The Answer Is Never “No”

It’s “how much.”

I think there is a broken view of how designers and creatives perceive balance. All I hear are people saying, “You have to start saying no”. This idea that designers are against their clients. Us vs them. That couldn’t be further from the truth.  

We are partners with our stakeholders and they are trusting us to help them out. Be empathetic and have a conversation with them to try to understand where they are coming from, then offer some alternatives.

If a client comes to you and says, “I need __ by tomorrow.” The answer isn’t “No.” The answer is “Given our current workload, it isn’t possible for me to turn that around that that quickly. However, if you are willing to wait 3 days I can have it for you, or if you have $__ budget, I can outsource in order to make that happen by tomorrow.”