Design as a service trade-offs
Today, after long hours of work, I was exhausted. Although Working in quarantine is a real bless. It makes me working more and more to avoid thinking too much about how does the COVID-19 disease spread!
The midnight-hour thoughts — the ones that come right before you’re about to fall asleep — will freak you out the most!
I decided not to check the latest news and sleep. Suddenly, I got an email notification from an old friend “Sara” who was working as a senior designer.
Oh Sara, really long days!
Let me share it with you…
Dear Tremoloo,
After long nights of thinking .. I finally resigned from my job in a design studio! But even after doing this, I feel bad and confused. I wonder if you can help me understand if this is the case in most of design-as-a-service studios or this is just me!
I couldn’t cope up with the tradeoffs that have been taken, I came across an article “Why Designers Leave ?” written by Julie Zhuo, it was like a bullet to my unhealed heart!
The work did not represent what you valued. The work, ultimately, was not something you are proud of. —Julie
What I am sure of is: I just want to craft a compelling project with all design processes, techniques, and present it in the right way. Lastly, I failed!
So why I couldn’t do this in all projects I worked on?
Best regards,
Sara
Dear Sara,
I totally understand your disappointments and I can feel your burnout state, and actually, I have been there years ago. I felt mad actually! Why you guys are sacrificing some techniques? Are you seeking more profit!
After 8 years of extensive work in product design, passing through many business lines, tight deadlines due to a limited budget, or force-majeure like corona, I guess I could now have an answer.
And to calm your frustrations down, letʼs just start with the basics.
Why people prefer to deal with design studios — design as a service?
I think it’s for multiple reasons, few of them are the following:
1. Having consistent progress toward closure.
2. A clearer way for communication/design articulation.
3. Following a process that drives specific quality with a proven track record.
4. Having a quality of a team with different skillsets and different eyes for reviewing.
5. Not to have one single point of failure — dealing with solos.
Also, I would like to mention that being in the services sector let you -as an owner- make a trade-off to make successful projects in terms of deliverables and meet the above clients’ goals.
Taming Your Gremlin!
The triple constraints of Project Management is a description of the three most important and opposing constraints that all projects undergo. Typically, you cannot change one of the constraints without affecting either one or both of the other constraints.
1. Scope of work.
2. Time.
3. Cost.
And the client always seeking the best, and you know the rest! Perhaps at this moment, the trade-offs are chosen based on client maturity, key activities required vs. available skillsets.
So, let’s just have one practical example to help you imagine.
What’s the difference between the above three images?
It’s time. Time is a killing, destructive root cause of trade-offs.
Assume we have the same brief — same scope, and we want higher quality so, this means more time for iterations. And that directly reflected in extra man-days to work = more money.
Since all clients are not the same, and also project natures are different so, at this step owners decide whether to focus on a niche market (Mature projects/client) and Say NO! to others or simply accept and make trade-offs.
So, why all studios are not focusing on (Mature projects/client)?
Because it takes time! Time to be aware of what to do, how perfect to do it. And this will push them to perform trade-offs to learn and be mature. Similar to everything in normal life!
As a conclusion, I would suggest starting where you are and get the chance to learn from each opportunity and risk. I believe in two facts: 1. We are not in the perfect world. 2. Each design decision will be better with iterations if you got twice, triple,… chances to enhance it. So it will be wiser to know what techniques to use and when to stop.
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”
— Arthur Ashe
Waiting for the perfect environment will not happen, I think it also a matter of trade-off so you carefully decide in which particular area you want to make a trade-off.
“Embrace change. True success can be defined by your ability to adapt to changing circumstances.”—Connie Sky
Sometimes we make the right choices, and sometimes we can’t and we fail. And this what teaches us how success should be! And my assumption is you can be whoever you want in everywhere in every possible environment regarding of all circumstances.
Best regards,
Hussein
If you have some midnight thoughts and questions about UX design career and life, email us at midnight@tremoloo.com. We -really- would love to hear and share midnight-hour anxieties together :).
