Freelance Heroes

I'm testing a cloud-based invoicing system now. It's more convenient but limited to personal branding and creative treatments other than a header/logo.

Always try and assist / help your clients with your knowledge.

I have a client who sole eLearning to a client of his - "...with as many changes as you want, forever..".

Of course - this is now coming back to bite him, as the client seems to love change, and I do not work for nothing.

From now on, we think that any proposals he makes will include me to some degree, as I can help him avoid such things.

Bruce

I think this is the worst thing you can say to a client!

Changes forever!

Imagine you say that 10 or 15 years ago. You'd still making changes to adapt the content to new devices, etc.

I think that in the project description, attached to the contract, changes, modifications and extensions should be clearly mentioned. Of course you can't always know what's going to happen. When I was a PM, we used to say to our bosses: "But a project grows!". And the answer was: "A project that grows is a project not well defined in the first stages,and if it should grow, then the budget should grow at the same pace". Which I think is very coherent.

Belen

LOL - I think he now appreciated that it was a mistake

Bruce

I suppose it's too late for him to add a "Fair Usage Policy" paragraph in the fine print, right?

Great thread !

I'm developing a quick menu picklist of total charges for course development based on complexity.

1. Simple (talking powerpoint)

2. Medium Complexity (add some degree of multimedia dev)

3. Complex (add video recording & editing)

Clients choose one of the above options.

Total hours times hourly rate determines the course dev quote.

First off, are these major headings realistic ?

Secondly, what ballpark of total hours do you normally quote for each bucket?

Thanks!

@Xan

I don't believe it is fair to classify e-learning development like tomatoes - baby, plum, mega-sized (I don't think that last one exists).

Every case is essentially different, even if you are developing for the same client. You could classify interactivity levels - I still personally find this area pretty subjective ( how much is "little,some,much,lots" of anything? ), hence ultimately unreliable.

There are several other things you have to factor in before you hand in that final quote (some of which are posted in this thread).

Again the total hours thing is also up for debate. What do you develop for? Developing one module for Flash and developing the same for Flash/HTML5/iOS is a completely different story, even if you intend to use Storyline exclusively.

Alex

In the context of the learning we are capable of creating, I do find it helpful using the easy, moderately complex, and complex continuum. Of course, price rises with complexity.

It's important though to have examples of such courses. If you've been building courses for a few years, you probably could put together a nice little continuum.

If you are new to e-learning, you can find examples on the Articulate Showcase or you could just build your own mini-courses based on the continuum.

I do this, too.  I have three "levels" of complexity samples that I show clients when talking about their needs and budget.  I find that it really helps them to have concrete examples to look at and compare, rather than me just explaining the levels of complexity/interactivity verbally.  I think it helps, too, for them to see what's possible.  So many people I meet don't even know what their options are in terms of interactivity and engagement.  They seem to be stuck in this mindset that narrated presentations are all they need, or all they can get.

@Xan, I think that's common to have these levels of complexity. In previous companies I worked for, they had something like:

1) A presentation that has low interactivity and no audio, no animations

2) A presentation with some interactivity, no audio, some animations

3) A course with some interactivity, audio and animations, no characters

4) A highly interactive course, with audio in every slide and animations synced with audio, and a character (or more).

I tend to offer the same, having samples of all of them.

Hope it helps,

Alexandros, I hear you & know what you mean - but it's really hard to pitch to a client without them buckets.

Thanks Daniel, Jeanne & Belen. Do you have rule of thumb 'hours' associated with each complexity level?

I'd really be interested to know what ballpark everyone is in.

@Xan Just to clarify, I tend to spend a lot of time (probably more than I should) talking to my clients and going over their expectations. It doesn't have to be specific to the project, it can be about their business, their process, their roadmap, anything even remotely related to this context. I first like to act as a consultant, especially to those not accustomed to e-learning Development.

@Daniel

Fair enough, however, clients that aren't really sure what they want are most likely to change their mind during the actual development phase, and that may come back to hurt one of you - or both. I know I would be very uncomfortable "raising the category level" of a client midway through development.

Not that this doesn't happen with clients "accustomed" to outsourcing this type of work, however they usually tend to understand the repercussions of their "change of heart". As a matter of fact, I've had more than one example of clients who offered to pay extra by themselves.

Just my two cents,
Alex

Alexandros, 2 words I learned to include in every contract... 'scope creep' ...

Scope creep is a major issue for all consultants, of course. What helps me avoid it, is setting the client's expectations up front, and reminding them what we agreed on.

XAn it's hard to throw figures out, but I'd say if you are building a one-hour moderately complex course that has no existing content, you are probably looking at between 250 and 300 hours of work.

Buckets:

--Analysis: figuring out what the problems are and reframing the client's intitial request

--Helping SMEs create content (content map)

--Determining the graphic look of course

--Storyboarding the content and responding to client's request for changes

--Building the course in whatever tool (and responding to client's request for changes)

--Putting in on the LMS

--Procuring voiceover narration

--Communicating with client (phone/email)

I've probably missed a bucket or two, but that's how I think of statements of work and total hours.

Well, you should always test a course in the environment the learner is going to experience it -- i.e., on the client's LMS. You can do a "web review" version, but that's not really the real deal and sometimes those web versions are quirky, especially if the person you send it to has an older computer.

Yes, I've had some strange results on some client LMS - which meant I had to spend extra time debugging. So more time had to be added to that bucket.

Guys, I'm having an important problem with a client...

Hope you can give me advice about what to do.

The thing is that the client contacted me to develop a series of Storyline projects. Since the beginning, the client was very perfectionist and asked for too many details, was picky and wanted a reply and advances on a daily basis.

This made me decide not to continue with this relationship after the second course.

But the client wants the SL courses to be delivered in mobile devices, and it appears that Storyline is facing some issues with automatic generated texts, such as the "Results Slide", or with videos, which get cut and the player jumps to a wrong slide, etc.

I finished my part about mid-December, but I'm continuosly receiving long messages from this client, who understandably wants to have this problem solved. The thing is that the project stopped being profitable for me a month before I resigned, and day after day I'm still being asked to do new trials.

The client's position is this: as long as is good for me to know why my courses aren't working, I should be the one who's solving the case. I should then make trials, keep contact with Articulate Support, etc.

My position is this: as long as I'm not a charity institution and I've lost money with this project, and as long as these problems have to do with issues I can't solve, he should look for another consultant.

What do you think?

Any thought about this would be helpful.

Many thanks!

Belen

Belen,

That's a tough situation.  Good for you for ending the relationship - really difficult clients never end up being worth it in the long run.

I think the "right" answer in this case depends on what you originally committed to.  If you never committed to delivering courses that would work on mobile devices - that is, if they decided they wanted that after you started working with them - then I think you're completely justified in saying that all this troubleshooting is out of scope. 

But if you committed to delivering a product that would work a certain way on mobile devices, and it doesn't do that, that's a little tougher...  I think the answer in that case depends on a lot of different factors.  Did they ask for Storyline or did you choose that as the development tool?  Is Articulate support already involved, and if so, can they work directly with the client instead of you being the middle man?

I'm sorry you're in this situations - I'm sure you'll get some good advice on this forum!

Hiya.

Sorry you are having such problems :(

Personally - I would pick up the phone, explain the situation (contractually) to them, and explain that you will no longer be involved. Explain that THEY can post here should they wish - to get advice and guidance.

Bruce

PS - yesterday you made a comment about "...making changes forever...", that is exactly what you have here. Sometime, the relationship between you and a client fails. It happens. You need to professionally and clearly get out of it, and get this situation out of your head - so that you can move on.

Belen,

You're on the right track. If you've severed the agreement then you're free of any ongoing consulting or work. The question is how clear was your departure and did you and the client 'agree' that you'd no longer work on that project? Your time is money. Period. If you want to continue working as a consultant to help figure out the problems, then the very next conversation is negotiating what that looks like - a set number of hours, a three-month retainer, etc.

As for delivered on mobile devices, I never agree to a project that's multiple platforms. Each platform (desktop and mobile) is a separate project. It has zero to do with Storyline's ability to run on mobile devices or the issues, rather it has everything to do with an entirely different design methodology.

Offer to set up a new agreement where you'll commit to X number of hours to help solve existing issues (no new development). That may involve working with Articulate Support, troubleshooting yourself, or finding another contractor to work with the client.

It also comes down to how much you value the relationship with this client and potential future work. Sometimes you just have to cut your losses and "fire" the client. Be very clear why you don't think your relationship can continue and move on.

Then block their email address  

Belen:

The courses you created--was it understood that these courses would be deployed through mobile devices? If so, you may have some type of obligation to help them come up with a fix. If it was NOT understood that you were developing these course to deployed via mobile means, I don't think you have an obligation.

It's always good in your contracts to state exactly where the courses will be deployed so you can get paid for any extra testing or tweaking you might have to do.

Hi all, nice advice!

I have to clarify 2 things:

• there was never a "contract", but a description in a job offer. As Bruce said I said, the project "kept growing" out of that description into new long ones, endlessly.
• it was always intended to deliver the content in a mobile environment. I was very naive because I thought that I just needed to do exactly the same as ever. But problems began to arise. What I told you is the last of a loooong list: the audios don't play unless triggered by the user. This made us create a complex menu (because the one that comes in the Player wasn't big enough for certain devices), then the menu was removed because whatever... and a looooong story after that.

I think I'll get nothing if I set a new contract with this client. I don't think is interesting to work for someone so mind changing yet perfectionist and demanding; not for the money that the client is willing to pay: nothing more.

Yes, I don't want to be tied forever and ever to this... I want to move on. But... the client wanted a content for a mobile device and... it doesn't work...

I really appreciate all your advice!

Belen