Presentation for Speak the Web in Liverpool. July 24th 2013
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Finding the joy through better project workflow By Kirsty Burgoine twitter.com/kirstyburgoine Photo Credit: GoGoRainbow http://www.flickr.com/photos/gogorainbow/2551497701/ Sunday, 11 August 13 Lets face it when we design / build websites in any capacity what we are aiming for is the joy at the end. The knowing that you've done a good job. The website is looking great, the client is happy, feedback is good and we get to go off and skip in fields of daisy's (or whatever you do to celebrate a job well done). Thats living the dream! I'd like to talk to you this evening a little about finding the right workflow for you so that you get feel the joy.
Lets face it when we design / build websites in any capacity what we are aiming for is the joy at the end. The knowing that you've done a good job. The website is looking great, the client is happy, feedback is good and we get to go off and skip in fields of daisy's (or whatever you do to celebrate a job well done).
Thats living the dream!
I'd like to talk to you this evening a little about finding the right workflow for you so that you get feel the joy.
so I learnt how to code and became a PHP developer building bespoke e-commerce solutions. Turns out I'm a bit of control freak
“These are not the droids you are looking for”
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and wanted the freedom to pick the projects I wanted to work on so I went freelance.
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I now run my own business specialising in building WordPress websites
?
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And that should have been my happy ending there and then right? Well yes and no. when I set up on my own, learning how to manage all of the other stuff was really difficult
no joy :( Photo Credit: thepretendahttp://www.flickr.com/photos/thepretenda/111192551/
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Even though I knew I would now have to do all the project management I wasn't really prepared for the reality of that.
There are lots of ways to avoid this and I’ve seen lots of talks about avoiding burnout and having a healthy life / work balance. So I’m not going discuss any of that!Instead I’m going to talk through my typical workflow along with a few concepts methods that have I’ve learnt that helped me move away from this and towards this:
Thankfully none of my clients are like this.I always adopt the attitude that I work with the client and not for them.
I work with the client and not for them.
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This helps with my selection process. Don’t be afraid to walk away
1. The potential project meeting
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The first stage is always scoping out the project. This usually starts with an initial meeting where I am interviewing them as much as they are interviewing me.
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I look for the type of clients that I would enjoy working with. I'm not going to knock out a website in two days for £150, and so I want to work with people that appreciate that. This is a really great screening process for projects. After all, who wants to work with people that make you want to do this:
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There are also a couple of other things that are really helpful in this early stage. They are:
When I say people skills, I don't mean the ability to hold a conversation with another person. Hopefully we can all do that! I mean the ability to give geeky explanations to non-geeky people in a way they would understand.
ConfidencePhoto Credit: karla_k
http://www.flickr.com/photos/karla_k/2776839587/
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They are interviewing you as well after all and your confidence in your abilities will reassure them and hopefully make them want to contract you for the project. As a slight contradiction, I've also found that having the confidence to admit when you don't know something is equally as good. Nobody knows everything.
So hopefully, that meeting went well. They've agreed the project so its time to get going!
2. The design meetingPhoto Credit: VE Fusionhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/vefusion/8229046461/
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This is the meeting where we discuss the design brief in more detail, and go through the initial structure and functionality outlined in the quote.
Go through the planned workflow with the client
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As part of my quotes I always include a section on the workflow for that specific project, so I also go through that with the client so they understand it and set some dates. This includes them in the project as part of the team and also sets their expectations
The Team
Get the whole team involved in this meeting.
Remember the client is part of the team now
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Also if they are available, I invite anyone else that I have chosen to bring in on the project to the meeting. I find this helps makes the client feel a part of the team.This is a good point to mention:
As I said, I try hard not to work alone. I work better if I can bounce ideas off of other people. No matter, whether you work in a large team or small business like me, make sure you start to communicate with your team as early as possible. It will set a precedent for the rest of the project.
Ok, so we’ve done a lot of chatting so far, made sure everyone feels warm and fuzzy about the project and working together. Now its time to do some actual work!
JOY !Sunday, 11 August 13
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the first stage with me is always pencil and paper
Sketch out the wireframes
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I sketch out all of the templates required (not necessarily all of the pages)
inVision Appwww.invisionapp.com
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a note about gridsetoutline the content for the client
Content is a tricky one, in an ideal world we do want the content first to design around. I agree with that 100% however, in reality the client is usually very busy, there is alsways some hold up and often they just don’r understand if you don’t get on without it.
I’ve mostly focussed on keeping the client happy within the workflow and managing their expectations. This is because, no matter how you choose to work, if they are not happy they are going to suck out all of the joy
