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What software are you using as a freelancer or small design studio to manage your business?

9 years ago from Steph Bain, Partner at TM

  • Simon KoelewijnSimon Koelewijn, 9 years ago

    That sounds interesting. Could you share one of your proposals or tell something about that?

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    • Michael AleoMichael Aleo, 9 years ago

      I'd love to see one as well. I use a Pages template for our proposals for easy creation, but neve considered iBooks.

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      • Jon MyersJon Myers, 9 years ago

        Yeah Michael, I used to use Pages as well.

        The newer UI and work flow caused me a lot of frustration.

        So, I switched.

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    • Jon MyersJon Myers, 9 years ago (edited 9 years ago )

      Simon, in my experience, if you have had a proper discovery conversation with a prospect and have a firm grasp on the scope, they want to know the following:

      1. Do you get the business case and understand the users for which you are designing? 1.1. Do you get the big mission and how your work will create economic value or perhaps a more defensible business position?
      • think of this as more of a potent statement and accompanying image that gets the point across.

      To satisfy this - I open the proposal cover page with a big image and headline statement that succinctly tries to capture that vision and mission. Followed by a second page with more of description of that mission, followed by a third splash page, which wraps that up with an image and statement before diving deeper into the proposal.

      1. Your process.

      While my process follows a flavor of the UCD framework many of us are accustomed to, I'm not a fan of boilerplate processes.

      In my opinion, your process has to be adapted and refined for the business case, and business and user goals for which you are designing.

      While there are certain design truths in process, which cover the basics, some verticals (banking versus say consumer) require process adaption and refinement. Best to plan for it.

      Great design starts with a great process and plan to drive at understanding and refinement. :)

      1. What are they getting?

      Just like it sounds.

      1. Timeline

      2. Cost

      3. How I work?

      I prefer pricing my services so that I don't have to nickel and dime customers on revisions. It's better to work from a baseline of trust and case based design (no ego-centric I think and feels, which are disconnected from the users) - thus, it's better, imo - to not charge for revisions.

      1. Why work with me?

      Again, pretty much like it sounds...

      --

      Aside from that - I try and design a proposal that can meet the needs of various stakeholders. From the high-level CEO's who will skim your proposal for the big picture, timeline and cost - to their underlings who will dive deep into your proposal.

      --

      There's obviously more meat than that, but those are the basics.

      Finally, don't forget this may be your first and only chance to showcase your thinking and prowess as a designer.

      Why waste it?

      Hope that helps.

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