Today’s guest blogger is Terry Lee Stone – a creative leader and writer with 10+ years experience consultant to a variety of creative firms and clients, primarily in design management and strategy. She is the author of several books on design and its process, is a speaker at national design conferences, and has taught the business of design at the college level for over a decade. She is a talented copywriter, magazine journalist, blogger, and developer of strategies and implementation for social media engagement.
Terry’s latest release is the two-book series called Managing the Design Process. Note to self: I need to add this to my 2013 bookshelf!
Her other design books include Logo Design Workbook, Color Design Workbook and Package Design Workbook (serving as editor/ghostwriter). She has contributed to AIGA online publications Voice and Gain. Terry is a regular contributing writer for design magazines such as HOW,Communication Arts, and STEP Inside Design, as well as the Felt & Wire blog. She also contributes her expertise on design business topics for a feature entitled “Ask Design B*tch” for Rockport Publishers on their blog Rock Paper Ink.
This is just a sample of all the amazing accolades that Terry has accomplished – if you’d like to learn more about Terry Lee Stone visit her at her website.
We are thrilled to have our friend Terry contribute her thoughts below for getting the most out of your design team {us!}, so all of you who manage designers, this is for you!
The Key to Great Performance
All design teams, large or small, require these things for optimum performance:
• Clear goals and objectives
• Unambiguous scope of work
• Well-defined expectations
• Delineated roles and responsibilities
• Agreed-upon chain of command and functional authority
• Relevant information and background for the project
• Sufficient time in which to work
• Appropriate technological tools
• Effective collaboration
• Ongoing communication
• Oversight and management support
• Consistent processes, from creative to communication
• Meaningful recognition and reward system
More educational in nature, so that the client can understand who is who as a design team and how we all work together, there is the Team Work Flow.
Team Work Flow
Design projects move from big-picture concepting to the highly detailed work of developing a finished piece. This is achieved through a kind of “relay race” within a design team. Typically the team is comprised of different people with varied skillsets working together. However, sometimes one designer wears many hats. In any case, a design project gets handed from content experts to aesthetic experts to technical experts, as the job moves from kickoff to completion (see chart below). Often, the only person constantly participating in the project is the project manager, who is involved in monitoring every aspect.
Every design team needs to be aware of and constantly be working towards improving their teamwork, some aspects of which include:
• Reliability and integrity
• Cooperation and communication
• Knowledge sharing and collaboration
Design teams, including the client, have obligations to each other and to the project they are working on. Project managers should bridge gaps and facilitate communication and work flow among team members. If everyone understands their role and responsibilities within the team, the project should move efficiently from start to finish and great results can be achieved.
