project mismanagement
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- d_rek
Has anyone else had to deal with ridiculous budgets and insanely lowballed project scopes?
I understand one part is the client not having the budget to pay for the work... but the other part is the account/project managers telling the client they can have these projects done in 10 hours... 8 hours... 4 hours for a website redesign...
I feel at odds with the AM/PM's because here I am, a little slow lately because of the sagging economy, but ultimately i'm salaried and they're paying me to be here 40 hours a week yet they only want me to invest the minimal time possible into a project because of the ridiculous budget they've alotted for it. So I have a 10hr project to work on for a 40 hr work week... does that make any sense? ...
My inclination is to ignore the budget and just blow past the alotted time to produce something meaningful so that i'm a) happy with what i'm doing and b) as a studio we can at least be proud of the work we've produce for client X... but I keep getting heat to churn this *ahem* crap out...
thoughts? comments?
uhg.. end rant.
- d_rek0
sorry it's not just for website redesigns, this includes a variety of print/interactive/web related work lately.
- Horp0
"My inclination is to ignore the budget and just blow past the alotted time to produce something meaningful so that i'm a) happy with what i'm doing and b) as a studio we can at least be proud of the work we've produce for client X"
There's a downside to that though D_rek... if they got great work for peanuts in 2009 when times were hard why would they pay any more for it in 2010 when things are good. I think its important that for less money people get less time, less quality, less stuff... otherwise we're doomed forever.
For all of our sakes don't put 40 hours into a 4 hour budget and do something to be proud of.
- Amicus0
they might as well get you to work for the time you are there. Seems like a waste of time if you don't!
- shitehawke0
Just put in the alotted time and listen to the stone roses for the rest of the day.
- d_rek0
sorry let me clarify - yes some of our clients don't have the budgets to pay for a 40 project. But what's really happening is our AM/PM's keep giving them these terrible project scopes and expecting the designers to deliver nuggets of gold in those timeframes and when we can't meet the milestones they get upset with us.. it seems like a lose-lose situation.
Horp, and yes i agree with you and it's been something that's been talked about frequently around here lately.
- Amicus0
while you aren't pushed for time every day it seems like a good time to create the portfolio work that will enable you to push for higher end clients with bigger budgets when the inevitable turnaround comes.
- Amicus0
or just do some freelance work on their time... say it's just to keep yourself busy