How To Manage Design Projects
Вставка
- Опубліковано 10 тра 2024
- In this video Butler Branding's founder, Sean Tambagahan, shares things he's learned about how to manage design projects, including:
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0:50 Onboarding Clients
0:55 Payment Schedules
2:30 Design Strategy
3:30 Assigning a design team
5:50 Managing a design project workflow
7:07 Project management software
7:19 And avoiding revision cycle hell
Design Strategy Video: • DESIGN STRATEGY: Solvi...
Asana Project Management Software: asana.com/
Chris Do - Business Designer: / thechrisdo
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We help brands connect with their audience in a digital world through strategy and design.
Our team is a close-knit group of talented individuals who work collaboratively to craft bold designs through a proven process that includes equal parts of strategy and design.
Our goal is to support, enhance and amplify your brand by designing meaningful experiences for your users that are authentic to your brand’s voice and culture.
Visit www.butlerbranding.com for more information on how we can help build your next design/marketing project.
Phone: 559.797.3414
Facebook: / butlerwebanddesign
Instagram: / butlerbranding
This is the only video that I've seen so far that really dives in on the collaboration between designer and project manager. Good explanation.
Nina B thank you! glad to know it was helpful :)
I have been freelancing for over 10 years right now. But I didn't come across such worth content like this is really brief and I would like to thank Sean Tambagahan for bringing up this fantastic stuff. Awesome!
Glad to help! Thank you for tuning in
That last tip helped me a lot! I always get caught in Revision Hell!!!!! But never again!! Thanks so much!
The most helpful 13 minutes I’ve had in the last month. Great workflow! I’m currently utilizing many of these aspects however to see them in a concise and organized manner has given me an inspiring road map. Thank you!
Awesome! No problem Jules
I've been scrubbing the internet trying to better understand design team structures in agencies and who I'd be corresponding with in a creative role like this. It was almost impossible to find more info about this so I'm so glad I've finally found your video! Thank you for sharing more about your agency!
Glad you’re here! We hope to share more helpful content about this very subject
Great point on keeping the revision cycle and banking the revisions and getting client review on all of them before doing them all. Definitely gonna keep that one in mind. Thanks for sharing your process sean!
Cang Nguyen yes, fight the urge to just do revisions as they come. Avoid revision cycle purgatory
That tip about not actioning feedback until revisions is so valuable! Thanks for this
No prob! Yes - resist the temptation to immediately respond to revision requests
Your bit on the complied revision cycle is absolute gold! Definitely going to change things around here - thanks for the tip!
Landon Cahow yes - no more revision cycle hell!
nice job on the titles/graphics.
Thank you! We're trying to up our content game
@@ButlerBranding why am I seeing Chris Do in thumbnail?!
@@joaofernandes5217 as stated in the video, Chris's coaching of our agency inspired our project management processes.
@@ButlerBranding I came here expecting to see Chris, that thumbnail is misleading.
Milan Cariappa this video, at the time it was made, was all based on the influence and coaching Chris gave our agency about Project Management.
I appreciate the breakdown of the process, as a start design agency we ran into this with our first client. Our process outline I would say was 60% on point but we missed that good 40% that needed to exist. Thank you!
Thanks for tuning in!
I know I'm two years late, but this video it's simply amazing. As a freelancer/student in the graphic design field, I've struggled organizing a project for a client. Mostly because I had so many options and things to do that I couldn't make up my mind how to organize all of those in Trello. This is soooo much easier, and the idea of progress billing is so smart. Definitely gonna implement this workflow and make a few tweaks to fit my needs!
Guzman Gonzalez awesome! Never too late to keep learning new methods. Glad it helps
Thank you for an insightful video without FLUFF!!
Brooke thank you! Fluff-free content only :)
Butler Branding Excellent. I'm curious about Asana and others like it. I'll be starting a new job managing creatives and want to go in with some sort of planning system. Has this been an asset to your business or just a convenience?
Brooke they say the best system is the one you use. Managing projects efficiently is a must, and Asana is a tool that can help you do that. There are others, like Trello, and I'm sure they're great. Most have a free version or a free trial. Try it, test it, and if you like it, commit.
Is it an asset? Everything that helps you serve clients better is an asset.
Butler Branding Great answers. Thank you!
This was worth my time in gold! Thanks!
Mikkel Örstedholm awesome! Your welcome. :)
This is literally the most useful and informing video I've seen on youtube. Thank You!!
Woot! Thanks for the ❤
Thanks for this vid. I'm researching how to get an effective workflow in place so we can stop the craziness. This is a great place to start!
Awesome! Glad to help. We will be launching a Project Management course soon
Stay tuned
thank you. I really enjoyed it. It's so good to hear other agencies and how they do it. Really appreciate you guys
The process is incredibly straightforward. Love it!
🙏 thank you
Loved the info about "compile all feedbacks". Never thought about that, this is certainly the main cause of revisions hell.
Totally agree! It makes "rounds of revisions" a lot more clear and has really helped us prevent scope creep.
loved your last bit on maintaining notes of feedback and the revision cycle we are mismanaging that. This gives us the push to do it more rigorously. Thanks
Glad to help!
Thank you for this 🙏🏼
This is great! Thank you!
I love you guys, I'm starting my own company and I was scared but thanks to your videos, I think I should go out there and rock it❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ thank you
Dunyaazad J.Sideeg that’s awesome! Don’t let fear paralyze you from pursuing your dreams. You got this!
Thanks for the insight. You have really simplified my personal workflow and I am going to implement this in my agency as well. Appreciate it.
Awesome! Level up. 😎
Thank you so much for this! You might just have saved my agency 😱😁🙌
Well how bout that! Thanks for sharing ;)
Your idealogy of revision cycle is perfect. I would love to apply it in my projects.
It’s a game changer
Thanks man! Very informative. It will help me alot.
NICE MAN.
I LOVE IT
This was helpful.Thanks alot.
Great job! Concise and very helpful! A power-packed 10 minute video!
Thank you!
I'm going to use this.
This was very informational, I hope to utilize this flow for my start up and future projects 💪🏾
😎🙌
Great video! Super helpful.
Thanks so much for this video. I've learned a lot :)
Thank You for sharing! Very helpful.
Solid information, thank you for sharing!
Can you guys review a marketing project manager role within a marketing firm... I like that this video reviews onboarding, assigning teams, and workflow. I'd like to see something a little bit more in depth regarding personal traits, issues encountered, how to resolve, how essential the PM role is to the greater picture, etc. Maybe even some interacting with the team to define tasks etc. Just a thought! ;) Great work! Love your videos!
Samantha Lomeli that's a great idea! I will see what we can do. The hard part is getting other team members on camera 😜.
These are all great points, though, and would be really valuable. Thanks for the suggestion.
Awesome! Thanks for replying! I look forward to your next video (whatever it may be)!! :)
thank you!!!!!
Excellent and to the point. Many thanks!
Thank you 🙏
I LOVE how you compile all the feedback before starting your revision rounds! That is a fantastic idea! I'm totally going to do that. But, how does that work? Like, for example, how long do you compile client responses before determining the revisions are ready to begin? And how do you know the client is done giving you feedback?
Sorry for the delayed reply - somehow this got lost! We make it clear in our proposal, as well as strategy document what the timeline looks like. The Timeline includes when the first draft is complete, then when the client's feedback is due.
Clients almost always forget this, and try to send us spotty feedback (an email here, an email there, emails everywhere!). We kindly remind them, saying something like, "Hey John, thanks for sending feedback! I noticed that a couple emails came through, and I just wanted to remind you of our revision process. It's super helpful for us (in order to stay within our timeline and make sure nothing gets lost on our end) if we have a single email with all revisions, rather than multiple emails or lists. It just helps us stay organized, ensuring we don't miss anything. I completely understand that sometimes you think of something after you already sent the initial email. Let me know if you need a few more days to compile the revision list, and we'll update the timeline.
Or, we can always take care of more revisions during the 2nd cycle, as we allowed for up to 2 revision cycles.
Let me know which is best and easiest for you. Thanks for your understanding!"
Helpful and insightful -- very practical. Thank you.
Thanks for tuning in!
Very helpful. Thank you for taking the time to make this video for us :)
Michelle Del Rey absolutely! :)
This video was extremely helpful! Nice work.
Thank you! Glad it helped 😎
Super helpful. Thanks so much!
Ben Levermore glad to help!
Love this! Thank you
You’re welcome!
Very helpful. Thanks for sharing.
My pleasure!
Wow yep I have learned those things as well. Great advice!!
🙏
Great tips
Thanks for this info!
My pleasure
Thank you very much for sharing this with us.
Our pleasure!
Thank you so much. Love it
You're welcome! Glad you love it :)
Nice!!
Super helpful. Thanks bro.
No problem!
Very helpful!!! thankyou
Thank you!
very helpful- thank you!
Glad to help! 🙏
That's awesome and very helpful!
Ashish3saxena thank you!
Revision cycles 👍👍
practical stuff, thanks
🙏
Very great video !!!!! Thank you so much
Thank you 🙏
Really good, please continue what you are doing 👍
Nawal Kormi thank you! We will :)
Thank you so much for this amazing content. I've been trying my hardest to learn the in's and out's of organized project management in a creative agency capacity. Found your channel at 2am and have been bingeing like crazy lol. I learned pretty quickly to do progress billing after our first big campaign. I also learned to streamline feedback as much as possible through tailored feedback forms to easily collect all notes and distinguish revision cycles! Do you offer any form of coaching courses? As a fellow follower of Chris Do, I'd love the opportunity to chat with you or someone on your team!
Thanks for tuning in! We JUST relaunched our Project Management course. U should check it out
agency.butlerbranding.com
Way to go m8..GGWP
nice info n explanation bro..keep it up👍
Thanks 🙏
That was great information, thanks so much for sharing
No problem! Thanks for tuning in
Very useful video! thanks, buddy!
Our pleasure! Thanks for the feedback :)
Wow excellent info :) thank you very much
Akash K you bet! :)
Great video! thanks for sharing :D
Yoel Kevin Moeljono thank you!
This is awesome!
Peter Istrate thanks! progress billing is a gamechanger. Organization is the key
Great share, thank you sir
riderxriderx thank you!
Loved this video!! Thank you! Question, what do you do when the client wants you to use their project management software and their communication channels when you have your own set up and systems for what’s been working for you?? Any tips on how to navigate this?
We would respectfully decline using their project management software. We have a solidified process for keeping up with our projects, and it would be an inefficient use of our team's time to learn their system.
I would only consider it IF:
1) The size of the project was significant to warrant it
2) I would charge a premium for the hassle
very helpful!
Glad to help 😎
Thanks for sharing. Do you mind talking about some of work tools involved to in the whole process? Thank you!
We do in the Project Management course at agency.butlerbranding.com.
We will put some content out around this, though.
great tips, still relevant today! Have you added or changed anything to your design project management since you posted this video?
Thank you! Yes - we've changed lots. Maybe "changed" isn't the right word, because for the most part we're doing a lot of these principles still... we've just grown and added some processes and tools. We developed a course on Project Management since this was filmed. You can see it here: agency.butlerbranding.com/project-management/
Great video very helpful & practical Thanks :)
In the discovery sessions it seems like more design items are highlighted with the conversion funnel. How do you work that if the project has already been quoted & contracts signed? Or is the conversion funnel done at an initial meeting beforehand?
Anna Christine it's understood that insights might be surfaced during Discovery that would add to the project. The cool part is it's all from the client, not you.
Thanks Butler Branding I think this process is excellent!! Thanks again for sharing your experience :)
SUPER SUPER SUPER helpful. So do you only have 1 client facing person: The Project Manager or do others on the team communicate with the client?
Hi Megan, this is Sean. Typically all projects start with me (sales, strategy and onboarding). I introduce my team early on in the process, especially my project manager. They will be primarily in contact with me and my project manager.
However, for retainer clients they are in contact with my marketing team leads as well.
I would like to know how do you estimate your project. How can you know before the strategy and discovery phase how much will you charge? Do you recommend fixed-fee contracts or time-materials contracts for these kinds of projects. Do you believe the waterfall method is better for these projects than the agile methodology and why? Thanks for these videos, they are extremely helpful!
I love you for this!!!!
We love you too!!!
Great content. do you get paid upfront for discovery and strategy sessions seperatly then craft a proposal to continue with the design and delivery get paid for it?
We always get paid up front before strategy sessions. We now produce proposals before starting anything, understanding that the proposal can change if anything is added to the scope after Discovery.
amazing video!
Thank you!
Totally gonna use these tips, again amazing!
How do you gauge whether you have the ability to take on a new project and how long you'll need in order to deliver that project considering your current workload? Or do you just ramp up your ability to deliver by bringing on freelancers as needed and even if you do that, how do you determine that need in the first place?
Great question! We have learned this through trial and error. As we have had experience on certain projects, we know about how long it will take and how many resources are needed. We definitely hire contractors as-needed.
Cool stuff ! what are the soundtracks please ?
Kabla21 thanks for the kind words! Not sure where we got those from, but likely Audio Jungle or Artlist.
Thanks for sharing valuable information. at sevenfiv.com we also had the headache in revision, we gonna apply your suggestion regarding revisions in our workplace
Awesome! It's a game-changer.
Thank you. What do you use for managing the team projects, any online tools?
We use Asana
What's jedi master?? @ Chris do
How does this all work in Asana? In regards to team members collaborating together on asana
Asana is made for teams to collaborate. Each member is a user and you can assign roles and permissions and assign tasks to specific members
Hi, I would be interested in how u guys set up ur asana
Good idea... we have decided to pull back the curtain in 2019 and show a lot more behind the scenes / operational content. This will be a good topic (asana setup).
@@ButlerBranding, yes would love to know more about how you set up Asana. Not sure if I missed that video? By the way, this video was super helpful!
We go pretty detailed in the Project Management Course here agency.butlerbranding.com/
How do you deal with small (micro) projects? For example, a client asks for a poster for an upcoming event or a fourth of July social media post (image). I ask because majority of our projects seem to resemble those.
We account for a certain amount of "buffer" time each week. If a project will take 40 hours, we don't say we'll get it done in a week with one person. We distribute the work across multiple people over a reasonable period of time, understanding that small projects, service calls, emergencies, additional revisions, and other such "unexpected" tasks come in every week.
Butler Branding Agency what if you estimate a week but it takes two days? Do you hold it back until the scheduled delivery time? If not, doesn't that spoil habits if it happens often enough?
@@ghufranahmed5383 You have to ask yourself this - should you pay more money, or less money to get something done faster? Everyone typically knows that efficiency is valuable, and expect to pay more for it. So from a money standpoint - we charge our full rate whether it takes 1 day or 1 week.
If we get something done faster than expected and the client comes for the same service later on, they won't expect it to get done in the same time as the first because we set expectations before we take their money. If we get it done fast again, awesome! If not, then it's okay because we told them when we would have it done by.
I'm late. I hope you respond. Do you have specific names for milestones? I'm wondering how you know when you've hit a milestone.
We don't have specific names for milestones, as every project is different. It could be helpful, though. Milestones are typically determined after Discovery, when we have a more clear picture of what, exactly, all the tasks may be.
Generally speaking though - for website design projects, it looks like this:
- Discovery
- Strategy Complete
- Design Direction (UX and Front End Complete)
- All Initial Content Compiled / Created
- Website Complete (First Draft) - Ready for review and revision
25% Progress Payment Due Here
- Revision Cycle 1
- Revision Cycle 2
- Launch
I had the same doubt. Thanks!
Amazing Video but I disagree with several things. Ive had my web development agency for almost 5 years so this opinion is biased to our company standards and practices. I personally feel there is this Taboo which clients must pay in segments or percentages. I used to do percentage payments in my year 1 of business. Today I collect 100% payment upfront no exceptions. You might think how is this possible but its really looking at the big picture. The problem with partial payment is that clients feel they dont have to risk it all in order to get their projects off the ground. Designers often feel this is the only method in providing your clients some sense of security towards hiring you. We instead tell them the following: We can do partial payment but if we do, we guarantee there will be additional invoice balloons on requested modification during development. By proposing a flat fee, we avoid the invoice ballooons and keep the cost at the fixed budget. Personally I also feel that if youre going to "Finance" your job to a client, then just like finanacing a car you should pay interest. Of course telling that to the client will not sound attractive at all. So by saying the above, we convinced clients that the contract protects them. Granted youll have those that say "Oh, Ive been burned by other designers and I just dont trust anyone anymore". Thats a red flag. If there is no trust from the beginning, these clients become scope creeps and will become the designers nightmare. Once the client pays 100% guess what that does to your work moral? It skyrockets to the roof. Next problem is that partial payment once the project is 50% complete chances are the client dissapears. They get unmotivated or life happens. Now, what happens after they pay 100%? You better believe they will be there 100% of the way. Meaning your completion rate or client participation is now boosted. Then next part I disagree on is the revisions. If you tell a client lets have a revision bucket for a one time process, you will have clients tell you they cannot participate becuase they are visual people...meaning that once you make a change...they will determine if it needs more changes. So ultimatly they cannot predict if that one change will be final. Here is my remedy. We have whats called a BRD document which we go over with the client and have them sign off on it. This means they agree to the phase 1 aspect of the development....if they want changes its cool, but we sell them saying "We can make the revision and charge you since its outside of scope from the already approved BRD, but to save you money...we have a retainer program that you pay monthly for unlimited changes". This now grants the ability for you to monetize extra on the revisions post development for extra passive income. The revisions is the "do you want fries with that" in design.
Thanks for the insight and feedback. We prefer progress billing because it works for us. Also, it gives us something to look forward to in completing the project, and gives us a sense of "finality". Different strokes for different folks, I suppose. Maybe the 100% up front model will work for more people. Wouldn't hurt to try different things until you find something that works for you.
For sure. Every business is different.
What are your thoughts on including designers in client meetings/communications?
We often include designers in meetings.
+butler branding how to handle clients with endless revisions?
OmJhody our agreements typically account for up to two rounds of revisions. Anything above that is an overage, and we communicate that to the client. Typcially, if we do two rounds and they want another one, we will point back to the agreement (basically letting them know that we should charge), but that we want to make sure we keep their cost down so we will do one more round at no additional cost (assuming the list is reasonable) but would like to make sure that we have everything we need and everyone is clear on what this round entails, so as to avoid further charges. If they still want more revisions after that, then we charge for it and push the launch date out, and sometimes have to reorientate the project to account for other projects we may be working on.
Oh, and make sure you get your progress payment before revisions, and the balance after round two... charge overages after launch.
amazing, thanks for take time to replying me. great advice buddy!!!
I need big project
How much do you pay for a subscription to Asana?
sighall13 we pay for the premium one, I think $500/year? We did just fine with the free version for over a year though.
Can I ask. How many project your project manager handle at one particular given time using this method? Thanks.
We only work on a handful of projects at once. Currently we have about 5 projects, 8 retainer clients, and a lot of random calls to service clients. That's with a shared responsibility of managing across 3 people, and a staff of 8.
I see. I’m currently managing about 30 clients. 10 project and 20 retainers and the random requests from theses clients are basically non stop. I use similar management approach as you but with this many request a day it’s very hard to keep track.
@@georgezhou1415 we used to be in the same boat. It was unmanageable. When we increased our MLE 10x, it was a game changer. I suggest exponentially increasing your rates to work with fewer clients more closely.
Thanks very much for your insight. It’s very helpful. My boss always fear increasing rate will loose clients. Guess I have to talk to him more. What is MLE stand for? Thanks once again.
@@georgezhou1415 MLE - minimum level of engagement. The lowest amount a client can expect to pay.
Why Chris Di pic?????
As stated in the video - he was the one who coached us in this area
Why do clients pick you to give you business as opposed to any number of alternatives, in the first place?
We like to think there are no other alternatives. Rather than offering a variation of what already exists with a million fly-by-night design agencies, we try to offer something completely different. Our main point of differentiation is our process - our designs are really just a byproduct of our strategy.
So a company executive who might hire a brand agency looks at 10 equally nice logos and picks you because you described how you got to that logo, essentially?
Company executives (at least the ones we work with) don't choose a design agency because of their ability to craft a nice looking mark in Illustrator - you can get that from Fiverr. They like to work with an agency that can understand their business, their objectives, their users, and help surface insights that would guide the creative process.
So, as I understand, that's one reason (main reason?) for videos where you teach your methods. You're essentially showing that you know the stuff, showing the thought process, and when I, an executive, compare branding agencies whose graphics all look the same, yours has more depth or complexity in my eyes? All others are just pictures, but yours is "method" or "thought process" plus pictures. How close is that to your approach?
3D if the question is "what's the point of the videos? Is it to differentiate yourself to show potential clients why your company is better?" The short answer is no - the purpose of the videos is to put out content we think may be valuable. Mostly, our videos on UA-cam have been helpful for other design agencies. If clients find the info valuable too, that's great. Hopefully it will instill confidence that there's method behind the madness of design. Hopefully, whoever you are (client, designer, or other) you find some of our content helpful.
Ey guys, what management tool you use in your studio? Monday, Float, Wrike, Asana?
Asana.
CLICKBAITED
How so? This content was inspired from the coaching we directly received from Chris Do, and that thumbnail is a screen grab of the video.
Kreativ it was a bit clickbaitish because of the thumbnail but I'm glad I got baited! It was a great video :)
Hey thanks for this and for showing the system, currently growing the team but things are getting lost and need to get a system in place rather than being reactionary, some great advice here!
With a growing team you're bound to have some growing pains. It's good to recognize it early and change quickly. I feel your pain! Hopefully our pain is your gain.
Great tips