“Many web projects are sold in a murky bait-and-switch fashion, where the agency agrees to an unrealistic fixed spec written by the client, and then hopes that once the problems become obvious, the client will prefer to pay their way out of the mess rather than starting over with a new agency.”

There are good clients out there, ones that are willing to work collaboratively with a partner, ones that recognize that agencies are businesses that need to be managed profitably. There needs to be a mutual exchange of value between the client and the agency, otherwise they don’t get good work.

If a client requires a fixed scope before you even know what you’re building, let that be a warning to you.

Great to hear the update!

As you say, “explaining that the client shares accountability and ultimately is responsible for making it work” is a big deal, and difficult to do in practice because clients don’t tend to approach projects with that attitude.

This statement continues to be true however: “Just because a client says they want content strategy, it doesn’t mean that they understand what that actually entails, or that they’re ready to start changing the organization.” I think even after a content strategy is done, presented and approved, clients don’t understand what the implications of that really are. We [I] need to be better about doing more education upfront and explaining that the client shares accountability and ultimately is responsible for making it work.