Stages of freelancing:

  1. The tool — you do what the client asks for
  2. The interviewer — you realize that clients don’t actually know what they want, and so you try to figure it out by asking questions and “eliciting requirements”, and then you do what the answers tell you
  3. The detective — you realize that while asking questions is still very important, you can’t trust the answers; clients say they want one thing, but what they actually want (as demonstrated through their actions + your long experience) is something completely different; you model the projects based on this assumption, trust nothing, but investigate everything, ye olde 5 Why’s
  4. The white knight — in this stage you do your interviewing and research and then, with your proposals and nudging, attempt to save the client from themselves… this sometimes comes earlier in the process but it virtually never works
  5. The hard-working cynic — you realize that work for any client is rarely if ever about the actual work product itself, but generally driven by murky personal or political motivations, and thus it doesn’t really matter what you do, but you still give the same effort to all the right steps bc you’re a professional
  6. The consultant — you accept that the client is paying you mostly to… scratch a personal itch or build a personal hobbyhorse, get resources for their department by spending their budget, or look good to their boss, or offload their workplace disagreements onto you (“hey, they’re an outsider, and…”), or cover their ass by being able to point to you and say “Look, I hired a consultant!”

Now here’s the trick: You are your own client.

Which stage are you at with yourself?