Taking over somebody else's project

A client arrives with a half-finished project. A site at seventy per cent, an identity where the logo is done and nothing else, a wrap designed but never fitted.

It is the riskiest kind of job in this trade, and the only one that does not look like a risk. Because the work is half done, it looks like half the cost. It is almost always more expensive than starting from nothing.

Why 70 per cent done does not mean 30 per cent left

One reason, and it explains all the rest: you have to understand a hundred per cent of what exists before touching the thirty per cent that is missing.

Understanding somebody else's work is the most expensive and least visible part. It is not reading: it is reconstructing decisions whose reasons nobody wrote down, guessing why a file is named the way it is, working out the logic of a system you did not design. And at the end of all that, you have produced nothing.

It is also why the estimating gap is wider here than anywhere else, for the reasons in how long a job actually takes: the piece you cannot break down is everything you have not yet opened.

The three questions, before pricing anything

1. Why did it stop?

Ask it plainly and listen to the whole answer without judging the predecessor. There are three possible answers and they do not mean the same thing.

Money. The client did not pay, or not enough, or too late. Listen very carefully: somebody who did not pay the last person has an above-average chance of not paying you either. That is not a prosecution, it is information that decides your deposit.

The relationship. "We stopped understanding each other." The commonest and the most useful, because the rest of the story tells you what this client expected without saying so. You are learning, for free, where the unspoken expectations are.

The supplier vanished, or could not deliver. Then the existing work may be unfinished in the wrong place: a half-made file is harder to pick up than a blank page.

2. What exactly do you have?

Do not ask "do you have the files?". Ask to see them, before quoting.

The gap between "I have everything" and what actually exists is the first cause of overrun on this kind of job, and it is enormous. "I have everything" means, in practice: the final exports and not the sources, fonts whose licence nobody can account for, and a folder with four versions none of which is named "final".

It is the same subject as a client comes back six months later, seen from the other side: the sources were never delivered, and nobody had discussed it.

3. Who holds the rights, and the access?

The domain, the hosting, the fonts, the purchased images, the source files. Each of those five can stop a project dead, and none of them is visible until you need it.

The classic expensive case: an identity built on a font whose licence was in the previous supplier's name. The logo exists, it is good, and the client has no right to use it on a medium they have not yet planned for.

Never quote before opening the files

That is the rule, and it has no reasonable exception.

On this kind of job the paid audit is not a sales tactic, it is the only honest way to proceed: you cannot know what it costs before looking, and looking takes real time. A priced half-day, with a written account of what is usable and what is not, and the quote behind it.

It is exactly the paid first step from could you show me a first idea?, and this is where it is easiest to justify to a client: they understand perfectly well that this cannot be guessed.

What you are going to find

Usable work, not done the way you would have done it. The commonest case, and it calls for a decision rather than a judgement: you adopt the existing approach, or you redo it. Both are defensible. What is not is starting without having chosen, because you end up with two logics in one project, which is the worst of the three outcomes.

Work you cannot build on. No sources, an unlicensed font, a structure that will not hold what comes next. There you have to be able to say "this needs starting again" and price it as new.

The client will resist, and fairly: they have already paid once. What helps is not insisting, it is showing precisely what is unusable and why, which is what the audit let you write down.

The sentence that stops you inheriting

Write it, because without it the client assumes continuity:

I am picking up from what exists today. The scope, the timings and the number of rounds are those in my quote, not those of the previous arrangement.

Without that, everything promised before you stays promised. You will discover in the third month that a redesign of the business cards "was included", and it will be true: it just was not included by you.

Never criticise the predecessor

Two reasons, and the second is the one that actually matters.

The first is obvious: it does not look professional, and the client can feel it.

The second is mechanical. The client chose them. Criticising the work criticises the choice, so it criticises the client, and nobody buys after that. And there is a sequel: you may well be the next predecessor, and the client will remember how you spoke about somebody who was not there to answer.

Describe, do not judge. "The source files are not here, so these three elements need redrawing" says everything that needs saying and accuses nobody.

Frequently asked questions

Why does taking over an existing project cost more than expected?

Because you have to understand a hundred per cent of what exists before touching the thirty per cent that is missing. Reconstructing decisions whose reasons nobody wrote down is the most expensive part, and at the end of it you have produced nothing.

What should you ask a client arriving with an unfinished project?

Three things: why it stopped, what exactly they have, and who holds the rights and the access. The second is verified by looking at the files, never by asking whether they have them.

Should you do a paid audit before quoting a takeover?

Yes, and this is where it is easiest to justify: you cannot know what it costs without looking, and looking takes real time. A priced half-day with a written account, then the quote.

Should you keep the existing work or start again?

Both are defensible, but you have to choose before starting. Starting without deciding produces two logics in one project, which is the worst of the three outcomes.

Are you bound by what the previous supplier promised?

No, as long as you write it down: the scope, the timings and the number of rounds are those in your quote, not those of the previous arrangement. Without that sentence the client assumes continuity, and they are right to.