I have to admit, the first time I read about this, as part of a longer article about keeping your clients happy, written back in 2008, I thought it was hilarious. That it was just a cute little anecdote about how to handle a customer who just "had" to provide feedback on a topic or process that they probably didn't know much about. Cute, right?
At that point in my career, I hadn't come across a client or customer who felt the need to provide more "feedback" than necessary. I assumed - naively - that it was due to my being collaborative, making sure my clients were kept in the loop and involved in the development or administration of whatever it was I was working on (my projects vary wildly).
And then.... I took on a project that came with a manager who felt the need to micromanage every step of the entire process, even though it was not his project, all while telling me that he had no idea what "the process" was and that I was hired because he didn't know "the process". Worse, this micromanager wasn't the project owner. His constant micromanaging was starting to interfere and progress began to slow down. Yet, no matter how many times the actual project owner asked/told the micromanager to back off, he just couldn't help himself. It was a mess.
And then I remembered the article by Tom Kuhlmann and item #7 on the list - the Fuzzy Thumb technique! Could I use this and save my sanity and the project?
7. Give them the fuzzy thumb.
This is an emergency trick and requires the utmost skill. I don’t recommend it for amateurs. In fact, I am a little leery to share it with the public. Usually I reserve this advice for a quiet corner in a noisy pub…and only in the strictest confidence. I’m assuming that you won’t share what I’m about to reveal.
People have a tendency to offer input because they want to feel like they contributed. Many times this input is of no value. In fact, sometimes it might even derail a project if the customer demands you implement it.
I have a photographer friend who came up with the “fuzzy thumb technique” to counteract this tendency. When he submitted photos to the customer for review, he’d always slip in one with a fuzzy thumb in the image (or some other obvious issue). It never failed, the customer would focus on the thumb and he’d be able to steer them to the better photos and avoid the customer making demands that hurt the project.
Offer a document with typos, or face an object the wrong way. Do whatever it takes to draw the attention to an obvious error. The “fuzzy thumb” allows customers to give feedback and it usually makes them feel good (and sometimes superior) because they spotted an error. In return, you get to do the project your way with little interference. (https://blogs.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/7-proven-techniques-for-keeping-your-e-learning-customers-happy/)
There is a major caution that I need to insert here: you must be extremely careful in how you use this technique. The trick is to not be too obvious, yet you also can't make the "mistakes" too hard to find. This means you really need to know who it is that you're working with. What kinds of "mistakes" does your client tend to notice? Typos? Figures that don't align? Graphics that aren't square? Color scheme is off? Are there any mistakes from their style guide that you can leverage? You get the idea.
In my case, the micromanager was a stickler for the numbering scheme used for all the graphics. So, I transposed two numbers in the very beginning and at the very end and that was all it took. It kept the micromanager busy looking for more of the same "mistakes" but never found another one. Was it a little sneaky? Yes. Did it work? Yes. I wrapped up that project as fast as humanly possible, beating the deadline, and left the client happy. Who knew that leaving something to "find" would save a project?
I did decline a future project with them though. :-)
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