Finding process in the gray

Q: How do projects establish themselves?

Generally, BD is about to pitch a sale. I might get an email or a mention during stand-up. In this example for a client, it started with an email with a *missing* brand guidelines.

A hint that this particular project might be establishing itself, started as a verbal mention at the beginning of February with the request to create an infographic, followed by an email labeled ‘OBSCURECOMPANYNAME’ Brand Guide the end of that month.

My next step was to process said brand guidelines to determine how much of it was implementable, compile assets, and create quick drafts. Besides brand, client requirements could include requests such as WCAG compliancy, multi-language capabilities, third party integrations, and more. Every now and then, sales might add new product features that don’t yet exist to the contract.

An information graphic I created for this particular sales pitch outlining what our product is/does, as well as user/client and product expectations.

Not a ticket but an omen of what is to come.

Actual site screens - with a quick brand color and image overlay for BD handoff

Design Drafts

In most cases, a dedicated PM would assist with the product requirements. In my case, I wear a minor PM hat and have to rely on mind-reading skills as sales negotiations are ensuing. The assumption is the client may want the most sold product features: SSO, home page with career journeys, coaching/scheduling page, online learning resources, interview app, access to a jobs board, proprietary career ‘insights’, the resume analyzer, an assessments feature, user profile, FAQs, and a support/live chat page.

Initial designs help the sales team close deals. So, for round one, the objective is to apply client brand, and if available, brand imagery to our existing product template to elicit a reaction from various stakeholders, internal and external.

Interlude…

Work doesn’t ever stop. While I wait on feedback, end requirements, new/not mentioned requests, I spend my time with production support, research, and experimentation.

In February I spent some time on a few things. First, thinking about what polar graph ratings could look like as we started delving into the world of 360˚ assessments. If used in such an assessment, what could they look like when multiple users are answering the same question? What displays when drilling into questions?

Second, email hero images, and new client hero images.

Third, we needed a hotfix webinar feature integrated into our partner pages.

Fourth, I spent time reimagining our home page and exploring a more dashboard-style experience based on known bottlenecks, and stakeholder requests to optimize the product.

And lastly, to keep me busy for the next one and a half months a new project that evolved rather rapidly, called Alpine. (Ask me about Alpine, it was a neat exploration into game design and much too many assets and screens to fit into the interlude).