DEATHMASK '13
The Codified Design Process Manual (CDPM)
FIVE MEETINGS > PROJECT BLISS
(1) Internal kick-off with PM
(2) Concept review
(3) Design review I
(4) Design review II
(5) Final / PM review
INTERNAL KICK-OFF
- Before kick-off, design lead and support chosen
- Before kick-off, project SOW posted by PM
- Before kick-off, project SOW read by design team
- Before kick-off, one-pager listing all deliverables prepared by PM
Internal kick-off
- During meeting, discuss deliverables in detail by reviewing one-page exhaustive list of deliverables prepared by PM
- During meeting, create the Project on a Page (POP)
- During meeting, set expectations for presentation of deliverables
- During meeting, establish project milestones
- During meeting, establish all design assets needed
- During meeting, set our four mandatory meetings in Calendar
INTERNAL Kick-off
- After, confirm that assets have been requested
- After, confirm that due dates are in Basecamp
- After, confirm that a location is set for our meetings
- After, begin preparation for our internal concept presentation
CONCEPT REVIEW
- This meeting requires written preparation.
- This meeting requires multiple approaches.
- When you are the design lead, you are the concept lead! You are limited only by your imagination / the soul-crushing realities of client work!
- This meeting is valuable only if you are prepared with a concept to discuss.
- This is not a meeting to invent a concept together; this is a meeting to debate options and iterate on your good, deliberate thinking.
CONCEPT REVIEW
What to bring:
1. The "Project on a Page" (POP)
2. Your two concepts*
*Note: our concepts can appear in just about any form — sketches, a collection of links, inspirational photography or video, a song, a cardboard diorama, wireframes, an invision prototype. So long as it demonstrates we did real thinking in advance of the meeting.
CONCEPT REVIEW:
POP FRAMEWORK
- Describe the project in your own words in one sentence.
- What is the principal goal of the project?
- What is the primary, first-order action our project needs to inspire? What is the secondary?
- Who is our primary audience?
- How does our design concept achieve our goal, and inspire our primary and secondary action?
POP EXAMPLE
Description: We are designing and developing a two-page website for Richtree Market Kitchen which will display menu options, enable online ordering, and introduce the restaurant to an unfamiliar public.
POP EXAMPLE
Goal: Our goal is to create a web experience that reflects Richtree's unique combination of progressive, human-centered technology paired with its commitment to hand-made, high-quality food.
POP EXAMPLE
Primary action: Our implementation will inspire users to place an online order for delivery or pick-up.
POP EXAMPLE
Secondary action: Our implementation will inspire users to search for the nearest Richtree restaurant.
POP EXAMPLE
Primary audience: Upwardly mobile urban dwellers in Toronto — with an emphasis on families.
POP EXAMPLE
Complete your POP form here.
POP EXAMPLE
DESIGN REVIEW I (DR1)
This meeting is set during our internal kick-off. It has a calendar invite associated with it, and a meeting location.
It can be as short as 10 minutes — or as long as we like. It's a "formal informal meeting" to talk, debate, brainstorm and generally get feedback on design direction. This does not include a PM.
DESIGN REVIEW II (DR2)
This meeting is set during our internal kick-off. It has a calendar invite associated with it, and a meeting location.
This meeting is a more formal review set at least 2 work days before the first-look is due to the client.
All DMDS-ers will come to this meeting with design work that is far enough along to conduct a full, lively discussion. Being unprepared for this meeting is bad!
FINAL / PM REview
This meeting is set during our internal kick-off. It has a calendar invite associated with it, and a meeting location.
This meeting is set for 11 am for an EOD delivery. This meeting is set for 5 pm for a noon delivery the next day.
This meeting is to share, explain, and get a final thumbs up on finished work. The design work should be, for all intents and purposes, complete for this meeting.
Being unprepared for this meeting is very bad! This meeting must be sacred!
FIRST-ROUND ONLY
This set of 5 meetings is meant to apply to the first-round of creative only. We don't need or want to repeat this process for each round of creative revisions.
With that said, I am always, always available to think through design solutions together, and will often continue to ask to set meetings to review rounds past the first round.
24 hours or more
Revisions require at minimum 1 full business day. No same-day edits.
Talk to design first
A simple rule of thumb: don't promise anything (date or deliverable) until you've talked with your designer / developer.
DMDS
General guidelines / THOUGHTS
DELIVERED WORK
- Has a cover page
- Is more-often-than-not presented in a 16:9 format (with obvious exceptions)
- Has a Basecamp post with a short descriptive note that explains and contexualizes the work. (This short note should be 'email ready' — as in the strategist could copy and paste your descriptive copy into an email.)
- Has been uploaded to Basecamp
DELIVERED WORK
First-round of creative should, whenever possible, be presented to the client, either in person or via a phone call
First-round of creative should feature:
- Two different executions (of the same concept)
- Ideally, at least two different concepts
MEETINGS
Should always have a location booked, and an associated calendar invite.
THE 8-hour rule
When a due date has been determined in advance, and documented in Basecamp, we will move heaven and earth to meet that deadline.
Sometimes, however, events will conspire in such a way as to make it literally impossible to hit an agreed upon deadline (due to other work, technical problems, world-wide pandemic, etc.).
The 8-hour rule stipulates that it is "okay" to move the deadline...if you have given at least 8 hours notice to your strategist.
THE 8-hour rule
If the deliverable is due in fewer than 8 hours, we have effectively committed to delivering that day, no matter how long that may take or difficult that may be.
THE 8-hour rule
The goal here is definitely not to be literally watching the clock (as we do with the 9 am meeting) but to encourage us to tell our PM as early as humanly possible if, for some reason, we're not going to deliver on time. And to demonstrate that there are consequences — e.g. working late — for failing to alert our PMs early.
We want to be realistic, not optimistic. And we want to keep our word when we agree to something.
THE 8-hour rule
There are obviously some deliverables for which this does not apply — like the launch of a website, or an in-office meeting or other "can't-miss" deliverables.
With that said, if disaster has struck, which it will from time to time, disappointing early is always, always, always the best policy. Just be honest, let us know, and we'll deal with it. It's not the end of the world.
WALDEN MODE
"Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
WALDEN MODE
"Let us advance on Chaos and The Dark."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
WALDEN MODE
"God will not have his work made manifest by cowards."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
WALDEN MODE
So, what the fuck are you talking about, Zach?
WALden Mode
"Walden Mode" indicates that I won't be involved in the project in any way, unless asked. Often, this might be designated before the project even begins. Sometimes, this will occur after the first-round of creative.
Based on the designer's experience with the project type, and my judgment, we'll make the decision together.
FIRSTs + SECONDS
Not all projects will have them. But we will aim in all projects large enough to warrant them to have a project lead (first) and project support (second) identified. The second will be in the kick-off and aware of their involvement.
With that said, we are a dynamic team, ready to help one another out whenever needed. Just because you're not a first, doesn't mean you shouldn't / won't be involved in making things great.
ITEMS to Ratify
- Kick-off checklist
- 5 meetings
- One-pager with deliverables detailed
- Meetings set during kick-off every time
- "Project on a Page"
- Concept reviews
- Final reviews are sacred
- First-round-only structure
- Meetings aren't at desks
- 8-hour rule
- Walden Mode
- Firsts and Seconds
NExt steps
- Make a one-page document / web page with all of this docs information
- Make standard kick-off meeting agenda
- Set meeting to present to strategy
- WooForm improvement
- Overlapping due dates / we are limited resources / building awareness within PMs
DeathMask 2013
By Zach Goodwin
