If you are a developer, you will have to deal with lots of clients. And unless they are one specific type, they are going to be clients from hell.

In this post, I will be outlining the 4 types of clients you will usually get and which ones to avoid. The CEO

The worst kind. CEOs are typically people with low confidence who put their guards up when they see something new. BUT when it comes to development, they have to interfere because they want to show that they did something.

They will regularly mess up things for you and leave you for cleaning everything up.

If you have these types of phrases in communication,your client is CEO type:

  1. I don’t like the position of this element. Can it be a bit higher?
  2. I changed the font to XXX because it looks good. But it caused this problem, can you fix it?

The Manager

The managers are a bit better. They read Mashable and think they are uber geeks because they read “Top 10 Ways To Do ______”. They know a bit to their credit and don’t complain much.

If you have Mashable or any tech blog mentioned in communication, you know who you’re dealing with. The Semi Designer

These can be really hard or easy based on what they do. In best case, they will stay out of your way. In worst, they will interfere with the things that they shouldn’t be.

They have a basic sense of design and other things, but take it too forward. The Angel

These are the clients who understand that they are hiring you because you are the expert. Apart from a few minor changes, they don’t interfere much.

You should be avoiding CEOs at all costs. Manager and Semi designer can be a bit of pain but are not that hard to work with. Angels are the one you should be attracting.