Design management: design management plan-client relations

Design Management Design Management Plan client relations is the sixth article of a series of articles about design management in architecture practice. I have discussed in the previous articles what is design management, who is the design manager in practice, what a project or firm design management plan, what are the key functions of the design management plan in practice, what needs to be managed in a firm in practice, and this article is the first article on building and writing a design management plan.

The design manager in practice receives information or instruction from higher management represented by the managing director or the CEO about a project award. He holds a meeting with higher management to identify the project size, location, type, and client. The first meeting with the client is requested by the design manager with the senior-level team to stand on his views, and perspective about is project. The design manager identifies what type of client is this but only if he is a new client.

Academic and professional bodies circulars and publications emphasize that a design management plan first role is to manage client relations.

In these publications, clients are categorized. Clients vary in the level of experience in design and construction projects, Care has to be taken on the type of clients and effect on management and business. Categories of clients fall into:

Cooperative clients: they are willing to work with the office towards a common goal, emphasize sharing values, and open communication throughout the project life cycle.

Challenging clients: they demand a high standard of service, they are good for the office, and they help to develop a focus on standards of work which leads to the success of the business and development.

Uncooperative clients: they tend to offer constant resistance and criticism and need a lot of management effort. Otherwise, the office is unlikely to make a profit.

I have worked as a design manager and managed various types of projects ranging from a housing of multistory buildings, landscape projects, industrial, villa complexes, food processing factories, and mega project developments and towers and these client categories do not exist in practice. Professional bodies and academic publications tend to categorize clients based on theories only with no direct relation to practice.

I have worked as a client representative with a real estate developer for mega projects and we have identified when we invited consultants for bidding on consultancy contracts what needs to be considered. For example, concepts to be unique and to create a landmark in its location, all local rules and regulations to be considered in the initiation phase, and before attempting to submit a concept design for the project, a major concern is the cost and the firm to consider the budget for the project and funds are not open, firm to consider the local construction capacity and capabilities in the construction phase and all construction methods to be studied well in the beginning, project timing is a must to follow due to its impact on construction cost and units rent and sales concerning the units released every year into the market, project progress meetings and its schedule to be highly considered by the firm before starting the concept design phase, the client will be flexible when the firm achieve the required project outputs and design in terms of number of units and build up area and ease of construction, and client will be highly cooperative in terms of money installments and payments when project is following time schedule and required outputs.

These categories do not exist but only for small projects like a house design or villa design.

Clients will be cooperative when the project requirements and timeline are followed and considered in terms of output as per the client’s plan for his project. Clients will be more cooperative when the firm submits project phases in a higher quality than required considering the cost, build-up area, design quality and innovation, and following the contract schedule. From experience in managing a university design in UAE clients became highly resistant and did even not follow financial obligations due to several factors.

The level of creativity and innovation in the project design was a major problem as the design was extremely simple and lacked a strong concept design and project submittals, and the schedule was not followed, the client commented occasionally on the project but the firm did not consider his comments, project payments and installments which were not coming on time created the problem in financing the firm staff salaries, rules, and regulations are not fully considered which created multiple adjustments in the design phase causing delay and delay to project handover milestone. Upon receiving the design management of the department in cooperation with the managing director I managed to push forward the project decrease the time delay and increase project design quality with the project manager and his team. This is one of the projects of 60 projects I have managed in the design management plan.

All clients need projects with high standards whether it is project design innovation, project cost and budget, construction method and ease of construction, following to project timeline and schedule, and identifying the correct person or group to manage the client relations. Clients tend to be more resistant when the company allocates just a senior person to the client relations.

In the design management plan the first step is meeting the client and understanding what he requires, the points I have mentioned above, creating a database of the client’s requirements for his project is essential in the first step to building a design management plan for the firm and the project. This identification will help the firm to identify the amount of staff, skills, and outsourcing required for the project in its life cycle and to stand on the number of financial benefits for the firm.

The design management plan for managing client relations needs to consider various objectives. These are listening to a client, managing his expectations, and building client trust and satisfaction. In client relations, a client wants various qualities from the firm staff like chemistry, understanding, loyalty, commitment, trust, respect, integrity, passion, collaboration, and partnership. These are the key success factors for firm hire or fire.