On Tools and Clients

HTML5. CSS3. Responsive Web Design. Sass. Less. Javascript Frameworks. No one cares about this stuff. Let me back up, the people who pay me money to build their sites/apps don’t care about this stuff. Why would they?

Let’s say you’ve hired me to build you a house. You’ve had your plans drafted and now you need a contractor to bring it to life. We meet, talk about your project, what your needs are, what you envision your home to be like. I review your plans and confidently convey to you that I am the right man for the job. You inquire further, “Tell me why you’re the right man for the job”. 

I list off my qualifications:

• I use the latest framing hammer that is lighter weight therefore allowing me to swing it faster yet still drive the nails just as deep.
• I use the latest aluminum studs that are equally as strong as wooden studs.
• I use this brand new insulation blowing machine, the Krendl 475, you’ve never seen insulation move as fast when blown into walls.
• I just switched over from Caterpillar to John Deere for preparing the ground when we lay the foundation. Talk about torque!
• I have been trying out a really cool new caulking gun that I will probably use on your house, it uses half the energy to squeeze out the same about of caulking.

I could go on, but I stop when I notice a quizzical look on your face. “That’s great, but will my house look like this?”, as you point to your blueprints.

I’ve never had a client hire me for the tools that I use. The majority of them don’t care what tools I use, they simply want their project to look and function exactly like they envision, nothing less, nothing more.

Don’t get me wrong, I use HTML5 for most all of my projects. jQuery is in every project as well. Sometimes, I throw in some CSS3 if the majority of the end users browsers support the rule. I build the appropriate templates for the appropriate screen sizes — sometimes they’re responsive, most of the time they’re not. All of these tools are awesome. They make my job infinitely easier. I can’t imagine not having them available but at the end of the day, my clients don’t care what tools I use to get the job done, as long as I get the job done.