These are words that one never really wants to hear from a home-improvement contractor. Or any type of contractor really. Recently, I built a new house. And I heard these very words from a person who was coming in to clean up a mess. At some point, the tile guy had messed up the work the hardwood guy was doing and left an inch gap between the place leading into the bathroom—where the tile floor ends and the marble threshold begins. Or maybe it was the hardwood guy who had messed up the tile guy’s work. It’s hard to tell these days. We live in an era when the deflection of blame and the avoidance of personal responsibility are common.
At that point in my story, all that I knew—and all I really cared about—was that I, as the customer, was being inconvenienced; one contractor or the other would have to spend more time fixing the problem; and fixing the issue would cost me more money than I’d planned to spend. It would have been so much simpler and more cost effective if it had just been done right the first time.
So, what does this have to do with UX consulting? Quite a lot actually. It all comes down to effective planning, which is something that differentiates a truly successful UX consultant from one who is merely busy – constantly putting out fires.
