Why do designers need project management tools

Are you a designer? Are you always struggling to keep your inbox in control? Are you the one who has to spend more time clearing the clutter than actually designing?

The design is no longer done in isolation. Design these days is a team sport. Rather it always was, when it comes to designing experiences. It’s not only the designers who define the design sprint team. Designers, developers, business analysts, clients, SMEs interact and discuss to structure the design roadmap. Working together prevents pitfalls and leads to better planning. This, in turn, saves cost and time.

“Sprint teams need a good mix of personalities, skills, and disciplines.”

When people from different domains come together to achieve a common goal, collaboration gets critically essential. And keeping up with the flow of information can easily get overwhelming without the right project management tool in place.

Things to consider while choosing the Project Management System for design teams.

Teams comprise designers as well as non-designers (techies, hard-core business guys, marketing and sales representatives, etc.)

      1. Design is not something static, it’s a process that needs to evolve and prosper with time.

      2. Design assets and files can be huge.

      3. Different stakeholders might need to get involved in different sprint stages.

      4. For collaborating over mocks and designs contextual feedback and discussions are a must.

      5. Creativity can’t wait. Thus, real-time updates and reporting are a must to ensure a smooth and timely flow of facts and figures.

Integration with day-to-day design team tools is a plus as it strengthens collaboration while being in a familiar space i.e. shallow learning curve and adoption time.

Reasons Why Designers Need Project Management

Collaboration and communication

“The way we talk about design to stakeholders is critical to the success of our projects. We must become better communicators of design to people who may not have the same depth of experience in design or technology that we do.”

As NASA rule#15 suggests: ‘More often than not, the seeds of success or failure are planted during the early planning and team-building stage’. Thus, to facilitate better communication proper channels need to be established right from the planning phase.

Communicating design well to the internal team as well as the external stakeholders opens channels for suggestions and enhancements based on real experiences. That gives the design the right direction. An easy way to share and discuss design is a boon for creative teams. And if the same channel can address all the stakeholders involved(internal or external)it’s an additional feather that make the collaboration process smoother.

Here is how a creative director — Ales Nesetril spends his time.

Now if a single project management tool can keep track of these scattered internal and external facing communication paths. It will surely save designers from the insane pressure to keep things manageable.