately after on “Add User”. In the Add User page, we choose a user name (“crop-avatars”), and tick on “Programmatic access” as the Access type, which will provide the access key ID and secret access key for connecting through the SDK:

Adding a new user. (Large preview)

We then click on button “Next: Permissions”, click on “Attach existing policies directly”, and click on “Create policy”. This will open a new tab in the browser, with the Create policy page. We click on the JSON tab, and enter the JSON code for the policy defined above:

Creating a policy granting ‘Get’, ‘Post’ and ‘List’ operations on the ‘avatars-smashing’ bucket. (Large preview)

We then click on Review policy, give it a name (“CropAvatars”), and finally click on Create policy. Having the policy created, we switch back to the previous tab, select the CropAvatars policy (we may need to refresh the list of policies to see it), click on Next: Review, and finally on Create user. After this is done, we can finally download the access key ID and secret access key (please notice that these credentials are available for this unique moment; if we don’t copy or download them now, we’ll have to create a new pair):

After the user is created, we are offered a unique time to download the credentials. (Large preview)

Connecting To AWS Through The SDK

The SDK is available through a myriad of languages. For a WordPress application, we require the SDK for PHP which can be downloaded from here, and instructions on how to install it are here.

Once we have the bucket created, the user credentials ready, and the SDK installed, we can start uploading files to S3.

Uploading And Downloading Files

For convenience, we define the user credentials and the region as constants in the wp-config.php file:

define (‘AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID’, ‘…’); // Your access key id
define (‘AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY’, ‘…’); // Your secret access key
define (‘AWS_REGION’, ‘eu-central-1’); // Region where the bucket is located. This is the region id for “EU (Frankfurt)”

In our case, we are implementing the crop avatar functionality, for which avatars will be stored on the “avatars-smashing” bucket. However, in our application we may have several other buckets for other functionalities, requiring to execute the same operations of uploading, downloading and listing files. Hence, we implement the common methods on an abstract class AWS_S3, and we obtain the inputs, such as the bucket name defined through function get_bucket, in the implementing child classes.

// Load the SDK and import the AWS objects
require ‘vendor/autoload.php’;
use AwsS3S3Client;
use AwsExceptionAwsException;

// Definition of an abstract class
abstract class AWS_S3 {

protected function get_bucket() {

// The bucket name will be implemented by the child class
return ”;
}
}

The S3Client class exposes the API for interacting with S3. We instantiate it only when needed (through lazy-initialization), and save a reference to it under $this->s3Client as to keep using the same instance:

abstract class AWS_S3 {

// Continued from above…

protected $s3Client;

protected function get_s3_client() {

// Lazy initialization
if (!$this->s3Client) {

// Create an S3Client. Provide the credentials and region as defined through constants in wp-config.php
$this->s3Client = new S3Client([
‘version’ => ‘2006-03-01’,
‘region’ => AWS_REGION,
‘credentials’ => [
‘key’ => AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID,
‘secret’ => AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY,
],
]);
}

return $this->s3Client;
}
}

When we are dealing with $file in our application, this variable contains the absolute path to the file in disk (e.g. /var/app/current/wp-content/uploads/users/654/leo.jpg), but when uploading the file to S3 we should not store the object under the same path. In particular, we must remove the initial bit concerning the system information (/var/app/current) for security reasons, and optionally we can remove the /wp-content bit (since all files are stored under this folder, this is redundant information), keeping only the relative path to the file (/uploads/users/654/leo.jpg). Conveniently, this can be achieved by removing everything after WP_CONTENT_DIR from the absolute path. Functions get_file and get_file_relative_path below switch between the absolute and the relative file paths:

abstract class AWS_S3 {

// Continued from above…

function get_file_relative_path($file) {

return substr($file, strlen(WP_CONTENT_DIR));
}

function get_file($file_relative_path) {

return WP_CONTENT_DIR.$file_relative_path;
}
}

When uploading an object to S3, we can establish who is granted access to the object and the type of access, done through the access control list (ACL) permissions. The most common options are to keep the file private (ACL => “private”) and to make it accessible for reading on the internet (ACL => “public-read”). Because we will need to request the file directly from S3 to show it to the user, we need ACL => “public-read”:

abstract class AWS_S3 {

// Continued from above…

protected function get_acl() {

return ‘public-read’;
}
}

Finally, we implement the methods to upload an object to, and download an object from, the S3 bucket:

abstract class AWS_S3 {

// Continued from above…

function upload($file) {

$s3Client = $this->get_s3_client();

// Upload a file object to S3
$s3Client->putObject([
‘ACL’ => $this->get_acl(),
‘Bucket’ => $this->get_bucket(),
‘Key’ => $this->get_file_relative_path($file),
‘SourceFile’ => $file,
]);
}

function download($file) {

$s3Client = $this->get_s3_client();

// Download a file object from S3
$s3Client->getObject([
‘Bucket’ => $this->get_bucket(),
‘Key’ => $this->get_file_relative_path($file),
‘SaveAs’ => $file,
]);
}
}

Then, in the implementing child class we define the name of the bucket:

class AvatarCropper_AWS_S3 extends AWS_S3 {

protected function get_bucket() {

return ‘avatars-smashing’;
}
}

Finally, we simply instantiate the class to upload the avatars to, or download from, S3. In addition, when transitioning from steps 1 to 2 and 2 to 3, we need to communicate the value of $file. We can do this by submitting a field “file_relative_path” with the value of the relative path of $file through a POST operation (we don’t pass the absolute path for security reasons: no need to include the “/var/www/current” information for outsiders to see):

// Step 1: after the file was uploaded to the server, upload it to S3. Here, $file is known
$avatarcropper = new AvatarCropper_AWS_S3();
$avatarcropper->upload($file);

// Get the file path, and send it to the next step in the POST
$file_relative_path = $avatarcropper->get_file_relative_path($file);
// …

// ————————————————–

// Step 2: get the $file from the request and download it, manipulate it, and upload it again
$avatarcropper = new AvatarCropper_AWS_S3();
$file_relative_path = $_POST[‘file_relative_path’];
$file = $avatarcropper->get_file($file_relative_path);
$avatarcropper->download($file);

// Do manipulation of the file
// …

// Upload the file again to S3
$avatarcropper->upload($file);

// ————————————————–

// Step 3: get the $file from the request and download it, and then save it
$avatarcropper = new AvatarCropper_AWS_S3();
$file_relative_path = $_REQUEST[‘file_relative_path’];
$file = $avatarcropper->get_file($file_relative_path);
$avatarcropper->download($file);

// Save it, whatever that means
// …

Displaying The File Directly From S3

If we want to display the intermediate state of the file after manipulation on step 2 (e.g. the user avatar after cropped), then we must reference the file directly from S3; the URL couldn’t point to the file on the server since, once again, we don’t know which server will handle that request.

Below, we add function get_file_url($file) which obtains the URL for that file in S3. If using this function, please make sure that the ACL of the uploaded files is “public-read”, or otherwise it won’t be accessible to the user.

abstract class AWS_S3 {

// Continue from above…

protected function get_bucket_url() {

$region = $this->get_region();

// North Virginia region is simply “s3”, the others require the region explicitly
$prefix = $region == ‘us-east-1’ ? ‘s3’ : ‘s3-‘.$region;

// Use the same scheme as the current request
$scheme = is_ssl() ? ‘https’ : ‘http’;

// Using the bucket name in path scheme
return $scheme.’://’.$prefix.’.amazonaws.com/’.$this->get_bucket();
}

function get_file_url($file) {

return $this->get_bucket_url().$this->get_file_relative_path($file);
}
}

Then, we can simply we get the URL of the file on S3 and print the image:

printf(
“<img src=’%s’>”,
$avatarcropper->get_file_url($file)
);

Listing Files

If in our application we want to allow the user to view all previously uploaded avatars, we can do so. For that, we introduce function get_file_urls which lists the URL for all the files stored under a certain path (in S3 terms, it’s called a prefix):

abstract class AWS_S3 {

// Continue from above…

function get_file_urls($prefix) {

$s3Client = $this->get_s3_client();

$result = $s3Client->listObjects(array(
‘Bucket’ => $this->get_bucket(),
‘Prefix’ => $prefix
));

$file_urls = array();
if(isset($result[‘Contents’]) && count($result[‘Contents’]) > 0 ) {

foreach ($result[‘Contents’] as $obj) {

// Check that Key is a full file path and not just a “directory”
if ($obj[‘Key’] != $prefix) {

$file_urls[] = $this->get_bucket_url().$obj[‘Key’];
}
}
}

return $file_urls;
}
}

Then, if we are storing each avatar under path “/users/${user_id}/“, by passing this prefix we will obtain the list of all files:

$user_id = get_current_user_id();
$prefix = “/users/${user_id}/”;
foreach ($avatarcropper->get_file_urls($prefix) as $file_url) {
printf(
“<img src=’%s’>”,
$file_url
);
}

Conclusion

In this article, we explored how to employ a cloud object storage solution to act as a common repository to store files for an application deployed on multiple servers. For the solution, we focused on AWS S3, and proceeded to show the steps needed to be integrated into the application: creating the bucket, setting-up the user permissions, and downloading and installing the SDK. Finally, we explained how to avoid security pitfalls in the application, and saw code examples demonstrating how to perform the most basic operations on S3: uploading, downloading and listing files, which barely required a few lines of code each. The simplicity of the solution shows that integrating cloud services into the application is not difficult, and it can also be accomplished by developers who are not much experienced with the cloud.

(rb, ra, yk, il)

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tympanus/~3/jvIQr7gbzmQ/

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Collective #464 was written by Pedro Botelho and published on Codrops.

Original Source: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2018/11/7-secrets-for-building-great-client-relationships/

A colleague recently said to me, “I’ve heard that you’re a client relations guru. Are there any tips or tricks that you have for starting to build up those relationships?”

I always love a question like this—something that makes me stop and reflect. It’s true. Working with people and developing new (or existing) relationships is something I have a knack for. Even though I self-identify as an introvert, I love doing it because genuinely connecting with other people, hearing about their experiences, challenges, wins, quirky-cool talents, what winds their clock (and sharing in return)…well, it actually means something to me.

Was that the big secret? Or was there more?

Could I summarize everything I do to establish a client relationship—things I do without even thinking— and distill it into a list of best practices anyone can apply?

Short answer? Yes.

The next seven tips sum up my advice for building great client relationships within the context of project management.

Tip 1. Face Time is the Best Time

I know there are people who successfully work 100% remotely. I get that. But at some point, if you want to build and maintain great, deep, lasting connections with your clients, you need that human relationship phenomenon that only happens when you’re in person. It’s different. Good different.

I like to meet in person…when I just “feel” like we haven’t met in person in a while

As a general rule, I like to meet in person for an initial conversation, key deliverables, or when I just “feel” like we haven’t met in person in a while. It’s a gut thing, which you’ll need to develop with each new client relationship you cultivate.

Tip 2. Pick Up the Phone

Don’t hide behind email. In today’s day and age, depending on your personality, your workload, and that of those you’re in contact with, it can feel easier to just send an email.

Often email is a good choice, but be aware of the fact that live human-voice connection is like wholesome, all-natural medicine. Your job as a project manager is to nurture your relationships with the right dose of it. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. It depends on how active the project is, your client’s personality, and the kind of work you’re doing. The important takeaway here is, make sure it’s part of your approach.

Tip 3. Money Always Needs to be a Verbal Conversation

At least the initial presentation of it does. That way you hear any concerns, questions, or confusion right away and nothing is left to fester if there’s a misunderstanding.

Money is a hot button for everyone so it’s best to treat it firmly, respectfully, bravely, and humanly

When delivering an initial quote/proposal to a client (or an estimate of new scope for a project I’m already working on), I schedule a call or an in-person meeting to walk them through things together. I tell them: we may only need 5 or 8 minutes ,but let’s reserve 45 minutes on our calendars in case we need to cover anything in more detail. Then I send my email, quote, proposal a few minutes beforehand.

Money is a hot button for everyone so it’s best to treat it firmly, respectfully, bravely, and humanly.

Tip 4. If a Client Asks You the Status of Something, You Dropped the Ball

As PMs, we should be anticipating what our clients might be wondering or worrying about in advance. The client should never have to ask, “What’s the status on <insert milestone, question, deliverable, etc.> anyway?”

Again, there’s no standard approach to use for all projects and clients. You’ll have to find the right balance, since you don’t want to over-communicate either. But here’s a couple of practical takeaways that might help:

a) Set expectations regarding when and how a client can expect to hear from you next. When you do this, underpromise and over-deliver. Will you be able to get them that document by Wednesday? Tell them Friday. Then when you deliver earlier, everyone’s happy. Tell them a reasonable (safe) time frame. Deliver on it, beat it, or own it and communicate in advance if circumstances have arisen to justify it coming later.
b) When in the thick of a big project, weekly (or even twice a week) check-ins are great for batching items to cover. This creates a structure for everyone and builds in accountability to ensure details don’t get missed.

Corollary to the regular check-in: Batching communication is great except when it’s time-sensitive or potentially impactful bad news. What’s bad news? Anything that will cost more, take longer, or be “less good” than the client was expecting. Depending on timing, it may still be OK to wait for your next scheduled check in (if it’s tomorrow). Otherwise, barring a reasonable effort/assessment of whether you can fix said situation so as to circumvent the delivery of any bad news, don’t wait.

Tip 5. Take Responsibility, but Don’t Panic or Beat Yourself Up

Mistakes will happen. When they do, own them. But, don’t emotionally collapse and beat yourself up. Every challenging situation, every bump is an opportunity to strengthen the relationship, build trust, and collaboratively solve a situation.

take responsibility for everything you…need to own, plus a little bit more

Listen to the client if they have a gripe. Thank them for their honesty. Convey that you will be talking to your team to gain further understanding and perspective on what’s happened and that you’re committed to resolving a situation in a way that’s okay for everyone. Remember that you have permission to be fair to yourself and the company you represent (as in, don’t completely fold and give away the store).

That said, take responsibility for everything you and your company really need to own, plus a little bit more. Be honest, transparent, respectful, firm, human, compassionate, and be smart about it.

Tip 6. Make it Personal

Become Friends. Be genuinely interested in the person. The best working relationships go beyond the work and have personal connection on a variety of levels. At an appropriate level and pace (that you have to figure out), allow that to happen. Don’t pry. Don’t force. Don’t be creepy. Just be genuine and human.

At some point, you should know your client’s favorite color, that they love dogs, or that they’re both happy and sad because their first-born is going off to college. And remember, it’s a two way street, so you’ll be sharing things about yourself too.

Tip 7. Manage Expectations

Back in the mid-90s, when my husband and I first founded Gravity Switch, a fellow consultant (named Ed) gave us some unsolicited advice. He said, “The secret to a successful project is managing client expectations.”

We laughed at this advice. Heartily. But not to his face.

Expectations? C’mon… What about great design? What about solid programming? What about projects coming in on budget and on time? You know, all the important stuff that PMs have to think about.

But duh!

What context defines that great design and the solid programming? What context defines whether something is on budget or on time?

I had this aha moment when I realized that Ed was totally right. By the way, I called him up (it was 15 years later) and told him of our folly, admitted laughing (heartily) at his advice, thanked him for sharing it, and apologized for being a little slow on the uptake.

Key takeaway: if you’re managing expectations, what’s interpreted as “great work” and “a great working experience” will follow.

 

Featured image via DepositPhotos.

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