Mastering Client Communication

Effective communication with clients is essential for the success of any IT product. In this post, I want to share my experience as a Lead software engineer and focuses on the nuances of communicating with clients, handling conflicts, and ensuring that both technical and business goals align.

Communication Differences

"Guiding clients toward a clear vision is often part of the job."

Communication styles vary depending on the size of the client’s business. For small and midsize businesses, direct and fast communication is often possible. Decisions can be made quickly, but there’s also the risk of micromanagement. These clients may not have a clear long-term vision, so it’s your role to guide them toward one. Guiding clients toward a clear vision is often part of the job.

In enterprise-level projects, you’ll often work with multiple layers of management. Decisions might take longer, but the client usually has a clearer vision and roadmap. Additionally, expect a higher level of expertise from the client’s team, so discussions can be more technical.

Based on my experience, despite the size of the business, clients typically fall into these categories:

The Know-it-All

These clients believe they have all the answers and may try to micromanage the technical aspects. You’ll hear things like “Just put the code here, and it should work.” Or “I have a uniq idea (usually it’s not), just need you to use ChatGPT and generate me my unicorn application.” Communication with such clients requires patience and clarity. Explain the technical implications of their requests and steer the conversation toward broader goals. Let them understand that you are in charge of technical solutions.

The Domain-Owners

These clients have a clear vision of the product but may lack the technical expertise to articulate their requirements. Usually, they already have successful offline business and needs your help to digitise it. Here, your role is to implement their vision using technical solutions. BTW, work with such client’s is a great opportunity to gain expertise in new business domains.

The Idea-Partner

This client seeks your expertise and values your input. They’re open to suggestions and understand that the best outcomes come from collaboration. Communication with them is often smooth, but it’s essential to maintain transparency and keep them informed. Usually, the domain expertise from your side is required to develop a successful product.

Conflict management

"Alignment at every stage reduces the likelihood of surprises at the end."

As product evolve and new challenges emerge, even with a well-established cooperation, disagreements may occur due to shifting expectations, new business priorities, or differing views on software design. These conflicts are a natural part of ongoing relationships and, when managed effectively, can strengthen the partnership rather than harm it.

Conflicts between clients and developers can arise for several reasons. Some of the most common causes include:

Estimation Disagreements

One of the frequent sources of tension is when clients feel that the time or budget estimates provided by the development team are too high or unrealistic. Clients might not fully understand the complexity of certain features, technical limitations, or the potential for unexpected challenges during development. This can lead to friction when clients expect faster delivery or lower costs than the team has estimated.

To avoid this, it's crucial to explain the reasoning behind your estimates, break down the work into understandable pieces, and involve the client early in discussions about prioritization and scope.

Software Design Concerns

Clients may have specific ideas about the user interface or functionality that don’t align with best development practices or the technical architecture chosen by the team. This can lead to conflicts over design choices, especially when clients push for solutions that developers feel might compromise performance, scalability, or security.

To manage this, it's important to educate the client on the trade-offs involved in various design decisions, while remaining open to their input and adjusting when appropriate.

Change Requests

Mid-project change requests are common, as we live in a rapidly developing world. Clients may request new features, alterations, or even shift the project’s direction, not realizing the impact these changes can have on timelines, costs, and project scope. Developers, on the other hand, may feel frustrated by having to rework features or extend deadlines to accommodate these shifts. Clear change management processes are essential to mitigate this, including transparent communication about how changes will affect the project and making sure clients understand the implications of each new request.

Misaligned Expectations

This is often the result of unclear initial discussions, lack of regular updates, or assumptions made by either party. To prevent this, it’s vital to have detailed discussions upfront, document everything, and maintain regular communication throughout the project. Alignment at every stage reduces the likelihood of surprises at the end

When handling these conflicts, it’s essential to approach the conversation with professionalism. While the saying “the client is always right” doesn’t apply here, your role is to guide the client toward a better understanding of the project.

Non-Functional Requirements

"But there is one huge BUTT, BUT…"

While clients tend to focus on the visible features and functionality—the part of the iceberg above the surface—it's the developer’s responsibility to ensure that the larger, unseen portion, the non-functional requirements (NFRs), are given equal attention. These elements, such as performance, security, hardware costs, scalability, and test coverage, form the foundation of a stable and efficient product.

Clients often don’t realize how much these factors can affect the overall success of their project. For instance, without proper attention to scalability, the application might slow down as usage grows. A lack of focus on security could lead to breaches, and ignoring hardware efficiency could result in unnecessary operational costs. Similarly, neglecting test coverage might introduce bugs that are expensive to fix later on.

Often, clients don’t want to add additional costs to software development by spending time writing tests and optimizing performance. Cheaper is better, right? But there is one huge BUTT, BUT - you, not the client, will be triggered on vacation when the server fall down because of unexpected heavy load; you, but not client will be responsible for accounting calculation issue of your “wallet” feature, which you had not enough time to cover with test cases; you, but not client will be responsible, if some sensitive data will be exposed, because there was no enough time to implement “encryption” for customer data.

You are the one that needs to explain the importance of non-functional requirements. It’s your responsibility as a developer, to bring these considerations into the conversation, helping clients understand that while these aspects may not be visible, they are essential for a well-rounded and sustainable solution.

Utilize own experience

"Every fuckup shapes your expertise."

Everyone’s got their own unique experience from the previous projects. Maybe you messed up a feature once, underestimated a timeline, or overlooked a security flaw—whatever it was, it’s now your advantage. Don’t hold back from using that experience. Don’t be shy to talk about it and share your expertise. Sometimes, people might not get why some things must be done in a different, not obvious way or should not be done at all. Why coding custom payment integration is not as good as using a payment provider’s checkout page; why it’s necessary to log every request/response to 3rd parties; why deployments on fridays afternoon is a terrible idea… But you know it, because you messed up on such things before and it’s a part of your job to share this experience. Every fuckup shapes your expertise, so, share what you've learned—it could save everyone a headache later.

Tips & Tricks

"Compromise doesn’t mean lowering quality—it means finding balance."

Here are some tips to establish a healthy communication and relationship with your client.

Active listening

Pay close attention to the client's concerns and try to understand their perspective. By giving the client your full attention and asking clarifying questions, you can uncover the root of the issue, which often leads to a faster resolution. Active listening shows the client that you value their input, which can prevent misunderstandings from escalating into larger problems. Listening is more than hearing—it's understanding the client's needs.

Clear expectations

Ensure that everyone involved has a shared understanding of the project's goals and deliverables. Misaligned expectations are one of the biggest sources of conflict in IT projects. Repeat requirements in another words, couple of times if needed, until you and a client are 100% sure you are on the same page.

Compromise

Find mutually agreeable solutions that address the needs of both the client and the development team. Be open to giving up some ground, but ensure that the client understands any trade-offs involved. Compromise doesn’t mean sacrificing the project’s quality or integrity—it’s about negotiating solutions that benefit both parties. Compromise doesn’t mean lowering quality—it means finding balance.

Be honest

If something is going to take longer than expected - say it.

If there is a blocker - say it.

If something is going to ruin an application performance - say it.

If something, that needs to be implemented, was done by you on another project before, and there were some negative consequences - say it.

Instead of a summary…

In successful client collaborations, every team member plays a crucial role, and it’s essential that everyone communicates within their area of responsibility. Whether you're a developer, QA, designer, or project manager, your input impacts both the product and the client relationship. Developers should explain technical decisions and how they align with project goals, while QA ensures that the client understands the importance of quality assurance in delivering a flawless product. Designers communicate the rationale behind design choices, focusing on user experience and aesthetics, while project managers act as the bridge between the client and the team, ensuring alignment on timelines, scope, and expectations. By sharing insights specific to your role, you foster trust and demonstrate that every aspect of the product is being handled with care and expertise - Be a Part of the Team!

P.S. What do you think is important in communicating with a client?