Design Roadmap Part I: All About Your Design Process

The Design Roadmap is really the key to relaxed productivity in your business.  In this 3-Part Series I'm going to tell you all about the 3 Parts of the Design Roadmap and how they all work together. 

I like to think of the Design Roadmap like a tricycle with three wheels, all of which are needed to keep the trike moving forward smoothly.  The first wheel on the tricycle is your Design Process.  It’s absolutely the most important part and the foundation for everything else.  Today I thought I’d go into what a design process is and the 3 steps to creating one.  

But first, why do you need a design process?  

Without a design process:

• It’s impossible to plan.  There’s no way to look ahead on the calendar and know what you’ll be doing when, or when your projects will be completed.
• You’re constantly in fire-fighting mode, tackling the next thing someone requests from you instead of being in control.  
• It can feel like you’re following breadcrumbs on a trail in the dark with a flashlight - you know the next thing that needs to be done but you can’t see the big picture.
• It’s really hard to know how to price your projects, create estimates or know how much money you’re going to make.  
• It’s hard to keep your assistant busy.  You may feel like you spend every day feeding them work and not getting any work done yourself. 

With a Design Process:

• You can control your calendar instead of your calendar controlling you - you can plan out all of your projects and know exactly what needs to happen when. 
• You can show up to work each week knowing exactly what to work on to keep your projects on track.
• You can set up the client’s expectations for when things will happen so they’re not stressing you out asking you for things when you’re not ready.
• Your assistant or helpers can work more independently, knowing the next thing that needs to be done and when.  

What is a design process?

It’s quite simply a list of everything you’re going to do on a project.  Much like you create an inventory of all of the items that will go into a kitchen design, a design process is like an inventory of everything you’re going to do on a design project from start to finish.  

How do you create your own Design Process? 

Step 1:

Define your Design Phases and the goal of each phase.   Think of design phases much like you would think of work zones in a kitchen.  They help you get everything organized and break down an overwhelming design process into manageable chunks.   

The typical Design Phases for full-service kitchen or bath design are Programming, Schematic Design, Design Development, Construction Documents and Construction Administration.  

You’ll notice that I don’t have any kind of purchasing, procurement or installation phase shown here.  That’s because in my kitchen and bath design practice, I don’t purchase or install any product, I just specify.  If purchasing or installation is a part of your process (or anything else I haven’t included that’s unique to you!) make sure to include it.  I’m not here to tell you what your design phases should be, just that you need to have them defined for yourself!  

You also might have different names for these phases, and if so, now is the time to define that as well.    

 Now that you have your design phases defined, you’re ready for step 2.  

Step 2:

Brainstorm everything that needs to happen for each design phase.  Keep in mind the items that need to be done by other people, too!  

Step 3:

Place all of the items in order, by phase, focusing on meetings and presentations.  Meetings and presentations are like the rocks in the river that everything else flows around.  When you define your meetings and presentation by phase in order, you then list everything that needs to happen for each meeting in order under that.  Now you have a step-by-step design process, in order.  You know exactly how many meetings you’re going to have during each phase, and what you’re going to present at each one.  You know everything you need to do in order to get ready for each meeting.  

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So there you have it, now you know how to create your own design Process!  Creating a design process is simple but not easy because it requires slowing down enough to really think through what it takes to complete a project and actually write it out.  If you’ve been through more than a couple of projects, you have the info you need to define your process.  Just write it out.  And then on the next project, keep track - do you need to refine or adjust anything?  The more you can define and follow your process, the more smoothly things will begin to go for you in the future.  

Next week I’m going to talk about the next wheel on the Design Roadmap Tricycle - your Design Budget.  Now that you have your design process defined, it’s going to be so easy to create an accurate design budget, and I’ll walk you step by step how to do that.    

PS - If you’d like help getting your design process done once and for all, you’re going to want to check out my upcoming Design Roadmap course.  In Module 1 you’ll get a workbook that takes you through creating your own design process step by step, with actual examples from my own business.  Get on the waitlist to find out more here.