Outsourcing: Effective Communication
In order to successfully outsource, you need to adequately convey your expectations concerning the list below. You also need to verify that the other party understands your expectations as you understand them.
- All house specifications that are pertinent to the current project(s)
- The house style guides
- A complete description of your workflow
- Design aesthetics
- Printer specifications
- Storage methods and file naming schemes.
- Problems and resolution paradigms
Insufficient communication is often a problem with outsourcing. Either party may not completely disclose what the expectations are for any given project. There may be difficulties scheduling convenient times to discuss immediate issues. There may simply be language or cultural difficulties that impede open communication. That is, different dialects or cultures incorporate unfamiliar etiquette or semantics that limit proper interpretation or full conveyance of situations. While this may seem like this should not be an issue, it is probably one of the most common problems when outsourcing between different countries or regions.