Schedule, cost and quality...you only get two

Ask anyone in the project management world about “triple constraints” and they’ll have at least one good story of an unreasonable stakeholder who didn’t believe in them. They were that one client who wanted the perfect product, yesterday, and for nothing.

I’ve been observing a lot of freelance designers getting stressed about cheaper and faster design talent. After all, Upwork has the following slogan on their front page:

Looking to hire faster and more affordably?

-Upwork home page

Husky is a new video editing service that outsources all of your team’s video editing work on the cheap to the Philippines. They promise to get you your video back in 1-2 days. If you talk to any freelance designer about services like Upwork, Fiverr, or Husky, they’ll laugh them off and maybe even dismiss them.

I don’t think they dismiss them to be disrespectful. They dismiss them because they know these companies are not worth their attention. They are competing for clients who care about cost and schedule. Remember, you only get to pick two.

In the creative world there are always people who will offer your craft faster and cheaper than you. While I’d like to write that you have to choose which constraint you’ll ignore, it looks like there is one you just can’t anymore.

I bet you know which one that is.