Make Instructions Work 4 U!!!

As a client, expecting quality deliverables with fastest response time is your right. However to get the desired results from the service provider, especially for the outsourced work, it becomes extremely important for you to understand the significance of providing clear crisp instructions & making your communications smooth.  The article provides a few guidelines to get a head-start in relationships, especially when dealing with parties who are half-way across the globe & improve you process of stating your requirements or work that you needs to outsource.

Detailing your instructions & structuring them properly will help bringing all the provider on the same platform as you are. This would help the service providers to understand you, your requirements, your situation & your expectations better.  When the task is communicated clearly, it results in better understanding of what the client is expecting. This understanding about the work & your expectations helps in providing the best-fitting solution & completing the task quickly, with the best results, and thus, ultimately saving your valuable money.
Clear instructions also save your time on the communications, attending the tele-conferences & answering the queries & questions that arise due to improper instructions or partial transfer of information.
It also helps in minimizing miss-communications & straight come to point to get the work started.

The instructions or your requirements must
* Be To the point & precise
* Cover all the aspects of the requirements
* Be a detailed description of what is expected
* Be structured & wish-list bifurcated into  - must-haves, nice-to-have, can-do-without etc
* Share your Expectations about time-lines, efforts, quality of service/product, service-levels etc
* One shot – provide as much details as you can at the first go.
* KISS – Keep it simple & sweet. Use simple jargon-free English.
* In case of software outsource work – must include preferred technology, backend database, Tools etc.

Follow a simple format –
* Project Need – Why is this work required or Importance of this work
* Project Description – Description of actual work
* Scope – What includes  & not included in the project
* Expected Time-lines & calendar Schedules
* Audience of the software/work/article etc
* Samples /examples if any.

To provide you with a specific example, say you want to outsource a write-up work thru freelance websites.
If you just post the project or communicate your requirement as  “write-up to be outsourced”, in first shot, you will get many responses but mostly all queries & not a single concrete response. Though many service providers have responded to your project, none is clear of the effort, cost & time. Reason - Your project description is incomplete.

Instead if you provide the project/work description as listed below, there are high chances that many responses would be actual bids or proposals rather than initial interest or inquiry. 
“Need experienced writers. Novice please do not bid. A short write-up, approx 500-800 words, Topico 48 activities in 24HRS, Category – Time Management, Preferred writing style – listing, professional writing,
Article’s intended readers – working mothers, Write-up expected within 3days, original writing must pass thru nocopy-test software, budget-30-50$”

Sharing with you a not-so-funny incidence we recently came across. A project-work was posted on one of the esteemed freelancer website as “inventory application to be developed. Urgent requirement”.  We generally do not entertain such a bad-written project; however the urgent nature of the work prompted us to get engaged in communication with this service-buyer. To get the requirements clear with our prospected client, we had to ask him repetitive questions seven times. We proposed for a conference, for which he was not ready. After a whole week’s time spent on thru-&-fro communication we finally suggested him to have one person of our team with him to gather his “Requirements” & document them.  Once done, we were more than happy to work on the “actual development” work. The “Urgent” work could have been started at first-go itself, if the “requirements” would have been well thought of & described in detail during the initial project post itself. Probably the customer would have also got a better response from other bidders. In this busy world, very few like us prefer to walk an extra mile for a buyers who are not sure what they want & especially when service providers are not sure about the project being awarded in their favor.

So, the next time when you are creating a project-description or work instruction, please check on the format, language, completeness of the instruction. The major portion of time spent on responding to questions or queries can be cut short dramatically, if one is extremely clear of what is required & expected from the vendor. Communication is two sided process & the backbone in case of outsourced work-contracts.
And last but not the least, remember the cultural & language difference while communicating the instructions or understanding the queries of the service providers.