I went through an incredible amount of change in 2023:

• I had a 5-year relationship turn sour, become exceptionally damaging, and finally end.
• At the same time, I was hiring my replacement at work and slowly stepping aside.
• I sold my home privately, including almost all of my remaining possessions within it.
• I moved away from my hometown and province for the first time ever, to a small mountain town, by myself.
• I left the agency I founded and ran for the last 15 years, with no current work plans.
• I met someone and started a new relationship.

And through all that change, I learned a lot. Some of the learnings are direct and personal; others have come to me from places like stoicism, and so forth. Regardless of how they came to be, here are 14 lessons I learned in 2023:

1. “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”. This line from Hamlet rings true when you really understand it. Within reason, the events that happen in your life are just that – happenings, neither objectively good or bad. How you think about each event determines how you feel about it.
2. You can’t expect people to change. It is unfair to them, and doing so is a precursor to your own dissatisfaction.
3. Meditation and mindfulness trains your mind. An untrained mind is a mind that you are not aware of or in control of. Sidebar: the Introductory Course from Waking Up was what finally turned the meditation lightbulb on for me, and actually made meditation stick. That link will give you 30 free days.
4. You need to truly accept people for who they are. If you can’t, you must change the nature of your relationship with them.
5. Someone doing something for themselves doesn’t mean they’re doing something to you. It might not feel good, but it might not be about you either. Don’t conflate the two.
6. Your time with every person in your life is guaranteed to end. We don’t know when or how. Act appropriately.
7. Sometimes it takes a healthy situation to realize how unhealthy other ones were. Comparison is only the thief of joy if you’re comparing outside of your own context and life; within that context, it’s a valuable tool.
8. Beware of having your identity tied to your work. That will end, of your own accord or not. Besides, the people you want to be friends with don’t give a shit about your work stature anyways. Be more than your job.
9. Your gut is a sixth sense. Don’t just listen to it – act.
10. What kind of person do I want to be?  Often, when you’re faced with a tough moment or scenario, asking yourself this question gives you the answer on how to act.
11. Some things you control; some things you do not. It’s imperative, and deceptively difficult, to consistently recognize the difference between the two. Direct focus and effort to the important things you control, and accept those things you do not. Let the latter go.
12. It is easy to lie to ourselves in order to avoid hard decisions. Sometimes, the hard thing is the right thing, and doing the right thing in those times are the instances where our character is forged.
13. You cannot engineer challenging situations, stress, and pain out of your life. We will always face them. The best we can do is accept that, and continue to become more and more adaptable and resilient.
14. The most important things in life are the quality and depth of the relationships you have. Foster the positive ones; they make the enjoyable moments better, and the hard moments more manageable.

You’ve probably already learned some of these points; others might seem obvious. What jumps out to me, the older I get, is that nothing is simple. Every single point above could be (and maybe should be) its own post, complex in its own right, so it’s worthwhile to think deeply for a moment about them. Better yet, revisit them from time to time.

Finally, grasping and applying any number of the learnings above in combination has exponential impact. Imagine the power that comes from understanding that a) your gut is a sixth sense, b) it’s easy to lie to yourself to avoid hard decisions, c) you can’t expect people to change, and d) asking yourself: What kind of person do I want to be?

2023, for me, was a rollercoaster. To bring it back to the first point: how I choose to think about it determines my perspective of it. And in the end, it was a year I’ll always remember as one of immense positive growth and determination. I’m thankful for that.

The post 14 Big Lessons I Learned in 2023 first appeared on Jeff Archibald.

Today is my last day at Paper Leaf. For those who don’t know, PL is the digital shop I started back in 2009 with Andy, my cofounder, who I then bought out in 2018. In 2021, I sold Paper Leaf to ZGM, and today is the last day of my 3-year transition period post-acquisition. As I step away, I wanted to put a bow on everything in a post, and share some interesting facts, data, and insights.

Some Macro Agency Data

Let’s start with some interesting numbers gleaned over the nearly 15 years of starting & running the shop:

• We’ve had 64 employees total, and 32 right now. I’m happy with what that says about responsible growth and being a good place to work.
• Our average year-over-year revenue growth was 46%; average year-over-year personnel growth was 28%; and average year-over-year EBITDA growth was 210% (boosted by some non-existent EBITDA in the first few years).
• On average, the shop ran at about 15% margin; in the last 5 years that’s been more like 26%.
• In year 1, we did $40,000 in revenue. In this last calendar year, we’ll be at $4M.
• In 15 years, we never let a single person go because we didn’t have enough work. That one, I’m most proud of.

A Few Thoughts on Acquisition

Often, acquisitions result in layoffs, departures, risks and headaches. Sometimes, the value of the acquired business actually declines. None of that has happened since ZGM bought PL; in fact, everything from average salaries to sales to EBITDA to client and employee satisfaction has improved either a little or a lot. That credit goes to the ZGM partners and everyone at PL for buying in, believing in the plan and the why, and continuing to execute at a high level. You should all be proud of your role in that.

Since the acquisition, we’ve grown our team 60%, our revenues nearly 100%, and our EBITDA 15% while maintaining turnover way below industry standard.

Executing on Succession

There is a common story when the founder of a small business wants to move on: the business fizzles out or just closes up shop. Avoiding that whole scenario was one of my primary objectives when it came to my exit. I wanted to ensure the shop could run as well or better without me there; that it could continue to grow, put great work out in the world, and help our people continue to live good lives.

Now that we’re at the end of my transition, I can comfortably say: I am incredibly satisfied with how the succession of my role has been handled by everyone. In typical Paper Leaf fashion, we planned thoroughly and executed well. The team, from design, dev, PM, and strategy all the way up through partners bought in, and PL has never been in a stronger position. Kayla Baretta, PL’s new Managing Director, has been running PL for the last 6 months with two highly profitable quarters under her belt and a forecast that looks much the same. It is so much easier to step aside when the shop has already proven it is highly effective without me. Kudos, team.

Leaving, and Things That Are Weird

Part of the succession means unwinding the remaining parts of me, the person, from PL the business. The meaningful parts of that had been done for a while now; this is more about the less-important stragglers. Files, email forwards, things like that.

Here are a few things I’ve noted as interesting or weird:

• The sheer volume of clients over 15 years. Hundreds and hundreds of them.
• And some of them were real weird. The things you say yes to when times are slow.
• How hilariously terrible some of the early work was. Good thing we charged about what it was worth.
• Erasing myself from things like email drip campaign signatures
• I wrote 314 posts on the Paper Leaf blog since it started
• Watching the team easily, completely take over 100% of operations without me involved at all
• The slow realization that many of the things that brought me incredible stress over the last decade and a half were basically meaningless
• How little email I get now that everything has been delegated and I’ve been removed from group emails
• PL is just as profitable with me completely phasing out over the last 6 months
• Watching my weekly to-do list go from 30+ items to 0
• Watching my weekly calendar go from 20+ meetings to 2

The big learning from that? I could have delegated and dialled my input and stress way down a while ago, and the shop probably would have still been just fine.

What’s Next

As I’ve been slowly backing away, Homer-style, I’ve had a variety of friends, acquaintances, and industry peers ask me: what’s next?

The short answer is: skiing. And riding my bike. And being in the woods and on top of mountains and enjoying home in Kimberley, BC, with my dog and my friends.

The longer answer, to the unstated “what about work” part of the question, is: I don’t know. I have been full-on for almost 15 years, with no sabbaticals and the occasional 2 week vacation on top of the unique stresses that come with entrepreneurship. I am going to take the time to unwind, and then see where my motivations take me. I still have passion for and value to provide in business/entrepreneurship, organizational systems & process, operations & finance, leadership & management, design & tech, and a whole swath of areas beneath those banners. Maybe that means consulting. Maybe that means speaking. Maybe that means I write a book. Maybe that means all, or none, of those things.

Moreover, I’m going to focus first on what I want my days to be like, the people who are important to me, and the things that make me happy. I’m going to avoid the regrets of the dying as best I can. Whatever work looks like in the future, it will need to fit into that approach, and you’ll hear about it here or on LinkedIn. I also imagine I’ll write a bit more about my time, experience, and what I’ve learned along the way – if you want to read those ramblings, you can subscribe via email here.

It’s been a wild ride, and I cannot overstate how much more successful PL turned out to be than I ever could have imagined. My original goal was to replace my previous salary, which was a whopping $36,000 in 2009. Well, that happened, and so much more, and I’m incredibly thankful for everyone who helped PL get to where it is now, and allow me to step aside while the shop keeps rolling onwards & upwards. None of this would have been possible without all of you.

Photo by Tareq Ajalyakin on Unsplash

The post On Exiting The Agency I Founded first appeared on Jeff Archibald.

Paper Leaf turns 10 years old today. I’m bad at stopping to recognize a moment, never mind celebrating, so I’m making an effort to do that here.

When we started PL, we were as green as they come. We had no real idea or plan for where the shop would go, what it would become, or all that would change in a decade. We went from 2 people running a business with annual revenues of $40k in year one to 17 people with annual revenues nearing $2M. We went from designing business cards for $50 to building six-figure software applications. We went from working out of a bedroom to, at present, our third office. We went from no benefits to benefits. We went from unheard-of to recognized both regionally and nationally. It’s been fulfilling, and it will continue to be.

But, real talk: it has also been the most challenging and consistently stressful endeavour I’ve personally ever endured. Even now – I’m writing this in the early morning because I woke up at 4am due to stress for the second day in a row. Frequently, I’ve been unable to find energy to due much outside of work, and register off the charts on the Maslach Burnout Inventory. I’m aware enough to understand that I’m privileged in myriad ways, but that doesn’t discount the fact that – from clients to cash to employees and everything else – the past 10 years have been relentless.

Which brings me to this: we all want rewarding, meaningful things in life. But if there’s one thing I’ve come to learn, it’s that real rewards require real challenges. The joy of completing a half-marathon comes because it was hard to do; the reward of summiting a mountain on your bike is because, at times, you weren’t sure you could. And, in the vein of this post, the fulfilment of running a business is inextricably tied to the challenge, effort, and hard times that go into it.

The truth is, you can’t have one without the other: if it was easy, it wouldn’t be rewarding. For me, Paper Leaf and everyone involved with it has been the proof of that correlation, and I’m thankful for that.

The post On 10 Years of Running a Design Agency first appeared on Jeff Archibald.

The following is an edited version of the commencement speech I gave to the Edmonton Digital Arts College 2019 grad class. I swear it was way more hilarious and inspiring in person.

—

When Jeremy approached me and said, “Jeff, I’d love if you could give a talk at the EDAC grad ceremony”, I assumed he wanted me to impart some wisdom or something. Then he said, “Yeah, everyone else is really busy.”

When asked to speak, I had two immediate thoughts. The first: he really could have left that last part out. Second: of course, it’d be an honour to. I really am excited to be here, and excited for each of you. Because 10 years ago, I was right where you are, and I remember what that was like. I graduated from a small private college, same as you.

Right after I graduated, I started an agency called Paper Leaf because I was too dumb to know any better. Today, Paper Leaf is probably considered a success. But back then? My partner & I started working out of a house. Super small time. I mean, I had a Skype meeting one time with a client where my two cats started fighting on the bed in the background. Real professional.

That first year in business, we did a total of $40k in revenue – revenue, not profit. When you split that between two partners, we were far below the poverty line. I couldn’t afford fancy dress hoodies like this one.

We did anything anyone asked us to back then. I designed business cards for a hundred bucks, and thought I had it made. One time someone actually paid me to clone-stamp out a guy from their daughter’s wedding photos. I was like “Sure! Why not?!” I built websites too back then, but let me be clear – I had barely any idea what I was doing. I don’t know how many times I brought a site down because I was cowboy coding on a production server. It’s still a running joke at the office.

Given all that stuff, it was entirely possible that PL could have crashed and burned in those first few years. That got me to thinking: how did I get from that graduation ceremony, where each of you are now, to where Paper Leaf is today? Why we were successful?

3 Fundamental Traits

There’s a litany of reasons, but they all trace back to 3 fundamental traits. And that’s what I want to talk about tonight. I hope each of you will practice three things in your careers, from today forwards:

1. Be curious.
2. Be disciplined.
3. Be memorable.

Let me expand on these, because each element is valuable in and of itself – but combined, curiosity, discipline, and memorability compound on each other and with them, you can have more success than Owen in a beard-growing contest.

Be Curious

So, why be curious? Let’s start there. Our industry requires adaptability, and progression, and growth. It requires not just wide learning, but deep learning. And the engine that drives these things is curiosity.

So be curious. Never stop. Be curious about your craft. Be curious about how a particular technology works. Be curious about people, and psychology. Be curious why that visual identity system won an award, or how the opening credits on that Netflix show were made. Curiosity begets learning, which will make you continuously better in your field. It shows coworkers, your boss, friends and clients you’re interested in them, which builds relationships – which are critical to your career progression. And speaking of careers, instead of being intimidated of your first interview that’s coming up, you know what you can do? Instead, you can be curious about it.

Curiosity is what drove, and still drives, the progression Paper Leaf follows as an agency. It’s one of the primary reasons we went from clone-stamping scumbags out of wedding photos for $50 bucks a shot to building the application that powered our entire province’s voter registration effort – a hugely complex, mid six-figure project. The reason we were able to take that project on was because we were unfailingly curious, and that curiosity powered 10 years of innovation and learning to the point where we could handle a project of that size and complexity. That’s the power of curiosity.

Be Disciplined

In your journey, alongside curiosity, I’d ask you also to be disciplined. There are times when your motivation will wane. You can’t control motivation – but you can control discipline. If curiosity is the engine, discipline is the fuel. So commit to your goals and the steps you need to take to meet them, but rely on discipline – not motivation – to get there.

I’m an NBA fan. Still waiting to get drafted, believe it or not, but I digress. I’m sure some of you know Steph Curry. He’s the greatest shooter in the history of the sport, after myself. I don’t know him personally but I imagine he doesn’t want to practice every day in the summer. But, even though he’s the second best shooter ever, guess what he does in the offseason? He makes 500 shots per day. He won’t leave the court until he hits 500. That’s not motivation – it’s discipline. Discipline that honed his skills, got him to where he’s at, and now is keeping him there, on top.

There’s another story worth telling, too. One from the creative industry, right here in Alberta. There’s a friend of mine from Calgary, who now lives in Vancouver. His name is Tim. He’s a huge sports fan – his personal logo is literally a baseball hat – and he worked as a designer at a small agency. In his spare time, he decided to commit to a self-imposed design exercise, where for 365 days in a row, he designed and published a sports-related graphic highlighting a game going on that day. Oilers vs Flames, Bucks vs Raptors, that kind of stuff. I’m sure along the way his motivation waxed and waned, and he had numerous reasons to skip a day. But he didn’t. He had the discipline to complete the exercise – 365 unique sports graphics, shared on social media. One year solid of work, day in, day out. Guess what? That discipline in turn landed him a job in the professional sports world as a designer.

That’s the value of discipline. When you combine it with curiosity and the craftsmanship you’ve learned here in school, you become super-powered.

Be Memorable

And the last point I want to make is this. Be memorable.

The opportunities that arise throughout your career will be directly related to your personal network and the relationships you build, and will help you cross that bridge from opportunity to success. The more people you build relationships with, and the more memorable you are – for what you stand for, or what you’re great at, or how you treat people – the more options you’ll have in life.

Being memorable doesn’t mean you have to make a splash in every room you’re in. It doesn’t mean you have to invent a video game of unparalleled craftsmanship and creative vision – of course, I’m talking about Goat Simulator. There are countless ways to be memorable that can and should align with who you truly are as a person. So ask yourself, consistently, how can I be memorable? How can I be memorable at my place of work? How can I be memorable in my community? How can I be memorable in this conversation, or in this meeting?

Yes, you can be memorable by creating outstanding work. You can be the person who takes over a room. You can be memorable by presenting at community events, or giving commencement speeches of questionable value laden with mixed metaphors. But you can also be memorable by being an outstanding listener. By consistently delivering work that exceeds your boss’ or clients’ expectations. You can be memorable by always being the person who is first to offer a hand.

You know why I hired our last team lead? Because she was memorable. She participated consistently in local industry events, and when I had an opening, her name was imprinted on my brain. Same reason why I hired our last developer: I went for coffee with him 8 months ago, and he was memorable in his passion for development and his loyalty to his previous firm. When his firm stopped offering web dev as a service, and I had the opportunity to offer him a job, I did.

That’s what I mean when I say “be memorable”. Be memorable, in your own way. In a way that is comfortable to you, and plays to your strengths. Be disciplined, like you had to be in order to sit here today, like you’ll need to be to achieve your career goals going forward. And be curious, about everything that crosses your path, with the same vigour that led you to choose and succeed in the program you’re graduating from today. If you do, you’ll cross that bridge from opportunity to success, and you’ll have yourself to thank.

So congratulations to every last one of you. You’ve put in the time and the work, and you should be proud of yourselves. Enjoy your time tonight, and remember – the best is actually still ahead. Good luck, and be curious, be disciplined, and be memorable along the way.

—

(IIRC this is where the crowd broke out into a 30 minute-long standing ovation and threw money at the stage)

Photo Credit: EDAC Instagram

The post 3 Fundamental Traits for Success in your Creative Career first appeared on Jeff Archibald.

Scope creep is awful. We struggled with how to handle it for years at Paper Leaf. It’s a tricky balance, isn’t it? We don’t want to be total doormats, but we’re also terrified to nickel-and-dime the client, or damage the relationship. In my experience, though, most agencies – including us, for a long time – end up on the doormat side, at the expense of our profits and our culture. After all, scope creep places stress on both those things, while also placing stress on the relationship side. Ultimately, scope creep is damaging in every regard in the long run – and running an agency is hard enough already.

Luckily, we’ve come to a good method of handling scope creep, and it’s super straightforward. Here’s how we handle it, so you can handle it too.

Add This Section to Your Proposals*

*Maybe change it up a bit so it’s in your voice, but you know what I mean.

Should a request be made that hasn’t been accounted for in the original project scoping and budgeting, there are a few options available. Following an estimate of required hours to execute the new request, the client may choose to:

1. remove another feature of comparable effort that is yet to be developed, and substitute the new, higher priority feature in its place
2. have the new feature scheduled to be completed as a separate mini-project, post-launch. This lets us stay on time and on budget for the original project, but makes a plan for the feature to be completed at a later date, or
3. approve a formal “change request estimate” and have the additional estimated hours added to the project budget.

Ultimately the decision on how to handle new feature requests / functionality is yours.

Here’s what each of those options means in a bit more non-proposal-style language:

“Remove another feature of comparable effort that is yet to be developed, and substitute the new, higher priority feature in its place.” Here’s an example: Feature X will take 5 hours. The client comes back to you with a new feature (Feature Y) that will also take 5 hours to implement. This option means the client can choose to swap in Feature Y for Feature X for no additional cost or adjustment to timeline. They’re happy, you’re happy.

“Have the new feature scheduled to be completed as a separate mini-project, post-launch. This lets us stay on time and on budget for the original project, but makes a plan for the feature to be completed at a later date.” This is basically the option where we all go, Hey, Feature Y is dope but let’s just table it for now, and evaluate completing it later after the project launches. This line makes the connection between features and timeline/budget clear, while also communicating back to the client that you care about coming in on time while sticking to your original price – and they can pick this option if it’s the most important one to them, too. It leaves the door open for it getting done down the road, instead of just saying, “No”.

“Approve a formal ‘change request estimate’ and have the additional estimated hours added to the project budget.” Basically, if the client doesn’t want to remove Feature X and absolutely wants Feature Y in for the launch date, then the scope of work is amended and you rightfully get the additional (billable) time to complete that new request for them.

Why This Works

So yeah – that’s what’s in our proposals, and it’s done wonders for managing scope creep and thus project relationships and budgets. Let’s break down why this works a little bit though.

You’re Setting the Expectation

The first reason why this works is this: you’re defining how this is handled early on, at the proposal stage. You’re setting the expectation that out-of-scope work is handled in a specific, logical, and fair manner, and by doing so you’re indirectly saying that extra work isn’t free. Clients are no different than you and I – we all want to know what to expect, and how potential conflicts are handled. By putting this in your proposal, all of these points become clear and both parties’ expectations are the same.

Plus, by being fair – and remember, “fair” means it works for both parties, not just one – up front, and confident in your communication of handling scope creep, you’re already ahead of the competition. It might seem scary to address this whole potentially prickly situation at this stage in the sales cycle, but in my experience, the clients you want to be working with respond positively to it. Odds are they’ve already been burnt by a previous agency or provider who didn’t handle scope creep well.

You’re Giving Options & Decision-Making Power to the Client

The second reason this method works is that you’re giving options, not handing down an ultimatum. Ultimatums are bad like most Nicholas Cage movies and nobody likes them; by simply providing multiple options and handing decision-making power to the client, you avoid that situation.

Don’t feel like you have to use the options we do above; by all means, make up your own based on your business, your clientele, and your project type. But be sure to keep multiple options in there – it’s hugely important.

Further to that, I’d recommend using the idea of always providing options across the board in your business. Employees want to take extra vacation time that they’ve not accrued yet? Give them a few options like banking some OT, taking the time off without pay, or deferring their vacation until they have more time accrued. A client wants a quote on a simple landing page, but you’re unsure of budget? Give them a few options with pros and cons, like a cheap Unbounce page vs. an HTML template vs. a custom designed one. Providing options to people along with the ability to have decision-making power is a great tool to use – in fact, now I see every single person at PL using it both with internal communications and external communications.

So there you go – that’s how we handle scope creep, and why it works. Go forth, be confident, respect both yourself and the client, and give it a go. Then let me know via Twitter how it turned out for you!

Photo Credit: Kar/ton via cc

The post Use This Paragraph In Your Proposals And Say Goodbye To Scope Creep first appeared on Jeff Archibald.

Every job posting in the world has “good communicator” as a requirement, and we all think we meet that requirement. We all think we’re great communicators. We cross our Ts, dot our Is, and use proper punctuation. It isn’t that easy though, is it? Being good at communication, especially when it comes to complex projects, is like playing the bass: relatively easy to pick up, and really difficult to master.

The starting point in getting better at project communication is evaluating the effectiveness of your communication efforts. The simplest way I encourage our team at Paper Leaf to do that is to have them ask themselves, Did whomever I was communicating with have follow-up questions or clarifications? If they did, there’s room for improvement. And trust me: every one of us has room for improvement. Except for me because I’m super prefect.

The other side of getting better at communicating is being respectful of people’s time. When we communicate ineffectively, a 2-email chain turns into a 10-email chain plus a phone call – or worse, something gets missed or done incorrectly, and then we’re in rework land. I mean, we’re all busy and that kinda thing drives us nuts, right? When we communicate effectively, we’re more efficient and respectful of people’s time, and our competency shines through.

So let’s talk about how to do that.

The 5 Project Communication Rules

There’s a basic framework I follow when communicating within project teams. The crux of it is ensuring each of the five questions below are answered in any/all pieces of communication:

1. Who is responsible?
2. When is it required or expected?
3. How/Where should it be delivered or executed on?
4. Why do you need it?
5. What happens next?

Here’s an example of poor communication that I’m sure we’ve all been subject to (or, have subjected someone else to):

“We need the copywriting soon.”

Nope. Not allowed. In fact, if you send me an email like that, I might come kick you in the shins or perhaps take your mother to a nice steak dinner and then never call her again. The problem with the above vague ask is that there is way too much room for misaligned expectations: who is “we”? What format should it come in? When is “soon” to you, and when is “soon” to the recipient? Why is this even important?

Imagine you were the recipient. You would have a whole ton of follow-up questions for clarification if you received an email like this, because expectations are not clear – which is the first indication that the communication is poor. And if those follow-up questions are not asked, and you just forged ahead? You’d be making a pile of assumptions, and that’s a quick route to rework, inefficiency, and frustration – aka the places projects go to die.

So, instead, here’s a better version of the same ask that uses the 5 rules outlined above:

“Our designers need all site copy from [copywriter name] by Thursday, June 2 to keep the project on schedule.

Please use the attached template, fill it out, and send it back to us via email by that date. It doesn’t need to be perfect – draft one is fine – as you’ll be able to edit the content on the live site whenever you want, thanks to the CMS.”

This version leaves few, if any, unanswered questions. It’s clear who is responsible (the copywriter), when the deliverable is expected by (Thursday, June 2), how to deliver it (using the attached template via email), why it’s important (to keep the project on schedule), and whathappens next (editing the content via the CMS). It’s the difference between receiving an organized Google Doc written by a copywriter delivered on Thursday, keeping the project on schedule, and receiving a hot mess of a spreadsheet with content written by an accountant delivered in two months, resulting in huge project delays.

The same rules / method can reasonably be applied to anything, not just dealing with clients or third parties within projects. Do you need your spouse to take some recyclables to the bottle depot? Do you need your designer to complete some wireframes? Do you need your landscaper to fix the paving stones? Check your language against those 5 rules. And if you’re on the receiving end of an ask: make sure you understand the answers to those 5 questions, or else you might be delivering something totally different from what was expected. That’s a surprise – and surprises are best avoided (unless they’re fun, like someone bringing you a cupcake, which is entirely acceptable at all times).

Be Reasonable, Pick the Right Medium, and Check Tone

I don’t have a comments section because internet comments are the wackness/a dumpster fire, but let me pre-empt what would be in there. Yes, this 982-word blog post does not cover every situation ever for all of eternity – the above rules are a general best practice, to be evaluated with reason on a situational basis. Further, comprehensive communication is not good if it’s delivered via the wrong medium for the situation (e.g. email when a phone call is better), and if tone and context are not considered (aka don’t be a presumptive asshole). Finally, there’s an important distinction to be made in situations where you shouldn’t be directive (“do it this way”) and instead should work with others collaboratively to figure out the best solution, or give autonomy to someone better suited to make a decision.

So, giant caveats and general internet outrage preventiveness aside – before you hit send on that next Slack message or email, check your project communication against the 5 rules. Have you covered:

1. Who is responsible?
2. When is it required or expected?
3. How/Where should it be delivered or executed on?
4. Why do you need it?
5. What happens next?

If you have, before long you’ll find a few things coming your way: fewer mistakes, more efficient communication, and trust / respect. Not a bad outcome from 5 simple rules, right?

Photo Credit: Andre Slob, Flickr (É) – cc license

The post 5 Simple Rules For Better Project Communication first appeared on Jeff Archibald.

I love design.

I love being able to work with smart people to diagnose and solve problems with a dose of creativity. I love the interplay between all the core principles of design. I love constantly needing to learn new things, and put them in to practice. But let’s be honest: design isn’t perfect. Like any industry, along with design come common frustrations – often, frustrations big enough to drive many of us out of our industry.

Think of all the issues that exasperate us as designers – the things we get together and vent about over a pint. How many of us have had clients start playing art director? Delivered something that wasn’t good enough, a product we didn’t want our name on? Built something that has sat there unused? Or had a relationship go sour because of how a project turned out?

We’ve been there at Paper Leaf. It’s awful. It makes us unhappy and personal satisfaction tanks, it makes talented people leave the field, and it rightfully makes others skeptical of our industry.

But what if we could put into practice a belief – something more than just a set of tasks – that would cut these issues off at the root? What if we could prevent clients from playing art director; deliver products we’re proud of and that people love to use; maintain great relationships and grow business; and most importantly, be and make people happy?

In our experience – as an agency that designs and builds custom websites and applications – we can avoid these problems, and in turn be happier while making others happier. But how?

Read the full post on paper-leaf.com

The post The Simple Change that Helped Our Agency Increase Client Satisfaction and Designer Happiness first appeared on Jeff Archibald.

I’m a data guy. It took me a while though.

For a long time, Andy & I just operated on feel when it came to Paper Leaf, our design agency. Because it was only the two of us for the first couple of years, we could get away with that – there wasn’t much overhead, and you don’t need that many projects to keep busy when there are only two people.

As we’ve grown, though – we’re at 7 people at the time of this post – I’ve learned to track more & more data about our company. It’s not just that numbers are interesting. Having data means we can spot trends, have measurable goals for the business, and more on a month-to-month basis. There’s a lot you can learn from numbers.

So I’m going to share those numbers with you.

I think there’s value in transparency, and there’s nothing more transparent than raw numbers behind a business. With that in mind, I took some of the monthly data we track at Paper Leaf and made an infographic, which you can find below. In the infographic, you’ll learn a little bit about Paper Leaf – but mainly, you’ll see data like how many hours we track; how billable we are as a shop; how our time is split up; how much revenue (contractually) we won & lost; and more. Take a look below, and I’ll explain some anomalies after the graphic.

A Month in a Design Agency By the Numbers [Infographic]

Click to Enlarge

Details on the Infographic Data

The data in the infographic is all from the previous month (March) at Paper Leaf. Largely, the data comes from two applications we use: Harvest and Pipedrive (both highly recommended, by the way).

It was a busy month at the shop. However, there were a few vacation and sick days taken – plus we’re still setting up our new office – so the data is relatively indicative of an average month for us in terms of tracking time, billable vs. unbillable time, and so forth. I wasn’t surprised or anything by the Time Tracked data – our goal right now, shop-wide, is 50% – but I was surprised at the Breakdown of Time data.

36 different projects for 24 different clients… in one month?!? That’s a little ridiculous for a 7 person shop. Keep in mind, of course, some of those “projects” are really quick jobs – a couple of hours – but still. The cognitive load to deal with that many different moving parts is heavy. My takeaway? We need to dial that back in future months.

Another item that surprised me – it’s an anomaly – is the potential new contract value that came in last month (an estimated, and ridiculous, $487,000). That number is a total outlier; February was a quarter of that amount. I mean, hey – I’m not going to complain. Maybe my proposals are getting better or something. It is important, though, to recognize that it’s not standard for us to get that many inquiries for that amount of estimated revenue in a month. Still, it’s accurate for March.

The Value of Business Data

In the end, tracking data is invaluable to understanding a business – and a much more responsible way to operate than by gut feel. Now you know what we track, and what a month for us as a small design shop looks like. Now it’s your turn – get out there and start tracking numbers!

Embed This Infographic

If you want to embed this infographic on your site, go right ahead. Just copy the code below and paste it into the Text/Code editor view on your post editing screen.

<br> <img decoding="async" src="https://jeffarchibald.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/month-in-a-design-agency-infographic.jpg" width="590">

A Month in a Design Agency by the Numbers – An infographic by Jeff Archibald

The post A Month in a Design Agency by the Numbers [Infographic] first appeared on Jeff Archibald.

It’s easy to be busy; it’s hard to be productive, and the two terms are different. Raise your hand if you’ve spent entire days answering “quick” email after “quick” email; spent hours in your task manager organizing your tasks for productivity; spent a half-day organizing tidying up old design files; or looked back on your week and realized you worked your ass off… but you’re not really sure what you actually accomplished.

Bad news, those with raised hands: you’re a victim of false hustle.

Don’t worry… I have been too; everyone falls into the false hustle trap at one point. It’s not intentional – after all, there’s a lot of work to do in a day – but false hustle can torpedo our business goals and ultimately our motivation at work.

Here’s what I mean by false hustle, and how to avoid it.

What is False Hustle?

“False hustle” is a term that has origins in baseball. When Sammy Sosa would sprint from the dugout to the outfield, but then jog after a ground ball or a fly ball, he’s false hustling. Basically, he’s expending energy and “working hard”, but not in the right areas. Not where it matters.

Here’s my modified definition for us non-steroid-injecting office workers:

False hustle is when you expend your energy on tasks that don’t ultimately move the needle towards your goals.

You can’t know what false hustle is, or isn’t, if you don’t know what your goals are – yearly, quarterly, monthly, even weekly goals. We only have so many hours in a week to reach our goals, so we need to make optimal use of that time. You know as well as I do that those hours go fast, too – whether or not you’re running a design agency, or clocking time as a front-end web developer, or really any other position in the mix. So, when we hustle without direction – when we succumb to false hustle – we make it all the more likely we’ll miss our goals.

And when we miss our goals, our motivation tanks. Suffice to say, life is more enjoyable when we’re motivated.

Let’s keep it that way.

Avoiding False Hustle & Moving the Needle

If we unpack goals – big ones – they’re made up of strategies and tactics. At the end of the week, if we’re working smart and not working on time-consuming, non-progressive tasks, we should be able to look back at what we accomplished and line up those accomplishments with either a tactic or strategy we’re working towards.

Here’s a military-based example from Wikipedia that explains goals vs. strategy vs. tactics:

If, for example, the overall goal is to win a war against another country, one strategy might be to undermine the other nation’s ability to wage war by preemptively annihilating their military forces. The tactics involved might describe specific actions taken in specific locations, like surprise attacks on military facilities, missile attacks on offensive weapon stockpiles, and the specific techniques involved in accomplishing such objectives.

While I get you’re probably not driving a tank to the office every day, the example still stands as helpful in my books.

But getting back to false hustle – how can we actually know we’re moving the needle? All I do is ask myself a few simple questions every Friday at 4pm:

1. What did I accomplish this week?
2. Did I move the needle towards my monthly/quarterly goals? How?
3. What can I do next week to move the needle further?

Then, I block off the upcoming week accordingly. Literally that means I hop into Google Calendar and block chunks of time off (e.g. 10am – noon on Monday) for specific tasks that tie into my overall tactics, strategies, and ultimately goals, for the following week. For me, it’s a simple way to keep moving ahead with purpose.

How Should I Be Spending My Time?

This isn’t just about agency owners or freelancers; the whole idea of avoiding false hustle, and moving the needle, is one that works best when adopted by everyone in an agency. Every great place to work has a big goal; a vision that motivates the whole team to work towards. It’s up to everyone, then, to be self-aware about their work and make decisions that move that needle.

It’s about developers challenging themselves to learn something new – to try a different solution – for yet another straightforward CMS-powered website. It’s about designers spending downtime learning new skills, or designing something for open-source release that will benefit the community and raise the profile of the shop. It’s about any member of the team feeling empowered to question the CEO / Principal / WhateverFancyTitle when they feel they’re being asked to do work that doesn’t move the needle.

In the end, it’s about asking ourselves how we should be spending our time to help make steps towards that big, exciting, motivating vision – and then acting on it.

All of this isn’t to say those menial tasks like answering emails or cleaning the coffee machine don’t need to be done; they do, and maybe they are actually progressing us towards our goals. But it’s too easy to fool ourselves into equating busy with productive; to fool ourselves into thinking our hustle is moving the needle.

So ask yourself: are you moving the needle? Or false hustling?
photo credit: _Untitled-1 via photopin cc

The post False Hustle first appeared on Jeff Archibald.

Losing proposals, and the potentially lucrative contracts that come with winning them, just plain sucks. You know you can do that job – knock it out of the park, even. But for some reason, the prospective client went in a different direction, leaving you, your proposal, and the hours that went into it in the good ol’ reject pile.

Sweet.

We’ve been there. I write a ton of proposals at Paper Leaf; some we win, some we lose. Over the years, though, we’ve refined our proposals and learned a lot about why we win the ones we do – and conversely, why we lose. And guess what? The reasons we lose proposals are likely the same reasons you lose yours.

Here’s what those reasons are, and how to fix them.

You didn’t pre-validate the client as a good match.

This one is simple. Some clients are a good match, and some aren’t. A proposal will never convince a client to spend $20,000 on something that they value at $500 – so don’t bother. Figure this out quickly, before writing a proposal, and save both parties a bunch of time.

You didn’t set expectations beforehand.

There’s a variety of steps that need to go into a proposal before you actually start writing – and a big one is setting expectations with the client. Do you let your prospective clients know, prior to sending your proposals:

• how you work,
• what your baseline project budget floor is,
• why your solution is unique & well-suited for their problem,
• and more?

If not, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

Use the initial meeting(s) to learn about the client, but also help them learn about you, what you do, and what to expect from your proposal.

You didn’t build a rapport.

In a similar vein to the above point – buyers hire people they trust, and people they like. It is near-impossible to accurately portray your personality through a big written proposal – instead, you need to start building a rapport with the client immediately, before the proposal. Learn about their business, but learn about them as people too. I don’t know about you, but when I’m working on projects, I prefer to work with people I like.

You’re pitching a Lexus to someone on a Ford budget.

Too many people – on both ends of the client/provider spectrum – don’t like to talk about pricing or budget. The simple truth, though, is that budget is a key matchmaker when it comes to projects. If we aren’t asking our clients what their budget is, or if clients refuse to tell us, we’re swinging in the dark. Clients usually have a number in their head, and sometimes that budget places them in line for a Ford. If you don’t know that, you might be pitching them a Lexus – and that’s a waste of everyone’s time, too.

It can work in the other direction as well – if you pitch a Ford to someone wanting a Lexus, you’re probably losing. The solution? Talk about budget honestly & openly; set expectations; and then deliver a proposal.

You didn’t turn it around fast enough.

I know, you’re busy. So is everyone, though. Our internal rule at Paper Leaf is to turn around proposals in 7 calendar days from the initial needs assessment meeting – and we tell the client exactly that. I’d like to reduce that timeline even more, perhaps down to 2-3 days once we become even more efficient.

I’d encourage you to do the same. Pick a turnaround time that is as efficient as possible – meaning as fast as possible while still allowing you to write a great proposal – communicate that to the client, and stick to it.

You talked too much about cost and not enough about value.

Cost and value are two different things – and the former is easier to understand than the latter. If your proposals are focusing on the cost of your service / product and not the value of it, you have a huge opportunity from here on out.

Home renovations provide a great analogy. Let’s say you renovate your house: exterior, floors and kitchen to the tune of $35,000. That’s the cost, and it’s not cheap – and presenting it can make for a difficult decision. But if it adds $75,000 of value to the home?

That decision just got a whole lot easier.

The same line of thinking can, and should, be applied to proposals. If we’re talking web design: sure, a well-executed custom site might cost the client $25,000. But if they’re in a competitive industry where they’re competing for $250,000+ contracts? The value of that well-executed, discoverable, lead-generating website is worth way more than the cost.

So, start talking about value.

You didn’t take a unique angle.

We’re often in situations where we’re one of multiple agencies asked to submit proposals for the same project. You’ve likely been in a similar position. The key line of thinking, in situations like these, should be: what is every other shop going to say? What are their unique angles going to be? And how can we differentiate?

It will change from project to project, and sometimes your point of differentiation will be lost or misunderstood. Often, though, your unique angle will be what wins you the job.

Here’s a real-life example from our shop. In a proposal, we harped on lightweight, mobile-first design & development for a client whose user base was in third world countries where high-speed internet wasn’t always available – and the most popular mobile phones were cheaper, less powerful ones. That mobile-first angle, in part, won us the contract.

You didn’t practice price-bracketing.

Price bracketing is a simple concept to execute with proven results. Here’s a quick ‘n’ dirty explanation: in the Pricing section of your proposal, lay out a pricing table with three options for your services/product (as opposed to just one option). Give those options names like Premium, Pro, and Standard – and include features/deliverables and a price for each option that reflects those names.

Now your prospective client has a choice other than yes or no; they can see all ends of the spectrum, and there’s some real proof that people will often choose the middle option.

You tried to upsell, instead of starting with everything & then removing features.

Keeping with the psychology of pricing, proposals, and bracketing, here’s a simple change you can make when laying out your three-option pricing table. Instead of starting at the lowest-cost option (“Standard”) and adding on features, start at the highest-cost option (“Premium”) and remove features down the line.

The result here is a shift in perception on the client end: their thinking goes from “These extra features cost more” to “I don’t get these features with the Standard package”. It’s a simple form of loss aversion.

You talked too much about what you’ll do, not what the client will get.

This is a simple syntax change that can reap benefits in your proposals – make it about what the client will receive, not what you will do. Here’s a simple example. Talking about what you’ll do reads like this:

We will build you a new website that uses WordPress as a CMS.

Instead, rewrite it to focus on what the client will get:

Your new website will run on WordPress, allowing you to easily manage website content.

All of a sudden, you’re not talking about yourself. You’re letting the client know a tangible deliverable and a benefit associated with it.

You gave up too soon.

The purchasing cycle is a decision cycle, and dependent on the level of cost and risk involved, it varies greatly. I mean, if you’re buying a t-shirt online for $20, it’s a pretty low-cost, low-risk purchasing decision. However, if you’re a client looking to sign a custom web design & development contract worth $35,000, it’s a much bigger decision.

That understanding needs to factor in to your proposals – and more specifically, the follow-up to your proposals.

You can’t just meet a client, send them a proposal with a price tag worth tens (or hundreds) of thousands of dollars… and then just leave it. Sometimes the client will come back quickly with a decision, but often I’ve had to follow up two or three times. In fact, we’ve closed deals at Paper Leaf months and months after we sent the original proposal.

So don’t just send your proposal and then check out. Instead, check in and see if you can help answer questions and move the decision process along.

All in all, proposals are an inexact science at best. The points outlined here, though, are points we’ve learned from both winning and losing big contracts. Give them a shot – the results might surprise you.

photo credit: deneux_jacques via photopin cc

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