The Courage of Transparency
I love a good mystery. I joined a sorority mostly because it was the most secretive thing in my college’s small town. I can’t resist a good historical figure’s biography and you know the podcast Normal Gossip is on rotation during my work day. Our house is currently seven episodes into the American version of “Traitors,” a mafia-game-meets-”Survivor” competition show based in a Scottish castle, pairing normal people and reality stars alike to root out troublemakers and win cash. It’s a delight, and of course, host Alan Cumming’s outfits are as brilliant as the sun. All of this is to say, while I enjoy a little intrigue in my entertainment diet, it’s the opposite of how we decided to run Week of the Website.
Transparency seems courageous, but I actually think it’s more like a breath of fresh air.
From the moment we receive a new inquiry from a client, our goal is to share the information we have about what we do, collect details from them about what they need, and determine if it’s a match. When we ask questions about how to handle things like pricing (“List it on the site or keep it internal?”), timing (“Does this time frame work or will it be too difficult?”) and expectations (“Can we really do what we say we’re doing?”), it has always felt much harder to not lead with openness.
As a team, we’re always trying to ensure both our clients and team members feel like what they see is what they get. Starting on, clients get to see our work in progress. Each day we have a design review call to talk about how the project is going, and at any point during the build they can leave edits and notes for us in a shared document.
From time to time on sales calls, clients will ask what happens if they don’t like their site at the end of our time together. Honestly, it’s so hard to answer this because so many things would have had to go wrong to get to that place. Because the WOTW process is so open and so transparent — and because we work so hard to help clients understand we really do want their feedback — the result is that there are no surprises. Then, hopefully, if anything unexpected comes up, it’s a fun delight that takes their project further than they expected.
So in running a client-centered business, can you call transparency and openness courageous? Maybe. But for us, it feels like the only way to help everyone involved feel like they’re standing not only on solid ground, but with a foundation that we all understand and can rely on.
While we’d love to be sipping a cocktail with Alan Cumming in a Scottish castle on our own time, when it’s time to deliver the best possible websites for our clients, there’s just no time for mystery.