The Design Startup Show

Hey design starters today, I have a quick one with regards to systemizing, the processes that you have in your business right now. I know it can be challenging. If you have been a designer who has been helping different customers with bespoke projects and. This is all how we start. Right. And right now, if you want to productize it, it's kind of like a situation where you're stuck, because let's say you have 10 different customers from different industries and asking you to help them with different projects.

What are you going to systemize? Right? Because one person can ask you for web design work. Another one, one's a logo and another customer wants a product label. So it's. Kind of like everywhere and I have been there as well. So the systemizing may start like a bit of a mess, meaning you wouldn't know where to start.

So what I have done previously was not to do it for everyone. So you gotta think like, uh, your mindset has to be like, the customers don't know what you're preparing and what you're planning for. But they know what they're going to get. Right? So let's say you have your 10 customers, you asked you serving them in a way that you have been doing all along all the time, all the time.

You have been providing them with your bespoke project work. When they need a report to the be designed, it designed for them. You charge them a certain amount like that. Right? So to systemize it in areas you can do for everything, but you pick out one small thing. It can be any small thing that you see as commonly required for all your 10 customers.

So say for example, how I started was I know that let's say when a website is being created, it doesn't just, uh, Just, you know, come up as it's it is, you know, and, and, and the customer wouldn't just confirm right from the get go, right? What happens is there are a lot of back and forth. So for example, when I created this web first draft design for a client, I pass it to them.

I deliver it and they will come back to me with another change. And then after that, I, I do the small edit and it's not. A big one is a simple edit. I pass it back to them again and they pass it back to me with another change of, you know, maybe different photo to be edit a different, a different layout, meaning maybe the tax on the change to be changed in the rye and the design, the image to be changed to the left.

So very technical like that. And what I realized is they are not the only ones, because if I were to do a report for another customer, whether or not. The other customer is in another, this industry as a designer, I'll be doing the same thing by, I, it doesn't matter which industry I'm helping, because I don't need to know.

And I don't need to be, to be well versed in, in a certain industry to be able to do the graphic design point is my customer will tell me what they want. Right. So if they are already telling me what. The industry's about and where to put certain things I can just go hit with we've got instructions. So every customer has this stage where they would tell me to change that.

And if they were to tell another graphic designer and not me about this, the other graphic designer will be able to do that change as well. So I. I started to realize that that could be a small area to systemize and hire someone to make that change. So the thing is the changes that my 10 customers have been asking me to make were also regular enough for someone, for me to hire, to help and standby to make these changes.

So what I did was I picked up one customer. To do a trial. So I haven't hired yet, right from the start. And, and for my, for my case, I did not even hire it from the start. I just did everything myself first, because I want to know how it's like, I want to create the, the systems on my own first, uh, right from the start.

That may not be something that you want to do, but, but that was. My situation. So I picked up one customer who has, has quite a bit offer changes all the time. And, and if I were to tell the person that the customer that if he or she is given a month of just every change, every change that they want without additional charges, would they want to take that on at a flat rate and.

And I'm just asking them, right. I'm not selling to them. I'm just asking them if that would seem like a good idea to them. So you could do that too, and suggest to just pick one client and suggest that. So it can be any common pattern that you'd have seen amongst the clients. And then you ask that question if they would like to try.

So you are still going on with your. Your design work with the clients, those clients, and any, any number of clients that you have is the things that the days do run the same. Right? But you need to reserve some time, maybe say an hour a day or two, two to three hours a week, just to kind of come out with this, this package for this select the client as if you're doing it for a lot of people.

A lot of businesses. So, so you asked this client that if you want to do that, then, uh, yeah, let me know and we can start. So what you do. So this is what I tell my customer that at the time, when I just started with my beta, so I see that the price is a. $500 for this month. And within this man, you can just send me as many things.

You want me to change within illustrator because my customer has been working on illustrator falls on her own, and she has been pulling her hair out because she was not a designer or, but she's trying to save money. Right. So now I'm telling her that she can save more than before if she were to. Keep asking freelancers to make the changes.

Every change is not going to be $20. Every change may be $220 because every freelancer we have to kind of relearn every different freelance. I have to relearn what, what she's she wants to change and, and her way of working. And even if she asked me to do it, like change by change, I would have to charge at least $80 as well.

So if the a hundred changes would be, will be. What $8,000. That's a lot. Right? So compared to $500 in, within a month, she gets everything done. So, so it sounded great to her. Then, then we try. So anything that you propose to your customer may not be a good idea may or may not be a good idea. And, and you don't just give that up.

You can trick it on along the way and only just ask that one, select the customer first. On how that package can help further. And then, then you ask for the sale. So you asked to, then you start to sell and ask for, for the, for the fee before you start the work. And only if your customer has made that fee, then it's validated that your package works.

Right. So that, that happens to me. And when I, when I worked for one customer and she was really happy with it, I went on to the next one and then to the next, until the ninth. So I just kept letting every customer know about it. And soon enough, the 10 customers that started using that package and they did not need to go on that, you know, the stages of that invoicing co getting quotes and, and, you know, for us waiting for our pay and things like that.

So, um, so if you're having trouble systemizing, This is the first step to start with is this is to pick out, pick out that one piece of common problem that all your customers have. So they don't have to be the same vertigo. They don't have to ask for the same big thing, but maybe within that big thing, the little processes in between maybe the same.

So you can just start with that first and, and charge them for that first. And. And you can ask them for that if they are not going to pay for that means it's not validated. Right. So, so just try it out and then move on from there.

Hey design starters. Today. what I would like to talk more about is on hiring training and getting the best out of your members so that your clients and customers will get the best quality and results out of your service. Why I'm saying that is because recently I do have some comments from clients who, who we're not.

Exactly satisfied with the results that we are giving. And they found that there wasn't any progress. They found that we have been giving them the better quality work already than many other designers that they have tried, but there was still some progress that they would have could have seen better over the past months.

And that, that is. Absolutely you do to my own fault for overlooking certain areas. And the, the issue here was because there are sudden designs that were not things like on brand, as much as it should be. And, you know, they did not, the results were not part of the requirement of what's of what's said before in the brief.

So there's a few things that. That are hard to communicate to your team members when you have already kind of bridged them, right? So you have the documentation, you have the processes and they know right from the start that they have to follow the brief, but there are mistakes like that, that can we meet.

So the thing is, you know, we all want to know we were where this kind of quality can be checked and double checked before we send to the customers. But these need time. And if you have hundreds of clients, you have 50 clients, you have, you know, you have so many clients, you already scaling, how are you going to, to double check all the world in a single day?

Right? So it's, it's either it be late. You know, it's either your, your delivery will not be on time or they will be on time, but they won't be as good as what you could have given. So how are you going to. Create this process where your quality of the work will still be top notch and, and yet be on time and not done by yourself.

Yeah. You, you don't have the full control if you're going to pass work on to your team members when you hire. Right. So this has been a challenge for me over the years. And when I started, when I first started to productize my service, Back in 2015, I was struggling so hard to pass on this kind of process and the quality that I would have given, but I made it, I made a work by really training up my designers as customers give us projects.

So I did not do the work, but when I pass on the work to Michael. My, my team members and gave them the requirements of the, of the brief and what the client has said. Most of the time my designers don't come back to me for questions. They would just see the requirements as it is. And they just work based on their interpretation of the brief.

But what if their interpretation is not correct? Most of the time, they wouldn't be concerned about that. And so they just follow the brief and do it. So as a project manager at a time when I was a project manager for my business, because I had to be, I didn't have any, uh, enough resources to hire another project manager.

What I had to do was to kind of, when I got to get a brief, I have to kind of reexplain and reword the, the instructions to suit a designer. So, so we, as, as. Already designers of our businesses know how designers think, right? Because we are designers, people who are not designers may not know how designers think.

And they may describe the brief in such flowery language or, or something that they understand, but they don't do. They truly wouldn't care or be concerned if the designers understand what they're saying, they just want to, they feel that, okay, I'm hiring you to make things easier for me. Means in my brief, I'll just make it easy for me to, to explain.

And I'll just put them down in the shortest time possible. But the danger is the designer may not understand what you are talking as a client. They don't know what they are saying. Right. So as the business owner who has a stake in it, you have to be the one to come in. This is when you're starting out.

Right. When you don't have a project manager in between, you will have to come in and figure out the brief and understand will your designer interpretation in the same way as what your client wants? Because at the start, when I didn't do this, that everything was a mess. It's not the fault of the designer.

It's just that the client wouldn't. One to spend time to rephrase anything, to make sure it's understandable and clear. And the designer also wouldn't have that time to try and understand the brief, right? So it's both ways. And if we don't kind of glue them together, then they will just be on their own.

You know, they own the land, right? So as the business person, that's what I did. I had to read the brief, figured it out and interpret it properly. Ask the client's questions if, if, uh, these are interpreted in this way. And, um, is that what they're trying to say? And they will respondent and say yes or no, and, and, and they send samples and clarify the brief.

So that's what I had to do. Before I pass them onto my designers and having said all that, once those are done, uh, done, I had to then document down what I have explained and what I have done to clarify the brief, because in ultimately I will have to pass on this position of a project manager to someone else.

So that I can remove myself from there and move on to the other strategic levels of the business, like marketing, like branding, building relationships, building network, et cetera. Right. So in order to do all that, I also need this whole process of. Asking the client, what they need interpret from them, putting them in questions, asking them the questions, getting the answers back, then repackaging them together to give to the designer.

So this becomes a process itself to document and pass on to the next project manager who will take over and do the same work. To pass the message and brief to the designer. So this is how we work in our business, our company, where, where messages are being passed on, they won't be distorted, but they will be reinterpreted in a way that the brief requires.

So that helps the designer come up with something that is accurately what the client wants. So. What I'm trying to say here is when you hire you, don't just hire and pass on the work or, or brief just like that because your designer or your project manager may not understand the brief. And they may not be able to find a time to check with the client, what the client actually wants.

So you need to. Give them this either this time or this other person to team up with them to help them with this part of the work. So sometimes it's not that the designer can design. It's not that the designer is not talented. It's this is more of communication, right? This is more of understanding briefs, understanding requirements and not just, you know, Being a designer who can design stuff.

All right. So, uh, this is my take for hiring where training is involved and sometimes you just need to put in that bit of time to do this. And in the long run, it will pay off similar, literally in my company where I did all these at the beginning, and I do have designers who stick with us for many years and they are still around with us because.

They know that there are things that they are learning here. They know that they can grow with us. And these are these employees and these team members are the people you will want to, to promote and, and, uh, have them grow with your company for the long haul. So this is my take and I'll see you in the next one.

Bye.