Control your tiny Picasso!

Peter woke up, shaved and smiled to himself in the mirror. He blinked an eye. He knows he is great at what he does. Recently promoted to Project Manager at the design and UX/UI department, had prepared his first presentation for a big customer.

One hour later, at the customer's offices and in front of all the executive board presented his graphic proposal. After 20 minutes of showing his amazing skills and talent, talking and talking, without listening or reading the client's reaction, everyone in the room look at each other, with stiff faces. Peter felt a cold shiver at the backbone. “Why are they not clapping their hands?” he thought.

After a minute (which felt like years) the bold and solid shaped CEO stood up crossing his arms (slightly looking like Mussolini at the Milan Square).

“Peter, this is pure crap” - said the CEO. His voice was like a razor blade.

They all left the room, the big guy first and all the midgets behind, leaving Peter alone with his dark thoughts.

As the years pass by, after long terms of learning and deepening the knowledge of this discipline (can't deny mainly though mistakes), I´ve came to learn that great ideas and creations are useless when they are not aligned with the clients needs.

I know this sounds stupid and obvious! But as long I am concerned this is one of the hardest things to do: to get out of our perception ground and try our clients eyes. And this has nothing to do with how good your designing skills are. It's about EGO.

We all have a tiny Picasso inside, talented, proud, defensive and sensitive. You wanna become a project manager and deal with clients? Learn to control your tiny Picasso!

Here are five steps to success towards clients:

1 - Know who they are and their real needs.

2 - Search for graphic identities which can work as references. 

3 - Show the client tons of references. They will have certain preferences. Let them tell you what they like.

4 - Before they fuck up everything with their awful taste do your job! Find the perfect balance between what they want and your professional proposal.

And beware! 

The tiny Picasso is always ready to regain control. Don´t let him do that!