Smashing eBook_ Professional Workflow for Web Designers - Luke Reimer [9]
• Estimation Techniques
This article walks through three estimation techniques to apply to your projects
Summary and Take-Aways
• Personal applications
Familiarity and practice with project management tactics allows you to become more efficient personally in all manner of tasks. By adopting this framework and perspective you may find benefit in many areas, even those unrelated to web design.
• Team applications
As stated previously, project management is present in almost every large business and industry (or it should be). Becoming aware of this prevalence, as well as its workings, allows you to know your specific place within the project workflow and interact with tasks and other members accordingly.
• Transferable skills
Bring project management understanding and skills to every position. All businesses are works-in-progress, so if you see an area that is inefficient or creating a bottleneck in the production process, don’t hesitate to suggest implementation of project management strategies for improvement.
• Resume booster
Every employer loves to see project management as a skill on the resume. While everyone may have “proficient with Microsoft Word” and “time management” listed on their resumes, you can set yourself apart by revealing a distinct knowledge of project management and production process – communicated in the accurate business terminology presented here. Learn what you need to in order to be comfortable listing these skills to improve your value on paper.
Understanding Clients
If you work with medium to large corporate clients, professional experience can provide a window into their world and an understanding of their internal processes. Why does it take a month for an invoice to get paid? What is the chain of decision-making and approvals? Many major business entities run similarly including finance departments, marketing and creative directors, and a host of other roles and responsibilities. An understanding of how these work can aid in your interaction with business clients – you’ll see them as one fluid machine with separate working parts, rather than just an individual as the face of a company.
Often when you’re engaging with a client through a representative of their company, that individual will not have all of the knowledge and resources required to facilitate the implementation of the project. For example, you may wish to inquire about interfacing with the marketing team for existing graphics and materials, the IT department for server and technical aspects, and provide the required information to the finance department in order to keep the invoicing process smooth and efficient. Especially when engaging with individuals who have not worked with a web designer or design firm in the past, it can be useful to express your needs and pieces of the process in their own terms – guiding them in their task of working with you to complete the project as a company.
Summary and Take-Aways
The contractor-client relationship is still present in businesses with thousands of employees, just as it is in individual contract work. Don’t leave this model behind, and be sure to retain all of your experience dealing with clients, as they won’t be going away. In the corporate environment, your client may be a customer as an individual, a customer as another business, or internal clients represented by other teams inside the company.
Client experience from individual contract work and from corporate work can complement each other in beneficial and complex ways. The corporate element provides you with a perspective of a client’s background – the giant wheels turning behind them to process your work and the logistics of the project. Conversely, individual client work can apply in the corporate world with enormous potential; for example, using your personal interaction and business communication skills in a sales or account management role.
Process-Based Workflow
When you’re pumping out projects or products as part of a corporation, consistency