Agile Lab Blog

PS When you're writing down what your clients tell you, be very careful to write down exactly what they tell you. Lots of books on communication tell you to re-phrase what people tell you to show that you've understood, but this can so easily turn into defensiveness and make the client think that you aren't actually listening.

For example:
CLIENT: This project has been a complete disaster!
YOU: I understand that there have been a few problems.

Translates to the client as "I don't think this project has been a disaster, I think you're over reacting."

Much better (though requiring much more self control) might be:

CLIENT: This project has been a complete disaster!
YOU: OK, let me write that down. "Complete disaster." Which bits in particular do you think were disastrous?

As an old colleague of mine (who I never listened to) used to tell me,

"Make sure you've got all the poison out before you try to heal the wound."