How do we identify expectations?

Before we can get started with listing expectations, we need to identify them. We need to figure out what expectations the client has before we can deal with those expectations.

Digging down into it, I find initially 3 different ways to identify expectations.

Guessing

It is possible to guess the expectations of the client. It’s even possible to do it very quickly and very accurately. However, although it might be accurate, we won’t know for sure. Guessing can be used for creating a long list of possible expectations, but they should be clearly marked as unconfirmed and it would probably be a mistake to act upon them before thinking about them first.

Analyzing

This is what I would call a ‘qualified guess’. It’s still a guess, because it’s not done based on any input from the client, but it’s based on analysis, which could include:

• Expectations inferred from project milestones and planned deliverables, perhaps based on information that the client has already seen.
• Expectations from previous clients with a similar project.
• Previous expectations from the same client.

This is certainly an important part of expectation management and it calls for more in-depth posts about this activity.

Asking

Rarely done, probably because it’s awkward to ask the client what they expect. This feeling is natural, because the client will feel the same way. They already expect something, and if they didn’t think you knew about their expectations, they probably wouldn’t be expecting it in the first place. That would be a wish, not an expectation.

That this is done so rarely is a mistake. The client has to be asked about their expectations and it has to be done in a way so they understand the purpose with it. It should be done in a frank manner, something that might reveal to both you and the client, that you don’t know the client as well as you had hoped.

That people so often neglect to downright ask the client what they expect, is probably the main reason why I want to write about expectation management. I want to call attention to the positive effects of simply asking the client about their expectations.