Greg Meek – Web designer and front-end developer in Saltaire, Shipley, West Yorkshire

In my time as a designer working in an agency environment, I’ve picked up on a few common process-related issues that I regard as hindrances for getting work done. The following are five simple steps a design manager can take to overcome these issues and increase the productivity of your designer or team of designers:

1. Give them a good brief

Quite often a designer will be supplied with a brain-dump of fanciful ideas (probably verbally) and be expected to deliver the client’s or product owner’s vision first time round. In reality the designer very rarely gets it spot on at the first attempt, hence why the briefing and requirements gathering stage of a project is so important. The format and specific details that a project brief should cover depends on the project, but you should at least be giving your designer information such as the project’s goals, timescales and deliverables.

2. Stop interrupting them

The ability to come up with creative concepts on a regular basis can be very challenging, demanding a lot of thought and concentration. Productivity is more likely to come about from a continuous block of 6 hours rather than 3 blocks of 2 hours, hence I always prefer to block out big lumps of time to work on a specific project. Furthermore, stop summoning your designer into pointless meetings. As expressed in 37 Signals excellent book Rework, “Meetings are toxic”. When meetings are vital (sometimes they are!), try to arrange them sensibly around project time. I try to schedule morning meetings so that I can dedicate afternoons to project work.

3. Quit looking over their shoulder

Designers go through a creative process that comprises multiple iterations before ultimately deciding upon something they’re happy with. Looking over their shoulder and making comments part way through can disrupt that process. Wait for your designer to present their work before providing constructive criticism. If possible, a designer’s screen should not to be facing an entire office where colleagues are likely to comment as walking past.

4. Give them time to go through the creative process

Designers go through a process of indeterminate length in order to explore creative possibilities when putting a design together. This is why design is so difficult to put definitive timescales against. Great design for an expensive project doesn’t necessarily take longer than design for a low-value project, so don’t expect your designer to throw something together in half the time it would ordinarily take.

5. Encourage peer reviews

Designers can be defensive of their work but need to embrace others’ opinions in order to obtain different perspectives on design patterns and visual style. I always advocate feedback from peers once a concept is ready to be presented. A good designer should be adept at receiving criticism, but also be able to defend their design decisions where necessary.