Project Management
Hiring, developing, and inspiring a small design team of three designers for the Home category. Meeting with clients to discuss their needs and the design elements they desire before designating work. Interpreting abstract business concepts and client briefs, and turning them into creative ideas. Making proposals and creative vision for the client, and communicating the project outline to the design team. Developing strategic design plans with projected timelines and budgets. Guiding designers to create storyboards and mockups for clients to visualize the completed project. Providing guidance on design elements for different projects while troubleshooting design problems. Overseeing the design projects, from start to finish, and monitoring the staff members to ensure they adhere to the brand standards, budget and timeline constraints. Reviewing feedback from clients and making alterations according to their needs. Analyzing market research to create more effective designs and passing this knowledge onto the team for future content.
Client: NewAge Products Inc.
My Role: Design Lead
Design Tools: Smartsheet, Adobe Software
Step by Step Breakdown
of the full Creative Process
Step 1: Project Inititaion
The project initiation phase is the first stage of turning an abstract idea into a meaningful goal for the customer. In this stage, I like to develop and define the project on a broad level. In order to do that, along with stakeholder's input, we determine the needs of the project and develop a detailed creative brief.
The creative brief is an important document consisting of details that will help clarify the key information the team needs for success, such as, the project's title and description, goals and objectives, target audience, messaging and tone, list of assets and deliverables required, stakeholders involved, budget, expected timeline, and distribution process.
The more valuable information put into the creative brief brings less questions during the creative process, saving valuable time with less back and forth communications between teams. However, the project brief is a living document, and when the team starts executing its work, it is always open to conversations and edits.
Step 2: Project Planning
The project planning stage lays out each phase in order to track its progress until completion, by developing a detailed project schedule. Project scheduling is important since it plays an effective role in its success and, when done well, makes the entire project run more smoothly.
Committing to the project scheduling process at the beginning of the project, with stakeholder approval, will give the team a clear picture of the requirements ahead. It also gives a chance to catch issues early and alert clients or stakeholders if a timeline isn’t feasible, allowing time for adjustment. Once a clear schedule is established, then everyone knows what to expect and when, and everyone is held accountable to the due dates with complete transparency.
Phase 3: Project Execution
The project execution stage is where the team does the actual work required. As a project manager and design lead, I like to establish efficient workflows and carefully monitor the progress of my team and myself, while consistently maintaining effective collaboration between all project stakeholders involved. This ensures that everyone stays on the same page and the project runs smoothly without any issues or bottlenecks. This collaboration will make everyone's life easier and also improve efficiency and increase the productivity of multiple teams.
Phase 4: Project Monitor and Control
The project monitoring and controlling phase runs simultaneously with project execution (phase 3), and ensures that objectives and project deliverables are met across all teams involved. I try to keep a track of the efforts and time spent of everyone during this process. This tracking not only ensures that the project remains within budget and time constraints, but is also important for future projects. This will assist to create an even more accurate project schedule, based off project history with similar requirements and steps.
Phase 5: Project Closing
The project closure stage indicates the conclusion of the project with the final delivery of all assets required to the client. From here, we run an extensive quality assurance process to ensure that all the deliverables are being used as planned and no efforts are going to waste. We try to hold a reflection meeting after the completion of the project in order to contemplate the successes and failures of the project, and discuss any insights received through A/B testing. This is an effective method to ensure continuous improvement within the company to enhance the overall productivity of the team and creative content for the future. All assets, working files, creative briefs and schedules, are then kept and organized within the company's data management system for future projects or revisions.
WEB PAGE DESIGN