Client Communication, UW lecture with David Conrad

To follow up my previous post in Communication is a design problem,

David Conrad, an interaction designer, held a presentation at UW on communication with clients.
He outlines some pertinent ideas, most importantly language is complicated and we need specifics to guide how we interact and what we hope to gain from the interaction.

I went to this talk precisely because of the communication gaps I'd witnessed and that no one I worked with seemed to think needed a clearer, more systematic approach or thought we had the time to develop. I come from the place of thought, where you can't afford not to establish common ground and clear approaches to conversations about design, whether amongst team members or with clients. 

An excellent point he referred to is Donald Norman's distinction between complexity and complicated. We seek to integrate complexity, solve complex problems, but we should not relay things in a complicated way. We solve for complexity and seek clarity in explanations.

He asked, What is a good conversation about design?

1. Talk about you process, make transparent where you need input, what kind of input, and what are the client expectations.
2. Say what you are gonna do, Do it, and Follow up.
3. Describe your decision-making to the client, make clear what inputs you need from them.
4. Don't ever show anyone work without being able to walk them through it.

Transparency build trust, knowing where someone is coming from and what is expected builds cohesion.

Communication is a design problem

A few weeks ago, a frustrated friend sent me a text, upset that he was pulled off a project because his project manager and he weren't on the same page. A very talented designer and one of the few "people" people I know in architecture, I told him the problem he's facing is not with design abilities, it is fundamentally a communication problem. His project manager and he weren't speaking the same language, not giving enough time and energy to understanding each other verbally.

Communication limitations are real and there are design solutions.

What needs to happen:

1. Clarify a transparent step-by-step approach to articulating project goals.
2. Write out and post on a wall the guiding questions. 
3. What do you all plan to do?
4. How do you plan to do it?
5. How do you plan to show and convince others of it?
6. Create a regular system of check-ins among the teammates outlining what needs to be discussed, how, and what are the take aways. 
7. Never leave a meeting without answering - Do we have a clear idea of the next steps?
8. Give honest feedback, but be respectful.
9. Never assume anyone just knows what to do or what you are talking about.
10. Never assume something doesn't need to be explained.

Project failings are rarely solely about the product, a problem reflects a breakdown in exchange of information and thoughts between project participants.

In a field where most work is completed in project teams and is client-initiated, how can we get away with not addressing verbal communication necessities in our education? 

Just because we speak the same language, does not mean we can communicate and understand each other. This is a skill that people develop! We need to approach the communication process as a design process, integral to project success. We create relationships, functional and dysfunctional, through verbal and physical communication.

We need to create:

1. Design a system of information exchange
2. State the ground rules 
3. Make the expectations clear
4. Seek to understand and listen
5. Leave ego outside the room

In an industry focused on "collaboration", verbal communication is the intangible work that we do, except we do it with minimal design and often limited results. 

We are a process industry, as much as a product industry. We just want to get to designing things, the fun part, but approaching verbal exchange, question asking, information gathering as a system to be designed, creating a platform for useful exchange, is integral.

We know how to speak, that doesn't mean we communicate well. 
In fact, let's all assume, we do it poorly, and apply our design efforts equally to that task.