2009 July

Make Your Projects Work for You: 5 Project Management Methods

Project Management is key skill to creative’s and non creative’s alike. The more efficient you are, the happier you and your clients will be. Here are some methods that I use in my work that have really helped on both large projects and when multi-tasking on several small projects. These methods also make it easier to back track when you need to look through your notes for important information.

The Classic Project Triangle

I am sure most people reading this have heard of the Project Triangle (pictured), but it really is a very important tool in project management. The philosophy is that only two items on the triangle can exist at once. If it’s going to be cheap and fast, it won’t be good. If it’s going to be fast and good, it won’t be cheap.

Using this philosophy can make discussing projects with your clients much easier. If you present this ideal to your clients before a project begins, you are making them aware of limitations without overwhelming them with details. Let them know their options. If they need something in a day, it will either be poor quality, or it will be expensive. If clients understand this philosophy, it will not only help establish expectations early on, but it will keep everyone happy in the process.

The Behance Priority Timeline

Prioritization is always a challenge. At times, every project seems to be urgent and every client thinks that they are the most important. However, when you find yourself having a consistent flow of urgent projects, eventually, you will find that your work starts to suffer. Creating good work in a flash usually means losing sleep or working extended hours. Creating your best work in a sleep deprived and overworked state is a challenge, if not impossible.

So how do you bring sanity to an environment full of top priority requests? Visualize it. Find a space on a wall to make a visual timeline (like the one pictured). Make an area for urgent, high priority, medium priority and low priority on your time line. Next, make a note card to represent each of your projects. Finally, place the note cards within the timeline. Chances are, once you have them all on the wall, that your timeline will probably appear little top heavy. Now, it’s time to audit your urgent and high priority projects. Logically, the majority of your projects should not be listed in this area of the timeline. Some of these projects can be bumped down medium or low priority. Evaluate the projects and determine what has to be done, and what can wait. Sometimes, it takes a visual to bring order to the chaos.

To learn more about the Priority Timeline, visit Behance.com

The Circle To Do System

My colleague and good friend Christian Pascual recently sent me a link to the Font.is blog with the “Circle To Do List” system. It has changed the way I keep notes on projects in the best way possible.

The idea is to keep a journal listing all of your projects (which I was doing previously). What’s different about this method is that you put a hollow circle at the start of each task. As you make progress on the project, you fill in the circle at each step in the progress (see image for reference). You can customize what to fill in your circles as you see fit. For instance, I don’t have a need to show when a project is done “Halfway” like in the legend. So, a half circle in my system means that the project was approved or that it was sent to the printer. I also added a circle with a $ symbol to the right to indicate when a payment needs to be made to the vendor.

Harvest Application

Harvest’s tagline explains it all – “Time is money, so be sure you track it!” Harvest allows to track your hours on projects, create invoices, bill clients and is PayPal integrated, so clients have the option to pay via PayPal online. They will soon be offering the ability to send and track estimates.

For all the Mac’s out there, Harvest is available on the iPhone or as a Dashboard widget that allows to start and stop your time on project’s as you work on them from your desktop. Harvest starts at $12 per month for solo freelancers, and is well worth the price. You can even export you data into Excel spreadsheets.

This application has really helped me make billing and invoicing much easier to manage. You can set up the invoices to generate themselves and to be sent on specific dates and set up reminders if a client is slow on payment. It’s like hitting an autopilot button for billing so that you can worry about your work more, and less about invoicing. It also looks professional, and is a green way to do your invoicing, by eliminating the need to send anything in the mail.

The Goal Chart Initiative

Remember back in elementary school when you would do a fundraiser and the teacher would put a chart on the wall that could be filled in as you raise money and everyone could see who was getting the most cash for the school? Filling in that chart with a big fat felt marker just gave you a reason to stick your chest out and hang your head high for the rest of the day. Until that kid who always won everything came in behind you and rose the bar yet again. Ah, good times.

In my last position with B2B Web Ventures, our fearless leader Duane Badenhorst brought that sense of competition and ownership right into the workplace. We had a massive project that had seemingly endless lists of to-dos. Everyone was feeling the pressure and no one had a sense that the end of the project would be obtainable in the amount of time we were given. The solution? Duane made charts of all the small parts of the projects. He made a block for each piece of each project (i.e. if there are 25 category banners on the site, there would be 25 blocks under the title “Category Banners”). Each group picked a color of marker and as they completed the task, they filled in the blocks. Slowing but surely, the wall of projects started being filled with color. You could see where each team contributed and you could be proud of the blocks you filled in.

The big idea with this initiative was that it made an end to a massive project seem achievable, and it created accountability. If the design team was filling in a lot of red blocks, the copywriters felt motivated to fill in more green blocks. In short, it made the project more fun, and created a stronger bond between the different teams working together on the same goal.

What project management methods have you discovered work for you?

Who, What, & Why at the HOW Design Conference

Austin, Texas – June 24 – 28, 2009 – The HOW design conference was action packed!  I am still recovering from all the activity and information that was jammed into a 4 day conference. I have sorted through my notes and have compiled a quick set of resources and tips from the conference.

This is Business, Don’t Make it Personal

In the graphic design game, it is important to remember that you are different from an artist. An artist creates and hopes to make a sale.  Designers, on the other hand, have a client from the get go. You have to share your clients goal. If you don’t share your clients vision, the project will suffer, and in turn, so will your business.

With that in mind, it is also important to cover your assets when starting a business.  Get in touch with a lawyer and an accountant to find out about the law in your state and how to get small business tax breaks. Make sure that you are setting yourself up for success by preparing yourself for failure. Just because your business gets into legal trouble doesn’t mean you have to lose everything.

Stand Out

The key to obtaining clients and growing a graphic design business is to accentuate what makes you different. If you can become a resource, or even be viewed as an expert in the field, this is icing on the cake. If you have an expertise, or offer multiple services, make sure your clients and prospects know. Leave behinds are also a great way to shine and show off your creativity. Anything extra you do for your clients that takes time and effort will stand out.

To learn more about the business of running a graphic design studio, check out graphicdefine.org

Where Are Your Priorities?

It is hard to loss focus of the big picture when you are busy at the task at hand. It is also hard to see the right path to the end of a project when you are drowning in “top priority” items.  The solution? Effective prioritization. Determine what has to be done same day, and what could wait. Make a list of your “action items” and determine what can be put on the “back burner”. Make a visual representation of your priority levels and place your jobs within the visual. Chances are, you have more items as “highest priority” then you really need. If you are always rushing to finish these rush items, then your work and your mental state will eventually suffer.

Also, make time for your bigger goals.  Set time aside everyday to think about what your long term goals are and what steps you need to be taking to acheive those goals. Even if you only have 30 minutes a day, any time you set aside will make better off then if you keep working on the task at hand with no regard for the bigger picture.

Learn more about the about the Action Method at Behance.com

Consider Your Audience

One very important point made in the conference sessions was the lack of consideration for those with disabilities when executing a design. 1 of every 20 people have trouble visualizing colors. There is a site called vischeck.com that can help you determine whether your designs will be seen by those with color blindness. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) also offers design guidelines and best practices.

Know Who You’re Dealing With

Our world is getting smaller, and international business is more and more common place. However, it is important to remember that not all country’s employ the same environmental and humanitarian regulations as are in place here in the states. It is important to know what kind of facilities and practices your vendors have in place, even if they are on the other side of the world. Would you really want to save a buck at the cost of another person’s well being?

Functional and Fashionable

It is important to understand a problem to effectively create a solution. In design, if the concept is not functional, then it will probably not reach the goal it was meant to acheive. A good designer can make something aesthically appealing. A great design can make something appealing and make it easy for the viewer of your design to get the message.

Final Thought

The best thing I took from this conference was the friendship’s I made (totally cheesy, but very true). I met Kristen Ley, owner of Cultigraphic Creative in Charleston, SC during the networking lunch. We instantly bonded, and had a great time at the conference together. She is immensely talented and has succeed in launching her own business.  Her attitude and her work both inspire me to push myself to be better and brighter!

Kristen and I met Larry Pelty, my other conference buddy, while having a quick bite to eat at Moonshine (yummy restaurant across from the Convention Center). Larry is the Creative Director for Smith and Associates in Houston, TX. He and I have had a very similar path in our creative journey and I think we both learned a lot from each other during the intense four days of sessions.  Larry is extremely intelligent and I can definitely see him be a key resource for web design work for years to come.

I would love to hear additional comments from others who attended the conference.  What did you take from your sessions?