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Figuring out what a client really wants can be tricky business. Perhaps you see glaring problems, like voluminous corp-speak all over their site for children, and you may be tempted to focus on those. However, this client came to you to solve a particular set of problems and what's most important to them may not be completely obvious to you. Nevertheless, it's your job to get to the bottom of these needs, so you can be sure of sweet success. But how to do this?

The W

As with journalism, you need to narrow down the who, what, when, where, and why of a project. Who are your main contacts? What are the details of the project (the scope)? When will it start and finish? What physical or virtual space will it occupy? Why is the project being done in the first place? What problems does it solve? Asking a client to write out the answers to these questions can be a clarifying moment for everyone. Maybe the project is ridiculously simple, or more likely, quite a bit deeper than initially described. Maybe 15 people have to signoff at every stage, which could be a sign of lack of focus on the client side. It's always better to know this stuff in advance, so just ask.

The Most Repeated

As you communicate with your client, you'll likely notice they keep returning to certain themes. Addressing these themes directly, even if it isn't exactly what the client envisioned when they first mentioned it, will make them feel like they are an active part of the process and show that you are really listening to them. If you are asking yourself, "Why do they always bring up X?" that's the thing you should pay attention to.

Ignore recurring themes at your own peril, because no matter how much you sell them on your (obviously better) alternative, these issues will continue to resurface and they will have to be addressed somehow. The gaps between these recurring themes and your actual solution are often the largest source of disappointment for a client, even if your solution can bake brownies and cupcakes at the same time. As in, "Yeah, it does bake brownies and cupcakes at the same time, but all I ever wanted was crispy bacon."

The Written Execution

Many times, changes get agreed to in ad hoc meetings and it can get confusing to track who said what, why they wanted it, and whether it was officially approved. After one of these sessions you need to send a follow up email to the client that says, "This is what we understand you are asking for, please give us the go-ahead and we will make these changes."

This is good for two reasons. First, it gives you a verifiable paper trail to refer back to, so you know when each change was introduced, who introduced it, and why they introduced it.

Second, it gives you and the client a chance to consider these changes one final time before execution. Sometimes meetings spin off course and a certain aspect of the project gets far more attention than it deserves. In hindsight, the neon vampire logo might not make as much sense as it did in the heat of the moment. Give your client one more opportunity to vet these changes after a minute of reflection.