My process - How I get shit done

Working with people is all about managing expectations and emotions. Both yours and your peers’. Of course this means one should know how to discover those expectations in the first place. And also, to be comfortable with any kind of emotions. Being outcome independent.

This is not just big words. Nothing affects people as much as emotions do. It is the single most critical factor that affects every decision and action. It is not negative outcomes that we are afraid of. It is the way those nagative outcomes make us feel about ourselves.

So my main goal as a negotiator is to defuse those emotions and prevent them from forming altogether.

Research

I work closely with the client to understand their needs and goals, studying carefully their whole supply chain, processes and business model.

Based on this information, I define the product purpose, its useful effect for the customer and its features.

Which informs my efforts at outlining the Scope of Work. At this stage I usually better understand the budget and ready to present the quote.

Results and deliverables

  • Research report deck
  • PDF

Build

Based off of the resarch phase, I develop a comprehensive roadmap for each product and start working towards delivery. The roadmap is a blueprint for building our future product.

But that does not mean it is set in stone, and it’s not the way to cover my ass either. If at any point we realise there’s some new information or requirements have changed, the roadmap is reevaluated as well. The roadmap is the way to make sure we are on the same page, not to punish the client with ‘well, this is what you wanted, isn’t it’

I don’t have managers, because bad information leads to bad decisions. That’s why it’s imperative to maintain open and transparent lines of communication, not filtered through some manager’s biases and fears of being the bearer of bad news and thus postponing crucial reports.

Deliver

I keep the stakeholders posted at every turn and checkopoint, so it’s never a surprise when they receive the final result. I never just disappear after receiving the assignment and then jumping out like a jack-in-the-box.

Designers going AWOL is usually caused by bad communication on their side, as well as poor emotion management.

There is not a single moment, when stakeholders are kept in the dark. Which of course has its own drawbacks — there is no wow effect, when they receive the result, because they’ve seen it hundred times and probably got tired of it.

But that’s my point — as opposed to acting out of people-pleasing urges, and trying to wow the stakeholders, I inch carefully and methodically towards the goal, making sure we’re on track every step of the process.

Included in this phase

  • Testing
    My websites are being tested rom the day one, since I deploy them on the staging server immediately, as opposed to working locally.
  • Back end
    Depending on the budget and other requirements, I use either Vercel serverless or bare metal servers. And becuse I actually understand what Nginx, NodeJS or CMS is, you get an agency experience for a much less hefty bill. Not only that, but you won’t have to deal with the no-code tools extortion either. I mean, you tell me if you want to pay $30 a month or $40 a year.
  • Support
    My work is not done just because I’ve delivered. It is only the beginning, because my ultimate goal is to make sure that website or pitch deck or whatever 10-xes your revenue.

My value add - Agency level experience for a smaller price

Because I’m so versatile, I can work both as a hands-on designer and art director just as well, depending on the scale and budget.

A few years ago, I briefly pivoted to just being a team lead, without doing much with my own hands. And while it was comfortable and lucrative, I didn’t like the part where I don’t do something myself.

  • No holding back
    There is time and place for cutting corners, but sometimes it’s absolutely lethal. I don’t charge for not cutting corners. I charge for knowing when to cut the corners and when to die on the hill of not doing that.
  • Efficient
    I know that done beats perfect. For the stakeholders that means that I will cut the features that are not critical for the launch if I have to, to add them after we gather the first batch of data.
  • Fluid
    As opposed to using the SoW and brief as the way to cover my back, I adapt to every change. Just because we thought at the beginning we need this thing done that way, doesn’t mean we have to now grudgingly go through motions since that’s what we’d agreed on.
  • Honest
    I’m 100% transparent and open, which means if at any point I realise something doesn’t feel right, I will make it known, as opposed to acquiescing. For the stakeholders that means they won’t have any surprises neither will the need to worry if I’m acting out of my best judgement.
  • Care
    Taking care of the project and the stakeholders is the single most important thing. Doesn’t matter how pretty or innovative the design decusion is if it doesn’t benefit the project. The opposite is true. Sometimes a landing page build on a template is thousand times better than a masterpiece of a website backed by months of research.
  • Innovative
    The technological landscape is always evolving and so are we. We are constantly on the lookout for new open source projects to clone.

Tell me about your project