"No" is the most underused word in our profession. We say it a lot. Here are some of the kinds.
The first kind is the easy no — the brief that arrives in the inbox already wrong, the project we know within a paragraph that we don't want. We answer those within forty-eight hours, with care, and we recommend two other studios who would be better. This costs us nothing and earns us, slowly, a reputation as people who know themselves.
The second kind is harder. It is the no during the project. The client asks for a deck of forty slides where eight would do. The product manager wants three onboarding screens where the answer is one. The CEO has seen something on a competitor's site and would like, just to try it, the same thing here. Each of these noes is small and uncomfortable. None of them are optional.
Every yes you give to a small bad idea is a no you have given to the work.
The exceptions
There are, of course, times when we say yes to things we would, on principle, refuse. They are rare. We try to write them down, so we can remember why.
- When the client is right and we are wrong. This happens more often than we admit.
- When the bad idea is small and the relationship is long. A bad idea, on a long project, is a kind of cost we pay for the right to make ten good decisions later.
- When the no is just our taste, and our taste is wrong for this audience. We learn this slowly, project by project.
Almost everything else, when in doubt, is a no — said gently, said early, and said in person if at all possible.