By having the client send you lots of whitepapers, endless documents and a deck with screengrabs of the disparate efforts of multiple “stakeholders”?

Or do you prefer to sit down with the client and an empty notepad in front of you?

The latter? Good!

Projects that start with a person to person conversation (in real life or over phone/Skype) tend to run better. Think about the benefits.

• You get to ask the relevant questions, not waste time on what someone else thought was important.
• The client gets a sense of how you work, and what you need.
• You are not constrained by a need to reflect your ideas off of what you already know.
• The client gets an outsider’s truly fresh take on his challenge.

Most of my clients think this way. They prefer to start with the proverbial clean slate, and then add any pre-existing information only as and when it is needed. It’s like white space for the mind.

Try it the next time you are meeting a client, or hiring someone yourself. “See you on Tuesday. Oh, and bring nothing.”

I am keen to hear your thoughts on this approach. I’m @orvet on Twitter, and the comments are open. Thank you in advance!

The conference was brilliantly produced and delivered by Jon Moss who deserves all the credit for an event very well received. My fellow speakers included Mike Butcher from TechCrunch UK, Sapient’s Anand Verma, Kai Gait of GSK and the one and only Rory Cellan-Jones of the BBC.

Pic of me in presentation mode by Duncan McMillan.

What if UPS extended the core element of the whiteboard campaign – the idea of simple explanations drawn on whiteboards – to the way the company interacted with their customers?

Instead of just using the whiteboard doodling as a way to convey their message, UPS could used it to collect feedback from customers.

Imagine if I could sketch my concern about UPS on a web-based whiteboard (at, say, UPS.com/yourwhiteboard). It would force me to be very clear about what I wanted to say, which would benefit me (my feedback would be thought through) as well as UPS (instead of reading a long written rant they would understand my concern more or less through a quick glance).

(My nagging issue is that the latest UPS Store pickup in my corner of San Francisco is far too early at 5 pm. Here’s what it might look like on a whiteboard.)

UPS might even encourage people within large client organisations to lead whiteboarding teams to hash out ongoing feedback and submit it to the UPS customer services team. These whiteboards could be used in future campaigns when Big Brown shows how it resolved customer problems.

Ok, enough with Sunday evening musings. Time for tea!

What other companies could extend campaign elements as part of their interactions? Let me know on Twitter where I am @orvet or in the comments.

“I’m working with less.

I have a smaller laptop, with less HD space. My paper notebook is cheap but good, and so is the pen I use to write in it with.

I use less and less apps, and I bookmark fewer things. My feed reader is heavily, or should that be lightly, curated so that I have less but better stuff to read.

I have a simpler fee structure for my clients, and a plain English non-lawyer-lingo (but iron clad) contract for us both to sign.

I have less “clutter”, not because I’m good at cleaning up but because I don’t give clutter a chance to creep in or pile up.

I have one inbox, and one place where I keep stuff. One simple business card. One clear message.

This is not frugality gone wrong or some trendy better way of working. It’s a personal choice to constantly clarify and simplify. Not to dumb down or take things to the brink of emptiness but to a level where there are no obstructions, nothing to get in the way of what I love doing, or what needs to get done.

If it’s anything it is just that… a back to human basics of having less of what I need and more of what I like, or at a minimum the opportunity to give what I like all my attention.

In the case of my work it is more good people to talk too, more conversations and more projects, more ideas, play, results and fulfillment. More inspiration, encouragement, knowledge and more stuff tested and more opportunity presented. And in this instance more equals better, as in more of the things I just mentioned leads to better results and happier partners, collaborators and above all clients.

Less in itself is just fewer of x and meaningless. On the other hand less as in part of an equation where the result is an elevated you is priceless.”

Does my way of thinking make sense to you, or do you find it better to have more stuff saved and always at your fingertips? Is bigger in fact better? Either way, please share your thoughts on Twitter where I am @orvet, or in the comments.

Clients sometimes come in to a project telling their agency of choice that they have done the following:

1. Created a strategy
2. Conducted research to support the strategy
3. ‘Went out there’ to see what the audience wanted

Not bad. Except that it is super bad.

The steps themselves are good, damn good even. It’s the order in which they are taken that nullifies their value. Just like comment forms should be turned upside down, those three steps should be turned on their collective head.

In the right order, the list should look something like this:

1. ‘Went out there’ and gained understanding of what our audience wants
2. Researched our findings in more detail
3. Created a strategy that aligned our business goals with the wants of our audience

Simple, easy and first things first. Isn’t this approach common knowledge, the very foundation on which businesses are run and marketing plans written? Yes. But it’s not always applied, especially when it comes to commissioning sites, apps or campaigns for the web. Why? I have a few hunches.

1. The interactive agency is rarely the lead agency
The web is usually only one of many components and clients let ad agencies rule the yard, and direct the digital components too. Without relevant coaching from the agency a less experienced client is likely to take short cuts in an area they still don’t know as much about as maybe they should which leads to the key steps being taken in the wrong order.

2. The web is sometimes, still, an afterthought
The web is tacked on at the end without much thought on what it’s really supposed to achieve. Wham bam – done. Hard to say something about this without using the F-word a lot. But you know what I mean and probably share my feelings on this one so let’s move on…

3. Rubbish buyers
And it’s often not their fault that they’ve become a bit rubbish. The reason client’s can sometimes be less than stellar is that they’ve been in a weak agency relationship before coming to you. Weak as in they’re used to never being challenged in a constructive way, never involved in true collaborations, never actually crafting something.

Which brings me back to the inverted list. No wonder a client can think that strategy comes before understanding the needs of clients. No one has ever helped them understand that the web is as important if not more than every other “channel” and that there are no shortcuts in online.

That’s why you, me and others who work with web strategy and thrive on educating our clients have a big role to play. We’re not only making our own lives easier, we’re laying the groundwork for interactions beyond our own involvement. A short, easily explained three step list is not a bad place to start on the path to a wrinkle resistant relationship.

Do you share the same view and experiences, or do you disagree? Please let me know either in the comments or on Twitter where I am @orvet.

Thank you to everyone that I’ve discussed this topic with for the past few months. I’ve learned a lot and enjoyed the chats. We’ll have more to talk about on this topic in the future I’m sure.

No more spookily starring 0_O eyes, just happy birds in random colours. It makes for a much nicer experience while people get their avatars sorted out.

These cards by resident, designer and part-time space manager @jtag have all the info you need to come and join us.

Click for a larger version.

Here’s an example, my tags screen (click it for a bigger version). Clean, informative, with good use of white space. And it’s damn pretty too.

Another thing Simler does well is managing notices and alerts (below). This is what Facebook’s permissions screen should look and read like instead of the rubbish they offer up. Simler’s screen is contextual clarity in action.

Despite all of the goodness, Simler is far from perfect. Not entirely surprising as it is only 3 months old and not even in public beta yet. But @dane_hesseldahl and @MrRyanGoodwin have got off to such a good start that I couldn’t help myself posting about their work.

My first post “Getting to the first kiss in a project” was pushed live earlier today. I don’t have a particular blogging schedule so grab the feed, not least to stay on top of all the other great posts and conversations going on at Huddle Up.

Please have a peek.

Thank you to Huddle’s @bfgmartin for bringing me onboard.

Keeping my fingers crossed paid off, my tweet was chosen and here is the result in glorious high speed.