Seeking Simplicity by Annie Sexton

Seeking Simplicity SIMPLIFYING THE MANAGEMENT OF COMMUNICATION DESIGN

Ann Marie Sexton

Seeking Simplicity

For my Mom, Linda, Tom, Ted, Mark & Mike

Seeking Simplicity A study and evaluation of the management of communication design and a proposed solution to simplify the process through use of visual empathy, distillment and clarification. by Ann Marie Sexton

A thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Communications Design.

School of Art and Design Pratt Institute December 2014

Received and Approved

Warren Bernard, Major Advisor

Santiago Piedrafita, Chairperson

Date

Table of Contents

1 2 Introduction

Backstory

Preface

Organizational Structures

Introduction

Methodologies & Processes

Elements & Tools

3 Seeking Simplicity

Empathize // Industry Interviews

Distill // Research Results

102

Clarify // Proposed Solution

121

Conclusion

123

Acknowledgments

125

Notes

THERE IS NOTHING simple ABOUT SIMPLICITY

THE INTRO DUCTION Preface Problem Statement Thesis Statement Design Approach

PREFACE

Project management is an area, it is safe to say, that most designers tend to avoid. Designers would rather be designing then dealing with the logistics of the design project. As I look back, I find it interesting that, as a communications designer, I would dedicate my thesis study in graduate school to the subject of project management. Prior to graduate school, I was an experienced manager and coordinator in the non profit sector. I entered into the field of graphic design with an acute awareness, and interest, in how design projects were structured and managed. Working directly with both design professionals and clients, I realized there was a lot of frustration around the process. Designers are often referred to, in the field, as problem solvers. So it was no surprise that when I found myself in the midst of a project management problem, my curiosity was sparked enough to attempt to solve it. The tipping point occurred between my final spring and fall semester at Pratt Institute. During that summer, I had been working as an intern for a digital interactive agency in New York City. Because, the firm was small enough I was given the opportunity to be an active member of the team. On one particular call with a client, the team was going over a series of wireframes for a redesign of the website, when a drastic change was made to the direction of the project. The client had just returned from a weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vacation, full of inspiration and ideas on how to design the website. Her changes included a redesign of the site map, something that had been approved months prior to the call. All work that had been shown on weekly calls, and approved by the client, would need to be scrapped. The client did not

understand that the changes she was requesting would drastically shift the project timeline. There was a huge disconnect in the clientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s understanding of the design process. Words seemed to be lost in efforts to describe the impact these changes would have on the overall scope of the project. This was my moment of inspiration, and my drive to study the management of communication projects. I was in the midst of a meta communication problem, and I felt compelled to find a solution. Discussions and further research among designers attested to my inkling. In a brief survey I conducted among those who work in the design field, over half stated that the most common project management barrier they faced was the clientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lack of understanding of the design process. Unfortunately, this was not the only problem disclosed in the area of project management. Research through in-depth interviews and comprehensive audits of the tools and methods used, confirmed the need for a solution as to how design projects are visualized, understood and managed. This thesis is a study and evaluation of the management of design, with a proposed solution to infuse simplicity into the process through means of visual empathy, distillment, and clarification.

INTRODUCTION

Managing projects, or doing this kind of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;work about workâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, plays a large part in the design process. Not only does a designer need to create articles of communication for their clients, but they also need to clearly communicate during the phases of the design process with members of their team, vendors, and, depending on the design role/studio, with the client. Internal as well as external communication is key, and varies in engagement dependent upon the role of the designer. Project management plays an essential role in the design process. Understanding how teams work, and ensuring that the tools used to manage projects are in fact supporting the team, are crucial.

Problem Statement You must know what causes the problem before you can begin solving it. Complexity seems to be the culprit taking over project management. People mistakenly believe that massive amounts of information equals greater clarification. There are more tools to manage your design projects than ever before, but these options have become more of a frustration to the user than a help. Too much information is the a prime source of complexity. There is a need for a simple visual project management tool to be created with the intent and purpose of supporting the design process. My research has concluded that designers are unhappy with the features and interfaces offered by the current software for project management. Of the over seventy professionals surveyed, only five percent were satisfied.

It seems crazy that 99% of companies lack a single place to track their work, a definitive source of ‘truth’ about everything they’re working on. 1

Justin Rosenstein, co-founder of Asana

Based off a recent article in Wired magazine, Justin Rosenstein, co-founder of the project management tool Asana, clearly stated the need for a single place to track project work and the lack of that need being met with current market options. There is a clear need that has yet to be met. The purpose of PM tools is to help plan, execute and support all aspects of the design process. Designers rely on key tools for managing a project to ensure that each task is completed on time, to balance staff workload and client expectations for optimal time management. PM tools are meant to enhance resource efficiency and ensure the project scope. Unfortunately, communication within the project management structure is one of the top problems confronting projects today. Lack of understanding from the client regarding the project process, as well as internal team communication, are additional common barriers to project management. For starters, the communication of the design process is scattered across multiple platforms. Information regarding the project might be housed on post its, emails, chats, calendars, documents, spreadsheets, and file sharing devices. The market has noticed this evident need, and software developers have been working to produce team communication solutions. The tally of these new program management tools is building. Though many tools are being developed, there still seems to be lacking a simple successful tool which encompasses all that designers need to succeed at managing projects efficiently. In addition, a critical element missing in the majority of the tools being offered, or even taken into account, is the essential role of the stakeholder to the project, the client. There is a lack of project management software which speaks to and addresses the client directly. The client is part of the design team and is a key stakeholder, yet they are left off a majority of project management tools. The client is left blind to the process. A majority of grievances that delay the flow of the project derive from the lack of understanding of the design process by the client. This specifically comes into play for the agency or the freelance designer, while the product designer or in house designer, who does not work directly

with a client, takes the user into consideration. In both instances, when moving through the design project, be it for the client or the user, empathy, distillment, and clarification are key factors to be considered. Management of the design project has become a complex problem. The solution to complexity is simplicity. Simplifying communication helps to support the clientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s understanding of the project process, as well as to enhance internal team communication, addressing these two barriers is the focus of my thesis.

Thesis Statement I have developed a simple solution to the project management woes that so many teams encounter. I have identified one project management area which is lacking from current platforms, which will support the clientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s understanding of the design process. Based on a series of research methodologies, this is an area where designers are struggling in the project management process and are not currently being supported by the tools which exist. The areas which I have research have uncovered other areas of need within the system of project management, which I will reveal throughout this research publication, but I have chosen to focus and address this particular area, the client perspective, as it is the one that has lacked attention. I will address this through the design of a simple modular project management component. This custom project management element I propose can be further developed to create a new tool, or the API can be added to an existing project management tool. The tool I propose will be designed through a process of simplification. Simplification requires a thorough and pervasive commitment to empathize, distill and clarify. When you have reached a point where you have achieved transparency, clarification, and usability, you have likely achieved simplicity. 2 This attention to the clientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s understanding and the transparency of the project process will reduce many of the management barriers which cur-

rently arise. It will enhance the overall design process and save time for the design team. I propose we, the design team and the client, all get on the same page.

Design Approach This thesis has been structured and created under the three principles of simplicity taken from the book Simple: Conquering the Crisis of Complexity, which was coauthored by Alan Siegal and Irene Etzkorn of Siegelvision, a New York based branding firm. The design approach of simplicity has inspired and guided this research as well as the project. Simplification is a thorough and pervasive commitment to empathize, distill and clarify. Simplicity requires us to have the discipline to boil down to its essence what we’re offering or communicating. It’s about shaping, filtering, purifying, and customizing whatever is being offered to people so that it best meets their needs and expectations. It demands that we strive for clarification through the use of both plain language and design. 3

Simplicity starts with understanding the circumstances and needs of others. The designers must “get inside the head” of the user to anticipate their needs. To establish empathy, I had to understand the user, and that was done through research. My deductive research was conducted through various methods, both quantitative and qualitative processes, to analyze data regarding the experiences and successes of project management processes and tools within the design experience. I used a series of methodologies to facilitate my research including self completion questionnaires, social media, observation, and interviews. Included in the distill chapter is the breakdown of the questions and their results for each of these methods.

My research began with observation. Watching people and mentally recording their behavior throughout my internship and freelance experience over the summer was what brought me to this thesis topic. It was clear, through the interactions between clients and designers, that there was a lack of a process which could clearly communicate to the client. As a result, the design process suffered. The first step of this approach was established through in-person interviews with a variety of professionals in the field of design. In order to establish empathy, I collected qualitative data through this series of interviews. Providing open ended questions, and allowing the interviewee to disclose their personal experience with concerns to project management, was essential to my research. With limited personal professional experience in the field of design, I depended on the interviewees to disclose common knowledge of studio practices and processes. Through these interviews, I was able to empathize and distill pertinent information about what is needed to support project management during the design process. The interviews disclosed what tools and processes designers are currently using in the field, and what they need to have to be successful in managing their projects. In addition to interviews, I presented a series of online questions to professionals who work in the design sector. Each respondent answered on their own accord. Self completion questionnaires are good for collecting data on relatively simple topics. I was able to gain a general overview of the experience of project management from the designer. The questions focused on understanding four main areas: what project management tools designers are using, how their experience has been using such tools, what is lacking with project management tools, and what are the main problem areas that arise during a design process that project management software might be able to limit or solve. I experimented with social media, using twitter as a tool for my research. The idea was to create a platform which will allow for communication around

the project management experience to be freely expressed. The results were gathered and distilled and led toward the clarification of the project proposal. One particular tweet stated and reflected my thesis statement. Liz Rose Chmela, the founder of the design firm Made By We, tweeted the desire of a client facing transparent interface.

She said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I wish I had an easy-to-update interface where clients could see the whole design process and status.â&#x20AC;? Connecting with professionals in the field of design was essential to my research, be it through means of surveys, interviews, social media or observations. The research methods I used opened up doors to conversations I was not expecting. At the start of my research, I sparked a partnership with Alta, a design firm in San Francisco, California. The founder of Alta, Alex Chrisman, had been in conversation with a developer he collaborates with often, Tyson Caly, about the very topic of project management frustrations. Alex runs a small agency and is often struggling with ways to best manage projects at his company. The conversation sparked an interest among the three of us to join our efforts and work towards a solution. Through weekly scheduled calls and set deliverables, the team has offered insights and clarification regarding the project, gained through professional experience and expertise. Through the use of simplicity as a design method, I conducted this series of research methodologies which resulted in data that was then distilled to provide clarification in proposing a solution. This clarification revealed what was indeed lacking in the current tool kit of design management and how I might offer a solution.

TOO MUCH INFORMATION IS THE prime SOURCE OF COMPLEXITY

THE BACK STORY Organizational Structures Methodologies & Process Elements & Tools Summary

THE STRUCTURE AND MANAGEMENT OF DESIGN

In order to start moving project management toward simplicity, we first have to understand the field in which it resides, that is, how designers work and the process which occurs when managing a design project. The first part of this research provides an understanding of the various structures of design management. Once we establish this baseline, we can take the necessary steps towards simplicity. The most important part of project management is not the tools; the most important part of project management are the people. The following chapter will break down the organizational structures of how designers work, the methods they use, and the tools which have been created to support those methods.

Project Organizational Structures Design firms seek organizational methods that facilitate teamwork, can maximize the usage of limited resources, and support efficiency and quality in terms of how a project is carried out and the way goals and objectives are achieved. One aspect of project management, that first received quite a bit of attention during the 1950s and 1960s, is project organizational structures. The three traditional organizational structures are functional organization, project organization, and matrix organization. Functional Organization structures assign projects in two ways. One way requires that the project be allocated to a specific functional manager who then coordinates with all the other departments, allowing for their input. Alternately, projects may be shuffled around to several departments where

Alternately, projects may be shuffled around to several departments where each department manager makes sure that their aspect of the job is completed. This method does not work well in complex projects. Project Organization is created specifically for executing projects. The focus is on completing the project. Once the project is finished, this structure disbands. The problem here is that as soon as the members actually begin acting like a cohesive team, the project is over and the organization dissolves. Created in the 1970s, the matrix structure combined the ideal parts of those two structures: Functional and Project. This model functions very well when you can find multiple projects being simultaneously coordinated, for example, in an agency where designers are working on several projects for different clients. Though this has the best of both structures, problems still arise when designers have multiple managers to report to so internal communication becomes key. 1 Depending on which organizational methods is used, a project management methodology will follow and complement the organizational methods used.

Project Management Methodologies & Process Project management methodologies are models, which project managers employ for the design, planning, implementation and achievement of their project objectives. There are different project management methodologies to benefit different projects.2 Project management methodologies were officially defined and used in a widespread fashion among organizations in the 1950s. They were appropriated and originally derived from engineering, construction and military defense projects. These methodologies are all about specifying the best way to initiate, plan and execute projects.3 Project management methodologies are most commonly used among software developers and IT specialist. Over the past few decades, there has been strong debate surrounding which methodology is best. The debate

Requirements

Design

Implementation

Verification

Maintenance

Waterfall Method Figure 1.1

has become particularly heated over two particular methodologies: Agile or Waterfall. The topic of project management methodologies is vast and pertains more to software development then to communication design. I will briefly touch on the two most commonly discussed methodologies, which are, Waterfall and Agile. Developed in the 1970s, Waterfall is the most traditional methodology. It is sequential, with top-down approach to project management. Within the waterfall project management methodology, project managers strive to eliminate risk and uncertainty by following a step-by-step approach towards the project. It is best used when the project is defined and the requirements will not change during the course of the project. After each step is perfected and completed, the process proceeds to the next step. Just as builders would not revise the foundation of a house after the framing has been erected, so does the designer ideally proceed through the step-bystep process of Waterfall. 4

One of the main ideas of Waterfall is that, by investing time in the early stages of a project to ensure that the proper design requirements have been met, this process will eliminate the need for corrections later on. This is accomplished by ensuring that one phase of a project is successfully completed before moving onto the next phase.5 Waterfall works in theory but not always in practice. In order to use this method you must be sure at the start of the project what you are delivering to the client. The most prominent criticism revolves around the fact that very often, customers donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really know what they want up-front; rather, what they want emerges out of repeated two-way interactions over the course of the project. In this situation, the Waterfall model, with its emphasis on up-front requirements to capture and design, is seen as somewhat unrealistic and unsuitable the real world. Further, designs that look feasible on paper turn out to be expensive or difficult in practice, requiring a re-design and hence destroying the clear distinctions between phases of the traditional Waterfall model. In general, therefore, the model is recommended for use only in projects which are relatively stable and where customer needs can be clearly identified at an early stage. Whether you should use it or not depends largely on how well you believe you understand your customerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s needs, and how much volatility you expect in those need, as the project progresses.6 While Waterfall is one of the most widely used project management methodologies today, Agile has become popular among software developers. The so-called lightweight Agile software development methods evolved in the mid-1990s in reaction to the heavyweight Waterfall-oriented methods, which critics called heavily regulated, regimented, micromanaged and over-incremental.7 Just as the name implies, Agile, refers to being able to able to move quickly and easily. The process lends itself to a fast turnaround and the dynamic

Intergrate & Test Intergrate & Test

Intergrate & Test

Develop N

Release Feedback Review

Develop 2

Accept ?

Develop 1

AGILE DEVELOPMENT Next Iteration

Yes Test & Release No Adjust & Track

Record Changes

Agile Method Figure 1.2

HOW TO BUILD A MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCT

NOT LIKE THIS

LIKE THIS

3 Minimum Viable Product Figure 1.3

ability to quickly adapt to needed changes or course corrections. Agile is thought of as the most humane and sustainable of the two methodologies because it is human centered and focused on producing work with the client. Agile relies on producing work in sprints; implementing short, iterative phases that rely on ongoing feedback that continuously reshapes and refines the project path. Agile software development processes are built on the foundation of iterative development. The foundation is more people-centric viewpoint than traditional approaches. Agile processes use feedback, rather than planning, as their primary control mechanism. The feedback loop is driven by regular tests and releases of the evolving software. Agile accommodates change requirements and is a lightweight methods of designing by presenting to the user in small increments. The sprint phases of Agile produce market ready products that can be tested with users who can supply feedback to support the process, unlike Waterfall which delivers the product at the end of the entire process. It is hard to know whether your product will be good. So, build incrementally and try to enhance your feedback, to prove to yourself that the product will promote the solution. 8 One method used during the Agile process is called Scrum. Scrum is a way for teams to work together to develop a product. While a Sprint might take two weeks, a Scrum will occur within the Sprint and be held in a shorter timeframe, about 24 hours. Scrums are short phases of development and occurs in small pieces, with each piece building upon previously created pieces. Building products one small piece at a time encourages creativity and enables teams to respond to feedback and change, to build exactly and only what is needed. 9 Agile development prides itself on fast production. Agile developers ultimately deliver user-facing code, but designers output thinking. Designers create solutions to design problems, traditionally expressed via mock-ups or assets. Knowing how much design is enough is hard. Knowing how much

design to start with is also hard. So what happens when design thinking and software development methodologies mix? On October third of this year, Mike Burn, a partner at the design firm Future, wrote an article titled on Rapid Ingenuity + Agile = True Love? This article was published after Mike Burn and I conversed over email around the idea that Agile might have been an influence in the creation of the design method Rapid Ingenuity, created by the design firm Future. Below are excerpts from Mike Burns's response to the connection between Agile methods and design thinking. Agile has its roots in software development, but today you can find people across organizations using it to run projects. Why has Agile taken hold? Because the big bets and risk-filled assumptions of traditional Waterfall project management too often failed to deliver products and projects. Many of the organizations who pioneered the broader use of Agile have stumbled upon a new challenge: “We’ve mastered the development and delivery of solutions, but we’re not where we want to be when it comes to conceiving game-changing innovations.” To address this, engineering, product management, strategy, and innovation leaders have turned to design. They’ve spotted a useful overlap in the Agile Design Thinking Venn diagram. One accelerates conception. The other accelerates execution. When design thinking and Agile come together, there is an eureka moment!

AGILE METHOD

EUREKA!

DESIGN THINKING

Agile Design Thinking Venn Diagram Figure 1.4

Rapid Ingenuity is next-generation design thinking. Rapid Ingenuity is the clever, original, and practical use of existing resources to solve a challenge fast. It does this through a series of stages.

The Be Bold Practice. Be Bold focuses everyone on your challenge and how to make the most from taking it on. It helps you not only take users into account, but also the strategic aspirations of your organization and the people who show up every day to achieve those. Ultimately Be Bold challenges everyone to raise the bar on what’s possible. It’s a unifying practice that inspires and energizes your people, your partners, and the communities you serve through shared purpose and a compelling vision of impact. The Think Wrong Practice. Think Wrong deliberately breaks the heuristic biases and synaptic connections that result in the status quo and stand in the way of ingenious solutions. The Think Wrong Practice forces you to solve from a place you would never consider, ensuring solutions you could otherwise never imagine. The Bet Small Practice. Bet Small, inspired through our work with best-selling author Peter Sim’s (Little Bets), counters the fear that too often snuffs out newborn ideas by applying Sim’s concept of affordable loss. So, rather than placing a massive bet on an unknown and untested idea (what the Waterfall methodology was developed to manage), this practice generates a portfolio of small bets from which ingenious solutions can quickly learn, adapt, and evolve.

Be Bold.

Get Out.

Think Wrong.

Make Stuff.

Bet Small.

Move Fast.

Rapid Ingenuity Diagram Figure 1.5

With its Scrums, Sprints, and frequent deliverables, Agile offers a management approach ideally suited to producing the LFI (Learning From Investment) that Rapid Ingenuity Make Stuff, Bet Small, and Move Fast Practices are designed to produce. So, while the honest answer to whether or not the Rapid Ingenuity Practices were inspired by Agile remains, “No,” it’s equally true that Agile and Rapid Ingenuity are kissing cousins.10 Agile, Scrum, Waterfall, and Rapid Ingenuity are a few of the methods being used today to structure the design process. This is the high level thinking behind the management process. Once the methodology is decided, then the elements and tools of management come into play.

Project Management Elements & Tools A good system of management is absolutely essential for every graphic design firm. However, the process of finding the software thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most appropriate for you can be very confusing. There are lots of competing project management systems out there and each has different strengths and weaknesses. I have provided a brief overview of a few of the key elements which exist in project management tools, as well as a review of how those elements are offered in some of the most well known softwares. ELEMENTS When choosing a project management software, the user must decided what they will need. There are a series of elements offered in each tool. For example, Dropbox is a cloud storage tool which offers one project management element. Other tools, like Asana, an online task management and project management app, offers multiple elements such as collaboration, email integration, file sharing milestone tracking, percent-complete tracking, portfolio management, status tracking, and task management. I have included a key on the next page that lists some of the basic elements offered in project management tools. TOOLS There are many project management software tools that have been created to support the design process. The following survey information was provided by Capterra, a project management software resources website. Currently, there are 388 project management tools audited on11the website. I have highlighted twelve of the most popular software tools. During this research phase, I investigated what many of these tools offered. I provided a brief summary of a few of the tools I reviewed. Each day it seems I am discovering a new tool. It is a saturated market place for start ups, each working to tackle the same problem, how to simplify the project management process for the user.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT ELEMENTS

API INTEGRATION

DASHBOARD

FILE STORAGE

TASKS

MILESTONES

PLANNING

CHAT

BUDGET MGMT

TIME TRACKING

CALENDAR

PERCENT TRACKING

EMAIL INTEGRATION

BUG TRACKING

GANTT CHARTS

TESTING

PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE REVIEW

BASECAMP A web-based project-management tool created in 2001 by the software development company, 37signals, who recently changed their name to Basecamp. This project management tool allows for people in different roles with different responsibilities to communicate and work together. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a place to share files, have discussions, collaborate on documents, assign tasks, and check due dates. It is used by millions of people and 98% of its customers recommend it, primarily for its simplicity.

PROS Multilingual Easy Access Many Features CONS Poor Client Interaction No Built-In Tracking Poorly-Designed

ELEMENTSS

TRELLO Trello is a collaborative task tracking tool that could be used for sharing ideas as well as tracking projects. Software could be accessed through a variety of hand held devices as well as desktop computers. ELEMENTSS

PROS Visual Workspace CONS No Deleting Completed Jobs

PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE REVIEW

ASANA Asana is an online-only task management and project management app. It is a web and mobile application designed to enable teams without email. It was created, in 2008, by co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and ex-engineer Justin Rosenstein at Facebook to improve productivity of employees. It has been adopted by design firms to create and manage tasks. It allows users to add tags and due dates to easily organize team tasks. ELEMENTSS

PROS Great Features Intuitive Movement CONS Only Works Online Not Intuitive No Chat No Message Board

JIRA JIRA is software which helps development teams track and manage projects and supports issue tracking during testing phases of a product or website. It was created by Atlassian, a software development company started in 2002. Jira offers an Agile software option with Scrum and Sprint planning. ELEMENTSS

PROS Easy Interface Tracks Bugs CONS Costly No Offline Access

PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE REVIEW

DROPBOX Dropbox was founded in 2007 by Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi, as a Y Combinator startup company. Dropbox offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and client software. Dropbox allows users to create a special folder on their computers, which Dropbox then synchronizes so that it appears to be the same folder (with the same contents) regardless of which computer is used to view it. Files placed in this folder are accessible via the folder, or through the DropBox website and a mobile app.

PROS Excellent for Syncing Files Excellent Sharing Files Simple to Use CONS Expensive

ELEMENTSS

SLACK Slack brings all your communication together in one place. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s real-time messaging, archiving and search for modern teams. Search focused communication tool for teams that automatically indexes content of every discussion and every document that is uploaded. ELEMENTSS

PROS Easy Search Team Chat Emoji Support CONS Poor Readability Slackbot

PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE REVIEW

TEAMGANTT TeamGantt is an easy way to use gantt chart software online. TeamGantt was Co-Founded in 2009 by John Correlli and Nathan Gilmore. After searching hard for a good way to schedule a project online, they couldn’t find anything so they decided to tackle the challenge of building it themselves. Nathan began designing early interfaces and John began building what would soon become TeamGantt. TeamGantt began taking beta users in 2010. TeamGantt continues to enhance the product and provide excellent customer service to every user.

PROS Well Designed Good Usability Task commenting CONS No Offline Access

ELEMENTSS

HARVEST Simple and usable interface to track time. A powerful and graphical report to see how time and resources are distributed. Harvest’s powerful reporting gives you real-time access to keep your projects on time and on budget. Get the insight you need to estimate future projects, and ensure your business’s profitability. ELEMENTSS

PROS Good Usability Streamlines Workflow CONS Needs to Have Customizable Invoices

PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE REVIEW

GOOGLE DRIVE Google Drive is an online word processor that lets you create and format text documents and collaborate with other people in real time. It provides access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more. Files in Drive can be reached from any smartphone, tablet, or computer.

PROS Collaborative Office Suites Local File Syncing Offline Access Generous Free Storage Space

ELEMENTS

CONS Lack of Privacy

PODIO Citrix Podio is the new way to organize, communicate and get work done. More than 500,000 organizations use Podio to run projects and company departments. This includes everyone from small growing companies using Podio to run their entire businesses to innovative teams in enterprises. Podio speeds communication and provides the transparency and accountability needed for efficient teamwork, by enabling people to organize and track work in one easy-to-use place. ELEMENTSS

PROS Great Features Intuitive Movement CONS Only Works Online Needs Directions To Understand No Chat No message board

PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE REVIEW

PROJECT TURF Project Turf is a web-based project management software with file sharing, milestone tracking, document storage, contact lists and task management. Projecturf is the straightforward and intricately-designed Web-based project management application that helps you manage projects, people, and tasks.

PROS Simple to Use Affordable Unlimited Users Unlimited Storage CONS

ELEMENTSS

Only Suitable for Smaller Teams

SOLO Solo is an all-in-one management solution for the creative professional. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s designed to help freelancers run their business, improve workflow and increase productivity all from within a stunningly beautiful environment. Solo is tailored specifically to the needs of creative freelancers, and Team has been created to meet the management needs of smallto-medium-sized studios. They bring transparency to creative ventures, allowing users to streamline their businesses and fine-tune workflow. ELEMENTSS

PROS Handsome UI CONS Doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Integrate with Accounting Software

Summary Through this brief summary it is evident there are many complex layers in the field of design project management. I have provided a quick overview with enough information to understand the general ecosystem. With this overview of the structure and management of design, we will now start moving project management toward simplicity. The first stage, of this three stage process toward simplicity, is to gain empathy. How are these project management tools and methodologies used by designers working today? How are these tools received by designers? These are a couple of the questions I have investigated through a series of research methods. The first research method and the most crucial was the interview. The following section will introduce five professionals, working in the field of design, and provide their personal experience with design project management.

SIMPLICITY STARTS WITH UNDERSTANDING the CIRCUMSTANCES AND NEEDS OF OTHERS

THE INTER VIEW Liz Rose Chmela Ambika Roos Alex Chrisman Brendan Callahan Madelin Woods Summary

EMPATHIZE

Simplicity starts with understanding the circumstances and needs of others. The designers must â&#x20AC;&#x153;get inside the headâ&#x20AC;? of the user to anticipate the needs of the user. To emphasize is to understand anotherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s thought process, decision-making strategies, and attentions spans. The first step toward simplicity is empathy. This section contains a record of interviews with a variety of professionals in the field of design. When it comes to empathy, context is everything. And sometimes the only way to fully understand context is to physically place yourself in it. While empathy involves imagination, real-life experience can be a tool to exercise the imagination and gain insights.1 I used interviews to gain insight and context. I was able to empathize and distill pertinent information through the interview process about what is needed to support project management during the design process. The interviews disclosed what tools and processes a varied group of design professionals are currently using in the field, and what they need in order to be successful in managing their projects.

Liz Rose Chmela Founder & Creative Director Made By We Type For-Benefit Design Studio Size Small Methodology Waterfall

Tell me a bit about the studio. We are a for benefit design studio, and weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re out to change the world for the better. We partner with do gooder organizations and help them rethink their communication strategies. We collaborate with them and with the creative community at large, because if there is one thing we know for certain, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s that the world wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be changed by one person alone. The change will be made by we. We are a full time two person operation. We pull in freelancers to help with projects, so communication tools are key for a successful operation.

What project management software does Made By We use? We launch each project with a faceto-face meeting and use that time to bring the team together. We use Basecamp as our main project management tool. We use Basecamp to share files between the client and the other designers. We also used Dropbox for internal file sharing as well as to share files with the development team. For conversations, we seem to use email because clients are not comfortable conversing over Basecamp. It feels too public to ask questions there, while email feels more private. We have started employing a new application called Invision, which is an online prototyping tool. This tool is excellent. You can share mock ups with clients as well as use it as a presentation tool. It walks the client through a clickable prototype of a website before coding. This allows client interaction and feedback to occur to create an experience the client is happy with and understands. We use Harvest for time tracking and invoices. It manages expenses for the company and clients. We tried to

use the application Solo but found it to be very annoying to use. We try to have the most meetings in person, but will use the application GoToMeeting when we work remotely. What, if anything, frustrates you with the use of PM tools? Tools that try to do everything, or when they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think about the user and what they are already using. Whatever the tool is, it needs to be easy for new user adoption. It would be great to have a tool that will work with all the tools I already use. A tool which will sync with the other devices you use, in a way leveraging everything they are doing well while filling in for the parts that are missing. My biggest ask is for a hub that connected all the tools that are already super successful at one task. No need to reinvent the wheel. I just wish the platforms I used seamlessly would communicate with one another.

What do you wish you had in a project management tool? The biggest things I have not found yet, but need, is a dynamic and easyto-update timeline. A reactive timeline that will adjust as you update it. Anytime a task gets changed, it will be easy to see how the rest of the timeline changes and the client can also see it. If the client is late on a deadline, they can see the repercussions of that right away. Currently, for project management, we set up a simplified calendar with all the milestones in Basecamp. We also use a detailed analog calendar on our wall in our studio which is very visual and helps me to see everything - to see where we are easily on the project. We send weekly spreadsheets to the client with hourly updates so they can see where the hours were allocated each week, which keeps us very transparent. Non profits are very sensitive to time allocations and want to know where the hours are being spent. Non profit clients always seem to miss their deadlines because they are not used to the design process

and take on more than they can really do. It is important to manage the timeline in our office and balance how it impacts the other projects we are working on. There is a lot of time spent and wasted updating the timelines.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Any tool needs to be easy for new user adoption 2. Platform that users can use seamlessly and would communicate / integrate with other tools 3. A reactive timeline that will adjust as you update it 4. A dynamically updating interface where clients could see the whole design process and status

Ambika Roos Strategist & Account Manager Hyperakt Type Design Studio Size Medium Methodology Waterfall

Tell me a bit about the studio. Hyperakt is a Brooklyn design studio with a passion for creating work that affects change in the world around us: meaningful design for the common good. We work with clients who fight for justice, celebrate culture and diversity, spread knowledge and engage in social entrepreneurship. How many folks work there? Hyperakt has twelve people on staff. Of those, two are studio heads and two are managerial.

What methodology do you use? The project management methodology we use is Waterfall. This method has challenges. It is hard because people always change their minds, and because it is set up to be a fairly linear system. It makes it hard to go back to phases to make adjustments or changes. There are certain check off points where clients are signing off on things, and if there are changes, then we have to go back. It causes issues with the designers because they are frustrated that they have to make changes. Then we have to charge more from the client, and they are not that happy about that either.

changes take place, it would all be recorded. The key is that it has to be customizable and flexible, a tool where I could enter in our wording and that would match our contract. I like to see all the projects in one place, spread across the top, a top level timeline that includes indicators with key dates for deliverables. Another thing we are missing is a CMR tool to keeping track of all our new business inquires. Currently, most of them live in my email and in my head. We tried using High Rise from Basecamp but it was a little funky. Tracking new business usually comes in the form of emails. I do host it all in a google spreadsheet which is color coded, showing new business, proposals, and where we get the referrals from. The google spreadsheet is not very pretty but it works.

I waste a lot of time explaining the deliverables and changes to the clients.

What would you suggest is needed in order to support the design management process? I waste a lot of time explaining the deliverables and changes to the clients. I have to go through my emails, so it would be helpful to have a place to enter that data as we went along. So, as we meet deliverables and

What project management software does Hyperakt use? We use Harvest for time tracking. Harvest currently hosts the team, the hourly rates and the project, but the tool is not adaptable. I need to be able to use that same information to plan for the team and to generate reports. This can be frustrating. We use Dropbox for file sharing. For the rest, we mostly use Google: Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Drive. Occasionally, our clients will use things like Basecamp, but we will only use that if that is indicated by the client. We use Quickbooks for billing, which is robust. We have been outsourcing all development up to this point so we use GitHub for the development phase. We use Dropmark to share visual assesses and create mood boards. We also use InvisionAP. At the start of the project, the client will be provided a detailed scope of work so they will see what our process is, and what each of the deliverables are along the way. I will also put together the timeline manually in Excel. I use Excel because our timelines are changing so quickly it is easier

for me to edit. I have all the deliverables written out, so I can just drag them down a couple of cells and the spacing of the deliverables will shift accordingly. I do not have to re enter everything. The downside of using Excel is that it is not online, so other team members canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t view it. That is something that we are missing. Currently there does not exist one place where everything lives for the team to view the deliverables for the project. We do try to limit the amount of project management tools we use because it is too cumbersome to have so many logins and becomes more work to enter in so many passwords if you are using multiple tools. We tried Trello, which is an application which keeps track of everything, from the big picture to the minute details, but it didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have everything we needed, so it didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t seem that useful to me. What do you wish you had in a PM tool? This is your chance to write your wish list! It would be nice to have a high level dashboard of what projects are currently on the table and the duration of each of those projects. Right now I have to enter things into Harvest

to track time. Harvest just released a tool called Forecast which is suppose to help you plan time, but right now it is not integrated. You can’t stack it up against actual time so that it is not that useful. It’s almost useful, but not for us at least. It would be nice if Harvest could do more. It doesn’t help me to plan hours or days at the beginning of a project. At the end of a project, there is no way to download a summary of a project just to keep for records. It also does not offer an external side for clients. Having an option to download files is important. Part of it is a bit of a trust thing with APs. Most of them are startups, who come and go. If you are keeping all of your records there, that can be dangerous. We have a backup system, and save a copy of our files on to our server, so they are not solely on a single AP.

KEY TAKEAWAYS 1. A downloadable option is important 2. Planning people’s hours over the duration of a project that maps against the budget of the project 3. CMR tool to keeping track of all our new business inquires 4. Adaptable timelines which can be shared with clients and team with key deliverables 5. Limit new passwords to enter

Alex Chrisman Owner & Creative Director Alta Type Strategic Design Company Size Small Methodology Waterfall

Tell me a bit about the studio. Alta is a San Francisco based strategic design company. Besides myself, there are two employees, a project manager and a designer. We usually have a handful of folks that we contract with outside of the office when we work on projects, such as a copywriter, photographer, developer, video and / or e-commerce. We usually work in teams of five to seven, and run about ten projects at a time. What methodology do you use? I suppose you could say we fall into Waterfall, which is a phase oriented design process. We start with research, then go into concept, then implementation. About 30% of the bulk hours and cost are spent in the research phase.

We are like a careful tailor. We take careful measurements, we ask insightful questions, we spend a lot of time getting to know the client (what it is that they intuitively need or want) and we try to deliver all that first time around. After that, we then just have to make small adjustments. We work to get as close as we can on concept, and then use some more Agile methods as we get into the feedback phase. It seems that psychologically, when we have shown multiple designs to a client, they felt a need to edit out instead of looking for opportunities. When we put one option in front of them, they tend to look at the good in the concept vs if we put three in front of them. Then they tend to make arbitrary decisions, why one does not work over the other, and even irrational decisions based on not liking the color. It tends to lead to confusion because clients do not know how to make a design decision. So if we put one idea in front of them, and they know up front that is the process of how we work, then they are pressured to be involved in the early phases of the process. If they know they have three options coming to them, they wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t dedicate themselves so much to the front end,

knowing that they will have a say in the back end. If they know that this is their only opportunity to have an insight and impact on the project because we are only offering one, they are much more apt to get involved. What project management tools do you use at Alta? A lot of what we use is reactive to what our clients are using. If they are live editing a document, and they want us to weigh in on it, we have to have access to it. Currently we are using ProjectFlow for high level dialogue between our projects, Harvest for time tracking, GoogleDocs for spreadsheets and collaborative work, Basecamp for calendar and task tracking, Dropbox for file sharing, and Quickbooks for accounting. We are going to try out a new tool for project tracking called TeamGrant. TeamGantt is a Gantt chart software located online which allows users and their teams to manage projects with Gantt software. A Gantt chart is important because it shows the project phases, and provides a high level view to give us a clearer idea of where we are at in a project, as well as for scheduling where those overlaps happen, so

that we do not get over stacked. When we get larger, it will also show who is assigned to which project and what time they have dedicated to support with resource management. What do you wish you had in a PM tool? This is your chance to write your wish list! I feel at this point I have most of my PM needs pretty well served with the exception of a sales pipeline which our new project manager is working on building out in a spreadsheet. We tried to using the new Basecamp CRM platform, but it was too complicated for what we needed because we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a big salesforce, and it is more targeted for people who have a sales team. We are building out a nice google doc spreadsheet that handles that part of the business such as pitch tracking and monitoring of sales progress so we can get a sales funnel which is for all the requests of work we receive, what we bid at, win/loss rates, on this spreadsheet so we can go back and gain insights. The rest of the things I need for the business I have build out in one massive master Excel spreadsheet that has twenty interconnected pages.

For a design studio there are a lot of complex questions to answer: when do you hire and how do you predict how people are going to use their time, what do you charge for the time, and when does scope become a problem for your business model. I would like to go back to my client and explain to them why it cost and what it cost to do a project. With management on a design project, you can view it from one side: you can look at it as a fixed fee value based proposition, which is the way we price our products. Then you look to the other side: you can look at it from a cost perspective, how much does it costs me to earn these things. The delta is the money the company is actually making. To be honest, most designers do not know if they are making money or not. But going back to project management software, there are a lot of questions that designers need answered, but they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even know to ask them. They just assume that it is not in their domaine to know about business. We need a tool which can provide powerful insights for small design studios and help them run their business so they can ultimately focus

I think that there is an opportunity to apply design to project management tools. How do you take these insights that are right now buried in numbers that no one wants to look at and process them into a way that all of a sudden makes for good project planning and helps people make decisions about when to have a conversation about scope. If you can pull those things out in a software and present them to people in a way that is really easy to understand, then all of a sudden you have real value from data that you have been gathering anyway.

on design work. I think that there is an opportunity to apply design to PM tools. How do you take these insights that are right now buried in numbers that no one wants to look at and process them into a way that all of a sudden makes for good project planning and helps people make decisions about when to have a conversation or about scope. If you can pull those things out in a software and present them to people in a way that is really easy to understand, then all of a sudden you have real value from data that you have been gathering anyway. I see the value in project management tools as a way of relaying patterns and feedback loops to make better business decisions. A Gantt chart is a useful tool because it relays the plan visually, so that you can quickly digest how things are stacking, where they are falling, where problems are arising, so you can work to fix them. A nice idea is to create these smaller modulars which all speak to a larger platform, which then gives the user insights. For me, the pieces I see from my side that are missing are that I had to either build myself or we had to use a lot of software to accomplish the task. Rather, it could

be accomplished if you were to create a modular which you can use a couple of different pieces to address problems which align. There are things that are smart to embed into the same little widget and then you get them all to play together. There are really interesting insights that come out of them; that is the opportunity when looking at big data. When you aggregate all these things together, when you take different data sets and put them next to each other you gain these insights that maybe big business has and small business do not, and it is these crucial â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;make or breakâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; decisions which can really help someone starting a new studio. I would review the tools which are out there, look at those for the trouble spots, see where the big holes are and where are the things that are missing, and see that as an opportunity.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Smaller modulars, which all speak to a larger platform, which gives the user insights 2. Pull out data from the project management software and present them to people in a way that is really easy to understand

Brendan Callahan Design Manager Airbnb Type Product Development Size Large Methodology N/A

Tell me a bit about the studio. AIrbnb was founded in the summer of 2008 and is based in San Francisco, California. Airbnb is a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world either online or from a mobile phone. The design team that I work with is about sixteen people, but the company has about 1,500 employees. The design team mainly sits in the San Francisco office, but we expanding to London and Singapore. Having an efficient project management tool is key for us, and that need will only increase as we expand globally.

Having an efficient project management tool is key for us, and that need will only increase as we expand globally. Do you use a project management methodology?

What project management software does Airbnb use?

To be honest, I do not know what that means. We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t use any specific method within the design team that I know of as we focus on print and environmental design and not experience design.

Right now the team uses Asana, Evernote and Google Documents. On one project, we used Basecamp. I usually resort to making task lists in Evernote. I organize things in Asana and make task lists in Evernote.

What we do is design in stages. We first have a kick-off meeting with all the stakeholders, designers, and strategists present. Then we break up to work on usually three design concepts. We have critiques twice a week. The process is very freeform. We print and post up the work for the team to review. It is very valuable to hear everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s input and talk between the teams. It is very similar to the school experience.

Google docs work for me. I like the calendar view in google. It is easy to set alarms and reminders. It is easy to view and hide things. So you are not always looking at this massive color map of tasks which can be overwhelming. It seems like the other PM tools do not work well with google docs. So, for example, when I am using Basecamp, I use it as the external shell and everything else is linked out to google docs.

Our office space is located in a big open warehouse, and we have huge printers to produce our work. We focus on quick and dirty prototyping and getting it live before we refine it.

What, if anything, frustrates you with the use of project management tools? That there is never a perfect one. We work with many teams, and we

have to work with a tool that everyone wants to use. Each team has their list of their own needs, and its hard to pull all those needs into one existing platform right now. For me, it is not about what tool to use and what works. It is important, of course. The true failings are within today’s work setup. We have multidisciplinary teams: engineers, designers, developers, project managers, writers, business folks who are all on one team. Each group has their preferred program, and way of working so it’s tough to get buy-in across the board on one program because each have qualities that pertain to each team. The team setup won’t change because it works. Programs have to adjust. That is the silver bullet. What do you wish you had in a project management tool? That is a good question and a hard question to answer. I want an ecosystem where you can utilize your own individual tools to manage your own time and your own work and methodologies, and have it all pulled into one centerpiece that connects everything and aligns all the work. I think that would be great. If we are talking blue sky that is my blue sky.

KEY TAKEAWAY 1. Create an ecosystem where each team can utilize their own individual PM tools but all the data will be aggregated into one centerpiece that connects everything and aligns all the work

For me, it is not about what tool to use and what works. It is important, of course, but the true failings are within todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work setup. Our work teams are multidisciplinary made up of engineers, designers, developers, project managers, writers, business folks all on one team. Each group has their preferred program, and it is tough to get buy-in across the board on one program because each have qualities that pertain to each team. The team setup wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t change because it works. Programs have to adjust. That is the silver bullet.

Madelin Woods Software Engineer Square Type Product Development Size Large Methodology Agile

Tell me a bit about the studio. I am a Software Engineer at Square. I work with a team of designers and engineers to do product development. We just hit a one thousand employees. I work on a team of ten. Square, Inc. is a financial services, merchant services aggregator and mobile payments company based in San Francisco, California. The company was founded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey and launched its first app and service in 2010.

I need a tool that gives visibility on projects, a single source of truth for iterations, and one place to refer to as I go through my personal checklist. Does Square follow a certain design methodology and if so which one?

GitHub, Basecamp, Slack, Slash, and DropBox.

Early on, we definitely had an Agile point of view. At this point, it has been difficult to get everyone on board on the same process because we are growing so fast and getting so big. So, it has become a mix.

What frustrates you with the use of project management tools?

I would say the design teams use something closer to a Waterfall methodology. They are working closer with the product teams to get deliverables out the door. What project management software does Square use? We use a lot of JIRA. We use it to work across the entire company. We use google document spreadsheets often. Some teams use Asana and others use Trello. We also use

A problem I have now is how do I communicate with a thousand other people around what I am going to be doing today. How do I manage up? How do I structure my stand up notes and my JIRA tickets with what I need to get done and, from there, how do we project out and scope for future upcoming work? We have used Pivotal tracker and JIRA, but neither really work because unless you have someone organizing and maintaining those PM tools, it completely falls apart. So I would say the biggest issue is the communication with how we operate with these tools and how do we maintain that cadence around using them, and how

do we structure our teams around that. I would say that is our biggest challenge. Every time I join a new team, we have to redefine what tools we are using and how to work best because everyone works differently and has a different process to take into account. What do you wish you had in a PM tool? This is your chance to write your wish list! Fast load time, definitely. JIRA is so funky and slow. It is very difficult to travel back and forward to other PM platforms. Always poking around Dropbox or Basecamp wondering where the designer put the files is a time waster. Knowing where is the latest version of the files is key. Something that gives visibility on projects, a single source of truth for iterations, and one place to refer to as I go through my personal checklist, not a thousand places to check for updates every day.

KEY TAKEAWAYS 1. Fast page load and quick link syncing across tools 2. One place to refer to for updates and files 3. Enables more offline communication than online 4. A tool which gives visibility on projects and Standardized language through the process

Summary From the small three person agency at Alta, to the over fifteen hundred employee company at Airbnb, I gained a better understanding of the how project management tools can support or hinder the process of the designer in these varied fields. The conversations, with such a range of people from varied titles and companies, all speak to similar needs. The common request among this range of professionals was for an ecosystem or a hub where all the data will be aggregated into one centerpiece. A hub which will align all the work and give the user insights, presenting it to people in a way that is really easy to understand. This information will be joined with further research to move into the second phase of simplicity, distillment.

ONCE YOU HAVE A BETTER understanding YOU CAN MAKE INFORMED DECISIONS ON BEHALF OF OTHERS

THE RESULTS ARE IN Social Media Survey Questionaire Survey Summary

DISTILL

Once you have a better understanding of the needs, you can make informed decisions on behalf of others. To simplify is to curate, edit, and lessen the options and choices that overwhelm. Anyone trying to create a simple anything - a product, a piece of communication, a service, an experience must be ruthless when it comes to editing, purifying or to use a harsher word, killing. The challenge is knowing what to kill and what to keep - whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s essential and what isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t. It isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t easy to create a simple product. It involves constant trade-offs as well as the need to find the right balance between quality, functionality, and ease of use.2 The interview process provided the insight into the design studio process. The information from the interviews were combined with additional research methods in order to better understand the context and process which occurs when managing design. My research was conducted through various methods, using a survey questionnaire and a social media forum, to vet information. Both of these quantitative and qualitative processes provided content which is displayed in this chapter to further distill the data and provide insight on the experience of project management within the design experience.

SOCIAL MEDIA SURVEY I experimented with using social media as a means of collecting feedback and used twitter as a tool for my research. The idea was to introduce a platform which will allowed for communication around the project management experience to be freely expressed. This was attempted but, over all, failed to produce results. I am not an avid user of twitter and I believe keeping up with it and engaging the community is a necessity for the method to be successful. I was not able to secure followers or any interest in tweeting about project management. The account I created was called PMThesisStudy. I used the hashtag #projectmanagementstudy to collect the tweets. I included the twitter account information on the questionnaire I sent out to over hundred people. This is how I described the twitter account: ‘Designers let your voice be heard, tweet your project management frustrations and let’s create a solution.’ I was only able to secure eight followers and six tweets. Though just a few tweets were posted they were helpful to my research. The following page has the responses I was able to compile.

Twitter Profile Username: @PMThesisStudy Tag: #projectmanagementstudy Description: Designers let your voice be heard, tweet your project management frustrations and let's create a solution. Followers: 8

Tweets: 6

Tweets @PMThesisStudy I wish I had an easy-to-update (or dynamically updating) interface where clients could see the whole design process & status. Liz Rose Chmela, Founder and Creative Director

I wish tasks could be broken down with multiple deadlines and micro tasks. A visual timeline tool would be nice too. #ProjectManagementStudy Robyn Nagorsky, Producer

Would love a PM application that could let clients and designers find most up-to-date files quickly/easily. #projectmanagementstudy Remy Kass, Designer

It would be great to have a system that manages smart reminders and sends them to clients. @PMThesisStudy #ProjectManagementStudy Jim Schachterle, Interactive Thinker and Designer

Need a PM application that saves you time rather than wasting it on understanding its poorly designed interface. #ProjectManagementStudy Dipti Siddamsettiwar, Designer

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s too easy to get disorganized with too many folders on #Basecamp @PMThesisStudy #ProjectManagementStudy Caroline Matthews, Senior Designer

QUESTIONAIRE SURVEY RESULTS Self completion questionnaires are often used to collect data on variety of topics. To distill information and investigate this topic further, I presented a series of online questions to professionals who work in the design sector. Each respondent answered on their own accord. This research method offered insight into the experience of project management from the perspective of the design professional.

Summary of Survey Participants The survey was distributed through email and social media portals. I was able to collect surveys from 73 participants. Here is the breakdown of who participated in the survey, the questions and results.

DESIGNERS

58% CREATIVE DIRECTORS

OTHERS

25% PROGRAM MANAGERS

DEVELOPERS

Project Management Tools Used What project management tool(s) are you / your agency currently using?

DROPBOX

GOOGLE

89%

85%

75%

BASECAMP

JIRA

HARVEST

34%

14%

18%

OTHERS

30%

1. Flowdock 2. Quip 3. InvisionAP 4. Evernote 5. Box 6. Trello 7. Sharepoint 8. ProjectFlow 9. Pivotal 10. Notable 11. Freshbooks 12. ZenDesk 13. Github 14. Bitbucket 15. Microsoft Project 16. Excel 17. Asana 18. Hackpad 19. Things

Project Management Tools Use Besides email, how often do you use project management tools in a given week?

DAILY

SOMETIMES

SELDOM

NEVER

Project Management Elements Used What elements ofÂ project management tools do you use?

FILE SHARE

CALENDAR

INTERNAL COMN

85%

79%

EXTERNAL COMN

TASK LIST

58%

Project Management Tool Satisfaction How would you rate your satisfaction with the PM tools you are using?

95% UNSATISFIED

SATISFIED

Project Management Tool Choice Which would you prefer: one project management tool that will sync with all your current tools or one new project management tool that encompasses everything you need?

45% A NEW TOOL

55%

SUPPORT WITH EXISTING TOOLS

Project Management Barriers What are the most common project management barriers you see arise?

Internal team communication Lack of understanding by the client Constant revisions by the client Communications with the client Personal time management None Other

KEY TAKEAWAYS 1. Shared Platform There is a call for one project management tool that will sync and work with other PM tools. This would allow teams to work with the tools they need, but also have the data they create embedded into a shared platform. There is a need to sync platforms and reduce the amount of clicks and passwords needed when maneuvering from different management tools. A platform that users can use seamlessly, and that would communicate/integrate with other tools. Integration is important as too many of the tools are silo. 2. Visual Timeline A reactive project timeline that visually displays key deliverables and can be shared with clients as well as team members. 3. Task List A task list that can be broken down with multiple deadlines and micro tasks and offers an option to track time spent on tasks with a built in time tracker. 4. Dashboard One place to refer to check for updates every day and which would provide an overview as well as visibility on a project(s). This place should also call out who is accountable, offer a place for reminders, as well as the current project status. 5. File Folders A place to load and house project files with folders that categorize and organize the information.

6. Client Support An ability to collaborate with clients on projects, and to offer smart client reminders. A place that would house all the documents for the clients so they can find files quickly and easily. The ability, also, to annotate designs with feedback from clients. Files that will allow for embedded comments. 7. Calendar A simple calendar which includes an embedded task list and filters. 8. Offline Access A tool which will work online as well as off line. Also, there should be an option to download files so they can be saved off line and kept on the server. This is important because the data is sensitive and needs to be protected. Many project management tools are start ups and if they fail or shut down the project data might be lost. 9. Ease of Use Simple and distilled interfaces that are organized and offer ease of use and quick categorization. 10. Time Management A dynamic workstream tracker for planning people's hours over the duration of a project and maps against the budget of the project so when the hours are entered, the tracker automatically calculates the hours against the estimated time. 11. Timestamp A way to record the data that is occurring during the process of the project to provide insight and support forecasting for future projects.

Summary There is an obvious need for a visual project management tool to be created with the intent and specific purpose of supporting the design process. My research methodology has deduced that designers are unhappy with many of the features and interfaces that the current software for project management offers. Of the seventy plus professionals surveyed, only five percent are satisfied with the current state of project management tools. So how can we turn that frown upside down for the design community when it comes to managing their design projects? This chapter summary has distilled through a survey research process has provided the clarity needed to move toward the simplifying the management of projects for designers. Based on the research, what a majority of designers are struggling with is the communication around the project both internally with team members as well as externally with the client.

100

IT’S BETTER TO DO ONE THING well THAN MANY THINGS ADEQUATELY

101

THE EUREKA MOMENT Proposal Process Project Summary

102

CLARIFY

103

Based on the research presented, it is clear that designers are seeking simplicity when it comes to the management of their design projects. They are overwhelmed with the options and are seeking support to unify their efforts, save time, and gain a better understanding of their projects in the process. The third and final stage of the simplicity formula, is to clarify. Design teams and their clients need information regarding their projects, but what theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re getting instead is data - untamed and unfiltered, without order, structure, or shape, and ultimately without meaning. In order to achieve clarity, we must apply design to this information; this information needs to be organized, emphasized, and visualized. If the structure of data is intuitive for a reader, that reader being the design team or the client, it is more likely to be read and understood. You can use design to help guide through structured information by arranging it into distinct, thematic, clearly marked sections or buckets. When people are confronted with information that isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t organized this way, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re most likely to experience cognitive overload. The project I propose will focus on clarifying how design projects are managed for the client and the design team.

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Project Proposal I propose the creation of a project management dashboard. This center platform, this dashboard, will aggregate information into one platform. This dashboard will provide the team and the client a clear overview of the project and it will increase the client’s understanding and participation in the design process. In management information systems, a dashboard is an easy to read, often single page, real-time user interface, showing a graphical presentation of the current status (snapshot) and historical trends of an organization’s key performance indicators to enable instantaneous and informed decisions to be made at a glance.3 In real-world terms, “dashboard” is another name for “progress report” or “report.” Often, the “dashboard” is displayed on a web page that is linked to a database which allows the report to be constantly updated.4 The dashboard will provide the a clear visual overview of the design project. It will allow the team, as well as the client, to be on the same page regarding the project. Tasks, milestones, files, deadlines, budgets and notes will be streamlined into one source. This high level view will support and simplify the design process.

Project Process The dashboard is being developed through a MVP (minimum viable product) strategy. So before I explain the details of dashboard, let me explain this strategy. An MVP is not a minimal product. It is a strategy and process directed toward making and selling a product to customers. It is an iterative process of idea generation, prototyping, presentation, data collection, analysis and learning. The process is iterated until a desirable product is obtained.5 For the stake of my thesis, I decided to focus on the client version of the tool. The vital component missing from the current PM marketplace is the client’s inclusion in the tools created to support the design process. The

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agency’s dashboard will be included in the second version once the client version has been completed and tested with users. This is the projected plan. The second version, or agency version, will not be ready or prepared for this thesis. This thesis has proposed the idea and need, and has started the MVP process by launching the first version through a beta site. To gain the necessary feedback, I will launch a beta site. A beta site, basically means “we’re not finished yet.” Any site or program that has the word beta attached means that it is in testing and working out bugs or identifying needed modifications or changes. Sites and programs are able to automatically send back information on bugs you may experience while using the site or program. This allow the programmers to correct the bugs before the site or programs goes to ‘final release’; beta sites and programs also provide ‘feedback’ links so you can comment, report bugs or other problems, and make site improvement recommendations.6 To launch a beta site, you first need to collect a select group of users to test the project. As part of my thesis I have created a marketing website, dashbeta.co, to advertise the concept of the project and gain users register to participate in the beta site.

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Project Brand The name of the project is Dash, an abbreviation of the word dashboard. When I was considering the name, during the branding brainstorm process, I reviewed car dashboards. A carâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dashboard provides a quick overview of critical information you need in order to focus on driving the car. At a quick glance, you can see how much fuel you have left in the car, what speed you are going, how many miles you have driven and the temperature of the engine. It will also show quick alerts if there is something wrong with the engine or if you left the trunk open. There is also a hierarchy of information. The speed dial is often displayed larger than the other elements as it is viewed more often when driving. All the data displayed is easy to understand and does not require instruction or tutorials. So take this concept of driving a car into a driving a project. Whether it is the client or the designer looking at the dash, either one should be able understand the pertinent information regarding the project at a quick glance. This is how dash was born.

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dash FONT Brandon Text COLORS

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Project Elements The project management tool, dash, provides a quick overview of the key elements the client needs to review. It helps the client and the design team stay on the same page during the progression of the project. It is one place to refer to for an overview of the project. The dashboard also will call to attention who is accountable, and offer a place for reminders, as well as provide the current status of the project. When you log in the dashboard is the first screen you see. Think of it as mission control. Here you can review metrics, meetings, messages and get an idea of whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s going on with the project at a quick glance. To dive in deeper into any areas of the project select an area from the menu or click into any of the areas on the homepage to reveal further insights. The dashboard homepage will provide the following elements: MESSAGES Messages is your own personal billboard giving you helpful hints, reminding you of your events and alerting you to upcoming deadlines, late invoices and more. Messages are drawn from your calendar settings and updates. PROJECT STATUS A reactive project timeline that visually displays key deliverables and benchmarks. The project status is the overview of the project flow and shows the stages of the project. It also reveals projected time vs actual time on project deadlines. TASKS Two view task list. The client view, showing an active client task list with due dates and completed tasks visible. Use the toggle to switch to the designer view to review what the designer team has due and what has c been completed to date.

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CALENDAR A simple calendar which includes an embedded task list and filters. Tasks will be added to the calendar from the task list. Alerts from the calendar will be communicated on the message area of the homepage. FOLDERS Folders offers a place to load and house project files that are categorized and organized. It is a place that houses all the documents for the clients so they can find files quickly and easily. The files also offer the ability to collaborate with the design team to provide project feedback with the ability to annotate designs with embedded comments. TEAM Brief descriptions of the project team. Clientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s can add in their personal team members into the project or remove them. They can also view the design team and see the project lead. BUDGET The budget page is a graphical representation of the hours and expenses allocated and spent on the project . A dynamic work stream tracker to view the hours spent over the duration of a project and maps against the projected budget of the project so when the hours are entered by the design team, the tracker automatically calculates the hours against the estimated time. Clients can see how the budget is being managed and all details are transparent.

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Project Personas In product design, a user story, or personas, are one or more sentences that captures what a user does or needs to do as part of his or her job function with the product. It captures the ‘who’, ‘what’ and ‘why’ in a simple, concise way, often limited in detail and just enough that can be hand-written on a small paper notecard. 7 The dashboard will service two audiences: design studio and the client. The user stories told below captures why the client or designer would be motivated to use the dashboard.

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THE CLIENT Marie is project coordinator at a non profit organization who is in desperate need of a new website. She has just received a grant to fund a website for her organization. She will need to report back to the granter how the funds are used. Marie hires a small design firm to create the website. Marie has no knowledge or training in design and is unfamiliar with the process. THE DASH SOLUTION Dash will provide Marie easy access to the status of the project, including the detailed budget to make sure she stays within the grant guidelines, the files and design compts, which she can include in her reports, and the tasks that have been completed and need to be completed. So she has everything she needs to accurately manage and report on the project.

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THE DESIGNER Jon is a senior designer at a medium size design agency. He is in charge of redesigning a website for an apparel company. The client is located in another country so the project must be managed virtually. Project management tools are used to facilitate communications. The client often emails the designer asking for him to share project files or provide status updates. The designer has logged in too many hours responding to emails about the project rather than actually designing the project. THE DASH SOLUTION Dash will provide Jon with a dashboard which he will be able to set up specifically for this client. The client will have access to dash, and will be able to access any information concerning the project. This eliminates the need to email the designer. Jon is left in peace to design and track his process on Dash, keeping himself on schedule with his tasks and at the same time keeping the client up to date.

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THE PROJECT MANAGER Sara is a project manager at a new and growing agency. She is in charge of managing three to five projects at a time. She spends most of her time emailing clients to update them on the progress of the projects. She also checks in with the designers and/or developers to assess their status on the project and then relay that information to the clients. All this time spent playing the middle man deters her away from other crucial tasks she is responsible to complete. THE DASH SOLUTION Dash will provide Sara with a dashboard which she will be able to set up at the start of each project. She can share this with both the client and the design team. The client will have access to a dash, and be able to access any information concerning the project. The design team will use Dash to track their projects and stay abreast of deliverables and milestones. This eliminates the need for Sara to play the middleman. She can access Dash directly to track the projects she is managing and be in touch with the client and the design team on one platform.

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THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR Jim is a creative director and founder of a small size studio. Jim has a lot on this plate. He took a big leap and left his comfortable secure position as the Creative Director at Facebook to start his own company. He has two other employees, a designer and a project manager. He depends on hiring freelancers for the rest of his design team. Currently, Jim has twelve active clients. Jim doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t sleep much. He has been struggling with finding the right project management tool which will give him a quick overview of all the projects he is managing. He wants one tool which will provide him a quick overview to see how his team is handling the projects and, at the same time update the clients. THE DASH SOLUTION Dash will provide Jim with a clear overview of each project he is managing. He will be able to quickly see the status of projects. The clients will have their own client view of Dash and will get all the information they need on the project, this will eliminate the need to contact Jim for status updates. The client, the design team, and Jim all have one place to enter in and view the data they need to manage their projects.

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Summary This project is vast and, in order to make this more of a reality then just a concept, I have acquired some help. As previously mentioned I connected with two design professionals who related to my concept and were open to the idea of working with me. The team consists of two Bay Area professionals. One is the founder of Alta, Alex Chrisman, whose interview is featured in the Empathize chapter, and Tyson Caly, a designer and developer who works closely with Alex and owns a small firm called 750 Group. Through weekly scheduled calls and set deliverables, the team has offered insights and clarification for the project. I gained insight and direction through their professional expertise. This project will proceed past my thesis presentation and will be developed into a viable product. My thesis project was the first step in creating this product. As part of my thesis presentation, I released a marketing website which will collect beta users to test and review the product. Once the client version has been completed, the product will be released to the beta testers who will provide feedback. The agency version will be the second version released once the client version has gone live. This thesis is just the start toward creating a simple and viable project management tool ready for market.

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THE END Conculsion

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Conclusion Through the research I have presented regarding the field of project management, I have proven that designers are unhappy with the features and interfaces offered by the current software. I have identified that there is a need for a simple visual project management tool to be created with the intent and purpose of supporting the design process. I have developed a simple solution. I have identified and addressed one project management area which is lacking from current platforms, i.e., the clientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s understanding of the design process. I proposed the creation of a project management dashboard. This dashboard will provide the team and the client with a clear overview of the project, and it will increase the clientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s understanding and participation in the design process. This project will proceed past my thesis presentation, and it will be developed into a viable product with the help of two design professionals who have demonstrated interest in the proposal. In conclusion, I have uncovered, through this thesis study, an evident need in the design community and proposed a possible solution. My hope is that this product will bring clarity and transparency to how designers manage their projects with their clients and teams.

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Acknowledgments I would like to thank the individuals who contributed to my thesis in the form of surveys, interviews and/or general support during the writing and research of this book. But first and foremost I would like to thank my family for their love and support through this challenging, rewarding and transitional graduate school experience at Pratt Institute. I would like to send a special thank you to Alex Chrisman and Tyson Caly whose interest in my project inspired me and whose expertise guided me. Additional thanks to my studiomates and professors espessially: Caroline Matthews // Alejandro Torres // Tania Lili // Saana Hellsten // Marie Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ovidio // Remy Kass // Dipti Siddamsettiwar // David Frisco // Warren Bernard // Jean Brennan //

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Endnotes

Chapter 1: Introduction 1. “The Way We Work Is Soul-Sucking, But Social Networks Are Not the Fix. WIRED.” Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital, 7 Oct. 13. Web. 22 Oct. 2014. 2. Siegel, Alan M., and Irene Etzkorn. Simple. Print. 3. Siegel, Alan M., and Irene Etzkorn. Simple. Print.

Chapter 2: Backstory 1. “Imagine Global Ltd - IT Project Management.” Medium. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2014. 2. “Project Management Methodologies.” Project Management Methodologies. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2014. 3. “A Beginner’s Guide to Project Management Methodologies - AtTask Resources.” AtTask Resources. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2014. 4. “Splendid Pixels.” Splendid Pixels. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2014. 5. “A Beginner’s Guide to Project Management Methodologies - AtTask Resources.” AtTask Resources. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2014. 6. ”Understanding the Pros and Cons of the Waterfall Model of Software Development.” TechRepublic. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2014. 7. “Agile Software Development.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Nov. 2014. Web. 28 Nov. 2014. 8. ”Dr. Royce and Waterfall.” All About Agile Dr Royce and Waterfall Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2014.

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9. “What Is Scrum?” Scrum.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2014. 10. “Rapid Ingenuity + Agile = True Love?” RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2014. 11. ”I Just Used Capterra to Find Software!” Software: Business & Nonprofit. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2014.

Chapter 3: Seeking Simplicity 1. Siegel, Alan M., and Irene Etzkorn. Simple. Print. 2. Siegel, Alan M., and Irene Etzkorn. Simple. Print. 3. Peter McFadden, CEO of ExcelDashboardWidgets “What is Dashboard Reporting”. Retrieved: 2012-05-10. 4. “Dashboard (management Information Systems).” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Nov. 2014. Web. 28 Nov. 2014. 5. “Minimum Viable Product.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Nov. 2014. Web. 28 Nov. 2014. 6. ”What Is a BETA Site?” What Is a BETA Site? N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2014. 7. “User Story.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Nov. 2014. Web. 28 Nov. 2014.

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A study and evaluation of the management of communication design and a proposed solution to simplify the process through use of visual empathy, distillment and clarification.

Ann Marie Sexton M.S. Communications Design | Graduate Thesis Pratt Institute | New York, NY