The Value of Learning from Client Relationships

Completely agree with the premise of this article. I'd even put communication slightly ahead of technical aptitude in the skills required to freelance.

I've just seen so many freelancers fall on their face because they built out what they envisioned as "done" rather than what the client actually wanted.

It's actually how I lost my first client. It was a two week Rails/Angular contract and I was focused on things such as clean code, contributing to OSS, and putting in tests. At the end of the contract the CEO said it wasn't going to work out.

I asked for a quick call before we parted and he revealed to me that he went with a consultant because he wanted to someone to know exactly what he wanted done and for them to just finish it independently.

It sucked failing like that for my first client after full time work but I'd rank it as my number one lesson in independent work.