As the owner of a digital product agency, this is really hard to read. It is such a shame that an agency would do this to you. I know you felt like they "did their best", but by setting you up with unrealistic expectations out of the gate they essentially guaranteed that everyone was going to walk away unhappy. Besides, when you go to an agency communication/transparency/team of experts is what you are paying for! You're paying for accountability! There really are good agencies out there that care about their customers and bend over backwards to deliver what they promise, but they are hard to find. For the size project you were looking at though, I do agree that a freelancer could have been a better option, but you'll run into some of the same challenges. Finding good freelancers can be just as hard as finding a good agency.
I regret my website redesign
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Re: I regret my website redesign
#52I worked as a freelancing web designer a long ago and I always earned around 1k Euro for a whole project including everything or 500 Euro for little programming stuff, of course usually business projects. At one point I was beginning to hate those jobs. Everytime I read those stories, and that happens from time to time, I just ask myself: what did I wrong? (answer is easy: I'm a good technician but the worst salesman…
you didn't want much. It's not about sales it's about "I want that and if you cant afford that you are not the right customer for me".
Thing is that for 1k€ I wouldn't even think about a website.
But thank you that you did give up ... gives some other webdesigners the opportunity to say "hey go fy with you 1k€ ... I want 5k" (no offense)
Re: I regret my website redesign
#53I have seen many outsourcing projects with my coachees and with founders, I've managed my own and cancelled several when I was called in to fix them. The key to this kind of work is to understand: The agency is not your buddy, they have very different goals than you have. Too often do I seen people who have nice chats with the agency over a coffee. They are not your friends. You need to write the contract to align th…
Thanks for reading! I have a different philosophy when it comes to hiring in that I assume the people working with me are honest and they're motivated to do their jobs well. I'm paying for their time, and I assume they'll use their time effectively. If they can't use their time effectively, I terminate the hire, but I don't try to fix it with different policies. I agree that there are payment schemes that will cause…
Ya but your philosophy cost you $47k for work that could have been done in 2 weeks by a competent developer...
Re: I regret my website redesign
#54Author here. Happy to take any feedback or answer any questions about this post.
I liked your original design. Simpler, to the point, and lower contrast so my eyes don't bleed. Also I am utterly floored at how long programming a web page takes even for these "professionals". Yet another profession that pays way better for way less work than mine (scientist).
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Re: I regret my website redesign
#55>
Why didn’t you just use a Shopify template?
If I could go back to when I first created the website, I would have made it a simple Shopify store with a custom theme.
That's the biggest take away here. Unless you have a unique need, use an off the shelf solution.
Re: I regret my website redesign
#56Author here. Happy to take any feedback or answer any questions about this post.
Next time leave me a message ... you'll get more for way less :-)
Re: I regret my website redesign
#57Man, you get what you pay for. If you actually want a thoughtful design based on user needs and strategic goals with an actual rise in conversion rates, $46k is not even close. I've never seen it done for less than $200k. Agencies I worked for in the past wouldn't pick up the phone for less than $500k and we had clients tripping over themselves to hire us.
That being said, we did take on smaller clients from time to time just for portfolio or on the prospect of a "foot in the door" for a bigger account and we actually struggled mightily to scale down. We were used to large teams of dedicated specialists and didn't have geneslists who could wear all the hats at once. I'm wondering if this agency had the same problem.
Re: I regret my website redesign
#58This reminds me of when I worked for a B2C company in the healthcare space. We hired a freelance designer to redesign our checkout flow and we wanted it done in time for Black Friday, which was by far our biggest day of the year. Of course the project ran long and we crunched so that we could ship the redesign exactly on Black Friday. I think we shipped the Tuesday before (because Thanksgiving) and everything seemed…
This is a good example of why some people have zero business being anywhere near management. They win the birth lottery and have it easy all their lives by sheer luck, but when a decision has real consequences - this happens.
Anyone in the trenches could tell you that rolling out a huge change to a money-making project on a "round" date is suicidal. They just have no idea of what they are doing in the first place - just playing darts - and it usually works due to the ants killing themselves, to make it all happen. Because health insurance.
Re: I regret my website redesign
#59I worked as a freelancing web designer a long ago and I always earned around 1k Euro for a whole project including everything or 500 Euro for little programming stuff, of course usually business projects. At one point I was beginning to hate those jobs. Everytime I read those stories, and that happens from time to time, I just ask myself: what did I wrong? (answer is easy: I'm a good technician but the worst salesman…
Sounds about right. OP could have gotten someone at his beck and call to design his site for 15 dollars an hour. Instead he got some well-reviewed shyster. "Our other clients pay 40k a month." GTFOOH.
Re: I regret my website redesign
#60I have seen many outsourcing projects with my coachees and with founders, I've managed my own and cancelled several when I was called in to fix them. The key to this kind of work is to understand: The agency is not your buddy, they have very different goals than you have. Too often do I seen people who have nice chats with the agency over a coffee. They are not your friends. You need to write the contract to align th…
Thanks for reading! I have a different philosophy when it comes to hiring in that I assume the people working with me are honest and they're motivated to do their jobs well. I'm paying for their time, and I assume they'll use their time effectively. If they can't use their time effectively, I terminate the hire, but I don't try to fix it with different policies. I agree that there are payment schemes that will cause…
Are you rethinking your philosophy after wasting $46,000?
> you get into disputes about what is or isn't in scope,
This is to your advantage as the one who is able to withhold payment when delivery isn't up to your standards, and you are protected contractually. With pure time & materials it's much harder to sue for non-delivery unless you can prove they didn't work the hours they billed for.