Back in August I had the pleasure off hearing Jason Fried of 37Signals discuss 37Signal’s philosophies and methods. The presentation essentially followed the same script & theme which you can see here.

For those unfamiliar with 37Signals’ software and design principals here are a few examples to give you a flavor of their thinking:

• Less is more.
• Meetings are useless.
• Working remotely and collaborating is better then being in an office and interrupting each other.
• Chunk large projects into smaller bits which can be completed quickly.
• Focus on speed rather then perfection.
• Don’t do specification, wireframing or usability studies. They are a waste of time.
• Personas are bullshit.
• Invest in what doesn’t change like speed and customer service.
• Roadmaps and planning are useless.
• Morale feeds off progress.

Now, I’m a big fan of 37Signals and what they have done; however it’s a mistake for interactive agencies, web designers and developers to wholeheartedly adopt 37Signals’ ways of working without establishing a strong reputation first. It is key to point out that 37Signals is a product development company, not an agency focused on developing marketing sites or building custom client applications. 37Signals builds for 37Signals!

I asked Jason, “Why don’t you do consulting work or client work any longer?” His response was “it isn’t profitable compared to product development.” I’m sure he is 100% correct. The 12 person team at 37Signals is raking in millions of dollars in revenue each year. By contrast client work is time consuming, labor intensive and involves lots of education between both sides of the project. We are a company of 9 people and we haven’t even crossed the million dollar revenue mark yet.

Jason’s presentation did address several audience questions about client work. Which can be summed up as follows:

• Select your client’s carefully. Not every client is a good match.
• Train your clients on how you work, rather then how they expect you to work.
• RFPs and scope-of-work project estimations should be avoided at all cost because the written description can be interpreted differently depending on the reader.

37Signals originally started as a web design company and then they morphed into a product development company because the product work was far more profitable. Therefore I have to be critical of how their recommendations apply to us interactive agencies. Their advice doesn’t come from success in the client services area!

The ONLY way a client is going to be willing to accept those 3 points is if they know your agency’s record, and they RESPECT your abilities above all other agencies. Let’s use an example. If Widget Corp is looking for an agency to redesign their aging ecommerce site, and two other equal agencies are willing to bend to the desires of Widget Corp’s RFP, then good luck getting that project.

There is something to be said about standing your ground and holding true to your principles however at the end of the day if you don’t have revenue, then you don’t have a business. I’m not interested in being a martyr for the cause.

I’ve always admired the work of IDEO. They are a company which solves problems for their clients in a very fluid and evolving manner. They have put themselves in a position of respect, they do amazing work and I’m pretty sure they are VERY profitable. Any web company doing client related work would be well served to study the success of IDEO while blending in the philosophies of 37Signal’s product development methodologies.

At Imulus we plan on doing things differently. We’ll be proof that a interactive agency can develop great products while doing extraordinary client work. We don’t believe the two are mutually exclusive. Our position is the our brand of doing great client work and great product development will put us in a position of respect. This position will allow us to negotiate using the 3 points above.

This is our position and what makes Imulus unique in the realm of interactive agencies.