You're facing a client proposal with financial risks. How can you deliver innovative solutions?

Some ways to get started when dealing with a client proposal that carries financial risks involve breaking down the risks into manageable parts and brainstorming innovative solutions that mitigate them. One time at work, I encountered a similar situation where a project had significant budget constraints. In my experience, what’s been helpful is collaborating with the finance and operations teams to find cost-effective alternatives, streamlining processes, and negotiating with vendors for better rates. By focusing on creative problem-solving and resourcefulness, we were able to deliver a solution that met both the client’s goals and financial limits.

I always start with gathering all of the facts clearly in order to present effective and efficient solutions for my clients. I rely on the help of my team to deliver their expertise on what can change or how it will impact the overall project. Then I typically come up with multiple solutions and outline them with regards to financial risk, how it will impact the overall timeline or design of the project, and then present the different options to the client focusing on what the end result will be with each solution. This enables them to make a clear and precise decision with all key relevant facts and the impact of each option on the overall project.

For my part, for starters, I would propose a much more creative and provocative technique such as reverse brainstorming. It consists of proposing ideas that make the problem worse instead of proposing improvements. Once we are in more hostile territory, we turn it around and that is when we build on all the negatives. The results are far more productive and surprising than with conventional brainstorming.