I had an interesting situation come up recently with a client where I had to make a choice between two equally unappealing options where one side would end up in a tight spot but instead I created a third option that benefited us both.

With my clients there are usually a few different levels of engagement. Most of the time I am brought in for advisory and oversight. This means I am advising and overseeing a team of software developers and helping guide them to achieving a specific goal. With this type of engagement I am NOT coding or “flipping switches and turning knobs”. I do offer a “nuclear option” which includes me going in and “getting my hands dirty”(as much as one can in IT).

The Problem:

One of my customers engaged in advisory and oversight came to me with an urgent problem of which I easily had a few solutions ready for. The issue was that no one on their staff was qualified to implement the solution in the timeframe required to serve their needs, and to make matters worse they did not have the budget for the “nuclear option”. So I had to make a tough decision:

Should I do the coding myself for the client without any additional compensation or should I hold strong to the agreement and let them figure it out on their own?

Both options I really did not love. So I came up with a third option...

The Solution:

Do the coding and heavy lifting in a way that was modular and reusable then open source it, and make a series of content about it including a daily writing post and a full YouTube video.

This had massive value to my customer as they had a plug and play solution that completely fit their problem.

It also had value to me:

• It gave me another tool in my toolbelt to help many more customers with
• It gave me ammo to create content around that further allowed me to establish the fact that I am an authority on the matter which will increase my perceived value to future customers.

The Results:

So in the month since the video launched I got 900% more subscriptions than I usually get in a month just from that video alone. My customer's problem was definitely a problem that many companies like that suffer from and I was able to give them a solution for it as well as many others. I suppose technically I didn’t need to open source it, I would have just coded it and licensed it back to them but I tend to go with the open source method.

Let me know if you would have gone open source or closed source or if you had a 4th option I had not even considered.

Final Thoughts:

Sometimes life will give you two equally unappealing options. When that happens I challenge you to get creative and try to create more options that add value for all parties involved.

~Cheers

PS: If you are interested in engaging my services as a Web Application Architect check out my Group Coaching Program or 1 on 1 Consulting at schematical.com and check out my FREE eBook 20 Things You Can DoTo Save Money On Your Amazon Web Services Bill Today