Re: Estimating a Project - A real lulu

[Tara Barber <Tara -dot- Barber -at- GALEGROUP -dot- COM>]

Eric wrote:

>>These are good points, however, there is another side of the
coin. _IF_ you as a writer can manage expectations, handle
the pressure, and really deliver something (perhaps not what
the customer really wants, but more than they're resigned
to settling for), you get to be a hero.<<

Eric is certainly correct in all his points here, and I've had my share of
hero moments.  And it's completely valid to say, "Well, gee, I'm afraid you
can't have XYZ in that amount of time, but instead I can give you..."  As a
matter of fact, that's a frequent part of my present job; figuring out what
the best deliverables possible are in the time available.

But what I was trying to get at is the concept that there are some jobs
and/or clients you should walk away from.  These are not the innocent, or
the clueless-but-educatable, or the hard-nosed-but-you-can-negotiate types.
They are what a mentor of mine used to refer to as "poison clients".

A truly poisonous client is rare, but I think almost every experienced
writer has had a few.  They may be terminally clueless, or they may have
hidden agendas, or they may be middlemen brought in by upper management to
flail away at a problem project just so that the big boys and girls can
sigh and claim that they did all they could to rescue the disaster.  (We
found out this was the case in the horror story I cited; turned out a
friend of a friend was one of the developers.)  And sometimes they're just
plain-old obnoxious.

It is a delicate thing to decide when you've got one of these, and nothing
but experience helps you spot them early on.  But it's a useful skill to
develop.  The bottom line is that working for poison clients is no fun and
can ruin your zest for all the things that make being a tech writer
worthwhile.  And in some cases, they can actually damage your most valuable
possession -- your reputation.  It doesn't matter that you are blameless
and your project was doomed from the beginning; it's all your fault!
(Parents of toddlers will recognize this phenomenon.)  And the poison
client will not be shy in so stating to anyone who will listen.

On the other hand, I have been in situations where, by diplomatically
turning down a project that I had no prayer of bringing off successfully, I
gained another client.  Once it was from within the same company as the
client I turned down; they had been monitoring the negotiations, and had
been impressed by my "so sorry" letter, in which I detailed what I felt
needed to happen before the documentation could be started.  And another
time, it was the SAME client ... who's manager had looked over the
situation and told him to back off and give me what I needed.  Rare, but
very sweet.

By all means, if you feel you can put in a Herculean effort and pull it
off, or negotiate a compromise, do so!  That hero feeling is heady stuff,
and it does your rep a lot of good.  But as scary as it is to say "no",
especially if there are dollar signs being waved in front of your nose,
there are times when it's the right thing to do.  The world does not need
another rotten piece of documentation, and you don't need the miserable
quick-sand feeling of knowing you're not going to be able to pull this off,
despite your best efforts.

[This is doubly true, by the by, if the project is honestly beyond your
present skill set.   Stretching yourself is fine, but your reach should not
exceed your grasp to the point that it pulls you, and your client, off a
cliff.  This is the time that networking can save you; if you know of
another writer who's available, and knowledgeable, and willing to do the
job WITH you, you can both make some money, be heroes, and gain some
invaluable experience in the bargain!]

Of course, if you're a company employee, the tricks and skills for dealing
with internal "poison clients" are a bit different.  *grin*  But that's a
subject for another post.

- Tara Barber
Senior Technical Writer
The Gale Group

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