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One client has a whole solution from me and occasionally keeps asking for this or that thing and I have to tell him what part of the app already does that because he can't keep track of all the things he's asked for already.
If I had the time, I'd use the benefit of hindsight to restructure the whole thing and hope it'd help his pea brain along, but as it is, I spent too long just adding features wherever he asked me to, without taking the time to question whether that makes sense.
Client: "Hey can we have feature X?"
You (internally): I already implemented that last year for you...
You: "Sure!" makes button more obvious, bills 15h of work
It's an internal client, same department, so there's no billing.
If I could, I would.
waits 8 hours
Its done sir! Check that button on the left.
Oh I do let him wait a while. Partially because I'm really not short on things to do. Partially because he's happy enough when I get his request done in two days and I really don't want to start setting higher expectations.
Unless everything is on fire and he's about to present his shit to the division head and only now realised he missed something, which might reflect poorly on my tool and is critical enough to prompt immediate action, his messages can stew a bit.
You (externally): I already implemented that last year for you…
You haven't seen it because you never refresh.
But often they are, in fact, the same.
You ask a bunch of questions about a task in order to convince the client that the task doesn't need to be done at all.
I ask a bunch of questions because I've forgotten half the answers already and am trying to make enough stick that I can make something close enough they don't notice my attention is wandering while they blather.
We are not the same.
Haha this is also something that comes with only experience. I've talked clients, and friends, off the feature ledge often.
I just tell them why it’s a bad idea to their face. Some appreciate it, and others just find someone else to pitch their ideas to