Developers need a stake

There is an interesting class dynamic in the client/designer relationship that might hint at how to solve some of the problems relating to web shop/client disconnect.

The client holds the equity, the risk, and the potential rewards.

The designer holds no equity. A hugely successful project might help the designer get future work, but he/she/the consulting company don’t have a stake in the project.

A huge problem in all this is the common system of a designer or design firm bidding on a project to spec. Good design is ultimately part of a highly iterative process which is flexible and changes course often. But with bids based on spec sheets, every new suggested iteration by the client or the designer is a monetary loss to the designer. Or if not a monetary loss because the design firm will charge an overage, then it serves to train the client not to take an iterative approach.

The whole bidding thing is a total set up for a bad relationship between client and designer. That bad relationship has an affect on the quality of the product.

Working hourly with designers is one answer. The designer’s attitude stays positive because she’s being paid for the work she does. Not rocket science.

But how about a different solution: give the designer/design firm an equity stake. Here we move toward changing the landowner/peasant relationship at its core to the benefit of both client and designer.

The client has the opportunity to shift the paradigm and may achieve some market edge by changing the assumptions about how the business aspect of the relationship is set up.

When designers have equity stakes in the work they are doing, then the issue of designer accountability solves itself.